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In December of 2002, I contracted pneumonia. It’s a wonderful little ailment that makes you wish you were dead. Back then, when I couldn’t stop coughing, and just getting up to walk 30 feet to the bathroom made me winded like I just climbed 3 flights of stairs, I decided I better go to the E.R. Twenty-two hundred dollars and a week later, I felt much better and returned to work. For the record, it’s this $2,200 hospital bill from 2002 that’s the cause of my garninshment today. My previous "employers" found it too expensive for medical insurance. After three years, one might think a $2,200 bill wouldn’t be too bad. That breaks down to about $14 per paycheck, or roughly $60 a month.
Anyhoo… this past weekend I was in the E.R. again with the same symptoms. My cough wasn’t as persistent, and it wasn’t too productive, but the shortness of breath was there. Friday night I kept waking up. Seemed to be every 45 to 60 minutes I was awake, sitting up and trying to catch my breath. Saturday morning was just as bad, and I got winded just going to the bathroom.
In the E.R., my vitals weren’t good. My blood pressure was 158 over 109. Yikes! The saturation level of oxygen in my blood was only 78%, and my temperature was 100.5°F. They put me on oxygen and gave me nebulized albuterol. This helped my breathing a bit. In fact, the picture of the "newer" monitoring machine shows my oxygen level at 95%. Of course, I looked like an old man with an oxygen tube hooked over my ears and running under my nose.
They drew blood. They took chest xrays. They drew more blood, then intravenously administered an antibiotic called Rocephin. After 10 hours in the E.R., they finally admitted me to the hospital. It was 11:00pm by this time, and I hadn’t had anything to eat all day.
Once I was in room 17B, a nurse came in a performed the standard battery of tests; blood pressure, temperature, and oxygen level, then asked all kinds of questions about my medical history. Then I was given a little red pill called Zithromax (another antibiotic) and some crackers and juice.
For the rest of the time I was in the hospital, I was on oxygen. I was given nebulized Albuterol every four hours, along with the blood pressure, temperature routine. Don’t try sleeping. There has to be a Murphy-esque law that says when a patient falls asleep, a nurse shall wake said patient with a sphygmometer and a thermometer.
I was on a pulse oximeter continuously for monitoring my blood oxygen levels. The second picture is the pulse oximeter (I they dug out of the basement) showing my oxygen level at 100% while getting an Albuterol treatment.
By Monday morning, they were springing me from the hospital. I was only able to inhale 2,750 mililiters of air with my incentive spirometer, but I guess they thought I was well enough to go home. Armed with a prescription for 2 (only two) Zithromax pills and a Combivent inhaler, I left the hospital and drove home.
When I got home, I went to sleep, and slept until about 3:00pm. I had to get the the pharmacy, so I got dressed and drove to Albertsons. The Sav-on pharmacy in Albertsons accepts my insurance card for prescriptions. According to the pharmacist, the Combivent and Zithromax would have cost over $117 without insurance. I only had to pay $30. Insurance does have benefits.
