Yesterday was a strange day
The day started off well. I had managed to get a great nights sleep in. This was celebrated with a nicely brewed mug of coffee, two slices of 50% rye and wheat toast with scrambled egg and HP sauce for breakfast.
Gosh I love that sauce. I think if I am not mistaken, the Queen of England endorsed this product. But please don’t quote me on this bit of trivia.
Comfort, to me, is staying home all day. No hardship in fulfilling this tradition. Always have been happier on my own without the incessant talking that goes hand in hand with company. Oh, there are many times I find myself in company and thoroughly enjoy it – would hate to be an actual recluse – but these times are far less frequent as I am maturing. Being wise and bold enough to decline the odd invitation is permitted. To each his own.
But yesterday I had tasks to perform, so after dressing I made my way downstairs to the car and hit the road. First step was to Kingsway Hospital where I needed to sort out a few inconsistencies in money matters that have still not been resolved from my stay there. Medical Aid, the necessity of life as we age, is not always the joy one hopes it will be after taking such a big chunk of my pension each month.
They pay some part of hospital stays, and then decline to pay other costs. Then, two months later, they decide to pay more, if you are lucky. Well, this led to me not being sure why I suddenly received an SMS stating that unless I paid R172.90 to this particular hospital affiliated company, they would ensure that I ended up with a bad credit rating.
Cell C, who I have my phone contract through, somehow seem to cut off my airtime well before month ends. I know they don’t actually do it and the fault is that I must phone too often, but this meant that I decided to rather drive to the hospital to sort it out, instead of buying more air time.
Now this is where my gripe comes in. The amount owing to the pathologist was for a test which was performed on me – not requested by the doctor – but apparently by the hospital itself. I was the oldest patient in my ward, the other two were a lot younger. The staff came to admit me and performed the normal tests done, like blood pressure, asking all the standard questions and writing them up.
When all of a sudden the one nurse looked at my date of birth and proclaimed that, because I was old, a special set of tests had to be done.
I thought she was joking, but no, she wasn’t. They left the bedside and went back to the nurses station and soon returned with a few items.
I was still smiling about this test and asked them why it was being performed on me? The answer was unbelievable. They said it was because old people can bring diseases into the wards.
Still laughing I asked, whether there was a cut off for diseases to know when to attack ‘old people’? They didn’t really respond, but got to open the first of the packets.
It turned out to be one of those long buds that they used during Covid- to manually change one’s brain as they stuck it so far up the nostrils. I was horrified to discover that once again I was to be subjected to this disgusting nasal swab test.
The second swab was used in an entirely different opening in my body. It was stuck up my anus and then deposited into the plastic vial.
The third one was roughly rubbed into the fold of my leg, close to the vagina, and bagged.
I was told that if any of these tests were to be positive, I would be quarantined in a ward for the entire stay and would not be allowed visitors.
This little story is an aside to my story today, but I have been festering over the discrimination that is so blatantly being performed on the more senior members of the community. And to add salt into this wound, this is the reason for me owing the pathology lab the money, as for some reason, the medical aid had declined to pay for it being done.
To get back to the story. While sitting in the rooms waiting for them to explain why I was being asked to pay this amount, they looked up my account on their computer. It showed that I actually had a R1300 credit which they owed to me! This was because I had paid them over the months of June and July the year before last – and the medical aid had paid them as well!
I asked why it was that they never notified me of this credit and why I only got to hear from them when they thought I was owing them money. They never gave me an answer to this question, but assured me that they would do an EFT transfer of the balance into my banking account. I was livid, but thanked them all the same. It will be delightful to get this unexpected windfall at this time.
They needed my ID card to verify that I was the person in question and, as I mentioned in a Blog the other day, I had misplaced it. But then I suddenly remembered that the day I lost it, I had spent the time in Kingsway, getting all my documents to submit to GAP cover. So I asked them to please check to see if I might have left it there?
They turned around, opened a box on the counter behind them, withdrew a handful of lost cards and smilingly handed me my card!
After my initial euphoria wore off, I was just SO MAD. Containing my anger I addressed these smiling idiots and said, “Surely if someone, your patient who you have every bit of private information on, like a telephone number, an e mail address, a next of kin information, why on earth are you all so stupid that you can’t use your discretion to pick up the phone and notify them that they have left their card in your rooms”
Two of the nurses looked a little uncomfortable while the third one apologised and said, that might be a good idea to follow up on them in future!
However, the fact that I actually got it back is so amazing.
I played tenpin league last night. What a roller coaster this game is turning out to be. I started with a strike, a spare and then, for the rest of the four games I played like a beginner! Sport has a way of cutting one right down to size the moment you think you know what you are doing! But I love the camaraderie, the sound of the skittles being demolished in quick succession and the encouragement that is offered when it is needed. One of the ladies said that she has a spare ball at home which I might be able to use… that would be fantastic. I gave all my bowling stuff away when I as unable to play 4 years ago, and it will be super to own my own again.
Tomorrow I am off to visit Brett. I have a number of orders from friends for his amazing home grown, natural products. Something to look forward to.
