- Lori

You are wise to ask for re-tests and follow-up tests.

From family experience, I feel that quality-of-care problems are common across many countries, though certainly access to care is affected by differences in public insurance systems.

We (in western countries) don’t have any monopoly on “the best” minds, ethics or technologies. Top-tier hospitals in India offer an extraordinary level of innovative treatments and personal attention to the patient. A concentrated population, and progressive attitudes toward taking on difficult cases, enables specialists there to be experienced with rare diseases. Also due to the concentrated population, costs can be spread efficiently, making access to private healthcare in India relatively affordable (compared to the situation in the U.S. for instance) to the country’s growing middle class.

At any rate, wherever you are in the world when you or your loved one needs medical care, it’s good to be your own advocate, take advice from experienced family and friends, and question assumptions or premature conclusions about the diagnosis and “the best” course of care.

Hope your father sees some improvement. He must be glad to have you there.

I am a strong proponent of universal healthcare. I fail to see how the United States is the only “first world power” that does not provide its people with healthcare. I know that other single-payer systems do have problems, but they must be better than this. I have seen some horrible things happen to people in my care due to insurance issues and other American problems. It is frustrating.

The President said that a single-payer system would interrupt our way of life too much. I fail to see how that can be. Other countries have done it and survived the hiccups. Yes, the United Kingdom did make the switch while rebuilding from a war, but other countries did not have that luxury. Is the President implying that Americans do not have the capacity to accomplish such drastic changes, yet Canadians could?

In the US, we have some of the best diagnostic equipment in the world. We also have the best medical schools out there. We are ranked 37th by the World Health Organization in healthcare, however. Dominica and Costa Rica are ranked higher than the US and they are two of the poorer countries in the western hemisphere. I fail to understand it.

I believe the problems we face in the US due to economics and healthcare are intimately linked. It is an issue of greed. Things need to change. And – as you said – we need to push to get our way. I think it is time for one coordinated shove!

Thank you for sharing your story.

Also keep an open ear and mind to neighbors and friends who might have experience – One of ours suggested an MRI (after a CT Scan had come up negative), so we requested one… and it revealed a broken bone that the first scan had missed. Others have suggested specialists we should see, other tests, and so on. I requested a blood test to follow up on ones 3 weeks earlier, and they revealed another major problem.

The point is, if you don’t ask – and even push – don’t expect to see much results from overworked medical staff. There’s a new thing called a “concierge plan” in which you can pay an annual fee to be able to consult with the same doctor by phone any time you want. Building a relationship with your doctor is really important if you want quality medical care.

Podcast: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/rss/media/BMJ-1313.mp3
Summary and Transcript: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/watch.html

I strive to be aware about who I am and why I do, but it involves shaking off years of learned autonomic responses of being taciturn and accepting and safe. I think as we try to change things like this, parts of ourselves – who prefer to be left in the dark where you’re blameless, without failure, victimized and naive – can attempt sabotage.

Watch the movie “What the &%#^ do we Know”, it’s really fascinating because it shows, among many things, how these behavioral and emotional responses have a physiological basis. We’ve all got a hypothalamus in our brain pumping out peptides (amino acids), there are different chemical chains associated with different emotions, and they are sent throughout the body as all (or almost all) of our cells have receptors for these peptides. In this light, emotions can be seen more as opiate we can become addicted to in certain situations. Then the more one becomes aware of this process, learning to remind themselves when emotions are flying in the face of logic that they should be experienced, but not allowed to define you.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NAH/is_8_35/ai_n15979179/

This kind of cognitive authority can also really change the road map of ones brain. Neural pathways set themselves up in certain directions when it gets predictable what kind of memories certain stimulus will invoke. It takes a fair bit of coaxing, and reminders (such as the essays giving out by this web site) but these pathways will eventually rearrange themselves to the way that suits their owner.

Knowledge is power (and practice).