Yes, breathing is good. NOT breathing however is very, very BAD!!! And today that was MFP.
WYFP is our community's Saturday evening gathering to talk about our problems, empathize with one another, and share advice, pootie pictures, favorite adult beverages, and anything else that we think might help. Everyone and all sorts of troubles are welcome. May we find peace and healing here. Won't you please share the joy of WYFP by recommending?
Another problem was.. NO WYFP Diary, so I decided to do something about that.
It's been a long week. My lungs have been in a steady downward spiral and heat indexes in the triple digits with humidity up over 80% hasn't helped any. Neither has not having the stabilizing meds I need to remain functional with my COPD. So every day the Nebulizer treatments worked closer and closer together. From twice a day to two times, to three times, to every 6 hours, to every 4 hours, to sometimes every 3 hours.. until this morning it happened. I did a breathing treatment and half an hour later my lungs were utter and complete crap again. So off to the ER went I. I'm at the point that I could write my own scripts for what I need to begin with: oxygen, stronger breathing treatments and a lot of them (5 back to back today after the one I took earlier), and Solumedrol IV. Today that worked and worked well. Sometimes even that isn't enough and then I'm there a few days.
Both the EMT's and the ER staff were great. Oddly the ER was quiet on a Saturday morning, maybe I'm just too used to Orlando and not used to a small town. But I would have thought there would be more people. The doctor was in to see me before the EMT's were done with their paperwork. Meds were ordered, administered, and rechecks from staff was frequent and courteous. Once I could talk, we went into WHY this had happened.
The ER doc was LIVID that they pulled my medicaid and made it impossible for me to keep seeing the doctors I need and get the prescriptions I need to function. The regular social worker wasn't there today, but he said he was leaving her a note with my number and what I needed. I did get some info from the nurse who was staffing the social worker's desk today however to start making some calls on Monday. He straight out told me that if I had medicaid and could keep up my quite obvious compliance with what I was supposed to be doing, I wouldn't have ended up in the hospital today. He wasn't mad at me, he was mad at the system and our stupid legislature and governor. It was a nice change.
The bright side for today, and there was a couple of them:
1) I didn't wait too long to go in (partly because I was running out of Nebs, I was down to two, and I was expecting this, when it got to that point I didn't try to put it off).
2) I don't have bronchitis or pneumonia this time YAY!
3) They didn't keep me, they let me go home!!
4) I actually had the money to get two of my scripts today rather than having to wait for them to get around to issuing my "temporary medicaid" number for the month, probably in about two weeks.
5) When I got home my DKOS Quilt was waiting for me!!! Yay for you all and Yay for Sara R and Ann!!! So I've been curled up in that while I've been resting. (There will be a thank you diary in the future, once I'm feeling just a bit better.)
7) There was a puppy transport diary up this after noon to help with the delivery of my other half's new assistance dog and it looks like she'll be here sometime around next weekend! I missed the beginning of it for the above reasons, I knew there was one going up but I didn't know when, and I kind of got overwhelmed today for a while.
8) And a big yay for helpful, understanding ER Staff who actually took all of my needs into account, including financial ones. I think the doctors here are getting tired of situations like mine, where the patient is doing everything they can and still getting sick from treatable conditions because we're getting screwed over by the 1%.
((PS: I'm sorry if there's typos and errors in here, I'm obviously not my best and I just kind of threw this together when I noticed there was no WYFP up at 8. Hopefully the intended diary is just late and something didn't go majorly fubar for the diarist. I'd rather have two diaries than that.)