ER – Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian

I had planned a very different post for today. Instead, I am finally up and about after a long night.

Last night was a fairly normal night at work. One of our labs needed an oxygen concentrator, so I put one of ours in my car and made the 30 minute drive there. I dropped it off and returned to my lab.

I was sitting at the computer when I got this extremely strong pain in my neck and the back of my head. Anytime I tried to look to the left, it got worse. I turned and asked my coworker if I looked ok. She said I did and asked why. I told her and she began all the “heart attack/stroke” questions.

She asked if I wanted to go to the ER and I said I was fine. I turned around and began to work again. 8 minutes later I experienced a nauseating wave of dizziness. I told my coworker that maybe she should call.

The team all worked like clockwork. One took my blood pressure, one waited for EMS, and the other called 911 and documented everything.

I felt like I was sweating, and my blood pressure was sort of high. When EMS arrived they threw EKG leads on me and said something looked off. My coworker said there was elevation in a couple leads. They thought it might be a slight heart attack or mild stroke.

My coworker used my phone to call my wife. She called her mom to come over and watch the kids and made the house drive to the hospital. On the way she called my dad.

In the ambulance, they did an IV and asked a bunch of questions. I guess there were things I remember and things I didn’t. They got me right into a room at the ER.

I laid in there with occasional waves of pain in my neck and head. They ran blood work and there was no indication of a heart attack. Glucose was a little high but they said that was nothing to worry about.

I wound up getting a CT scan of the brain and neck, which apparently was normal. “We checked your brain and found nothing .. ” LOL

They put a lidocaine patch on my neck and gave me pain pills. They discharged me shortly after. They had run all the tests they could. If anything changes, I’m to call ER or my primary doc, who I have to see in the next couple days.

So, my fun post will have to wait. Meanwhile, the doc has me off work the rest of the week. Not exactly the vacation I hoped for…..

This week I found out that the doctor’s office where my primary care doctor practices is going private. To be honest, this is the first time I have ever had this happen. They offered all of the current patient’s the option to stay with the practice – at a cost. So for $90 a month, I can stay with my doc, get his cell phone number for after hours questions, unlimited visits with no co-pays or deductibles, “unhurried appointments that start on time”, and a bunch of other “perks”. While this sounds great, I still have to pay my monthly insurance in case I need to go to ER or have a hospital stay. Bottom line: it’s gonna cost me more money.

I think the hardest part about this is the fact that I finally found a doctor I like. He’s Italian (we’ve talked about Italy and Sicily often). He listens to me. He doesn’t rush me. He is honest. I trust him. I’ve really only had a few doctors where I felt like this. Now, because the entire practice is going private, I have to begin a new search for a doctor!

Finding the right “doc” should be an easy task, right? Well, it really isn’t for me. Because I work an hour and 15 minutes from home, AND work for a health system, I have to take the insurance provided by them. I have to use doctors that are affiliated with the health system. This is not really a big deal. What makes it difficult is that the closest practices are about 30-50 minutes south of where I live.

Not only do I have to find a new doctor for me, but the new doctor has to be one that I can take the boys to as well. The options keep getting fewer and fewer, especially since there are only a few practices in that area.

The old doctor will see me through the end of December. So I have about 2 months to research, visit, and make a choice. Oh, and amidst all of that, it is time for open enrollment and there are all kinds of changes in that too that I need to look at and consider.

Why must health care and insurance be such a major pain in the ass?! Urgh! I am really hating that my doctor’s office is doing this!! I understand why, though. I mean, really, if I were a doctor and could avoid all the insurance company bullshit, I’d do it too! It’s just very frustrating and unfair to the patients who are established. To assume that a patient can afford an extra $1100 a year on top of what they already pay for insurance really sucks!

It is no secret that in many cases all it would take is one major medical emergency to put a family into financial distress! Hell, one ER visit with my son, at the health system I work for cost me over $800! He wasn’t even admitted! Health care costs are astronomical (not to mention pharmaceutical costs)!

So the search is on … I have a short time to interview, research and make the decision on my new doc. I am loathing ever damn second of it. Who is the right Doc??