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Who needs an appendix anyway?
Wednesday morning I woke up with a sore stomach, which if you've known me for a while you know is my usual state of affairs. This was worse than normal, but I figured that I was nervous over the aftereffects of the election and because ![[instagram.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/profile_icons/instagram.png)
sashagee had her anatomy scan for our daughter that morning. I went to work, she came back from her anatomy scan with no issues reported, and we went on with our day. Around mid-afternoon, though, out of nowhere I felt...wrong. I started sweating and felt like I had to use the bathroom, and then having done so I threw myself on the tile floor to cool down. sashagee came in and helped me get onto the couch and looked up my symptoms--I only had half the symptoms of appendicitis, since my pain was in the center of my stomach, I didn't really have any nausea, and it didn't hurt any more when she pressed on my stomach, but the second time I was lying on the cold tile and feeling feverish, she convinced me that we needed to go to the hospital. One CT scan later, the doctors confirmed they'd be operating.
Thanks to the Plague Year, everything was abnormal.sashagee dropped me off and saw me through talking to the receptionist but couldn't come any further. Once they realized I'd need an operation they admitted me, and then I had my own room. I couldn't eat or drinking anything before the operation, so they kept me on saline through an IV and mostly left me alone. I spent 1 a.m. to around 2 p.m. Thursday sleeping or dozing until they were finally ready for my operation, then they walked me through the various dangers, put me to sleep, and when I woke up I was minus one appendix. Then I waited in the recovery room for an hour and a half for someone from Transport to come get me, proved that I could keep food down--they brought me a delicious-looking chicken and green beans and mashed potatoes dish that definitely had mixed dairy and meat because no one asked for my food restrictions, so I had a children's cheese sandwich dinner--and that I could walk the length of the hall, and having done that they discharged me and sashagee came to pick me up, and here I am at home with my guts glued together.
Forefront in my mind the entire time was cost, becuase America has the worst healthcare in the developed world. I'm very lucky with my insurance, because working for an organization run by doctors means that the AMA never denies a claim. I won't have to deal with them deciding that some procedure I had with medically unnecessary or fighting me over coverage. But, they might still claim some things are out of network--American insurance is notorious for claiming that the anesthesiologist is out of network and trying to charge extra for it, even though anyone demanding to know their anesthesiologist's insurance status before the operation would be considered a lunatic--and them paying doesn't solve the problem that American healthcare is too expensive. We pay far too much for mediocre results. It's a bad deal. I feel sorry for the Americans who think that healthcare costs what we pay for it and that's why we can't have anything better.
But, I do at least have the money to cover it, and I have a loving girlfriend who can take care of me while I recover. I'm just glad this didn't happen last month when she was in much worse shape--that would have been a nightmare. Now to rest and recover.
sashagee had her anatomy scan for our daughter that morning. I went to work, she came back from her anatomy scan with no issues reported, and we went on with our day. Around mid-afternoon, though, out of nowhere I felt...wrong. I started sweating and felt like I had to use the bathroom, and then having done so I threw myself on the tile floor to cool down. sashagee came in and helped me get onto the couch and looked up my symptoms--I only had half the symptoms of appendicitis, since my pain was in the center of my stomach, I didn't really have any nausea, and it didn't hurt any more when she pressed on my stomach, but the second time I was lying on the cold tile and feeling feverish, she convinced me that we needed to go to the hospital. One CT scan later, the doctors confirmed they'd be operating. Thanks to the Plague Year, everything was abnormal.
sashagee dropped me off and saw me through talking to the receptionist but couldn't come any further. Once they realized I'd need an operation they admitted me, and then I had my own room. I couldn't eat or drinking anything before the operation, so they kept me on saline through an IV and mostly left me alone. I spent 1 a.m. to around 2 p.m. Thursday sleeping or dozing until they were finally ready for my operation, then they walked me through the various dangers, put me to sleep, and when I woke up I was minus one appendix. Then I waited in the recovery room for an hour and a half for someone from Transport to come get me, proved that I could keep food down--they brought me a delicious-looking chicken and green beans and mashed potatoes dish that definitely had mixed dairy and meat because no one asked for my food restrictions, so I had a children's cheese sandwich dinner--and that I could walk the length of the hall, and having done that they discharged me and sashagee came to pick me up, and here I am at home with my guts glued together. Forefront in my mind the entire time was cost, becuase America has the worst healthcare in the developed world. I'm very lucky with my insurance, because working for an organization run by doctors means that the AMA never denies a claim. I won't have to deal with them deciding that some procedure I had with medically unnecessary or fighting me over coverage. But, they might still claim some things are out of network--American insurance is notorious for claiming that the anesthesiologist is out of network and trying to charge extra for it, even though anyone demanding to know their anesthesiologist's insurance status before the operation would be considered a lunatic--and them paying doesn't solve the problem that American healthcare is too expensive. We pay far too much for mediocre results. It's a bad deal. I feel sorry for the Americans who think that healthcare costs what we pay for it and that's why we can't have anything better.
But, I do at least have the money to cover it, and I have a loving girlfriend who can take care of me while I recover. I'm just glad this didn't happen last month when she was in much worse shape--that would have been a nightmare. Now to rest and recover.
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And you're absolutely right about American health insurance.
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Hope your recovery is speedy and complete.