A Health Care Story
My father-in-law, who I lovingly always refer to as “Papaw”, has congestive heart failure. It is kind of a big deal. He has to watch carefully what he eats and drinks. He can retain fluid at an amazing rate sometimes. Needless to say his condition can be life threatening.
The doctor had him on a very strict “watch what you eat and what you drink” regime which he was following very closely. Well he lost about 25 pounds in just a few days. After all of the weight loss he started feeling dizzy and was developing a kind of tic. So he called the doctor to tell them about his symptoms and the girl at the desk informed him that it was an emergency and he must get down there to the hospital the next morning at 11:00 AM.
Papaw told them that he had an appointment for Friday but they said no. He had to be there the next day at 11:00 AM because they were going to tweak his medicine and it simply could not wait.
My wife takes Papaw to the doctor. That is why appointments are scheduled on Friday. She is off work and it is more convenient that all of the running around be done on Friday. But the nurse told her that no, it could not wait until then. She had to get him down there the next day somehow.
So my wife, who is a dental hygienist, cancels patients and go through all of the horse shit she has to go through to get off of work for three hours and drive him the 50 miles to the hospital. As it turned out she was 10 minutes late for the 11:00 AM appointment.
The doctor would not see him because they were 10 minutes late. My wife takes off work, screws up her paycheck, drives an hour to an “emergency” appointment and is turned away because they are 10 minutes late for the appointment.
I don’t go to doctors. I don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars to have somebody tell me to lose weight and quit smoking. So somebody out there tell me. Is this standard operating procedure? How can an emergency one day be a to hell with it the next?
Of course Papaw is changing doctors and will never step foot in that waiting room again. I just hope we don’t find out that that particular behavior is industry standard.
Hey buddy – sorry to hear about this. Check your e-mail, if you don’t mind!
Nope, never happened across anything like this in my life (and I’ve been to the doctor a LOT…..much more than most). Usually, my problems pertain to having an appointment & their calling me back to the office an hour and twenty minutes after my appointment. So, I’m actually shocked that they were ready to see your pawpaw ‘on time’. I’ve even asked for the first appointment of the day & sat 50 minutes in the waiting room – meaning the doctor was either eating breakfast or running late, as I couldn’t have been waiting for him to ’see’ another patient…I was there before the office opened.
If your pawpaw lost 25 pounds in a matter of days, something’s amiss, Buck. Get him to a doctor, quickly. Fire that one & go to another one.
hey, i don’t know you at all, but this is the most obnoxious thing that i have read in awhile! good grief. i hope all is well with father-in-law. i have never had an experience like that, usually it’s your late and you just have to wait for forever, but not be seen….silly! i’m glad that you guys are changing drs. good luck!!