So I have an ulcer. I dry heave at least once a day and I haven’t eaten in 21 days. (Please do not give me advice, I hate it, I don’t want medical advice from people over the internet. At best, if you do, I’ll respond with a “thanks.”)

I’m in a somewhat smaller town, not really small, about 80,000 people maybe. There is exactly one gastroenterologist in this town. I went to him when I hadn’t eaten in 6 days. For a $50 copay, he said to take some Mylanta along with the Protonix I was already taking and call him in two weeks if I wasn’t better. So I call him yesterday. I talk to the nurse. I tell her all my symptoms, none of which have changed. She sounds very concerned.

I hear nothing all day. This morning, I call again. The doctor hasn’t even gotten to my information. So the nurse sends a message that I called again, which he probably also won’t see.

I have tried to get a second opinion, or just another prescription for something, but there is not a single gastroenterologist within a 90 minute drive that would see me within three months. I’m pretty sure if I don’t eat for three months, I’ll be pretty dead. I mean, I’m living on Ensure and Gatorade, but I doubt that will get me to three more months.

Oh, and this is the second time this has happened. The first time, I had to take a bunch of tests like a CT scan and an X-Ray and a blood panel and they found nothing. I had a scheduled colonoscopy anyway, so they just went down my throat as well and that’s when they found the ulcer. No one even suggested an ulcer before that.

Why am I saying all of this? I’m not even complaining about all of this. I’m complaining about the fact that this has cost me almost $2000 already and I feel lucky because I have good insurance. I’m not poor, but I don’t really have $2000 to spare. I’m paying it off in installments, but god damn, I have to pay all of this money and they have stopped even giving a shit about me.

What would someone in my position without insurance even do? Die? That’s what conservatives fucking want.

We need universal healthcare and a complete overhaul of the healthcare system now.

And any time you hear someone complain about how long a wait you have in Canada or the UK to see someone to help you and how America has the best healthcare system in the world and how people from other countries come here for treatment, send them to this post before telling them to get fucked.

TL;DR No one gives a shit about you in American healthcare except maybe the nurses and all they do is suck money out of your bank account.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    61 year ago

    I canceled my dermatologist appointment last winter because it was a 30 mile drive to the clinic and it was the worst blizzard we’d had all year. The soonest I could reschedule was 7 fucking months out. In truth all I needed from that visit was for him to renew my prescriptions, but I’m forced to go in and pay $300 for an office visit to do it.

    • @cavvema
      link
      21 year ago

      Wow. Pay money to have prescription renewed. Here in Sweden I just send a message online to my doctor that I need it renewed. No charge or anything like that.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      1
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Does your dermatologist not offer telehealth as an option? I’m usually able to just have a phone or video call with my PCP to see how things are going and renew my prescription. Not offering telehealth seems very odd in our post-2020 world.

      Edit: Unless you needed to go in for a scan or test. Sorry, I didn’t even consider that possibility.