Ear infection saga
Two days after coming home from Quebec I started to hear strange humming noise in my left ear. When I swallowed, something clicked inside my skull. Then gradually the silence descended - as if a wad of cotton was stuck there. In 4 days I felt as if under miles of water - there're vague sounds around me, but difficult to perceive where they're coming from. Trivial case, I would imagine typical with young children running outdoors without a hat. Not particularly painful, just annoying. Tired of trying to understand what people are saying by reading their lips I turned to medical professionals. After all, I pay for my insurance - how expensive could be to fix this nonsense ?
1. Initial visit to a General Practitioner: in 2.5 min diagnosed with ear infection and prescribed an antibiotic and antihistamine. $20 out of pocket for the visit, $35 for medicines.
2. After 5 days of antibiotic (out of 7 prescribed) didn't bring any change in my condition I went to a specialist, an otolaryngologist. "There is infected fluid in your ear" she said. Sarcastic smirk on her face when she looked at the medicines I was taking; new kinds prescribed: a nasal spray and anti-congestion pills. $30 for a specialist out-of-pocket, $85 for a nasal spray and $8.89 for over-the-counter Sudafed.
3. Another week passed - my sinuses cleared, but hearing didn't improve. I returned to the ear doctor. She was out of town, her partner saw me in. "You need to take a different antibiotic", he said, "we'll try to match one better suited to your condition. No allergy to penicillin?". He gave me a 15min lecture, pointing occasionally to an enlarged section diagram of the ear/nose/throat connection and using Latin terms. I nodded. He performed endoscopy with local anesthesia on the back of my nose and throat, "to make sure there is no cancerous growth that's blocking the eustachian tube" (oh my!) and prescribed yet another set of pharmaceutical miracles.
Another $30 out-of-pocket. $5.50 for a different nasal spray. There will be a charge for penicillin (haven't purchased yet); anticipate a min. of another $40. [an update: $52, actually]
Total so far: about $230 out of pocket (and probably triple from my insurance's coffers), almost 4 weeks of misery and annoyance, no apology for inefficient measures and no guarantee anything newly prescribed will work - and what harm all this treatment might have caused me already. What other business, besides medicine, could get away with this kind of customer [dis]satisfaction?
1. Initial visit to a General Practitioner: in 2.5 min diagnosed with ear infection and prescribed an antibiotic and antihistamine. $20 out of pocket for the visit, $35 for medicines.
2. After 5 days of antibiotic (out of 7 prescribed) didn't bring any change in my condition I went to a specialist, an otolaryngologist. "There is infected fluid in your ear" she said. Sarcastic smirk on her face when she looked at the medicines I was taking; new kinds prescribed: a nasal spray and anti-congestion pills. $30 for a specialist out-of-pocket, $85 for a nasal spray and $8.89 for over-the-counter Sudafed.
3. Another week passed - my sinuses cleared, but hearing didn't improve. I returned to the ear doctor. She was out of town, her partner saw me in. "You need to take a different antibiotic", he said, "we'll try to match one better suited to your condition. No allergy to penicillin?". He gave me a 15min lecture, pointing occasionally to an enlarged section diagram of the ear/nose/throat connection and using Latin terms. I nodded. He performed endoscopy with local anesthesia on the back of my nose and throat, "to make sure there is no cancerous growth that's blocking the eustachian tube" (oh my!) and prescribed yet another set of pharmaceutical miracles.
Another $30 out-of-pocket. $5.50 for a different nasal spray. There will be a charge for penicillin (haven't purchased yet); anticipate a min. of another $40. [an update: $52, actually]
Total so far: about $230 out of pocket (and probably triple from my insurance's coffers), almost 4 weeks of misery and annoyance, no apology for inefficient measures and no guarantee anything newly prescribed will work - and what harm all this treatment might have caused me already. What other business, besides medicine, could get away with this kind of customer [dis]satisfaction?