[My] Life in Wisconsin

Recall: All Lots of Ketorolac Tromethamine Injection

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm187434.htm

Toradol anyone?

mad now...

What the Fah~REAK is this?


Caution: GROSS!


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 Cnv1574
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& WHY the fah~reak is it on my screen door?!?
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It was about an inch long...

And it's ONLY redeeming quality is that it was on the OUTside.

XOXO
Me




Focal Points and I~Oh~Dots...

CaseyFace, 10/21/09- Ready to leave the hospital...
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Good Morning All;
And to thank you for your kind words from the last few days... I'm alright today.

As you know, Casey was twice to the hospital on Monday. 
Plus, once last weekend too. She has a hard spot that seemingly comes and goes where her pancreas pain once was.  It gives her much pain and nausea.

Suffice to say that there aren't too many doctors around here that even want to guess at this point.


This note I had sent to Kelli yesterday pretty much tells all about Casey and I...

Dearest Sick Kelli;
Should you be at work?
Or are you just getting everyone there to feel as lousy as you do?

Since I had been up since 12:30 the day before I came home as they wheeled her back to have her Cat Scan. 
I slept til almost 11:30, after having gone to sleep at 2:30. Too wired from the day at hand...

Casey called a little after 1 AM- Greg and her were once again heading home.

Dr Sutherland's assistant emailed me earlier- Casey will go to Minnesota next week. Will have to keep an eye on the forecast too.

About the soup. (Tim is weird. I didn't like it at all).
I d
ropped some off at Randy's too. As I set it on the sidewalk, I jumped about 5 feet in the air when he came out of the garage! (He was supposed to get it when he woke up, being so sick and all).
But I stayed about 10 feet away. hehehe

*** If I get sick from anywhere, its going to be from these damned hospitals and clinics!
And I am scared;  ~not of being sick, but of fracturing any more of my spine from coughing. They (PM) told me that coughing and sneezing can be responsible for my fractures...

If I am ok come Friday then I'll be good to go from yesterday. (Incubation period being 1-4 days).


Let's see... Where was I? hehehe

A week ago, Casey had this rude ("know-it-all"), ER doctor.
You already know the kind; ~with
NO bedside manners at all 

She'd asked Casey, "Do you want something to be wrong?"
Now what the hell kind of question is THAT?
(No, you idiot, she wants only to know what IS wrong)!
no I did not say it- (I should have). It will be onr of the regrets I hold when I meet my Maker.

When we went in
on Monday (the 1st time), it was a long wait to see anyone. They were 40 patients behind at 4AM, but were only 10 behind when we got there.
Needless to say, even waiting an hour was good work on their part.

The PA (Physician Assistant), came in. A very, very, nice gal. To ask what Casey was normally given and at the very least to order something for Casey's pain and nausea.
She listened closely, asking and answering- She was also very straightforward about their ignorance of the procedures Casey has been through. Very kind. Very honest.  Very rare, unfortunately.
Casey even told her that she was much nicer than how she had been treated that previous weekend
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Casey's bloodwork came back OK.  She was given more zofran for her nausea and we got back here a little after 4.

An hour later, she was vomiting all over again...

Knowing that Minneapolis has always been more than helpful, I told Casey to try to call there.
She did,
between bouts of nausea, and spoke to the transplant surgeon on call.
He ordered Casey to go right back to the hospital for more appropriate treatment of her pain and nausea.   -He also called to St. Mary's In Green Bay and ordered a Cat Scan for her. (They were unwilling to do this earlier; not sure of it is costs, or out of any medical concern for Casey).

When we returned, as luck would have it, she got the same raunchy doctor that she'd had a week ago.   The Dr. (and I use the term lightly), came in.

The first thing Dr. Zero wanted to know was what Casey had said about her earlier.  Hmm...  How's that for treating an obviously sick patient?

When no answer was forthcoming, she went on to say that she had heard from Minnesota, but wanted us to know that "all the doctors in the world could call, but it wasn't going to change her own course of treatment." 
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I promise this condescending bitch will be reported)!  ..."Grrrr" ...

She ordered Toradol (which is one or two steps up from ibuprofen, Advil).  Yeah, like that's going to help...
After Caseys bloodwork came back, Dr. Z. very begrudgingly ordered a Cat Scan.

My email to Dr. Sutherland was answered yesterday-
Casey will be seeing him next week. Seems like a long wait, but he will only be in Mpls that one day...

We will be taking the reports from the hospital, the scans and the xray to Minnesota- Also the copies of her visits to the clinic.

So how would YOU treat this young lady with the brave face?
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Cnv1577 
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Lord only knows she's seen her share of clinic ceilings with their random focal points.
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She has peed in too many cups...
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Cnv1607
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And still, she braves it out as she waits for answers...
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 Cnv1580 
.Wanting to entertain her, I told her that Punk was wondering why Casey's seat was empty for so long?
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.But I didn't offer toradol... hehehe
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Cnv1606 
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I told her it was warm~ish outside; and to get better so she could go out and enjoy it!
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Cnv1602 
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I set the camera down while I blew up a medical glove....
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Cnv1599 
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Then I huffed and I puffed, and I blew it up even bigger!.
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Cnv1598 
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Didn't make her better, so I did the Macarena for her....
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Cnv1579
OK, so I can't do the Macarena anymore.
But I would have if I could have
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And it's suppose to be the thought that counts anyway-
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Still didn't work...

The other doctor came in and even joked around about me getting a new camera, (which is not true by the way)...
I am not that ugly..
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Cnv1586
Nor was he-

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Even Greg was there to add levity and love..
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Cnv1576.
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"Smile, Honey!"
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Cnv1584 
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But the real smiles came when it was time to go home.
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I'd better close for now-

Trash day today. I have decided that my entire house will have to go. Getting it to fit into the dumpster is the problem.   hehehe    

Love to all.

XOXO
Me

Guardian Insurance Co. gets rid of the "dogs"


http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/october/guardian_gets_rid_of.php
Insurer ends health program rather than pay out big
By William Ehart

Ian Pearl has fought for his life every day of his 37 years. Confined to a wheelchair and hooked to a breathing tube, the muscular dystrophy victim refuses to give up.

But his insurance company already has.

Legally barred from discriminating against individuals who submit large claims, the New York-based insurer simply canceled lines of coverage altogether in entire states to avoid paying high-cost claims like Mr. Pearl’s.

In an e-mail, one Guardian Life Insurance Co. executive called high-cost patients such as Mr. Pearl “dogs” that the company could “get rid of.”

“The insurance companies are cheating in order to have obscene profits,” (Mr. Pearl’s father) said.

Guardian, a 150-year-old mutual company, reported profits of $437 million last year, a 50 percent increase over $292 million in 2007. It paid dividends of $723 million to policyholders and had $4.3 billion in capital reserves, according to its annual report. The company’s investment income totaled $1.5 billion that year, a small increase from the year earlier.

Original Article found here: http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/14/ny-insurance-company-tries-to-rid-itself-of-high-c/



Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD (<----- Notice this man is a doctor)...

Although the individual private insurance market is infamous for discriminating against individuals with a potential for high health care costs, regulations largely prohibit group plans from singling out individuals for exclusion.

When private group plans prove to be unprofitable, they can often legally skirt the regulations by shutting down the entire plan or by withdrawing from unprofitable markets, often leaving the previously insured with very difficult or near-impossible choices. No matter how well regulated, the current proposed insurance exchanges cannot prevent an insurer that is failing in a market from shutting down. Even with guaranteed issue, other insurers would also shun unprofitable markets and unprofitable plans.

This problem is much more common than many realize. Look at the Medicare Advantage programs. This year many have declined to submit bids for renewal and will withdraw from unprofitable markets. Even this highly regulated option to Medicare can abandon patients, yet Medicare can’t. This is one more important reason why we should question the wisdom of Congress in insisting that reform be based on a market of private plans instead of an improved Medicare program for all of us.

Ian Pearl’s story has a couple of other important lessons for those supporting a public option as part of the reform package. Although private plans must always protect their business interests above the interests of the patients, a public option would have a mission requiring it to place patients first. The public option would be a victim of adverse selection since it would have to function as the safety net. Attempts to adjust risk would drive private insurers out of the exchange, leaving high-cost individuals with only very expensive options.

What about private co-ops instead, owned by the beneficiaries? That would prevent insurers from “cheating in order to have obscene profits,” as Mr. Pearl Sr said. Oops. Look at the profit statement of Guardian. It is a mutual company, and the profits are returned to the policyholders as dividends. That is essentially what a co-op is! Yet that did not prevent Guardian from jerking the rug out from under Ian Pearl. Private plans with their own segregated risk pools will always use any means legal (and sometimes illegal) to protect their reserves from being spent on health care.

Creating a public option and then throwing it into the amoral, dysfunctional private insurance marketplace to have it compete on the same perverse terms as the private insurers is a very sick solution for our health care crisis.

Single payer anyone?


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Ian Pearls own response:
By Ian Pearl
Posted: October 19, 2009 02:14 PM

QUOTED:
I am not a "dog." That's what health insurance executives called me because I have a disease. I'm also not a "trainwreck," another term they used for members like me.

Soon after I was born in 1972, I was diagnosed with..." (Read more at):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ian-pearl/i-am-not-a-dog_b_326137.html





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Insurance Companies Suck.

If anyone has a good, charitable, or, in any way decent, story to tell about a Health Insurance company and their benefits, please link below and let me hear of it.

XOXO
Anne


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