Big battle between me and the managers of my medical management here. They have the authority to handle the dispensation of what ever the doctor has prescribed. I will go along with that. When I came here they took all my medicine and equipment. From then on what ever the doctor has prescribed for my health maintenance is done by nurses or other people "qualified" to do these things. I cant argue with that. When I came here to make it easy here I just said to make their doctor who comes in periodically to talk personally with any patient. He does nothing even carry a stethescope with him. He just reads the record of what the staff has been getting from the tests he has ordered to be done and talks to you. This system is very inflexible besides it subjects you to numerous actions by the staff to carry out what he considers necessary to get what information he needs to doctor what ails you. The result you are subjected to a lot of things by the staff to provide him the needed information. Like in a hospital. You have to be at the testing station without fail, take what medications he has prescribed, checks during the night like in a hospital. Woken up, up to 4 times a night. The doctor is not above making major changes in your medicine or procedure without even telling you he is going to do it. They seem to get the impression what you think means nothing. He is god and by god we will do what is best for you. Now this is ok with most people because a lot have not the vaguest notion of what is going on in their bodies. But if you know a little more than that uninterested technician who has been marginally trained person knows about your condition there may be room for conflict. One of them actually told me that he learned this when he was training 25 years ago. Forgot I guess, that there might be something new in the past 25 years he missed. One day I asked the person who gave out the pills the name of the pills she had on her list that I was taking. She said she could not pronounce them which indicated to me she had not been in the job very long or had much schooling. More than that her English might not have been very good either. Don't know how to break down a word? I was able to talk to one of them about how much training each job requires. Not much. I don't know yet at which level they need outside schooling to qualify for the job. Some qualigy with on the job training. There is a person who gives you the insulin injection and one who gives the eyedrops, the one who gives you the pills. Of course the doctor prescribes the pills. they seem to come prepackaged from their pharmacy in little plastic bags that the person dispensing them into the little plastic cups common in hospitals when they give them to you. .I guess that is the reason an untrained person can dispense the pills.
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Tuesday, Sept 3
I have made an appointment to go to a Dr. at Multicare close to Tacoma General about 5 blocks away. going to an outside doctor will not be a bigger problem just because I eleminate the local doctor. Because all doctors I go to are outside the facility anyway. The only thing is I have to go to a doctor outside the building but I go less so the net result is not all that much different. In some ways it is much easier as I should not have to meet all those appointments inhouse because I will not have them. Only an occasional visit to the primary care dr at Multicare. Even there I control the frequency. That is the plan and I really hope it works. I really hope it works because I am sick of going to the med room 4 times a day to get them to check my b/g. This way I should avoid getting nnecessary things done by the staff that is under the direcion of the new primary care doctor.
Yesterday the med tech refused to give me a second opinion with his finger stick of my b/g. I wanted it because if the reading is under 100 he is not permitted to give me insulin for my breakfast That means that my b/g will go up. That is how your body works. If you are not diabetic it will not go up except a very little unless you ate a lot of fast acting carbohydrates. Then your body returns to normal levels much faster. It either burns up the calories or stores them as fat and also sending the sugar out the kidneys into the uren stream. Greg the black med tech refused to do a second test to verity the first test. These testers in use are only guaranteed to be within 20 percent accurate. So if you are within a few points of what you want a second test may be just that. But this med tech refused to do a second test so I did not get my insulin. He deliberately wanted my b/g to go high. On the other hand the second test might have been worse than the first one.
I ran into one of the administrators and he thought so much of my diabetes knowledge that he asked me if I could help him learn more about diabetes management. I used this opportunity to introduc him to Bernsteins Diabetes solution. After my doctor visit at Multicare tomorrow I promised to give it go him to study. A real breakthrough.
I have been saying that these places are not jails. But they sure seem like that at times. I want to get a volunteer to take me and Kay out for a donut or something. The activities director here said because of insurance rest restrictions it mght not be permitted.
Tom does it for us all the time but I don't know if it is permitted or not but I don't care one way or other. If I can find one I will arrange it. I will just not do it through this outfit. Insurance runs these institutions. Patient interests are secondary. I know it is permitteed however because they even allow patients to go out for days or at least over night with relatives.
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