Warning: Hot Coffee

[ChinaSeaSailor]

Some of you are aware that I rely on the V A as my health care provider. Yesterday I had a unique experience with my health provider.
I drink coffee as one of my few vices that remain; and an excess at that. Lately, every time I would take a sip, I had a sharp stabbing pain in my right eye. I took the pain as long as I could and finally went to the E R. Oh, such joy can be found at the emergency room in a V A hospital. What a joke!
After three hours of tests and specialists they FINALLY found a cause of the pain. The doctor told me to take the spoon out when I drink!
You know what? It works.

 

[Eagle Guns]

GOOD ONE, Thank You

 

[Gamer]

thanks for the laugh, I needed one.

 

[redlevel]

 

[labworm]

Good one, we need more humor in our lives, thanks.

 

[Alpo]

People say that coffee will wake you up, but I never really believed it. Until one day, when I came home totally wore out. I was sittin' in my neighbor's yard, tryin' to take part in the conversation, but pretty much zoning out. My girlfriend went and got me a cup of coffee. I took a couple of sips, and then rested it at my waist (I was kinda lounging in the chair) and held the cup with both hands. I dozed off, and after awhile that cup slipped and dumped in my lap. Woke me right up. So, they're right. Coffee does wake you up.

 

[straightshooter1]

Yeah, but you didn't post this just to make fun of yourself for being so stupid as to leave the spoon in your cup when you drank from it, did you?

If the story was true, then, unless you carried the coffee and spoon into the ER, they would run tests to see what was causing the pain. So, unless you carried it in and demonstrated how you drank your coffee, they weren't guilty of any malpractice, were they?

But you are mad at the VA, aren't you? Your statement about the joy in a VA emergency room was kind of a giveaway.

I get treated there, too. I appreciate the fact that it is free and I have found that those who don't like the care there are, generally (and I have no idea about you) disabled not from combat wounds, but from the drugs that have been ingested during and after their service. You can generally spot these guys in their cammies, and by their "everybody owes me..." attitude. And yet the VA still takes care of them. Oh yeah, they were all SEALS or some kind of Special Operators, too.

Now I don't claim every worker, every nurse and every doctor at the VA is great or even good. But the care I have received there has been, so far, without any complaints on my part.

I am sure there are those who have had bad experiences at VA facilities.

We have a great, private hospital and trauma center in St. Petersburg, but try to get into the emergency room there, especially on a Friday or Saturday night. I had some problems and, foolishly, let my wife drive me there rather than taking an ambulance. Took a long time before anyone paid any attention to my problems and I had full medical coverage, a job, some money ....

I have never had to wait anywhere near that long at the VA.

But, YMMV.

Bob

 

[Rikkn]

My Doctor at the VA would have put a finger-tip splint on my finger to treat that problem.....

 

[ImprovedModel56Fan]

straightshooter1,

You should be very cautious in dealing with the VA. If I told you my experience with them (which I will do if you e-mail), you would realize that only an MD, or MAYBE a nurse, is qualified to trust his life to those people. It was pure blind luck that I moved to the DC area, where I was treated by real pros at Bethesda, before those VA butchers got to me. But it all sounded good to ignorant old me, until some some real MDs told me what was going on.

I'd tell you to check six regularly, but I'm not sure that you would know what you were looking for.

There is a reason VA hospitals have a bad name.

520

 

[straightshooter1]

I understand, 520, that there are some legitimate horror stories out of VA Hospitals. But, I see many people here in our area being treated and being very satisfied with their care there.

I also am treated by private doctors outside the VA system.

I appreciate your info and am glad whatever happened to you was, apparently, caught by another physician.

Here in TampaBay, we have the private hospital that cut off the wrong leg for a man, and, later, turned off a ventilator and allowed a patient to suffocate.

I, personally, had a very bad, very scary experience at another private hospital, being told I was full of tumors. So, as I was busy trying to get my soon-to-end life in order, my wife, a nurse, said "This just isn't right!" She got me in right away to see another doctor, and I found out the doctor who had diagnosed me was really out of it. I was too happy to be mad at the original doctor.

I think one has to be careful about one's treatment by any Physician.

Bob

 

[ChinaSeaSailor]

for the OP I am 100% sevice connected disabled and not strung on drugs - I posted this as a joke - no I am not so stupid as to leave spoon in a cup!!!! why can not some people just take a joke and not try to analize it - EVERYTIME I try to bring a little laugh aboard I get hammered - come on people are you that stressed out not to laugh once in a while? - see y'all around the campus folks - this is last post for me - I will just from now on watch you eat your young as some of you do

 

[straightshooter1]

Well, it is possible that I misunderstood.

Who was I supposed to laugh at? You or the VA with the joy of the ER and the three hours of tests?

I didn't really think the story was true, but couldn't help thinking, if it was, about the other patients who would have to wait while you were being "treated."

Bob

 

[pharmer]

SS1, I think CSS was posting a JOKE, just for S&G's. I have never been in the military and yet was able to discern the humor. First time. HAGWE(Have A Great Week End). Joe

 

[straightshooter1]

I recognized it was most probably intended as a joke. I like jokes, too.

But, generally, one laughs at one of the parties in the joke. His seemed to suggest the VA was the one to laugh at.

I have had good experiences there and some awful ones in the private practice of medicine.

If, for example, the other poster with problems at the VA were to post his experiences, I would not challenge them. But, I thought, and maybe this is just me, that the ones he was trying to ridicule were those at the VA.

If I misread his intent, I apologize. But, I really don't think I did.

Bob

 

[ChinaSeaSailor]

yes you missed my point it was a JOKE!!! I rely 100% on V A for health care - and no it is NOT FREE!!! - I payed for it in Vietnam and am dying from Agent Orange problems(I have already signed my final directives) - you call that free? - you want examples I can cite good and bad - but do not comment on my dealings with the V A since you have no idea - I am there about 10 or so times a month so I have seen good and bad - I have had good treatment and BAD treatment also - to get what I have in a private system would cost to much and MAX out an insurance policy - I am GLAD to have V A or would be at county hospital - can we try this again? if I offended you or those you thought I was making wait I am sorry - it was a joke my friend - again I am sorry

 

[straightshooter1]

I told you I had no idea about you. As to free, I mean no monetary charge. And, yes, I am a VN vet, too.

But, yes, let's "try this again.

I admit to having a "soft place" in my heart for those who treat folks at the VA. I have spent quite a bit of time there. (And I have seen incompetents and jerks there, too-just like anywhere else).

Very sorry to hear about your medical problems. I will pray for you.

Bob

 

[ingmansinc]

Thank you for your service, keep your sense of humor, and I wish you "fair winds and following sea".

 

[Texas Star]

My impression of the VA has been both good and bad. Here, they have too many third world doctors, and a racial hiring bias that favors individuals who do not arouse a lot of confidence in their skills. I always wonder how accurate their lab results are.

But non-VA medical personnel have to be watched carefully,, too. One of the most prominent allergy doctors in my area (according to a city magazine that has an annual doctors article) has a nurse who told me to take double doses of an asthma inhaler, Advair. This was because she had already goofed and ordered that medication in the wrong strengh for me. While the manufacturer was replacing that wrong strength, she said to double the dose.

Well, Advair contains two medications, as many of you know from their TV ads.

That doubling might be okay for one component, but the Serevent- like half is actually the SAME, whether the other element is furnished in 100, 250, or 500mcg strength. And the Serevent portion is the part now found to have contributed to some deaths in asthma patients! Keep in mind that this information is in the patient info literature suplied with the drug! The nurse should have known this. Thankfully, I now have the right strength, but I'm glad that I read the info and didn't take her advice, although the milder unit was providing marginal relief.

(Advair strongly cautions against taking a double dose, if one is unsure that he or she took a dose. They say to just skip that dose, and resume at the next scheduled time.)

I also had another physician tell me to use an asthma inhaler that is NOT a bronchodialator (sp?) to open my lungs before taking a vital capacity test. The unit that he told me to use is a steroid designed to prevent flareups. The literature makes it clear that it is NOT a rescue inhaler and should not be used in that role. When I confronted the doctor, he slipped out of the room, leaving his nurse to deal with me. She read the literature that I showed her, was visibly upset, and went to confer with the doc.

She came back, muttering that they had been doing it wrong. I left, and did not pay their bill. This doc is probably dangerous.

Another doc, at the VA, told me to ask a pharmacist how to use one medication that has a fairly complex procedure for taking it. I asked a pharmacist, NOT a VA one. She told me that the doc was probably incompetent or avoiding his duties, and that I should report him. I couldn't, as I need VA care. (No insurance.) I'm afraid to upset them. Thankfully, this particular doctor, from an Eastern country, is no longer there. I have yet to meet his replacement, a woman from India.

I have gotten very skeptical of professional competence among doctors and nurses. Many are good, caring individuals. The rest should be doing something else for a living.

T-Star

 

[handejector]

ChinaSeaSailor,
THANKS for your service. Keep the sense of humor.

Yeah, but you didn't post this just to make fun of yourself for being so stupid as to leave the spoon in your cup when you drank from it, did you?

What?????????

Let the man tell a joke. I hardly think the teller of a joke who repeatedly stabs himself in the eye with a spoon in a cup is indicting the VA Med system........
LIGHTEN UP.

 

[labworm]

Amazing, the gentleman tells a simple joke which has been around for ages, and somehow this leads into a discussion about the VA administration.

ChinaSeaSailor, I am one of your brothers