(no subject)

[geminigirl]

What?

A half an hour to talk to the "advice nurse" [1] at the HMO.

I only called cause peak flow has dropped below 75% [2] It's only down to 70% so I'm not like, freaking out yet or anything, and in fact I didn't even notice that it had dropped...I used the meter cause I've been coughing.

So now I'm coughing

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What?

A half an hour to talk to the "advice nurse" [1] at the HMO.

I only called cause peak flow has dropped below 75% [2] It's only down to 70% so I'm not like, freaking out yet or anything, and in fact I didn't even notice that it had dropped...I used the meter cause I've been coughing.

So now I'm coughing <lj-cut="click here for a pretty description of what I'm coughing up, only cause they ask sometimes"> (mostly dry but when it's not it's pretty green sputum) </lj-cut> and sore throat, and crazy temperature and a little congestion.

I'm tempted to circumvent the wait by pressing the option for "if you're not sure you're having a medical emergency." (I'm not in distress yet, but I do want to get things straightened out before I hit the red zone on my meter.)

[1] This would be the telephone triage nurse. Who made me actually go see the doctor when I had a cold, on a Saturday, and called to find out if Sudafed was okay to take with one of the asthma medications I was on. They freak out when I have a cold, and yadda yadda, asthma kills people, but I've had asthma for the last ten years and spent most of that time not running to the doctor every time I had a cold. And ended up just fine. In fact, I had less emergency treatment for asthma before it was so aggressively treated.

[2] For those of you who have never experienced it, peak flow measures how many litres of air per something that I move when I exhale. I have a peak flow meter because whenever I call the doctor they want to know what it is. Below 75% and I usually have to go in for some sort of treatment.

Comments

[chelona.livejournal.com]

Sounds alot like my symptoms. I went to the doc today because I spent the last two nights not sleeping because my throat hurt so much. Yep, strep. NOT fun. But now I am on antibiotics, and they gave me codine. ;) Yummy.

[yix.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I don't really get the triage nurse line thing. My experience is that about all they can tell you is if you should walk, run, or call 911 to get to your doctor and I can pretty much figure that out myself.

[sweetmmeblue.livejournal.com]

I have found that the BCBS triage nurse and the ones at the pediatrics office are good as long as you set the framework. You don't ask if you should bring your kid (or self) in to the doc or not. If you do the answer is usually yes. However, I did ask how serious a fever would merit emergency attention and some other things like that. They really helped when Gray was having anaphalaxic reactions to chicken. All in all I think it depends who the triage team works for and what they have been instructed to do.

[geminigirl]

I find that with the triage team for Kaiser, I tend to get one of two extremes...either it's "You have to come in" or "Call us back, it's no big deal." I've had more emergency treatment for asthma with them in two years, than in the entire ten years since I was diagnosed. I think only twice was it really necessary; once when I'd let an attack go too long without a rescue inhaler (I'd forgotten mine, and it was cold, one of the worst triggers for me) and another time when I'd just been having chronic low level attacks for days and days, shortly after a cold, and during the peak spring allergy time. But at the same time, they also let an ear infection go several days longer than it needed to before I had an appointment-because it was deemed not worth late night care, but no one in my GP's office had appointments for three days. (Ear infections are an occasional side effect for some people on one of my medications. I thought I'd outgrown them.)

It's so hit or miss; I feel far less in control of deciding when I need attention for acute illness with the HMO, although they're much better at actively treating my asthma than I'm used to.

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

I usually don't drag my ass in until I hit the 50% level, because your lungs can collapse below that. I did once convince my doctor to keep me out of the hospital at 40%. I don't know why I worked so hard to stay out of the hospital, as I ended up too sick to do my midterm anyway.

[geminigirl]

I'm wavering between 55 and 75% at the moment. I usually call at around 75 because most of the time if I get much lower than that, I don't feel like driving.

I've yet to be in the hospital because of my asthma. ER, sure. Not the hosptial though.

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

a) I am stupid enough to drive myself usually. After all, I am often single so sometimes I don't have a choice. For that matter, when I've had a choice, I've always had a doctor within 1 mile of my house.

b) When I say hospital, I mean ER.

[geminigirl]

I always drive myself. It's one of the (cough)benefits(cough) of living alone. Although it's usually somewhere between 25 and 45 minutes to the doctor from where I am now. Except for the time I went in an ambulance, years ago. That was much shorter.

They ask me everytime I end up in urgent care if I've ever been hospitalized for my asthma, so I assume hospital to mean hospital.

It's still a half an hour to talk to the advice nurse. I'm working on grad school essays instead of sitting on hold for now. Maybe later.

Define this please

[rapha.livejournal.com]

Is TRIAGE NURSE a requirement by your HMO, or a service they provide. I shutter to thing that you HAVE to call them before you can act.

Re: Define this please

[geminigirl]

Go ahead and shudder...

I have to call them before I do anything unless it's a medical emergency that clearly someone with little to no medical knowledge would determine to be one, like chest pains, or excessive bleeding or something-you know, the sort of thing that most sane persons would do something about which would often include calling an ambulance. There's a rather silly legal definition of what constitutes emergency and reasonable assessment and all that. When you call you get a recording that says "welcome to kaiser permanente medical advice and appointments. We are open for blah blah blah. If you are having a medical emergency hang up and dial 911. If you're not sure if it's a medical emergency dial x and so on"

Then you talk to the triage nurse, they determine if you need to come in now, later, or go to an emergency room. In some ways, it makes sense; if I need a nebulizer treatment, for example, one of their urgent care centers can probably do it more quickly, more efficiently and at a lower cost than sending me to the ER, presuming that I'm still in good enough shape to get to an urgent care center-this is why I'm supposed to call when my peak flow goes below 75%-at that point, I'm usually well enough to still get there. When I hadn't quite dropped to that level and called one night, the triage nurse said that I didn't need to come in yet, but since there were no appointments at either of the two reasonably close centers, they would send me to the ER if I continued to get worse, and to monitor and call them back. When I was injured over the summer, I got into and out of urgent care far quicker than if I'd had to go to an ER.

At this point, it's nearly an hour wait to talk to the triage nurse. I think I may shower and bypass the "medical emergency option" before my peak flows go any lower.