I've Grown Weary
I had to go to the Physicians Care Clinic last month to have some blood work done. That's where my health care provider is because I don't have a regular doctor. Ever since we moved here to Tennessee fifteen years ago, I never acquired a regular doctor (MD) to go to. I don't have any fondness for these neighborhood or community MD's anymore out of frustration and disgust. If you feel sick when you get up in the morning, you call your doctor and get the same old phrases, "We can't get you in for at least two weeks but you can come in and we'll squeeze you in if somebody calls in and cancels". Doctors are like the airlines in that they overbook their scheduled appointments, and your 9:00 appointment will get you into a room maybe by noon. I had an appointment a number of years ago and sat there in the waiting room till closing time. So, they apologized and rescheduled me for two weeks later. Once again, the doctor was over-booked and I was rescheduled for two weeks later. Then I finally got to see the doctor, who looked at the stitches he had put in and said "Man, those stitches are really infected. Why didn't you come in sooner?" I reminded him that he put them in more than five weeks ago and he was supposed to remove them ten days later but kept rescheduling me. Anyway, he removed them, wrote me a prescription for the infection, and sent me on my way, reminding me that if the infection didn't go away, to call him and schedule an appointment. That was never going to happen. At that point I made a mental note that that doctor will never operate on me again.
Okay, back to the clinic thing. I have to have the blood work done annually in order to keep getting my prescriptions filled and refilled. So, I went down there, they drew some blood, and back home I went. The next day the clinic called to let me know the results of the blood work. The lady on the phone was really upbeat about my A1C being very good. That said, she then dropped the hammer on me about my potassium. She elaborated about it being extremely high and that I needed to get to the nearest emergency room immediately. Now, my experience with emergency room parallels my experience with doctor's offices. The least amount of time spent in an emergency has been six hours. My other times spent there have been 8, 10, 12, and a whopping 14 hours. That one was when I took Kathy there at 4:00 AM and they transported her to another emergency room in Chattanooga at 4:00 PM and she was sent home from there at 6:00 PM with an appointment with some other doctor the next morning. And there you have it. I never went to the nearest emergency room. I would rather die than spend upwards of 14 hours in one of those units. They love to brag that you can get into their emergency care in minutes, and they do. But then the waiting begins, and you wait, and wait, and wait, and wait, ad nauseum. When I had my heart attack and went to the emergency room, it took twelve hours to determine that I needed to be taken to the hospital where I had heart surgery the next morning. I know it's a given that since I never went straight to the emergency room when advised to, that I could keel over any minute and assume the room temperature. But I was driven to this by the same health care professionals who strive to make you wait an unreasonable amount of time to receive lifesaving care. It's a vicious cycle that should be eliminated sooner rather than later. There's no question that it would save a lot of lives like mine.