Being Kicked Out of the Hospital

I am currently in the hospital but tonight is going to be my last night unfortunately even though I am still in an excruciating amount of pain. I am basically being FORCED out of the hospital. Today they want to discharge me but I want to call it KICK me out even though I am still in excruciating pain. My hospital doctor/team has a tendency to spring discharge orders on you and you don’t know nothing about it. They tend to go by numbers (hemoglobin, retic, etc) instead of listening to the patient and what the patient is telling them.

Labwork doesn't tell the whole story

Just because my numbers look good DOESN’T reflect how I feel. They have the nerve to say “your numbers look good so we feel you can manage your pain at home.” Like, really? You are NOT living inside my body so how can YOU tell me how I feel and what I can manage at home? Anyway, they really wanted to kick me out earlier (which I didn’t know about). One doctor said one day but the other one said a different day even though he DID say it wasn’t for sure and it wasn’t officially in stone considering he said let’s check on your labs.

Well, the doc didn’t even put orders for labs in. So today the other doctor’s helper came in to see me and said let’s check on your labs and I told her they didn’t draw labs. She said that’s okay we’ll check them tomorrow, which had me thinking they weren’t going to kick me out today. Besides if you are going to kick me out I want to be gone by NOON otherwise there is no reason to leave.

Unwelcome surprise

So my mom came to visit me with my dog and I went downstairs to see and visit them. When I got back to my room for my pain meds, which it’s now close to 3:00 pm, the nurse informed me the hospital doctor DID put the discharge orders in. She text him informing him that I wanted to speak with him (that’s another thing they would do a punk move of putting the DC orders in without coming to see/talk to the patient). He did come back and told me I HAD to leave today. And this was the reason he told me and proves they just don’t give a damn about sickle patients and how we feel: “The ER is packed. They have people waiting 8hrs+ and waiting outside and need the room.”

When I came to the ER  I had to wait just that long and they didn’t care how much pain I was in. So you are basically kicking me out, screw what my pain is and how I feel, just because I have sickle cell and people waiting 8hrs+ need my room. Are you telling this to cancer patients when they are getting their chemo? Heck no you aren’t. Why? Because they have cancer, they getting chemo, cancer is not as important as sickle cell, and people that have sickle cell are mostly black and brown.

Failed appeals

On top of that, he said in order for me to stay the night I have to appeal it. Being I have Medicare insurance when you are getting admitted you sign this form stating if you feel you are getting kicked out (discharged) too soon you can file an appeal. I don’t know about other sickle cell warriors that may have Medicare but I have done it FIVE TIMES and IT DOESN’T WORK. It’s a bunch of crock. I have just been crying all day because this is how the healthcare system treats us and you warriors know it’s not doing nothing for my crisis but aggravating it even more.

Trying to make sense of it all

Why do they treat us like this? This is why we don’t like to go to the hospital or the doctor because of the stigmas and stereotypes towards us. They treat us as if we don’t matter. Our pain is not real, our situation is not serious and because we don’t have a big advocacy to back us up they can and they do.

I wish there was a hospital that was just and ONLY for sickle cell warriors ONLY run by doctors and nurses that specialize in sickle cell or have compassion for it. NO other chronic illnesses are allowed to come to the facility. Not diabetes, not lupus, and DEFINITELY not cancer-privileged patients. And we don’t get treated like these other facilities treat us. They know the pain we go through or make it seem like we are a burden or it’s our fault we have this horrible disease. I am just so sick and tired of how these healthcare facilities and doctors treat us.