Dislocated Shoulder

[anotherbob]

How many of you guys were lucky enough to NOT wait an hour and a half getting x-rays after walking into the hospital with a dislocated shoulder?
A problem that can be diagnosed and fixed in under two minutes, and they drag out the song and dance like it's a broadway musical.
This is one injury where I definitely recommend avoiding doctors.

what took so long?
The one time I had to wait a long time at the ER the doctor apologized for it and I was like nah glad you took care of the crying screaming kids first.
The last time I was in the E.R. every single person I saw and it was a lot kept asking if I need pain killers. When they did the pain scale the nurse said that's not right I'll put a seven but that's not a seven. Fun fact when you realize you're going to be fine just in a lot of pain that's when the endorphins go home and suddenly you realize you should have taken the drugs. That took a long time I saw many people got x-rays and it was worth it to find out that I didn't do anything long term. (years before had a similar injury and it wasn't as bad at first but still has lingering effects [arthritis in my one shoulder, which is neat cause I can tell it's going to rain and I can crack it any time I want, still sucks though]).

 

[Briar Tuck]

Hence my initial reply to this thread: trying to make a point for those south of the 49th parallel who thing gov't-run deathcare—er, I mean medicare is the greatest thing.

God help you when you can't even get an entry-level antibiotic without going through the system.

Earlier this year I had to go to urgent care to get antibiotics for an infection after a dog bite on my finger (my dogs were scrapping and I mistakenly got my hand too close when breaking them up). There were a couple of deep punctures, it bled profusely, and I treated it at home immediately, but nevertheless, it swelled up like a bratwurst several hours later.

All I wanted or needed was Amoxicillin, but I had to go through a whole doctor visit, including a host of completely unrelated questions, and insinuations that my dog "attacked" me, which I assume they would report to the government.

They bandaged my finger, gave me my prescription, and scheduled me for a follow up appointment with an orthopedist (which I never scheduled, because it was unnecessary) due to the bite being on my finger joint.

After that experience I stocked up on antibiotics for my fish. The health of my fish is very important to me.

 

[Chasing Embers]

do really want your health decisions to be self-diagnosed??

I've flat lined twice because of the actions of "medical professionals" so for me that would be a hard yes.

 

[Chasing Embers]

The health of my fish is very important to me.

My fish have a very well stocked medicine cabinet.

 

[brian64]

I've flat lined twice because of the actions of "medical professionals" so for me that would be a hard yes.

Last I checked, death caused by medical care is supposedly the 3rd leading cause of death in the U.S.

And I suspect it may be higher than that depending on how you look at it, because cancer was number 1 or 2, and a lot of those deaths are actually caused by the cancer "treatment" IMO.

 

[georged]

Watch a Madelbrot Set video---a graphical representation of a mathematical formula endlessly diving into a self-contained, but infinite, recursive pattern---and that's the Medical Industrial Complex in action.

At every level for the MIC's constituent groups---insurance companies, hospitals, drug companies, and corporate doctor outfits---ways to generate "feedback loop" style profits from each other in mutually agreeable ways are continually being developed.

The question boils down to this: if organized crime becomes successful & wealthy enough to control the law-making process, and they then DE-criminalize their activities, are they still criminals?

I have personally seen a documented and easily provable scam (theft) of over $100K that was perpetrated by a 5-star rated hospital (the highest score possible) on a patient.

Were they prosecuted for the attempt? No. When caught with their hand in the cookie jar, the MIC only has to drop the charge and everyone in the MIC is happy. They just go dark on the matter. Only when pressed by potential legal action will they acknowledge the billed-for situation ever even existed. And then they'll imply it was some sort of clerical error. (Even though oversight or error had NOTHING to do with it. Multiple senior people at several levels had to participate and cooperate over a ten day period to perpetrate the fraud)

No different than a gang of bank robbers being stopped in their getaway car five hundred miles away the next day, and being allowed to go free after handing back the stolen money.

I've been assured by people who got out of the MIC in the years since that what I saw was 100% standard practice. When they get caught, it's treated like a joke. When they don't, the money is kept.

 

[fireground_piper]

Patient care is a challenge, emergency patient care even more so. Perhaps there’s a misplaced expectation that a medical provider will solve all issues, accurately, all of the time. That’s simply not the case and even more so as you start to compress timelines.

Just take a look at cardiac events for example. Out of hospital CPR is only successful a reported 9% of the time and use of an AED only brings that up to 38%. You still do it though even if it’s a lost cause.

I imagine protections around most medications stem from a historical misuse and abuse of them. I know my doctor had looked to use different antibiotics at different times if I had different infections during a specific time period to avoid potential resistance. The important thing is to find medical professionals that align with your personal beliefs around injury, illness and prevention. Outside of an emergency, if you have bad doctors a lot of that falls on yourself for continuing to go to bad doctors.

I have walked out of a room or requested a personnel change if someone walked in that doesn’t meet my criteria. Everyone has that right, it’s your choice to act on it.

 

[olkofri]

if you have bad doctors a lot of that falls on yourself for continuing to go to bad doctors.

I have walked out of a room or requested a personnel change if someone walked in that doesn’t meet my criteria. Everyone has that right, it’s your choice to act on it.

Yeah, well, that only works in places where private care is available. Not here.

 

[tbradsim1]

Was shrimping and a big catfish flew out the net impaled me on my left finger top to almost the fingernail, flopping around, cut the barb with wire cutter, came in went to sink, blood everywhere. Got my super sharp filet knife, put the point at base of barb 3 inches in finger, took a big pull of Jack Daniels, pushed hard on knife, knees buckled but I stood up, got pliers and pulled it out, barbs stuck had to wobble it out. Splashed Jack on it, took another big pull, and passed out on floor. Wife came in from Baton Rouge found me on the floor with finger stuck at on chest with dried blood. She wanted me to go to New Iberia emg , told her clean me up and let me sleep. I now have an ugly finger.

 

[brian64]

The important thing is to find medical professionals that align with your personal beliefs around injury, illness and prevention.

That sounds good, and I'm sure there are times when one can do just that depending on what the issue is...but doctors and NP's are being increasingly highly controlled in what they can and cannot do and say if they want to continue "practicing medicine".

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

what took so long?

Being new year's eve in a rural hospital, I have no idea, they said they had to go get the x-ray technician, it's possible the technician wasn't even on duty that evening.
I wouldn't care if they made me wait an hour AFTER setting the shoulder, but whoever in the medical system decided that setting a dislocated shoulder isn't an immediate actionable first aid scenario must be someone who really enjoys watching human suffering.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Was shrimping and a big catfish flew out the net impaled me on my left finger top to almost the fingernail, flopping around, cut the barb with wire cutter, came in went to sink, blood everywhere. Got my super sharp filet knife, put the point at base of barb 3 inches in finger, took a big pull of Jack Daniels, pushed hard on knife, knees buckled but I stood up, got pliers and pulled it out, barbs stuck had to wobble it out. Splashed Jack on it, took another big pull, and passed out on floor. Wife came in from Baton Rouge found me on the floor with finger stuck at on chest with dried blood. She wanted me to go to New Iberia emg , told her clean me up and let me sleep. I now have an ugly finger.

Now you've added alcohol tax to the list of medical injustices.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I hope you recover quickly.
This sort of thing has always driven me nuts. I take my daughter to the doctor, and they draw blood for an in office check to see if it is strept or Flu, or what, and meanwhile they have a separate lab check. They go with the results of in house check, write a script and send us home. Meanwhile, that evening the lab picks up the sample, and a week later, I am sent a bill for like $1 or $5 from the lab.
I started telling the doctor that we don't want the separate test, and we have this ridiculous Alice in Wonderland conversation about how we are sent home and start medicines that we cannot stop taking to treat what their in house lab says is strept (or whatknot). I ask him how many times he has checked the results of the lab and it was different from his lab results... never. I was even pretty sure that he never checked the results of the other lab. It was all just an extra step, extra charge to me. I made him stop doing this. But, even knowing that he was not drawing the second sample, sometimes we would get a charge from that other lab.
LabCorp is pretty much a scam. I'm not sure what dirt the got on the doctors of the world, but for some reason they have the docs by the balls.

 

[fireground_piper]

Stop going to doctors you don't like. I know, I live in a crazy town for suggesting such a thing is possible.

 

[olkofri]

I'm not sure what dirt the got on the doctors of the world, but for some reason they have the docs by the balls.

Here docs can only practice medicine through the government's system. Don't have to have dirt on them, they just get their licences taken away if they don't march in lockstep with the bullshit. You can still choose your family doctor, but he still works for the government before he works for you.

When you end up in the ER, you don't get a choice: you're stuck with whoever is there.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Here docs can only practice medicine through the government's system. Don't have to have dirt on them, they just get their licences taken away if they don't march in lockstep with the bullshit. You can still choose your family doctor, but he still works for the government before he works for you.

When you end up in the ER, you don't get a choice: you're stuck with whoever is there.

Pretty much the same as here. Except that they don't work for the government as much as work for the courts... or to say it better, they work in a manner that prevents them from being sued for malpractice. Having a back up lab run the same results or requiring xrays just insulates the doctor a bit from malpractice. Better to know ahead of time whether there is also a fracture involved before setting that shoulder back. Eh, you could say that the courts are the government in a way... so...

 

[anotherbob]

Being new year's eve in a rural hospital, I have no idea, they said they had to go get the x-ray technician, it's possible the technician wasn't even on duty that evening.
I wouldn't care if they made me wait an hour AFTER setting the shoulder, but whoever in the medical system decided that setting a dislocated shoulder isn't an immediate actionable first aid scenario must be someone who really enjoys watching human suffering.

it's not uncommon to also have fractures or broken bones which could make that simple thing a lot more serious.

 

[Briar Tuck]

Pretty much the same as here. Except that they don't work for the government as much as work for the courts... or to say it better, they work in a manner that prevents them from being sued for malpractice. Having a back up lab run the same results or requiring xrays just insulates the doctor a bit from malpractice. Better to know ahead of time whether there is also a fracture involved before setting that shoulder back. Eh, you could say that the courts are the government in a way... so...

Accurate. They also work at the pleasure of state medical boards, which are also government. If they fail to toe the line they risk loss of their medical license and other State retribution. California just codified this, although it has already been common practice.