Surf Republic

Personal rant, since no one is watching

I think I like the idea of a blog...........even moreso because no one is watching, so I feel an unusual freedom in being able to put down my thoughts

The state of healthcare in America

I love my country, but it is a state of the "haves" and the "havenots"......the "havenots" are people who do not fit into mainstream society....my brother is one of those people...........he is a lifelong drug addict....he is clean now, but a lifetime of destruction to his body has taken it's toll...and he is dying.......he doesn't have to die.....there are things doctors can do......he needs a liver transplant........but they told him he is not eligible because he has lived a high risk lifestyle.......emphasis on the past tense..........but, they have written him off and left him to go home and slowly bleed to death internally and with lots of pain.......so sorry.too bad.maybe the next life will be better........
now.the other side of the coin,the "haves".another family member has cancer, but because society has deemed them more worthy, there has been no expense spared in seeking to prolong their life in any way possible, even though they are elderly..........experimental drugs and treatments not available to the general public has been made accessible to them for the small sum of 45,000.00 per month....

Now please understand, I want everyone one in my family to live a long, happy and healthy life, but I can not understand the wide gap in treatment...

I even offered to donate part of my liver, to bypass the long line of people waiting for a transplant, and we have still been told no..........we have had to re-educate each and every doctor we have come in contact with and have been almost militant in assuring that my brother gets the care he deserves..which has helped to some degree......My job is to stand guard at the door of his hospital room to let them know we are ever watchful and that he has strong advocates on his side.........I have had to stand down doctors who have said they would do nothing more for him because of his past...I can be very verbally persuasive.....and it is my job to get them to go back in that room and try again....

What scares me is there are people in my brother's situation who do not have advocates like he does...who do not come from influential families, who do not have brass plaques in the hospital in honor of their family and their contributions, who do not have vocal and stubborm family members.......

These people die a treatable, preventable death simply because society does not approve of how they lived their life


I have already lost one brother, but he was a world class athlete , very well known and is honored in death......who will honor my other brother when his time comes?.....why is he less deserving?

As the hospital visits become more frequent, we learn how to cope and adjust...........humor gets us through almost anything............when he has hallucinations (due to ammonia build up in the brain from the failing liver).we make the best of it......he will ask me if the TV is on.when I say no.he proceeds to tell me about the wonderful show he is watching on the TV ......we can laugh about it.......

I know there are terrible things happening all over the world...but this is my world....and it makes no sense

posted by Esmaralda @ 9:30 AM