Post by Big_John on Jul 20, 2007 21:33:52 GMT 10
Hello people, this is my first time posting in the RANT thread, but I think I finally have a decent rant or two to actually post.
RANT #1 - The Main one.
My FIRST rant has to be about the entire medical system in general, in particular, FAIRFIELD hospital in Sydney (its a rather small hospital, very close to where I live). Ya see, I had a very bad cold that absolutely floored me for about 3 days. I passed it on to my dad who is getting on in years, so it also hit him rather hard. Unfortunately for him, while he had it, it opened up the way for a bacterial infection of his lungs. So come Saturday(13-07-07), he is having trouble breathing.
So I convince my parents we ought to get him to a doctor. But since our family doctor isn't open on weekends, our only option would be some all-hours-of-the-day clinic thingy. But around where we live is also this house-doctor service where you ring up, they will send someone to your house when they can. Sure it'd be expensive, but my dad's breathing was so laboured, he had no energy, so he wasn't up for going anywhere.
So we call this service at about 1:15pm. It's winter, lots of old people tend to get sicker in winter, so we know it'll take longer than we like for the doctor to arrive. At about 4:00pm, we ring up to basically ask "Where the hell is the doctor?". The say it'll be another 45 minutes to an hour. So we wait until 5:30pm and ring them back up and ask the same question. They say "Another 40 minutes". My dad isn't doing any better, despite taking something for the pain from the coughing, so I convince my parents to take him to a hospital. We know that there would be a line at the hospital, but we figure he'll get some attention there sooner.
My dad now doesn't even have the energy to walk out the front door. I convince them that rather than make him suck it up and walk to the car, lets just call an ambulance so he'll get some attention even sooner. We call the ambulance, and they actually arrive in a respectable amount of time (didn't feel like it since I was anxious, but when I checked the clock, it was a different story).
They get there, take my dad to the hospital in question, and they actually get to him very quickly, assign him a bed, and get him started on various medications. Their actual treatment of him was good, they had it spot on, he was having no breathing difficulty the next day, and he was recovering perfectly. Then it begins to dissolve into some sheer ineptitude. My dad is coughing up some sputum (mucus of phlegm which gets mixed with saliva when it comes out through the mouth). They want to get some samples of it, test it over the course of like a day, see if he's getting worse.
In the end, he wasn't getting worse, just the opposite. But when they asked him to collect it so they can test it, they didn't give him anything to put it in, so he had to make do with an empty cup. He gives it to them, and they say "Sorry, has to be collected in specific specimen jars. Here ya go!", then they finally give him some. A whole day's worth wasted, so that is one day extra he'll have to stay there.
Since my dad was born with a heart murmur, they want to do an echo-cardiogram (ultrasound done by actually shoving an emitter down the throat and doing the ultrasound from the inside-out). They want to do this to make sure this bacterial infection hasn't somehow spread to his heart. They are pretty much certain it hasn't, but just want to be safe (I can understand that). So they try put through the request for the echo-cardiogram on Monday. Tuesday rolls around... nothing. Wednesday... nothing (he was well enough to come home on Wednesday, too). Thursday... nothing. Then we find out why it's taking so long.
Turns out this hospital only has access to A SINGLE PERSON who has the specialty to give echo-cardiograms. And this person is spread between 3 different hospitals CONSTANTLY, so there is a backlog of people waiting for examinations at all of these hospitals. Friday (today) comes around... nothing. So the doctors pretty much tell him "Meh, go home and and book an echo-cardiogram as an 'Out-Patient'. You're well enough to go home now". So my dad is now home, doing good, but still has to go to the hospital to get this examination done at some point.
Oh yeah, I neglected to mention the room changes he experienced while he was there. On Wednesday evening, they move him from Ward 2A to 2B. Why? Their reason is something like "We like to rotate people so we have some free room in here". I don't get it, but whatever. The VERY next morning, they move him from Ward 2B - Room 1... to Ward 2B - Room 4. They move him a few rooms down. Why? My dad thinks it may have to do with the ultra-conservative Muslim chick he was occupying a room with after the first room change. She was 21, covered head to toe with that Muslim-dress thingy, and her family probably didn't like the prospect of their young daughter being alone with some male stranger.
Oh yeah, another thing which wasn't helpful is that my dad is a Type 1 Diabetic. He has to inject himself with insulin every time he has a meal. But his nurses didn't seem to be too clear on this. They wouldn't let him take as much insulin as he should have been able to, at one point they weren't even going to give it to him at one of his meals, good thing he raised a stink and eventually a doctor told the nurses to let my dad decide mow much insulin he gets, since the amount differs from person to person and my dad has been doing it for decades. At one point, his blood sugar was hovering around 17... BEFORE a meal. It's supposed to be closer to 5. I understand these nurses were following their procedure, but they sure took their sweet time to get a doctor in to consult them on the subject.
And $4 parking at this hospital! Christ on a frickin' stick! I went and visit him every day he was in there, and I'm out $30 in coins.
RANT #2
The new (and presumably last) Harry Potter book is coming out on the 21st. And I plan to pick it up ASAP. My rant isn't about the Harry Potter series, but the fact it has been leaked on to the net in the past few days. Someone got their hands on a copy of the actual book, and took pictures of every single page and released it as a torrent. Then people downloaded these pictures and transcribed them into actual text. Within a day that text was translated into German.
Although it is unfortunate for Bloomsbury Books that people are reading it early, anyone who is going to go to the trouble to download it will surely buy a real copy of the book anyway, so no big deal. What I do hate is that some immature pricks out there are going to end up posting spoilers of this book to all of the popular user-contributed news sites out there, like Digg, Reddit, and etc.
It was done with the 5th and 6th books, and it will surely be done with this one too. I remember when people found out that a main character dies in the 5th book, so people bought the book, read the last few chapters to find out whom, and then went around spoiling it for people. They were dicks. Exact same crap happened with Book #6 too. And at LEAST 1 main character will die in the next book too, so we'll have the same bastards doing it all over again.
Which is why as soon as I buy the book, I will not even go to a single web-page until I finish reading it. I'm even receiving spoilers for book #7 in my email already, so I can't even check my frickin' email without the possibility of someone being an asshole.
Oh yeah, and there's another funny thing about this books release. There are actually grief counselors out there on standby, to help people with the grief they go through because of the character death that's going to occur in the book. W... T... F. Sure, one can get absorbed into a book, but they really think people will require grief counseling.
RANT #1 - The Main one.
My FIRST rant has to be about the entire medical system in general, in particular, FAIRFIELD hospital in Sydney (its a rather small hospital, very close to where I live). Ya see, I had a very bad cold that absolutely floored me for about 3 days. I passed it on to my dad who is getting on in years, so it also hit him rather hard. Unfortunately for him, while he had it, it opened up the way for a bacterial infection of his lungs. So come Saturday(13-07-07), he is having trouble breathing.
So I convince my parents we ought to get him to a doctor. But since our family doctor isn't open on weekends, our only option would be some all-hours-of-the-day clinic thingy. But around where we live is also this house-doctor service where you ring up, they will send someone to your house when they can. Sure it'd be expensive, but my dad's breathing was so laboured, he had no energy, so he wasn't up for going anywhere.
So we call this service at about 1:15pm. It's winter, lots of old people tend to get sicker in winter, so we know it'll take longer than we like for the doctor to arrive. At about 4:00pm, we ring up to basically ask "Where the hell is the doctor?". The say it'll be another 45 minutes to an hour. So we wait until 5:30pm and ring them back up and ask the same question. They say "Another 40 minutes". My dad isn't doing any better, despite taking something for the pain from the coughing, so I convince my parents to take him to a hospital. We know that there would be a line at the hospital, but we figure he'll get some attention there sooner.
My dad now doesn't even have the energy to walk out the front door. I convince them that rather than make him suck it up and walk to the car, lets just call an ambulance so he'll get some attention even sooner. We call the ambulance, and they actually arrive in a respectable amount of time (didn't feel like it since I was anxious, but when I checked the clock, it was a different story).
They get there, take my dad to the hospital in question, and they actually get to him very quickly, assign him a bed, and get him started on various medications. Their actual treatment of him was good, they had it spot on, he was having no breathing difficulty the next day, and he was recovering perfectly. Then it begins to dissolve into some sheer ineptitude. My dad is coughing up some sputum (mucus of phlegm which gets mixed with saliva when it comes out through the mouth). They want to get some samples of it, test it over the course of like a day, see if he's getting worse.
In the end, he wasn't getting worse, just the opposite. But when they asked him to collect it so they can test it, they didn't give him anything to put it in, so he had to make do with an empty cup. He gives it to them, and they say "Sorry, has to be collected in specific specimen jars. Here ya go!", then they finally give him some. A whole day's worth wasted, so that is one day extra he'll have to stay there.
Since my dad was born with a heart murmur, they want to do an echo-cardiogram (ultrasound done by actually shoving an emitter down the throat and doing the ultrasound from the inside-out). They want to do this to make sure this bacterial infection hasn't somehow spread to his heart. They are pretty much certain it hasn't, but just want to be safe (I can understand that). So they try put through the request for the echo-cardiogram on Monday. Tuesday rolls around... nothing. Wednesday... nothing (he was well enough to come home on Wednesday, too). Thursday... nothing. Then we find out why it's taking so long.
Turns out this hospital only has access to A SINGLE PERSON who has the specialty to give echo-cardiograms. And this person is spread between 3 different hospitals CONSTANTLY, so there is a backlog of people waiting for examinations at all of these hospitals. Friday (today) comes around... nothing. So the doctors pretty much tell him "Meh, go home and and book an echo-cardiogram as an 'Out-Patient'. You're well enough to go home now". So my dad is now home, doing good, but still has to go to the hospital to get this examination done at some point.
Oh yeah, I neglected to mention the room changes he experienced while he was there. On Wednesday evening, they move him from Ward 2A to 2B. Why? Their reason is something like "We like to rotate people so we have some free room in here". I don't get it, but whatever. The VERY next morning, they move him from Ward 2B - Room 1... to Ward 2B - Room 4. They move him a few rooms down. Why? My dad thinks it may have to do with the ultra-conservative Muslim chick he was occupying a room with after the first room change. She was 21, covered head to toe with that Muslim-dress thingy, and her family probably didn't like the prospect of their young daughter being alone with some male stranger.
Oh yeah, another thing which wasn't helpful is that my dad is a Type 1 Diabetic. He has to inject himself with insulin every time he has a meal. But his nurses didn't seem to be too clear on this. They wouldn't let him take as much insulin as he should have been able to, at one point they weren't even going to give it to him at one of his meals, good thing he raised a stink and eventually a doctor told the nurses to let my dad decide mow much insulin he gets, since the amount differs from person to person and my dad has been doing it for decades. At one point, his blood sugar was hovering around 17... BEFORE a meal. It's supposed to be closer to 5. I understand these nurses were following their procedure, but they sure took their sweet time to get a doctor in to consult them on the subject.
And $4 parking at this hospital! Christ on a frickin' stick! I went and visit him every day he was in there, and I'm out $30 in coins.
RANT #2
The new (and presumably last) Harry Potter book is coming out on the 21st. And I plan to pick it up ASAP. My rant isn't about the Harry Potter series, but the fact it has been leaked on to the net in the past few days. Someone got their hands on a copy of the actual book, and took pictures of every single page and released it as a torrent. Then people downloaded these pictures and transcribed them into actual text. Within a day that text was translated into German.
Although it is unfortunate for Bloomsbury Books that people are reading it early, anyone who is going to go to the trouble to download it will surely buy a real copy of the book anyway, so no big deal. What I do hate is that some immature pricks out there are going to end up posting spoilers of this book to all of the popular user-contributed news sites out there, like Digg, Reddit, and etc.
It was done with the 5th and 6th books, and it will surely be done with this one too. I remember when people found out that a main character dies in the 5th book, so people bought the book, read the last few chapters to find out whom, and then went around spoiling it for people. They were dicks. Exact same crap happened with Book #6 too. And at LEAST 1 main character will die in the next book too, so we'll have the same bastards doing it all over again.
Which is why as soon as I buy the book, I will not even go to a single web-page until I finish reading it. I'm even receiving spoilers for book #7 in my email already, so I can't even check my frickin' email without the possibility of someone being an asshole.
Oh yeah, and there's another funny thing about this books release. There are actually grief counselors out there on standby, to help people with the grief they go through because of the character death that's going to occur in the book. W... T... F. Sure, one can get absorbed into a book, but they really think people will require grief counseling.
