Personal adventures in our US health care system: Part three

Day of meeting Dr. Real Surgeon.

BIL and I took MIL dressed and ready in her wheelchair down slope and into car. We showed up with x-rays from the hospital. Waited in very crowded waiting room. We had learned: we now carried file with all paperwork and proof of existence. Every time we walked into an office there was a co-pay involved, so small bills were good. X-rays from hospital not good enough, so down the elevator to another office for x-rays. Back up the elevator to Dr. Real Surgeon. Finally in to see Dr. Real Surgeon who looks at x-rays and tells us we have two options. Take care of it in the clinic or surgery. In clinic would mean arm would heal as it was, surgery would mean it would be straight and function better. Gee. Hospital and surgery it was. Dr. Real Surgeon gave her a splint and a wrap. Dr. Real Surgeon filled out several insurance forms and gave us surgery date.

Note to medical office: If you are an office that deals with the elderly and the broken-boned, do NOT let your elevator guy schedule a maintenance service during office hours. We were stuck on the second floor for about 45 minutes and the people we saw wheezing up the stairs and staggering into a seat made us think about heart attacks…

We had MIL in the car, so we went to the hospital to take care of pre-admission. (One of us shifted MIL from car while the other set up wheelchair, folded blankets, got pillow, then parked car.) 400 people holding numbers were packed into room as small as a walk-in closet, all waiting for five harried women at computers. We waited for at least an hour. Finally at the counter, we filled out forms. The hospital pre-admit woman asked for Medicare card. I explained MIL had been working with the Multi-County Stupendous Coverage Card all this time and we had not yet found the Medicare number in her paperwork. MIL beamed at woman with her endearing sweet old woman smile. Woman types in: Medicare number not available at the moment.

Wheeled MIL out of hospital, (got car from parking lot while one stayed with her, shifted MIL into car, undid wheelchair, folded blankets, pillow, put wheelchair in trunk) and took her home.

Update: forgot about the visit during the pre-admission to an office to check her heart, etc. for surgery. Waited a while in that place as well. Test was with the sensor pads and wires all over the body....