Ask the doctor if symptoms consistent w meningitis, get a spinal tap, no choice- reasonable or BS?

[mahina]

My kid had a really, really high fever today, after a week of being ill. (Took him to his regular doc during the week, but that office was closed). With the fever (over 104) and shallow labored breathing, I decided to take him to the ER.

Intake was great, and we got into a room right away, thank goodness. But when the doc came, after he examined him and said he needed an EKG and xrays, I asked if he thought it might be meningitis.

He said "since you asked, I have to do a spinal tap".

The spinal tap was extremely painful.

Does that sound nuts to you? If you ask a question you have to have a really really painful procedure with no further chance for discussion?

While we're at it, how about this...you clip coupons for .20 off bread, but when your kid is sick, you walk in and sign up for an unknown and unknowable tab. Not only can't they tell you even remotely what the costs will be, you aren't supposed to ask.

It's a crazy messed up system.

Kid is better, still sore, but stabilized.

Thanks DU in advance, and thanks for letting me vent.

To that nurse who was such a blister about me asking if there was any way to know what the costs might be even a ballpark, a big F. U.

To the kind lady at checkin and the other great people who helped him and help others all day, aloha and thank you.

[barbtries]

1. i'm glad he's better.

doesn't the doctor think for himself? did he think it was meningitis? how is it that you asking that question becomes the reason for a spinal tap? that seems kind of wack to me. i want a doctor who knows enough to know when a spinal tap is indicated based on clinical findings, not based on a question from a parent.

[uppityperson]

9. That phrasing, to me, indicates he was already considering it, thought it a good

time to bring up the spinal tap issue. "Since you asked it is a good time to tell you what I need to do" rather than "I'm going to do a spinal tap only because you brought up the possibility of meningitis since I never would have thought of that myself here's your md degree".

Taking advantage of the parent bringing up the topic to talk about what needs to be done. Does that make sense? Of course I wasn't there, but this is how I've heard it used in the past.

[LuvNewcastle]

2. My mom came down with meningitis last winter.

They did a spinal tap on her and the pain was so bad that everyone in the room with her was in tears. What made it doubly worse was that the results were inconclusive. Another doctor did another spinal tap on her, but that time he was much more precise and she hardly felt anything at all. People should ask their doctors how they do the procedure before they allow a spinal tap to be done. It could keep an already sick person from going through unnecessary pain.

[TheMadMonk]

3. I suspect that is really "Now you ask, I have to do shit loads of paperwork...

...to cover my ass if you refuse it." So instead I will phrase my response in such a way that you now have to actively refuse the test on offer. Which of course means you have to know you have the option. Or are at least smart enough to ask if the option is available to you.

You ask, he says "I don't believe so." and he's wrong you can take his kid's college funds for your own. So you ask, you get the test unless you jump up and down and scream you do not want it and sign pieces of paper that say he's off the hook even if he sews your kid's right ear to their left knee.

He should have told you that the option to refuse remains, but I can understand an ER doc deciding not to come right out and saying "I'm gonna cover my arse one way or another here parent. You decide." but leaving it up to you to know your rights.

[SheilaT]

4. The reason they can't give you any clue

as to what the costs will be, is that they haven't a clue themselves. First off, the doctors and nurses and x-ray techs and all the others involved on the medical side have absolutely nothing to do with the billing side. Second, what your particular insurance covers is going to be different from what some one else's particular insurance covers, and what is ultimately your responsibility is totally unknowable at the present. Third, one test can lead to another, which is also why there's no way of knowing at the outset what the charges will be.

Not that this is the best way to do things, but it is the way it's currently done in this country.

Single payer truly is the answer.

[Heddi]

5. I'm a nurse--I have *no* idea what procedures at my ER cost. NO idea the cost for anything

Why an "FU" to the nurse? I assure you that there is no way she could know, not even a ballpark.

for what it's worth, I have no idea what anything related to an ER visit costs. No idea what the ambulance ride or airplane ride is. What does a bag of IV fluids cost? No clue. How about those medicines, how much per pill? Ask someone else.

I'm sure your nurse wishes she could give you a big 'FU' for your mistaking her from someone from the billing department.

[mahina]

8. Well bless your heart.

"To the kind lady at checkin and the other great people who helped him and help others all day, aloha and thank you. "

[uppityperson]

10. exactly. I is a very scary situation to have a kid that sick, but take out your anger on those

who are in the right position. The nurse is involved with doing what needs to be done with the child, NOT in billing. We do not know what things cost, the billing department does. Nurses are typically NOT billing departments.

[phylny]

6. A friend and former classmate of our middle daughter

came home from college for a weekend feeling a little sick. She woke up at 12:30 in the morning and asked her sister to get their mom because "I feel like my head's going to explode."

Long, and sad story short, this college freshman who had been vaccinated against meningitis died early that morning of meningitis at a hospital when her brain was quickly destroyed.

So, I'm sorry for your son's pain and for your frustration, but I'm hoping he is doing well, and no matter what the cost, it's better to pay for it and know what's going on than not.

[mahina]

7. Thank you!

I am so sorry for her loss. What a heartbreak.

It was the most painful thing he ever went though, and he is a pretty tough guy.

[uppityperson]

11. Hoping he feels better soon. I've been there with a sick kid and tring to figure out how to afford

en ER visit. It really sucks to have financial issue stress on top of worry for your kid and sadness that your kid is hurting.

It is common to take those stresses out as anger on those who are working in ER, I hope you get the billing straightened out with the billing dept there. If it runs high(and how could it not?), most places have a sliding fee scale if you need it. Make sure to check the bill, and talk with them about that if you need to.

It sucks that we have to consider how to afford an ER visit for a sick kid. been there also.