PERSONAL HEALTHCARE (Part II: The Bad News)

PERSONAL HEALTHCARE

(Part II: The Bad News)

For the last several years my biggest health care connections have related to our eldest son David, who just today went into Hospice Care because of continuing aggressive cancer in his mouth and cheek.

In my previous blog I gratefully acknowledged some excellent care he received. Unfortunately other aspects of his care have been horrendous. 

Scheduling. It has been a nightmare getting appointments. More than once he arrived for his appointment (bringing with him a copy of the email with the details of the appointment) only to be told that he was not on the schedule.

Primary Care. His primary care physician chooses to ignore him, just hoping that the specialist will treat him.

His primary cancer doctor is a great clinician. He really knows the current field and the latest research. However, when we see him we feel that he would be more comfortable if David sent in his cancerous cheek in a plain brown envelope. In fact, in 3 successive visits this doctor choose to not have David remove his bandage and expose the terrible large cancer tumor which had broken through his cheek. In fact, he actually asked David to go home, take an I-phone photo of his tumor and send it to him.

Two weeks ago we were in the Emergency Room three times in 4 days. The reason: each time his bleeding face cancer needed a new bandage. Once we were there because a doctor in radiation had removed the bandage but had explained, “There is no nurse here who can replace a bandage.” So we waited in an emergency room for 4 hours before someone cold put on a new bandage.

We called for Home Care to have them send a wound care specialist. He arrived (3 hours after his appointment) but he brought no bandages, no tape, nothing!

When David was first diagnosed he had good care from Kaiser Permanente. Then he changed jobs and his new company’s insurance did not include Kaiser. So he went with a team associated with another prominent local hospital. That doctor loved cutting. He removed cheek, jaw and gums from ear to chin on the right side of Dave’s face. He then recommended doing the same on the other side of his face. Again we switched providers – to one of the best-known reputable health organizations anywhere. Again, as indicated in my previous blog, Dave got some good care and he continues under this care (although just today he transferred to Hospice Care.) but once again all of our effort at a real team approach has proved frustrating. (And I won’t even mention that the cost of all of the above is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and involves hours of negotiation with his insurance company.)

But enough of this rambling. We are grateful for the care, expertise and concern of so many. And we want to be advocates for better service, especially also since we know that David’s care by far exceeds that available to millions of others in America.

And we commend ourselves and all who are ill, into the hands of the Great Physician.