Fogbow

Oh, no, this is the day when I drop the bomb on my doctor's care team. My care team has apologized to me five separate times since I began working with them in February. I prefer to work with people who are competent and professional. Y'know, they do the job right and then they don't have to apologize for messing up.

But my doctor's care team has a different model. Their motto is: "Oops, we're sorry, we messed up again."

The scheduler didn't like her job. They apologized because she waited a month after she got my file. They admitted, I went through a horrible and totally unnecessary month of extra pain because she didn't do her job.

Then she scheduled the wrong arm for surgery. I heard about stuff like that in the newspapers. They apologized.

Then a tech broke a needle off in my hand while trying to set up an IV. They apologized for it, though.

The stupid nerve block that was supposed to last 3 days wore off the first night. By 7:30 I was wiggling my fingers and by 11 I could make a fist, and that's when the real pain began. It was a scary night, and I took too many oxycodones, but I got through it and called the care team to get a refill.

Just a refill, I didn't even need it right away, but I called at 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. and at 9 the next morning, and they didn't call back for well over 24 hours after I was released from the surgery center, and I asked the lady, "What if I had severe complications? What if I had bleeding or infection? Does it really take 24 hours to get through to you people?"

"Oh, we've been having some employee issues (yeah, they fired the lady who didn't schedule me for a month), but it won’t happen again."

She apologized.

But then it happened again. I needed a second refill, and it took almost 48 hours this time from when I started calling until I got a human on the phone. But when I finally got someone on the phone, they apologized for taking so long to get back to me.

They apologize a lot. It's their best area of expertise. In every other aspect, they are sloppy and unprofessional, but they're really good at apologies.


But I'm all done with apologies. I want some competent health care, thanks. And I intend to enforce that today.

Also too, nobody seems to be in charge of pain management in my left arm, which was always worse than my right.

"Well, my job is post-op on your right shoulder," I imagine the NP saying.

Wrong answer.

I can't wait to see my nurse practitioner today.

Just a suggestion, Foggy, perhaps you should choose another surgeon for your second surgery.

Foggy, sing this to the medical team on the phone for RESULTS:







This won't work over the phone, you'll have to do this in the office, they'll love it. You'll need to bring your dance group for backup:

Here's another one:

When I was released after the surgery, they gave me a 24 page thing with post-op instructions.

I have been taking Tramadol, a weak opioid, for more than a dozen years.

My post-op instructions said on one page, we're giving you Oxycodones, and on another page it said: keep taking your Tramadol.




You don't mix opioids. Even I know that much. That is wrong and dangerous medical advice.

But my doctor's care team isn't focused on me, they run a cookie-cutter operation, dammit, and it's my job to be a good little cookie and comply with the instructions.

I'm a terrible cookie.

When I asked for a second refill on the Oxycodone, I got a message: the nurse practitioner consulted my doctor, and they prescribed Tramadol instead.

My pharmacist is not only not going to fill that, he's not even going to tell me about it. He knows I have Tramadol here and don't need more. I needed something a little more powerful, like the Oxycodone.

And the nurse practitioner could see on my chart that 1) I have a pain management specialist assigned to me, and 2) I have been taking Tramadol for a long time.

Or she would have seen it, if she looked at my chart, which she did not.

Did she consult with my pain management specialist? No, she did not. But my pain guy wants nothing to do with me at the present time, until I've been discharged after my surgery. While I'm under their care for my shoulder replacement, my surgeon's care team IS my pain management team, whether they know it or not.

They will know it this afternoon.

My left shoulder is painful as hell, and I think I should be entitled to priority in scheduling that shoulder for replacement, since I had to wait so long for the first one.

They're going to learn that this afternoon, too also.

So they finally gave me a second refill.

And, of course, they apologized.

Geeze, Foggy - that's pretty bad! I sometimes have to do some close followup with my docs on getting med refills, but otherwise, they're pretty responsive, and since I know when my refills are coming up, I really should just start the process a day or two earlier....

Yeah, I do that with regular prescriptions, but these are just for immediate post-op.

And the 24 pages of information have 3 pages about antibiotics, but I didn't get any antibiotics, unless the doctor put them in somehow.

Foggy wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 9:40 am Yeah, I do that with regular prescriptions, but these are just for immediate post-op.

And the 24 pages of information have 3 pages about antibiotics, but I didn't get any antibiotics, unless the doctor put them in somehow.

Yikes! I'd think antibiotics would be an absolute must. You're going to ask about that, I presume?

Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 9:04 am Just a suggestion, Foggy, perhaps you should choose another surgeon for your second surgery.

But I told you already, 3rd Grandma, the incision is "pretty" according to ol' Wifehorn, and I have no bleeding, no infection, no swelling, no complications of any kind. And my arm is coming back quickly.

As far as I can tell, my surgeon did a fantastic, amazing, 10 on a scale of one to ten job of repairing my arm, and I want him to do the other one. Frater I*I couldn't do a better job on an airplane wing than my doc did on mah chicken wing.

I make a big distinction between him and his stupid care team.

And it was a hassle, but I did enforce my will on the care team, like I do. I'm a really nice guy until I'm not any more.


Today is two weeks since the grand opening of my right shoulder, and it's coming along nicely.

So, umm ... no. I'm not gonna get a different surgeon.

Kriselda Gray wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 9:45 am Yikes! I'd think antibiotics would be an absolute must. You're going to ask about that, I presume?

Absolutely. I know what all my prescriptions are, and none of them have anything to do with antibiotics. So I'm curious.

I re-read all this, and maybe I didn't focus on exactly what the care team did wrong, and it was primarily a question of responsiveness.

People on Fogbow were asking me how the surgery went even if I was too wrecked to reply. Family members and friends all across this great land of ours were calling and sending emails and posting on Facebook, how was I doing? My broker in San Diego sent me a really high-class bowl of chicken noodle soup, delivered to my front door, isn't that special? I thought that was pretty special. It was really good soup.

The only people who apparently didn't give a shit how I was doing on the day after shoulder replacement surgery was my doctor's care team. They didn't call or write. They didn't respond when I was begging them on the phone. They ghosted me for more than 24 hours.

They hurted my feelings. I've been treated better by ex-girlfriends after they dumped me.

Okay, well, that's my report, I'll probably wait until mañana to recount my upcoming visit today.

Because I understand that some Florida senior citizen golf cheat is gonna be arraigned on some sorta criminal charges that nobody knows what (but they are 100% calculated to be fun), and this is a day I have dreamed of for so long so I don't mind sharing the spotlight or even just disappearing for a day or two, depending on how things develop.

I mean, it could be a really boring arraignment, and a stupid and boring speech at Mierda Lardo, which I am washing my hair that year.

OR, he could attack the judge in open court, call him a reverse racist, yell about witch hunts, and make it really entertaining. With an entertaining speech to follow at Mierda Lardo.

If that comes true, I'ma follow that and not my stupid arm surgery.

Or FaceTime.

Foggy wth you were supposed to stop this

Foggy wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 9:47 am
Frater I*I couldn't do a better job on an airplane wing than my doc did on mah chicken wing.

You'd be surprised at what I could do to your other shoulder with a rivet gun, drill, and die grinder.....



And if I messed anything up, I'd just cover it up with sealant and primer....

No duck tape?

Rooster Tape!



Found some great footage of Foggy:

Foggy's experience is exactly why I'm not getting my knees replaced.

Egads that's incompetence unimaginable.

I lost a day. I've been sleeping very poorly on the stupid recliner and getting about 3 hours sleep at night, and yesterday it caught up to me.



I think maybe it's time to try my bed again.

in hospital overnight, not gonna be admitted

details mañana

I'm not ded

That’s unfair!! Deets manana?? At least you told us you’re not ded.

That's so awful Foggy. Can you have a home hospital bed delivered so that at least you can get some sleep? I feel for you about tramadol, which I was prescribed for my fractured sacrum, which was more pain than I ever imagined. I sneaked valiums in between doses, which made me a bad girl, but why the medical profession imagines tramadol is effective is beyond me.

Please be well. We wuv you.

Get better!

Mebbe we should all chip in and get Mr and Mrs Foggy a high quality adjustable bed?

Take it easy Foggy! I hope it's nothing too serious!