Been a while

Haven't posted since the 10th. Have a couple of drafts in progress, but at 2:30 AM on July 16th I found myself in the emergency ward of the nearby hospital with what I believed to be a gallstone attack. I returned home that same day at 6:00 AM. Not bad. Only 3.5 hours in the hospital. Pain had receded. Tests had been run. Good result for a government run healthcare system. In fact, at the initial triage stage, I was immediately moved to an observation room (i.e. I didn't have to suffer in the waiting room).

Tuesday, though I had some residual pain, went by without much of an issue. Then that evening, I had another attack. By 4:00 AM Wednesday morning the pain was such that I went back to the hospital. Once again I was immediately moved to the observation room, and within minutes found myself in a bed hooked to an IV (saline solution). I remained in the hospital until yesterday afternoon. Diagnosis: pancreatitis caused by a gallstone. I didn't eat or drink anything until Sunday afternoon (when I had some cranberry juice and some jello). I ate some "soft" food for the first time yesterday before leaving the hospital.

Seems I will have to make an appointment to have my gallbladder removed in 4-6 weeks.

Now the cost to me was about $60 for the television and personal telephone. I wonder how much a 7 day (8 counting the Monday stint) would have cost me in the States? A friend of mine spent 7 days in a US hospital when he moved down there to work and it cost him $30,000. Hmm...$60 vs $30,000...yeah, I'll pay the higher taxes.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Oh, man, I'm sorry you're going through that! Take it easy until you've had the surgery and recovered from it, will ya?

As to the cost here in the States, when I spent 6 days in the hospital earlier this year, the bill was $15,500. Insurance paid all but $490 of that.

The doctor bills -- from the non-stop train of specialists who came in to conduct tests and/or read the results -- came to another $5900. Insurance paid all but $350.

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