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Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Friday 6 January 2017
Thursday 7 August 2014
On American culture
Why do many Americans think that healthcare is not a right for their fellow taxpaying citizens?
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The fundamental myth of American culture, is that no matter how poor or humble your birth, you can through grit, spunk and hard work become wealthy and prosperous.
On the face of it, and from the perspective of a class divided Europe, that seems incredibly noble and empowering. The idea that there is that much social mobility, that anyone can forge their own destiny is a powerful part of the American psyche. When it happens, it is an incredible thing. Something Americans can feel proud of.
However, there is a dark side to this myth. Which is this... if anyone can win through hard work and effort, anyone who doesn't win, therefore deserves to be poor.
At the core of all the anti-health care reforms is the single concept "why should I pay for the healthcare of those losers."
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Friday 29 November 2013
Friday 25 October 2013
Wednesday 23 October 2013
Thursday 3 June 2010
SiCKO
I just finished watching the movie and I wept.
I wept for Americans without health insurance. I wept for Americans with insurance but who have had claims rejected. I wept for Americans who understand the need for universal health care but can't convince their fellow Americans of it. I wept for Cubans who despite great challenges understand the value of pulling together as human beings to help one another, particularly when one of us is ill. But mostly I wept for Americans who "don't get it".
If you watch this movie and are unaffected...I'd rather not finish this sentence.
A thought came to mind shortly into the film...
Michael Moore is the Noam Chomsky of the lunch pail crowd.
By the way, the part about sending the cheque to his rival with the website dedicated to bashing Moore--what could be more poignant?
If you haven't seen it, I urge you to.
I wept for Americans without health insurance. I wept for Americans with insurance but who have had claims rejected. I wept for Americans who understand the need for universal health care but can't convince their fellow Americans of it. I wept for Cubans who despite great challenges understand the value of pulling together as human beings to help one another, particularly when one of us is ill. But mostly I wept for Americans who "don't get it".
If you watch this movie and are unaffected...I'd rather not finish this sentence.
A thought came to mind shortly into the film...
Michael Moore is the Noam Chomsky of the lunch pail crowd.
By the way, the part about sending the cheque to his rival with the website dedicated to bashing Moore--what could be more poignant?
If you haven't seen it, I urge you to.
Click here to go to most recent posts.
Thursday 30 April 2009
The Horror Part II
I forgot to mention in Part I that they also gave me a couple of injections in the abdomen, just for fun. I also forgot to mention the joy of not being able to wash/clean/shave/shampoo very well if at all while you have an IV stuck in your wrist or the inside of your elbow.
Before you have time to get over "Angiogram Day", it's "Angioplasty Day". I've never been in an ambulance, but I imagine the ride is much smoother than the transport vehicle used to shuttle me to and from the hospital specializing in performing angioplasty procedures. It didn't bother me very much on the way there, but coming back was a pain in the...back. I'll explain in a bit.
An angioplasty is a procedure to repair damage that shows up on an angiogram. It is done in two possible ways:
a) A balloon is inflated (and subsequently deflated) at a site where an artery is restricted in order to allow better blood flow.
b) A stent (tube/sleeve) is positioned at a restricted site to prevent it from future blockage.
I had one of each. You may be awake (as I was) during the procedure and the pain in the chest is very similar to a heart attack. I felt it for about the next 24 hours.
As soon as they finished, a nurse came by and said "Oops" and proceeded to describe the egg-sized balloon in my groin that had formed because of some problem with removal of the catheter. She managed to resolve this not uncommon occurrence by pressing on it with all her weight for about the next twenty minutes. Do I need to mention that it wasn't pleasant? Ouch.
Now, began the four hours of lying perfectly still on your back. As they rolled me out to the transport vehicle, my back was already starting to hurt. The bumpy ride back to the original hospital through rush hour traffic wasn't pleasant or scenic as all I could see in my position were light standards. As we neared (I asked) our destination, I was silently praying that the pain in my back that was now slowly gathering at my kidney just like the day before, did not reach Level 10 before they got me to my room.
I was in bed with only minutes to spare before I had to ask for a shot of morphine for the pain. Two more days of misery were endured before I was discharged.
You do not want to go through such an experience. It doesn't help, either that I now must take five different medications daily at a cost of about $450 per month for the rest of my life.
While going between hospitals, I spoke to the attendants about the falling average age of heart attack victims. They confirmed that large numbers of people in their thirties and even some in their twenties are falling victim to coronary disease and heart attacks. Obesity is one contributing factor. Today's sedentary lifestyles that keep people glued to TV and or a PC instead of getting out and exercising is another.
Heed my advice. You don't need to make a wholesale change today. Take small steps. Reduce your fat intake. Take more frequent walks. Eat more fruit and veggies. If you think it'll put a crimp in your lifestyle, you might want to consider that a heart attack will put a much bigger crimp in it...if you're lucky.
Before you have time to get over "Angiogram Day", it's "Angioplasty Day". I've never been in an ambulance, but I imagine the ride is much smoother than the transport vehicle used to shuttle me to and from the hospital specializing in performing angioplasty procedures. It didn't bother me very much on the way there, but coming back was a pain in the...back. I'll explain in a bit.
An angioplasty is a procedure to repair damage that shows up on an angiogram. It is done in two possible ways:
a) A balloon is inflated (and subsequently deflated) at a site where an artery is restricted in order to allow better blood flow.
b) A stent (tube/sleeve) is positioned at a restricted site to prevent it from future blockage.
I had one of each. You may be awake (as I was) during the procedure and the pain in the chest is very similar to a heart attack. I felt it for about the next 24 hours.
As soon as they finished, a nurse came by and said "Oops" and proceeded to describe the egg-sized balloon in my groin that had formed because of some problem with removal of the catheter. She managed to resolve this not uncommon occurrence by pressing on it with all her weight for about the next twenty minutes. Do I need to mention that it wasn't pleasant? Ouch.
Now, began the four hours of lying perfectly still on your back. As they rolled me out to the transport vehicle, my back was already starting to hurt. The bumpy ride back to the original hospital through rush hour traffic wasn't pleasant or scenic as all I could see in my position were light standards. As we neared (I asked) our destination, I was silently praying that the pain in my back that was now slowly gathering at my kidney just like the day before, did not reach Level 10 before they got me to my room.
I was in bed with only minutes to spare before I had to ask for a shot of morphine for the pain. Two more days of misery were endured before I was discharged.
You do not want to go through such an experience. It doesn't help, either that I now must take five different medications daily at a cost of about $450 per month for the rest of my life.
While going between hospitals, I spoke to the attendants about the falling average age of heart attack victims. They confirmed that large numbers of people in their thirties and even some in their twenties are falling victim to coronary disease and heart attacks. Obesity is one contributing factor. Today's sedentary lifestyles that keep people glued to TV and or a PC instead of getting out and exercising is another.
Heed my advice. You don't need to make a wholesale change today. Take small steps. Reduce your fat intake. Take more frequent walks. Eat more fruit and veggies. If you think it'll put a crimp in your lifestyle, you might want to consider that a heart attack will put a much bigger crimp in it...if you're lucky.
I just realized that I left out one of the best parts of my ordeal. The morning I was to check out, for no apparent reason, my nose started bleeding. I may have blown it--not sure, but there certainly was no picking involved. Anyway, I used a few kleenex, tried the old plug up the nose trick, but to no avail. I finally call the nurse and she gives me more and more kleenex, and then a cloth with cold water, advised me to tilt my head back, etc. Still, it won't stop. They wheel me down to emerg, a doctor comes in and proceeds to shove some kind of thick wadding so deep inside my nasal cavity that it feels like it's half way down my throat. I've never been so uncomfortable in my life. I couldn't breath well, speak well, swallow well--it almost felt like I was choking. I didn't even bother to tell you how it hurt when he unexpectedly shoved it in in one fell swoop. I imagine it to be comparable to having a large penis shoved all at once into a virgin. Unfortunately, for me, I didn't get an orgasm out of the deal. Hell, I didn't get dinner or a movie.
I ask how long I must endure this misery and he thinks for a second and then says "Come back Monday". It was Friday. That was the longest long weekend I ever spent. It was driving me crazy. Imagine having a partial birth and then going home for three days before coming back to deliver the thing stuck between your legs.
Monday finally comes and I'm in the hospital waiting to have the demon exorcised from my face. How was I to know that the evil lodged in my head would hurt five times more exiting than it did entering? Yowsa! I guess the batting had secured itself in there to the blood and the walls of my nasal cavity and as the wicked snake was slowly pulled out, it did not want to let go. The relief I felt when it was finally out was similar to that spent feeling after a rigorous lovemaking session. But again, without the pleasure.
Thursday 13 November 2008
Always think of your health
Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their days interesting. Someone I know who is retired recently related this story:
The other day I went downtown and into a shop. I was only there for about five minutes, and when I came out, there was a cop writing out a parking ticket. I said to him, "Come on, man, how about giving a retired person a break?" He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. I called him a "Nazi". He glared at me and wrote another ticket for having worn tires. So I called him a "doughnut-eating Gestapo". He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then he wrote a third ticket. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more I abused him the more tickets he wrote. Personally, I didn't care. I came downtown on the bus, and the car that he was putting the tickets on had a bumper sticker that said "Obama in '08 ". I try to have a little fun each day now that I'm retired. It's important to my health.
The other day I went downtown and into a shop. I was only there for about five minutes, and when I came out, there was a cop writing out a parking ticket. I said to him, "Come on, man, how about giving a retired person a break?" He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. I called him a "Nazi". He glared at me and wrote another ticket for having worn tires. So I called him a "doughnut-eating Gestapo". He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then he wrote a third ticket. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more I abused him the more tickets he wrote. Personally, I didn't care. I came downtown on the bus, and the car that he was putting the tickets on had a bumper sticker that said "Obama in '08 ". I try to have a little fun each day now that I'm retired. It's important to my health.
Wednesday 6 August 2008
Shazzam!
There is an amusement park that is open 24/7, 365 days a year. The queue for their best ride, Shazzam!, is more or less constant and the average wait time is one hour. Still, people can't resist it's allure. The ride itself lasts five minutes (including two minutes for collecting tickets and safely securing and disembarking passengers). There is only one man servicing passengers. In any given period, the same number of people exit the ride as join the line waiting to get on. Occasionally, the line increases or decreases a bit but not dramatically so.
One day, Freddie, the ride operator, had an idea. He figured that since the line moves pretty well at a constant rate, the reason there is an hour wait is due to the constant backlog. So, he went to management and explained "If you put another man on the job to help me with the passengers until there is no queue left, I could then maintain the same pace as now--same number coming as going, and never have anyone wait longer than the five minutes it takes to operate the ride."
Management agreed and hired a temp for Freddie. Sure enough, within a few days, the line had dwindled, the temp was sent on his way (hopefully to do some equally helpful job) and the ride was operating smoothly. Well, you can guess what happened next. As word spread of the decreased wait time, more and more people wanted to ride Shazzam!, including people who had just gotten off. It wasn't long before the queue reached its previous and constant length and the wait time went back to an hour.
This story is not about an amusement park. It is about hospitals. And Shazzam! is not a ride, it is the Emergency Room. Waiting an hour to go on a ride may be unpleasant, but doing so in the ER waiting room could be life-threatening. People have literally died waiting. Why do we accept the unacceptable? Especially when there is a very simple solution?
"But, Vinny", you may be saying, "won't the wait times eventually go back to where they were as in your example?" Absolutely not. People don't decide whether to go to the hospital based on the wait times (or how much they enjoy "the ride")--they go to the ER when and because they have an emergency. Reduce the backlog and you should be able to maintain much faster service times with the current staff going forward.
This solution may not apply to rural hospitals where the number of ER patients fluctuates greatly, but then wait times are probably not as big an issue there, either. In big cities that don't sleep at night, the ER is almost always jammed. This is where it applies. This is where it's needed. Is anyone listening out there?
One day, Freddie, the ride operator, had an idea. He figured that since the line moves pretty well at a constant rate, the reason there is an hour wait is due to the constant backlog. So, he went to management and explained "If you put another man on the job to help me with the passengers until there is no queue left, I could then maintain the same pace as now--same number coming as going, and never have anyone wait longer than the five minutes it takes to operate the ride."
Management agreed and hired a temp for Freddie. Sure enough, within a few days, the line had dwindled, the temp was sent on his way (hopefully to do some equally helpful job) and the ride was operating smoothly. Well, you can guess what happened next. As word spread of the decreased wait time, more and more people wanted to ride Shazzam!, including people who had just gotten off. It wasn't long before the queue reached its previous and constant length and the wait time went back to an hour.
This story is not about an amusement park. It is about hospitals. And Shazzam! is not a ride, it is the Emergency Room. Waiting an hour to go on a ride may be unpleasant, but doing so in the ER waiting room could be life-threatening. People have literally died waiting. Why do we accept the unacceptable? Especially when there is a very simple solution?
"But, Vinny", you may be saying, "won't the wait times eventually go back to where they were as in your example?" Absolutely not. People don't decide whether to go to the hospital based on the wait times (or how much they enjoy "the ride")--they go to the ER when and because they have an emergency. Reduce the backlog and you should be able to maintain much faster service times with the current staff going forward.
This solution may not apply to rural hospitals where the number of ER patients fluctuates greatly, but then wait times are probably not as big an issue there, either. In big cities that don't sleep at night, the ER is almost always jammed. This is where it applies. This is where it's needed. Is anyone listening out there?
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