Wild ride: Flu turns nasty with appendicitis

Hi Octavia,

I can feel your pain, but hope your Son is doing well and recovering quickly....It's amazing, unless you say you have chest pains, bring a lunch!

Hope all goes well for your son....say hello from the Prius Chat folks will ya!

Bob

 

Generally a trip in the ambulance doesn't help either. You do get treatment from the EMTs, but once you get to the ER the normal triage process kicks in. Some people who have tired of sitting in the ER waiting room have left the hospital and then called 911 to get an ambulance ride, figuring it would help, only to find themselves waiting once again. You need life threatening symptoms to jump ahead in line. Something like a severed head will bump you up a spot or two. You get extra points if you carry your head in by the hair.

Tom

 

Octavia I'm glad you were able to get your child the immediate care he needed. I didn't even know appendicitis was a possibility in a young child. I understand your dilemma regarding the butting in mother, but I would have had it out with her right there and then for her callousness. As a direct result of the atmosphere in this country brought upon by the loud but ineffectual right wing of this country I personally have lost all regard for civility and will challenge anyone I THINK has stepped on my place/toes. Yep, whether they are right or wrong, all it takes is my PERCEPTION to earn someone like her a fight. EXACTLY like Ammo demonstrates in his posts, I KNOW BETTER than anyone else about all things and to get in my way is to earn my wrath. You are a better person than I.

 

I know exactly how you feel, Octavia. A few years back (just after i had graduated) one of my Fraternity brothers got sick. He took care of himself, skipping half a weeks worth of classes. When things kept getting worse, he went to the clinic nearby, and was told it was just the flu and to go home and drink plenty of fluids. The weekend rolled around, and his parents came up (they were about an hour away) to take him home for the weekend until he got better. That night, he started coughing up blood. They rushed him to the local hospital, and early the next morning he was on a helicopter heading for the Cleveland Clinic. 6 months later he had a heart transplant.

The problem with our medical system isn't the care is can provide - we have access to some of the best medicine in the world. Our problem is the cost is so horribly high, that we use emergency rooms and emergency clinics as our only form of medicine. Instead of scheduling an appointment with a doctor after feeling symptoms (I'm not talking about things like the flu here - symptoms that could indicate something seriously wrong), we wait until things are so horrible, so unbearable that our only recourse is to seek immediate help, overloading our emergency rooms. Those people who wait like that only hurt themselves, and innocent people like you trying to use those facilities in cases that are actually appropriate (Appendicitis comes on suddenly, and needs to be treated immediately).

I'm glad to hear it all worked out for the best. I know how frustrating it is sitting there, knowing a loved one needs help, but unable to provide it or have other provide it quicker. The worst is behind you now, all that's left is enjoying time with your son while he recuperates.

 

I had mine yanked out at 8. I don't even remember that procedure, my folks claimed it was pretty exciting for them

 

I once cracked my skull (yes, I know, explains a lot doesn't it?) and was bleeding from the nose and right ear. I still sat in the ER from about 8pm until after midnight because of the gunshots and stabbings that were getting bumped ahead of me.

Octavia, you can't expect people to be civil in our modern society - of course that woman believed that her convenience was more important than anything else. They all do.

 

Wow what a scary and infuriating experience for a parent.

I had my appendix out when I was 30 so I can imagine how your son felt. Most painful and scary experience I ever had considering it had burst. I was bed ridden for a week with a high fever after the surgery. My idiot family doctor had thought it was just some digestive issue!! I had to go to the ER and insist I had a real problem after the pain became unbearable. After 5-6 hrs of waiting they finally decided to give me a cat scan to discover the appendix had perforated.

Recently one of our daughters had febrile seizures when she was 18 months old ... she started turning blue so we freaked out and took her to the ER. We weren't treated so rudely as you were, but I was infuriated by the incompetence of the docs. They had no idea if it were a viral or bacterial infection, seemed clueless as to what it might be. I lost count of how many times they drew blood and catherized her for urine samples.
Hours later one of the young ER residents finally decided to try a spinal tap to see if she had meningitis. I had to hold my poor baby down while the newbie kept trying to draw spinal fluid, couldn't get a single drop. She ended up staying in the hospital for a few days until the fever passed away on its own.

Anyways, my daughter and I have survived. But I still can't believe how much much I had to pay out of pocket for these trips to the ER. I can't imagine how much it would have cost without insurance. Probably $25K for the appendectomy, and at least $10K for my daughter's.

 

I'm curious, do the docs think the flu somehow caused the appendicitis, or was the timing a coincidence?

 

I'm glad it all came out well for your boy in the end, Octavia.

I left California while I was young enough that I'd never had any medical experience but routine check-ups and vaccinations. In Fargo, Seville, and Spokane I've had the occasional trip to the hospital and always encountered friendly and professional service. I've waited over an hour past my time for an appointment for something routine, but never had to wait excessively for emergency care.

On a couple of occasions when I went to "urgent care" because it was outside regular clinic hours and I didn't think I wanted to wait until Monday, I was told to go to the emergency room because urgent care didn't have the necessary equipment.

I think the advantage of living in a smaller city, like Fargo or Spokane, or a country with a rational health-care system like Spain, is that you get better treatment from a less-crowded system. Of course, except in Spain where I paid cash, I've always had health insurance.

 

And be too drunk to get the poor kid to the hospital next time there's an emergency? Alcohol never solved anything. Yeah, I know: you're joking. I've just seen too many lives destroyed by drinking to be able to laugh at that kind of joke.

Canada is a great place. I love it there. I seriously considered moving there several times, but it always seemed inconvenient for one reason or another.

Edited to correct spelling typo.

 

The emergency system isn't the only portion that is overloaded. I can afford the cost of a standard non-emergency visit. But the providers are booked so far in advance that the first available appointment often occurs after the point where I will be either dead, or recovered.

 

This probably comes of living in a small city with a good health-care system for those of us with insurance, but my experience is that if I want to schedule a routine check-up I may have to wait a long time, but if I phone and tell my doctor (or his nurse, more likely) that it's something that really cannot wait, they'll usually fit me in within a few days. They often (at least here) save a little bit of time in their schedule for that sort of thing. But you have to have an established relationship with the doctor. They won't squeeze in a new patient that way.

Otherwise, Urgent Care is for matters that are NOT emergencies, but which cannot wait for a regular appointment.

OTOH, a friend of mine told me this story, from when he lived in San Francisco: His friend (my friend insisted that this happened to his friend) fell and cut his head. He went to the emergency room and took a number. He waited and waited and finally got tired of waiting and went home. The following morning, unable to find his wallet, he decided to go to the emergency room and see if he had dropped it there. While he was looking for it, they called his number. Big-city public-hospital emergency rooms are very overloaded.

Of course, the solution to people using the emergency room for routine care is a universal one-payer system.

 

At least he's recovering now, if you can look on the bright side yet. As a parent, I have some idea what you're going through.

Funny, I don't find anything inconvenient about Canada. People don't usually drive 80mph bumper to bumper with one hand, changing CDs with the other, like I did most of yesterday, but I'm getting used to it. What are those speed limit signs for if everybody ignores them?

Psst...Don't tell anybody, but I'm starting a new underground railway for US refugees. Let me know when you want a ticket.

 

Underground railway? I'd rather just hop on my kayak and cross the boarder whenever i want. The Boundary Waters are great for that!

 

I'll take a raincheck. If they ever elect Sarah Palin or Jeb Bush (or any other Bush) as POTUS, I'll be heading your direction. Vancouver seemed like a nice place when I was there in 1990.