In the end of March into April of 2016, I had stroke-like symptoms for about a week. I was miserable. I kept on thinking it was just another complex migraine. I couldn’t sleep. I was hyper-alert at times. One side of my body was weak and didn’t work properly. I finally drove to Grand View Hospital’s ER on Monday, April 4. They took my vitals, extracted some blood, scolded me for driving myself to the ER, and for waiting through a week of stroke-like symptoms. They examined me and determined that it did appear that I was having a stroke. Then they proceeded to ignore me for five hours: no food, no water, no vitals, no meds, no monitor. They told me I was going to be admitted. I finally caught an orderly who found a couple of sandwiches and some water for me. The kitchen was already closed. I ate the meat and cheese out of the sandwiches and threw away the bread. Part of migraine prevention is a low carb diet. All of my strokes and multiple TIAs (transient ischemic attacks or “mini-strokes”) have been caused by migraines.
I took my own drugs and supplements with the water. Finally, I got up to leave. I said in a loud voice that I would be more comfortable at home and they could call me when they were ready to admit me. A nurse immediately told me they were ready and scrambled to find a wheelchair and took me up to the telemetry unit on second floor. They kept me for five days and did every kind of heart test I have ever heard of, along with a CT scan and MRI of my brain with and without contrast. Of course, I was on a monitor the whole time. The brain scans showed no evidence of new stroke damage, so it was determined that it was another TIA, my 42nd. Even though all of my strokes and TIAs have been migrainous, they did one last heart test, an echo-cardiogram. It revealed that my aortic valve was in bad shape. They found that it had been damaged by the infection that had attached to my spine in 2010. My cardiologist, who was doing the test, asked me why I didn’t know about this before. I said, “I’m not the one doing or reading the tests! How am I supposed to know anything?” He told me I would need to have it replaced. He didn’t think it was that urgent. He recommended I go to Lehigh Valley Hospital Center.
There are two reasons I would not go to Lehigh Valley. In 1993, when a truck hit me when I was on my Honda Helix, the ambulance took me to their ER. The doctor in charge that day happened to be a hand specialist. He kept looking at my hands to see what he could fix there. There were only minor scratches there. It was my hip that was shattered! They X-rayed my right hip, then had me stand up on it. I screamed in pain. They gave me crutches and another Percocet and told me to “buck up”. I hobbled out of the ER to ride home in excruciating pain in our compact car. I stayed on the couch that night. The next day, Lehigh Valley ER called me and asked me if I had pain in my hip. I said, “No shit, Sherlock!” They told me they had looked at the X-rays again and it looked fractured. They asked me to come back to the ER to get a scan. I asked why should I come back there and would I be seen immediately. They said they would take care of me and I would not have to wait. I arranged for a neighbor who had an old Lincoln to drive me up there, because I couldn’t bear folding myself into our Justy again. They made me wait all day long, lying on a gurney, in pain, in the ER, before they finally got around to me. Then they had the nerve to send a bill with a second ER charge! The other driver’s insurance was paying all of my expenses, but I would not sign off on that second ER charge! Lehigh Valley kept trying to bill for it. They finally called me and said, “What do you care? The other guy’s insurance is paying it.”
I replied, “Now, you really have me angry! You made a mistake, sent me home on a shattered hip socket on crutches. Told me to ‘Buck up’ ignoring my exquisite pain, and you want to get paid a bonus?! When my car mechanic screws up, and forgets to do something or damages something, he eats it. You don’t get to just get paid more for making a mistake! Do you want me to hire a lawyer and see where this goes, or do you want to just forget the second ER charge?” They removed the charge.
The second reason I didn’t want to go to Lehigh Valley was that I wanted to go to HUP, because my stroke specialist and neurologist were connected there. There is public transportation to Philadelphia. I have a lot of friends in Phila., and they have a long, national reputation for excellence in heart surgery.
When I was discharged from Grand View on April 8, as the nurse’s aide was helping me out the front door and into our car, my left side was numb and unresponsive. She was alarmed and questioned whether I should be leaving. She was concerned that I may be having a stroke. I assured her that they had done every possible test for that. I had been experiencing symptoms like this for about ten days. It is just an atypical migraine and they’re kicking me out.
I did not waste any time making an appointment at HUP.