Mystery sickness and phantom doctor

Jeff was complaining about stomach aches on Sunday night. On Monday, they started getting worse. He had no appetite and his mother was suspicious of appendicitis. Jeff dosen't have insurance so we were worried. That afternoon he decided to go to a walk-in to just make sure he was okay. (This timing also made us nervous as Jeff was to start his new job on the Kenney tour on Tuesday)

Jeff called the walk-in and explained his symptoms and they told him to go to the Emergency Room. Here is the time line of events:

• 5:30 Arrive at the hospital



• 7:45 See the doctor. Jeff explains that he doesn't have insurance and he refuses an cat scan and asks if there is another way to rule out appendicitis. Dr. ER suggests a blood test to see if his white count is high. If it isn't: he is fine, if it is high: he should get an cat scan for sure.



• 9;30 Results from blood test show white blood count 13,900. Normal is 10,000. Doctor ER says he is 99% sure it is appenditis and Jeff may have to have surgery.



• 11;00 The radiologist said it looked like something swollen, it could be his appendix or a "inflaimed small intestine" but that there was liquid in his pelvic area. Men should not have liquid there. He said to clarify..we would need to do another cat scan(free of charge) after Jeff drank contrast fluid to see what else he could tell.



• 1:30 am We are admitted to the hospital. Dr. ER never came back to tell us what the second cat scan told us. We were upstairs asking the nurse.."Is the doctor going to talk to us?" No answer. No doctor ever came.



• 6:50 am Doctor Floor came in and said he thought It wasnt appendicitis but we need "his" (jeff's) doctor too look at the Cat Scan to verify. Meanwhile Jeff can have no food because the nurses are assuming he may go into surgery, just waiting for the doctor.



• 3:00pm Finacial counselor comes to inform us of payment options and tells us our current bill is 5,000 dollars.



• 7:00pm The doctor comes in and says to Jeff "do you want to go home?" Jeff said"well, yes, but what is wrong with me?" Dr. says "You didn't ask for pain medication all day, so you don't have appendicitis." Jeff says "why is there fluid in my pelvic area?" Doctor says"It could be anything." Then he walks out! Unbelievable!

Jeff went out to the nurse and asked if she would get the doctor back because he still had some questions. She said there was nothing she could do, he was in surgery. So he asked for the patient advocate. That person informed Jeff that she could guarantee that Dr. was in Surgery..scrubbed in. So Jeff left and on his way out...can you believe it...he walked right past the doctor!!

We are really upset about the care we recieved and no one in the hospital was able to tell me the prices of ANYTHING! I read the "patient rights and responsibilities" sheet that came with our paper work and it is our right to know the cost of treatments!

We still dont know what was wrong with Jeff, but we are greatfull that he is feeling much better and out with Kenney and no surgery(yet). Praise God!