Since the Covid 19 pandemic began, I have been double-masked and have gone to Walmart for groceries very early or very late, when few people are around. Except for walking out in the countryside away from people, that has been the extent of my going out. My wife has not been anywhere in 5 years. We are both immunocompromised.
This past Monday, the 3rd, I had to go up to the local hospital to get some antibiotics for what I expected would be the extraction of an abscessed tooth on the 11th. Yes, possible exposure to Covid and more at the dentist. But, it seemed like there was no avoiding it.
So, I walked up this big hill to get to the hospital, without breaking stride at all. It was a very brisk pace, because although I have a lot of health problems, cardio-vascular issues have never been a part of them.
I arrived about 2:20pm and the waiting room was 100% empty. The woman who took my information was good. She was masked up and I explained my situation. There was a swelled pouch under my right eye, my right eye was inflamed and irritated, headache, tooth and jaw pain, sinuses all stirred up, partial loss of hearing in right ear. I said that I had been through the very same thing before. I requested to just be prescribed some antibiotics without removing my mask. She understood and was fine with that. She took me to an examination room.
When the doctor came in, I went through the whole explanation again. Well, he said he needed to see the tooth and that was that. He took a short, perfunctory look. Then proceeded to go off on this wild tangent, claiming that I had shingles and that I could go blind if something was not done very soon. THERE WERE NO BLISTERS! Yet....he said he was pretty darn sure they would show up in just a couple of days. None have. I tried to explain how bad my sinuses are on a good day, let alone with an abscessed tooth. He would not listen to anything. Looking back, he did not ask if I had seasonal dry-eye, which I do....in winter it often feels like the eyes have sand in them. They get extremely irritated. I didn't think to mention that, with all that he was getting into. However, I did say that just before coming up to the hospital, I had used a hydrogen peroxide rinse. At that point, every symptom began backing down. He asked where I did that. I said, IN MY MOUTH. He had no comment for that. He said he wanted to do blood work, start an I.V. and do a CAT scan and a couple of eye tests.
I did have chickenpox when I was little and he used that to scare me and convince me to go through with everything, fearing I would go blind if I didn't comply.
His dye test and pressure test of the eye were both negative. An UNMASKED tech drew blood from my left arm after blowing out the vein in my right arm. That is still bruised and yellow today. My fault for supposedly being dehydrated, not her incompetence. Riiight....
She also did a flu test and a Covid test....both negative. Went through automatic and manual blood pressure cuffs and never could get an accurate reading on that. Her stainless steel tray of supplies came apart and dumped a bunch of her supplies onto the floor.
The doctor was complaining about the black light for the eye dye test. "I've never seen one with bulbs of that kind and I've never had to replace a burned out one before!" Oh no, Mister Bill!
I was kept there for 5 solid hours. The IV was never done, nor was the CAT scan....I was never even told what either had been intended for.
I told the doctor that it was getting late and the local pharmacy would soon be closing. He promised that I would be sent home with enough medication to see me through until it opened the following day. He left. Later, an orderly came in with a cup of pills. Penicillin, Valtrex, and Prednisone. That guy was also UNMASKED. I said that for the moment I only wanted the Penicillin for the tooth. I had thought the whole thing over and felt the doctor was barking up the wrong tree with the shingles diagnosis. That started up a big argument and pretty soon in comes another woman, UNMASKED, who claimed to have worked with the doctor for years, and stating she strongly felt he was on the right track. At that point, it descended into browbeating, coercion, castigating, etc. It was all I could do to remain civil and not start using some colorful metaphors.
Then the woman started insinuating that there was something mentally wrong with me because I didn't care if I went blind. Which was NOT the case. I was just trying to sensibly process everything.....unlike what they were doing.
I stood my ground. The woman left. I asked the orderly where my penicillin was to take home with me. He said, "We're not giving you any!" I signed off on the insurance paper, he slapped the sheaf of aftercare instructions down on the desk, said "Good luck to you!" in a snide way and went out in a huff.
There were eye drops to take home.....Sulfacetamide....but there was nothing at all in the aftercare instructions about dosage or frequency. They were not mentioned at all. I had to figure that out with my wife's help. All of the info about the other drugs was filled with -NO repeated everywhere, over and over again, to the point of being useless gibberish.
According to the paperwork, the doctor wanted me to see two different eye doctors the following day. I had told him we did not have a car and public transportation refuses to come up the giant hill that we live on. Medicaid transport needs lead time to schedule trips. You can not get a ride scheduled in 24 hours or less. In fact, they are so poorly administered that they would not schedule a ride to the dentist for the tooth extraction, because it was too far away. They can't get it through their stupid heads that the lousy Fidelis insurance through Medicaid is not accepted by most providers.
Even if I had gone to eye doctors, it would have prevented me from picking up the prescriptions in the rush of time that the doctor had told me that I must get started on them....even after not sending me home with anything but the eye drops.
In the end, I did decide to take all of the prescriptions and I did start them as soon as I got home with them. Just in case, right? But, I knew better. The blisters never came. This was never shingles.
BUT, today.....I am in the middle of a bunch of symptoms that are probably the beginning of Covid. All for NOTHING. Just because of a group of arrogant, nasty people who think that they know it all and are more interested in money and their own backsides.
Frustration? That's not even the tip of the iceberg.
My wife and I are VERY worried. We don't know WHAT is going to happen to us. We found that our home Covid test kits were a year expired. Not going anywhere else! I know what this is, by the symptoms and by how I feel.
Time will tell, I guess.
If I survive, I will be buying some dental instruments from eBay and pulling some teeth myself. Should have done that to begin with.
To everyone:
Don't automatically trust any health care providers. If your instinct tells you that something is wrong, don't listen to the arrogant 'experts'!
This past Monday, the 3rd, I had to go up to the local hospital to get some antibiotics for what I expected would be the extraction of an abscessed tooth on the 11th. Yes, possible exposure to Covid and more at the dentist. But, it seemed like there was no avoiding it.
So, I walked up this big hill to get to the hospital, without breaking stride at all. It was a very brisk pace, because although I have a lot of health problems, cardio-vascular issues have never been a part of them.
I arrived about 2:20pm and the waiting room was 100% empty. The woman who took my information was good. She was masked up and I explained my situation. There was a swelled pouch under my right eye, my right eye was inflamed and irritated, headache, tooth and jaw pain, sinuses all stirred up, partial loss of hearing in right ear. I said that I had been through the very same thing before. I requested to just be prescribed some antibiotics without removing my mask. She understood and was fine with that. She took me to an examination room.
When the doctor came in, I went through the whole explanation again. Well, he said he needed to see the tooth and that was that. He took a short, perfunctory look. Then proceeded to go off on this wild tangent, claiming that I had shingles and that I could go blind if something was not done very soon. THERE WERE NO BLISTERS! Yet....he said he was pretty darn sure they would show up in just a couple of days. None have. I tried to explain how bad my sinuses are on a good day, let alone with an abscessed tooth. He would not listen to anything. Looking back, he did not ask if I had seasonal dry-eye, which I do....in winter it often feels like the eyes have sand in them. They get extremely irritated. I didn't think to mention that, with all that he was getting into. However, I did say that just before coming up to the hospital, I had used a hydrogen peroxide rinse. At that point, every symptom began backing down. He asked where I did that. I said, IN MY MOUTH. He had no comment for that. He said he wanted to do blood work, start an I.V. and do a CAT scan and a couple of eye tests.
I did have chickenpox when I was little and he used that to scare me and convince me to go through with everything, fearing I would go blind if I didn't comply.
His dye test and pressure test of the eye were both negative. An UNMASKED tech drew blood from my left arm after blowing out the vein in my right arm. That is still bruised and yellow today. My fault for supposedly being dehydrated, not her incompetence. Riiight....
She also did a flu test and a Covid test....both negative. Went through automatic and manual blood pressure cuffs and never could get an accurate reading on that. Her stainless steel tray of supplies came apart and dumped a bunch of her supplies onto the floor.
The doctor was complaining about the black light for the eye dye test. "I've never seen one with bulbs of that kind and I've never had to replace a burned out one before!" Oh no, Mister Bill!
I was kept there for 5 solid hours. The IV was never done, nor was the CAT scan....I was never even told what either had been intended for.
I told the doctor that it was getting late and the local pharmacy would soon be closing. He promised that I would be sent home with enough medication to see me through until it opened the following day. He left. Later, an orderly came in with a cup of pills. Penicillin, Valtrex, and Prednisone. That guy was also UNMASKED. I said that for the moment I only wanted the Penicillin for the tooth. I had thought the whole thing over and felt the doctor was barking up the wrong tree with the shingles diagnosis. That started up a big argument and pretty soon in comes another woman, UNMASKED, who claimed to have worked with the doctor for years, and stating she strongly felt he was on the right track. At that point, it descended into browbeating, coercion, castigating, etc. It was all I could do to remain civil and not start using some colorful metaphors.
Then the woman started insinuating that there was something mentally wrong with me because I didn't care if I went blind. Which was NOT the case. I was just trying to sensibly process everything.....unlike what they were doing.
I stood my ground. The woman left. I asked the orderly where my penicillin was to take home with me. He said, "We're not giving you any!" I signed off on the insurance paper, he slapped the sheaf of aftercare instructions down on the desk, said "Good luck to you!" in a snide way and went out in a huff.
There were eye drops to take home.....Sulfacetamide....but there was nothing at all in the aftercare instructions about dosage or frequency. They were not mentioned at all. I had to figure that out with my wife's help. All of the info about the other drugs was filled with -NO repeated everywhere, over and over again, to the point of being useless gibberish.
According to the paperwork, the doctor wanted me to see two different eye doctors the following day. I had told him we did not have a car and public transportation refuses to come up the giant hill that we live on. Medicaid transport needs lead time to schedule trips. You can not get a ride scheduled in 24 hours or less. In fact, they are so poorly administered that they would not schedule a ride to the dentist for the tooth extraction, because it was too far away. They can't get it through their stupid heads that the lousy Fidelis insurance through Medicaid is not accepted by most providers.
Even if I had gone to eye doctors, it would have prevented me from picking up the prescriptions in the rush of time that the doctor had told me that I must get started on them....even after not sending me home with anything but the eye drops.
In the end, I did decide to take all of the prescriptions and I did start them as soon as I got home with them. Just in case, right? But, I knew better. The blisters never came. This was never shingles.
BUT, today.....I am in the middle of a bunch of symptoms that are probably the beginning of Covid. All for NOTHING. Just because of a group of arrogant, nasty people who think that they know it all and are more interested in money and their own backsides.
Frustration? That's not even the tip of the iceberg.
My wife and I are VERY worried. We don't know WHAT is going to happen to us. We found that our home Covid test kits were a year expired. Not going anywhere else! I know what this is, by the symptoms and by how I feel.
Time will tell, I guess.
If I survive, I will be buying some dental instruments from eBay and pulling some teeth myself. Should have done that to begin with.
To everyone:
Don't automatically trust any health care providers. If your instinct tells you that something is wrong, don't listen to the arrogant 'experts'!
So no worries about missing my trip!
