Hi Boys And Girls

[earthdome]

Glad to hear you are doing better.

 

Thanks for the detailed report on your hospital stay. You haven't mentioned costs yet or the quality of the care. Everything ok in that area also?

[Mike S]

Glad to hear you are doing better.

 

Thanks for the detailed report on your hospital stay. You haven't mentioned costs yet or the quality of the care. Everything ok in that area also?

 

The care I had was fantastic ..... every body spoke English except one young nurse that was pregnant .... she preferred to speak to J all the time ..... food was not to my liking as they don't serve anything that is stimulating or animal products including fish and chicken ... but the veggies were good as well as the fruit ..... room was new and great but the bed sucked .... my tail bone is still sore from resting on the bar under the mattress ..... but then I sleep on my side and the bed was kinda small for that ..... Filipino sized ..... :hystery: I have some pictures of the room I will post along with the actual bill including the Dr's fee's ...... 

 

Cost wise we had to question some of the categories like the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (they had no room code to charge the monitor I used in the private room so they charged it there) .... the bill is kinda hard to understand so I'll attach it ..... bill was p97,742.74 of which my senior discount was p14,793.27 ... Phil-Health only paid p8,540 

 

I'll post more later .... :cheersty:

[Gerald Glatt]

Welcome home

[Mike S]

OK update as promised ...... hospital bill .... the confusing part of the bill is when you pay for partial payment it makes the bill look strange and hard to read ..... at least to me .... we put p20,000 up front for the pharmacy so J didn't have to keep making trips down there to get my meds and posted p30,000 upfront ...... as you can see PhilHealth paid squat and I didn't ask for the senior discount they just gave it to us ..... .....

 

My advise keep some cash somewhere you can get your hands on if you need to .... remember it was Mon. 2:30am when I arrived at the ER ..... not sure if they would have admitted me with just the Philhealth as we took the P20,000 with us just in case .... it could just as easily been Sat. morning with no banks open till Mon. morning ..... plan accordingly

 

My meds are totaling a bit over p10,000 per month with a few I don't need and to be taken as needed ..... some will be a lifetime commitment while others can be changed ..... I choose not to go with all generic as unlike the US they are not that regulated here ...... the Lipitor is one of the expensive ones .... and I have read that several of the generic branded ones from India were recalled and I don't need to deal with that .... :tiphat: :hystery: :hystery:

Edited September 29, 2015 by Mike S

[Dave Hounddriver]

the Lipitor is one of the expensive ones .... and I have read that several of the generic branded ones from India were recalled and I don't need to deal with that

 

If money is not an issue then go with Lipitor.  Crestor is another good brand.  But I use the generic version and the effects are the same.  By effects I mean any statin drugs give me muscle pain in the middle of my back when I use them daily.  On the other hand, reduced cholesterol means increased blood flow and that helps with the little head.  If the Lipitor gives you muscle pain, like it does for me, then you could try only using half a pill a day for a few days, then when you feel the pain wait a couple days for it to go away before resuming.  I generally go 2 days of half a pill a day and 2 days with no pill.  Its the best compromise I can find between excruciating back pain and eliminating cholesterol.

[Jack Peterson]

If money is not an issue then go with Lipitor.

 

Agreed but to offset Costs I went to "ATERVAST" Reduces muscle problem and maintains the Cholesterol issue reducing.

 

JP :thumbsup:

[Mike S]

The funny thing is the Dr. told me my cholesterol was not that high and I'm taking the Lipitor once a day (40mg) ...... gotta find the lab results and check it ..... the good thing here is you get copies of everything including the sono-gram (sp) and echo-gram ..... try getting that in the US ..... :hystery:

 

They did an echo-gram of the arteries in my legs and I showed none if very little blockage caused by cholesterol ..... the Dr. that performed the test said they looked fine and nothing to worry about ...... but my cardiologist has put me on Deflon (500mg) x2 twice a day ..... not sure just why but I'm no doctor ...... :thumbsup:

:cheersty:

[RBM]

Mike just came across your unfortunate experience. As others glad your well on the way to a good recovery and trust this continues and your health stay stable for many years.

One question which would interest me, would you recommend Adventist over Riverside? I ask this as I am also in the area as others very well may be. The few reports I have heard about Riverside were positive, plus I tried to visit an Aussie whom was admitted,a while back. Although it was not allowed due to the infection risk they were amazingly professional and left me an excellent impression.

So Mike just keep on keeping on, your gona sure be fine.

[RBM]

the Lipitor is one of the expensive ones .... and I have read that several of the generic branded ones from India were recalled and I don't need to deal with that

 
If money is not an issue then go with Lipitor.  Crestor is another good brand.  But I use the generic version and the effects are the same.  By effects I mean any statin drugs give me muscle pain in the middle of my back when I use them daily.  On the other hand, reduced cholesterol means increased blood flow and that helps with the little head.  If the Lipitor gives you muscle pain, like it does for me, then you could try only using half a pill a day for a few days, then when you feel the pain wait a couple days for it to go away before resuming.  I generally go 2 days of half a pill a day and 2 days with no pill.  Its the best compromise I can find between excruciating back pain and eliminating cholesterol.

Dave an interesting read. I was found to have very high cholesterol about two years ago. Although my good was very high so was my LLD. One kinda off set the other how ever Doc prescribed the usual lipitor. Same as many very bad muscle pains, although it's certainly did reduce the LLD.

Now I am not recommending what I have done to anyone, how ever if ever (luckily rarely) I am prescribed any medication I google the sh...out of it. The result here was a site I found called space doc.com which I poured over. Concentrated on stats mostly, also read every article I could written by PHDs. At the least it throws up some pretty good arguments. Last time visited was a few years ago so not sure it's still around. After this I have had no medication at all, good food, heaps exercise and no longer concerned my levels.

Not saying it's just big Pharma ripping us but feel we are being brain washed, or at least our docs, to some degree.

My faith in my original Cebu doc kinda went out the window once she informed me my sudden high cholesterol was due my eating avocados on a regular basis.

Edited September 29, 2015 by Jollygoodfellow
fixed quote

[gusincebu]

You mentioned Senior Discount in your original post, and in the one about the bill.

Can you explain what this is ? Are you a Filipino ?