Okay, so my knee has been out of commission for the better part of four weeks.
I stepped into a hole in Marion Park. Narrow and deep, it obviously was dug by one of the many overachieving dogs that populate my Capitol Hill neighborhod. (The dog shall remain nameless to protect the innocent.)
The knee is supposed to go forward when it bends. This time it went backwards.
I went to visit a doctor for the first time under my new health plan with Kaiser.
Suffice it to say that the health plan was the cheapest of all the expensive options that were available to me. I thought I would be getting Blue Cross. (The person who led me to believe this shall remain nameless to protect the innocent. ie, me.)
Let me emphasize that: KAISER. The health plan operator that is notorious in the news media for keeping costs down to the detriment of patients. But, hey, I work in the news media. I am fully aware that the news is frequently misdirected, wrong even….. Besides, I am an iron man. I never get ill, and when I have a physical injury, it heals overnight…..BUT, maybe I should have heeded the better side of caution.
The Kaiser doctor, who looked like he just stepped out of medical school, x-rayed me and with relief he then told me I didn’t have arthritis. I could have told him that. I have step-in-the-hole, “oh shit, my knee is killing me” syndrome.
I asked the doctor, “should I get a knee brace?”
No, he didn’t think that was necessary.
What he wanted me to do was take two ibuprofen every four hours.
Two weeks into it and I’m not walking more than 50 steps at a time without keeling over. I called the doctor again. I begged him for a stronger pain killer. He wrote a script for acetaminophen, a 13-letter word that I wouldn’t bother pronouncing in the morning without a cup of coffee first, but which is a secret code word for Tylenol. I begin double doses of the prescribed amount in the day and spend the night tossing and turning in bed in agony. I am beginning to hate my doctor.
Finally, this week a neighbor recommends his “Voodoo Witchdoctor,” a chiropractor in Fairfax, Virginia.
What does the chriro tell me? My kneecap was dislocated and there’s a very good chance that I tore my meniscus along with a little other cartilage — a common enough injury when the knee joint is bent and the knee is then twisted.
Why didn’t the Kaiser doctor tell me this? I don’t know. But I do know that I called on Monday, May 1, for a specialist. Kaiser set an appointment for May 17. I am getting really pissed.
I’ll keep you posted. But in the meantime, the Voodoo Doc tells me that if I was diagnosed properly, I would almost be healed by now. As it is, I now have to cancel a trip the Middle East and as far as salsa on Cinco de Mayo, forget it.
I had a horrilbe experience yesterday with Kaiser urgent care. My back was killing me and all I needed was a muscle relaxer. My appointment was at 9:40 and they made me wait 25 min. for the first time they called me in. Only because I knocked on the door trying to find out what the hold up was. They tell you to knock after 15 minutes of waiting after your appointment time. They send me back out to the waiting room to wait more and to tell me the room isn’t ready. They finally call me in and I tell the nurse the wait time was horrible for someone in pain and they should have switched me to another doctor. She says, “Oh, we don’t do that.” I said, no, they did that last time I was here. She started in on me how I was wrong and they had some emergency. BS, they were back there walking around all lazy like. There was no rush. Everyone in that office was seen and out before me and this one other lady. I walked out and asked for my money back but they rushed me back into a office telling me “oh sorry.” I made a report to Kaiser on the lousy service but I’m sure they won’t call me back. Also, my husband has been waiting months for them to call him about his surgery. Nobody has called. He has left numerous messages. Also, I was in the office the other day for a test, they called in the wrong man after 20 min. realized it wasn’t the right patient and sent him out to wait more. He was furious. The nurse started telling me how it was his fault he was called in. One of the men in the waiting room was “wow, that’s promising.” No kidding!! What would happen with a surgery. I’m getting off Kaiser as soon as possible. Kaiser makes you feel unimportant and they show no compassion for anyone in pain. You are just a number at Kaiser. They used to be better.
You might want to contact the insurance regulators in your state to report Kaiser. Too many people have received shoddy treatment by them, but too few complain to the regulators to get them to do something about it.
I also feel your pain, and your frustration. I had a pupil that would dilate on its own, without any accompanying headaches, etc. Very freaky. Of course, I had to see my regular doctor just to get a referral for an opthamologist; the GP said she would rush the opthamologist appointment request, but when she called they put her on hold for 20 minutes. So she sent me down there, like I had any clout and could get something done. I’m just the patient. First they told me I would have to wait two weeks for an appointment to open up, then they told me I could come in on Saturday. Great. So I go on Saturday and the doctor working is the only one there. Lots of patients + one doctor = lots of waiting. Four hours and two terribly dilated pupils later, with no idea what is wrong, the doctor decides I need an MRI. She says she will put “Urgent” on the request and tells me to call Monday to set up the appointment. When I call on Monday they tell me that Kaiser doesn’t do the kind of MRI scan that I need (despite having three “state-of-the-art” imaging centers in the DC Metro area alone) and that they have to outsource it to another company. They give me the number of the other company, but when I call they say they have to wait for the referral from Kaiser and that they will call me back. Two days later, still waiting. I call back. They are still waiting for the referral. Finally they call the next day with my appointment date. In two weeks. This is how they handle “urgency”? My brain could have exploded in this time!
I feel your pain… Literally. I got an infected bugbite last week. Simple, right? Went to my regular GP, who’s usually pretty good, in excrutiating pain, it was now about three inches long, and let me tell you it started in a place not good for sitting and spread towards even worse locales.
She threw antibiotics at me and told me there was nothing she could do.
30 hours later, I land in the ER, where they tell me she should have opened and drained it the day before, and now that it’s so much bigger, they’re going to have to make an incision of at least an inch and a half, and I’ll have to have an open, packed wound for at least a week, coming back every day to get the packing changed. Again, remember the location – I can’t possibly do that myself.
They open it, drain it, and leave to wait for blood tests results. No one gives me a call button, and they leave my lying there in a pool of my own blood, unable to move, for more than an hour. When I finally got someone’s attention, he grudgingly gives me a new robe and bandages it so I can go to the bathroom, then instructs me to lie down again. Has anyone removed the bloody sheets? Nope.
I’ve defended Kaiser when other people slam them in my presence. That me is GONE!