More Than a Band-aid Solution Needed

For most of my life, I have been glad that I lived in a country where I knew the medical system would be able to take good care of me in my old age. Well, I'm getting there, but now I'm afraid. I'm very afraid. Under the current system, I'd probably just die waiting to get looked at.  That might even be preferable to the suffering some patients have to go through while waiting for treatment.
Within the past month there have been two trips to the emergency room at two different hospitals, and honestly, I'm just glad I wasn't the patient either time.

Patient One at Hospital A presented with a bad back. It was not a new problem but it was a crisis situation and getting worse. The patient got to the hospital okay, but was left to sit for so long that the pain was getting unbearable. I suggested, by text, he go back to the desk and tell them. He said he could no longer make it to the desk. We decided to go to the hospital to see if we could help. By the time we arrive Patient One had finally been moved to the treatment area where he suffered some difficulties getting on and off of the bed. The nurse stood back and only offered to put the side of the bed up for something to haul himself around on......as if someone with a bad back could do that. He was left alone for some time back there too, with no call button, if he'd needed help. After finally getting to see the doctor, and getting a shot for the pain, it was time to go. Patient One indicated that he could not just walk out of there. A wheelchair was found and brought to the doorway. Apparently, even though that part of Hospital A is new, wheelchairs do not fit through the doorways of the treatment rooms.  He then had to make his way to it under his own power, and then the nurse just walked away.  So, still under his own power, he slowly, and painfully managed to wheel himself out towards the lobby. We spotted him and took over. I don't know what they thought he would do with the wheelchair once he reached his vehicle, but it would have been just left in the parking lot if I had not been there to take it back in.

Patient Two had a knee replaced at a different hospital last Monday and was sent home on Wednesday.  She lives alone but the health system doesn't care about that. She managed to line up some friends and family to help her as much as possible for the first week. She had supper Wednesday night but by morning she was nauseous. Since then she had not been able to keep anything down by the time we saw her on Saturday.

We were to take her to get her dressing changed but found her freezing, nauseous, and her nose had gone numb and the numbness was spreading.  Not good. She called the clinic where we were supposed to take her and they told her to call an ambulance to ER instead.

ER is the pits these days.

The ambulance took Patient Two to Hospital B, but when they arrived the paramedics took her off the gurney and put her in a wheelchair.  Her leg isn't supposed to hang for long, and it was an hour before she even got seen by triage. In the meantime, she kept getting worse. First, the numbness spread to her arms and legs. The knee was not supported properly so it became very painful, and she was in obvious distress.  I asked whoever I could catch if there was not a wheelchair with a leg support that she could be moved to instead, and they said they didn't have any.  I know they exist over on the surgical side of the hospital. Why didn't they call for one?

Then her mouth started to bleed.  This is all while still sitting in the hallway, with the paramedics, who were sorry, but eventually had to leave as they were getting calls. The triage nurse was sitting in her little room, fully aware that things were going downhill, and still insisted that she had to see some others first.

So when Patient Two finally got moved into the Emergency room, her brother was expected to move her from the chair to the bed, and I was left to change her into a gown. She apologized for that, but shouldn't have been made to feel that anyone other than hospital staff was responsible for her. I mean, they are the ones trained to move people about, right?  We, on the other hand, are senior citizens, with no such training, and could have dropped her, or hurt ourselves doing what trained professionals should have been doing. She was left alone with no call button, just like Patient One, even though she had this strange numbness spreading throughout her body.

She said she felt like she had a dead animal in her mouth, because of the blood. Nobody ever looked to see why she was bleeding, or where the blood was actually coming from.  They just said they couldn't let her eat or drink anything until they knew what was going on.  They didn't even offer to let her rinse her mouth out.

So then it took another hour for a doctor to show up to look at her. She kept mentioning that she was nauseous right from the moment the Paramedics arrived until the doctor finally saw her,  but nobody ever gave her anything to catch whatever might decide to come up.  After I got her into the gown, all that extra moving around made things worse. She said she was going to be sick, and I ran to find something to catch it in. Luckily I found something just in time.  And still, there was no way to rinse out her mouth. A nurse spotted me running around the empty hallway, and later came with a clear plastic bag with a cardboard funnel on it, saying that was better than what I'd brought. She never took the other away, or even looked to see what was in it.

We knew by then Patient Two was badly dehydrated, which the doctor confirmed when he finally showed up.  He treated her for that, and the nausea, got her dressing changed and ordered bloodwork.

The bloodwork showed she was low on potassium.  That's no surprise either as they had her on potassium while she was in for surgery, but never sent her home with a prescription.  So they put her on a potassium drip and then told her she could leave.  And of course, then the nurse just walked away.

I stuffed her back into her clothes and we could hear them down the way saying she was gone now. There was no way she could be gone without a wheelchair. I went out and let them know we needed one just to get her to the car. This was at least the third time I had to try and find someone. A call button would have been a great solution.

I'm disgusted with the entire process.  How does anyone cope with an emergency situation if they are on their own?  Not even coming in by ambulance helped.  Not everyone has someone who can come to do the things the medical staff used to do. Not all of us who do come are capable of all the duties now heaped on us.  I no longer feel as though our health system is set up to care for us properly even in an emergency situation. Our system is definitely broken.

A Prescription For More Tax Deductions

Every year I find all kinds of people who have been routinely missing out on some major medical expenses. I tell them about that and they say they never knew they could claim such things. Well, I've decided to tell all of you, so listen up.

When I mention claiming medical expenses I often hear, "but we don't ever have enough to claim." Of course, you have to have expenses over 3% of your income in expenses to be able to claim.  It's often best to let the lower income earner claim the family medical expenses for that reason. Then if you claim what you paid for health insurance, the rest is often gravy. What?  You didn't know you could claim your health insurance?  Sure you can. The thing is, in most instances, you have to ask your payroll clerk to give you the numbers for the amount you paid, separated from whatever life insurance may be connected to that payroll deduction. Only once has my hubby ever worked for an employer that had that figure right on the T4's where it belongs.  I told him to make sure he thanked the person responsible for that.  The rest of the time I get him to ask for the correct amount for me to fill in.  This year, when I had my son ask for his, he got some kind of argument about how that wasn't deductible. I told him to inform that clerk that obviously she had been missing out on her own deduction every year. Once she decided she didn't want to continue like that, she got them both the numbers to put on the forms.

The other medical deduction people seem unaware of is that they can claim their travel expenses to go to medical appointments that are more than 40km from home.  If I have to travel to one of the cities for a medical appointment, I just go to Mapquest and put in my address and the address of where I have to go, and it gives me a legitimate distance between the two places. I then multiply that by two, as it is, after all, a return trip. The total distance is then multiply it by the rate the government gives us each year. This year, for instance, in Ontario, it's 54 cents per kilometre. If your appointment is more than 80 kilometres you get a bonus. You can also claim a meal if you have to go that far. There is a flat rate of $17 per meal, to a maximum of $51 per day (sales tax included) per person.  Parking fees are also considered an expense (if you have a receipt), as is overnight accommodation if it's actually necessary for the treatment you are traveling for.

So, have you missed out on these deductions in the past?  Don't let it happen again. You have now been informed.