I Wanna Scream!!!

By Darcy Thiel

Sigh.

Heavy sigh.

Another heavy sigh.

My poor dad.  Our medical system stinks, and he suffers for it. Being on palliative care is supposed to make his life more comfortable. In order for that to happen, you must have a palliative doctor, or one that at least fully understands what it means. I have literally spent weeks trying to find him one. Guess why I couldn’t find one? Because there aren’t any.

Geriatrics continues to be an under-served field. People don’t come out of school wanting to work in geriatrics. Palliative isn’t exactly the same thing, but you can see why they are closely related. In all of western New York, there isn’t a palliative doctor unless you are admitted to Hospice.

Having nothing to lose, I contacted Hospice. After phone interviews with me and my dad, I get the call back. No go. He isn’t qualified. His Parkinson’s has to be much further along. It’s a horrific disease that unfortunately waits a really, really long time before it kills you. It just makes you suffer, sometimes for decades, with no hope of getting better. It just gets worse and slowly robs you of any control whatsoever. I listened to the nurse tell me what late Parkinson’s will look like down the road. It sickened me. I cried for a long time after I hung up.

He has had a backache and needs a pain pill. How simple is that? I’ve been running in a Catch-22 circle for four business days, hitting my head on the wall. Can’t get a prescription without making an appointment. I know that is SUPPOSED to be about practicing good medicine. My cynical (but unfortunately realistic) self knows it is more about getting more money from the office visit.

What do they need to see? He’s an 86-year-old man with Parkinson’s who is on palliative care. He is supposed to be kept comfortable. Give the man a damn prescription. I can’t get him into a good doctor for another three weeks. So his three days of pain may turn into three weeks. Of course we can see another doctor in one week, but neither Dad or I care for him. He definitely does not have a palliative medical mind. He either goes to a doctor he doesn’t want (and still waits another week) or waits three weeks.

What pushed me over the edge was the Parkinson’s doctor. She could have prescribed something, at least to get him through a couple of weeks until he sees his primary. The answer came back, “I don’t treat backs, just Parkinson’s. He needs to see his primary.” I told the nurse about the week I have had. Can someone out there please be humane and give an old man some relief?

She said it’s not about being humane but there is all this controversy about pain meds now. Blah Blah. I know, but an 86-year-old man with a degenerative disease is not the person they need to worry about. It’s all so ridiculous.

All of this time, energy and emotional turmoil for me, and all the physical and emotional turmoil for him over a pain pill. There is another even more ridiculous saga over getting him physical therapy. I don’t even have the motivation to write about that.

I’m an Aging Care Manager. I am supposed to help people “navigate our complicated medical system.” I can’t even help my dad..