Why do doctors have to take the name “waiting room” so literally?

I took my dad to the doctor’s office yesterday. Had an appointment for 4 pm to see his doctor for general stuff and cause he wanted to find out if she could help him with getting to see a more specialized eye doctor that might be able to help with the trouble he is having seeing the television. And he wanted to talk about pains he is having on occasion in his right arm and his leg. (I think I have that pinned down to being caused by fast temperature drops outside causing draft through the front door, but we wanted to be sure that was all it was), and he wanted to have her get him a referral to a driving school in Anchorage saying that he can drive a car.

So, anyway. The appointment had been for 4 in the afternoon, but I had some trouble getting a ride for me and him so called and asked if she was running late. She was. So nurse rescheduled dad to 4:30 instead. Turned out the ride we had got was not going to be able to get us there by then, so I called back to see if I could move time out a bit more. Rescheduled to 4:45 with note I might be 15 to 20 minutes past that.

I had known from past experience that we would be sitting in the lobby for a while still so I had asked about being late just to be sure we would not miss our appointment time and the nurse had said that was okay, but she said not much past that.

Ended up getting there at 5, which nurse said was great. Place closes at 5 and nurses go home at 5:30.

My dad and I settled in to the chairs to wait. And we waited, and waited. After one hour of waiting I realized that we would not make it to the AmVets meeting that he had wanted to attend at 7. After two full hours of waiting we were shown into the back for the nurse to take vitals. After that was finished we were shown back to the room to wait.

That was at 7:15 based on the text message I sent someone when we were shown back there. And we waited. And waited. Finally right at an hour after we were shown in there the doctor arrived.

My dad had slept through the hour wait, just as he had mostly slept through the wait out in the waiting room. By the time the doctor was there we had forgot most of what we had gone in there for. Which is why taking a list is always a good idea. I had forgot the list though.

I at least remembered that dad wanted to ask her about if she could recommend anyone that might be able to look at his eyes and see if there was a way to correct his vision or not. She is going to try to get him an appointment with the people in on the base in Anchorage that told me they were not seeing retirees at the moment. She’d also mentioned someone that might be able to help with coming out to the house. I’m not sure on that one though, since that is just a person that sells glasses and would be coming from 80 miles away.

I also remembered that he wanted her to say he can still drive and get him a referral to a place in Anchorage that would get him back his driver’s license. Now, I could understand my siblings all encouraging him since they all want to be good little children that he adores, but I had thought his doctor at least might side with me on his inability to drive. Nope. She told him it was a great idea and she would set up the appointment for him.

What. The. Hell????? He can not see, has no vision to the left and minimal to the right. He can not stay awake for more than an hour at a time. He slumps to the side when he sits. Has no use of left side. And is prone to loss of control of his good hand so he can’t hold onto things. And his doctor says it is a “Great idea!” when I say he wants a note from her that he is fit enough to be driving? My brother noted that she just did not want to be the baddie, was passing the buck, but come on! Give the caregiver a bit of a break here and help her out a little. Now when I take him to be told no by the other guys he is going to scream at me to find someone else because his doctor said that he can drive. How is a caregiver supposed to cope when not even the doctors will help? She won’t even help me coax him to stop smoking. It all just makes me want to cry.

We finally got out of there and headed for gas station at 8:55 pm. Missed his American Veteran’s organization meeting and I could not go to the store as I had planned, so we just came home.

Then he spent all night grouching at me, I suppose because the naps in the doctor’s office chairs had been non restful and he was cranky. Or because he realized half the things he had wanted to ask her about were forgotten or lost under her wanting to share stuff about how bad President Obama was.

I hate having to waste four hours, not including the hour driving time or the 3 hours to get me and dad ready to go, that a doctor’s appointment takes.

I found myself on Bloomberg.com this morning as I was idly prowling the Google news feeds on information about senior health care. What did I find that sent me to Bloomberg?

Euthanasia Scare Shows a Tough Sell on Health Care

Bloomberg – Heidi Przybyla – 46 minutes ago?
6 (Bloomberg) — Representative Tom Perriello said he was approached by two senior citizens who were trembling with fear. The source of their terror, …

Yeah, I think you can see why I had to read more on that one, huh? It seems that the two senior citizens in question had been given a leaflet that was supposed to be a copy of Obama’s health care plan.  The leaflet is said to have been given to them by some religious group, but the article fails to say which one it was, nor can I locate a copy of said leaflet online.  I would really like to see this thing if anyone knows where it can be viewed.

I find it a bit incredulous that someone would pass out something to the elderly that tells them that the government is going to start euthanizing seniors because of the difficulty of taking care of them. WTF?!!?!??

Okay, first off, let me point people in the right direction, okay?

I tracked the bill down at Thomas – H.R.676 – United States National Health Care Act or the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act (Introduced in House) The link should lead you to the index page for what the bill has in it, if not then go to Thomas.loc.gov and search for H.R. 676 to locate it.

The first thing that I noticed in the bill is Sec. 101 Part B (bold added by me):

(b) Registration- Individuals and families shall receive a United States National Health Insurance Card in the mail, after filling out a United States National Health Insurance application form at a health care provider. Such application form shall be no more than 2 pages long.

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but doesn’t that say that you need to opt in for this program? You are not automatically tossed off your current insurance provider and forced to let the government determine your fate, you pick up paperwork at your doctor’s office and fill out a form (not over 2 pages long) to request to be included in the government’s health care services.

I strongly suggest that people take a bit of time to at least scan the bill before they listen to any of these groups that scream, one way or the other, about what it says. The “they’re euthanizing the elderly!” scare seems to have come from a proposal to allow for people to be reimbursed for a consultation with their doctor about end-of-life treatment and the preparation of living wills. Now, correct me if I am wrong, but… aren’t people that want to talk about such things already talking to their health care providers about those things? What is the problem with a visit for that being a reimbursable expense? And what makes the continued discussion of it by those who want to talk about it an effort by the government to euthanize the elderly?

I have no idea what the health care plan would do for me personally, although I do intend to read it when I get some time to focus on it and sort through what it says, I can tell you that at the moment I have nothing. I’m one of those non-existant ones that I keep hearing about on television, you know the “Oh there aren’t that many uninsured people in America!” ones. I have talked to a few places about getting health insurance and been told “Oh, oops, no, we don’t offer coverage for your age range where you live.  So sorry.” I can’t afford to go on my own, I’m still trying to pay off the last emergency visit to the local walk-in clinic at $10 a month payments. What happens if something serious happens and I end up in the emergency room? Would it not make more sense that people like me, that can go in for a $100 checkup once a year and stay healthy, to be able to afford to do so than to have a serious condition creep up undetected and end up costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in care?

I’m a caregiver.  I would rather prevent something than try to clean up the aftermath of ignoring that it is there. I also would like to throttle the dolts that decided it was a good idea to stand on a street corner telling senior citizens that they are going to be killed in favor of youthful 20-somethings.