Here we go again - Iowa healthcare sucks

[ShadowsPapa]

I need to start a web page or something called "healthcare in Iowa SUCKS"
My wife woke me early this AM and said "you wanna go to the doctor with me"? Well of course - and I had a feeling I knew what it was about........
Last Wednesday she complained of not having energy to be on the treadmill. I noticed she was sitting a lot, reading more than usual - she usually spends hours a day up and down, quilting/sewing, active, then slows down in the afternoon. But it was different. She acted tired and finally said her chest hurt - like her heart was pounding. Then it subsided - she said. I asked then about doctor, and she said no, wait until Tuesday (normally our own doctor is in urgent care on Tuesdays).
It got bad again, she was fatigued, and I drove her in to urgent care. Our doctor wasn't there as he'd worked there Monday due to some other doctor's illness.
Anyway, we get in, and of course they check blood pressure.
170/80 (that's what I thought I heard, she said no, they said 170/120 which would be worse)
In any case - 170 is bad, at our age especially. A doctor comes in, asks Barbara some questions, and then said "your BP was just a little bit high, not a big deal" and I wanted to yell out - what do you mean "a little high!" - that's stupid high. anything over 130 is up there for our age, 150 is - you'd better do something about it, and Mayo, our own federal government the heart association all say - that's high, not just a little.
He orders some blood work and said he's going to get her setup with a cardiologist. If it's in the MercyOne system, I know how that will go.
Then again, he said "your blood pressure is just a little high, nothing to be worried or concerned about."

Do doctors not read what the latest studies show about BP and such?
Am I wrong, or is anything over 130 or so "too high' - she was 170/80 if Iheard it correctly and 170/120 if my wife heard it correctly.

So we waited for a call from a cardiologist to get her scheduled in.
No call, but then, this is Iowa and it IS the crappy as hell Mercy system in this state.
My prediction is - if it happens like it did with me, it will be over a week and we'll finally get a call, and the appointment will be for 2 weeks or more after that.
I predict at least 3 to 4 weeks waiting.

In the mean time, there's this BP of 170 over whatever - that's of course no big deal nothing to be concerned about, according to a doctor, and we sit and wait..........

Yeah, the stories I could tell about Iowa health care.

Think long and hard if you aren't a perfect specimen of physical and mental health before moving to Central Iowa.

on the other hand - 2015 when we were in Cleveland for the big AMO car show, she had an episode in the middle of the night and I rushed her to Cleveland hospital just off the highway there and they basically had her lay in a bed, they monitored her, and had no clue what was going on and had no recommendations as to what to do or the possible causes of her racing heart back them - a doctor back here we found through a neighbor fixed that problem. Funny thing - he recognized what it was and fixed it and Cleveland was clueless.

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[bd100]

Had mixed results with our family. Some docs are great, but two times they almost killed one of us. If you have doubts, double check. And for some reason many docs don't like people who question things.

And watch the medicine side effects. Just because a side effect is rare doesn't mean it can't happen in your particular case. A family member had a med suddenly change him from senior engineer to hardly able to think straight, over the space of about two days. I should have insisted that something was really wrong. We finally wised up and weaned him off the stuff but it still had an effect. Nothing quite like sudden retirement!

 

[Hootbro]

I have been lucky that I married a nurse as she has actually save my life more than twice pushing back on bad medical diagnosis and care I have received over the years. My primary care doc overlooked a left bundle branch block on a physical EKG that my wife caught. Probably would have been dead in six months before getting that taken care of.

I have learned no location has a monopoly on inept medical care.

 

[Master_Cylinder]

I have my own BP reader. 170 seems very high to me. My wife, who we call Dr Mom, freaked when I said, “Is 170 high?” I hope she is going to be okay!!

 

[Rusty PW]

I had these issues with Obomba care when I retired early at the age of 60. 2 years of massive headaches trying to get stuff done. Then I switched to a Christian based health care until I hit 65. I'm on Medicare with Aetna sub part. That's been great.

 

[Jteakus]

Doctors are like welders. Some are good, some are REALLY good and some you don't want on your job. But they all passed the test.

 

[Jaxmax]

Bill I had said this about you before, stop going about it as getting an appointment that is good for you or wait for a cardiologist appointment. Stop asking us Jeep nerds for advice, go to the hospital ER and tell them she is having chest pains that come and go and is tired, any good ER will follow up with tests that day and a cardiologist on staff will see her, this can be serious and won’t go away and yes 170/130 is just about a heart attack , you are ignoring the signs!
Sorry to scold but any women that puts up with a stubborn, pig headed good old man should be taken care of, get her to the hospital TOMORROW not when it is convenient!
What do I know as an electrician? I was the head electrician of a very large hospital with a huge trauma program for 29 years knew all the docs, they saved me twice , chief of cardio surgery threw my valve in open heart, I have a doctor who works with my cardiologist, and my surgeon still checks in and they are on it and I am great, cause they are good docs , your wife is not going to get an appointment for a month or so the way you are going, and that’s on you to
……….GET HER TO A HOSPITAL!…...
and get her fixed up!
Good to hear from ya Bill….Jack

PS: I said Hospital not urgent care!

 

[legacy_etu]

Doctors are like welders. Some are good, some are REALLY good and some you don't want on your job. But they all passed the test.

Exactly this.

I worked in Healthcare developing implants for soft tissue injuries. As part of the development process we'd host cadaver surgeries where we'd invite Dr's in to try out our prototypes and give us feedback. I was shocked at the widely varying skill levels of the Dr's. Hell, some of us Engineers were better than the Dr's doing some of the surgical procedures. We had a running joke, "what do you call a Dr. who passed medical school with a C? A Doctor."

 

[Greg_L]

Sorry about your troubles. Scary and infuriating stuff. The healthcare system in the US is tragic...everywhere...not just rural Iowa. If you're poor and/or not in a huge city with good insurance...well...our profit-over-people healthcare system can drive people to murder CEOs in the street.

 

[Alfonz]

For Shadowspapa

 

[Lost1wing]

Exactly this.

I worked in Healthcare developing implants for soft tissue injuries. As part of the development process we'd host cadaver surgeries where we'd invite Dr's in to try out our prototypes and give us feedback. I was shocked at the widely varying skill levels of the Dr's. Hell, some of us Engineers were better than the Dr's doing some of the surgical procedures. We had a running joke, "what do you call a Dr. who passed medical school with a C? A Doctor."

I have a friend that quit the airline business to become a medical robotics technician (18 month school). He was hired by a major hospital and thought he was going to just maintain the equipment. His first job was, he thought, to be there in case of an emergency. He had to assist the doctor on more than one occasion.

 

[legacy_etu]

I have a friend that quit the airline business to become a medical robotics technician (18 month school). He was hired by a major hospital and thought he was going to just maintain the equipment. His first job was, he thought, to be there in case of an emergency. He had to assist the doctor on more than one occasion.

Yeah, not surprised. In our cadaver studies the Dr's assistant regularly came with them. The assistant did a lot of "helping".

 

[Jaxmax]

Bill hasn’t been on since starting this thread , or answering PMs , I hope things are well….Jack

 

[Hootbro]

Bill hasn’t been on since starting this thread , or answering PMs , I hope things are well….Jack

Talked to him recently, he is fine. Other hobbies and interest taking up his time.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Talked to him recently, he is fine. Other hobbies and interest taking up his time.

Don't know how fine I am - haha - still going through the massive fatigue thing. May have to ask the cardiologist if I need another stress test myself - after we chatted with our doctor about my wife's situation.

While we went through really stupid stuff this last Saturday with my wife and her BP and such - I found another emergency department in Des Moines is being sued - horrible care and at least one died while waiting in their ER.


on Saturday the 8th I drove my wife to Mercy's emergency - BP was 174/92 and her headache was so bad she was holding her head almost in tears. I drove her in, and she got sick - nauseous.
Left here at 12:53 - got there about 1:20pm and got her checked in. She's exhausted, in great pain, holding her head, throwing up. It was about 30-40 minutes later they finally got her to a room and checked her BP - 192/96. They drew her blood. BP and blood draw. I asked about something for her pain - sorry, have to see a doctor first.
So we go back to the waiting area and sit.
Later we go back to another room, more BP checks (still sky high) and no, they won't give her anything for the excruciating pain or nausea until a doctor sees her.
Interesting bit on the BP checks in that room - I caught a reading that was sky high. They tried 2 or 3 times and finally said - the machine must be broken, I noticed that as quick as they got a reading and the alarms went off, they frantically hit buttons to clear the reading and silence the machine. The nurse said - that's not right, and left to get another machine. About 15 or 20 minutes later, a nurse finally came in with one. She made really sure I could not see the screen. She positioned it and herself so she was almost against it and I could not see around her. As quick as she got a reading, she hit the button and cleared it. I was never able to see a reading until hours later..

A couple of hours later- finally, a doctor. He orders meds. The order has to go to the hospital pharmacy, they get to it, fill the order, it comes back up and sits until a nurse delivers it, so Yeah, another hour later, finally something for blood pressure and nausea.

My wife is tough to draw blood from. The doctor wanted added blood tests - a person came in and tried - said she'd have to get some help. An hour later, another person came in, screwed up, really reaming the vein in her right hand - my wife was being hurt badly by her botched attempts. She really never shouts out or even says ouch - this time she did.
The woman got only a little bit of blood in a syringe and kept saying "no no don't coagulate" as she left the room with that little bit of blood - then she got someone on the phone. I HEARD the conversation - the person on the other end said "that's not enough, you need more".

After about another hour I asked about the blood work - I got a very sharp, testy "I sent that in", I said - but you were told that wasn't enough. She shot back, sharply - yes, it was enough and I already sent it in.
I beg to differ because later, after shift changes, a male nurse came in saying he needed to get blood!!!!! So the first one likely lied.

He couldn't find a vein. By this time Barbara is terribly dehydrated. No fluids all day, barfing and so on. He goes to find help......... yeah, you guessed it.
No help, no blood draw.
After another extended period, (perhaps another 45 to 60 minutes, the doctor finally comes in. He says no, he won't bother with more blood.
I ask him some questions, questioning why some things were done as they were, and why not have someone else deal with her heart and so on - and he got angry with me!
I mean literally testy, shooting back at me "you don't trust me"?? You don't think I care"? I wish i would have said - maybe you do, but you sure don't show it and you sure as hell don't care about ME!
He appeared as if he was ready to leave if I had asked another question.

There went the weekend.
The ER orders were to get in to our regular doctor Monday. We got lucky - the people at the clinic actually read the papers I handed them, and went back to check with the doctor (lucky he was even there). Said come back in 3 hours. So we did - he told her do not take the pills the ER doctor prescribed, and he wanted to get a stress test lined up for her.
It's been nearly a month now and all she does is sit for the most part - no energy, tired all the time, hardly any quilting and she used to spend hours a day - up and down stairs, up and down from chair to ironing to quilting machine to whatever. Now she sits and reads, etc.
After our doctor suggested maybe she's got multiple issues - the high BP AND perhaps some blockage - I thought - if it's not the drugs I've been on for 8 months or so causing my constant fatigue - maybe I also need to be tested.

So all of these doctor trips, in for meds, back again, and so on, ugh.

On the positive side - got a lot of progress made with my coin hobby and stamps. Will never get caught up on the stamps, but better than it was.

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