Thanks for checking in sumi. Good thoughts sent your way.

Thank you.

My primary care physician dropped by. He us a good one. When they did labs on me yesterday at the hospital he read them (they have the results electronically) and saw that my blood count had dropped from 10 point something Friday morning to 8 point something in the afternoon. He made sure I got transfused.

He also dropped by to let me know about the spot the ct scan showed on my kidney and to say that we're goning to mri it. The surgeon had actually mentioned that. Also , I have acust on one of my ovaries that they will ultrasound.

{{{sumi}}} So much ~ma headed your way. It sounds like your doctor and the surgeon are on top of things.

Sean, my e-mail is always available for venting as well.

RAGE. My dad called to tell me that the hospital wants to "figure out" why he's having chest pains...but not until Monday, since doctoring is apparently like banking and is only a M-F, 9-5 thing. So they're keeping him all weekend, even though they WON'T DO ANYTHING to find out what's going on.

I told him, gee, if they really think your heart needs checked out, wouldn't they do it right away? But if it can wait for 2 days, then it's probably not that critical, and you can go home and come back Monday.

Seriously. He's going to just sit in a hospital bed for 2 whole days waiting for a doctor to show up and check it out. This is insane. It's his HEART. It's either important enough to check out now, or it's not important.

I am so full of rage right now it's not even funny. I mean REALLY. I got off the phone with Dad (who is pissing me off with his complacency ABOUT HIS HEART ["They say I have to wait, so I guess I'll wait." "Dad, you have a say in this! You aren't a prisoner there!" "Well, they say I have to wait until Monday."]) and just screamed at the walls for about 30 seconds. Screamed. RAAAAAAAAAGE.

Teppy, that is truly rage worthy. WTF are the thinking?

It's the weekend, so doctors don't work? I guess.

It's a total logic FAIL. If it were so truly critical that it needs to be checked/tested/whatever (after all, it's his fucking HEART), then one would think it needs to be done NOW, and that waiting might lead to damage. However, if it CAN wait, then it must not be that important, and he can go home. Because the only other option (that it IS critical, but they're waiting anyway) is malpractice.

I'm torn between driving 30 minutes over there to spew RAGE all over the place and find out what is going on, versus letting Dad be complacent and let people tell him what to do, even if it's nonsensical.

Even if there's not a cardiologist on staff for the weekend (which, wtf), aren't there some basic tests they can run? God, Steph, I don't even know.

sumi, still sending you lots of ~ma.

So, my good friend's husband had a cardiac event a few years ago. I think it happened Friday aft/eve. He was in cardiac intensive care and my friend said that the cardiac nurses were excellent - their main function is to keep patients alive until the surgeons show up.

I thought it was an odd comment then and I couldn't (at that time) spend another 20 minutes inquiring about what that all meant, but I think here is another example:

surgeons seem to be on a particular schedule and the nurses are doing the heavy lifting in terms of patient care and keeping patients alive.

They probably want to keep your father in the hospital in case something goes awry, and feel he'd be safer there than at home, but 2 days in a hospital bed without treatment or diagnosis sounds wild.

sumi,

I'm glad you are getting good care. my primary care physician would never see me in the hospital (our system is too disparate and specialized for that), so two thumbs up for that.

They probably want to keep your father in the hospital in case something goes awry, and feel he'd be safer there than at home, but 2 days in a hospital bed without treatment or diagnosis sounds wild.

He's not in a cardiac unit, either, though -- just a general floor. And I do understand wanting to keep him in case something goes wrong, but it seems like keeping the patient is done in the larger plan of actually treating the patient, not just making them wait.

I just don't understand making a 70-year-old man with a history of 5 heart attacks wait TWO DAYS to find out what is wrong with the aforementioned (not-well-functioning) heart.