At the tender age of fifteen, I learned about hospitals. I have written about my first hospital experience in a post titled “Life Can Change In A Moment”. Since then, I have been hospitalized several times for bouts with kidney stones. Most recently, my medical issues are age-related, like arthritis and sciatic-nerve flare-ups, neither of which has hospitalized me yet. Although I have avoided hospitalizations, I have not avoided doctors. I have to give them credit for having invented a fool proof scheme to extract money from the aged. It is not unusual to visit a doctor for an “annual” check up and wind up being tested to determine if my voiced complaints are caused by some known medical issue. For instance, at my latest check-up the doctor noted that my ankles were swollen. I had not placed any importance on such a phenomenon. Here is what happened: 1. I had to take an immediate ultrasound of my lower extremities to determine if the swelling was caused by a blood clot, 2. No blood clot was found, so I had to take another test to determine how vascular fluid was traversing through my legs. This test discovered a faulty valve in the system transporting vascular fluids. There is no synthetic valve invented to take care of this problem, so I am now on a diuretic medicine to remove excess fluid, and I have been told not to sit or stand for long periods. I guess, I’ll have to invent a horizontal barbecue like affair to spend my days suspended horizontally and rotating slowly like a pig on a spit in front of my computer watching Youtube videos or writing stupid stuff like this post.
Old age is not for the weak, and I continue to live by the creed of movie star Clint Eastwood, who recommends, “Don’t let the old man in.”
From under 4% in 1929 to over 17% in 2013 is the share of healthcare in the US GDP. And it has been 12 years since. Any guesses which way it would have gone? Take a look:
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/us-healthcare-expenditure
It is a global phenomena. Eventually the blame has to come back to us. For inventing the joint stock corporation that seeks profit in every venture. For inventing insurance which, once you pay for, you feel like you have the right get the payback by getting more medical services. For leading unhealthy lives. For shirking our own responsibility to our health and outsourcing to the medics. And so on.
At 76, I still have all of my hair and my original teeth, but am full of metal in my back, and have beaten Cancer, so I’m holding off the old man, at least for another year.
JOE
THE WAY I SEE IT IS DR BILLS & HOSPITAL PROFITS.
GO IN TO ER WTH A FINGER CUT & THEY EXAMINE YOU HEAD TO TOE.
MONEY IN THEIR POCKET.
GLAD I HAVE GOOD INSURANCE!
That’s a good one Joe! It’s just getting harder to keep that old man out!
I agree with you on that front. The effort is worth every bit of energy expended in keeping the old man away.