Can we help get BigE to the doctor?
Yes, crowd-funding was what I was thinking of. I've found myself in recent years drawn much more to directly helping people or small groups in need rather than donating to $BIGMONEYCHARITY, even if I can't then deduct the amount from the taxes.
Melita
Can we help get BigE to the doctor?
> Yes, crowd-funding was what I was thinking of. I've found myself in recent years drawn much more to directly helping people or small groups in need rather than donating to $BIGMONEYCHARITY, even if I can't then deduct the amount from the taxes.
>
> Melita
Roger that!! I'm with you on all that. I'm happy to share my dollars if I can. As you allude to, it needs to be direct to the cause. In my former corporate life I got looked down upon because I wouldn't give up part of my check to the United Way.
In my opinion people help people way more than any corporation can or will help people. I could care less about a tax deduction.
SVT: Supraventricular Tachycardia
My wife had that. Her heartbeat has gotten up to 200 bpm or more. She went in for the ablation, and it stopped for a while but started back. We are considering going in for a new ablation.
She was told that the SVT wouldn't kill her. But you do need to know if that's what you got.
SVT: Supraventricular Tachycardia
> My wife had that. Her heartbeat has gotten up to 200 bpm or more. She went in for the ablation, and it stopped for a while but started back. We are considering going in for a new ablation.
>
> She was told that the SVT wouldn't kill her. But you do need to know if that's what you got.
I've been studying up on all this today as you might imagine. Yes, the SVT won't kill you but the effects sure can - full blown heart attack or stroke. Both my Grandpas and Aunt Elaine had massive heart attacks. I'm taking this stuff serious. Elaine died 22 (twenty two)times and was resuscitated before making it to the ICU - she survived and is ok today. Her Dad, my Grandpa Palmer, did not.
I hope this is all not one of those self-fulfilling prophecies. Perhaps why Mom never told me about it.
The irony is now I how have real anxiety about it.
Checking my heart beat right now goes about 180+
At least it's not pounding hard but I can feel it.
Of course now I'm super aware.
Can we help get BigE to the doctor?
Dang man!! I can't believe you went public with that. Dam... now everyone will want one. Oh well, they won't get my sonic-screwdriver lest they peel my cold dead fingers off of it.
Can we help get BigE to the doctor?
BigE, your symptoms would get immediate attention in any emergency room. Anything that needs to be dealt with right away would be taken care of. The bigger the hospital the better. And anyone who comes in with a serious problem gets care in the ER, insurance or no insurance.
Crowd funding could help out for sure. Do you have a Paypal account?
All the best,
Can we help get BigE to the doctor?
BigE,
The members of this site have been very good to me. I am a Pulmonary/Critical Care doctor in real life. You are having serious cardiac related symptoms and you are at serious risk of having and acute dying spell. Without testing you do not know if this is atrial fibrillation/flutter, sustained ventricular tachycardia, or other cardiac rhythm abnormality. Older hearts do not tolerate that kind of accelerated heart rate without bad things happening. The fact that you have not had this your entire life suggests that it is not "just" a genetic problem. You MUST go see a doctor SOON (like YESTERDAY) about this as you are at high risk of dropping dead or stroking out like others have said. One good thing that happened with Obammacare is that there are no longer preexisting conditions clauses that used to limit your ability to get insurance. So, go buy a Major Medical policy with a low deductible and got get seen! If you are Medicare age, get Medicare and a supplemental policy to cover your 20%. One nasty little reality of medical economics is that if you do not have some kind of insurance policy that has negotiated rates with the hospital, then the hospital will charge "usual and customary" rates that are several times higher than the insurance companies or Medicare pays, and in Mississippi, the hospital will attach a lean on your house. The prospect of needing major work done, having some assets, and not having insurance is a potential financial disaster for the family. Also be aware that you can negotiate with the hospitals if you are paying cash. This is best done before you receive the service. It is not unusual that the negotiated rates are very similar to what they would get from Medicare. They are likely going to want to do expensive testing like cardiac cauterization or nuclear medicine studies and may need to to cardiac vessel stinting or even cardiac surgery. Do not screw around and end up dead.
Can we help get BigE to the doctor?
Wow! You gave me a ton to dwell on there Tim.
No I don't do Paypal. Ain't even got a bank account or regular income per se.
I'll be 54 on the 23rd this month so I don't know if that would qualify me for anything. I'll have nothing to do with Obamacare whatsoever - even if it means my life.
Yes, I know about going to the ER. Been there done that with a 105 fever and pneumonia (that was about 10 years ago).
I was going to check my BP at the local CVS yesterday but it's about a mile walk and in the heat of the day it would have been outrageous I imagine.
I do know a little more than the average bear so to speak.
My sister is a Dr. Her Dad is a Dr. (ret) and two step-sisters are doctors. My Dad has a PhD in pharmacology and I apprenticed under him back in former days.
That's all beside the point.
What would be nice would be could I have someone come check me out here. Heart rate, BP, etc. without wasting 911 peoples' time.
Right now this minute I would guess my resting heart rate is going about 150 bpm. But I haven't done anything today - including walking up stairs. It's not pounding now but racing right along.
Sometimes to come off the couch and go to the kitchen, less that 15', puts me out of breath.
How the hell this subject even came up the other night with Uncle Jim is beyond me. I'll call him back next week to ask.
Seems like you all take this more serious than me.
In the mean time, I've discovered keeping the house nice and cool helps... and do nothing.
E
Can we help get BigE to the doctor?
BigE, a house-visit by a Doctor probably won't help and going to a Dr's office probably won't either unless that doctor has the appropriate monitoring equipment and you have the racing heart rate when your appointment is taking place. The hospital is where they have the machinery to monitor your heart and can probably get to the source of the trouble. They can do that when the high-speed heart is in place (while it is racing). Call your sister for goodness sake and ask her what to do.
I might be mistaken, but the main thing "Obamacare" did was make it possible for anyone to get insurance, and be covered even if they have pre-existing conditions. All the political business is just political. There are bad things about the care, but it does allow for you to be able to get coverage.
I apologize if this sounds political. I don't think it is. If Wendell does, he can delete it, of course. My point is that you should take advantage of a system that's in place to get help regardless of politics.
Can we help get BigE to the doctor?
BigE
For the record, I detest what Obammacare is doing to medicine in the USA. That being said, I was able to purchase Blue Cross Blue Shield major medical insurance the month that I was going into orthopedic surgery for a condition that had been ongoing for almost two years ( a pre-existing condition that would have not bee previously covered). There are dates that have to be met when you begin insurance to have coverage by the first of the next month. That date may be the 7th of the month and is pretty much standard across the insurance plans. Mississippi did not have a statewide Obammacare plan and we had to go to the private insurance market, just saying... FYI as a 57 year old nonsmoker, the 500 deductible insurance is costing me in the $600 a month range and my 9 hour orthopedic surgery and week in the hospital cost more than $150,000.
Call your sister. An EKG would go a long way toward answering the question about what is going on. Sustained rapid heart rate (and 150 qualifies) will eventually cause the heart muscle to fatigue and develop heart failure. It is MUCH more expensive to be seen in the ER when you cannot breath because of heart failure. You have a resource (access to your sister) that most folks don't have. I can't speculate on specifically what you have for medico-legal reasons but your sister could help you a lot here. If you crash and have a stroke or a big heart attack and become a bed bound invalid for the rest of you life it would be a bad thing.
Can we help get BigE to the doctor?
"...I detest what Obammacare is doing to medicine in the USA."
That would be "Obamacare" with one "m".
You really should pay more attention and try to understand that which you detest.
Your opinions, such as they are, would probably be taken more seriously.
Not to turn this political, of course, no one else has.
🙂
Don
Can we help get BigE to the doctor?
> "...I detest what Obammacare is doing to medicine in the USA."
>
> That would be "Obamacare" with one "m".
> You really should pay more attention and try to understand that which you detest.
> Your opinions, such as they are, would probably be taken more seriously.
>
> Not to turn this political, of course, no one else has.
> 🙂
>
> Don
Don, Poor spelling is one of my well recognized personal faults- I had stress ulcers in the 2nd grade over this and still somehow managed to be successful. The spell checker does not like either Obammacare or Obamacare so I missed it on the proof read before posting. Your comment is duly noted and I will "try" to do better in the future because we all want other folks to believe our own opinions. I also realize that some will use any pretext to reject an opinion that does not agree with their own. I have avoided discussing the negative aspects of a government program (Obamacare) that will (IMHO) result in the death of independent private medical practice. All independently practicing professionals in any field should take careful note and consider if they want something similar happening in their chosen profession.
I went to college to learn how to speak good too...(lol)
Can we help get BigE to the doctor?
All independently practicing professionals in any field should take careful note and consider if they want something similar happening in their chosen profession. "
I'm not really afraid of "socialized surveying."
Medical care is a little more fundamental, don't you think?
Who should be denied adequate health care?
Who should face bankruptcy in exchange for the survival of their spouse?
What do you call the guy who graduated last in his class at medical school?
(That may have been uncalled for)
Don
Can we help get BigE to the doctor?
Now we have officially hijacked the thread. The medical delivery system in the US began running off the rails when 3rd party payer sources (read Medicare and the medical insurance companies) inserted themselves between the physicians and the patients in reference to the medical bill and the patient generally has no concept of the magnitude of the billing as they only see their deductible or copay amount. Without price point feedback, the medical system ballooned into a behemoth with sustained uncontrolled increases in prices, also fueled by the tort system which could ruin a physician for not ordering a test, even if no medical mistakes were made. Therefore, more and more expensive tests get ordered (because it is not worth one lawsuit not to), and prices continued to escalate. The $20,000 PET CT scan exists because Medicare would pay for it. The technology is wonderful and we can do amazing things diagnostically and therapeutically, all supported by an unsustainable 3rd party payment system. The system is IMHO destined to implode. The Medicare population is in the process of doubling over the next few years. This demographic trend was well known to the politicians and they have been working for years to reduce payments to the physicians. I took a 40% hit in collections and no reduction in work load (and ever increasing expenses)due to coding changes and the patient demographic shifting away from private insurance and to Medicaid. When 40 cents of every federal dollar spent is borrowed money, the overall financial system will also suffer major realignment. The economic reality is that we can no longer afford to spend an unlimited amount of money on every patient because the money does not exist. This is an economic reality that is separate and distinct from whether one's world view believes that everyone should have unlimited access to health care, or you get what you can afford. At present, every patient that presents to the Emergency Department gets taken care of and if admitted to the hospital, get care independent of their financial status. I fit in the "Evil Fiscal Conservative" camp that asks the question how are you going to pay for it (the system)? When I want to get depressed, I go to www.usadebtclock.org and watch the national debt continue to increase geometrically. Pay particular attention to the unfunded liabilities- that is where Medicare and Social Security live in the matrix. I believe that we living in the late great USA are headed for economic collapse and third world status in the foreseeable future. The state of Mississippi Medicaid program paid me on the average 5 cents on the dollar of Medicaid adjusted billing, not enough to pay their percentage of my malpractice insurance. It is illegal for me to not correctly bill a Medicare patient including their 20% copay (Fraud And Abuse) at the risk of a $10,000 per occurrence fine. We as physicians cannot even give away our services if we wish. So Don, as a surveyor, would you think that every client that wants the most complicated survey possible should get it for free on demand, and you get paid a minimal salary (fixed by a politician) to do all the work no matter how many hours a day it takes? My personal response to the impending collapse of the medical system is to become a veterinarian where the the budget has to be discussed with each client every time, providing immediate price point feedback.
