My wife up until yesterday evening was still in hospital, after more than 5 and a half weeks all was worked out and her discharge was pending. With prescriptions, discharge notes and a letter for her job (stating in broad details her stay in hospital) completed, she was then officially released.
It's been a roller coaster ride that has at times seen one step forward and two steps back but with overall slow progress. A few day's before her discharge we joked about escape plans and knotting sheets together to climb out the window. Not that security would stop you from walking out the front door. Her mindset was that of mind numbing cabin fever. Illness is poor for the attention span so a tablet and netflix wasn't a solution etc.
Unfortunately last night a few hours after being "home" in my mam's house, she had a relapse of her illness. Thankfully my Mam's house is a stones throw away from the hospital. Another trip in an ambulance, another stretch in an Emergency Department cubicle. I dont' begrudge it at all, I just wish there were more streamlined methods in place when dealing with the healthcare system. Maybe that's a type of "first world problem" and I shouldn't complain*, it's not like I need a 'go fund me' for hospital visits.
After her readmission I heard her acquiesce, that she would do anything they wanted to correct it all to get her "out" sooner. Usually she is asking questions about everything being done or being planned. Her knowledge in medical terms is greater than my own. I may have worked in and around hospitals for 90% of my adult life picking up terms and knowledge, not to mention the way things work etc; But she is the one with the acronyms like E.F.R. / E.M.T. gained from her "hobby". To hear her give up basically all will to question is unlike her and a true sign of how her headspace is.
All in all last night went well, she was treated and moved up to a ward. It looks like a shorter stay this time round which is good. Long term there is a continuation of the original plan, discharge from the hosp, clinic visits, leading to day surgery, recovery time, more clinic visits and then keyhole surgery.
With her return to the hospital I am keeping custody of a present her uncle gave....
* On a side note, waffling on an internet blog as I do, I noticed for the first time my own diabetic medication had a price on the box. Firstly it surprised me that it had a price on it and secondly it prompted me to check the cost of the same drug in the U.S. given the news headlines about health care recently.
I was surprised by the price being there as all diabetic medication is free for those that suffer with it in Ireland. The price on the box is €41.19. And a U.S. comparison website gave me a list of the drug by price per state broken down to the cheapest price per store/pharmacy. The cheapest price anywhere in the U.S. was $398.11. I was shocked but not surprised. The "cheapest" price included a coupon otherwise it would have been $479!
So on that note I decided to price all my medication, 2 diabetes tablets & a cholesterol medication, blood glucose monitoring strips, lancets, and the total came to just over $1200 a month. That's more than my mortgage for a 3 bedroom semi detached house! Insane!
I would shudder to think what other costs would incur in regard to everything else I now take for granted and are free since my diabetes was diagnosed. Free eyesight tests, diabetic/dietitian clinic visits and blood tests.
I would rather have higher rates of taxes (comparatively compared) that shares in a universal health care system for all, than be completely cleaved out of it by a system that crucifies you once you fall from the narrow line of perfect health.
I'm sure to have raised a few heckles from anyone reading this and is American. I'm not America bashing. I'm comparing. Looking at the U.S. system from the outside as I am I'm sure to have missed a lot of nuance. Like coverage for employees of large companies.
Private health care here in Ireland for me is two fold, a few fully private hospitals/clinics like those in the U.S. where you pay through the nose for everything. And for the rest, being private in a hospital means nothing more than a single room, your still being treated in the same way as everybody else (private or not) on the same ward with the same doctors, nurses, drugs and diagnostics.
I'm glad to be privileged enough to enjoy such health care, glad I dont' have to choose between getting it and not. Definitely glad that it's not a profit milking machine. My father needed our health care system(two kidney transplants), my mother needs it, I need it and my wife now needs it. How can I complain!
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