Last night was not a fun night. I've been sick with a bad cold for about a week now, that just seemed to be getting worse - cough, cough and more cough. I had gone to the store yesterday for a few hours and then got home and was resting on the couch. I got up at about 8:15 PM to get a glass of juice. I poured the glass and then all of a sudden I couldn't breathe. I was gasping for air and all I could do was make this horrible sound. I couldn't talk. I saw my life flash before my eyes. I picked up the cell phone to call 911, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to say my address, so instead I called Tarzan. By the time he answered the phone I was able to tell him to call 911, but he said he was outside in the driveway having just arrived home from work. He rushed in to me gasping for air and coughing. The good thing is that I was able to cough and started to catch my breath. We went to the ER anyway because we didn't know what the heck was up. We figured I had pneumonia or something.
Well 6 hours in the ER of Crittendon hospital is not fun. I am not in the health care field, but how do hospitals manage to run with such short staffing in an ER? God forbid I arrived there on death's door, they probably would've stuck me in a room to die. Over the course of 4 hours they asked me why I was there, took blood, gave me oxygen, hooked me up to an IV, and did a chest x-ray. One of the blood tests showed that I may have a blood clot in the lung, so they ordered a CT scan of my chest. That took another 2 hours to do and then wait for the results. Good thing is that I do NOT have a blood clot or pneumonia. I just have a bad case of bronchitis. Apparently losing my breath like I did can happen. At 3 AM we were discharged to go home with a script for Codeine laced Robitussin. Poor Tarzan was so absolutely exhausted, I felt so bad for him having to wait with me in ER all night.
Today I slept all day and I feel much better. However upon reading my discharge papers that I signed last night without reading, I see that the hospital says my "Chief Complaint" was "cold symptoms". Excuse Me? I did not go to the freakin ER because I had a cold, I went there because I couldn't flippin breathe. So now I'm all paranoid that my insurance isn't going to want to pay because they'll say it wasn't an emergency. I'm going to call Blue Cross/Blue Shield tomorrow and tell them what happened and if necessary I will go back to the hospital and have Crittendon re-do the paperwork. Emily - I may contact you to see if you can give me any advice. Maybe I'm worrying about nothing and my insurance will cover it all, but I don't want to get a bill for $3000 because the insurance company thinks it wasn't an emergency. Not being able to breathe seems like an emergency to me.
11 comments:
Oh, Kelly! Scary!
I'm glad you are doing better...don't feel too bad about T staying with you in the hospital. You would have done the same thing for him in a heartbeat.
I hope you get things squared away with BCBS. They've been pretty reasonable with me in the past.
Holy crap! That's scary. So glad you are feeling better today. It stinks to be stressing over what insurance will/will not pay, doesn't it? They sure want their $ from us, but don't want to give it back when we need it. Get some rest!!!!!!!!
That scares the shit out of me...especially being home alone! I'm glad you got some help and feel better soon!
Yikes! I'm so sorry Kelly! That would be really really really scary! I'm so glad everything turned out ok. A blood clot in the lungs could be VERY serious so I'm glad it was just bronchitis (even though that is also no fun)
Hopefully they gave you some antibiotics so you'll be feeling better soon!
I also hope the insurance stuff works out. That's ridiculous that they said you were complaining of "cold symptoms"!!!! What idiots!
ER doctors can be such asses I find. Sorry you have that worry.
Hope you're feeling a bit better today.
Wow, how scary. I'm so glad it's nothing serious (other than your annoying habit of breathing oxygen).
Oh yea, and Er rooms are the worst. I know they try their best but they are just so overwhelmed. Even for the simplest thing like stitches it take HOURS.
Wow, you must have been terrified! I'm so glad it was nothing too serious but, seriously, it should not take that long to get a diagnosis. Take care of yourself and REST. Hope you're feeling better soon!
Oh, Kelly, I'm so, so sorry. That sounds like a horrible evening! I sincerely hope you're on the mend and feeling better!
I got pneumonia a few years ago and ended up in the ER, too. That feeling of not being able to breathe is horrifically scary.
And, my older sister is a nurse. She used to work in an ER and really loved it, but gave it up because ERs have become so short-staffed and she felt like it wasn't safe to work in one anymore.
that is so sneaky of them! Yo uare right to be worried they may not want to cover what looks like a non-emergency condition when you couldn't even breathe!
I hope you are feeling better and they don't succeed in gipping you!
OMG, that's so scary. I'm glad you're okay. (You're okay, right?) I hope everything works out with the hospital/insurance.
That sounds really scary. Glad you're ok now.
Just been catching up with your news. The potential donor sounds really exciting.
I'm really excited about your decision to go donor.
One of my IVF buddies has also just decided to go donor and we had a long chat about it at the weekend. I truly believe that a baby is so much made up of everything you put into your body whilst you're pregnant that the child is bound to be really part of you. After all, he/she will be your actual flesh and blood, and once they're born, if you breastfeed, the baby's growth is again entirely down to you.
I hope this isn't patronising at all, as I know you've made your choice, I just wanted to share my thoughts with you.
P xx
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