By now, we have all read ad nauseam about the novel strain of coronavirus that has changed our lives forever, SARS-CoV-2. This is the name of the virus while COVID-19 refers to the illness or disease caused by the virus. Y’all probably know that too. But you have probably wondered why we are treating this virus so different from influenza. After all, we have never shut down entire cities of businesses, schools and workplaces over the flu. Fundamentally, all viruses work the same way to make us sick; they use our own healthy cells, invade them and use the cell’s resources to reproduce hundreds more viruses. As more and more of our healthy cells are taken over, our bodies start to feel the distress. A major difference is influenza viruses replicate in our upper respiratory tract, while SARS-CoV-2 replicates in our lower respiratory tract. Continue reading “Understanding COVID-19 and Why it’s Such a Big Deal”
Living at Wallgreens
Part 3: Doing the Medicine Dance
I’ve lost track of the pleasant exchanges I’ve had recently with total strangers, all of us on Medicine Road wishing we were any place but here. Misery may love company, but empathy is one of the best human qualities. We all seem to show much more compassion and concern for each other standing in line at Walgreens or CVS than what’s so unfortunately common today in modern traffic. Nobody cuts the drug line or exchanges one-finger salutes. Instead, we smile and nod knowingly at each other and frequently discuss everything from the Spurs to Texas weather just to pass the time that so very often crawls by interminably when dealing with the consequences of illness.
A sign six feet or so from the counter directs our group to stand behind it. I’m told it’s to allow privacy for medicinal conversations, but the distance does little to impair hearing; I can almost always pick up word by word exchanges between staff and customers, and even many feet further away where a pharmacist now informs some agitated person over the phone she can’t fill a prescription because it’s held up for “prior authorization.” Continue reading “Living at Wallgreens”
Bad Medicine: Health Insurance from Ebenezer Scrooge
Insurance Math-When One Plus One Equals Zero
“Who reads insurance policies?” my pastor said rhetorically to a very distraught parishioner as we visited in his office. I didn’t think much about the statement until later, my wife’s illness the far more painfully urgent focus of our discussion, but as I think back now over my 64 years on the planet I can only remember one time I carefully read any insurance policy. When I did I was standing in two feet of water inside of our opulent mobile home in the aftermath of Hurricane Juan in Louisiana, and discovered we weren’t covered for floods.
Our recent situation is similar, but emotionally, 100 times more traumatic and way more expensive. Message? Break out those policies brothers and sisters and make darn sure you know what you have and what you don’t. Secondly, don’t feel stupid if you fail to understand what’s in print both large and fine. I have three college degrees, one of them in communications, and I often couldn’t interpret the specialized language commonly reading like some ancient incantation. I believe this is most deliberate, common coherency in insurance documents one of many changes greatly needed to even begin to modestly repair the awful mess impersonating an integrated health care system today. Continue reading “Bad Medicine: Health Insurance from Ebenezer Scrooge”
Sick in the of Heart of Texas-Learning from Cancer
Part 1: In the Eye of the Storm
If I’ve learned anything from our horrific rollercoaster ride through the perilous world of cancer, grossly inadequate insurance, and deep emotional pain it’s that long before one comes to the point of considering a bridge dive into concrete and traffic, there’s almost always help within walking distance, in my case found less than 15 feet away.
Although I’d long admired the enormous contributions social workers make in our society, I never reached out to one for help myself and waited far too long to grab a human life preserver, a savior especially trained to help people like me cope with a wickedly complicated, terrifically expensive, and emotionally debilitating situation that is American health care today. Continue reading “Sick in the of Heart of Texas-Learning from Cancer”