Listen to your Wife

[Genecop]

And your body, just a heads up. This past tue wrapping up work felt slight chest pain, upper chest, left side, radiating toward shoulder..56 years old, thinking maybe a pulled a muscle..

Wife was getting ready for work , she suggested we go to the hospital, I said no, went to sleep, had an OK night,

Wife came home in the morning, ( nightshift) and demanded we go to the ER, I reluctantly complied..

Here I sit, in my home, two days later with a couple of stents.....I feel lucky to be alive, and will have a couple of down weeks, I will use the time to hunt boats...Peace.

 

[Airstream345]

Wow, I'm so glad you listened to your wife and you're still here to tell us about it.

 

[OldDan1943]

Glad they discovered and treated it in time. Now, be nice to your wife!!!
I think I have 3 stents.

 

[Comodave]

I tease my wife that she should have listened to me when we were bring our boat home from Virginia. We were in Atlantic City and she was complaining about stomach pain. I told her to go to the ER since it could be appendicitis. She said no just upset stomach. Next morning we were heading to Manasquan, NJ. Asked her if she was really good to go. Yes. Halfway up to Manasquan she was in excruciating pain. We got into Manasquan and immediately put her in a taxi to the ER. She had her appendix out that night.

 

[GFC]

Yup, many of us have a time in our past when we shoulda listened to SHMBO* but didn't.


Mine involved a colonoscopy that started to bleed that night. The next morning she said to go to the ER. I didn't. Got up and went to work. Bleeding kept getting worse. Drove myself to the ER (100mph run up the freeway) got to there and immediately passed out as they wheeled me in.


3 units of blood later and a cauterization of the bleeding polyp I was good to go.

 

[markpierce]

Went to Emergency in March. Cost totaled over $20K for the 24-hour stay to determine just the cause of symptom.

 

[catalinajack]

Went to Emergency in March. Cost totaled over $20K for the 24-hour stay to determine just the cause of symptom.

And that's why our health care system sucks. You are lucky some high-priced doctor who does not participate with your insurance provider did not bill you for $5,000 or more (not covered) for "services rendered". It happens every day and their is no recourse.

 

[markpierce]

Corrective surgery and associated services cost another $180k for which I paid $250. But then I pay over $1,000 a month for health insurance.

 

[ssobol]

Corrective surgery and associated services cost another $180k for which I paid $250. But then I pay over $1,000 a month for health insurance.

I wish I could get health insurance for only $1000 a month, and I have no health issues.

 

[BandB]

Wifey B: Listen to spouse, partner, friends, whomever is close. A bazillion reasons to delay or refuse and all are poor excuses. There's something wrong and better find out what. It may seem minor but can quickly become major.

 

[DNT99611]

And that's why our health care system sucks. You are lucky some high-priced doctor who does not participate with your insurance provider did not bill you for $5,000 or more (not covered) for "services rendered". It happens every day and their is no recourse.

Every thing I do is weighed on price for value. And then we get to the medical field. It is the only thing I know of where you do not know the price up front. And if you ask they are either insulted or give a ton of excuses why they can not give you a price. Then you get billed for services that may or may not have been performed. And it does not matter if the work was performed correctly and had the desired results.

 

[ssobol]

Every thing I do is weighed on price for value. And then we get to the medical field. It is the only thing I know of where you do not know the price up front. And if you ask they are either insulted or give a ton of excuses why they can not give you a price. Then you get billed for services that may or may not have been performed. And it does not matter if the work was performed correctly and had the desired results.

The US healthcare system actually has built-in incentives for them to treat you poorly or incorrectly at least initially. If they screw up, not only do you pay for all the services they did to you that were wrong, you have to pay for all the things they do to fix their mistakes. Granted, they can't make it too obvious because that leads to malpractice suits. But they can say "Let's try this." When it doesn't work they can "Hmmm, let's try this instead." As long as you don't actually die, they can keep carrying on like this for awhile. Granted this only applies to unscrupulous medical personnel and facilities, but there are plenty of them out there.

When you get hit by a bus or are having a heart attack, you're not really in a position to be shopping around and all the providers know that.

 

[Gulf Comanche]

Every thing I do is weighed on price for value. And then we get to the medical field. It is the only thing I know of where you do not know the price up front. And if you ask they are either insulted or give a ton of excuses why they can not give you a price. Then you get billed for services that may or may not have been performed. And it does not matter if the work was performed correctly and had the desired results.

How can they quote a price if they don't know the problem? And then they figure out the problem and its sitting on top of two more problems. I’ll take our med system over anywhere in the world, Fuganistan’s probably way cheaper but I’ll pass.

 

[ssobol]

Yes, it is one thing when you show up at the ER with chest pains. Could be a heart attack, indigestion, or just anxiety.

But when you want something pretty routine like a particular blood test, chest xray, or a knee replacement and they won't tell you before hand what it'll cost, then maybe there is a problem.

I had a broken wrist. Xrays in the ER were something like $800. Another place was about $200. Yet a third was $29. Each place used the same equipment to process the same xray order (had to get the same series once a week). So why the variety in price? I was self pay for these so there was no insurance co. involved to muck things up.

 

[dhays]

Every thing I do is weighed on price for value. And then we get to the medical field. It is the only thing I know of where you do not know the price up front. And if you ask they are either insulted or give a ton of excuses why they can not give you a price. Then you get billed for services that may or may not have been performed. And it does not matter if the work was performed correctly and had the desired results.

I’m a health care provider so I am biased. However, if someone asks how much it costs for a routine eye exam in my office my staff can tell them. If they ask if their insurance will cover the exam, we can usually tell them. If the don’t know what their insurance benefits are, don’t know who their insurance carrier is, don’t know if they have met their deductible for the year, etc... it is harder to give them an answer. Even if they do know all that information, often the information that we get from their insurance company ends up being incorrect.

Now, if a patient calls and tells us that their eye hurts and they want to come in and find out why their eye hurts and make it stop hurting, I have absolutely no idea how much that will be. It might be something as simple and easy as a chronic allergic reaction that is causing giant papillary conjunctivitis. The service for diagnosing and treating that condition will likely be a Level 2 Evaluation and Management service.

OTOH, they may have any number of other conditions that are causing eye pain from a penetrating corneal ulcer to angle closure glaucoma. The basic office visit for that could be a level 4 or level 5 E&M visit. Additionally, there are a number of additional tests that may need to be done to come up with that diagnosis and appropriate treatment plan. Treatment could include simple prescription eye drops or hospitalization and surgery.

So if you call my office and say your “eye hurts and how much will it cost to diagnose and fix it”, what do expect us to tell you?

 

[Comodave]

How is it that a thread that starts about listening to your wife about a medical problem devolves to complaining about health care costs???

 

[dhays]

How is it that a thread that starts about listening to your wife about a medical problem devolves to complaining about health care costs???

LOL, because we are TF!

 

[BandB]

LOL, because we are TF!

Actually health care costs are relevant to the topic of listening and going to ER. A lot of times people don't do so because of fear of the cost. Even insurance may have a high ER deductible or that on top of a high overall deductible. I know school teachers earning under $50k per year and with insurance with $6750 deductibles and they really hesitate to go. Then there are those without insurance.

Regardless, one's life is most important and you must listen to your body and to others even if you have no way to pay the bill. Bankruptcy beats death and hospitals will give you installment plans, if they don't put it on their charity plans.

There are other reasons people don't go to ER as well. Some fear looking dumb. They fear that they're making something out of nothing and they'll be told they're fine and sent home. No one should ever fear that. But then sometimes people are treated as if they were wasting the ER's time. If you've never had a heart attack, you don't know how one feels. Many have strokes and have no idea they had one. I've known people sent home from ER's and told they couldn't find anything wrong when they had kidney stones.

I haven't faced a serious illness yet, but I quite imagine when I first do that I'll be too dumb to realize it and my wife will be the one who tells me we're going or calls an ambulance. I do think sometimes it's easier to see something is wrong with your spouse as you can observe and you know them so well.

I'm just glad the OP went and is now home recuperating.

 

[BruceK]

If someone is really sick they probably don`t think too clearly, better someone else get involved. Glad it worked out. Quick visit to the catheter lab, stents in. Ah, that feels better.
I`m always amazed at US medical costs, would never visit without unlimited travel cover. Your costs are astounding.
Australia has universal medical care, and private care. Everyone has the former( most pay a tax levy for it), maybe half have the latter. In an emergency you are better off using a public hospital, a huge range of skills are available, usually very quickly, from top medicos.My private hospital cover, great for elective treatment,costs me around $3K a year, it is partly Govt subsidised as private hospitals take a load which would otherwise have to provided by public hospitals. I would not go to a public hospital for anything elective, the wait could be literally months, but for emergency,it`s different.
Don`t think our public hospitals are basic and 2nd rate, our best university teaching hospitals are public, and they figure high in most minds as the place to be when in real trouble.An elective surgery private hospital that gets into strife with a patient usually ships the patient out to Emergency at a public hospital.

 

[Pack Mule]

Glad you listened to your wife and got the care you needed. You’re probably already surprised at how much better you feel.

I’ve been dealing with heart disease for over 15 years and have multiple stints and two open heart surgeries. The last open heart was not successful and we’ve spent the last 4 years trying for a fix but so far nothing has worked. Last week I went in for another test and was diagnosed with 15 % heart failure.

I’m on the maximum amount of slow release nitroglycerin and keep emergency nitroglycerin always in my pocket. My wife also keeps nitro in her purse for me. It’s not pretty but I’m still around and life is great. My pace is slow now and we’re learning how to deal with it.

We’re glad you got help fast. Thank your wife,take care of yourself.

 

[angus99]

. . . and sometimes maybe listen to your husband

A few years ago at a hotel in DC, my wife’s ankle rolled as she was getting up from a table. She fell hard onto a stone ledge directly on her tailbone and had a lot of lower and upper back pain. A couple weeks later, we were hiking in Valley Forge Park and she was out of breath and complaining that the back pain was now radiating down her arms. We were due to fly to Paris in a couple days and I encouraged her to see a cardiologist. She aced every test and the cardiologist, a total prick who she’d seen before, told her impatiently “it’s not your heart.”

So we go to Paris, walk all over the city, climb the bell tower at Norte Dame, and her back/arm pain worsens. At times, she has to stop walking and at others, she’s perfectly fine. We are so convinced this relates to her fall, we make an appointment with a spinal specialist for our return to King of Prussia. On the flight back—well over the Atlantic—the pain registers for the first time in her chest and jaw and she’s in tears. When we land, her symptoms abate but—against her protests—I insist she see someone. We go straight from baggage claim to the ER and within an hour they have a stent in her. She’d had a heart attack on the plane and, at first, the interventionist said her LAD (the “widowmaker) was 100% blocked and he wasn’t sure how she made it. Later, after reviewing the films, he said a small burp of blood was getting through that likely kept her alive.

This is a healthy, active woman with no history of heart disease. There was no damage to her heart and her other coronary arteries are wide open. She has zero restrictions and has had no subsequent issues, but on that day could easily have died.

Lesson’s learned:
1) women present heart issues differently
2) all doctors are not created equal; if you have a bad feeling about one, get a second opinion
3) always listen to your husband

 

[rgano]

The OP did everything right, especially the soothing yet exciting boat hunting!

 

[GFC]

Yup, many of us have a time in our past when we shoulda listened to SHMBO* but didn't.

Dang it, I forgot to give the meaning of SHMBO:

She Who Must Be Obeyed.

Dang it, I got the acronym wrong in my first post. I should be SWMBO.

Funny thing....as I get older I find when I have my head up my butt it tends to give me tunnel vision.

 

[OldDan1943]

Yup, I was scheduled for 3 stents. The first was the widow maker and had a heart attack on the table. Doc rescheduled the other 2 for about 3 or 4 weeks later

 

[Lepke]

Health care costs: when I was a kid (in my 70s now) the doctors and dentists lived in the same neighborhoods as their patients. Maybe a little bigger house and a little nicer house. Now they all gotta be millionaires and bill accordingly.


Yeah, your wife saved your life, but maybe the heart problems were caused by the stress of having the wife.

 

[JohnEasley]

Very glad you listened to her and are going to be okay.

 

[Sailor of Fortune]

Health care costs: when I was a kid (in my 70s now) the doctors and dentists lived in the same neighborhoods as their patients. Maybe a little bigger house and a little nicer house. Now they all gotta be millionaires and bill accordingly.


Yeah, your wife saved your life, but maybe the heart problems were caused by the stress of having the wife.

I think its a different day for dr's pay today. Most doctors make a good living wage, and not much more. A specialist or self employed in a successful practice, makes some real money. I was shocked to find out how little the average Dr made.

 

[Gulf Comanche]

Glad you listened to your wife and got the care you needed. You’re probably already surprised at how much better you feel.

I’ve been dealing with heart disease for over 15 years and have multiple stints and two open heart surgeries. The last open heart was not successful and we’ve spent the last 4 years trying for a fix but so far nothing has worked. Last week I went in for another test and was diagnosed with 15 % heart failure.

I’m on the maximum amount of slow release nitroglycerin and keep emergency nitroglycerin always in my pocket. My wife also keeps nitro in her purse for me. It’s not pretty but I’m still around and life is great. My pace is slow now and we’re learning how to deal with it.

We’re glad you got help fast. Thank your wife,take care of yourself.

Keep going to the boat, for me it’s a stress relief just being there and daydreaming. Dealing with whatever boat issues come up keeps the brain in gear and satisfaction when the problem or plan is figured out.

 

[BruceK]

Dang it, I forgot to give the meaning of SHMBO:

She Who Must Be Obeyed. ....

FWIW, this has its origin in the TV series "Rumpole of the Bailey" based on the books of John Mortimer. Rumpole was an eccentric( is any other kind?) English barrister who practised in "The Old Bailey" London criminal courts. "She who must be obeyed..." was Hilda his wife; it was how he often referred to her, in hushed and apprehensive tones.

 

[GFC]

And, as Paul Harvey would say: "Now you know the rest of the story."






Thanks for that tidbit of history.