David Sherer MD
Chevy chase, Md

Some of the services are a real joke. I will give you one example (Adam, you should enjoy this). I was attending and outpatient hepatology clinic, doing a course of Peg-intron and Rebital (both are very nasty meds, with many life threatening side effects).

My specialist’s assistant, Masoud, will usually see me first, prepping me for Dr. Shankar.

Masoud started with a standard form questionnaire, then he looked straight at me and asked “ are you now pregnant or nursing”? I said excuse me. He repeated the question, and I said you have got to be kidding me. He finally caught on a gave a slight chuckle.

His next question (and he was serious) was how long since my last menstrual cycle. I threw him out and demanded to see Dr. Shankar. Who apologized for his assistants lack of knowledge.

This type of incompetence is so common, nobody knows anything. And if you ask, or demand answers, they will simply put your chart on the bottom of the heap.

Luckily, I have a good primary care physician, but he tells me his hands are tied, and can only give me referrals for the most important stuff. I get so frustrated with this system, and must continually remind myself to be grateful that I can get any services at all.

Now in my sisters case, her husband has good insurance and has frequent hospital stays to either do chemo, or recover from having tumors removed. He has cancer, and it shows up all over and repeatedly. His last group of tumors were wrapped around his vena cava, his aorta, and his spine.

Ironic that he has never smoked, or taken drugs, and has been an athlete who has taken good care of himself all of his life. He is also a wonderful person and a good husband to my little sister.

Whenever he must stay in the hospital, my sister must stay with him 12 hrs. a day, and hire a private nurse to stay the other 12 hrs.

Why, because the nursing staff at this hospital will not lift a finger to help. They do not respond to the nurse call button, they constantly forget to bring him his meds, and basically give him no care whatsoever.

Remarkably, Bill (my bil) is doing ok right now. He is a little shorter from all the discs removed from his spine, but his markers are low. A lot of prayer was said on his behalf.

Another one of my recent experiences with our wonderful healthcare system. I had broken a leg, by ditching my bicycle into a ditch. A choice I made, rather than to become some Knuckleheads hood ornament.

Fire rescue gave me a lift to the nearest hospital. They immediately X-rayed and cat scanned my leg. They then told me to see my private doctor in the morning, telling me that they do not do casts at this hospital (ridiculous I know).

So I left without having my leg set, and with out a means home (I did get a pair of crutches) to late to catch a bus, I waited till morning (outside of course). I made it home, but still had no way to get to the public hospital, did I mention that I was hungry and in a lot of pain, with no cash on me.

They then had the nerve to bill me close to 3 thousand dollars for their services. I straighten that out via many phone calls. Then they still sent my account to a collection agency.

Oh, I finally did get me leg set a few days later, and had to travel by bus and foot to get there and back, a 50 mile round trip.

My experiences with health scare and hospitals are nearly always this backwards, and being terminally ill, it is not very comforting to know the state of the Public Health Trust.

Al

Today – http://edgy1.wordpress.com/2008/05/02/beijing-chinaand-the-olympics/

On the fly today, so have a beautiful day everyone!

Oh, hey Al, thanks for the comment on new site, took me a half hour to recall my pasword at old one but I left a ‘last’ post there so you/others can still find Edgy1 or Zen Lill : )

- ZL