Taking Health For Granted

Emergency Room 

I’ve been MIA this week because I got sick over the weekend and got worse during the week. Thankfully I’m doing much better now that I am on the right meds.

I’ve always felt very lucky that hubby has great health insurance through his job. Unfortunately I have yet to find a good primary care physician. After call her on Monday for a sick visit, I spoke to a nurse who took down all my symptoms. The nurse felt that I should come in to see my doctor but my Doc had to “approve” the request, which the nurse sent electronically. After waiting an hour, I called back and my Doc had yet to check her email or whatever. So no sick visit.

Thank goodness for urgent care. It was my first time visiting an urgent care facility. Everyone was so friendly, I was seen by the doctor within 15 minutes of checking in. The urgent care doctor didn’t instill a lot confidence in me. He wouldn’t answer all of my questions and kept referring his reference guides.

I like to think that I’m a pro-active patient. I write questions beforehand for the kids’ pediatric visits. I kept reminding the urgent care doctor I’m a breastfeeding mom. I had to ask at least twice if the medication he was prescribing was safe for breastfeeding. What about patients who aren’t as pro-active? They would have just accepted whatever he prescribed. I even asked him if there was a medication I could take to relieve the pain. He ran out to consult a book and them came back saying, “Nevermind.”

I was happy to leave urgent care with a diagnosis and medication for it so off I went. Then late Tuesday I felt even worse. Fever, headache, stiffness. I didn’t even try to call my primary care doctor this time. We went to urgent care. I was lethargic and my original symptoms seemed to have worsen. The nurses and nurse practitioner (NP) were sweet and were genuinely concerned about my health.

After blood test and lots of phone calls to my primary care doctor, they decided to send me to the ER to meds intravenously. Thankfully my girlfriend was able to take Sophia before we headed to the hospital.

Once I reached the hospital and checked into the emergency room, the physician’s assistant didn’t seem as concerned as the urgent care folks. Granted by this time, my fever had gone down and I was no longer lethargic. The original diagnosis, the PA said, was correct but it was very painful condition, so painful, that some people take narcotic type drugs for it. Um, how come no one has mentioned this until I went to the ER? He didn’t think I needed my meds via IV, especially since I’d have to be admitted to the hospital for them to do that. So, he called my primary care doctor. Guess what she said? She agreed with him!

I’m shopping for a new doctor now.

The PA prescribed some pain meds, one of which was not safe for breastfeeding. As much as I didn’t like the idea of pumping and dumping, I wanted to get better.

I don’t take for granted that we have access to health care thanks to hubby’s benefits. Is it too much to ask to have my doctor call me back when I ask for a sick visit? Her office did call me back, but only after my second urgent care visit AFTER they called her. I’m thankful our health insurance covers urgent care, but the quality of care I received just depended on who was on call that day.

Now what if I couldn’t afford to see the doctor at all? I was uninsured for a period of time, before I kids. I probably would have just “waited” out my symptoms, until they got bad enough for me to go to the ER. There’s something wrong with our health care system. I have no idea how to fix it, but there’s gotta be a better way to do this.

I didn’t mean for this turn into a rant. I’m very happy with our pediatrician and my OB/GYN. I got a great recommendation for a primary care doctor. I hope she’s a keeper.