Dispatches from the Asylum

For some strange reason (necessity?), I was either lucky or good at hiring.  I’m kinda proud of it, right up til this week.  It seems that I need to add a new set of skills to my hiring bag: bone density(?)

As of noon today, this is the sick bay report:

• one shoulder surgery due to an auto accident
• one seriously sprained back
• one bad disc
• one cardiac plumbing replacement

When I am the most healthy of the crew, something is seriously amiss.

*******************************************************

Of course the population we serve is taking this opportunity to go bonkers.  They are developing issues that they never have when we’re at full staff.

Two external units have moved a short distance.  This is a seriously traumatic experience for everyone concerned.  For the unit, they have to unplug their computers (horrors!).  You think I’m kidding, don’t you?  My boss, bless her heart, suggested someone be sent over to assist them.

Assist them?

Four or five cables need to be disconnected and reconnected at the new location.

“Yes, you should send someone over to make sure everything’s ok.”

Assist them?

Do they need help unplugging their mice and keyboards?  They don’t seem to need any help unplugging their computers when they want to plug in their Turbo Heat Cannons, which have been known to actually melt power strips.

“We need to make sure they’re reconnected correctly.”

Assist them?

They will definitely need help plugging the green mouse connector into the green jack.

And it turns out they did need a lot of help, just not the kind of help we provide.  They were Victims of Verizon.

******************************************************

Like most areas, when one wants high speed internet access, there exists a monopoly.  In our area, it’s Comcast cable or Verizon dsl/fios.  Both are world famous for poor service, sloth, and horror stories.  In this case, it was all Verizon.

When my person arrived, she located Mr. Verizon, who she described as some kid right off the street, upon whom they put a tool belt.  Knowing what she was in for, she tried to keep the questions simple.  She asked if phone service was up.

He didn’t know.

She asked again if he was with Verizon, which he answered again in the affirmative.  Then she asked when the phone service might be up.

He didn’t know.

She asked who did know.

He got all ruffled and said something to the effect of `what the hell did she want - he is only a supervisor’.

Only a supervisor.

He was only a supervisor so he didn’t know if the service was up or when it might be up.

Good thing she didn’t talk to a corporate vice president, eh?

*******************************************************

Mind you, the corporate vice president probably wasn’t far away.  There was some story about a picket line in-place that Verizon didn’t wish to cross.  I don’t have the details, but the only line Verizon doesn’t want to cross is the Work Line.

Another teammate waited 45 minutes for a Verizon tech.  He called Verizon, who told him that they did show up, but there was no answer.  Meanwhile he went out front and saw the guy napping in his truck.

I don’t want Verizon to feel persecuted here… for every Verizon horror story, we have a Comcast horror story.  One of the better Comcast stories involves a charge of ten thousand dollars to install service in our building.  Another involves Comcast reps intimating that we should dump our T-1 lines because their 15/2 service is cheaper.  Ummmm….. no.

****************************************************

So within two days, Verizon had successfully managed to get phone service up for one of the two units.  In the same building.

I heard from the manager of the second unit, who was lamenting the one hundred-seventy five dollar per hour rate she was paying Verizon to not install phone and data service.  This was day three with no service.  For a business.  And Verizon had no idea why.

I guess for one hundred-seventy five dollars per hour, I’d take a long time to figure things out too.

****************************************************

Backing up to health issues, we all got to watch our currently inadequate healthcare system falter yet again.  The guy with the badly sprained back was literally on his back for days before he could summon the ability to go to his doctor.

Once there, the doctor felt so bad for him that he prescribed double the normal amount of pain meds.  Always curious, I put my wife (the nurse) on the phone with the poor guy.  She knew the amount of pain meds was woefully inadequate, even at allegedly double the doctor’s normal dose.

Rather than asking him to trust her, she looked in the Physicians Desk Reference, which has all drugs and prescribing information.  The alleged double dosage was still below what the PDR recommended, plus the medicine was basically not all that effective.

After the fellow manages to get x-rayed, he has trouble getting an appointment to see the doc for the results.  It’s ok, it’s only his back and he can barely stand, no less walk (or work).  At the appointment, the doc gives him a cd of his xrays and makes a comment that he couldn’t get the image large like it normally is when he reads xrays.  He poked around a bit and pronounces the injury a back sprain, with a four week recovery.  And he prescribed more of the same worthless pain med.

I don’t know about you but I don’t have a ton of confidence in this doctor, the original doctor, or most of what’s left of our healthcare system.

I know… I know… Obama is going to fix everything for us.

This perfectly illustrates how the system has gone to hell.  Twenty years ago, the patient would not have thought about questioning the doctor.  That hasn’t changed but now there’s a real reason to question the doctor.

Other issues aside, doctors don’t know shit about pain management.

I speak as the husband of a nurse and a woman with chronic pain.

Let me close this rant with some free medical advice (advice being worth what you pay for it):

• if it hurts, tell the doctor
• if it still hurts, ask for meds
• if the meds don’t help, tell the doctor
• if you are not satisfied with an answer, keep asking until you are
• there’s nothing wrong with asking for a second opinion if you are not sure

You have the right to competent medical care.

You have the right to be as reasonably pain-free as possible.

If these rights are not upheld, make some noise.  If that fails, find a different doctor.

If you do not look out for your rights, no one else will.

This goes for medical care and your civil rights.