Back when I was on the psych drugs, I used to be a frequenter of the site http://www.crazymeds.us/ in an attempt to get any kind of information that I could in order to get a grip on what plagued me. The results: rapidly approaching death. However, a year into being treated by a top notch doctor of Chinese Medicine my life is completely different. So today I went back and had a look at the old haunt and all it took was a read-through of the front page to cause heartbreak. The options are so much better than what psych patients are led to believe-as is the prognosis under the right doctor-but they have no idea, and I don’t get the feeling that Jared-the author-would be particularly amenable to the possibility. (Plus he has apparently relocated from CA to Montana, which can’t present a whole lot of options in the Chinese medicine department.) Sad any number of ways.
I remember being in agreement with the site that your only options were side effects A vs side effects B, otherwise you were looking at being out of control, a horror to yourself and a plague to your loved ones. However I found out that the same horror awaits you even when you’re ON the meds, but in a more insidious fashion rather than the high speed collision that comes from not medicating. The underlying illness/vulnerability hasn’t been dealt with, so all you’re doing is dumping a nice steady stream of poison into your blood with a little kick so that you don’t notice the original problem. Then we can get into the practice of taking meds for your illness and getting side effects, followed by taking meds for the side effects which produce OTHER side effects, and so on. Bravo Big Pharm. I wouldn’t want to be in any of your shoes on the day I met God face to face.
My friend Lazaro from school told me assorted tales the other day about his friend having to go to the emergency room at Florida Hospital here in Orlando (I don’t remember what condition she had). She waited in the ER waiting room for SIX HOURS without being seen. (Might I add that Florida Hospital is a BIG establishment. Lots of buildings and locations, I can’t even imagine how much money. I hope they don’t have me whacked for writing this). She called her insurance company who then said “OK, go to your PHP.” She told the reception/triage people that she was leaving, and was told “Oh no you’re not or we’re going to charge you for six hours of our time.” She was then told that the hospital BILLED THE INSURANCE COMPANY FOR TIME SPENT IN THE WAITING ROOM and that she would be responsible for it if she left. I’ll leave you to ask the obvious questions presented by that little tidbit.
Another friend of his had some sort of condition (again I can’t remember what) and called to find out how much she was going to need to pay to get treated. She was told that she had to pay the amount of her deductible, which I think was $600, and was given assurances to this effect. So she goes to get treated, has to pay prior to service, Florida Hospital (again) tells her that it was going to cost her something ridiculous like $7,000, despite what they told her before she drove to the hospital. When she inquired as to how in the hell they came up with that number, she was told “we don’t take your insurance.” She replied “ITS HUMANA/BLUE CROSS & BLUE SHIELD!!! EVERYONE TAKES BLUE CROSS & BLUE SHIELD!!!” The reply was “they don’t have a contract specific to this hospital.”
Way to go guys. Glad I’m not accruing your karmic debts.
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Filed under: Health-General, Western Medicine
