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So, today, I get a call from my mother.
It seems that the hospital is considering sending my grandmother home. Before you think that this is good news, consider the reason: Medicare is saying "We're not paying for more time. The patient is on her own." Now, we can contest this and stay in the hospital while the review is done, butif when the decision goes against us, we pay full price plus any costs added because of the review. Ain't that just lovely?
She continued to have the same problem that brought her TO the hospital all through the night last night. Finally, the nurses (who were tired of cleaning up after this) went and got another nurse who knows what she's doing. She came in the room carrying two small packets of an all-natural diarrhea remedy she called banana flakes. She mixed the two packets with a glass of orange juice and bade my grandmother to drink it. She didn't have another problem until this afternoon.
Then the same nurse looks at her chart. "Well, they're giving her regulin! Regulin causes diarrhea! I'm taking her off that." [aside: I looked up Regulin. If I'm spelling it right and my mother heard the nurse right, regulin was taken off the market by the FDA because it was linked to liver toxicity and a good number of deaths.]
Then my mother's doctor, Dr. Jones, took her off the lomotil and put her on Immodium AD. This also works.
They're now saying they're not 100% sure it is an infection. But at least this time, Dr. Jones explained something:
A large part of what the colon does is absorb moisture. When one has surgery on this organ, it may temporarily lose the ability (in whole or in part) to do this. This is normal. He says this is what is likely causing the problem and also why it isn't responding to anything but medicines which basically absorb moisture (i.e., banana flakes and Immodium). [aside: Would it have endangered the fabric of space-time for Dr. Miller to have bothered to explain this? No.]
My mother told Dr. Jones how we were treated by Dr. Miller and he was not surprised (apparently, he's well-known as an asshole), but did ask if we had told Dr. Summerford, who may not know that Dr. Miller is treating Summerford's patients like this while he's on vacation.
Meanwhile, we may be kicked unceremoniously out of the hospital tomorrow because Medicare refuses to pay for her to actually get well. I'm sure that in the corporate mindset, they were told 20 days and 20 damned days is all she's going to get, fuck-you-very-much.
Also meanwhile, my grandmother is weaker now than she was when she went into the nursing home. My grandfather is quite simply unable to take care of her, nor can my mother, and it would cost a huge bag of money to hire a nurse to stay with them.
I hate, hate, hate this helpless feeling where nothing I do or say does any good. I'm stuck 200 miles away, unable to help, while people who care nothing for my grandmother play her life like a game of tic-tac-toe, and basically shrug when anyone tries to point out how rotten that is, laugh, and say "Oh, well, that's life."
Shit.
It seems that the hospital is considering sending my grandmother home. Before you think that this is good news, consider the reason: Medicare is saying "We're not paying for more time. The patient is on her own." Now, we can contest this and stay in the hospital while the review is done, but
She continued to have the same problem that brought her TO the hospital all through the night last night. Finally, the nurses (who were tired of cleaning up after this) went and got another nurse who knows what she's doing. She came in the room carrying two small packets of an all-natural diarrhea remedy she called banana flakes. She mixed the two packets with a glass of orange juice and bade my grandmother to drink it. She didn't have another problem until this afternoon.
Then the same nurse looks at her chart. "Well, they're giving her regulin! Regulin causes diarrhea! I'm taking her off that." [aside: I looked up Regulin. If I'm spelling it right and my mother heard the nurse right, regulin was taken off the market by the FDA because it was linked to liver toxicity and a good number of deaths.]
Then my mother's doctor, Dr. Jones, took her off the lomotil and put her on Immodium AD. This also works.
They're now saying they're not 100% sure it is an infection. But at least this time, Dr. Jones explained something:
A large part of what the colon does is absorb moisture. When one has surgery on this organ, it may temporarily lose the ability (in whole or in part) to do this. This is normal. He says this is what is likely causing the problem and also why it isn't responding to anything but medicines which basically absorb moisture (i.e., banana flakes and Immodium). [aside: Would it have endangered the fabric of space-time for Dr. Miller to have bothered to explain this? No.]
My mother told Dr. Jones how we were treated by Dr. Miller and he was not surprised (apparently, he's well-known as an asshole), but did ask if we had told Dr. Summerford, who may not know that Dr. Miller is treating Summerford's patients like this while he's on vacation.
Meanwhile, we may be kicked unceremoniously out of the hospital tomorrow because Medicare refuses to pay for her to actually get well. I'm sure that in the corporate mindset, they were told 20 days and 20 damned days is all she's going to get, fuck-you-very-much.
Also meanwhile, my grandmother is weaker now than she was when she went into the nursing home. My grandfather is quite simply unable to take care of her, nor can my mother, and it would cost a huge bag of money to hire a nurse to stay with them.
I hate, hate, hate this helpless feeling where nothing I do or say does any good. I'm stuck 200 miles away, unable to help, while people who care nothing for my grandmother play her life like a game of tic-tac-toe, and basically shrug when anyone tries to point out how rotten that is, laugh, and say "Oh, well, that's life."
Shit.