image from http://www.josephinewallart.co.uk
We the People.
I am going to be critical of our respective health care systems and patient treatment, so if you will be offended, skip this post.
I have read posts from friends I care about, posts which have reduced me to despair. I wonder where we are all going and what the purpose behind this is. It seems almost too much to ask a person to accept and yet that is what we are being asked to do – but by whom?
In my heart I see the suffering of my friends and search my heart, my soul, for some way to help them and stop this insidious separation of healthy people from those who are struggling with theirs. Why has this treatment of the ill as an unwelcome burden on society resurfaced with such callous indifference?
This reminds me of the days of biblical times where the lepers were isolated because they believed all forms of leprosy were a curse from the gods and contagious. It reminds me of more civilised days where the ill and infirm were locked way as an embarrassment. The improvements in our healthcare systems, in the knowledge of our doctors and specialists were supposed to bring better healthcare to the sick.
image from http://www.leprosymission.org.uk Spinalonga, off the north-east coast of Crete operated until 1957
It appears from changes that are occurring that this is now in decline. The day may come, sooner than we wish, when only those with money are able to have good healthcare, good doctors. I am at a loss to understand the thinking behind these changes.
As part of the “first world” countries, we send doctors, nurses and billions in healthcare to “third world” countries whilst at the same time we fail to offer the same degree of care, the duty of care, the Hippocratic oath doctors must swear, in the care of people in our own countries.
I am truly grateful that we have “Doctors without Borders” and other groups. I admire and respect their dedication and service. I would like to say the same thing about the service offered at home.
image from hellaheaven-ana.blogspot.com
The reality is apparent. Politicians, doctors, specialists, have the financial means to see the best person to attend to their needs in hospitals or otherwise. OK, they have earned it. I do not believe the rest of society, because they are not as financially independent, should be denied the same level of care. I am grateful for their abilities, I am grateful they are successful, yet I fail to see why these abilities should be the privilege of the wealthy.
Recently I read a letter from a doctor who said he was only responsible for diagnosing the problem and ‘ordering’ the medication for the patient. Any ancillary care was up to the patient to arrange, if they could afford it (detoxing, herbs, massage, science, food as medicine, meditation, alternative therapiesor physiotherapy etc.). Is this a case of Russian Roulette?
image from http://www.nnym.org – Which one today? Red and Yellow and Pink and Blue, Purple and Orange and Green..…
Things in Australia are different from in America or Britain. I understand the new ‘Obama-care’ is reviled for disenfranchising people. In Australia, if you are ill and are unable to afford private health insurance you may as well forget care at all because by the time the public system gets to you, you are probably too ill to benefit from it.
It is the usual case, if you cannot afford to pay for private health cover (I did until recently) then you are out of luck. You cannot see a specialist, go to a private hospital or get any assistance from any source. You go on a never-ending waiting list. Yet the doctor says: go to your local hospital. But, whatever you do, do not go via a friend’s car or you will sit in the waiting room forever. As unpalatable as it sounds, and as much as you wish to be “independent”, take the ambulance. At least you will be in the emergency room; probably in a hall, but there none the less.
image from http://www.australiandoctor.com.au
You see, here in Australia, unfortunately I cannot speak for America or Britain, we have a dire shortage of doctors, even if the Government and AMA disagree. We accept overseas students to train to be doctors and specialists, who then, instead of returning home afterwards and thus saving every country the need to send OUR doctors there to treat their people (remember “Doctors without Borders”), they remain here for a much better lifestyle and pay. We cannot even afford to see these doctors. We therefore accept trainee doctors in hospitals from overseas and the commentary of that defies logic.
Why can they not allow our children who want to be doctors and specialists to train in our Universities and then treat us? Why? Because all the places are taken by these overseas students who amazingly cannot speak English and need translators when they get into difficulty. I beg your pardon? They cannot speak English? How can they study or treat patients later? It’s a miracle; they develop the ability by osmosis the moment they graduate.
image from http://www.placidarabic.com
I am told we need the overseas students to help pay for our Universities. What is our damned Government doing, in fact what is every damned Government doing? My friends, and countless others who are ill and in pain, who need to see doctors, specialists or have hospital care, are being manipulated by the various systems being underhandedly put in place to see that they are not cared for.
If ‘we’ as a global society can spend billions on overseas healthcare in aid programs, then it behoves us to ensure that at home, our own people are given the best healthcare possible. After all, each “first world” country accepts hundreds, if not thousands, of refugees each year. Each person is given free healthcare – but the tax payers of the country are treated with less dignity and respect than the refugees.
image from http://www.news.com.au Just swimming in cash
I do not begrudge anyone healthcare, irrespective of who they are or where they hail from. I simply believe that, as the Americans would say, “We the people” are entitled to the best care possible without gouging our pockets to receive it. I’m sorry, but I have yet to see any healthcare professional walking around in pain and not able to obtain assistance. We should also be able to.
image from happy-people-group-fb.jpg articles.mercola.com –
May peace, love, health and happiness be yours.
Blessings, Susan x
© Susan Jamieson 2014
Owls and Orchids 
In Canada we have Universal Healthcare. In theory and on paper, a brilliant idea. In practice, not always so brilliant. We’re excellent at emergency time care, as in, if you break something, have a heart attack, etc. we’re great. Wait times for surgery, that’s a different story. A good part of that? Not enough (or perhaps inappropriately used) funding for beds, ORs, doctors, etc. There is a huge lack of care for mentally ill patients. Little or no help for illnesses like Autism, Fibromyalgia, etc. As I watch more and more hospitals built, drugs passed out, more CEOs, admin people hired, bonused, etc. I think…it’s just another make work project. Why cure the people when you can treat them, slowly so they get sick again and again. Sad to say, but there’s no reason for the rich to want to cure the masses; being sick keeps the people busy struggling and the rich busy getting richer. We can’t blame the government and the rich 100%, people misuse and abuse the system as well. We use services improperly – ie. sitting in the ER for a cold and we don’t do enough to take care of ourselves at times. Unfortunately I don’t see it changing anytime soon. It’s too profitable for millions of people to be chronically and terminally ill.
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Unfortunately – being on that borderline of chronic illness (who am I kidding, I crossed that line ages ago) they may be making money but the number of paupers they are creating from the exorbitant costs we have to pay for medicine to keep ourselves going… makes my blood boil. But you are right, it will not change soon.
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Hi Susan, I definitely agree with you about the Australian health care system and the need to train our own! I was extremely lucky that we got health insurance 5 months before I fell ill so they have covered my laparoscopy and pay for a fair portion of my acupuncture. Before this I was in the public system.
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I’m glad you managed to scrape in, we are exploring some alternatives to increase my insurance… wish me luck “)
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Good luck 😉
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When any healthcare system become about profit, it is doomed. We have it in America, and it makes me sick. I’m sorry that something that should be about making people well is all about money and profit, and that this pervades in multiple countries.
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Pardon the pun, but it appears endemic!
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There are a few people that I wish would read this, people that think government run health care would be wonderful. Since our government got more involved in our health care, my out of pocket expenses have skyrocketed to the point that I have insurance but I can’t afford to the doctor because of the huge deductible that everything is subject to. It’s scary.
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Scary is the right word Trisha. I often wonder what these same people would do if they had to go through the system without all their perks? We The People are being downtrodden in a very masochistic way. Susan x
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It is very sad indeed 😦
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Unfortunately I predict it will become even worse. 😦
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Wow! You really wrote one of the most informative pieces I have ever read about medical care being deficient worldwide. I did not realize how bad it was in Australia. So much of what you wrote applies to America because by the time you get any help from the government you could be dead. I believe that country should be responsible for their own citizens. If American would stop going to other countries in war there would be adequate money for all citizens to be taken care of medically. I want to congratulate you for a well written article that I hope reaches many. Many blessings, Cherokee Billie
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Many, Many thanks. I realise that the hospital system, in fact, the medical system is the same the world over. There isn’t enough money in people living or dying for them to put their collective hands in their pocket to fix it. They would much rather build better guns and bombs and cry crocodile tears. (Of course I mean big business and the esteemed governments).
Blessings Susan x
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You got it! Bless you for this message.Cherokee Billie
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Great post Susan. I think the main problems with healthcare is in the bloated bureaucracies both in government and the actual hospitals. There’s plenty of money for refurbishing manager’s offices, and pretty pictures on the walls but when you have people lined up on trolleys in emergency, then it doesn’t help them. There isn’t a shortage of beds, here in Ipswich they have closed whole floors off, it’s a shortage of staff to man them. If the money spent worldwide on weapons and war for one year was used for healthcare and poverty, then the world would be on a far better course than it is now.
Laurie.
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All very true, but there’s not enough money in it for business – is there?!
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The thing is Susan there would have to be a radical change in the thinking and behaviour of governments, people, business etc. A change in ALL areas of life and we both know that it’s never going to happen. 😦 I don’t think earth was ever supposed to be an easy place to live on. More a place to hone the spirit and learn valuable lessons that would never be learnt by a life of ease.
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I understand that part Laurie, I guess I need something to hang onto whilst I go through this current pain cycle. My computer is the only outside link – confined to bed is driving me crazy.
I know charity begins at home… but I can’t help thinking – if all these docs and specialists can go wherever and do all their work for nothing why can’t they make their work available at reasonable prices? Answer – the exorbitant prices we pay are what allows them to make their ‘gift’ available for nothing over ‘there’. So there goes several lessons I’m supposed to learn! 😦
Blessings Susan x
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Confined to bed sucks Susan, not good at all. It’s the medical association that decides on the amount of doctors graduating. Too many doctors means less money coming into the pockets of those already practising, this is the case with specialists and dentists. There never seems to be enough home grown GPs to go around. pricing is all about health insurance, every time the return to the patient goes up the medicos raise the price of a visit, so it’s chasing its own tail. After saying this there are some exceptional human beings who are doctors, those that venture overseas to see to people who for whatever circumstance would never get any treatment at all. The late Fred Hollows springs to mind, giving the great gift of sight to those who would never be able to have a simple cataract removal. There’s a nurse who has worked with women in the Sudan for decades assisting those who have suffered from genital mutilation. I think they see that we aren’t doing to badly at all considering. One thing we should be thankful for is that we haven’t descended into the US style of healthcare. Like everything else I guess we need a shakeup in the health system but I’m afraid by doing that the government will only create another think tank, spend millions on it and after ten years say we could improve it. I’m not holding my breath.
Laurie.
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Sorry Laurie, I need to answer tomorrow (later today) new meds have mu fingers cross eyed…seems to be going around. Ciao, Susan x
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No worries Susan.
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I couldn’t have said this better, Lady in Red. Amen!
Wild Thang is still kickin’, but now I have the flu on top of everything else. I hope you are feeling better, my dear friend. This health insurance issue makes my blood boil. Caused Wild Thang to get up and kick a hole in the wall the other day. LOL
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I hope that flu goes quickly Wild Thang…my back wont let me kick the wall. I fell up the dammed steps last night and scraped my arm. Not that it worried me, I was more worried about getting to the bathroom. I’m worried. I’ve had to start taking the pills I swore I wouldn’t take. Small stuff to your problem, but I wonder where I go from here…. maybe the looney house would be better. Except you kinda put me off with ;time out’… oh well… Blessings Lady in Red…x
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Well, I’ve now got 2 holes kicked in the bathroom wall. My body wasn’t having it either, but my temper got the best of me and I managed to do it again. Just sitting on the thrown and there’s the wall right smack in front of me, up went my legs and feet and I pounced all over that wall till I found the soft spot. When I have the energy I’ll take a picture and send it to your email. Maybe that’s why I was able to do it because i was sitting down. You should really give it a try. It feels really good. What pills are you taking that you swore you wouldn’t take? Your shit is no smaller than mine, so quit talking like that. You sound just as bad, ok. We’re the same, how bout that? I take plenty of pills. I’ve been on some wicked stuff in the past and got myself off that shit, but I’m still on a good number of pills, including narcotics. You gotta do what you gotta do to survive this miserable shit we’ve been blessed with. It sucks big time and I hate every minute of it. Being an invalid at my age? Hell! The nut house here in the U.S. sucks. You have no tv, phone, internet, nothing in your room. You can’t wear anything that has a string on it. They make you go to groups ALL freakin’ day. If you’re like Wild Thang, then you spend a lot of your time in “time out” at the nurses station. LOL Put me in the nut house and I’m gonna act like a nut. I slam doors, I cuss at the doctors and nurses, like a sailor I tell ya, I slam doors and they come and tell me to please not do that again and I wait 5 minutes and get up and do it again. LOL LOL I’ve never been in jail, but I would guess, the nut house is kinda like jail. They give ya the strip search and all. LOL I got out of that twice, but all the other times there was no getting out of it, they made me do it and I let them know exactly what I thought about it, as they were walking around me with those blue gloves on. When they would be behind me I would turn my head and say what the hell are you doing back there and you better not dare touch me. I bet if I ever went back there, they would say they had no beds and would cart my ass off to a different one. I think I wore out my welcome there. LOL LOL That’s where you’re supposed to go when you are feeling like checking out, ya know? I sure hope you get to feeling better soon, my dear friend. I am worried about you because I don’t really know what is up with you, you don’t blurt it all out like Wild Thang does. You can always send me an email. I’ll always be here for you, you know that, girl. I think when you feel up to it, you should shoot me an email. I really need to know what’s up with you. I am very worried.
Blessings right back at ya,
Wild Thang
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Ok – I feel well and truly told off. The pills are called Lyrica. I’ve had the 150mg for ages and only grudgingly taken one every blue moon because they knock me out. Talk about tongue tangles and cross eyed. I can’t feel my fingers or toes, walk into everything and can’t bloody think,which is great for writing which is the only thing I do. But they haven’t knocked the edge off the pain, so the doc increased the dose to 300mg. Ok, so being completely pie eyed is not good. They are supposed to be so shit hot but they don’t really work. I lay here until I can’t stand it and have to take the Panadeine Forte. I don’t know if its the combo or what but it seems to be only then that the pain eases some. The side effect is I can’t function – dopey Dora can’t even walk straight. Well I can’t do that anyway with the pain but I worry about becoming addicted to another pain med. I was on the opiates for a wile but I can’t bloody do anything with them.
The biggest problem is the hospital, if you have to go there. They whisper (loudly) about you self medicating and “on so much that they don’t know what they can give me”. I’m not sure I could be charitable if it happened again. But it is getting worse. Last five days when Ray heaves me i to a sitting position in the morning (has to I can’t move), I literally scream. I kinda expect a knock on the door and find a cop there to see who is being murdered.
Gonna try to see my GP, but I don’t hold out much hope on a solution. Will let you know… but get thee to a hospital girl! Don’t worry about me, if I can write about it I’m not dyin…yet.
Peace, love n hugs
Lady in Red
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Oh, girl! Lyrica? Shit, when I went to the nuthouse, they tried to put me on that shit and I was running into walls and falling asleep in group. I could not keep my eyes open. They had to take me off that shit. Sigh………LOL No Lyrica, Lady in Red. Not sure exactly what that shit is, but all it does is make you so you can’t see or walk or anything. Running into walls and all that shit. Forget it. I’ve gone the opiate route and that doctor damn near killed me with that Butrans patch he put me on. He started me on the highest dose, first. Seriously? I’m now back down to the Oxycodone. I have to have something. I really need something stronger, but I’m never going there again. I’ll suffer first, which is exactly what I’m doing.
I did go to the doctor last Tuesday and she said I have the flu and bronchitis, no pneumonia, yet. She put me on antibiotics, prednisone, breathing treatments, and a new nausea medication. Still feeling like shit, but something has to start working.
I’m sorry that you are doing so poorly. I wish you lived right around the block and I would be right over there to sit with you every day. It would be great fun, as we could get into all kinds of trouble, I’m sure.
You are so right about the hospital, that’s why I hate to go there. They think we are drug seekers and that really pisses me off, if I just wanted to get high off medication, I would just take more than I’m supposed to, but I don’t do that. Jack asses, anyway. And they can offer me charity or not get paid, but what the insurance pays because I sure as hell can’t pay them and they can’t refuse to treat you. Go ahead and send it to collections with all the other medical bills because you cannot garnish my disability.
So, you can’t move at all? You have to be put in a sitting position and stay there like that all damn day till he gets home? WTF? Is this from fibromyalgia? Sorry, Miss ADHD can’t remember shit! Sounds to me like you’re the one that better get you ass to the hospital and I am serious. Why can’t you move? And, I’ll worry about you if I want to, young lady. Got it? And, I am worried so you better keep me posted and you better get to the hospital. Good God!
I just wrote a new post, go read it if you feel up to it. Get better, already!
Peace, love,hugs and all that other jazz,
Wild Thang
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Well, after thoroughly scaring the bejaysus out of me I went back and re read all the stuff I looked up on Lyrica, Treatment for pain! Fibromyalgisa, epilepsy, controls the transmission of pain across the blood brain barrier. Nothing about it being an opiate..anywhere. So it’s out. Now I know why I can’t stand bloody doctors. I asked about side effects, asked what it was – exactly, and what it would interact with.Bloody pharmacy is useless, I can’t get any information from them – ask your doctor. Talk about being legally poisoned.
It;s so damned funny in a not funny way – here, they wont prescribe oxycodone unless you are terminally ill, like my Dad was with Cancer.
I have never been diagnosed with Fibro… I’m supposed to have a disc protrusion (several, lower back and neck and a pinched nerve. When I had the bloody money they wouldn’t operate – not bad enough. Now I can’t afford it.
No- I’m not home alone all day. He’s in the other room working. That’s why -I can’t say more.
ATM I have severe muscle/bone pain in my left shoulder and arm, goes across the back of the neck at collar bone height and into the right shoulder. add the left hip, right hip, spine and they say I’m ok.
Worst of all everyone just about has me thinking I’m nothing but a whinger – I have it so lucky with the main man at home as my Carer, but I am an ingrate because I resent the bloody hell out of it. I don’t want a damned Carer – I don’t want to be looked after as if I was a brainless bimbo. Dammit I want a life.Not an existence. So, I can move if I want agony inc to visit. Having a shower is – well you can imagine. I feel like my backbone is just a pile of building blocks, they all move the wrong way when I move and they’ll fall apart of I don’t watch it.It doesn’t help that there are a couple of steps up to the hallway leading to the en suite, and down into the rest of the house. So I feel like a prisoner in here… I know I’m not but it feels like it. I can’t drive because of the pain and the damned meds.
So, It’s all hogwash. My pretend world is falling apart. My real world is falling apart. I guess I just need a rest or a vacation – hahaha – that’s not going to happen either.
I’ve been so damned angry I’ve crawled up the hallway, fallen in the house and garden, lots of really dumb stuff,. but what does it matter? Nothing changes. And the main man doesn’t want me to go into hospital.
Oh – why can’t I move? When I wake up in the morning its as though everything has frozen, locked in place. I can move my head and my hand aaaand that it. If I want to get out of bed I have to roll, but that;s painful too and then I;m stuck there so I have to ask for help. Bloody help. ASK, ASK< ASK ASK< for damned HELP!
What I said was right. I I went near a hospital I'd be able to hear them whispering about me "self medicating"and 'not knowing what they can give me because I take SOOOO much".
Well – I figure I might have answered all your questions but not made you feel any better. so I guess I should just "Man Up Girl, and Pull Myself Together" or better yet "Pull Myself Up By My Shoelaces"/ I'm just a lazy wretch! Don'tcha know!
More later Wild Thang, my emotions is wrung out tonight.
Peace love n hugs n all that happy jazz
Lady in Red
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I’m so sorry, Lady in Red. I don’t have those things wrong with me, but the fibro makes me feel all those things, so I know what you are saying. I have terrible neck, shoulder, hip and back pain, along with everything else and it sucks and it does make it damn near impossible to move and if you do it’s even more unbearable than it is while not moving. I’m tolerant to the Oxycodone, so it doesn’t do much for me and I refuse to move back up the ladder to the Fentanyl patch then the Butrans patch, that’s all that happens. You get tolerant and they just move you up the ladder to the next potent thing and it helps just a little, then you become tolerant and then they move you up, again, and then when you get the dose that’s too high for you, you die. That’s exactly what I was told by a doctor. I took myself off all that shit because it did, in fact, almost kill me, but I still needed something, and I was lucky enough that my primary care doctor is a good doctor and did prescribe the Oxycodone, again. She knows I don’t abuse it and I hate to even have to take it. no Lyrica is not a narcotic or an opiate. I forget what it’s called, but it sucks and I would not take it if I were you. I am a nurse. I don’t know if I ever told you that before. I haven’t worked as one for many years, but I have a lot of medical knowledge, thank God for that. Do NOT just stop taking the Lyrica. You will have very bad withdrawals. You must wean off it slowly. I’ve had to go through severe withdrawals more than once and it was NOT fun, in fact, it was very horrible, don’t do it. Wean off, starting now. If you need help in doing that, I can help you, through email.
My oldest daughter is going to school to become a registered nurse. She just finished getting her CNA and she was telling me that when she went to the nursing home to do one of her clinicals, they told them about a woman that was put into the nursing home on hospice, no idea of age, but with hospice it doesn’t matter your age, they will put you in a nursing home a lot of times. Anyway, she was dying so they took her off ALL her meds to let her die and guess what happened? She fully recovered and walked out of the nursing home and is alive and very well. Her damn medications were literally killing her. Now that is scary. Can you believe that?
Do you not have insurance that would pay for some surgery? Of course, back surgery is very serious and scary business and it usually just leads to several more back surgeries, but we do get desperate and will try anything. I know, hospitals treat us like shit when we go to the ER, but if you just keep going, they will get the message that you aren’t messing around and that you mean business. I’m sure, if you’re like me and I’m feeling like that, it’s quite obvious we are in misery. We are treated a little more humanely when a doctor admits us to the hospital, but then they usually just hook us up to an IV for a few days and turn us loose to only feel the same way. You don’t need to man up about anything and you are NOT a lazy wretch! You better go back and read my post from yesterday, I was speaking for all of us. I’m so, so, so sorry you are feeling so horribly. It’s not fair, at all. I know. People wonder why we say the shit we say. Well, Wild Thang is going to keep them informed. Does your primary care doctor give a shit? I do, at least, have a good primary care doctor, however, she can only do so much because what I really need is surgery and that still wouldn’t fix me. All that would do is give me a little relief for a short period of time, but any time, no matter how short, is meaningful to us. Don’t give up on me Lady, I’m begging you. You asked me not to after I wrote that poem Giving Up, and you’re one of the people that talked me out of it. You inspired me, even though you’re going through the exact same thing. We walk this journey together, or I should say we lay around, together (not like that LOL) on this so called journey and we have to stick together, please. I need you and you matter so much to me and many, many others. keep going to doctors until you get one that will treat you and get you some relief. I know, it sucks and you have to go to a million doctors, but they have to be out there, but be careful not to get some quack that will drug you to your gills and kill you. I know, it’s very tiring and I’m on a break from finding new doctors at the moment, but I will eventually get back to that fucking tiring search one of these days. You have to do all the research and every time they give you a new drug, you have to research the hell out of it, check for drug interactions with all your other drugs, check for unpleasant side effects, long term effects and everything. They won’t tell you. they don’t care. We are just a number to them. You have to be your own advocate, girl. It’s not easy when in such poor health, like us. It makes me so sad to know you are suffering like this and no one will even help you, at least give you Oxycodone or something. That one surgeon that I went to that refused to do surgery on me for the adhesions and probably endometriosis, gave me a big lecture saying that I’m on so many meds and so much Oxycodone, and that he only prescribes Oxycodone or any narcotic, for that matter, to his terminally ill patients. Good for him. He pissed me off so bad. I wasn’t there asking for any medication. Medication was not brought up by me. He just looked at the list of my meds and started going off on me about it. Really pissed me off. I was begging for surgery to get rid of the adhesions which are so damn painful and I’ve had them twice, already, and they were removed both times, but now all of a sudden they won’t remove them until I get a bowel obstruction, which is fatal if not taken care of immediately, or any other type of life threatening problem from them. They can strangulate your organs. The last time they had attached to my small intestine and attached my small intestine to the bottom of my stomach, so my small intestines were hanging in a loop from the bottom of my stomach. The only way to see them is by going in laproscopically and no one will do it because it will cause more adhesions, so what? If I could get just a little relief from that problem for even a year or 2, that would be worth it to me and then they could remove them, again. I’ve already had 11 surgeries, of which 9 have been in my abdomen. I don’t know if you have adhesions, but they are horrible and that’s just one of my invisible chronic illnesses and very, very painful. I’m always here for you, Susan, and don’t you ever forget that. I mean it. Please re-send the email when you have the energy and let me know when you send it so I can catch it right away. I will help you as much as I can, with my knowledge. Hang on. Get some rest, take your drugs, and I will be praying for you, my dear, dear friend.
Much peace, love, hugs, and all that other jazzy jazz,
Wild Thang
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I have refrained from commenting til now, because my soapbox is very big on this one. I am furious that for years, we have trained international students here in Australia and not made places for our own kids graduating school to become doctors, and then gone on to hire the international students in the situations our own kids should have filled! Are there not enough people in India, South East Asia and the Middle East who need doctors? Oh, that’s right, the average person in those countries on their wages can’t afford to pay for the doctor, now that they are qualified… Hippocratic oath? Or hypocritic oath!
My humble opinion? Australian students who score high enough for entry into the Medical Universities should be given FREE training right through until their first degree qualification, either as nurses or regular doctors. Further training would be at their own expense. Within 4 years (degree qualification time), we would have all the doctors we need graduating through our universities and hospitals and within about 6 years, there would be ample doctors right throughout Australia, and the international students would not be needed here, they could go home and treat their own people, who urgently need medical treatment, doctors, nurses and ancillaries.
Perhaps in those countries they could divert some of their defense weapons expenditure into hospitals and health care, water, sewerage and drainage, and the food industry hygiene inspection system. Then perhaps they would have more healthy people alive and able to pay for doctors, as they bring the country from third world into the modern era!
The corruption we see that is endemic in third world countries where so many politicians are on the take, along with the police and other government officials currently channels the funding away from where it is needed and no matter what, the lower caste/poorer people miss out.
The corruption that is endemic here in Australia is different; it is in corporations because MOST of the government watchdogs are good enough to catch up with the more blatant government staff abusers of the system. OK, a few get through for a while.
However, when something is FREE, it’s hard to skim off the top, and medical studies for initial medical degrees should be FREE for Australian kids, in Australian Universities. If international students have parents who can pay for them to study here, that’s fine, but then they can go back and treat their own people who are so desperately in need of assistance, which we end up giving them as FOREIGN AID, while we rob them of their own doctors! Just a bit more corruption!
OK, where’s my ladder? I need to get down off this soapbox!
GREAT POST and one that NEEDED to be written, reblogged and reposted globally and shared with all your friends. Please people, when you read this, like it and REBLOG IT somewhere else – ther world needs to read it!
Ray
Life Change 90
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Reblogged this on Life Change 90 and commented:
Please, the world needs to know about this issue. It’s life or death for so many folks the world over – people reading this blog this year may not see next year for the reasons touched on in this powerful post. When you have read it, please comment and REBLOG it! Share it around the world, it needs to go viral, if ever a post needed to be set free, this is the one!
Thank you
Ray
Life Change 90
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I am disabled and have several chronic conditions that render me ill and housebound. I am at present housebound due to the worst asthma attack I have had in years. I am not allowed out of the house and I am back on all of my asthma meds and I still am having problems breathing. Even talking on the phone leaves me short of breath. I find that chronically healthy people just don’t want to be around the chronically ill. But our society has lost it’s kindness and compassion and replaced it with bigotry and hate. I found you on the group page and I like your blog very much. I invite you to visit mine. Hugs, Barbara
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I followed and was shocked, horrified and incensed. I am truly sorry for your breathing problems. My mother had emphysema and was a chronic asthmatic until her passing in 2008. I still have not come to terms with that.
I lead with my heart but my head allows me to voice what I feel.
I believe everyone, irrespective of who they are, or their station in life, deserves justice, a justice which all too often fails.
I believe everyone deserves a decent level of healthcare for the same reason which does not exist yet either. The world has a lot of changing to do before it is a decent place to live for anyone except the rich. In my opinion.
Following you – Peace and Blessings. I pray your asthma settles soon. Take care.
Susan x.
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Thank you for your comment and your support. Many blessings to you Susan. Hugs, Barbara
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Reblogged this on idealisticrebel and commented:
Injustice and lack of compassion for those who are ill.
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Reblogged this on The ObamaCrat™.
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
Very well said … why is health care in such a state that “maybe only the wealthy will be able have good health care”??
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In Britain we have universal health care – free at the point of use. You can pay for private health care if you want/can. Although it is free, it’s actualy paid for by us in deductions from our wages.
Are there problems, are there waiting lists, are we short of Doctors? yes to all of that, but given that the NHS is the biggest employer in the country, there are bound to be problems; compounded by the economic situation, people living longer etc etc. The prinicipal is free health care for all! Thjat’s what every country should strive for. It is an indication of a civilised country how it treats it’s sick ands it’s poor.
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I agree in essence Bill, but what we are finding, at least in Australia, is that the shortage of doctors is exacerbated by the overseas students coming in, taking all the places from our own kids and then, rather than returning home, stay, but because of their specialties we still have less doctors and cannot afford to see these doctors we have trained.
I’m not against training other countries kids, if there is a balance and we, the people living here are not disadvantaged as a consequence. Tell me, what are your waiting lists like now? My aunt in the UK, who is chronically ill, seems to be able to get care and see the doctors through the hospitals as she needs to – within a short wait anyhow. Here you are looking at a 2 year wait for anything NOT urgent. Urgent cases may be a year. I don’t call that health care, I call that stacking up the bodies for the undertakers.
Perhaps I’m wrong, but I don’t believe so, not here and that’s what counts when you need a doctor NOW not in 2 years time. Can you afford to pay several thousand pounds to see a doctor because you can’t wait through the public waiting list? I can’t.
Sorry if I’m a little strong, but it makes a difference when you’re in a lot of pain.
Bless, Susan x
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