Kaiser

So why do I still have Kaiser insurance? Sometimes Kaiser has been just fine when I get sick or injured, but then sometimes I'm just amazed at how crap they can be.

So I did something stupid to my back a couple months ago, and it really hurt. It got better, but whenever I'd do something strenuous, I'd re-tweak it, and it would hurt again.
Well, last Sunday I was making screens for my bedroom windows, and hunched over assembling it for way too long. I stood up and man, was I sore.
Sunday night and Monday I could barely stand up straight. Moving from seated to standing took about 30 seconds of telling my back to do what I wanted, and my back and hip seemed fused together, making me look like a hunchback with a wood leg. A wood lug that hurt when I put weight on it.

So I called Kaiser, and somehow magically got an appointment the same day. I go to my appointment, standard waiting in the lobby, getting my weight and blood pressure taken in the hallway by a med assistant, and escorted into the exam room. After a few minutes, my NP comes in. The woman was my height, and must have weighed 300+ pounds. I'm supposed to take medical advice from this woman??
So I explain the basics of what I did to my back, how it's been hurting, and how it feels. She has me touch my toes. Does it hurt? Yes. She has me lay on my back and bring my legs in. Does it hurt? No.
OK, so I did something to my back. She tells me she's going to prescribe me meds for swelling & pain. She spends 5 minutes typing things into the computer. Oh, you were here previously for stomach pains? Then I'll prescribe you more meds for that! She then hands me a piece of paper with a referral to Physical Therapy, and gets up to leave.
Um, wait? What am I supposed to do now? "Well, I wouldn't exercise for a while" No shit, your 300 pounds, I bet you don't exercise... I however, would not like to end up like that. She basically tells me don't do anything that hurts, and see the physical therapist. OK fine, maybe they will be more helpful.
I go to the pharmacy and pick up my meds. Prednisone for the pain (1x a day), Pepcid to help my tummy handle the Prednisone (2x a day), IBProfin for pain (3x a day), and Hydrocodone for pain (4x a day). I think I spent more time with the Pharmacist longer than the NP, asking what the drugs did, and how they would affect me.

Called the physical therapy office, and they say that before I can have a 1 on 1 appointment, I have to take a group class for low-back pain. OK, fine, the class is Wednesday, so that's not so bad. Today I went to the class. First bad sign: We received a packet of info & exercises, and the picture on the cover was a man massaging his shoulder, with the title "Care for Acute Low Back Pain." Through the next hour, I sat through learning how to stand up properly, sit down, pick things up, etc. It wasn't bad, but I've been helping Jim do these things for the past several months, so it wasn't very novel. I patiently waited for the exercise portion of class, so I could strengthen my back & core.
So we lay on the ground, and contract our abs. Magic! And then we bring a knee into our chest, and then the other. And then, the most amazing exercise - cat/cows.
2 of the other people in the class were an older man, and an older woman. They were both obviously fairly inactive, and have had health problems. Arthritis, knee replacements, falling episodes, all sorts of fun old-people problems. And I was just thinking - jesus, I need to keep myself fit, I don't want to be them. I want to be healthy as I get older.
So the class was ending, and the physical therapist decides to actually take us a minute to talk to us individually. She now had approximately 2 minutes to decide if we should take an exercise class from Kaiser, or get referred to 1-on-1 physical therapy.
So I tell her that I do yoga, and that my back doesn't hurt during yoga, but it does afterword, and I'm not sure what part of yoga makes me hurt. So I get the 1-on-1 referral. But, can't she give me a little help until I can get an appointment? I don't want to get old and brittle and frail, I want to go home and exercise! No, she has another class, she can't tell me anything, and there isn't anyone there who can help me right now.
So I go to the desk, and sign up for the very next physical therapy appointment... 2 weeks away. But what am I supposed to do until then? I ask the receptionist, but she's just a receptionist. My obese doctor says not to exercise, my physical therapist has told me how to put on pants without hurting my back.
Oh, and would you think that if I'm having severe back pain, maybe I should get an MRI, see what's going on in there? Nah, Kaiser would rather give me drugs and PT, and see what happens.
So I go to work, frustrated, wanting to take good care of myself, but not knowing what to do.
I call the one health care provider that I know I can actually talk to - my chiropractor.
I call her, she picks up the phone, recognizes my voice, and we talk for 20 minutes. I tell her my dilemma. I want to be fit! I don't want to get old! I don't someone to help me! She has 45 minutes before her next appointment, so I close my computer, and head to her office. She gives me an adjustment, looks at my spine, and tells me that she doesn't think it's a disk problem, she thinks that my sacrum has been tilted, which is what causes me pain. Then we talk about what hurts, what puts pressure on my sacrum, what exercises I can do, and what I shouldn't.
I shouldn't do anything that involves curving my back forward, my back should be straight. And I shouldn't do anything that puts a lot of pressure on my back, like hard laying on my back, and lifting my legs. Sweet, I know all the modifications in yoga, I can avoid doing those things.
Our goal is that by the time I have my physical therapy appointment in 2 weeks, I've already mostly healed myself :-) A good goal I think.

So now I'm at home, lots of Kaiser drugs flowing through my system, but I have a PLAN. Modified yoga, exercise, drugs, healing. And at the next open enrollment, I'm picking another health care provider.