Better to be awake now than then, sumi! And I'm glad they're getting to the bottom of what's going on in there. Fingers crossed it's easily managed from here on out.

Tep, I would be furious, too, but it seems like that's the deal with hospital weekends anymore -- limited staff and a holding pattern. I've been through this with my mom and my MiL and my FiL. It's infuriating and absurd.

I'm side-eyeing it heavily, because people complain about insurance costs in the US. Well, leaving someone in the hospital untreated is a fucking waste of money. No wonder our insurance premiums are so high.

Well, leaving someone in the hospital untreated is a fucking waste of money. No wonder our insurance premiums are so high.

Exactly. It makes zero sense. Then they balance it by doing stuff like discharging new moms 36 hours after labor and delivery.

RIGHT?!

wtf.

sumi, glad to hear the scope went well. Diverticulosis can be owie, so glad you went to the ER to have it checked.

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.

This is so clearly true that it might well be worth your while to go the hospital today to advocate for your dad and get someone to start the tests today. Ugh. I know it sucks. Cody and his family always tried to have a family member nearby when his mom was in the hospital in part to make sure she had an advocate there with her.

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.

This is so clearly true that it might well be worth your while to go the hospital today to advocate for your dad and get someone to start the tests today.

I'm sure I will later, but I'm still very angry right now, both at the hospital for its fuckery, and also at Dad for passively accepting whatever they tell him. I know that advocating for one's *own* healthcare requires a certain level of healthcare "literacy," if you will, and not everyone possesses that. And my dad is, unfortunately, one of them. So he just accepts what the medical staff tells him, unquestioningly. (Which led to stomach bleeding when they prescribed a drug he was allergic to.)

And I realize that someone who has a low level of healthcare literacy needs MORE advocacy, not less. Which means I need to get over there and start advocating. But I have to get over the rage first.

I agree with Burrell- you may want to get over there and get some answers. Because it is so clearly insane.

ETA: Oops, xpost with your very smart reply, Tep.

I know that advocating for one's *own* healthcare requires a certain level of healthcare "literacy," if you will, and not everyone possesses that.

I think that's also generational, though. I watched it with my grandparents, and with my FiL -- if the person in the white coat says it, then you don't argue.

I wish more doctors would encourage patients to be their own advocates. I wouldn't be taking iron or getting the B12 shots right now if I hadn't asked to be tested.

What even made you ask about that, Amy? I know my grandmother used to get B12 shots and it made me start wondering if it was something to do with diabetes?

I didn't actually ask about the B12 -- I asked to have my iron tested when I had labs drawn, which the doctor wanted for my A1C, etc. (because of the diabetes). I've no energy, like, forever, and I have a bunch of other low-iron symptoms I had no idea *were* low-iron symptoms until I saw something on the Today Show. The low B12 just showed up on the results.

My dad got his low testosterone diagnosed the same way, and that's scary, because untreated it can lead to early-onset Alzheimer's and other things. He read something about it, put it together with the way he was feeling, and asked.