Noddy24 wrote:Foxfyre--
I'd guess that the delay in a reliable diagnosis wasn't due as much to your sister's age as to her energy level.
Pushing-pushing-pushing for medical action is a Young Woman's game.
Does she have her own family/general care doctor or was she dependent on free-floating talent?
I make sure that Mr. Noddy and I both have up-to-date lists of meds on the computer. First I call the ambulance, then I print out three copies of the meds list: one for the ambulance crew, one for the ER and one for the nurses on the floor.
I'm sure that there is a halo effect of professionalism there that doesn't hurt one bit.
This time before she's discharged, get those meds reviewed. Simple is best.
Believe me we have tried, Noddy. I can't monitor what she is currently supposed to be taking because she won't level with me and becomes angry if I inquire too strenuously. Of those 32 prescription bottles I have in my possession--that doesn't count the multiple prescriptions for the same thing--I have no idea what she is supposed to be taking and what she isn't. She says she knows and takes care of it.
What she lacks in energy level is more than made up by me, her kids, and our aunt who is an RN. Until now, we haven't been able to get answers either.
At one point she had been prescribed two blood pressure medicines by her regular physician--he recently moved out of state and did not bother to inform his patients that he was no longer their primary physician--one blood pressure medicine prescribed by her surgeon for a knee replacement, and one blood pressure medicine prescribed by an urgent care doctor. She was taking all four plus three cholesterol drugs. She tells the doctors that I (or her kids) overreact or are misstaken or lying when we have registered concerns and therefore we have little effect.
She is taking two different psychotropic drugs prescribed by different doctors and I am 90% certain she is addicted to hydrocodone.
I am not medically trained except in CPR and First Aid, but I have worked in hospitals in various capacities for too many years not to realize that a few incompetents have slipped into the medical professions. I also know medical personnel that I would trust and believe anything they tell me about anything. My sister just happens to have been cursed with too many of the first category I think.
My husband for years had a personal physician that I quite easily classify as a quack. He was a bonafide MD, but I honestly believe that had my husband not changed doctors when he did, he would have had several unnecessary surgeries by now and would never have had the one that saved his life. He has excellent doctors now.
Chalk up another good reason for the medical system to allow people to choose their doctors rather than be stuck with an assigned one.
And my sister really is seriously ill. And thank God that she does now have a doctor who knows why.
