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Wailing Roller Coaster Ride

I wish I could find something happy to post. Unfortunately I cannot. I also lack energy to do much of anything except try to list the essential details:

1. My mother has been in the hospital for over a week now.

2. She is much WORSE than she was when we went in. Her heart rate is not controlled yet, she is having almost not stop gall bladder pain, she is having great trouble walking, she is barely drinking 300cc of fluid a day (that is less than one cup). Her upper respiratory infection is worse.

3. So, what do I hear... the scheduled surgery on her gall bladder must wait until her cold clears up.... and they want to DISCHARGE HER until she is over the cold..... SHE CAN BARELY WALK, SHE IS NOT DRINKING OR EATING, SHE IS HAVING GALL BLADDER ATTACKS, HER HEART ARRYTHMIA HAS BEEN "NORMAL" FOR LESS THAN 10 HOURS.

4. She still has not been evaluated for home oxygen. I do not know what the hell their issue is.

5. A very, very rude and obnoxious "discharge coordinator" (who in this instance is an RN that has poor interpersonal communication skills and a like cannot be trusted to do actual patient care and was moved up to this position to keep her away from patients more) came in and was telling us to get ready, as mom would be coming home soon... and she sits there and can see my mother is inchoerent (because they gave her another dose of Fennigren... which she responded poorly to previously and was removed), cannot walk, and tells us we cannot complain because my mother refused physical therapy three times (and in the last 7 days, she was incoherent three of them due to medication issues, and has been wracked with pain from gall bladder attacks on three days).

I cannot try to write anymore. It is so sad, so pathetic, so demoralizing to try to exist in this sort of system. The hospital is not a place for patients to be taken care of. Now it is a place for sick people to come and each health care worker will simply come in and do their minimum daily requirement and not communicate with others, will not develop any sort of holistic care goal. For the most part this is due to a damn piece of bullsh*t called the "DRG" (the diagnosis related group). This assinine classification system is used by hospital and insurance agencies to allocate how much money they can charge for a proceedure. It is based upon the same sorts of actuarial tables that life insurance agencies use and is based upon a hypothetical average. Say for example on average a person requires 3 days for recovery from appendix removal surgery. The insurance companies (who universally adopt DRG will only pay for three days of hospital care... reguardless if the patient is actually better. This may work for an average patient, but for some with a slower respnse, it is plain bullsh*t. So, basically, my mother is being discharged (unless I can figure out a way around it) worse off than before, very likely unable to survive.... all because of a damn insurance table determined by bean counters with their head up their rear end.

I used to believe and have faith in the US as a nation. Now I see more and more surely how deceived I was.

PipeTobacco