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24698. jexster - 12/2/2008 2:50:22 AM How are things in your neck of the world?
I think JJ meant your neck of the WOODS Arky
 24699. arkymalarky - 12/2/2008 4:22:31 AM Woods, world...it's the same thing around here. 24700. wabbit - 12/2/2008 4:27:05 AM Hey JJB!! 24701. robertjayb - 12/3/2008 1:48:08 AM Dave Barry Gift Guide 24702. jexster - 12/4/2008 1:25:47 AM Back from SF Homeless Connect. I am a "navigator" ..I take clients after the docs see em, get them to the follow up appointment station and then to the appointment within the week.
Today I got all the superwackos but one takes the prize. The guy looked for all the world as if he were in horrific pain all over. So I take him around the corner to the main city poor folks clinic for "urgent care". The supervising bitch goes off "they have doctors over there what do you want us to do with him"? That sends the homeless guy ballistic..babbling rambling threatening violence. I calm both down and volunteer to go back and check with the medical discharge unit ....They call confirm every bureaucratic thing...
He comes back...yelling..finds ME. Says they yelled at him and threw him out. Wants to go to the hospital in an ambulance. I get social worker (so fed up by that time, she wanted to tell HIM to call 911..paramedics on call at the event)
He'd apparently refused treatment...She calls a team of paramedics including a hunky blond and hot jew boy who kept flirting with me. I wanted to feign heart failure, get mouth to mouth so I lurked. Three paramedics worked on this guy for half an hour then somehow their Capt gets called over.....they refuse to send him to the hospital...police come..throw the guy out ..
Or so I thought..
He comes back...he kept telling em to ask me about the various depredations he'd endured...see for some reason I was the only person there he felt was on his side...BAAAD
Comes back..asks for my name as a witness in his crusade for justice..can't give..he leaves..this is about THREE HOURS on mind you.
As I am leaving, there he is..another team of paramedics is wheeling him out as he triumphantly bellows I think at me "I am goin to the hospital dude!!!"
PS ..lots of these people want to either go to jail or best of all to General Hospital...
Well he won....there are a million ways to game the system.. 24703. arkymalarky - 12/4/2008 4:02:33 AM Had a long post about the tragedy of mental health care in the US, but lost it. 24704. jexster - 12/4/2008 4:54:53 AM I know how ya feel Arky! You oughta seen me drooling over that hot paramedic Jew Boy.....mental health in America baby 24705. arkymalarky - 12/4/2008 5:12:36 AM Hardehar. Thing is, that poor man you were trying to help needs other medical attention he's obviously not getting. My parents' yard worker is probably about to go to the pen as a middle aged man who's been borderline functional for years. Had he been helped he wouldn't be in this state, yet that won't be considered in his sentencing. 24706. jexster - 12/4/2008 5:29:40 AM So does the guy that brought his pet RAT to the veterinary care area..The dogs went APE
24707. arkymalarky - 12/4/2008 5:50:25 AM Hey, I used to have two pet mice. 24708. judithathome - 12/4/2008 5:04:56 PM My son was taken by ambulance yesterday to the ER downtown...he usually goes to the one nearer his home but the medical officer at his work was afraid to send him there because of his medical history and figured he'd get better care downtown.
Three hours of him violently puking and his blood pressure going out the roof and they finally gave him some meds to control the nausea...a CT scan showed no neurological event...they're thinking it's vertigo. (Which the medical officer at work suspected and told the ambulance guys four hours before the "brilliant" team downtown came up with it.)
After 5 hours being there and Keoni showing up and Leslie throwing up for a solid 3 hours in the ER, I asked if he was going to be there overnight; they assured me he would be transferred to a room ASAP although there were 15 people ahead of him waiting for a room. (This must be the sick season...this hospital covers a nearly 4 block area.)
So I get the number from the ER lady and tell her we're going to eat and I will call to get his new room number so I can come back in the morning. She assures me that's the best plan as he is zonked on anti-nausea drugs, anyhow.
We are in two cars and after a harrowing drive across town (I am slightly night blind) to eat, we get home and I have 5 messages from Leslie telling me they've discharged him and he's in the lobby of the ER waiting to come home.
I send Keoni to collect Leslie and since his house keys are at work...along with his truck and jacket...Keoni brings him here to get the extra house key but decides there is no way he's taking him to his house...he guides him inside...the poor guy is STILL throwing up and can't walk unassisted...I fix him a bed on the den couch with a bucket next to it and he has been asleep since 9pm last night.
Keoni went out and got his three prescriptions filled...and guess what the side-effects are? Nausea and dizziness! And his diagnosis: vertigo and hyper-tension.
It's 30 degrees out and I have no clue how I'm going to get a 6'2" 202 pound guy out to the car and into his house...plus he has no jacket. And he's a size or two bigger than either Keoni OR me...surprise...and it's literally freezing outside.
24709. thoughtful - 12/4/2008 5:16:28 PM Hi Juds,
this does not sound good. I'm no doctor, but my gut tells me that this violent upchucking may be more than just vertigo, and a high blood pressure with someone with his medical history is not a good thing. Have you thought about calling his surgeon? You seemed to like him very much...or one of the other trusted docs he's dealt with. Something that may be no big deal in a normal person may be a sign of something in a person like him with such an extensive medical history, especially with the neurological issues he's had. (And I've had too many issues over the years to ever trust an ER staff completely.)
At this point I wouldn't worry about getting him home until I knew he was feeling better and able to walk without assistance as that's what he'll need to do at home anyway.
My thoughts are with you and sending you and Keoni courage and strength. He's fortunate to have you. 24710. judithathome - 12/4/2008 5:47:04 PM Well, he just woke up and aside from being stiff from sleeping on our extra firm couch, he seems normal...he's calling his regular doctor even as I type this and I guess I'll be taking him home later this morning. He's walking around just fine...now the probelm is finding him something to wear. ;-) 24711. thoughtful - 12/4/2008 6:02:07 PM That's good...so glad he's feeling better.
24712. arkymalarky - 12/4/2008 8:57:58 PM Oh my, judith. What a time y'all have had! Hope he's okay! 24713. iiibbb - 12/4/2008 9:50:17 PM Stuck home with a bad head cold and sore throat. I hate sore throats. They give me splitting headaches.
Pretty optimistic about P's chances for that job up North. It's not in the bag yet, but we're going to hear officially Monday or Tuesday. I have reason to think the news will be good.
Hopefully I will find a job. I applied to one. It's a stretch for me, but I think I may have a shot at it. There's always post-docs if I can't find anything permanent.
Assuming we get good news next week, the next hurdle will be selling the house. The market is okay here for now. 24714. wonkers2 - 12/4/2008 10:01:12 PM There is very little permanent in this world.
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Literature Network » Percy Bysshe Shelley » Ozymandias
24715. iiibbb - 12/4/2008 10:02:56 PM Permanence is a scale issue. 24716. wonkers2 - 12/4/2008 10:15:05 PM Very true. I'm currently worrying about my GM pension and health care. 24717. arkymalarky - 12/5/2008 12:06:16 AM Best of luck to both of you--and Wonk too!
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