Wednesday, February 13, 2008

What Should I Rant About?

Yes, a liquor store. And me barely there, barely registering. Which is how I feel just now.

Some days you feel like a rant or two (which I should probably take over to The Journal of Unintended Consequences), but you just can't focus on which one. The medical bureaucracy? (If your job is to schedule appointments for preparation for surgery, why do I have to call back twenty times and when you call why are you using my dad's first name as a last name? All you have to do is make appointments. How hard can that be? If I come in and have a two-hour meeting pre-opt can you guarantee me that you won't lose all the paperwork temporarily and make me fill it out again and then complain that you have two copies? Because that's what happened last time we went to this hospital for a planned procedure.) The hubris of some people. (Just because you are a widely-acclaimed athlete who beat cancer does not mean that all cancer is curable, right now, with money from your organization. And, by the way, I don't really find 'surviving' cancer comparable to 'surviving the Holocaust.' And, by the way, surviving cancer sort of implies surviving death itself. Hubris.) But I shall not rant here. I shall go and exercise with the intention of getting myself in good shape to survive the medical bureaucracy as my dad's caregiver (imagine how hard it is on patients!) and to perhaps change the 'cause' on my death certificate when it finally, inevitably is issued.

2 comments:

Annie in Austin said...

Years ago on the old Frugal Gourmet cooking show I heard Itzhak Perlman advise using lots of schmaltz/chicken fat when cooking so that instead of having some minor coronary event it would be big enough that you wouldn't linger.

I've often thought about that advice - but haven't yet turned to cooking with schmaltz.

Hope you can work your way through the messed up medical system, Linda.

Annie

deb said...

I know how this all goes. Still arguing with and waiting on the insurance companies and Medicare for my mom. Today I went to fill three scripts for my daughter who just had her wisdom teeth extracted and was told that they didn't have the required insurance info for her. More phone calls. Overheard another guy being shocked with the news that his coverage had ended.

They certainly don't make it easy to be sick or get well.

And...my dad had the surgery for a detached retina. It required quite a recuperation period. Loads of patience. One of the largest problems that he had was a sort of temporary vertigo for a while post op, complicated by having macular degeneration in the opposite eye. It was bad enough that he fell a couple times. Anyway, afterwards his vision was significantly improved but not perfect.