An off-topic addendum to my 2011 post on this forum about U.S. medicine --
Regrettably, I have been diagnosed with a 98% chance of bladder cancer, for unknown reasons excepting bad luck. I was told it needs to be "taken care of" within 3 months, after being detected on 4-Mar-2014. I do not drink, smoke (Asthma since birth), NEVER "did drugs", and I do NOT abuse prescrip- tions like my parents did. "So where-in-HELL did THIS come from?", and my doctor said it still hits 1 of 30,000 people with no other "risk" factors. U.S. bladder surgery is now done mostly by urologists, with tiny tools that are inserted you-know-where. But, my town has only two urology practices. One BOTCHED my prostate surgery, giving me 9 years of ever-worsening U.T.I. cases (urinary tract infection, BLOOD in one's urine!). The other, in the middle of a BAD U.T.I. in 2012, REFUSED to let me in their door, as a Medi- care "authorization" from my own doctor had not-yet arrived! As I DETEST "Paperwork BEFORE the Patient" medical offices, I thus wanted NOTHING to do with either urology practice in this town, for those reasons! After his office (finally) found me a good urology practice in a "neighbor" town, and that urologist wanted a cardiac "clearance" on me due to previous A-Fibs (dangerous "racing" heartbeat!), my doctor then FAILED to return two phone calls about his SLOW "scheduler" and about a U.T.I. anti-biotic which now needed pre-authorization by him. No choice but for me to pay $167 for another refill, so I would not run out, suffer a new U.T.I., and maybe have my surgery delayed! Also, no choice but to request a transfer back to the main office of my medical "providers", as the doctor could not even "spare" me 10 minutes on the telephone, and I expected that WOULD occur again. At least my new doctor (younger than my sons!) is a good man and is competent: They let him run their "Urgent Care" (emergency) office alone on Saturdays! The cardiologist had told me I would get "clearance" for surgery on Tuesday 22-Apr-2014 with the "neighboring" urologist. Despite that, I heard today the clearance was NOT sent 2 days ago, and the cardiologist's M.A. (medical assistant) was waiting for all my tests since "An anesthesiologist needs to see them" for surgery. NOBODY told me that before! Also, very BAD LOGIC as NO anesthesiologist needs to see my tests, nor would he care about them, before I am SCHEDULED for surgery, which requires my "clearance" to be sent FIRST! The M.A. finally did send my surgery "clearance" this morning, but not before leaving me SERIOUS doubts that she would! I was left feeling even my diagnosis of CANCER meant NOTHING to the cardiologist or his people and I doubt I will be going back to THAT office again! Hopefully, the urologist can now have me scheduled for surgery without more delays. But I have seen a really good doctor become critically overworked and have also suffered through a cardiology office that, in my opinion, did not care. Add to that the two local urology offices which FAILED me, also last year's 9-part article in TIME Magazine denoting ALL of what I suffered at Fresno hospitals in 2005, and you can just GUESS my opinion of most U.S. medicine now! My best doctor ever (1972-1985) told me in 1985 he was CLOSING his practice and going into retirement, as he saw all this coming, and all the paperwork had started to limit his ability to practice MEDICINE! Sad, that 30 years later, his "predictions" were much BELOW how bad most U.S. medicine has now become! 400-500 years from now, when we are gone and a "detached" history of the U.S. is written purely from research, I expect current U.S. medicine to get cited as one of the cruellest FAILURES and one of the worst national DISGRACES in the entire history of mankind!! As for me, I am resigned to dying, either directly from the bladder cancer, or because everyone involved (but the urologist) DELAYED TOO DAMN LONG, and it may have metastasized (spread) into other parts of my body. If so, you all have XMGR/RDISK/UIDE/etc. in essentially "mature" form, and they should serve you well if I am gone. I say again, as in 2011: If you find yourself visiting the U.S.A. and are taken ill, do your very BEST to get BACK on the airplane and get treated in your own countries, NOT here!! And to all those of you who are Americans, do at-least get some sort of medical insurance, so it can intervene against EXORBITANT medical charges that "we CAN charge!", as I was told in 2005! And PRAY you can find doctors and hospitals that are "any good"! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Start Your Social Network Today - Download eXo Platform Build your Enterprise Intranet with eXo Platform Software Java Based Open Source Intranet - Social, Extensible, Cloud Ready Get Started Now And Turn Your Intranet Into A Collaboration Platform http://p.sf.net/sfu/ExoPlatform _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
