And of *course* the answer is ...
The person who called me on Friday and told me someone would be setting me up within the next 48 hours had absolutely no idea what she was talking about and there are still no loaner AutoPAP machines IN THE ENTIRE FUCKING STATE OF NEW MEXICO.
I called about getting the prescription sent to me so I could just buy it myself. The nurse tried to talk me out of it and the doctor got very indignant (guess people don't realize that sometimes they're put on "mute," not "hold") but for fuck's sakes, I'm going to pay $92 now and then buy my own machine in 30 days anyway, so why does it matter if I want to fork over the $600 now instead? Assuming it works, I'll have saved myself $92, and I could have the fucking machine in my hands by Wednesday.
I have spent the better part of the last four days crying. Do you know how they simulate what I have in order to study it? They take healthy adults, and then they stop them from sleeping more than four hours a night for a week. Consider that. When was the last time you got four hours of sleep a night for seven nights in a row? Okay. Remember how you felt after seven days of that? Okay. Now try feeling like that while holding down a high-power, high-stress job and taking care of someone who's just had surgery and can't walk and trying to get the house in order.
I hate this state. I fucking hate it. Gareth has called his surgeon THREE TIMES today about complications he's having and the fucking doctor still hasn't fucking called him back. The fucking doctor who fucking told us that he'd have "only minimal discomfort" "for a day or two" and would be "completely healed by the end of the weekend" and it "wouldn't be necessary" for him to take off work today. Well fuck, we're not sure he'll be able to go back to work tomorrow, forget today. As of today he can get in and out of bed by himself, but he still can't tie his own damn shoes. He still needs the Tylenol 3 for pain, but he only has one left (they were expecting him to only need it until Saturday), they flat out refused to tell him what's in it (I mean, the dosage) so he doesn't know when it's safe to take regular Tylenol. The fucking nurse told him to take ibuprofen along with the T-3 which, yes, did reduce the swelling, but it did STOP THE BLOOD FROM CLOTTING and he was bleeding quite a bit on Saturday. I suppose it might be safe for him to take it *now* but then again he was still having bleeding overnight. Even though it was almost a full day past the 48-hour mark when bleeding is normal. And he's now about to try calling his doctor for the FOURTH TIME.
The day surgery department called to check on him (just routine) about an hour ago. He told them about the problems he was having. As far as I can tell, they just said "Oh, that's nice."
And that's the fucking attitude of everyone in this fucking state. I mean hell, I can understand that some cultures run a little bit less than on time, but you'd think fucking MEDICAL CARE could manage to run at least a tiny bit expeditiously! March 12! I was fucking diagnosed on **********MARCH 12************ and they still don't have a fucking clue when I might possibly get some sort of treatment. Gareth called his doctor NINE HOURS AGO about the fact that he's having bleeding and pus and swelling and bruising at the site of one of the incisions [I probably wouldn't worry except that the other one is pretty much healed, no pus, no bruising, no bleeding, only a tiny bit of swelling left and we even think *that* might be sort of a spillover effect from the other side], he's called THREE MORE TIMES and the doctor still hasn't spoken to him (during the third call, he managed to speak to the nurse, who agreed that it sounded serious and he should talk to the doctor and she'd have the doctor call-that was two and a half hours ago).
I called about getting the prescription sent to me so I could just buy it myself. The nurse tried to talk me out of it and the doctor got very indignant (guess people don't realize that sometimes they're put on "mute," not "hold") but for fuck's sakes, I'm going to pay $92 now and then buy my own machine in 30 days anyway, so why does it matter if I want to fork over the $600 now instead? Assuming it works, I'll have saved myself $92, and I could have the fucking machine in my hands by Wednesday.
I have spent the better part of the last four days crying. Do you know how they simulate what I have in order to study it? They take healthy adults, and then they stop them from sleeping more than four hours a night for a week. Consider that. When was the last time you got four hours of sleep a night for seven nights in a row? Okay. Remember how you felt after seven days of that? Okay. Now try feeling like that while holding down a high-power, high-stress job and taking care of someone who's just had surgery and can't walk and trying to get the house in order.
I hate this state. I fucking hate it. Gareth has called his surgeon THREE TIMES today about complications he's having and the fucking doctor still hasn't fucking called him back. The fucking doctor who fucking told us that he'd have "only minimal discomfort" "for a day or two" and would be "completely healed by the end of the weekend" and it "wouldn't be necessary" for him to take off work today. Well fuck, we're not sure he'll be able to go back to work tomorrow, forget today. As of today he can get in and out of bed by himself, but he still can't tie his own damn shoes. He still needs the Tylenol 3 for pain, but he only has one left (they were expecting him to only need it until Saturday), they flat out refused to tell him what's in it (I mean, the dosage) so he doesn't know when it's safe to take regular Tylenol. The fucking nurse told him to take ibuprofen along with the T-3 which, yes, did reduce the swelling, but it did STOP THE BLOOD FROM CLOTTING and he was bleeding quite a bit on Saturday. I suppose it might be safe for him to take it *now* but then again he was still having bleeding overnight. Even though it was almost a full day past the 48-hour mark when bleeding is normal. And he's now about to try calling his doctor for the FOURTH TIME.
The day surgery department called to check on him (just routine) about an hour ago. He told them about the problems he was having. As far as I can tell, they just said "Oh, that's nice."
And that's the fucking attitude of everyone in this fucking state. I mean hell, I can understand that some cultures run a little bit less than on time, but you'd think fucking MEDICAL CARE could manage to run at least a tiny bit expeditiously! March 12! I was fucking diagnosed on **********MARCH 12************ and they still don't have a fucking clue when I might possibly get some sort of treatment. Gareth called his doctor NINE HOURS AGO about the fact that he's having bleeding and pus and swelling and bruising at the site of one of the incisions [I probably wouldn't worry except that the other one is pretty much healed, no pus, no bruising, no bleeding, only a tiny bit of swelling left and we even think *that* might be sort of a spillover effect from the other side], he's called THREE MORE TIMES and the doctor still hasn't spoken to him (during the third call, he managed to speak to the nurse, who agreed that it sounded serious and he should talk to the doctor and she'd have the doctor call-that was two and a half hours ago).