Video Vigilante confronts pimp that is getting violent with a prostitute...

brian bates, this so closely describes my own personality.  this is why I obsessively write, take pics.  i'm driven to record things that just arent' right.  in most cases however, it would b too risky for a woman to get up in peoples faces.  especially in cities like Baltimore where I could get killed just for being white and recording injustice. wish I did own a video cam!

"Health Care Debaucle" 3/17/2004

Looking back at 3/17/2004.  I'm staying somewhere in Lafayette, Indiana.

Day 5 debilitating headache.  Feared carbon monoxide poisoning, yet again.

Couldn't go to Tippecanoe Clinic because the triage nurse who takes care of emergencies was so blatantly rude the last time.

Went to Arnett urgent care, they said they are not permitted to take me on because of the fact t hat I have the Medicare and the Medicaid.  They attempted to explain that they would see me if I am ONLY Medicare!

So, I'm forced to stuff up the emergency room.  I went to Ste. Elizabeth hospital and much to my amazement the Doctor is checking my blood pressure and temperature while at the same time a medical assistant is grilling me on how I'll pay for the visit!

I told her: Did it ever occur to you that making a patient discuss finances while having bp taken can actually RAISE the patient's blood pressure?

She said "I see here that you have Medicare, but you DO NOT have Medicaid!

(the welfare office told me my Medicaid already kicked in and is active!)

when I explained this to the m.a. she said: MAYBE OUR SYSTEM IS DOWN!

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I was then rolled into a room with multiple beds.  The doc closed the curtain so that I could put my gown on.  The curtain had blood stains on it!

I opened the curtain so as to alert them that I'm ready.  I see a clock and a crucifix directly in my line of sight while lying down.  How cheery!

A doc named Wesley tried to find veins in my left arm but had no luck.  Lots of painful sticking and fishing around.  He said "you have bad veins"

He brought in an i.v. bag and asked what it was for.  His response was anything but sensitive.  He said "we're giving you medicine, do you honestly mean to tell me you have never had an i.v.?

After the i.v. bag was only half full, they put an automatic bp cuff on me that he said would measure my bp every 15 minutes.  It seemed more like every 15 seconds though. 

A nurse came in to borrow my visitor chair sayin "Doesn't look like you'll be needing this will you?"

I asked about the results of my blood tests.  Interestingly, I was told that I do have elevated levels of carbon monoxide but not enough to concern them!  She said "it doesn't appear that you have been poisoned"

(my instinct is that I have)

"The health care situation is abonable"(sic)

Michael Moore, I need you!  (movie-sicko)  In the 14 months I have been here it has been a health care merry go round.  I was always under the impression that Medicare was excellent health insurance.  Yet, practically nobody in Mountain Town accepts it.  Couple it with fibromyalgia/chronic pain and nobody will touch you.

So, I have used the e.r., and urgent care clinics in a revolving door sort of way.  Actually I only used e.r. 2x because i learned years ago what a burden it puts on the system when standard uninsured over use the e.r.  So I use the urgent care, but again, only in urgent situations. 

These diseases are excruciating pain that never goes away.  The only people in town I know that get pain medication are lying about their situation.  Some lie and get the medical marijuana.  We live in a society that rewards lying and penalizes honesty.

I can in theory go hours away for my health care............everything in this broken society, everything is such a grueling struggle.

"M.R.I. results are in"

The results are in. The mri's of my brain turned out perfectly normal. So, I still do not know why I have/had the following symptoms: weakness, walk into walls, dizzy, falling, migraines, seizures, tardive dyskinesia, and not being able to stay awake or even so much as hold my head up!

This is just a smidgen of my symptoms that I've closely recorded for the last 20 years...............

I now have a pain management doc. who i met once. I told him today that it is not an acceptable quality of life to be in round the clock excruc. pain with debilitating neuropathy in all limbs. He wants me to see a rhematologist and an endocrinologist and have a bunch of blood tests to try to figure out what's going on.

When he did the typical strength tests that many of you have done to, he said that I'm "very strong" I said how can i bee so strong when I'm too weak to even walk or do dishes. He said that's not weakness that's fatigue! ? oyyy.

I was totally prepared to have to pay a co pay today and they didn't ask for one. Whereas when i got the mri done i didn't think I'd have to make an up front payment but was asked to pay 160 dollars. One of the girls on my fibro support group site said she had to pay 600 out of pocet for her mri. I asked her what she would have done if she didn't have the cash?

The system makes no sense to me. Anyway, I guess I'm "lucky" that with being on disability I have one of the best insurance plans in the nation. Not feeling so lucky. But I do feel that I earned that insurance coverage. I've more then "paid the price" to get where I am................

Have you seen Moore's "Sicko" documentary?