Poll: Bah humbug, Christmas 2022.

[Member 34319]

There likely isn't any better. It's going to get a lot worse too. I was there for roughly 4 hours. I watched 2 people get called back. One got triaged in immediately because she was tripping out of her mind or something.

I watched an old man start to lose it like me. He was about to walk out too. I think 3-4 others walked out too. I gave it a try. Home now and in bed. Mind works, body don't.

Tried not to get too upset with the wife for making me go in. She just wants me to get better. I told her if I get worse just call 911. At least I might get some treatment that way.

Of coarse, the next available doctor appointment is in February.

 

[Alexx1401]

F this sh1t. Or medical systems are so Fd up it's not even funny.

First time I've ever walked out of the ER. Going home. If I need medical care again I'm calling an ambulance.

Sadly this is a VERY bad time to have to go to the ER. The hospitals are SLAMMED with respiratory infections. Add to this the holidays always cause an increase in the mental health patients coming in. Making things worse was the great hoax. For the first time in my life I watched as RN's were laid off and furloughed. So when the Gov decided to open back up many of those RN's made them pay BIG for that mistake. This lead to health organizations throwing BIG money at poaching help from each other. Now the bill has come due.
I watch all night as people come into the ER by medic wagon. They drive them right through the ER and park them out in the waiting area. You DO NOT get a room because medics brought you in. Bottom line? If you can get treatment at an urgent care do so. A LOT of people use the ER's as a walk in clinic. This worked fine for a long time but, its not working now as you just witnessed. Making it even more fun is the scum who overdose on Fetynal and roll into the ER and take priority. I had to go to work for short meeting this morning and as I was leaving I see a guy who was easy to see high as a kite laying on the floor in front of the check in. Waiting area was full and hallway too was full and of course staff had to take care of this waste of air first. I passed a co worker coming in and said "I picked a good day to be off work, have fun".
This again is what people said they wanted. Now they have to live with what they said they wanted. Those of us who tried to warn them? We also get to live with the results.

 

[Aero Denezol]

There likely isn't any better. It's going to get a lot worse too. I was there for roughly 4 hours. I watched 2 people get called back. One got triaged in immediately because she was tripping out of her mind or something.

I watched an old man start to lose it like me. He was about to walk out too. I think 3-4 others walked out too. I gave it a try. Home now and in bed. Mind works, body don't.

Tried not to get too upset with the wife for making me go in. She just wants me to get better. I told her if I get worse just call 911. At least I might get some treatment that way.

Of coarse, the next available doctor appointment is in February.

It is the same 20% of the people utilizing 80% of the medical resources. Going back again and again. That is why it is hard to get anything done quickly.

I don't want socialism, I want them to tell you how much things cost. If there is a 99% chance something is harmless, I want to decide if its worth $1200 before they send a sample to OHSU. If it is not bothering me, maybe I decide to wait. The medical billing side is all voodoo. Sometimes they simply "recode and resubmit" (or whatever) and voila, your bill is reduced. Why didn't they just do it right in the first place?

 

[slimmer13]

For me, Xmas is a $5k bill that I have to pay every December.

 

[Mikej]

There likely isn't any better. It's going to get a lot worse too. I was there for roughly 4 hours. I watched 2 people get called back. One got triaged in immediately because she was tripping out of her mind or something.

I watched an old man start to lose it like me. He was about to walk out too. I think 3-4 others walked out too. I gave it a try. Home now and in bed. Mind works, body don't.

Tried not to get too upset with the wife for making me go in. She just wants me to get better. I told her if I get worse just call 911. At least I might get some treatment that way.

Of coarse, the next available doctor appointment is in February.

Dood, this is F'ing depressing! I suppose if you don't have a fever, or just low fever there isn't much they'd do anyway. Dammit, all the GD commercials from Kaiser. All the happy smiling people. When we had Kaiser 20+ years ago it wasn't too bad. When I got something like you have...real soar throat, low grade fever, I knew I need some antibiotics. Had stuff like it before. Didn't care what doctor, he would just look at the throat/take temp and get me the pills. You'd get an appointment same day. Now it's changed. We've got Regence Blue Cross now. Cost us about $200.00/mo. Even that has got funky trying to get an appointment and you're out a month. I go in once/once and a half a year for cortisone in a knee, both wrists and shoulder. A few years ago I'd get an appointment in a week/week and a half.

What a mess. What I've heard about providence, and the like, they are a non-profit, so they have to take all comers. How many people have come over the boarders in the last three years? What happens when those people get sick. What about the homeless? How many more of them are there today than three years ago?

For what it's worth. Get Well man!

 

[Mikej]

For me, Xmas is a $5k bill that I have to pay every December.

This is where having no family (that I'd claim) or kids is a good thing!

Edit: Family that would claim ME.

 

[Alexx1401]

What a mess. What I've heard about providence, and the like, they are a non-profit, so they have to take all comers. How many people have come over the boarders in the last three years? What happens when those people get sick. What about the homeless? How many more of them are there today than three years ago?

By Fed law any ER has to see anyone who walks in the door. For profit or not. EMTLA law. If they accept Medicare they have to treat anyone who walks in. OR just passed another law that is going to make this even worse. Health Care is going to get far worse there. The best part will be when they try to figure out how to pay for the new law they just passed. Should be fun to watch for those of us who don't live there.

 

[Mikej]

The best part will be when they try to figure out how to pay for the new law they just passed. Should be fun to watch for those of us who don't live there.

Kind of like M 114.

 

[Unicykle]

I feel like doing Christmas like a paper boy this year driving over to my families house while it's early and dark and throwing the presents in their yard

 

[sobo]

And the days are getting just a few minutes longer every day!

Um, not yet... You've got at least another week...



And to be a total nerd about it, the days are always the same duration.
It's the time between sunrise and sunset that varies each day...

 

[CLT65]

I feel for you. When my wife had Covid really bad and got to the point where she wouldn't even drink, I took her in to the ER. It was absolute hell. They stuck her in a wheelchair over by the bathrooms. She couldn't be in the waiting room, because "Covid", but it was OK for her to be next to the bathrooms with everyone walking by??

We waited HOURS, into the middle of the night before they finally took her back. She was completely out of it, in terrible pain, uncomfortable in the wheelchair. It was all I could do to keep her from literally lying down on the floor to sleep. When they finally took her back, I couldn't go with her, again- "Covid". She said she waited another hour or so in a cold room without so much as a blanket, before they came in, looked at her, and gave her fluids by IV. After that, she walked out and I took her home. It was a horrible, horrible experience.

As to how to fix our messed up health care system, I don't have any answers. I can say that my wife worked in health care in northern Washington years ago, and she said it was common practice for Canadians to cross the border for health care that they couldn't get in time in Canada.

My son has an autoimmune disorder and needs very expensive medication. His specialist said that her colleagues in the UK and Australia complain that it takes as long as a year to get approval from the system for meds like this, all the while the disease is doing irreversible damage to a young child's body.

Sorry, I don't mean to contribute to the thread drift; I just wanted to say we have to be careful not to hold other countries' systems up as any kind of perfect example. They've got their problems too.

 

[sobo]

There likely isn't any better. It's going to get a lot worse too. I was there for roughly 4 hours. I watched 2 people get called back. One got triaged in immediately because she was tripping out of her mind or something.

I watched an old man start to lose it like me. He was about to walk out too. I think 3-4 others walked out too. I gave it a try. Home now and in bed. Mind works, body don't.

Tried not to get too upset with the wife for making me go in. She just wants me to get better. I told her if I get worse just call 911. At least I might get some treatment that way.

Of coarse, the next available doctor appointment is in February.

Your financial situation is none of my business, but if you can afford it, you might consider "concierge medicine". My PCP of 30+ years retired this past Memorial Day, and when I last saw him right before his retirement, he recommended a new doc for me that is part of the MDVIP program. It's practically like having a private doctor. I can call my new doc on his personal cell phone any time of the day or night, any day of the week, weekends and holidays, and I am guaranteed to be seen by him personally (not just a nurse) no more than 24 hours after I call. He carries a limited patient load of the same 600 people total, which is how he can operate this way. But that limited number of patients means that we all pay a fee to have this "quick-to-be-seen" benefit, among several other bennies. I pay $450/quarter, it's automatically withdrawn, so I don't even think about it. I was a bit skeptical at first, but having this doc for 6+ months now, I'm sold on it. I cancelled a $2,400 per year life insurance policy on myself to pay for it, and I still have $600/year left over from cancelling that policy. My estate is large enough now that even if I die without any life insurance on me, my kids will be very well-off. It wasn't that way 15 years ago when I first took out the policy (when it was only $35/month).

The point being is that if the quarterly fee (which is not covered by most insurances) is not a big deal to you, then it might be worth your while to look into MDVIP. You can search for a doc in your area that is a member of the program at the website I linked above. If you're young and in relatively good health, it might not be worth the fee since you wouldn't be going in very often. But if you're older (like me) and have some recurring health issues (like me), or you just hate like the dickens to wait in lines (like me), it could be the thing that brings back your sanity in an insane world...

We now return you to the topic of this thread...

 

[Alexx1401]

I feel for you. When my wife had Covid really bad and got to the point where she wouldn't even drink, I took her in to the ER. It was absolute hell. They stuck her in a wheelchair over by the bathrooms. She couldn't be in the waiting room, because "Covid", but it was OK for her to be next to the bathrooms with everyone walking by??

We waited HOURS, into the middle of the night before they finally took her back. She was completely out of it, in terrible pain, uncomfortable in the wheelchair. It was all I could do to keep her from literally lying down on the floor to sleep. When they finally took her back, I couldn't go with her, again- "Covid". She said she waited another hour or so in a cold room without so much as a blanket, before they came in, looked at her, and gave her fluids by IV. After that, she walked out and I took her home. It was a horrible, horrible experience.

As to how to fix our messed up health care system, I don't have any answers. I can say that my wife worked in health care in northern Washington years ago, and she said it was common practice for Canadians to cross the border for health care that they couldn't get in time in Canada.

My son has an autoimmune disorder and needs very expensive medication. His specialist said that her colleagues in the UK and Australia complain that it takes as long as a year to get approval from the system for meds like this, all the while the disease is doing irreversible damage to a young child's body.

Sorry, I don't mean to contribute to the thread drift; I just wanted to say we have to be careful not to hold other countries' systems up as any kind of perfect example. They've got their problems too.

What you are talking about is single payer. Just like Socialism it "sounds" really good until you get to live it. This country is pushing REAL hard to get single payer here too. Those screaming for it will as soon as they get it start screaming about it.

 

[sobo]

Regarding how my Christmas is going, it's going pretty well, as it has most years since the divorce back in 2010. The kids live with my ex, so my preps for the holidays are pretty minimal. I throw up an artificial tree that stays decorated all year long (and is stored in the bonus room upstairs for the off-season), put a big red bow on the front door, switch out the front porch doormat for the Christmas-themed one, set out a few Christmassy knick-knacks on the mantle, and pull out some Early Music/Renaissance Christmas CDs (none of that tired, old, sappy shiit that gets played over and over and over and over in the malls and shiit like that). Takes me all of about 45 minutes to an hour to get set up; even quicker to take down after Epiphany (yeah, recovering Catholic here )...

I throw $1,000 at the ex and she takes care of buying the kids their presents, with whatever she wants to throw in to supplement that. My two kids do pretty well when it's all said and done, and it's super easy for me to deal with the "Christmas shopping", as it were. I couldn't ask for it to be any easier short of there being no Christmas at all.

 

[Member 34319]

Sadly this is a VERY bad time to have to go to the ER. The hospitals are SLAMMED with respiratory infections. Add to this the holidays always cause an increase in the mental health patients coming in. Making things worse was the great hoax. For the first time in my life I watched as RN's were laid off and furloughed. So when the Gov decided to open back up many of those RN's made them pay BIG for that mistake. This lead to health organizations throwing BIG money at poaching help from each other. Now the bill has come due.
I watch all night as people come into the ER by medic wagon. They drive them right through the ER and park them out in the waiting area. You DO NOT get a room because medics brought you in. Bottom line? If you can get treatment at an urgent care do so. A LOT of people use the ER's as a walk in clinic. This worked fine for a long time but, its not working now as you just witnessed. Making it even more fun is the scum who overdose on Fetynal and roll into the ER and take priority. I had to go to work for short meeting this morning and as I was leaving I see a guy who was easy to see high as a kite laying on the floor in front of the check in. Waiting area was full and hallway too was full and of course staff had to take care of this waste of air first. I passed a co worker coming in and said "I picked a good day to be off work, have fun".
This again is what people said they wanted. Now they have to live with what they said they wanted. Those of us who tried to warn them? We also get to live with the results.

Thanks Alex for the info. Good to know that ambulances provide no additional sort of urgency to the matter.

I'm very much grateful for my insurance with Kaiser. It's still has done so much for us.

I have definitely seen the decline over the years. Both the kids and wife, well the wife had chronic illness but Kaiser covered that surgery, kiddo still has chronic illness and we are definitely in their system. It was way better 10 years ago.

I don't know what you do in the medical field, but I want to say thank you for sticking with it and all that you do. You are a commodity now and I hope you know there are people that still 100% appreciate what you do.

 

[JackFrost]

I'm sorry you and the family got sick... that really sucks @Reno ,especially during the holidays. The wife and I really love this time of year and usually get the tree up and house decorated the wknd after Thanksgiving, but this year we are buried with running 2 businesses, remodeling our house and trying to finish remodeling my mom's house so we can get her moved by the end of January.
Been working 16+ hours a day to hurry and finish and we are flat exhausted! Just got a tree up last night and still need to decorate it, no decorations in the house and no baking. Pretty frustrating, and as previously stated by others the price of things suck, fuel to drive anywhere is astronomical and our general hatred of society anymore is palpable.
Didn't go a tree lighting or Christmas parade this year either. Just feels different this year, the anticipation of the season that is usually there for us just isn't this year. Kind of sad!
I don't mean to complain but I'm sure that is what it sounds like, I hope you feel better soon OP! We are still thankful for the reason we do celebrate Christmas and still have ALOT to be thankful for. Merry Christmas!

 

[sobo]

What you are talking about is single payer. Just like Socialism it "sounds" really good until you get to live it. This country is pushing REAL hard to get single payer here too. Those screaming for it will as soon as they get it start screaming about it.

Absolutely, positively, correct on all counts!
Leftists never learn that their Leftist ideas never result in the utopia they think they will.
Their shiity excuse is always, "That wasn't true/real Socialism..." or "It wasn't done right last time..."
Phuq'n morons...

Oh, and Merry Christmas!

 

[CLT65]

Chronic illness is the worst; it drains the life out of you over time. My wife has suffered for years, especially the never-ending surgeries for the last ten years.

It's even worse when it's your kid, makes you feel helpless as a parent. When my son was diagnosed at three it was awful. He's 16 now and doing fine, but still on the same crazy-expensive medication. I'm glad for it though, as it allows him to have a normal life.

 

[Member 52301]

F this sh1t. Or medical systems are so Fd up it's not even funny.

First time I've ever walked out of the ER. Going home. If I need medical care again I'm calling an ambulance.

I hope that all of you get well soon.

I hope that all of you still have a blessed and happy Christmas.

Take care.

Cate

 

[Member 34319]

Chronic illness is the worst; it drains the life out of you over time. My wife has suffered for years, especially the never-ending surgeries for the last ten years.

It's even worse when it's your kid, makes you feel helpless as a parent. When my son was diagnosed at three it was awful. He's 16 now and doing fine, but still on the same crazy-expensive medication. I'm glad for it though, as it allows him to have a normal life.

I definitely had a period of denial. It took a lot of time for me to accept it and start enjoying things without it lingering in the back of my mind. It still lingers there, but it's not as bad now. He will likely be on medication forever. That part really took me a long time to come to terms with. I'm likely still not 100% on the fact he will need medication to live normally.

He like his mom, has GI autoimmune disease. Thankfully my wife was able to have a J pouch procedure about 8 or so years ago. I can't imagine what it may be like trying to get a similar procedure done in todays medical world.

Anyways, thank you for sharing this. It means a lot.

On a more positive note, my wife was able to get me in this morning to see a primary care doctor. She has learned that if you hover over the appointment screen long enough, some pop up. Back to the hospital I go!