And now I have COVID. Diagnosed early Sunday morning at an ER. I'm feeling much better now, just 2 1/2 days later, but this infection has further delayed my first infusion to treat the melanoma until May 15th. This 14-day delay is due to the hospital's established medical protocol.
Medical protocols are complicated things with lives of their own. They are established by committee with recommendations from the medics often conflicting with recommendations from the administrators, the accountants, the lawyers, and their insurance companies. Once in place, it's really difficult for an 'employee' medic (even more so for a contracted medic) to deviate from said protocols except in case of imminent loss of life or property. Our entire care for profit system has become a gigantic machine, accelerated by need and new discoveries and throttled by accountants, insurance companies, and lawyers. Once you are entered into the system for any particular need, you become an item on a conveyor belt. The system serves the 'typical' patient quite well, while serving the lawyers, administrators, and insurance companies even better. Less so for caring medics and those that don't quite fit into the mold.
I've also applied to the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix to see if they want to take me on as a patient. Maybe I'll hear from Mayo next week. Same system, different machine.
And to make things more interesting, Glenda, my 73yo nearly blind and memory deficient wife, has a fever and fatigue tonight, so I'll probably have more to deal with to care for her tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment