My own adventures in lack-of-insurance have been and are too complicated and frankly, painful, for me to discuss in a linear fashion. But something...well, somethings...happened today, that I thought I'd share. In the spirit of sharingness.
My mother also does not have insurance. She's not yet 50, pretty healthy (high blood pressure and cholesterol, recovered alcoholic with the attendent mental health issues), and so, as long as she doesn't get acutely ill, and she can afford to pay the doctors who prescribe her medication, and her sciatica doesn't cause intolerable pain...it's not too bad. She works for a small business in Raleigh (irony: she used to sell health insurance, and even then, she was uninsured. That's a whole 'nother story.)
This morning, her left ankle was swollen. This has happened a handful of times previous, and the swelling was worse than it had been before.
She took the day off work (thank goodness she's on salary now) and went to the walk-in clinic. They didn't have the equipment necessary to determine whether the swelling was indicative of a blood clot, which was the reason for concern (we'd eliminated the rest of the usual suspects at home.) So they charged $130 and said "go to the ER".
At this point, my mother was very upset.
Not too long ago, I thought about money in units of "mortgage payments". But we stopped being able to make them. So now, it's groceries. The waxing and waning of the cupboards. How much groceries $130 would buy. My mother is so proud to bring home groceries. She used to buy me and brother trinkets...stuffed animals and silly things she thought would make us smile or laugh. Now, it's ice cream. She comes through the door hauling the plastic bags and before anything is unpacked, she's chirruping, "I bought turkey, and swiss rolls, and Little Debbie cakes, and...", brandishing them before us, and we smile and laugh.
When she came home from the clinic, my brother and I told her not to go to the ER.
I was, at that time, tending to the cat. The one with the eye problem. The night before we noticed that Merlin, one of our three cats, had a swollen right eye, which he kept closed. Taking him to the vet was out of the question. Just no money. I had sought some advice in the daily pootie dairy, and having coaxed him out of the closet and fed and watered him, was trying to apply a warm, wet cloth to the affected eye. It seemed to help and I breathed through my teeth, closing my own eyes and refusing to think about potential futures. Merlin would be fine.
And so would the swollen ankle. Of course. I mean, swollen ankle, heck (it's not like I'd personally eliminated all the benign possibilities). The bottom line was, the ER doctor alone would charge at least $500. I knew, because I was paying off three of them, on installment. And I didn't trust doctors. They'd probably just palpate her leg, tell her to go home and ice it and write up the bill.
So I told her not to go. To live with the risk. It would have to do.
I don't know what the difference between my mother, myself and my brother is. Maybe it's because it was her swollen ankle. Maybe it's generational--my brother and I are more willing to commoditize human beings. I did it to myself, but that's in the other story, the one I can't tell yet. But my mother said "I don't care what it costs, I'll figure it out; this is serious, and it needs to be dealt with, and that's the bottom line."
As promised, the story has a happyish ending. My mom came back, not with an answer, but with an indication of the goodness of human beings. Part of the specialness of my mom is her openness. Some would say, lack of boundaries. But she has a way with people that most people appreciate. She apparently strode into the ER and told everyone she talked to "I don't have insurance." She eventually was informed that would need an ultrasound and that she might not be able to obtain that procedure on today. I'm not entirely sure how the conversation went down, but the ER doctor she saw wrote her a prescription for an ultrasound at an outpatient facility, told her not to wait to get it done, and then said "I'm a very expensive doctor to see. As far as this hospital is concerned, you didn't see me today."
I say "happyish" because what counts a happy ending in this circumstance is a doctor a) lying and b) giving special treatment to one patient. Which is a sorry reflection on the state of affairs.
As for Merlin, his eye is looking a little better, and he's being a bit more sociable. We have antibiotic ointment left over from a previous infection, and we're going to rely on home care unless something truly dire presents itself. I can't express how much we love our animals. We got them pre-economic meltdown, and we have never considered taking them to a shelter. They do horrible things at shelters in NC. It absolutely breaks my heart that we can't take Merlin to the vet. It's a clean and concrete pain that, again, is simpler and less raw than anything I've suffered without insurance.
(I usually like to be able to reply to comments more-or-less presently, but I need to do the sleeping thing, so rest assured, I will get back to you. Thanks in advance.)
ETA: It's Thursday. I see I've been rescued: thank you, Rangers! We were very lucky with Merlin. He's making a full recovery.
The story, of course, never ends with the narrative. The Doppler/ultrasound exam failed to find a clot, which is a relief. But we still don't know what is causing the swelling, which becoming more painful. My personal best guesses are now "a nerve problem" and "hopefully not an infection". Monitoring for signs of the latter.
If anyone has a theory on: edema in lower leg and foot in woman described in 1st par., intermittent pain (best described as "ache"), DVT r/o. Also: she has had sciatica in the same leg for...about 6 months.