Surgery--Again

Yes, make them help you. Do you want me to start with the swearing?

I don't know about Roberta, osso .... but I don't mind at all if you do!

Ok, **** it, the precipice of medical care is slow in general to get a clue re individuals. Admittedly, med facilities are under financial storming as profit providers. Don't get me going...

Or do get me going, but I'm not a data person. At the same time I'm not a data person per se, I can scan, and I can see fuckcity.

All right, I'm not so clear re data when I swear.

Gather some lunch and wait 72 hours, I'll get back to you.

US is supposed to be the greatest country in the world - well according to Americans - but your health system is absolutely ****.

How many threads have we seen about A2Kers struggling with the health system, especially the financial side.

Sheesh!

(I'ts worse than that...)

Yes.

Love it when you do the angry swearing thing, osso!

It appears that people on pensions and/or without health insurance only have access to what appears to be an almost third world health system.

Why do you let your politicians get away with this crap!???

Because our country is set up to reward those who look out for themselves.

Remember, America was started by a bunch of people who didn't care for the existing systems. Most came here figuring they could do just as well (or better) for themselves without so much societal and governmental interference. So, self-reliance is a basic tenet of our society. Which is a good thing....except, of course, when one needs help.

An old joke here:
Q: What is a Democrat?
A: A wounded Republican.

I imagine that if I was sufficiently incapacitated, I could get transported from one place in the hospital to another. If I were sufficiently incapacitated, it would be worth the wait. Otherwise, it ain't. The friends who got me out of the hospital (from the biopsy and nonsurgery) had to go to considerable lengths to get a wheelchair. They pushed.

This is a gigantic public hospital with no money. It serves I don't know how many thousands of people, many with little or no money. As annoyed as I get at dealing with the place, the fact is that this hospital is taking mighty good care of me. It's the peripheral crap that drives me nuts, and that's what I've been complaining about.

As for my allowing politicians to get away with this? I vote. Nothing happens.

IMO, the health-care system in the US is a national disgrace. Also IMO, the US is not the greatest country in the world, on a bunch of fronts. Still, I'd rather be here than elsewhere, but I'm not one for moving.

osso, You raised a good point about my penchant for gagging. I will discuss that with the dentist when I pick up the tray. I'm a major gagger even when my larynx isn't swollen. Oy.

Roberta is nicer than me, please stamp that on the page.

Not that nice, osso. But my perspective is that of the insider/sicky. Two malignancies. One in remission. One to be treated. One other surgery.

Endless waits. Bureaucratic idiocy. Rudeness. Thoughtlessness. Idiotic trekking. Prepayments (a hostage situation, IMO). All true. But I'm alive.

I remain enraged, deal with it, bubele.

Dealing with it. And enraged too. Palenty! A lot! Tres pissed.

Thinking of you ((Boida)) x

You'll find that this is the case in most, if not all, healthcare organizations today, if you're the average, middleclass, insured patient. If you're among the wealthy, the situation will be very different. Consider the excellent care and treatment of Edward Kennedy at the MGH in Boston. Did he have to run out to Cambridge Street ( Boston) to find a wheelchair? Of course not...so why should anyone else?

The average patient never sees such tenderness , as Kennedy received , in this day and age.

I realize that most healthcare employees are overworked and often underpaid, but why is the patient the recipient of this abuse?

By the way, from my experience in healthcare, the most caring and gentle hospital employees are usually those individuals with the least education and of course, the least pay.

Checking in on the Boid....

x

Sputt[img][/img]ering with rage.

Paid and registered in the new building. Then I was told that the test (barium swallowing) was in the old building. As promised, I pitched a hissy fit. I said I couldn't get there. I couldn't walk. I couldn't breathe.

Wanna know what I was told? "Sure you can get there. Just walk slow." Then she turned and left.

My eyes welled up with tears. Rage. Fatigue. Disgust. I walked to the old building, slowly. Had the test. Also got an appointment for swallowing therapy for next Wednesday. I was assured that the appointment and therapy would be in the new building.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

<muttermuttermutter>

Glad at least something got accomplished! Who told you to go ahead and walk so unsympathetically? A receptionist? A nurse?