I've had chest pains on my right side since Saturday....

[Skidmore]

not localized to any one place more than that. Hurts. Wouldn't get better. Still hurts. Agonized over whether to go to the doctor, and we have insurance. I was afraid that if I went and they didn't find anytbing, I would be penalized. I was afraid that if I went and it was something serious, I would be penalized. I caved today because I was scared and went to the doctor. I just came back from the doctor office with a diagnosis of pleurisy probably triggered by seasonal allergies, and a feeling of relief. My designated doctor is not there today so I saw the person who was available. I hope we are not penalized for that.

I cannot tell you how much I hate insurance companies and dealing with them. I'm lucky to have insurance now. My husband carries a family plan through his job. Otherwise we couldn't afford it. Nor could we afford the fees the doctors charge. $75 for 10 minutes. My husband woud have to work 3 hours to cover that 10 minutes without insurance, but then our charges would probably be on a higher scale if we were uninsured.

I'm still scared. If healthcare reform, particularly better regulation of the insurance industry doesn't take place, and we lose our insurance when he retires or whatever, we will be in a world of hurt. I need one medication to live, and I must have annual checkins with the oncologist to even get the prescription. I don't want to be in perpetual debt to the medical industry, any facet of it.

[TexasObserver]

1. I feel for you. It's a sick feeling, isn't it, being afraid to seek medical attention?

You want to know what it is, but you don't want to rack up costs or be considered one who uses their coverage too much.

[Warpy]

8. You especially don't want to find out it's a chronic illness

because that can cause you to be labeled uninsurable and you can lose all hope of getting coverage for the rest of your life.

For profit health insurance is evil. There is no other word for it.

[Akoto]

11. Ain't that the truth!

I'm only 24, so insurance should be fairly easy for me to get. When trying a while back, they found out that I had a chronic pain condition, and I was summarily screwed.

I've been fighting (with the help of an attorney) to get SSI ever since. They've rejected me twice, and on the second occasion, even admitted that I was disabled -- but not enough for them. Bedridden, but it's somehow not enough. Anyhow. We're now waiting for a date to go before a judge, who'll actually have to look me in the eye before he rubber stamps.

[TexasObserver]

12. Indeed, it is evil. Health insurers want their customers to NOT need their coverage.

A good customer is one who pays insurance premiums and never uses the insurance.

Start using the coverage, and you're suddenly no longer their friend.

[XemaSab]

2. I'm glad you're okay

and I understand the "not wanting to go to the doctor" issue. :(

[blm]

3. Sorry to hear that, Skidmore....I have had recurring pleurisy since late70s - it HURTS!

Fortunately for me it hasn't flared in 4 years....knock on wood.

I hear ya loud and clear on the fear factor re insurance company's reaction to every medical scare we go through.

[mullard12ax7]

4. I'm afraid of yearly physicals or any doctor visit of any kind

and so far in life I've been perfectly healthy. I know, like you know, the for-profit industry is just looking for something wrong with a "patient" to start raking in the cash. We live in a predatory culture of criminal capitalism that is destroying itself quickly. Without healthcare reform, the U.S. won't last another year without going bankrupt.

[jody]

5. Thanks for pointing out that it's not just uninsured people who worry about health insurance. n/t

[CrispyQ]

6. I think this is becoming more common.

Even people with insurance are guarded about seeking medical advice about possible illness because of how it might impact their coverage. This is a fucking outrage! :banghead:

The best to you & your family. :hug:

[gkhouston]

7. My sympathies, Skidmore. I've had pleurisy and it's pretty awful.

I have a chronic illness so I see a lot more of doctors than I'd like to. I completely understand the hate/fear relationship with insurance companies. My God, I wish we had a single-payer system.

[loyalkydem]

9. I also feel for you

I hate going to the doctor but sometimes I have no choice and I always worry if medicare will approve what I need.

[sinkingfeeling]

10. I had pleurisy in 2001. I thought I had a broken rib! All those people who don't want HCR, haven't

thought out how much it will cost them if they or their spouse stops working prior to them reaching 65. I'm retired from IBM and still work some place else because I don't want to pay the offered retiree's insurance premium each month out of my retirement check. I'm only 61 and will work 4 more years to keep insurance.

[Subdivisions]

13. I went to the hospital a few months ago experiencing

fast heart beat and dizziness. I thought I was having a heart attack. I left the next day with no idea of what had happened to me. It had happened twice before but I didn't go to the emergency room. I don't have health insurance. A couple weeks later I got the bill. $5000.

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

14. I am not trying to scare you, but

If it gets worse, or if you start having trouble breathing, get yourself to an e.r.

My daughter-in-law was diagnosed with pleurisy, given a breathing treatment and an antibiotic and sent home where she died from a pulmonary embolism. She was 34.

[Skidmore]

18. The doctor told me to take ibuprofen to see if that would calm the

inflammation but was very adamant that if there was no relief from pain by Saturday to come back on that morning to be seen again.

[madrchsod]

15. i did the same thing as you...

i have a history of heart problems and started developing chest pains in my left side. i finally went to the doctor and they sent me to the er..of course i was put in ic overnight and after several test they decided it was chest wall pains from my work. since i did`t have insurance the bill was 25,000. i qualified for charity so the bill was paid. if i had insurance the bill would have been less than 2000 or less out of pocket. what a system!

a doctors visit around averages around 125.

[AwakeAtLast]

16. I've had pleurisy - so painful!

Every breath is tortuous, I feel for you!

It is also just as tortuous to fear going to the doctor even with insurance. I can't believe this is what our country has become.

Hope you are feeling better soon! :hug:

[htuttle]

17. I ran into a similar situation last month

I had severe pain in my abdomen and frequent throwing up. Before I finally went to the ER, I went through several hours of 'should I or shouldn't I?' since if they didn't actually admit me overnight, I'd have to pay a hefty co-pay for the ER visit.

I finally went, and ended up being kept there for 5 days.

It's bullshit that I had to make that calculation in the first place.

[Skidmore]

19. People are self rationing or going without care, and I believe that it is a very widespread practice

The last thing on earth I want is some chronic health condition requiring me to have loads of medications over the rest of my lifetime. Fortunately, I only take one medication now, but it is essential to my survival.

I don't know what we would do if we were in my aunt and uncles shoes, both elderly and each has an upper kitchen cabinet devoted to their prescriptions. Sometimes I wonder if most of their health problems aren't primarily due to the pharmaceuticals that their specialists put in them.

[hfojvt]

20. pleaurisy triggered by seasonal allergies?

So this is something I can perhaps look forward to

"And the of course, I've got this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left-hand side ..."

You really sound overwhelmed with fear and hate. That does not sound like a pleasant way to live. I was uninsured myself until about four years ago and I was not filled with either fear nor hate. Maybe a little despair and lots of anger, but not that much fear and hate.

I mean, there are lots of things to be scared and angry about, but there's good stuff too, isn't there? There are for me, and I hope there are for you. For one thing, you've got a husband and I've got none. I don't mean to minimoize your problems, but I don't want to encourage you to maximize them. Especially the fear part. That's not even a problem, not yet. It's just an apparent absence of hope and confidence. Have some faith in your own ability to overcome. When a problem comes along, you must whip it. Whip it good!

[Sal Minella]

21. You plan to remain completely unafraid if/when you develop chest pain?

I can only wish I had such complete faith in my self-control.

[hfojvt]

23. actually shortly before I turned 40 I had some severe chest pain

and then some milder chest pains. Yeah, that was kinda freaky, but I still had a pulse (and no health insurance) so I googled my symptoms. The most likely answer seemed to be peptic ulcer, which I treated mostly with milk until I was hospitalized for it a few years later. Except for some mild chest pain and not being able to swallow (which I had experienced many times before) I never really felt sick.

Ultimately when your guidance is out and steering is out and you are locked into the moon's gravitational pull, you are gonna have to face death. Worrying is not gonna make it avoidable and not gonna make the journey pleasant. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U7rOUSvYM8

We are gonna die anyway (someday), and I'd rather die fighting believing that I am never gonna lose. Come for me, Gamalk!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1HuqP0nvuA

[Sal Minella]

27. Say "Hi" to the Klingons for me.

Or whoever the beings are who inhabit your home planet. Good luck to you. :)

[hfojvt]

29. "I am from Iowa

I only work in outer space."


Then again, Iowa does stand for Idiots Out Walking Around

or I Owe the World an Apology

or as I said after my second seatbelt ticket

Incorrigible Oppressors Without Accountability

[Skidmore]

24. I say you are doing a very good job of

minimizing my problems and discounting my concerns, especially since you haven't the foggiest clue about the health issues I have dealt within the past 3 years nor do you have a clue as to our current economic circumstances. Frankly, I'm tired. Exhausted. And I feel whipped. I did not ask for sympathy but shared a very real calculation I made over whether or not to go to the doctor. A calculation which I'm certan many others are making daily.

The fear that you so cavalierly dismiss is reality-based and not imagined or manufactured. As for "hate," I haven't the foggiest idea where you pulled that from. I want healthcare reform and regulation of an out of control insurance industry and runaway medical costs. There is no way we can continue down the road we are on. I know that we cannot afford to pay out of pocket any more than we are now and if we lose what we have, it is likely that no insurance company will take me on since I have a pre-existing condition. We can't just print money out on the old computer like the government can, nor can we pass on bad debt others the way corporations do. Sorry, you don't get off dismisisng my life concerns so handily.

[Sal Minella]

26. The "hate" bit stopped me cold, too.

People see what they want to see, I guess -- I found your post a dispassionate accounting of a terrible dilemma, frankly.

Edit: I think anybody who doesn't hate insurance companies should have a psych evaluation (if they have insurance for it, of course -- otherwise it's unaffordable and you just wait to crash into the moon. Or whatever.)

[hfojvt]

30. okay then make up your mind

Are you denying the hatred or justifying the hatred? I know you re-read the OP and found this "I cannot tell you how much I hate insurance companies and dealing with them."


My, my, my though. How the hatred gets passed on. Do you disagree with my hatred? Well then I hate you too. Or have contempt for you.

Sheesh I love the liberal message here. Hatred, fear, and if you disagree with us more hatred and contempt. And I just cannot figure out why all those morons don't vote for us.

[Sal Minella]

32. FYI, hating the insurance companies did not make the whole post

"full of hatred," kay? Your teabagger hysteria isn't going to impress anybody.

[hfojvt]

33. teabagger hysteria. Oh snap.

I don't think I said the post was "full of hatred" but there was definitely a portion that I was noticing, and noticing quite accurately.

And sure, I just lurve those Bush tax cuts
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/81

[hfojvt]

28. thanks for your concern

That would be a dismissal. Fear, whether 'reality based' or not does not help even a bad situation. Fear is a mind killer.

"The litany against fear is an incantation used by the Bene Gesserit throughout the series to focus their minds and calm themselves in times of peril. The litany is as follows:

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

Lady Jessica teaches it to her son Paul, who uses it in Dune when faced with the excruciating pain of Mohiam's test of Paul's ability to withstand pain. The litany is shortened in David Lynch's 1984 film."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bene_Gesserit#Litany_against_fear

Where did I pull the hate from? I don't know. Maybe from the OP that said "I cannot begin to tell you how much I hate my insurance company." Hate is not a positive emotion either. http://www.gaia.com/quotes/topics/hatred

Also apparent from your OP that your husband makes about $25 an hour. Holy cows. If I made that kinda money I probably would fill my bedroom with money and roll around in it. I make less than $14 an hour and only work part-time.

I understand that problems can come along to anybody. Heck Farrah and Jacko were rich and famous and they still died fairly young. I sympathize, really. Hence my advice. Relax. Don't panic. Look at the good things in your life. Get some rest if you need it. Don't waste your energy trying to argue or explain things to some fool on the internets. Listen to some of your favorite songs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB17uWuBrL0

[Cleita]

22. Nevermind.

I read too fast and didn't see you said chest.

[AngryOldDem]

25. And they say we don't need health care reform.

No one should be afraid to seek medical attention.

Get well soon. I've never had pleurisy, but I understand the pain is intense. I hope the insurance isn't too painful, either.

[timeforpeace]

31. On the positive side, sounds like the system did OK by you here.

[road2000]

34. Sympathy to you, Skidmore,

for what you have faced. I've had similar experiences and similar fears.

It appears you are also a cancer survivor; I hope you're doing well.

For the record, I hate dealing with insurance companies. I have a number of medical bills, and just calling the carrier about mistakes and slow handling takes a couple of hours a week.

I would venture to say most of us feel as you do. Too bad the wingnut troll chose you to pick on.