...I sure didn't expect the the Cancer rising part to ever turn out to be physically true!
I received the results of my biopsy last night through a phone call from my doctor. Needless to say, the rest of the evening was a rollercoaster of denial, anger, tears, jokes...and a lot of drinking. This morning Gerhardt and I went to see the doc at 8:00AM for the details. At the end of the scary meeting, we scheduled surgery for next Tuesday (that's how scary it was!). Then we drove over to the hospital and met with the accounting department for estimated costs, etc. I thought the news of the cancer bowled me over but, no, it was the $30,000 a day + surgeon + assistant surgeon + $6,000 anaesthesiologist + pathology labs + nurses + nurses assistants + each and every pill, IV medication + "unanticipated costs". Yes, signing the consent form was giving Sierra Nevada Hospital a blank check. Could the answer to this wonderful proposal be "No!".
Gerhardt and I walked out to the parking lot in a trance. "No way!", I said. "No f_ _ _ing way!" This was our introduction to the healthcare system that we've read and heard so much about. Insurance? Right. Since I've been having irregular lab results for this particular condition since my early thirties. Guess what? Oh, yes - it's a pre-existing condition. And we all know what that means... How swell is that!
We went to a restaurant and had breakfast and kind of diffused. Mexico was the first thing we talked about after we vented our mutual horror. Since we have a place there we went home and starting emailing and calling friends here in the US and in Mexico and asking for referrals, recommendations, any information so that we could start researching international surgical options. Our entire day, today, has been wrapped up in cancer...yuck! Yuck! Yuck!
But what an education! The healthcare industry (and that's exactly what it is) in this country has made the rest of the world sit up and look at what an opportunity this is for them. There have been so many new and excellently equipped and staffed hospitals in Mexico alone that it's amazing. These are world respected hospitals associated with medical schools. Physicians that have international professional standing. And, the philosophy that care and the patient come first. The costs range from 1/10 to 1/5 (depending on the procedure) less than the US.
No one with access to a library or to a computer needs to fall victim to the self-serving, price gouging, obscene practices of healthcare costs in this country. You don't have to sell your house, sell your children into servitude, or resort to crime! Knowledge is power.
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