I was Diagnosed with A-Fib and Type ll Diabetes. This I know because a distant voice in the Emergency Department yelled this information out to me.
My mind was working when I was able to stay awake for a few moments so I did acquire this knowledge. Later I wondered if they were able to give this diagnosis to many others who were dehydrated and given fifty milligrams of Benadryl, thereby inducing Tachycardia to assimilate A-fib. How convenient. Except I knew better. I did not have A-fib nor did I ever have any reason to suspect A-fib nor ever have any possible symptoms of A-fib.
Naturally when I was discharged I was profoundly confused. There was no nurse to come and go over my Diagnosis with me no counseling on Diabetes, no follow up visits with Doctors, nothing! No Diabetes training, no doctor appointments, nothing. I had a dietician come to my room once while I was still sleepy and she basically told me to eat fruit and vegetables with my meals. That's it!
I was dumbfounded. just a nurse's aid with a wheel chair. That was absolutely an early discharge without any instructions. Nothing addressing my supposed A-fib diagnosis, nothing. No normal discharge at all. Basically they threw me out of the hospital. It was like "Times up! You got to go! That qualifies as a wrongful discharge.
To say I was surprised is an understatement. She gave me a folder and I had no idea what was in it. Three months later I opened that folder and found Doctor's appointments that were never mentioned to me.
I was still sleeping right after breakfast and could barely function. I was discharged with one thousand dollars worth of prescriptions that of course kept me in a semi comatose state. After I finally started to vomit from taking these drugs I started throwing them away. I did keep the glipizide and the statin, because they made sense. As a former nurse I thankfully was able to distinguish that fact.
They did send me home with a walker . I just kept looking at that and after a couple of weeks when I could force myself to stay awake I started to walk in the house without the walker. It was easier to navigate my own body than try to navigate that walker. Especially, since the drugs made me walk into walls and miss stairs. I battled dizziness, blurriness and light headedness all at the same time. The drugs kept me constantly in a fog. I was determined more than ever I was going to recover or die trying. I felt I had nothing to lose. The hospital sent me home with no instruction, no rehabilitation, no Doctor appointments. Nothing! I honestly thought they sent me home to die! It sure seemed that was the real underlying reason. Along with that stark reality came depression. I thought several times about ending my own life. However , I knew that was a cowardly thing to put my children and grandchildren through. I spent my days in a recliner with nothing to do but think about all this. I was getting more and more depressed about the events at the hospital and I was slowly able to put all the factors together.
Those factor made me think and think. I eventually made up my mind that if God did not take me when I had the stroke, he must not be finished with me. I was determined I was going to help myself get better and figure out what it was he wanted me to do. I began to pray more often, I prayed fervently, I prayed for strength and clarity if it was his will. It must have indeed been his will because I was suddenly able to piece together the importance of each event.
I was given absolutely NO in home rehabilitation. Yet, the hospitalist said I would receive in home rehab. They called me and just said the doctor would have to prescribe rehab. I never heard from them again. The hospital claimed my insurance company would not approve it. So, their answer was their nursing home or get discharged. My kids made it clear I was not going to a nursing home, so they sent me home! I wish I had been alert enough at the time to know the game they were playing. They keep you drugged and try to pull all these tricks. Modern medicine has become a toolbox for criminals with various medical degrees.
I went home and truly struggled for the first ten weeks or so. Between debilitation and the medications plus the knowledge I suddenly had horrible diseases, that took their toll, I finally decided my children did not in anyway deserve to lose their mother to suicide. I could never wish that on my worst enemy. what a living hell that would be for my children. I could not do that.
I admit I talked to God a whole lot more than I ever did. I finally started realizing what really happened and how all these so called medical professionals were not all professional at all. It made me angry and the angrier I got the harder I worked to regain my energy and health.
About the third month I had been forcing myself to go to the grocery store a few times a week and held onto the cart while I walked the entire store. This was my therapy to walk. I began researching. I had my husband put my computer in the loving room and I researched everything I could on stroke recovery, stroke exercises, diabetes, Hypertension and improving health.
I had no Doctor, so the insurance company assigned me one . when I finally went to him two months after the stroke, he had a medical spa! Well, heck I did not need Botox. Are you kidding me? At my age it sure as heck would not help anyway! Now we are in august and I still do not know how to control this disease.
I called the insurance company and got a nurse practitioner who was accepting patients. That was another month till that appointment. Now, I was getting concerned. I finally just took a shot in the dark. I cut out all sugar, Salt, Fats, caffeine and most meats. That meant I only had Tuna and chicken breasts or turkey breast. I realized I was stabbing in the dark but I did know obesity contributes to Diabetes so I figured I had nothing to lose but ugly fat. I went on a plant based diet.
I took control of my diet and it was really difficult. I had blurry vision, and dizziness still and had to be careful with a knife or the stove. I sat on a stool at the kitchen island and prepared my so called meals. It was hit and miss and a shot in the dark. a few times I had blood glucose of 65 but I ate a diabetic cookie and that helped, I lost lots of weight. My weight went from 165 to 135 and I was starting to feel I needed to get some real advice. I started researching. I called the school of holistic medicine. ( they were a God send) and checked with the Mayo clinic. I searched the Diabetes association and the American Heart Association and studied every website on stroke that is out there. in November I started walking backwards in the house to help with my balance. I did aerobic exercises. My husband put bars on the wall in the spare bedroom to give me something to grab when exercising. I went to more and more stores pushed that shopping cart all over. Soon I could do that with just one hand and alternated.
In September I went to the new provider and was full of hope and promise that I would finally have a professional to guide me on this journey. But, atlas she only kept prescribing drugs for my hypertension and increased my glipizide. Now I was really walking smack into walls and could barely see as well as itching all over! When I mentioned this she stated it was the Diabetes that caused that.
Well, Here I am on November 2023 and I am still considered a Diabetic although I now have it well under control and I can see just fine and am not dizzy in any way, plus I do not itch at all. In fact my balance now has improved about 80 % thanks to the John Hopkins institute and the you tube physical therapy exercises for balance from Doctor Doug Weiss DPT and his proprioceptive Rehab at the Neoplastic institute. I studied everything I could find about the brain and Neuroplasticity, Neuro spasticity and progress from strokes.
After four months of being an experiment with drugs I finally requested a holistic practitioner after the NP I had, just told me either do as she said or she would just have to refer me to a specialist. ( like that was suppose to be a threat). She would have been doing me a favor since she obviously did not know what she was doing. But, guess what I would do after she said that? File a complaint, and put her license in question. Again, I had a provider who gave no direction , no explanations, no advice. "Just, here, take these pills. Oh, they don't work quite right? Here, take some others" When asked what side effects the drugs might have, she lied and said none.
She was making her money on writing prescriptions.
So once again I went back to the insurance company and got a holistic practitioner.
Meanwhile I got some great services from the insurance company. ( that is meant to be sarcastic)
They sent a Doctor on a home visit who seemed to be resentful of being here. Then he would not answer any questions about diabetes. He was a waste. No wonder they gave me a seventy five dollar visa card for consenting to this visit! Think about that! If you have to be paid to allow a Doctor to visit you ( especially since you currently have no decent Doctor) there is something terribly wrong with this whole picture.
Then, they sent me 21 meals in one box and 21 meals in another full of sugar and salt. Yea that is what you feed a patient with Diabetes and Hypertension! How did they even think remotely they were doing something that would increase your health?
The second month ( February) of seeing my new practitioner She took me off the glipizide, in May she took me off the metoprolol. I had a low enough A1C when I was going to the first NP but I guess she liked the kickbacks from drugs too much. She just kept writing scripts
At any rate I am controlling my diabetes and hypertension with diet, exercise, supplements and lifestyle. I am happy to say I am currently free of medications and still check my glucose twice daily and my blood pressure two to three times a day. Once my A!C stays below 5.4 for a year I will be declared non diabetic.
The same insurance company recently sent me a free Fitbit watch and program. I am guessing if you survive that long they give in and help a little.
My same insurance company recently decided I needed a therapist! Can you believe that? And the therapist has gotten me a behavioral therapist coach. So I am receiving therapy twice a week! Where in hell was that service one year ago? I am not about to refuse it. God alone knows after all I have been through I need all the help I can get in becoming mentally healthy once more!
Next, they sent me a free Fitbit watch and program ten months after the stroke! Although I must have had a great psyche to survive it all and get this far. They also gave me twenty five dollars a quarter in credit to buy health products from their catalog, I bought a blood pressure monitor which when it arrived it did not have a charger, so it was good for two weeks and that was it. They also refysed to pay for my diabetic testing supplies.
All in all the insurance company, denied my rehabilitation after a stroke ( which I sorely needed) and instead sent me a Doctor with terrible bedside manner and no knowledge, three weeks of meals full of sugar and salt, a therapist and coach one year after I rehabbed myself along with a Fitbit watch and program, and a blood pressure monitor that was only good for two weeks and no diabetic testing supplies I suppose they thought I didn't die so they would help a little. What a depressing mess that is.
I need to tell that insurance company, Thanks a lot, for absolutely nothing!
It is now currently November and it has been one hell of a year and half! A year and half out of my life. I thought I was going to die and I can't even begin to describe the stress and anxiety from this past year. It was all so unnecessary. What if I had not had a career in medicine? what if I had been someone who knew nothing and just drank the Kool aid and shut up? I really would have been dead! Today's healthcare industry would have killed me and it would have been a crime gone undetected. I lived for a reason , to help others to realize they can live also! we need to stand up for ourselves and fight back. That is what God spared me for, I know that now.
Healthcare means not what others give you. It is what you give yourself, Care of your own health! Follow me to learn how you too can and should be your own advocate,
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