Hammond-Henry "Hilton"

Mom drove herself to the Hammond-Henry emergency room Friday night - she had been having erratic heartbeat (periodically) throughout the day on Friday and some times her heart felt like it was pounding in her chest... not in a heart-attack way but it concerned her as there was nothing that she could think of that would be causing the symptoms. Long story short, she has developed more blood clots and they are in her right lung.

Dr. Mullin decided to keep her in the hospital until he could talk with her oncologist (Dr. Porubcin). So nurse George said "welcome back to the Hammond-Henry Hilton" as mom has been a frequent visitor in the last couple of years.

Dr. Mullin increased her Lovenox dose to dissolve the clots and would like for her to go back to doing the shot twice a day. Dr. Porubcin decreased her dose in early January back to one shot a day as he thought she could get by with that since she isn't doing a treatment at the moment. Mom does have an appointment with Dr. Porubcin already scheduled for Tuesday (1:00 p.m.) so we'll find out what the numbers are on her latest blood count.

She is doing much better today and is more at ease. Dr. Mullin also prescribed a drug, Atenolol, to slow down her heart a bit. He believes that the blood clots were putting pressure on one of the cavities in the heart and "making it really irritable" for the heart to do its job. The nurses hooked mom up to an EKG on Friday when she arrived into the emergency room, and that came out normal. They didn't see anything that would indicated heart tissue damage.

They are planning on sending mom home tomorrow after Dr. Mullin and Dr. Porubcin connect.

The other part of the conundrum is getting mom back on Lovenox twice a day. She will have to fill out a couple of forms (new insurance company now) and talk to them. To me that seems like the wrong way about it - you shouldn't have to talk to your insurance company first to get the ok to order more prescriptions. There is something really really backwards about having your insurance company dictate what prescriptions you get based on whether or not it will make them money (or cost them more money).

A patient's health needs to be the priority, and that is definitely not how the system works.