Having an operation was new territory for me. The only time I had an operation was when I delivered my two kids. It was a strange experience. They gave me some drugs wheeled me into an operating room, gave me some more drugs and did the amputations. Next thing I knew I was in a hospital bed getting more drugs and dealing with doctors and nurses on a daily basis. After a week or so I was sent to a nursing home. And, here folks, is where the story gets bizarre. And, this is where we really get to see how corrupt and crooked the health care system really is. It reminded me of scenes from “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”. Most days I felt like the character Jack Nicholson played. The nursing home looked like Opryland. It was beautifully appointed and quite lavish. My room was like a hotel room. The meals were first class and the staff very friendly. They were also very hell bent on being in charge. You did what they wanted you to do when they wanted you to do it.
The physical therapy people and night staff were the worst. They forced me to walk down the halls with crutches. They forced me to do exercises when they knew my feet hadn’t healed. When I asked them why they were so insistent they told me that they had quotas to meet. In other words they got paid based on performance, etc. The night staff was nothing but a bunch of crooks. They came in in the middle of the night and stole money and jewelry from my dresser. They gave me drugs that made me hallucinate and some that made my blood boil. I began to understand why they drove luxury cars. I left this nursing home as soon as I could find someone to give me a ride. But, after I got home I couldn’t make it so I ended up on the floor like in that commercial hoping someone come in and find me. Another ambulance ride, another hospital stay and another nursing home. This home wasn’t very fancy but most of the staff was absolutely fabulous. The physical therapy people did their job and after nine months I was cleared to go home. I no longer owned any homes so they set me up in a senior HUD High rise.
What I learned in this awful ordeal was that the medical profession and the health care industry overall is nothing but a massive money machine. I watched the hospitals and nursing homes give patients so many drugs it was ridiculous. You could see them medicating the residents to the point where all they did was sit in their wheelchairs in the hallways mumbling to themselves or in their beds doing the same thing. I made them stop giving me any drugs except for the ones I really needed. I got well enough to leave and live again on my own.
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