Medical Menagerie….

  • Medical Menagerie….

    Posted by Dana Acker on July 21, 2023 at 8:49 am

    Like Mike says, “You can’t make it up.” Amidst a lot of things like Trish’s current hospitalization may have been prevented had someone who checked Trish’s meds caught that what she was taking for nausea messed with her heart rhythm medicine; like Ginsu Knives…there’s more! There is a medicine Trish takes that only comes in 10 mg tablets. That said, she only needs 5 mg per day, so we cut the tablets in half. Well, we found out the day after Trish was admitted, that they (one of the largest and [supposedly] most advanced teaching hospitals in the Southeast) didn’t have that particular medication. Their doctors prescribed it, and approved its use, but they don’t have in their pharmacy??? So the hospital asked if I could bring Trish’s prescription from home, and let them give it to her, and I did. Yesterday I received a call while driving to the hospital, stating that they wanted me to bring our pill cutter, because the means to cut the pills had been taken away from the nurses (???), and the pharmacy didn’t provide that service for medicine they didn’t dispense. I asked if the cafeteria (which prepares food on a large scale) didn’t have a knife? Surgeons use scalpels every day; they couldn’t borrow one? They are adding on a huge new wing on the hospital, and there’s hundreds of construction workers on site who all carry retractable razor utility knives; one of them can’t spare 15 seconds to cut a pill? No, only our plastic, Chinese made, freebie pill cutter would do. For a moment I thought I might be having the proverbial, dreaded “acid flashback,” that 1960’s era authority figures all warned us of, if we partook. But it wasn’t. Like Mike says, “You can’t make it up.”

    Dana Acker replied 1 year, 10 months ago 16 Members · 34 Replies
  • 34 Replies
  • Dana Acker

    Organizer
    July 21, 2023 at 8:51 am

    I mean, really!

    • Dana Acker

      Organizer
      July 21, 2023 at 8:56 am

      We’re paying thousands of dollars on top of the lion’s share our insurance is paying to the hospital, and they can’t buy a fifty cent pill cutter? If they bought pill cutters for every ward in the hospital, they wouldn’t spend a hundred bucks. “Dr. Moe, Dr. Curly, Dr. Larry,” we need you STAT!

    • Jeremy

      Member
      July 21, 2023 at 9:12 am

      I’m saying a prayer for ya, Brother. Another example of a bureaucratic catastrophe. Stay Cool, and stay Strong! If u need help, I’m only a few hours away. We’ll get her out, and then burn it down!

  • Robbie_Bouchard

    Member
    July 21, 2023 at 8:55 am

    Honestly the pill cutter is absolutely understandable to me. They dont give people their home meds usually. They cannot cut pills using their hands with knives its not precise or enclosed free of contamination. They must use pill cutters and aparently they didnt have one and they are probably understaffed meaning someone cannot just leave to go get one. Someone did a shitty inventory job. They asked you because its the easiest thing.

  • Dana Acker

    Organizer
    July 21, 2023 at 8:58 am

    And, they don’t want me carrying a pocket knife or a multi-tool on the premises.

    • Jackie

      Member
      July 22, 2023 at 5:19 am

      I won’t tell.

  • Robbie_Bouchard

    Member
    July 21, 2023 at 8:59 am

    USA is ripe for a medication shortage right now too. I know one big Pharma factory got wiped out by a tornado

  • Dana Acker

    Organizer
    July 21, 2023 at 9:02 am

    That was a Pfizer plant here in North Carolina. Maybe their vaccines were one of the items destroyed.

  • Karen

    Member
    July 21, 2023 at 9:05 am

    I lived through the insanity decades ago with a family member in “the best” med center hospitals. Hang in there, and never say “Its got to get better, b/c it can’t get worse than this”. lol Not to be a downer here, just get well soon, and GTF outta the hospitals

  • ElChapo

    Member
    July 21, 2023 at 9:29 am

    What’s next, they gonna ask you to help out for a surgery because you’re standing around doing nothing and just visiting your wife?

    • Dana Acker

      Organizer
      July 21, 2023 at 12:55 pm

      If they paid me half of what they pay a surgeon, and covered my malpractice insurance, I’d give it a shot…I mean, a millennia ago blacksmiths used to be the village surgeons. What could go wrong?

      • Jackie

        Member
        July 22, 2023 at 5:25 am

        Oh, that’s a rhetorical question?

      • Jackie

        Member
        July 22, 2023 at 5:33 am

        I’ve had the misfortune of spending not a few recent hospitalizations in my Ole Alma Marta. It saddened & alarmed me to see what a giant, unresponsive Goliath it has become.

  • amlora

    Member
    July 21, 2023 at 9:47 am

    It gets exhausting having to constantly stay on top of everything like the meds, interactions, staff, etc. on top of the emotional highs. Take care of yourself too. Prayers your way.

  • Nosce_Te

    Member
    July 21, 2023 at 9:54 am

    🤦‍♀️I’d say unbelievable but the dysfunction is par for the course unfortunately. God is good & hears our prayers, continuing to 🙏 for you both & all whom you interact with. Here’s to healing & coming home soon!

  • Jun

    Member
    July 21, 2023 at 3:47 pm

    LMFAO

    (Keeping my Trish in my prayers – Jun)

    • Jun

      Member
      July 21, 2023 at 3:49 pm

      Correction: “Keeping YOUR Trish in MY prayers.” LOL

  • donna.b-2-11

    Member
    July 21, 2023 at 4:25 pm

    OMG I can’t believe this really there’s no way to cut a tablet ,boy how time’s have changed I’m cutting pills every day and when I was in the hospital we did it all the time . I’m so sorry for your trouble . I’ve been a nurses my entire adult life and health care has gone to hell especially since the lock down.Hopefuly she can go home soon prayers for you and Trish

  • WaywardSon

    Member
    July 21, 2023 at 6:52 pm

    Dana, as insane of a situation you aptly describe, I am outraged for you and Trish, but not at all surprised. Our daughter is a nurse. She twice worked in a cardiac OR. The second tour was only weeks long as she feared loosing her license as did many of her OR peer nurses. For example, in one case, she was in the middle of an open heart procedure with the patient’s chest wide-open. A surgeon in the next-door OR runs into a problem and knows the surgeon performing in her operating room is qualified and certified to perform this particular procedure that is unexpectedly needed. So her surgeon leaves the OR to help the other doctor out and he’s gone for three hours while our daughter is sitting there with a patient having the chest wide-open. Needless to say she left that job for hospice work, which is now taking a mental toll on her soul.

    • donna.b-2-11

      Member
      July 21, 2023 at 6:59 pm

      I do home health and yes it’s taking a terrible hit to my soul can’t get any supplies you need lots of chiefs not enough Indians and it’s always the nurse that gets blamed how stupid is it that we now live in a country that has most of its drugs antibiotics life saving things made in a different country thanks to your daughter tell her to hang in there I can’t do hospice but it’s definitely a very important need

      • WaywardSon

        Member
        July 21, 2023 at 7:12 pm

        @donna.b-2-11 thank you for sharing your experiences and I will pass along your encouragement to her. She is still a “kid” just shy of 26 and having to process so much under such insane conditions like you describe.

        • donna.b-2-11

          Member
          July 21, 2023 at 8:02 pm

          I truly feel for the young people ,my youngest is 27

  • josh

    Member
    July 21, 2023 at 10:10 pm

    It is up to the young to fix shit. Or deal with it.

    • WaywardSon

      Member
      July 21, 2023 at 10:28 pm

      Easier said than done. It is a steaming pile of shit, and the shovel has no handle. I am sure you have noticed.

  • Samantha

    Member
    July 22, 2023 at 6:53 am

    Look at all the suffering the so called medical professionals caused. Poor Trish and you as well as you are her caregiver. Beyond the pill cutter, THEY should be the ones paying for the medical fees for their foul up, along with your suffering-mental and physical! I’d despiute those charges and maybe explain that is less expensive than a lawsuit 😉

  • Jackie

    Member
    July 22, 2023 at 8:52 am

    Yep, just whisper litigation & watch ’em retreat.

    • Dana Acker

      Organizer
      July 24, 2023 at 9:32 am

      We tried that once at another hospital, and they refused to see us any more. We’re running out of hospitals that are not hours away. And, I’m afraid it’s going to be like this at every hospital in America. Fauci did for medicine what Biden did for the economy and the border.

      • This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by  Dana Acker.
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