44 Hours

On Saturday night my wife and I were in the middle of watching Two Days in New York when the phone rang. It was my son's mother. She was taking our son to the ER. He was walking bent over and with a limp. His energy level was also low.

I thought he banged his hip, or fell. When I got to the ER he was not walking bent over, the way his mother said, but with an obvious limp. He was doing this a couple of years ago also, when I took him to get X-rays, but nothing was found then.

After a lengthy wait, two and a half hours, my son was finally taken to get X-rays. An hour later, I saw the results. There was a massive backup of stool in his intestine. Huge, really. At about 12:30 in the morning he was given an enema. Not much moved. An hour and a half after that, another. A doctor came around about about 3AM, saying he recommended him being admitted. At 4:30AM, after eight hours in an ice cold, tiny, ER admitting room, he was finally situated in his own room.

At 6AM, another enema, and every three hours following. The poor guy really endured a lot. It's really hard to see him when he's like this, and unable to tell us what's happening to him. I also have to say it's really hard seeing so many sick children in a hospital, one of the saddest things you ever see.

The room was great, the nurses attentive almost to the point of smothering. The cafeteria was inexpensive and better than expected. It's a new, high tech, extension of the hospital and it's well put together.

The view is amazing.



It took awhile for stuff to start moving, but it did. No further description is necessary.

This morning we were told that, if an afternoon X-ray showed the colon had cleared the old stuff out, we could take him home. Which is what happened.

My son's mother was great, stayed with him all of yesterday and last night. I hope she's getting some well deserved rest. My wife came by yesterday and held things together at our house while it was all going on. I went home for some rest for a few hours on Sunday morning and last night.

Finished watching the film. A happy ending but Grandpa never took a bath. Now we have to make sure this lack of using the toilet does not happen again, the tough part.

A struggle to remain neutral

I've found myself, once again, in a battle with a local children's hospital over medical bills. Last year it took about nine months to resolve my son's dental bill and I'm afraid the hospital is still not done.

Was told that some of the discrepancies come from some bills from last year. I have the paperwork, and the payments that went sent, checks which were cashed.

It is very hard for me to deal with a hospital with a sub-standard billing system, a phone tree that is impossible to get through in a reasonable amount of time, robo calls, representatives who give you the wrong number to call. Sure, they may have a nice shiny new building to crow about, but even on the best days their payment model is shoddy.

Now I will receive a large packet depicting my son's account with them in the mail and I get to spend time figuring out which bills I paid, or even over paid, if I paid them at all, or if I was even billed for services received.

Good times.