Posted by
Joyanna Adams on Monday, December 14, 2009 7:25:22 PM
Nobody Reports on Real Killer… There are not too many things that can scare me when it comes to illnesses. In my family alone, I’ve watched the ravages of diabetes, heart attacks, cancer, strokes, sleep disorders, blood clots, pneumonia, depressions, and the usual yearly bouts of whatever stomach or respiratory flu that is going around. Everyone in the family but me has had the “swine flu” and barely noticed it.
But there is one illness that gives me more terror than even watching Al Gore recite global warming poetry, (and that’s pretty scary) and it’s not called the swine flu…it’s call…meningitis. You see, meningitis, can kill you in a matter of hours. It’s sneaky. You start out thinking you just have the flu…go to a doctor, and he sends you home, saying, well, you just have some kind of flu. And then, before you know it, you get sicker, your brain swells up, and then…you’re dead. And here in St. Louis, in my mind, it’s almost an epidemic.
They don’t report it as being anything to be concerned about…but then ‘they’ wouldn’t would they?
I read about it all the time. Many a case has happened here of some poor kid one day feeling fine, and a few days later…dead. And the majorities of the time, these people went to hospitals or doctors, and then were sent home. So, when I got a call from my son, who sounded very upset, and who would never in a million years call and ask me for help…being a mom, I went into panic.
“Hey, mom…I’ve had a high fever for over four days. I’m vomiting. I went to a clinic and they took my blood, and they said I did not have the flu, or a virus. But, mom, my neck is really stiff in the back. I’ve never had this before. I’ve had a staph infection for a while now…I have headaches and I feel terrible all over…and my neck is swollen. Can you look up this on the Internet? ”
Okay, you’re talking to mom here. She remembers every cold, every measles, every single spoon of cough medicine, every worry, every sleepless night…she knows her son’s body almost as well as he does. She also knows that the hospital he could afford was probably just a joke. She also knows the sound of “stiff neck.” Please god…not this...
You see, my son does not have insurance. He can’t afford it. And on top of that he has a pre-existing condition so NO insurance company will insure him. Even though he works full time as a personal trainer for a fitness empire, they do not offer insurance. The trainers have to get their own. So, he is an independent contractor, which means, he has to pay double taxes…so to speak. Plus, he just bought a house.
And here’s the kicker---he had gone so some kind of “med” clinic, who charged him over a $1,000 dollars just for a simple blood test, visit, and some antibiotics, and he came home with really no answers. Going out again, to find out if he had the meningitis, would just break him financially. It doesn’t matter if I say I’d pay for it. He is proud.
When I hear them talk about “socializing” our medical system, I always think…it’s already “socialized.” Get real.
I went to the Internet---Google, Ask Jeeves, Yahoo---I kept getting the same junk. Long ago, when the Internet first started, you could use Netscape and get infinite details…not anymore. You really have to search hard in this controlled new Internet to get detailed information, and time was in the essence.
My thoughts went to my father. Once, when he was having a full blown stroke, we rushed him to the nearest “med” clinic and he saw a doctor, who told us to take him to see a neurologist on Monday…it was Friday night. We left that clinic and then took him to a hospital, who put him in a room, and he bled in his brain for two days…until Monday, when he finally saw a doctor….who could not even see pass the blood splattered all over the inside of his brain.
So, you can understand my distrust of “med” clinics.
Logically speaking, with his symptoms, my son should have gone to an emergency ward. But you can die in those. If you don’t go to the right hospital, you could end up with another big bill…one gang member in that night, and you have what? The flu? Forget it.
“Okay, do you have a rash?”
“Well, my chest is pink.”
“Are your extremities numb?”
“No, my feet are cold.”
“Okay. You’re talking very sensibly. One of the symptoms of meningitis is you start being confused and talking silly. So, watch for a rash, and if you’re neck gets worse, have your girlfriend rush you to the nearest hospital, and make a big scene
.”
Don’t worry about the bill, for god’s sake.
I should have gotten into my car…but then again, he had his ‘love’ with him, and I knew she was a very sensible woman. She owned and ran her own children’s daycare, and has two children of her own…to calm myself I wrote about “Captain Kirk..WTF.
"Call me...just CALL ME...it you go."
"Okay mom."
My mind was not exactly on Star Trek. Concentration was out the door. I prayed a lot.
I talked to him yesterday. He had a rash, but his neck was better. For all I know, he could have had meningitis, not all cases kill, or so the Internet says. But I still worry. America still has a good system, if you have the money, and if you are insured, or if you work for the government--- but if you are one of the ones like my son, who would actually be expected to pay for his hospital bills, unlike all the illegal’s who get free care…you’re very life could end, because no, you are an honest person trying to pay his bills, and you stay home…and hope.
This is the horrible condition that our government has put us all in, in order to create a big problem, (which they did) so that they could come in with their "universal health care" solution.
Words cannot express my thoughts to this matter...don't ask.
Soon, my son will have to pay another “tax” just to get out of the health care he probably won’t get because it will be too expensive. But, something tells me, millions all over the world, will be getting free health care thanks to Harry Reid.