Here we go again - Iowa healthcare sucks

[ShadowsPapa]

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!!

Yeah, that's really high - even though the urgent care doctor said "no worries, that's just a bit high" and the ER doctor said "there's a lot of people in this city who would love to have BP this low".
She hit at least 192/96 for a while. I've been checking her BP at home with a nice electronic device (since they sort of want me to watch mine, too - for enlarged aorta.)
When I took her in with the horrible headache, she said was the worst she's had in her life, these were the numbers:

174/92 at home 3-8-25
192/96 At emergency
Once I think my wife said she saw 196/9?
I know it was higher than that at least a time or two but they did their best to hide the numbers - even claiming the machine was "broken" (oddly, they later used the same machine and said it was fine - once the BP settled down a little bit and was no longer around 200)

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[Master_Cylinder]

Yeah, that's really high - even though the urgent care doctor said "no worries, that's just a bit high" and the ER doctor said "there's a lot of people in this city who would love to have BP this low".
She hit at least 192/96 for a while. I've been checking her BP at home with a nice electronic device (since they sort of want me to watch mine, too - for enlarged aorta.)
When I took her in with the horrible headache, she said was the worst she's had in her life, these were the numbers:

174/92 at home 3-8-25
192/96 At emergency
Once I think my wife said she saw 196/9?
I know it was higher than that at least a time or two but they did their best to hide the numbers - even claiming the machine was "broken" (oddly, they later used the same machine and said it was fine - once the BP settled down a little bit and was no longer around 200)

My wife and I are keeping you guys in our prayers.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

My wife and I are keeping you guys in our prayers.

Thanks..... it's another day of her sitting around, got up this am to see her just sitting at the table. She's constantly exhausted.
At least her BP is down - 140/86

 

[Rusty PW]

My wife and I are keeping you guys in our prayers.

Same here.

 

[legacy_etu]

Thanks..... it's another day of her sitting around, got up this am to see her just sitting at the table. She's constantly exhausted.
At least her BP is down - 140/86

Ditto. Prayers and good vibes your way.

 

[Reddout99]

That sounds horribly frustrating. I was getting more and more PO'd reading your posts. So sorry you are going through this and am glad you were able to finally see your doctor.
I'll be thinking about you guys with hopes things start to stabilize soon.

Take Care,
Bob

 

[Lost1wing]

Yeah, that's really high - even though the urgent care doctor said "no worries, that's just a bit high" and the ER doctor said "there's a lot of people in this city who would love to have BP this low".
She hit at least 192/96 for a while. I've been checking her BP at home with a nice electronic device (since they sort of want me to watch mine, too - for enlarged aorta.)
When I took her in with the horrible headache, she said was the worst she's had in her life, these were the numbers:

174/92 at home 3-8-25
192/96 At emergency
Once I think my wife said she saw 196/9?
I know it was higher than that at least a time or two but they did their best to hide the numbers - even claiming the machine was "broken" (oddly, they later used the same machine and said it was fine - once the BP settled down a little bit and was no longer around 200)

I just went through that experience with a friend of mine a couple of years ago. Bp and stomach pain. No drugs until they did all of their testing. Pharmacy at the hospital took 4 hours to get the pain meds to the room and 2 more hours of a shift change. He was diagnosed with accute pancreatitis (sp).

Fortunately for you and your wife, you got to leave the hospital.

I hope you both get better soon .

 

[Blade1668]

Wishing you and your wife the best. As a non-medical professional that is b.s. from about every point, on a few occasions before my"retirement" I left from work and went to E.R.
I my B.P. was in that range, I was moved straight to continuous observation by at minimum one medical technician and or nurse. Go figure less than 2 years of not dealing with that my B.P. is substantial better, and I have to watch for it getting to low now. I notice a elevated pulse when it does.
If you or your wife feel off immediate medical check, and if you don't agree with the medical persons diagnosis get a second and a third opinion. Dr's actually kill more people in the USA than firearms deaths a year. I'd say ask a friend of mine, you can but since he's in a urn that started his downfall by medical malpractice he won't respond.
I've had some good and great medical services and a few that were ridiculously bad a few that almost killed me one especially.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Wishing you and your wife the best. As a non-medical professional that is b.s. from about every point, on a few occasions before my"retirement" I left from work and went to E.R.
I my B.P. was in that range, I was moved straight to continuous observation by at minimum one medical technician and or nurse. Go figure less than 2 years of not dealing with that my B.P. is substantial better, and I have to watch for it getting to low now. I notice a elevated pulse when it does.
If you or your wife feel off immediate medical check, and if you don't agree with the medical persons diagnosis get a second and a third opinion. Dr's actually kill more people in the USA than firearms deaths a year. I'd say ask a friend of mine, you can but since he's in a urn that started his downfall by medical malpractice he won't respond.
I've had some good and great medical services and a few that were ridiculously bad a few that almost killed me one especially.

Our regular doctor told her do NOT take the BP drug the ER doctor prescribed (he only did a week's prescription anyway) - he said that would lead to extreme highs and lows as it was an instant effect drug, short half-life so it would lower it for a while, then it would likely go back up.. So he prescribed a pill in addition to the one she was already taking. She was on only half of what could be prescribed for the first one and he said we were at the point of "diminishing returns" on that one anyway, doubling it would likely only drop things by a little bit. The second one in addition to that seems to have her BP under control. It was something like 120/70 when she went in yesterday for the echo testing. That's perfect, IMO, and right where they want me due to my slightly thinned and enlarged aorta.

I don't know how to read those echo cardiograms but did see the tech was getting super-clear images - and that she highlighted a few areas. A valve was shown very clearly. If it was a car engine, I'd say the valve springs were very weak as the valve did a double bounce but maybe that's totally normal.
She's been totally out of sorts lately - and this week is a bit worse. Afternoon naps - totally unlike her. She'll lay back and sleep for 2 hours or so, or she's sitting around reading, watching TV. She used to be quite active around the house - sewing, quilting, up and down the stairs, quite productive in the quilting area - hours on end starting in the early AM and not stopping until maybe mid-afternoon then she'd finally settle back. But lately - she's done by noon if she goes that far.

The tech who did the echo said "you'll get results in a week, maybe longer, it takes a while to get to them". WTF?? If this was an extreme thing - a person could literally die or have a heart attack by the time anyone saw a problem. Worse - on the 30th, she's up in the air over the Atlantic heading for The Netherlands and Belgium on a quilt tour with a friend. Nice - we want to know what's going on in prep for the trip and she likely won't get word until she's on another continent.

Getting any test results here takes a minimum of a week - often longer, blood tests, heart tests, you name it.
Getting in to a specialist can take 3 months.
getting in to your primary care doctor can take 3 weeks or so, 2 if lucky.
One hospital here is being sued for the extreme waits in emergency and the fact a person literally died waiting, and where we go is almost as bad. Once people see Methodist is being sued and people die waiting there, the load will shift to MercyOne and they are already horribly understaffed.

 

[Jaxmax]

Perhaps the quilt tour is not a good idea now?…Jack

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Perhaps the quilt tour is not a good idea now?…Jack

Oh, she's going. There's nothing going to stop her now short of a doctor's order and two doctors have said "not so fast on cancelling".
The only really risky leg will be the flight time.
Otherwise, once in Europe, if anything happens, there will be no waiting for hours to see someone like here.
It would actually be more stressful for her to cancel at this point as she's planned and looked forward to it since last fall. It's been a light at the end of the long tunnel of winter.
If this was like our trip to Israel, I'd say no - that was TONS of walking and you were kilometers from anything and anywhere, traffic was so that it would have taken an hour to go from one side of town to the other. That was a lot of hilly walking, and the trips between took forever due to the extreme traffic and how drivers quite literally forced and wedged between other vehicles (every car or truck there has banged up bumpers and fenders, even the taxis)
Yeah, I just think the stress of cancelling would be worse, and where she's going, health care is good.
It bugs the heck out of me, yes, for sure...........

 

[WestwallNF104A]

Oh, she's going. There's nothing going to stop her now short of a doctor's order and two doctors have said "not so fast on cancelling".
The only really risky leg will be the flight time.
Otherwise, once in Europe, if anything happens, there will be no waiting for hours to see someone like here.
It would actually be more stressful for her to cancel at this point as she's planned and looked forward to it since last fall. It's been a light at the end of the long tunnel of winter.
If this was like our trip to Israel, I'd say no - that was TONS of walking and you were kilometers from anything and anywhere, traffic was so that it would have taken an hour to go from one side of town to the other. That was a lot of hilly walking, and the trips between took forever due to the extreme traffic and how drivers quite literally forced and wedged between other vehicles (every car or truck there has banged up bumpers and fenders, even the taxis)
Yeah, I just think the stress of cancelling would be worse, and where she's going, health care is good.
It bugs the heck out of me, yes, for sure...........

Make sure she gets up and walks every half hour on the flight. She risks a DVT if she doesn't.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Make sure she gets up and walks every half hour on the flight. She risks a DVT if she doesn't.

Good idea. Thanks.

 

[Rusty PW]

Your wifey going overseas. Check on her health insurance coverage for overseas. In some countries. US health insurance companies won't cover without paying for extra coverage.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Your wifey going overseas. Check on her health insurance coverage for overseas. In some countries. US health insurance companies won't cover without paying for extra coverage.

This is one reason when we went into the medicare crap, I got us each a supplement G that covers visits outside of the country. Granted, it's only 80% covered but it is covered.

Also told her - get trip insurance............

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