Today should have been a good day. RQS was supposed to leave the hospital and come up here. But thanks to modern bureaucracy, she's stuck in the hospital for another night.
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I'm writing this post two days before Thanksgiving. On Monday, RQS went to the doctor for some blood work, and ended up in the emergency room due to high potassium levels. Although she was stabilized by morning, she was caught in a bureaucratic nightmare. Both the doctors and nurses told her that she'd be going home today. But the fates didn't get the message.
Around 9 am, RQS was told (for the first time) that she'd be going home by the afternoon. Noon came and went, and she was told that she'd be out of the hospital before dinner. Dinner came and went, and RQS was about to lose her cool for the third time.
"I was told I'd be going home. Why haven't I been discharged yet?"
The nurse on duty could only say that she was sorry, and gave the usual line of BS. RQS demanded to see a supervisor, and found out a little more. The medicine that works for her is expensive, and the hospital couldn't give RQS a supply without authorization from her drug formulary. AARGH!
"Why couldn't this have been prioritized during the day?"
"Why has everyone been telling me that I'd be going home today?"
"Why am I being treated like a cog in a machine, instead of a person with feelings?"
She had many more questions that couldn't be answered, and the supervisor had no power to do anything for her, save to say that he'd make a note to the daytime shift to make this a high priority. BS, MS, and PhD - Bull S**t, More of the Same, and Piled Higher and Deeper. If she was a VIP, they could have moved mountains for her. But she is not. She was breaking down on the phone.
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Now that we had no confidence that RQS would be discharged the day before the holiday, I decided to cancel the holiday dinner we planned at a local restaurant. Then, I went to the supermarket, and my car's windshield got hit by a stone. Now, I have to go to Safelite to get the windshield fixed before the bitter cold sets in.
I can't wait until the holiday is over and we can get back to normal....
