Gasping While Help Is Just Out Of Grasp
Today, I sat on the coach next to my breathless and frustrated friend. We reflected on the barriers we had encountered for him in the medical system the past three months, since he was discharged from a long hospital stay. We recounted how the iron infusion he had waited 5 weeks to get an appointment for, had once again been canceled. In the meantime he chews ice, as body compensation mechanism for low iron, and struggles for the necessary oxygen carrying capacity in his blood. Several weeks now, he's been asking his doctors for better medicines to help him breath. Through shallow breaths he utters this thought " there is no winning with the medical system, there is only trying to keep up. " This truthful phrase makes my eyes well up. I feel like I'm failing him. As a nurse I help him navigate the system, the phone calls, the cancelations, the lost orders, the miscoded bills, the cattle shoot style of the clinic. If I feel helpless, I can't even imagine how he ...
