Reply #29: The hospital and nursing home ignored my Mom's bleeding

[Blue Diadem]

An urgent care clinic discovered lung cancer through x-rays when she had pneumonia. From there she was admitted to a hospital where she stayed for a few weeks and then was sent to a nursing home for rehab due to her extensive spinal arthritis. Anytime she was bedbound, she'd end up not being able to walk thus the rehab. This meant being on a bedpan or being escorted to the bathroom until she could regain her mobility. No one seemed to pay attention to the amount of blood she was passing.

Her Dr. had previously told her that she had hemorrhoids and that was why she had a small amount of blood. She never told us it continued or had increased. She finally told me about extensive bleeding during the week she came home that summer, after nearly 2 months in the hospital and nursing home. I had to force her to go to the Dr.(she'd say but he told me it was just hemorrhoids) where she was immediately diagnosed with advanced colon cancer. The lung cancer was a metastasis.

The one thing I didn't have to worry about was the bills. She had medicare and a very good insurance that my father's employer had covered for all their retirees. After my father passed, that insurance had continued to take care of my sister who had down syndrome and it paid every cent during her 3 month illness before she died and it covered what medicare didn't for my Mom.

Colonoscopies are so very important.

My prayers are with you Tab.