OT? Took first ambulance ride (That I remember)

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A little over three weeks ago I had a nasal surgery for a deviated septum., and an RF treatment for sinus drip. The RF treatment was supposed to be the easy part.

Sunday I developed a nose bleed. It was life threatening and for the first time in my life I called 911 and asked for an ambulance. Actually, my wife did, I would have been difficult for me to talk on the phone with blood pouring out of my nose and mouth.

The ambulance arrived pretty quickly and got me moving pretty quickly. The normal 20 minute run was cut down to 17 minutes. So not a lot of time saving there, but honestly we did not think I could make it down the elevator and walk out the lobby to the car.

Unfortunately I live in a different county than where my ENT surgeon practices. So, while I went to the affiliated hospital the one in my county has no ENT’s on a standby rotation. The emergency room staff got the bleeding stopped after a couple of hours, but not before I lost a lot of blood. By the way, Afrin will stop bleeding.

Tuesday I went to see my surgeon and he performed emergency surgery, basically cauterized the artery that had been bleeding. This was done out patient. Today (Thursday) is the first day I have felt good enough to put some words down. There is still a swab or something stuck up my left nostril and there is still really small amounts of fresh blood being produced. The doctor is supposed to pull the swab next Wednesday.

I mention this because we are thinking of moving out of the country. This was a really bad situation. I was not really able to help myself, and needed emergency assistance to get to the hospital. I feel like any place old people are going to go, not only do they need good health services, they need good emergency assistance.

I actually do not believe the hospitals in Bay County Florida are adequate medical services. There will be a new hospital built in 2028, so I guess the plan is no more ambulance rides for 3 more years. Works for me as I did not find it a pleasant experience.

On the other hand, the integrated medical records system that the hospital and North Florida Surgeons
has was very helpful. The emergency room was able to pull up my medical records and get hold of my surgeon for advice on what to do. My surgeon was able to pull up my records in his office when I visited on the following Tuesday.

Also, these integrated records will be electronically available for my disablity. My union contract provides 5 days in a row of fully paid sick days, but after that I have to move into disability pay. Moving records around for disability evaluation should be easier electronically.

Well time to do more nose stuff.

See Ya

Qazulight

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Thank you for sharing your experience and I hope you feel better asap!

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The good news is the good outcome. Stay safe!

The Captain

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Making the selection of the potential destination country all the more important. Choose wisely my friend.

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I hope you feel better soon, @qazulight.

Availability of medical care always has to figure in choice of location, whether in the U.S. or abroad.
Wendy

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If the timing were not so short, I would consider moving counties so that ambulances would not bring me to Bay County Hospitals.

Cheers
Qazulight

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Our immigrant ship from Marseille to NYC arrived in early September during a stevedore strike. Stuck on the ship my mother managed to get us off by pretending to be sick. I remember the ambulance drive in NYC with two women and a priest. I remember my mother asking what the heck was a priest doing there. I didn’t know the women who took us to their home. In time I realized they must have been the wife and sister-in-law of a friend of the family. Days later we took an 8 hour flight to Caracas on a DC4 with lay overs in Puerto Rico and Aruba.

I might have taken a second ambulance ride, nor sure, it could have been in a taxi cab. The drunk nightwatchman at my father’s hotel stabbed my dad one evening. I got a call at work to manage the situation. A taxi drove me to the Social Security hospital where they had taken my dad. He wanted to be treated by the family doctor so I did the paperwork to enable the transfer. I don’t remember if I rode in the ambulance or in the taxi. He was a man who never lost his sense of humor. Waking up from the anesthesia, seeing all the tubes he was connected to, he asked the doctor, “What am I, an astronaut with so many tubes?”

It was a life changing event, he loved to go to the beach but after the incident he refused to go because he did not want the scar to be seen.

The Captain

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