I generally don’t discuss anything personal on my site here. At least anything too personal. In fact, I’m not quite sure what I discuss here, but whatever. Today I’m going to.
My father is not doing well. Really making a long story short, my father has myriad health problems and has had them his entire life. He’s 82 now and up until two weeks ago was still working a 40-50 hour work week. It was tough on him, and due to some kidney troubles that began last year, it’s slowed him down, but his mind was still there.
Two weeks ago he was admitted into the hospital due to lack of energy or strength. Turns out his potassium levels were through the roof. Life threateningly. Four days later he was schedules for prostate surgery anyway, so they kept him in the hospital for observation until then. The surgery went according to plan, but his recovery has been difficult. I’m not quite sure I understand why, mostly because the Doctor’s have been incredibly difficult to get ahold of and when you do ask them questions they tend to have few answers. But this man, who just two weeks ago was still able to walk and hold a conversation, is now very much not able to do that. At times he’s lucid, while other times he’s very confued. He’s got no strength and is in a great deal of pain.
He was moved from the hospital to a “rehabilitation facility.” Basically, one of those very depressing convalescent homes. And it seems like he’s been mostly forgotten by his doctors. In the last three weeks he’s had three different primary care doctors, each seemingly pushing aside their work to the next one. As a result, Doctors now caring for my father have no real understanding of his situation and what he was like before the surgery. All they see is this man with myriad health troubles and he’s 82.
I’ve called numerous doctors in the last week and spoken to a few of them. Some have promised to drop in and check on him, when they haven’t. Others simply haven’t gotten back to me.
The care center he’s in is typical. Too many elderly people, not enough nurses to care for them all. The family has had to turn themselves into a screaming group of assholes in order to get things done. If you yell five times, it will get done. But you have to yell five times. And we’re told this is one of the better convalescent centers.
At this point I’m convinced my father is not getting the best care he can or should. I do believe certain aspects of his treatment are being overlooked and others are being done in a half-assed manner because communication is so poor. The number of times I’ve told Doctors or Nurses things they should have already been aware of has been disturbing.
My father is very sick, but from my point of view, and based on what I’ve been told, most of this is manageable. Sadly I don’t think my tale is that uncommon. This is the miracle of modern medicine in the United States today. HMO’s sluff off treatment until it gets so bad they’re forced to take action. Doctor’s are overworked and unable to give full attention to patient care because half the time they’re battling with their HMO for payment. It’s not much better with a PPO either, as I went through much of that with my Mother’s Cancer two years ago.
I’m frustrated, I’m upset and I’m getting pretty fucking angry. I have calls in to four different people today. Let’s see if I get one return call.
