classical_hero
In whom I trust
It is quite funny how people often just hear the music and not listen to the words of the song.
Random Rants XLIII: So Much Whinging Your Head May Explode
- Thread starter Joecoolyo
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It is quite funny how people often just hear the music and not listen to the words of the song.
MagisterCultuum
Great Sage
My dad (who is almost 74 years old, is in remission from leukemia, and still has a weakened immune system from the chemotherapy that he finished a few months ago) started getting chills after dinner, and by 9:30pm had a fever of 101.1°F. He took two Tylenols after this, but at 10pm his fever had risen to 103.6°F. Just before 10:30pm it had gone down to 103.4°F but just a few minutes later it went back to 103.6°F again.
We called his doctor, who told us that she would meet us at the emergency room. (When we took his temperature against just before leaving the house it had dropped to 102.0°F.)
We got the ER around 11:30pm, but had to wait over an hour before they did anything. Then they asked the usual questions and took his vital signs. His fever was gone, down to 98.5°F, which made him a low priority. Over an hour later they took him for a chest X-ray, but then sent us back to wait for hours more.
The ER nurses refused to page the doctor, or even to check and see if she was still there at all. They claimed it was against policy, annoys the doctors, would be unfair to the other patients, and gets them into trouble. This doctor wanted to be paged though, was specifically waiting for him though, but never found out we had arrived.
Eventually we called her private office, and got her waiting service. They passed on a message from us, and were supposed to call us back. They didn't call back though. Eventually we called back, and found out that the doctor had just gone home for the night and told them that my dad could go home to so long as he made sure to contact her first thing in the morning and see her at her office if his fever had returned.
When dad told one ER nurse that he intended to leave, she told him that he could not do so until checking with the head nurse. Said head nurse had just left her desk, and did not return for close to 20 minutes. When I finally did get a change to talk to her, she said that there wasn't any check-out paperwork as we had been told and that he could just walk out if he likes.
No one there was able to answer my dad's questions about whether leaving early would cause his insurance to refuse payment and leave us with a huge bill for what would have been completely free if he stayed. He decided to risk it for a chance to get some sleep at home though.
I had signed up to volunteer at a Habitat for Humanity work site tomorrow morning, but I cancelled when it became clear that I had to drive my dad to the hospital and would likely not get enough sleep tonight to be ready to work at 9 in the morning.
One guy I met there last week was supposed to check into whether there was a job opening for me where he works. I hope that skipping this day doesn't mean missing out of a job that might be open now but closed next week.
We called his doctor, who told us that she would meet us at the emergency room. (When we took his temperature against just before leaving the house it had dropped to 102.0°F.)
We got the ER around 11:30pm, but had to wait over an hour before they did anything. Then they asked the usual questions and took his vital signs. His fever was gone, down to 98.5°F, which made him a low priority. Over an hour later they took him for a chest X-ray, but then sent us back to wait for hours more.
The ER nurses refused to page the doctor, or even to check and see if she was still there at all. They claimed it was against policy, annoys the doctors, would be unfair to the other patients, and gets them into trouble. This doctor wanted to be paged though, was specifically waiting for him though, but never found out we had arrived.
Eventually we called her private office, and got her waiting service. They passed on a message from us, and were supposed to call us back. They didn't call back though. Eventually we called back, and found out that the doctor had just gone home for the night and told them that my dad could go home to so long as he made sure to contact her first thing in the morning and see her at her office if his fever had returned.
When dad told one ER nurse that he intended to leave, she told him that he could not do so until checking with the head nurse. Said head nurse had just left her desk, and did not return for close to 20 minutes. When I finally did get a change to talk to her, she said that there wasn't any check-out paperwork as we had been told and that he could just walk out if he likes.
No one there was able to answer my dad's questions about whether leaving early would cause his insurance to refuse payment and leave us with a huge bill for what would have been completely free if he stayed. He decided to risk it for a chance to get some sleep at home though.
I had signed up to volunteer at a Habitat for Humanity work site tomorrow morning, but I cancelled when it became clear that I had to drive my dad to the hospital and would likely not get enough sleep tonight to be ready to work at 9 in the morning.
One guy I met there last week was supposed to check into whether there was a job opening for me where he works. I hope that skipping this day doesn't mean missing out of a job that might be open now but closed next week.
JohannaK
Heroically Clueless
Damn, what a terrible healthcare. Don't tell me, you live in the US. Anyways, I went to the funeral of a friend of my family on Wednesday. Cancer. Hope your father recovers completely.
JohannaK
Heroically Clueless
His father 74 makes it a prudent question to ask what you understand as "advanced age".
Well, my mother's in her 60s and prefers to use Fahrenheit, but no medical professional that I've ever met (i.e. exclusively British) has used the Fahrenheit system in conversation with me and I would not report anything in Fahrenheit either.
JohannaK
Heroically Clueless
Then it is more-or-less safe to assume we're talking about an American here.
MagisterCultuum
Great Sage
I turn 25 in February, and my father turns 74 in March. We are both Americans. The hospital we visited is DeKalb Medical Center in Decatur, Georgia (one of the suburbs closest to Atlanta, which is actually an older city than Atlanta).
If I recall correctly the thermometer they used last time (I didn't actually look at it this time) was actually in Celcius, but they converted the numbers to Fahrenheit for him to understand better.
My dad went to the hospital for basically the same reason almost 3 weeks ago. That time his doctor was working in a different part of the hospital, and after wasting only about an hour in the ER on paperwork and getting everything registered properly he was able to go there to see her. I don't recall if they ever found out what exactly was wrong. They did put him on antibiotics for a couple weeks, but those are less effective when your immune system is so weakened. (He was on that antibiotic not long after finishing another course of antibiotics that had to be administered through an IV pump. Before that they had found an infection of a kind that won't respond to any oral antibiotics except for one to which he seems to be quite allergic.)
The doctor in question is a infectious disease specialist. (He has actually changed primary care physicians last week.) He has had a sinus infection that they haven't been able to eliminate for months. He had surgery a while back to try to get it out, but due to scarring from a previous surgery (to remove a buildup of dead white blood cells after his first course of chemotherapy 5 years ago) they didn't think they could safely cut into one of the effected sinus passages. It isn't really contagious and is unlikely to cause any problems for anyone with a healthy immune system, but his body just hasn't been able to get rid of it completely.
If I recall correctly the thermometer they used last time (I didn't actually look at it this time) was actually in Celcius, but they converted the numbers to Fahrenheit for him to understand better.
My dad went to the hospital for basically the same reason almost 3 weeks ago. That time his doctor was working in a different part of the hospital, and after wasting only about an hour in the ER on paperwork and getting everything registered properly he was able to go there to see her. I don't recall if they ever found out what exactly was wrong. They did put him on antibiotics for a couple weeks, but those are less effective when your immune system is so weakened. (He was on that antibiotic not long after finishing another course of antibiotics that had to be administered through an IV pump. Before that they had found an infection of a kind that won't respond to any oral antibiotics except for one to which he seems to be quite allergic.)
The doctor in question is a infectious disease specialist. (He has actually changed primary care physicians last week.) He has had a sinus infection that they haven't been able to eliminate for months. He had surgery a while back to try to get it out, but due to scarring from a previous surgery (to remove a buildup of dead white blood cells after his first course of chemotherapy 5 years ago) they didn't think they could safely cut into one of the effected sinus passages. It isn't really contagious and is unlikely to cause any problems for anyone with a healthy immune system, but his body just hasn't been able to get rid of it completely.
UTTER UTTER UTTER *********.
Afternoon. There's a call on the answering machine. My grandmother says she's stuck with their car in the snow at [unprecise description which includes probably 200 km²].
Call back. It's one of the restaurants in the hills. My grandmother is already gone, probably back to their car. Okay, WTH. Get to the car with the whole family, tow rope for the car, some other equipment.
Drive to the restaurant. First street closed, due to snowbanks. Okay, other way. Get to the restaurant. Nobody there. Checking in one direction, nobody to be seen, other direction, nobody to be seen. Other streets are all closed due to snowbanks. Checked at another restaurant, forth and back, nobody has seen her.
Calling my uncle, he doesn't know anything. Calling my 17 years old niece, she's with my grandmother...but no electricity on her mobile phone...great.
We're back at home, because there's no place left to check. Nothing new on the answering machine.
2 hours over. It's totally dark, -10°C, half of the streets in the hills are closed due to snowbanks. My grandmother takes strong pain killers, she should not even be driving.
We decide to call the police, so that they can start a search. Geolocation of the telephone is obviously not possible, because it's turned off. Search area? No real idea.
Half an hour later we get a call. My grandmother is at home. Her car was stuck a few meters in one of the closed streets. After she called us she asked some guys from the ski lift to pull her out of the snow with one of their machines.
End of the story.
![[pissed]](/images/smilies/pissed.gif "Pissed [pissed]")
Afternoon. There's a call on the answering machine. My grandmother says she's stuck with their car in the snow at [unprecise description which includes probably 200 km²].
Call back. It's one of the restaurants in the hills. My grandmother is already gone, probably back to their car. Okay, WTH. Get to the car with the whole family, tow rope for the car, some other equipment.
Drive to the restaurant. First street closed, due to snowbanks. Okay, other way. Get to the restaurant. Nobody there. Checking in one direction, nobody to be seen, other direction, nobody to be seen. Other streets are all closed due to snowbanks. Checked at another restaurant, forth and back, nobody has seen her.
Calling my uncle, he doesn't know anything. Calling my 17 years old niece, she's with my grandmother...but no electricity on her mobile phone...great.
We're back at home, because there's no place left to check. Nothing new on the answering machine.
2 hours over. It's totally dark, -10°C, half of the streets in the hills are closed due to snowbanks. My grandmother takes strong pain killers, she should not even be driving.
We decide to call the police, so that they can start a search. Geolocation of the telephone is obviously not possible, because it's turned off. Search area? No real idea.
Half an hour later we get a call. My grandmother is at home. Her car was stuck a few meters in one of the closed streets. After she called us she asked some guys from the ski lift to pull her out of the snow with one of their machines.
End of the story.
Hell yeah, that would have prevented quite some headaches 
.
salty mud
Deity
Dating is a slow process. Have some patience and you will see results!
Yeah, probably.
I know I'm in an even more complicated position like a normal person (because I'm moving to the Netherlands, and doing it in English), but not even getting an answer back to a message is quite disappointing :/.
On the positive side, after one week of dating, you've met precisely zero psychopaths who you never even want to think about again.
Great encouragement. Makes me want to stop right now
.
Synobun
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