The Triumvirate of Doom: Cars, Healthcare, and Food

So, contrary to the note of my previous post, here is another rant. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Case and I were enjoying dinner together at Easton this evening. I opted for Chipotle because I'll eat it any chance I get. Casey needed something coffee-esque, so he got Potbelly, where he got a mocha shake. We sat at a picnic table outside, each consuming our respective fast food.

The picnic table was situated next to a parking lot, where cars would screech by at top speed, upsetting the pleasantness of the moment. Sitting there, with these noisy cars for whom this place, Easton, was made, stuffing our faces with cheap food lacking nutritional value and loaded with calories and chemicals, our asses getting fatter by the second and likely forming the free radicals in our organs that will later become cancer, it dawned on me. All of these unhealthy and destructive systems, our car nation and suburbanization, the food-like substances system, and the miserly health care (or should I say sick care) industry are weaved together into a quilt of doom. This quilt is not one that you would receive from your bored grandmother, or one that Vera Bradley would shred to create an ugly purse. This quilt is used to strangle you and carry your remains.

It really started with the cars, didn't it? Well the marriage of the car and the suburb. All of those war vets coming home for WWII needed a place to live, the old government story goes. So the Fed began insuring loans for people to buy houses. But they only guaranteed them for white people... and instead of doing something logical, like encouraging homeownership or renters to dwell in the inner city, where they had traditionally, the government only insured home loans in the suburbs. The result was a nation of cookie cutter houses spread so far apart that the car industry made a windfall providing every single last homeowner with a car or two. To get all of these people into the city with their cars in an efficient way, we had to bulldoze vibrant urban neighborhoods, most of them belonging to African Americans, to make way for highways. And to feed all of these people quickly, we had to create the fast food industry, which was the catalyst for the disgusting food system we are stricken with today. (Note that most everything you buy at the supermarket is produced a la fast food, even the vegetable produce, which means that your spinach might be contaminated with e. coli... so eat organic!!)

Now, no one is walking to work anymore because there is nowhere to walk, and it's too far away. We are slaves to the vehicles. And because the quality of our food is sacrificed to speed and quantity, we are getting sick on a massive scale. (Go see Food, Inc... I won't even visit how angry I was after watching that film, except to say that if any corporation can be called nefarious, it's Monsanto.) So we are getting fatter and we are getting sick because of this lifestyle.

Enter the HMO to make another windfall on our fat asses. Most civilized countries realized a long time ago that a single payer system is the only way to provide health care to everyone in an efficient and humane way. And health care is a right!!! It is also a responsibility, but it is a fundamental right.

But in the US, where profits are always put before people, the government left the responsibility of our health as a nation in the hands of these HMOs. Like any for profit company, the goal is to cut costs. That means, denying you coverage and benefits that you paid for; that is, if you can afford the outrageous costs in the first place.

It is absolutely no wonder that we are fat, sick and broke. The system on a macro level seems almost designed to keep us that way. Very few people have the means to escape the slavery that is the automobile and fast food. And no one goes unaffected by our pitiful health care system. Fortunately, Obama has begun to address health care... let's hope he succeeds. In the mean time, eat smart, ditch the car, and move into the city, where you are often forced to walk. It's a happier place :)

Kidney Stones, you are the bane of my life!

I have not been writing very much lately. I realize many of posts start off with a phrase like the previous sentence. But this time I have an excuse. Aside from a somewhat intense week of final exams, which I thankfully passed with A's, I have been suffering from kidney stones for a little less than a week. And holy fuck do they hurt.

I awoke Thursday night after several glasses of wine to a massive pain in my lower right back side. I was howling for a long time (Casey thought I was either having an orgasm or a baby) before I started crying. Then the vomit came. The pain was so intense that I spent a great deal of the night in front of the toilet. I wondered if I had alcohol poisoning for a while, but I hadn't drunk that much.

After a 5th puke session, my pain subsided enough for me to fall asleep. The next morning, I still felt some aftershock pain in my back, but it was a fraction of what I had experienced the night before. This was good, because I had to go into WOSU for training on new protocol that had been adopted since I left in December.

On my way home, I called my mom to tell her about this bizarrely intense pain. Right away, she said "You have a kidney stone." She had had one herself a couple years ago, and funnily enough, she said that it was the closest thing to a labor pain she had suffered through outside of labor. I no longer felt like a big wussy for crying and writhing around in pain.

Casey and I went out for dinner that night, and I was still quite tender. To his chagrin, I refused to stop at Bodega on the way home for a beer... I just needed to lie down for a while. A sharp pain returned, but it was momentary and I was able to fall asleep. The next day, I felt completely fine. Story over... or so I thought.

But then, Monday morning, I awoke to the most tortuous of pains. I realized that I could not go through this process again. I woke Casey up and told him I needed to go to the hospital. When we finally got to a hospital that was open, (we made a detour to an urgent care that was near to us that refused to let me in because they did not open until 9am) I ran in. The pain slowly increased in intensity, to the point that I was bawling and yelling for pain meds by the time they were trying to get my medical info. It was like the labor scene in Nine Months, except not nearly as cute or endearing.

They finally gave me some really amazing pain meds that made me feel happy. I was able to relax and watch CNN with Casey for a bit. They conducted a CT scan which confirmed I had a stone that is small enough to pass. The doc prescribed me some pain meds (he almost gave me a prescription for Flomax, that medecine that helps old men who can't pee because of prostate enlargement, further contributing to my comlex that I am an old man...)

They finally released me around 1, and I just yesterday got over the pain. I am not sure if I have passed it, or if it is just in a position where it does not hurt. But I can't even describe how much of a hell this has been. After being home for a couple of hours, it became difficult to keep any food or liquids down, which meant that I couldn't keep pain meds down, which meant I was still experiencing a great deal of pain. With the aid of soda crackers and 7up, I was finally able to keep food, liquid (ungodly amounts of water) and meds down.

I wish I could feel relief at this point. I do in that I have no pain right now, and this is without the aid of pain meds (none since 4:30 am.) However, I felt this way a week ago when I originally thought I had passed the stone. And then Monday happened. I fear having to go through this again.

If the fear of having to relive this were not bad enough, I don't even want to think about the hospital bill we will be getting. My mom has insurance, but she doubts they will cover anything. I have written before about how shitty GM insurance has become. I have been trying to figure out an estimate for the bill, with a CT scan, an IV, those shots of that happy drug, the blood test, and the urine test, etc., and I hope that it is less than $3000. My family has promised to pay for it (thank god, I had to miss this whole week of work), but we are all struggling right now. It just doesn't seem fair that the insurance should be able to get away with not paying... they have the means. I will let you know when I get the bill the final total.

If we had a single payer system like in Europe or Canada, all of us could live with a peace of mind that no matter our income, we will always have the right to healthcare.