In answering a letter to Joni I realized I need to give some time to the flip side of the medical world.

Yes, there are some incompetent, lazy fools in the medical profession. I employ a few. We make mistakes at work. I own them and try to learn from them, teach and scare the shit out of others about them. I fire these people as fast as I spot them. Sometimes it's after they fucked up unfortunately. I wish to God I had a bullshit meter that functioned better.

I am THE Bitch from Hell when one of my loved ones are in the hospital. Not too long ago my mother was taken to the ER with slurred speech, dizziness and nausea. When my brother called me from Iowa in route to the hospital I told him then, it sounds like a CVA (stroke).

A couple of hours later he calls back, they admitted her. The ER MD "felt" it was probably her cancer resurfacing "with metastasis to the brain from her prior breast cancer". What? I yelled at my brother. My mother had beaten the cancer 20 years ago. I asked if they seen that on the CAT scan. He said...they didn't do a CAT scan, just admitted her for observation. After all it was a Saturday, they'd call in the cardiologist on Monday.

I told my brother to go to that MD and quote me word for word: "If you don't do a CAT scan immediately, my sister is going to sue your ass."

Well he did, and the MD promptly shipped her off to a hospital in Des Moines, where she had a CAT scan immediately and of course was in fact having a stroke. Prompt attention there stopped further brain damage.

The exact same scenario happened with my aunt. Yes, there are incompetent MD's.

Last year my Grandmother was taken to the hospital and had emergency surgery for a perforated bowel. Two days after surgery, she was recouping fine...so I did not fly back. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.

My mother called me that second day, said Grandma was doing great, the only complaint she had was leg pain. WHAT? Any damn nurse or MD knows if a patient after surgery has leg pain, it's probably a DVT (deep vein thrombosis) aka blood clot. I called the nurses station...the nurse was busy. I called Mom back and said go to the nurse and tell her to check for DVT's.

Mom didn't do it. The "nurse was busy and she's nice, she knows what she is doing". Grandma pitched a clot to her brain 12 hours later and never woke up. Yes, her legs had been full of blood clots.

This is Nursing 101. I should of flown my ass back there, but it wasn't a good time at work. I'll never, ever make that mistake again.

Maybe today I'll cut those families some slack.