Go to Naut's Thoughts
- Add a comment
- Go to Truck vs Blogger, Truck Wins, Sort of...III
Blanche,
I agree, I find Lensman's encounter with fate definitely scarier than my own...
As to the differences between the US health care 'system' and the Candian one, let me say this: given the choice, I take ours, since it is mediocre for all, whereas the US system is suberb for a few, good for many, and a disaster for many more.
My conscience would not permit me advocate a system in which many had to chose between illness or treatment coupled with financial ruin. And yes, they should have insurance, but many dont, for all kinds of reasons...
In our system, people rarely fall through the cracks. But it would require a lot of work and fresh thought to improve things, and what infuriates me about our politicians is that their objections to improvements are basically ideological.
And I have thought a lot of the poor chap who is about to lose his leg, and I think I'll be doing a post on that.
posted by
Nautikos
on August 20, 2006 at 6:47 PM
| link to this | reply
bel,
I wish hospital waiting rooms on my enemies...
posted by
Nautikos
on August 20, 2006 at 6:28 PM
| link to this | reply
Nautikos,
First off, as an aside to Lensman, Yikes! You were right, it does't bear thinking about, going over the seawall, could have easily had a different outcome. I'm glad you are both still with us, on the blog and in the world, in general.
It was interesting to sort of eavesdrop on your exchange about the differences in Canadian health care. There's always mutterings here in the US, that we'd be better off with a Canadian-style system. Maybe there's a middle ground, because for the older generation, now the costs of prescription drugs and new Medicare Part D plan that shifts the cost to the consumer, is taking it's toll, in the form of what's called a "doughnut hole" which means that patients don't get coverage until they've spent so much of their own money.
Anyway, to get back to your own situation and the man who lost his leg, it does put a different perspective on things to witness others in pain and the hard choices that life often requires. He must be going through all kinds of emotions. But who knows, he may simply be glad that he's alive and if losing his leg was the price, he may be eventually glad that it ended there.
posted by
Blanche.
on August 20, 2006 at 5:43 PM
| link to this | reply
I detest waiting rooms!
posted by
bel_1965
on August 20, 2006 at 5:00 PM
| link to this | reply
blackcat,
yes, it really got to me. The chap was in his thirties, tanned, fit, well-dressed, probably a professional, lawyer possibly, walked without the slightest limp...and only in retrospect did I realize that he had an unusual expression on his face when he walked past me...
He's been on my mind. The reason for the amputation?
I suspect cancer...
posted by
Nautikos
on August 20, 2006 at 8:39 AM
| link to this | reply
TAPS,
thanks for the compliment! I try...
posted by
Nautikos
on August 20, 2006 at 8:36 AM
| link to this | reply
Tanga,
thanks for dropping in! It does give us pause, doesn't it...
posted by
Nautikos
on August 20, 2006 at 8:35 AM
| link to this | reply
Lensman,
thanks for your good wishes, your extensive comments and for sharing some of your own experiences! Good Heavens, Lens, going off a seawall in a storm? Were you blown off? And I know what things would look like at the bottom!
You know, I think that I'd rather be hit by a truck, if one must get hit. At least there's help! But if you slam into the rocks at the bottom of the seawall, out of sight, it doesn't bear thinking about...
And our Health Care System? I'm glad your experience has been positive, and I hasten to add that mine has by no means all negative! We have successfully eliminated many of the inequities that exist elsewhere. What bothers me are long waiting lists for often life-saving procedures, and that many people resist improvements for ideological reasons...
I like your notion of the TOS. Just had one, I guess...
posted by
Nautikos
on August 20, 2006 at 8:22 AM
| link to this | reply
Nautikos, What a poignant and well-written post.
posted by
TAPS.
on August 19, 2006 at 10:47 PM
| link to this | reply
I hope never to be in a position
that I have to sign an amputation consent form. It makes one's problems seem so futile compared to others.
posted by
Tanga
on August 19, 2006 at 10:39 PM
| link to this | reply
wow... that's a scary consent form that you read.... it he walked in there,
I can only imagine why he'd need that kind of surgery. How terrible.
posted by
-blackcat
on August 19, 2006 at 6:26 PM
| link to this | reply
Nautiikos
Yikes. I'm beginning my four days off now, and I've just read the last several posts about your accident. First off, my sincere sympathies for your current pain and discomfort, and I'm rooting for a rapid healing and return to your bicycle. Secondly, congratulations on surviving the encounter! Truck-bike incidents often have a sadly different outcome. I'm happy to see that although there's been physical injury, your writing skills remain undamaged, perhaps even enhanced. Your reflections in general and the description of your country cycling trip in particular blend into a terrific piece of writing and your observer's eye is keen.
I've had my own bike crashes, including once going off the Seawall and into the Pacific ocean during a November storm; however, nothing involving a vehicle, thankfully. I was extremely fortunate on that occasion because, as you may know, almost the entire rim of the Seawall is lined with logs and boulders. I landed in one of the few clear spots and there was surf to soften things.
As you've found, these things do get you thinking, though, about your allotted time on earth and such things as the state of your medical care. At the time of the seawall incident, I had been self-employed for the previous 23 years, with no benefits other than OHIP in Ontario and MSP here. On the freezing ride home after my dunking, I realized I'd just experienced what I call a TOS (tap on the shoulder) and it was then that I began the process of seeking my current employment, which has excellent extended health/dental coverage and other benefits.
I'm happy to report that my experiences with our medical system have been happier than yours. For instance, when my sister and I had our bouts with melanoma, we were whisked through the process in a couple of days, as was my father when he had a heart incident recently, and my mother with pneumonia. I'm wondering if the performance of medicare can be measured provincially rather than nationally. For instance, Ontario has a population of about 13 million compared to B.C.'s 4.5 million, and the strains may be different. Mind you, Ontario's tax base would be larger, so it's difficult to answer that question.
The point is, I'm delighted you're still with us, Nautikos. The whole episode is providing us with some great reading, and I hope you'll heal soon and remount the horse that bucked you, so to speak. But be careful out there 
Looking forward to reading further updates....
posted by
Lensman
on August 19, 2006 at 5:24 PM
| link to this | reply
Corbin,
no, we
do allow private nursing homes, although they too are subject to regulations, whose details I'm not familiar with
posted by
Nautikos
on August 19, 2006 at 4:48 PM
| link to this | reply
Really......
No private care?? Is it the same for say.....nursing homes???
posted by
Corbin_Dallas
on August 19, 2006 at 4:37 PM
| link to this | reply
Corbin,
yeah, in the US...
posted by
Nautikos
on August 19, 2006 at 4:36 PM
| link to this | reply
Do those with money......
have the opportunity to get private care.....private hospital, etc.?
posted by
Corbin_Dallas
on August 19, 2006 at 4:20 PM
| link to this | reply
Blanche,
thanks for your comments.
The debate about the Canadian Health Care System has been going on for years. Whether or not it is adequate depends in part on the expectations one brings to the question.
In the sense that noone is left out it is. In the sense that the quality of care, or even its timeliness, are often highly questionable, it isn't. Many people, including myself, have argued that those who can afford it should be given the opportunity to be treated by doctors in private practice. It would ease the demand on the system, and it's happening anyway, in that people who can afford it are going to Rochester, New York, Chicago and Boston.
The problem is that we have too many doctrinaire 'liberal', or I should say socialist, politicians who believe that a two-tier system will inevitably lead to the end of the current one. Nonsense, of course, but, as so often, ideology wins out over reason.
Having said all that, I predict things will change because they must, since the wheels are going to fall off this wagon some day soon!
posted by
Nautikos
on August 19, 2006 at 3:50 PM
| link to this | reply
Nautikos, I've asked Lensman that very question about Canadian health
care. He seemed to feel that it is adequate. However, everyone's experience varies and this is certainly your own experience. However, I can say from experience in public health in America, that for those who can't afford top-dollar health care, you can add the stress of incurring debt to the interminable bureaucracy.
You write so poignantly and philosophically. I have also had my qualms about the "making the positive out of the negative" situation or comparing anyone's pain. It doesn't minimize your own, but it sounds as though it is making you a more empathetic person, and that's a plus. I hope your recovery is going well, adn I'm glad you are making through this rough time with your flippancy intact.
posted by
Blanche.
on August 19, 2006 at 2:35 PM
| link to this | reply