Why I've Given Up on US Healthcare Cont...

As my doctor's office is making the news in an unpleasant way I decided an update to my healthcare thread is due.

Giving Up On US Healthcare System

My plans are simple, no more medications for me. If I'm sick or hurt I'll just have an ambulance take me to the hospital under the false hope that there will something done to improve my condition.

I'll die when I'm good and ready to do so. Not by the hand of US doctors.

Coastal Health and Wellness is the only dental/medical facility that I have access to and have been using them for the past four years.

Health Clinics That Potentially Spread Hepatitis, HIV Infections...

“Poor sterilization, not adequately documenting sterilized dental instruments. Dirty areas that were not properly cleaned where sterile instruments were passing through..."

Even though the article claims that the improper sterilization was isolated to the dental department of the facility the checklist link below does indicate some medical procedures may be involved as well.

Fortunately, I never got a chance to use the dental facility even though I do need to see a dentist sometime soon. For the medical, the doctor that I found there was doing the best she could to offer treatment based on what was available due to my lousy county insurance policy.


Coastal Health and Wellness Checklist link

A sinking ship is best to be jumped from. I'll deal with the ocean of medical sharks alone.

Some medications need to be slowly tapered off of or you can get some bad side effects from them. When you take them, the medicines can change the amount of enzymes you make to detox them and when you quit, the medication can actually worsen the original problem you had.

Some blood thinners are like that, when you take them your body boosts thickening agents in the blood and when the med disappears, your blood clots easily. The same thing happens when you abruptly change your diet, if you eat a lot of blood thinning foods then quit, it can cause agglutination of the blood. Your body tries to make up for the meds or foods so you do not bleed to death from too thin a blood. This is just one example of a possible problem. There are lots of different corrections for medicines, there is often a warning in the pamphlet about this but no warning on foods.

You can treat many problems with food choices, but food is not just one chemistry, often a different chemistry in it can cause some people problems. Moderation and diversity in your diet is good, but take into consideration if your ancestors ate those foods and were healthy. Also some of the practices in agriculture nowadays cancel out much of the good properties of some foods.

It is hard to find a good doctor that knows about this stuff and will tell people the right way of doing things. The problem is that too much food chemistry that we are not genetically used to is in our food supply these days. Also, we rarely ate some foods unless they were in season when I was young, some foods need to seasonally cycle to work properly in our bodies.

I will go to a doctor if I need to. I am sick of tests, I had plenty in the past. I do not take any meds except some minerals and special B vitamins and only in small to reasonable doses.

Being a mindless cow for a couple of weeks is kind of fun, but any longer than that sucks.

For the medical, the doctor that I found there was doing the best she could to offer treatment based on what was available due to my lousy county insurance policy.

I tell 'em I have Medicare, and nothing else- I get this long pause, the look, followed by "You don't have any other insurance?"

I then get wormed, a flea dip, and shot out the door.

a reply to: wylekat

I tell 'em I have Medicare, and nothing else- I get this long pause, the look, followed by "You don't have any other insurance?"

So far I have been lucky and have never gotten 'the look' from any Doctors or places where I needed any kind of testing.

a reply to: rickymouse

Thanks, RichardMouse, I didn't know that about blood thinners. To me now, taking any medication has about as much usefulness as accepting a grenade from the same doctor who expects me to come back in one month to tell them what it has done for me.

As mistakes and malfunctions in the medical world kill almost as many people has heart disease and cancer I'm happy to get by with a few vitamins and aspirin until I really need to see another doctor.

originally posted by: wylekat
For the medical, the doctor that I found there was doing the best she could to offer treatment based on what was available due to my lousy county insurance policy.

I tell 'em I have Medicare, and nothing else- I get this long pause, the look, followed by "You don't have any other insurance?"

I then get wormed, a flea dip, and shot out the door.

No Medicare for me as of yet. I'm in the "nothing else" department.

How I feel the medical establishment is looking down on us -
"Sorry, you have no money so you don't get any medical treatment. Now go away."

originally posted by: Night Star
a reply to: wylekat

I tell 'em I have Medicare, and nothing else- I get this long pause, the look, followed by "You don't have any other insurance?"

So far I have been lucky and have never gotten 'the look' from any Doctors or places where I needed any kind of testing.

I got that look every time I saw a doctor or called the blasted insurance company.

If you don't have insurance, you are treated like less than trash..just a drug seeking lowlife.

If you have welfare insurance and you are young , you are labeled as a drug seeker and won't be taken seriously.

If you have "a good insurance plan" you will be catered to and granted any unnecessary test or procedure you desire..

And up until last year if you can't afford insurance you would get fined..that to me. Was wrong.. say what you what about trump people..he got rid of the mandate..

The United States health care system is a joke..


Some of you may know I have had my neck fused. I don't want to get into the specifics but I will say the night I first went to the hospital for my issue. Was the night I went to let my dog out , the screen door was left unbeknownst to me unlatched..

My dog at the time(a pit pull rescue) saw his chance and lunged for freedom, instinctively I lurched forward as I grabbed his collar.. And that's when it happened..

From my neck down I went limp, and collapsed face first out the door into 2 inches of snow.. I could move nothing but my eyes.. My breathing was labored to say the least and laid There face down in the snow for what felt like an eternity but ended up only being 45 minutes before my mother found me..

Over the course of the time I laid out in the snow feeling slowly came back, along with intense pain..hot fire and pins and needles ..All over.

As the pain slowly became manageable I let my mother help me into the house, where I sat in a chair slumped in a chair my mother brought to me for a few more hours sobbing in pain.

Now it was after 12 am .. My father was working second shift at the time came home and carried me to the car and drive me to the hospital.. (I was in my early thirties at the time.)

I was so relieved to get there, and have some sort of treatment..I felt like I was in a desert and had made it to an oasis..

The feeling was shortlived..

I had no insurance..


I was made to sit in a wheel chair for another two hours(1am to 3am on a Tuesday with no one in the waiting room)

When a doctor finally saw me he treated me with contempt and asked me several times when the last time I used was..

I have Never done any hard drugs ..I'm a "beer and Mary "guy..

He refused to order even an x Ray and adding insult and injury To injury he actually slapped me on the back on his way out of the cubicle and said "I hope you feel better"


That slap/pat on the back was enough to send me into tears from the pain. My mother had to stop my father from chasing the doctor down the hall..

Within two weeks I I got on welfare insurance and was referred to Yale New haven hospital for a rushed surgery to stop the lesion on my spinal cord from progressing..

, for the first 6 months after my surgery I had an M.R.I. once a month with contrast.. The following year it was once every other month with contrast..

My body doesn't handle the contrast well, but Yale kept pushing them because at that point I was a case study.. again not to get into specifics ..My lesion was some what of an anomaly I was told and they wanted a comprehensive study on my reaction to treatment..

Looking back I don't think I would have gotten the care I did if the school was not interested in my situation..

So knowing I was facing another five years of mri's and having Had no change in the mri's results 2 years in..I decided the tests were probably hurting me more than helping me ..

That's my rant Blue,
At the moment I have no insurance I let it lapse when I moved to vermont, I have thought about applying again.. I should..

I am lucky in the fact that I have a good family support system, and I am truly most grateful for that..

I'm also lucky I am not on any statins or anything like that ,which would possibly harm me with an abrupt stop.


---


Rickymouse made a an excellent point you should heed my friend..I'd hate to wake up to a"we lost blue" thread...

/Hugs bro

Sincerely,
~ meathead


Eta:
Am not in a wheel chair or anything now.. I was walking normal and had all my motor skills weeks before my actual surgery..
The surgery itself was to help stop further damage or a repeat event .which to my knowledge it has been successful. While I still experience nerve pain ,regulary,and numbness at times..those were my symptoms before surgery..

Otherwise I live a basically normal life I garden and do a lot of things outdoors ,I just can't lift anything substantially over my my head.

Just wanted to clarify that

a reply to: Mike Stivic

Thank you for sharing what you have also been through. Maybe one day a large number of the mistreated millions will gather our shovels and pitchforks and march on Washington in our wheelchairs, walkers, and electric scooters to tell TPTB that we have had enough of the nonsense.

It was eye opening..

That slap on the back was in direct contradiction to the term"do no harm"

I wasfive to six hours removed from being totally paralyzed laying in the snow
Trying to figure out who loved me enough to change my diaper for the rest of my life..

45 minutes like that is an eternity..

And than to be accused of drug seeking, and denied even an x Ray..

As I said it was eye opening..

We need universal healthcare( Not Nancy pelosi's we need to pass it in order to see what's in it healthcare).. this is coming from a fiscally conservative libertarian..

As to your point about congress, it's no accident they voted themselves exempt from the affordable care act..

Respectfully,
~ meathead

It's time for a change.

originally posted by: LookingForABetterLife
a reply to: Mike Stivic

Thank you for sharing what you have also been through. Maybe one day a large number of the mistreated millions will gather our shovels and pitchforks and march on Washington in our wheelchairs, walkers, and electric scooters to tell TPTB that we have had enough of the nonsense.

I'm ready, myself. I've had quite enough of the treatment I get.

originally posted by: Mike Stivic
If you don't have insurance, you are treated like less than trash..just a drug seeking lowlife.

If you have welfare insurance and you are young , you are labeled as a drug seeker and won't be taken seriously.

If you have "a good insurance plan" you will be catered to and granted any unnecessary test or procedure you desire..

And up until last year if you can't afford insurance you would get fined..that to me. Was wrong.. say what you what about trump people..he got rid of the mandate..

Frankly, that's the kind of crap that stops me considering the USA as an actual nation rather than a very large business.

Welcome to my world. This is where I've been for years.

We actually live in Mexico now and the health care system here is much more reasonable than in the US. If one is thoughtful about where one is served, quality at least meets (not saying much) or exceeds US standards.

a reply to: incoserv

I'd give everything I have, which isn't much sadly, to live in another country with better healthcare.