Budget Buster - ER visits for an abcess - no vacation for us - UPDATE P4

[sarah4770]

people just don't want to do their job, I am seeing this more and more lately. it ends up xosting all of us time and money when someone does not bother to check the facts. op glad your son is doing well. abscesses can really hurt.

 

[HoosierDaddy71]

OP, glad your son is doing well. Had a thought that might help in the future. I have started going to Acute Care/Immediate Care clinics for medical issues like what you son had. I find the cost and the wait time to be much better at Immediate Care vs the ER. Obviously, any real emergency should be a trip to the ER but a lot of things can be handled by Immediate Care. As a rule of thumb, I would say anything you consider calling an ambulance for you should definitely go to the ER.

For example, last year DS was running in the house and slipped. Hit his head on the baseboard and had a nice gash. The IC clinic took a total of 45 minutes to check in, evaluate it, clean it, and put in 5 staples. And for our insurance, co-pay was only $50 compared to $100 for the ER.

 

[disney1990]

I don't understand why this would be a budget breaker and you would have to cancel your vacation over it. What would you have done if this had happened after you had gone on vacation? What if your refrigerator had died after you went on vacation or your heater/AC had died? Do you not have an emergency fund? I am happy that you were able to have your son treated by his doctor, but it concerns me that you don't have savings to cover emergencies like this.

 

[rszdtrvl]

It was going to be a budget buster because I was anticipating multiple ER visits for the situation. Because I was told in the beginning his doctor would not handle the packing of the wound, I was thinking that I would need to go to the ER every time to get it unpacked and repacked.

Obviously, since he does not need to go to the ER every time now, the vacation we were hoping to go on is more likely.

We do have emergency money, but not enough to cover 10 ER visits in one month.

The 2 ER visits we will be billed are not going to be an issue, due to the fact that we do have an emergency stash of money.

As for Immediate Care/Urgent Care clinics, unfortunately, there are none around here. I wish there was. When I took him to the ER to have the abcess lanced though, I was told by the ER doctor that because of the size of it and the pain DS was in that I would have been directed to go to the ER anyway. A doctor would not have handled the lancing of the abcess due to the nature of it.

 

[robinb]

I'm glad to hear that your vacation may be back on .

 

[disney1990]

It was going to be a budget buster because I was anticipating multiple ER visits for the situation. Because I was told in the beginning his doctor would not handle the packing of the wound, I was thinking that I would need to go to the ER every time to get it unpacked and repacked.

Obviously, since he does not need to go to the ER every time now, the vacation we were hoping to go on is more likely.

We do have emergency money, but not enough to cover 10 ER visits in one month.

The 2 ER visits we will be billed are not going to be an issue, due to the fact that we do have an emergency stash of money.

As for Immediate Care/Urgent Care clinics, unfortunately, there are none around here. I wish there was. When I took him to the ER to have the abcess lanced though, I was told by the ER doctor that because of the size of it and the pain DS was in that I would have been directed to go to the ER anyway. A doctor would not have handled the lancing of the abcess due to the nature of it.

I am glad that your vacation appears to be back on track. So sorry that you do not have any urgent care facilities near you; they really do save a lot of money.

 

[rszdtrvl]

I am glad that your vacation appears to be back on track. So sorry that you do not have any urgent care facilities near you; they really do save a lot of money.

Thanks!

 

[ShortStuff]

!st- let me say I am SHOCKED at how this whole thing was handled! Shame on your doctor's office and shame on your ER. I am happy it all worked out for you, but it stinks you had to handle so much of the leg work yourself.

2nd-
Keep a close eye on the wound. Sometimes, if some of the abscess wall is still in place, the abscess can fill back up again. (over days/weeks)

I rarely pack abscesses anymore. I usually open the wound in such a way that allows drainage while it heals. But the key is to flush it daily.

When your son is in the shower, have him turn his neck into the stream of water and let the shower flush it for him. It is not ideal, but it might help.

If it is still tender in 2-3 days, it might need to be rechecked. After an abscess is drained correctly, the area is much less tender. If it is healing correctly, there should be very little pain. Pain suggests it is filling back up. Not a big deal, but would need to be flushed again.

Packing simply keeps the wound from closing up and filling back up with the drainage that would have followed the packing out of the wound. This allows the wound to heal from the bottom up. Otherwise it leaves a pocket to fill back up. Antibiotics don't necessarily help. They have a hard time getting from the blood stream to the actual abscess. I rarely put people on antibiotics anymore- unless the skin around the abscess is infected too (cellulitis) But finish all the antibiotics. Just don't be falsely fooled that the antibiotics will take care of anything left in the pocket.

So the take home message here is
1) watch the wound/look for pain
2) get a new doctor for your son. He should be ashamed of himself for saying he could't help in the 1st place. Abscess care is basic basic medicine, taught in the first months of medical school rotations. And if it wasn't your doctor's fault, the office staff needs to be retrained!

Good for you for being your son's advocate. Unfortunately, with the state of health care, a patient needs an advocate to keep on top of things.

Great advice!! I am shocked you got the edict from the pediatricians office without him having seeing the wound himself first? That seems odd to say the least.

I do abscess care and packing at work often. I have taught many inpatients and their families how to do the procedure themselves. It is off putting at first, but after a few tries, it actually gets to be pretty routine and easy to do. As others have stated, it has to heal from the inside out. Packing, is a very important step in the process,

OP, if your friends Mom is available, you might want to ask her to peek at it in a day or two, just to get another opinion of the healing process! I'm happy your son was able to stop taking the narcotics. That's great! :

 

[Jajone]

Wow, OP's story and this story really illustrate how dysfunctional our health care system is. You see so many complaints from hospitals about being flooded with patients who could have their needs met elsewhere. Well, duh-oh, if you don't direct people to where they can find the appropriate treatment, like OP wasn't, then you create your own problem! It's ridiculous that patients have to become health care experts to avoid exorbitant costs and learn how to navigate the system. I just read an article in Money magazine about how medicare will cover rehab costs for patients who have been admitted to the hospital for 2 or 3 days, but many senior citizens have ended up having to pay for rehab themselves (thousands of dollars) because hospitals had them marked as "under observation" instead of "admitted"! This is for serious injuries like a broken pelvis.
Just glad to hear OP's son is healing fast!

Bolded part by me. I work as a casemanager in a hospital and have to say that hospitals use medicare's guidelines to determine status of a patient. I am usually the one to explain that to a patient. Especially in the case of a broken pelvis, there is no reason for a doctor to see the patient on a daily basis if their pain is controlled by oral medication. That is determined by evidence based medicare guidelines, not me. People should take that issue up with Obama, not the hospital. Ok, off my soapbox now.

 

[rszdtrvl]

Got our first billing summary (not a bill) for day #1 at the ER and the total before doctor charge was $1282.

Called our insurance to see if they had gotten any information, and for Day #1 and Day #2 of the Er visits, including Doctor, our out of pocket is $240!!!

I told the insurance rep on the phone that I was so excited! I made her day being excited about a bill, LOL. I told her I was expecting the bill to be a lot larger which makes me wonder now about the huge bill I paid years ago......

Anyhoo, DS is healing great. He will look like he either has a gunshot or knife scar on his back when all is said and done. He is almost totally healed - just a tiny spot in the middle is not scarred over yet. We still keep a bandaid on him while he is at school.

And......

Check out my ticker!!
I got an awesome deal with air and hotel, so DH said to go for it - even before we got the ER estimate. So it was meant to be!

 

[disney1990]

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On both counts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[robinb]

Got our first billing summary (not a bill) for day #1 at the ER and the total before doctor charge was $1282.

Called our insurance to see if they had gotten any information, and for Day #1 and Day #2 of the Er visits, including Doctor, our out of pocket is $240!!!

I told the insurance rep on the phone that I was so excited! I made her day being excited about a bill, LOL. I told her I was expecting the bill to be a lot larger which makes me wonder now about the huge bill I paid years ago......

Anyhoo, DS is healing great. He will look like he either has a gunshot or knife scar on his back when all is said and done. He is almost totally healed - just a tiny spot in the middle is not scarred over yet. We still keep a bandaid on him while he is at school.

And......

Check out my ticker!!
I got an awesome deal with air and hotel, so DH said to go for it - even before we got the ER estimate. So it was meant to be!

Great news! And that scar will give him some street cred, LOL.