Today is Ruth's 19 month birthday. And we celebrated the end of her 18th month with a three hour tour of the Northside-Cherokee Emergency Room.
Let me set the stage. Ruth doesn't like vegetables. But last night she ate a good amount of black eyed peas. And a little bit of carrot. Very few noodles. And almost no chicken. Brian and I had chili. Brian and Ruth finished dinner early so I retired to the living room to watch some news with my remaining chili while Brian cleaned Ruth up and gave her the liquid Tri-Vi-Sol with Iron vitamins she takes. As soon as my bottom hit the couch, I heard the coughing.
But this wasn't normal coughing. This was choking. And the worse choking ever. As I walked in to the kitchen I could see Ruth's face as Brian took her out of the high chair in the dining room. She was red and coughing but obviously gasping for air and looked scared. Brian was remaining calm but I could see the look on his face: fear. She threw up the contents of her dinner on his shirt (so much for vegetables) and on herself. She was crying but still didn't sound right. We stripped her and Brian's shirt and washed her off a little. She wouldn't drink water and wouldn't take a paci. We finally got her calmed down and the two of them cuddled in the rocking chair looking so much like they did when Brian would hold her when she was a little bitty baby - both bare chested (or "naken" as Ruth likes to say). Ruth sounded like Lou Rawls when she talked, had a bad cough and still sounded a little wheezy when she breathed. A quick call to the nurse line confirmed that we needed to take her to the hospital. They said we didn't have to take her to the children's hospital in Atlanta (thank goodness) so we went to our little local one here.
Ruth is fine. During our three hour tour Ruth was checked over and had her first chest x-ray (I couldn't go because of being pregnant) but Brian said she did great. She was sounding much better by the time we came home (the two crying fits helped clean her out). The x-ray revealed that her lungs were clear. She sounded congested this morning but is sleeping great now. We didn't get home until almost 10pm and then she was up at normal time this morning at 6am. I had my doctor's appointment at 8:30 but Ruth went down without a fight at 9:15 and is still asleep. Let's home for a nice long nap so she can recover.
Not that I am a fan of the proposed national health care plan at all, but I did think last night how lucky we are to have good insurance and for Brian to have a good job that we were able to get care for our baby girl. So many other families would have been so stressed financially by the emergency visit. We were able to pay the co-insurance without worry. Most of you who read this blog are probably in the same situation we are in - insured with good coverage. But how many aren't? Socialized medicine is not the answer. But what is?
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2 comments:
I am so glad that Ruth is okay. What a stressful event for all of you! You always hope that you will be calm in those kinds of situations, but you just don't know until they happen. I will be praying for a speedy recovery.
Re: Healthcare: I thank God everytime I write a check for a Dr. visit (and especially the ginormous coinsurance before we met our max payout) for Emma's NICU stay...because even though its expensive, it could be SO MUCH MORE expensive without coverage. I also thank God that He's been faithful not only to provide us with insurance, but the resources to pay our part (which is still sometimes heinous). And yes, the second you walk into triage in the ER, you can expect at least $500 in fees.
I don't know what the answer is either. But I certainly feel for those people who fall between the cracks because they don't earn enough to qualify for coverage through their work...but they earn too much to qualify for government assistance. It is certainly an unsettling predicament.
I agree with both of you, however I just spent last night in the ER with a friend of mind from the studio. He's 59, self-employed (he teaches pilates) and does not have insurance. He was on a bike ride and somehow fell. No one knows what happend. The studio got a call from the ambulance saying they were taking him to the ER.
When we arrived he was having a cat scan and then they had to clean him up, put 15 staples in his head (it was disgusting) and they released him to us. He wasn't coherent, kept repeating himself, didn't know what day it was, what year it was, who was president, etc. When they were discharging him they asked for some sort of down payment on his bill. He didn't have his wallet or anything on him. The nurse said if I made a considerable payment today, it would knock his bill down from $2800 to $2000. Of course I did it. My point is, how is it possible that an ambulance ride, ct scan & treatment could only cost $2800. If it was me, with my insurance, I'd pay my $2000 deductible and then 20% after that. I think we're the ones getting screwed!
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