Down For the Count

When I wrote my last post on Saturday I actually wasn't feeling horrible, but as the title implied, I was just sick and tired of getting sick. Because I really wasn't feeling that bad Eric and I decided to do some grocery shopping so he met me after work and we took a rick (autorickshaw) down to MG Road so that we could pick up a few things. We like to go to MG Road for groceries because there are a couple of grocery stores that cater to Westerners where you can find "exotic" things like lettuce, etc. Anyway, after around one and a half hours of shopping (most of the time is spent getting from store to store) we headed for home and I was feeling okay. One the way home we ran into a horrible traffic jam (the reason for the jam we found was because the police here are absolutely dumb, they were directing traffic at an intersection and have no idea how to do it. As in, they weren't letting opposing turning lanes go simultaneously, each group of vehicles was going one at a time and they would let that one set of cars go for AT LEAST 5 minutes before stopping them and letting the next set of vehicles go. It is hard to explain but trust me, they are idiots). While we were sitting in the rick I started to feel really horrible, I was getting hot and sweaty and my body was just aching. We finally made it home and I thought that maybe I was feeling badly just because of sitting in traffic in the heat surrounded by fumes so Eric and I went for a little walk to drop off our ironing and to pick up something at a local grocery. That was a mistake. By the time that we got to the grocery store I didn't feel like I had the strength to stand up so I sat on some bags of rice while Eric gathered our things and then we headed back home. The rest of the afternoon I crashed on the couch cuddled under a blanket to try to stay warm (it was around 85 degrees out but I had the chills). Then the vomiting started, gross.
This lasted through the night but by Sunday morning I was feeling okay, I still had a low grade fever but compared to the previous day I felt like a million bucks. I managed to do four loads of laundry, make Eric a batch of cookies and cook up a pot of chicken livers for Mira and Chaya (more on this last part in the next post). I even managed to eat a bowl of oatmeal (I hadn't had any dinner the previous night and couldn't keep down any Sprite either). But by the early afternoon I was vomiting worse than I had on Saturday and my fever had hit 102. I tried to take the antibiotic that I normally take for GI bugs, but it just came back up. At this point I think that Eric had had enough of my barfing and said that it was time to go to the hospital and I was feeling too crappy to put up much of a fight. We arrived at the hospital (same place that I am having my braces done at and that Eric had his finger taken care of, one of the best and most expensive in Bangalore) at around 4:30 PM and went directly to the ER. We waited maybe 15-20 minutes until I was brought in and seen by a Dr. who concluded that I most likely had acute gastroenteritis (bad-ass GI bug) and that I should be admitted due to severe dehydration. After conferring with Eric (who had to wait outside of the ER) it was decided that I would be admitted and they set about readying a room for me. I was in my bed at the hospital at around 5:30, just one hour after having arrived in the ER, not bad, eh?


The rest of the story isn't that interesting, IV fluids and antibiotics, blah blah blah, was released the next day. But there are a few things that I found funny. First, nurses are called sisters. A lab tech asked me to give a sheet of paper to the sister and I was absolutely befuddled. Uh, all of my sisters are around, say 4,000 miles away. Second, female patients are presumed to be absolutely stupid. When I first arrived a nurse came in and showed me the call button which is on a little corded remote thingy just like at every hospital in the world I presume. Another nurse came in a few minutes later and explained to me that this thing was the nurses' call button and I only need press it if I need anything and I politely told her that yes, I knew what it was. Her response, "Oh, did your husband tell you?" Right, without a husband a lowly female could never figure out a thing. This happened several times where I felt that Eric was being spoken to instead of me. Oh well. Another note on the call button, in India that thing WORKS!!! I was admitted a few years ago while we were still living in Streamwood for a kidney infection so I think that I have a pretty good comparison between Indian and American hospital care and India wins big time. I could pound on that blessed call button when I was in the hospital in the US and I swear that sometimes the nurse wouldn't come for over an hour. Here, it was almost like one of those electrified dog collars with remote, I had the remote and the nurses ran into the room no more than 2 minutes after I pressed it as if I had given them a shock. It was awesome to feel like they actually gave a crap how I was feeling and cared about what I needed. Maybe I just had a bad experience but in the hospital in the US I had to beg and argue for even a Tylenol to help keep my fever down and I remember being left alone in a room in the ER while I was experiencing fever of 104 degrees with horrible chills and no nurse would respond to my pressing the call button and all I wanted was a blessed blanket. Best care in the world my ass. Not that I'm bitter or anything. Okay, the nurses were good, the Drs. were good, my room was nicer even than I one that I had in the States with a shower in room and even a futon for Eric to sleep on (he only had a chair in the US) though there was only one TV for both me and my roomie to share (bummer since she is an old Indian woman who doesn't speak English). The food sucked, but doesn't all hospital food suck? Oh, and when I was discharged I got ALL of the results of my labs, every test that was done and all of the readings, I am sure I have never got those in the States, let alone official copies. So, the bottom line, the cost. I am going to basically give you the exact cost (in dollars, using 40 rupees=$1) of everything and then let you know how much it cost when I was in the US in 2005.


Pharmacy items (this includes a two week course of antibiotics to be taken after I was discharged)


Vasofix $2

Tegaderm- Quantity 2 $1.17

Pantodac IV $1.42

Scalp Vein Set $.21

IV set- Quantity 2 $3.90

Dolo 650 mg tab- Quantity 4 $.16

Ciprox 200 mg/100 ml- Quantity 2 $.93

Metris 500 mg/100 ml- Quantity 2 $.77

Normal Saline- Quantity 2 $.89

Thermometer $1.63

5 cc syringe-Quantity 1 $.12

non-sterile gloves- Quantity 4 $1.65

Sterile water- Quantity 4 $.40

Electrical Powder $.32

Metrogyl 400mg tab- Quantity 39 $.67

Ciplox 500mg tab- Quantity 26 $5.63

Pantodac 40mg tab- Quantity 13 $2.27

Emeset 4mg tab- Quantity 4 $.98

Room Charges $40.50

Labs

Blood count $6.25

Urea $1.75

Creatine $1.75

Serum electrolytes $6.25

Urine $1.88

Urine-pregnancy test $3.13

Potassium $1.88

Stool $1.88

Potassium $1.88

Dr. Charges

Kiran K $7.50

Chandrika K $7.50

Daily nursing charges $8.75

Nurses injection charges $.38

GRAND TOTAL: $116.38

That's right, $116 for everything including the ER and 2 weeks of antibiotics. It's ridiculous.


Let's just do a little comparison for fun. I have already told you that the standard of care is better than in the US, but for the sake of argument let's pretend that it is equal. My three day stay at Central DuPage hospital cost $12,950.75 (that is minus the additional tests that I had to have done there like CT and ultrasound but does not include after-care prescriptions). That comes to $4,316.91 a day, only 37 times more expensive than in India. Trust me, I do not make 37 times what I did when I was paid an Indian salary, not even close. Sound equitable to you? Now for some real fun, let's compare a few specifics that the 2 hospital stays had in common (remember also that my stay in the US was more than 2 years ago and I am going to guess that costs have not come down at all, call me crazy). First the cost of the room, in the US in 2005 a 2 bedded room would run you $1230. Let's see, how much is the same (actually better) room in India in 2008? Oh, it is actually 1620, oops, I forgot that is rupees so divide by 40, you get $40.50?!?!? That can't be right! But it is, and it just goes on and on and on. Standard saline, $10.38 in the US, $0.44 in India. Is salt water really that hard to come by in the US? Okay, the labs: CBC in the US- $79.75, in India $6.25, Creatine lab- $18.25 in the US, $1.75 in India, Potassium reading, $28.50 in the US versus $1.75 in India. Dr. Charges for one day in India $15 for 2 Drs., $144 in the US for 1 Dr. You get the picture, I need not go on.


Anyway, I am back home now, feeling much better and everything is fine. Too bad the same can't be said for the American health care system, it is sick, it is broken and it is just wrong that the American citizenry is having the wool pulled over their eyes. Has any person reading this who has gone to the ER been seen in 15 minutes? I remember going to the ER at 3 or 4 in the AM a few years back and I still had to wait around an hour to see anyone. Isn't the big fear that ooohhhh, scary phrase here, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE will be horrible, that the quality will be bad, that people will have to wait to see a Dr.? Isn't it that way ALREADY!!! Of course it is! WAKE UP PEOPLE, socialized medicine is not a dirty word, it is simply a BETTER WAY!!! I have met a few Europeans here who rave about the health care systems of Spain and France, they have used these systems and THEY WORK!!! The BS that you hear about socialized medicine being evil is just not true! We need to stand up and DEMAND better, why does the rest of the world deserve it but not us? Tirade over, I'm exhausted.