My adventure: waking at 3 am and accidentally pulling out right nephrostomy tube on way for water. While this caused a trifle bit of alarm on my my part (and by trifle I usually mean gargantuan by writing in an understated bit of British irony),
Nevertheless, my fears of rupturing a blood vessel and bleeding out proved unfounded as simply waited in ER with 0 alarm on part of professionals there, had tube replaced in same hole, and got carted home only to find that handset which would not function to call 911 previously because of low battery would not charge. Next when urine collection bag had blood a week later rather than just pure urine, had to crawl to front door to yell to neighbor who goes to work at 5am to make 911, call a fact which will wound me psychologically to the end of my days but hope to recast in more humorous way in my novel as hate to ask for help, even less so in boxers laying with front door ajar.
Once in the ER, quickly got quickly placed into room with 4 bays divided by curtains, a lucky fact for often patients get placed by triage nurses on cots in corridors--or even in winter laid on a floor with blankets but those latter homeless humans who may fake a malady for warmth--because folks come into the ER with myriad of ills which a primary Dr would better treat.
For instance. the gentleman to my immediate left had fainting spells for a couple months, severe headaches, and had fallen down in public even though sober to cause his ER stay, paramedics having strongly suggested he get his health checked. After a probably unnecessary and costly CT scan which showed no problems, the Doctor discussed his extremely high blood pressure with him.
With my own higher than normal pressure, my ears perked up and heard it explained to the in his early 60's gentleman how pernicious the effects could become; heart attacks, strokes, and death.
He had no doctor (or primary physician as we now say).
He had no health insurance.
He received a prescription and referral to the Orange Blossom Family Medical clinic, a government supported medical center for poor humans and working folks who have no insurance from temporary jobs or cannot afford plans offered by their employers. A little googling will show temporary jobs have become the hiring preference for many companies in the United States of Apathy.
This clinic served me well in 2006 when first diagnosed with high blood pressure, and I sadly never could pay $5 copay for the medications. Budget limits and then more cuts prevented them from referring me to specialists required for my care; nephrologist, urologist, and neurologist for starters. Even after deemed eligible for disability and surviving the 2 year waiting period for Medicare and Medicare Advantage, paying $40 copays for specialists still proves difficult and probably impossible were my dad unable to help his 54 year old son with rent.
Obviously if the gentleman with high blood pressure strokes out and has to receive care in an Adult Living Facility paid for by Medicaid, it will cost exponentially more than it would in a humane system where he could see a Dr a couple of times a year and have some sort of social health insurance to afford blood pressure medication.
This then forms the reality of the broken health care system in the richest country in the world, the world of which Willard Mitt Romney has no inkling whatsoever, not even a bit of curiosity nor compassion, nor any clue he should actually inform himself of the life less affluent really live, the reality of the 47% he mocked, the working folk who pay plenty in sales taxes, increased fees for every governement service in cash strapped states, and pay social security and medicare taxes taken from every paycheck they earn.
This amounts to something more than a tragedy, this ideology of death, a genocide which makes my Jesus weep.
Howzabout you?
For whom will you vote?
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