My Luck has returned

Started by kiawrench, November 06, 2006, 01:05:07 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

kiawrench

 On oct 15th, dr said i had the flu.
On Oct 20th same dr said i had walking pneumonia .
on Oct 21 same dr said was a mistake, may need some tests ,since temp swings were really crazy 95.7 to 106.6 (in hospital)
by late evenening of Oct 25, could not eat, drink, skin was on fire ,could not be touched, and was being cooled by water sprayed by nursing staff in a fan swept room, two iv lines at steady drip of potassium chloride and heavy antibiotics. - blood infection.

by Oct 28, digestive system goes nuts, followed by intesnse cramping, host of gut related things.

by early afternoon of 5 Nov, i was released (with official cause of illness and 6 days sick at home followed by 16 days in hospital room with big red "infectious disease" signs on door )as being "severe intestinal virus of unkown type"


  Now why does that sound like blue cross / blue shield is just going to snap of a series of checks to pay these fellas????? big hosp bill, 4 different drs. cdc visit  for blood infection, lost wages, missed time at work, not counting personal misery. (hmm,, glad i had aflac-) and no diagnosis as to what the trouble was? 
now isnt that just my luck?
keep your bike running,your beer cold ,and your passport handy.all are like money in the bank .

h2olawyer

Man, Kia - THAT REALLY SUCKS!  Hope you are feeling better & continue to improve.  Maybe you'll get the honor of having a newly discovered disease named after you.  Your doctors will likely not put their egos aside, though & take the name of one of them instead.

Blue Cross has always done right by our family.  Probably depends on which coverage you have, though.

FEEL BETTER!

H2O
If you have an accident on a motorcycle, it's always your fault. Tough call, but it has to be that way. You're in the right, and dead -on a bike. The principle is not to have any accident. If you're involved in an an accident, it's because you did not anticipate. Then, by default, you failed.

YellowJacket!

Hey Kia! I wondered where you were and after reading your post, I'm glad you are allright!
Now, the healthcare worker in me comes out.
"2 Iv's with POTASSIUM chloride" ??  Was it Sodium Chloride or Potassium?  That much potassium sounds weird unless you were pukeing, pooping and peein all your fluids out and they put you on KCL.
Flu and Pneumonia usually go hand in hand if you get the flu bad enough.  Its still a little early for the southeast but not unusual.
A bacterial infection would have been easy to diagnose and treat because you can culture them and they usually act in a specific way.  A viral infection is harder to diagnose, acts weird and has to "run its course" because antibiotics do nothing for virus's.
However, they may have put you on antibiotics just to cover the bases until they found out whats going on.  And high dose antibiotics can wreak havoc on ones digestive tract. (kills the good bacteria)
But htat still makes me wonder, Why so much potassium?

Glad you are doing better and thank God for insurance!

David


Living the dream - I am now a Physician Assistant!!   :-)

Mutt

Welcome back to the land of the living! Glad your ok. Just be glad you don't have one of those on the fly insurance companies. They may try to get out of paying since there's no definate diagnosis!  :-[ :P

Wait......is that lawyers I hear knocking at the door....... :-X

Mutt  :)
"The internet is a great way to get on the net."
- Bob Dole, Republican presidential candidate
"I invented the internet." -Al Gore, Vice President

Robin Hood

Quote from: Mutt on November 06, 2006, 11:59:58 AM
Welcome back to the land of the living! Glad your ok. Just be glad you don't have one of those on the fly insurance companies. They may try to get out of paying since there's no definate diagnosis!  :-[ :P

Mutt  :)

Get better soon Kia.  :D

So if you don't have insurance over there do you get treated? You must get some sort of treatment surely.

Over here the National Health Service gets criticized for long waiting lists for non emergency treatment, but in an emergency you get the best possible treatment with no concern over how it's paid for.

YellowJacket!

For the most part here, people have to pay for their insurance (sometimes quite a bit), or their employer pays all or part of it.  In some states, they have state funded healthcare insurance but that depends on where you live and sometimes your income (or lack of) level.  To qualify for the state funded insurance you either have to be uninsurable or you can not afford it or both.
The hospital I work in is considered a "not-for-profit" institution and DOES NOT and WILL NOT turn away a patient that can not afford medical treatment.  Most  not for profit and non-profit institutions are in some way or another funded by the state for uninsurable and indigent care.
We also have many free clinics and "interfaith" clinics that are staffed by volunteer physicians and nurses that provide medical care to people who can not afford it.
Medications are the tough part though but drug companies are getting better with their programs for people who cant afford their medications. And lastly, drug companies market to physicians by giving them "sample packs" of medication.  The doctors I worked for used to be quite generous with their samples that they gave to their patients.
Hopefully in a couple years I'll be one of those volunteers.  I have applied to go to PA (Physicians Assistant) school for 2008.  One of the scholarships I applied for requires that I quit my job and work in a medically underserved area for at least two years.  My choices are very rural areas of our state of federal prisons.  Appalachia here I come...  Once I complete school, provided I get in, I'll be giving out free or low cost medical care someplace in rural East Tennessee for at least two years.  They don't call us "The Volunteer State" for nothing... ;D

David


Living the dream - I am now a Physician Assistant!!   :-)

kiawrench

davetn- i was still pumping hard from both ends even after four days of nothing by mouth, the pot clor was there for that reason- even though it blows iv sites real quick, it may be the only thing that kept me going,

  the antibiotics were pretty harsh too, i think i blew 14 iv sites in 5 days, eventually ended up with one on each side of upper chestm deep cannulae sites, harder to blow out, but hurt like hell.

so far looks like insurance is cool with unidentified virus  status, since so many things went wrong after the admin of so much augmentin when first diagnosed. seems it killed off all the good stuff inside of me as well as fix the URI- everything else was caused by moment of opportunity- but they still cant explain the blood infection yet, there is still a culture working to id that.should have last report by friday. but am not allowed to return to work for at least another week,to get that final diag from infectious disease dr. then will get more complete rundown on What Happened to Me instead of vacation .

    i have AETNA   they will pay out most likely ,since cost is well over out of pocket, and this was declared emergency , based on all the wild stuff.  AFLAC already set claim in motion too,, er,hosp days, home days expected all in one check, under short term policy(more than 3 days,less than 30 ,with er time)  so money wont be issue ,or lost wages. good to have policy .
keep your bike running,your beer cold ,and your passport handy.all are like money in the bank .