Kimber's back from the hospital

[Guest guest]

HI All,

I am home finally from the hospital and man, has it been the hospital

visit from hell this time.

First when I got to the ER, the first doctor to see me gave me dilaudid

for the pain, even though the last time I was given it, it didn't work

unless mixed with fentanyl. I tried to tell him that, but the doctor was

a stubborn as and said that had no meaning if I didn't know the dosage

of dilaudid they gave me and he was being really agressive and gave me

1mg of dilaudid. Well, of course, the stuff had no effect on my pain.

When I told the nurse that it wasn't working, the doctor had already

left and another one was on call. When speaking to him, he listened when

I said that it only worked if I was given a dosage of fentanyl at the

same time. So the doctor gave me a shot of both. About two hours later

it had started to wear off and I asked for another shot. The nurse then

said that the doctor only ordered one shot and I asked to speak to the

doctor since we still didn't know if I was being admitted. The doctor

came and said that he was just going to give me one more shot and

something to drink and then send me home. This idiot didn't even know

how to treat pancreatitis. NO ONE gives a patient with pancreatitis

something to drink. And he also wasn't going to admit me. He tried to

say he'd treated lots of patients with acute and chronic pancreatitis

and you could tell he was lying through his teeth. Well, both me and my

mother started into him for such a stupid thing. He finally got the

point that we were calling him an idiot We were going to go camp out in

my GI's office and get her to admit me if this idiot wouldn't admit me

and we said so to his face..This was about 7 in the morning as I had

gotten to the emergency room about10pm. About ten minutes later a lady

doctor came over and said they were admitting me and all they were

waiting for was a hospital bed to be available. I gather either the guy

called my GI or the internal medicine team has told him he was wrong in

his clinical judgement. We never saw that male doctor again. I didnt'

get a hospital bed until 6pm on Tuesday night. Luckily, I had gotten a

single room, about the one good thing happening . The lady doctor

prescribe demoral as that is what I was usually prescribed for

pancreatitis.Well, about four days later, I started having muscle spasms

all while the doctor was talking to me and my blood sugar was low so we

thought that was the cause. However, I continued to have muscle spasms

even after I my bloodsugar had raised for the next day or too, usually

just after I had my demerol shot.. That's when I realized that demerol

was probably causing them. I had the nurses call the doctor on call as

it was in the middle of the night and he just told them to watch me, but

not to make sure someone was with me whenever I got out of bed. So, of

course, while walking to the bathroom, I had a spasm and I fell on my

back. I could barely breath and my pancreas of course reacted very badly

to the fall and I felt as bad as I had been when I was first admitted

and I had just been feeling good enough to try clear liquids. They gave

me some extra pain meds to cover the pain in my back, but it still hurt

so bad even after the pain meds wore off, so I had the doctor take an

xray of my back. I had managed to crush the T-8 disk. I told the doctor

then that I was not taking any more demerol and that he'd have to find a

substitute. So I ended up on fentanyl patches and Dilaudid by IV. I had

to take 150 mgs of fentanyl and 6 ml of Dilaudid to cover all the pain.

And I wasn't to get out of bed without a nurse to help me. He should

have done that when I had my first spasm in front of him. Luckily, by

then I didn't have any problems with getting the pain meds I needed. I

had to have ice packs to help with the back pain and I couldn't sit or

stand for any length of time. Then I developed fluid in my lungs. Just

what I needed. They gave me one of those breathing tools they have to

help clear out the liquid in my lungs. Then I developed constipation

from all the pain meds I was on, so they had to give me a lot of stool

softeners and laxatives to help get over that. By that time, I'd been in

the hospital over 8 days, which was the longest I had previously been in

the hospital. Finally, after two weeks and two days, I was released to

go home. While i was waiting for the meds they were sending me home on

and for my mom to come and pick me up, someone came in and asked if I

was on Cobra, because my Kaiser insurance had been canceled on March

1st. Man was I was shocked. I had just had my long term disability

approved and Kaiser was supposed to cover me for a while long since I

was approved for the long term disability insurance (I had been a Kaiser

employee before I went on disability). Even if Kaiser hadn't been

supposed to pay my premium for having been approved long term disability

insurance, they should have offered me Cobra Insurance before they

terminated me and given me 30 days notice before they terminated my

medical insurance. Thanks to HIPPA, it is now illegal for employers to

terminate medical insurance benefits without 30 days notice and are

required to offer the employee 18 months of Cobra to continue their

medical insurance, neither of which i had received. After 5 phone calls

to various people at Kaiser, I finally got the name of the person I

needed to speak to. And he was out to lunch. I left him 3 voicemails

since I called him every half hour. He finally called me back and it

turned out that someone dropped the ball and only terminated my status

as waiting for MetLife's approval of my disability insurance. and hadn't

switched me over to being approved of getting the insurance and the

premium of my medical insurance to be paid for a period of time by

Kaiser. The guy apologized for ther error and was reinstating my

insurance and back paid it so that there was no lapse of coverage and so

that all of my hospital visit was paid for. Man was I mad about that. I

had thought that everything had been taken care of and here was this

nice lovely mess instead. Grr. AT least it got taken care of and my

insurance reinstated.

Well, sorry for the book, but I just had to vent about that visit. I

would have had my laptop,but the hospital isn't in a good section of

town and I didn't want it stolen when I was sleeping, so I've been out

of touch with all of you. I'm so glad to be back and at home.

Kimber

--

Kimber

Vallejo, CA

hominid2@...

Note: All advice given is personal opinion, not equal to that of a licensed

physician or health care professional.

--

Kimber

Vallejo, CA

hominid2@...

Note: All advice given is personal opinion, not equal to that of a licensed

physician or health care professional.