It seems my case has been made into a political football, and the Dysautonomia, a hot potato. Although I do think some headway has been made it is far from over and there are still some elements that wish me harm who are trying as hard to have things not work out as I am trying to make things work out.

I don’t think my GP is going to treat me no matter how many diagnoses I get. Once I meet that bar I can pretty much bet he will produce another one. If obtaining a diagnosis were his intent then I truly believe he’d have been actively facilitating these independent evaluations.

Earlier today the woman answering the main switchboard informed me that my pulmonologist and GP were talking. I don’t know if it’s possible for my pulmonologist to talk sense into him and since by the end of business I’d heard no new news I had to conclude that any attempts must have fallen on deaf ears.

There is something going on that I’m not privy to, and probably neither is my pulmonologist; probably something of a systems nature and maybe Dr. B’s also burned out or has some personal problem he’s not willing to admit. None of this adds up. He himself has enough proof to diagnose me with the Dysautonomia 10 fold. They can sort out whether it’s Primary or Secondary later.

I can tell you that there are some political things going on behind the scenes that I’m becoming aware of now. I was informed today by the “patient advocate” who deals with main campus ER (and I use that “advocate” word loosely) that “nobody will call you back.”

She is making rude harassing and unsolicited calls to my house now to try and intimidate me because she knows she’s handled things very unethically and people are now aware of it. I don’t respond to threats and intimidation no matter how ill I get and this corruption will be rooted out. T. J. is no patient advocate. She is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. She’s most likely logging into the messages that come in and reading and violating patient confidentiality.

I’ve already caught the Head of ED doing exactly that. He’d admitted it in a letter he’d sent me in which he tried twisting around something I’d said in confidence to my GP on the Patient Portal. Since he did not treat me that is by Emory’s own regulations a violation of privacy!

There are some people at Emory who are not connected with T.J’s office that have not called me back today either, people who ordinarily would, so I wonder whether that has any connection to her. She implied in what she said to me by phone that she was messing around trying to block things she has no business blocking. Emory does not need to employ people like that.

I finally received the certified letter from Emory Medical Records. They have officially refused to even amend the ER record and are claiming it’s “correct and complete”. With a position like that these people are really throwing the dice that I’ll roll over! They clearly don’t know me. I’ll die before I ever let myself be defamed in such a malicious way. If they think this will run me out of town they have another thing coming. This is where I live and I’m going no damnwhere!

A woman fighting for her life is nothing to mess with. I have my warpaint on and I am ready for them! Clearly I have threatened to unearth something much bigger than my individual incident. Although I am not entirely sure what that is, I suspect the hospital may be hiding some malfeasance involving care rationing of low income patients. This is discrimination! Emory is a high volume hospital with a mix of patients from one end of the spectrum to the other. The only exception to this is that they don’t take totally uninsured patients and don’t write off charges.

As a high volume hospital they would have a vested interest in limiting time and resources given to low income patients while concentrating more time and resources on higher-income, better insured patients. They are not ethically supposed to do this, but it often happens in such health systems. People just don’t openly admit to it. If they receive Federal funding they can lose it if found to be discriminating based on income, disability, or any other minority status.

That could account for why when my disease accelerated my care did not also accelerate. One would think that care would be expedited to match need, but in an instance where there is care rationing it actually is just the opposite. That would also explain why my GP and several other doctors waited until I totally crashed in November and I had to make the decision to go to the ER. That way they incurred no costs and instead Piedmont admitted me (saving Emory even more money). Then 4 days after I was discharged from Piedmont too early I ended up at Emory’s ER and they found every possible way to cut costs on me.

* They put in an IV but didn’t use it for fluids even though it was indicated.

* They ordered but never offered nor gave me Maalox and Ibuprofen

* They ordered and offered only Valium (2 in a 9 hour period to be exact and I only accepted the first).

* They saved money for the hospital by not feeding me for 9 hours and only issuing 1 meal at the very end.

* Nursing care was minimal so they spent almost no time/money on that. I was mostly left unattended.

* They didn’t officially admit me other than moving me to their bridge unit for about an hour and I was discharged without an overnight stay.

* They had the ER doctors and the resident do a neuro exam on me (3 to be exact) which they figured they could bill for and gain a higher reimbursement rate because the skill level was higher than nursing. They had better not, but in case they do, Medicare might think something looks funny that 2 doctors felt the need to test my reflexes one right after the other (except that Macdonald came in to do it later). Overkill nonetheless!

Then after all that the 4 of them (Hudak included) couldn’t manage to put their microcephalic heads together and come up with a real diagnosis!

Yup! Sure looks like care rationing to me! You can bet that ER will get no more business from me no matter how sick I become! The other day when I almost fainted twice I could have gone 2 blocks down the street but refused! That’s how much I can’t stand that place.

I’m already working on a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Silvia Burwell to appeal Emory’s Dept. of Medical Records’ refusal even to amend my records from that awful ER experience and I will be asking for a full-scale investigation not only of the mishandling of my case but systemically. Some staff have shared with me that the ER has alot of complaints. While I’m at it I can have her check and see how many of T. J’s complaints are ruled “unfounded”, and how often records are not amended as requested. I’m sure that will be quite illuminating.

Tuesday I have an appointment with the Nurse Practitioner at General Neurology to go over various scans and come up with a “plan”. With all the internal politics going around this place I really feel uneasy about meeting total strangers at Emory and discussing my case. Piedmont was supposed to be FedExing a disc to them so that doctors there can read the films themselves but I was not able to reach a live person there in Piedmont Radiology. Nobody at Emory General Neurology got back to me today to confirm the shipment on their end as promised yesterday. Dirty tricks? One has to wonder.

I think it’s time to order some more CBD chocolate covered Pistachios and maybe other edibles, as it could be a while before I see treatment from a doctor. I didn’t order enough really for 2 weeks the first time around as I found I needed about a quarter of a pack per day to feel improvement in my pain (probably about 125-150 Mgs/day). Nonetheless when I did reach a high enough dosage I got some relief. Maybe also the sweetness will get rid of this terrible taste of salt in my mouth that is now present nearly constantly.