The Hospital System

There’s nothing like returning home after a stint at the hospital.  The work to get that smell off of you is definitely a chore.  But the real chore begins as you start rehabilitating the former patient.  Surgery takes quite a bit out of people...literally.

But the main fatigue that comes from going through the process is just dealing with the system.  Especially when you do it without insurance.  Its crazy expensive and just flat out degrading.  Sure, there are good nurses, but in the Emergency Room, everyone is treated like some third world escapee that shouldn’t be there.  Especially when you say you have no insurance.




Triage is practically a joke.  I’ve talked to people that have been in the ER waiting room, while bleeding all over the floor, or holding a tendon from a severed muscle with their own hand, for hours.  Lisa and I had an argument before we entered the ER, I told her that there would be a hell of a wait, and she disagreed, saying it would be quick.

I never said, “I Told You So,” but Lisa sat in that ER Waiting Area for almost four hours, with pain that was making her shiver and shake and nauseated.  In the end, that’s been my typical experience with hospital ERs.  You enter the system with pain and looking for help, and suddenly you are a number, shuffled through like cattle.

I always walk away from hospitals traumatized from the experience.  Luckily most nurses, once you get admitted are amazingly wonderful people.  Most will listen to you, and genuinely want to help.  But even then, the wait times are extraordinary.  You tell one aid something you need, she passes it on to the nurse on duty, but they are so busy that either they forget, or get to it later.  I’ve seen a few cases where I’d tell the aid something and she’d have to remind the nurse a couple of times.



After being in the hospital system as many times as I have, I still can’t understand why anyone would want to be a nurse.  The different levels all seem to be not respect one another, so unless you go for RN, you are just part of the pecking order, and it seems like the aids are the nicest but never get any recognition from the other nurses, but have more time to spend with the patients.

Most people have many arguments about the US healthcare system, for and against.  The fact that we don’t have a universal healthcare coverage system is ludicrous, because its truly expensive here.  People can talk about the quality of healthcare all they want, because if you can’t afford it, then you are shit outta luck.  There, at the very least, needs to be free general healthcare.

I’m tired of seeing people in pain, when they shouldn’t have to be.  There is already so much pain in the world that it should bring anyone to their knees with sympathy, but certain members of the rich community, who use and constantly oppress the poor, will never understand.  There is a class of people that work hard, and give their lives away, to be rewarded by barely scraping by.  I watched in horror last year, as Fox News put up a stat about how many poor and middle class families had a fridge.  Like having a fridge was some kind of extravagant luxury that people could actually do without.  Ever try keeping a block of government cheese on the counter to see how long it will last without being chilled?  Yeah...people are straight up bastards in this country.

Luckily this bout with the hospital system is over, and Lisa is recovering well while gearing up for our wedding.  She now has the same disgust with hospitals I do, and will endeavor even harder in the future to stay healthy.  Seems like pain and suffering will never end all over, it would be amazing if the US Government would take it upon themselves to give a damn about the people living here, and take steps to end as much suffering as they could, by helping us get healthcare, instead of punishing us for not being able to make insurance companies even richer.