Health Chaos Goes On
Health chaos goes on. Last week I had facet joint injections with steroids to hopefully, take away spinal pain caused by scoliosis and spinal compression fractures. And I have tried calling the clinic back to try to schedule subsequent injections to the right side of my spine. But why is no one returning my calls, after 3 days? I left messages for the staff who were supposed to be helpful. No calls returned. This is embarrassing to me as a health professional. Is this what my profession has been reduced to? Yes. There is a dumbing down of the nursing profession which I find disgusting.
So how do you find work in this profession that is worth your time, deserving of your education and experience? Seems that insurance companies are the only viable places to look for work in Seattle. Sure, you can apply for other positions that seem to be creative, but then you find out that they “really liked you†but had to hire an internal applicant, or they just don’t know who they want or what they want this “who†to do….well. can’t help out there, since they aren’t asking me, though I bet I could if they asked my opinion. It seems so clear that I could help them take another look at what they really wanted to do with their program, or what they wanted to hire someone to do.
Then there is the thought of retirement and health care…so apparently medicare starts at age 65. but social security allows you to collect benefits at 62. so unless you have worked for some local, state, or federal government job for 30 years or more and are “vested†(like working for an auto union for your entire life), how do you pay for health care? At the time in your life that you need health care the most.
Got scared last week when seen by the doc who did the spinal injections. He detected a heart murmur. Well no surprise in a post menopausal; woman. But I got out my stethoscope and could not hear it; neither could my internist. And as she said, with a woman as slender as I am, it is easy to confuse breath and heart sounds. By the way, the physician who did the spinal injections was amused that he had never treated someone who weighed less than 100lbs. I weighed 99 that day. But I am supposed to weigh 108. I had better eat a lot of rich foods for thanksgiving!