Adventures in the VA hospital

My brother Mike was scheduled for his dialysis prep surgery next Tuesday. He went to a regular appointment this Monday and they told him the surgery has been moved up to this Tue. (yesterday). Had to be there at 6 Am. I had to drive him.
Went to bed, couldn't get to sleep, so when my alarm went off at 4 Am I guess I had about 2 hours sleep. Woke Mike, turned on the coffee maker, called work to let them know I would be late or not there at all. An automated call, punch the buttons, get the confirmation number, then I'm connected to my store to talk to a manager. Phone rings about 30 times before anyone answers. The anonymous person said they'll get a manager for me to report to.
Waiting. Waiting. More waiting.
By now it's 4:30 and we have to leave and no manager has picked up the phone. I hang up.
Drive to Durham, arrive in the outpatient clinic at 5:50. Plenty of time.
I try to get a little sleep but there's too much going on. I go for a walk. Wait some more. Drowse a little. Go for a walk.
One patient after another gets called in for their surgeries while we wait. Go for a walk.
They finally took Mike at 12:45 so I figure since it's a 1 1/2-hour operation (they said) that we could be out of there by 2:30 or so.
Wait. Wait some more. Go for a walk or 3. Wait.
Other folks get out, leave. Around 6, another waiter asks me if this is normal. She said she's been there since noon. I laugh. I said, "well, it is a government agency". She laughs. I say "I was a military brat and I was in the military; I've been waiting my entire life." She laughs, looks at watch and heads off to the nurse's station for an update on her loved one.
Mike finally comes out about 7 pm. He's released at 7:30, we get home 16 hours after we left home. For a 1 1/2-hour surgery.
I hope I still have a job when I go in today.
 
On the wall of the waiting room was an informational poster telling waiters to inform the staff if they speak another language so interpreters can be provided, if necessary. The poster was in many different languages, including Hmong. Know what the Hmong word for Hmong is?
Hmoob. I laughed.
 
Plus, I got to do my good deed for the year. While on one of my many walks, a couple asked for help getting their father into their van from a wheelchair. Veterans are heavy! Even frail, old veterans.

wow - sorry to hear about your woes.  I take it Mike made it through the surgery without complications, tho?

Venous catheterization for renal dialysis?
It's a shame they can't organize their scheduling to be more efficient.....if they got enough complaints about it, they'll do something. Greg, you can speak to a Patient Advocate at the VA and let them know.

Greg, you can speak to a Patient Advocate at the VA and let them know.  - Perhaps that will take less than 16 hours  - Good luck to you and your brother

Jonbouy

I got an invite to the cardiology dept. of our hospital in September this morning, totally unexpected, so I don't know what that is about yet I'm assuming that if they don't want me 'til mid-september that at least its nothing too critical.  But I'm allowing a full day for it as there is rarely such a thing as a short visit there either.

They'll do an EKG on your heart and say you'll need a colonoscopy ASAP!!

That's too bad you had to go through that Greg. Not all the VA Hospitals are that way. The one's here in Iowa are pretty good. Unfortunately they just shut the one down in Knoxville IA and moved them all up to Des Moines. I used to service all the copiers for the VA here in central Iowa. I spent more time there than some of the patients. LOL!

I had to take my wife to the emergency room for chest pains on Sunday. Had her blood work, x-ray's, EKG all done and processed and analyzed in 1.5 hours.

Beagle

Bub

I had to take my wife to the emergency room for chest pains on Sunday. Had her blood work, x-ray's, EKG all done and processed and analyzed in 1.5 hours.

I hope she's OK!  did they figure out why?

Thanks for asking.

She seems ok now. Every test they did came out fine but her blood pressure is really high. They said it could be acid reflux since all her tests came out ok, but she's never had anything like that before. She had to fly to Texas on Monday and will be there for 2 weeks so she didn't have a chance to get in to her regular doctor. I'm sure she'll be fine, she's just stressed over me being a bum right now.

For all you frequent flyers out there like my wife, did you know prolonged exposure to high altitude's can give you a vitamin D deficiency that cause irregular heart beat (according to my wife's doctor)? She had that happen to her and it scared the hell out of her. She takes high doses of Vitamin D now. We didn't know if it was related to that, that's why I made her go to the ER rather than wait until Monday.

Did the pain medicine work? or couldn't you get your daughter to take it?

Well, I know I shouldn't complain too much. There were folks there who gave updates on the patients's progress, even if you didn't ask. They did tell us several times that there were some complications in some of the early operations.
Since they wanted him there at 6 Am for a scheduled 12:30 pm surgery, I can only assume that they wanted to make sure he (and any surgical patient) hadn't eaten or drank anything.
From what I understand, they have a team of crack surgeons* and nurses who travel around doing their thing. They line up a bunch of patients, fly in, snip snip, and off they go to their next destination.
 
I still have a job, at least no one asked me where I was or fired me, and I do have the confirmation number from my call to the national information line, so they'll know I called.
 
 
 
 
* not proctologists.

Hey Greg, 
Not sure if your brother is registered on these two sites but they make it real easy to keep up with, add, view medical records;  order Rx Refills;  get past military records when needed.  One step in registering that you need to do at the VA hospital is the In Person Authentication but have everything started on the website first.  Check them out if you or he hasnt yet. Let me know if I can answer anything for ya.

VA Medical Health site
https://www.myhealth.va.gov/mhv-portal-web/anonymous.portal?_nfpb=true&_nfto=false&_pageLabel=mhvHome


eBenefits site was down but you should be able to get to the Home page from this link
https://www.ebenefits.va.gov/SiteDown/siteDown.html?_nfpb=true&_nfxr=false&_pageLabel=RegistrationHelp#

Sounds like a fun day, Greg.  Glad you both survived it.  :)

Beagle

Hope she's OK.  what part of TX is she in this week?

I really don't know. She told me but I don't remember. She said it was a small town NW of Dallas and the only reason I remember that is, I asked her to take $5,000 and get me a nice Martin at South Paw Guitar in Houston, but she said she was too far away and I was out of my mind anyways. :) She's there until the 12th, then she comes home for 4 days and goes back for another 2 weeks, then she's off to upstate NY and NJ after that.