Not a fan of our healthcare system

Today, I spent some time with friends.
I was a bit lazy during most of the day. I did do a little laundry.
A friend came over and we talked about looking at my car, but there really isn't much I can do about it right now. We wound up playing a few hands of Yahtzee! he beat me three times, but the last hand I scored the highest of all the hands. It was just something fun to do to pass the time.

Around 8 PM, I went to go visit my mom where she was watching over an elderly friend of the family.

We played a game of Acey Ducey and talked a bit.

As it got time for her to go, she wasn't ready to go home alone. We were enjoying each other's company. Somehow she slipped when putting away an old antique fan that was running. This fan didn't have much of a guard around it and the blades were sharp metal. This put me into shock. I was freaking out. She had broken at least one finger and had torn some ligaments and was bleeding pretty bad. I tried to get her to the hospital as quickly as possible. I was clumsy and awkward driving an unfamiliar car. I am not used to driving an automatic with brakes that react as fast as hers. It didn't seem like that long to get her to the hospital....but when we got there it seemed like forever before she got any attention at all. If it wasn't for family, I am not sure she would have gotten any help at all.

If she didn't already deal with chronic pain, she would have had nothing to help her with the pain for at least five hours. Fortunately, she had something to help a bit. When my brother followed my dad back to their home to get her car home safely they picked up her pain medicine and brought it back up to the hospital. She still hadn't been seen by a doctor at this point. We arrived at the hospital before 10 PM, and didn't leave until about 2 AM. They did an x-ray and sent her back out to wait. My parents found out that there was no one there that could set the bones and left frustrated after waiting 5 hours and still hadn't even got so much as stitched up. She asked for the x-rays, and they said they wouldn't be available until the next day.

I was shocked at the lack of care and concern the people in the ER at the first hospital we went to. There were people getting treated before her that showed no obvious signs of immediate need. There was even a couple sitting in the corner making out while waiting to go in for help for something that went in ahead of my mom who was bleeding and in pain.

They left for another hospital that saw her fairly quickly and treated her hand with the best of their ability. They cleaned it up and numbed it some. They were pretty busy at that hospital to before they got there. They said they could set bones there, but they didn't that night. She is going to have to go back and get more treatment because there was damage done to tendons and ligaments as well. I am saddened by this because this is disabling for my mother. She is one who takes care of others...and now she needs help. She is finally going to be getting some needed rest now. She had been needing to get some time off from her daily grind.

I trust that she will heal from this. I know many people are praying for her.

I am frustrated with the medical care system. Maybe we just went to the wrong hospital, but I don't think this was an isolated case.

Sometimes I want to work my way the hospitals and help these situations, but I fear that I will end up just like them....over worked and can't afford to care.