Stimulus Plan and the Sick

In a few weeks the Senate will be debating another stimulus plan, according to recent reports.

"It's such a big unknown," says Debra, who suffers from multiple health problems and knows of some with cancer who have had to mortgage their house for treatment. "Who knows if it will help or hurt since our country hasn't faced this kind of crisis since the 30s? But one thing is to try not to personalize this, but to try to do something, to challenge denials of care, to push, to work with other people. I think where my frustration builds is when I'm too sick to do anything. The denials of care that are clearly insurance fraud and that I know I could win don't get appealed because I just don't have the strength, the energy, the health and time to fight them."

Plus Debra says with her aphasia problems (speech difficulties) and severe headaches after having meningitis, there is very little time that she can talk coherently on the phone.

"It's very sad and maddening," she writes. "So many people are going through this. So many people are putting up their homes to get loans (or did) or selling them to pay for cancer treatment for someone in their family. So many people are going without."

Debra recommends the Michael Moore movie "Sicko."

"My opinion is that Michael Moore did a great job in exposing the health care industry. People should get angry and try to do as much as they can with other people, " she wrote. "I saw a wonderful interview with Michael Moore and Jay Leno. He talked about how NBC had contracted him to go to different countries, pretend to have a medical emergency, and rate them based on various factors such as cost and how long they had to wait; etc. Cuba won, Canada came in a close second when Michael Moore submitted his footage. But an NBC executive called and said: 'Cuba can't win,' he said."

But Cuba did win.

"The executive told him he had to change his video to have Canada win and he refused," said Debra. "Later when the footage aired on NBC they had changed his video without his permission showing the winning country was Canada. And we brag about our 'uncensored' press in this country. We don't need government censorship. The news executives only show what is politically correct, sensational, or what they think will raise their ratings."

One of the few work options left to Debra, she states, is to write from home and have a flexible schedule.

"I have been looking into some freelance opportunities, trying to figure out how to break into this field, plus working on several book ideas I have," Debra explains. "I have had experiences in health care, including dental and I have been baffled by the dental dilemma."

Debra reports that there were times she was in such dental pain that she was going to kill herself or someone else.

"No one knows what that's like if they haven't been through it," she said. "It's easy for others to judge when they haven't been there. They'd rather do that than open their eyes, which is the hardest thing."

With one cracked, infected tooth Debra had, she had to return to the dentist's office every four hours for marcane injections then after hours go to the emergency room for Toradol injections until the dentist could work on the tooth.

"It was some of the worst pain I've ever experienced," she said. "I just hope the cracked tooth I currently have doesn't get to that point because there is no way I can get it taken care of right now and with the state of my immune system currently, it could kill me if it gets that bad."

Debra continues: "People are so quick to judge others if they or someone close to them has not gone through some illness or hardship. It's one of the things about human nature that sickens me. Do human beings really have such limited imaginations that they can't put themselves into someone else's shoes? I like to put it back on them and say, 'Have you ever been through?' and I guarantee the answer is no. 'Well, then, I say, how do you know what it's like?' You haven't lived in my skin.'

I learned the saying, 'Don't judge a person until you've walked a mile in their moccasins when I was in grade school. I was taught that the idea originated with Native Americans in this country. It was one of the most powerful lessons of my entire grade school career."

Debra said her children learned the difference between needs and wants in grade school.

"It seems a lot of government officials missed that lesson," she muses. "In the community where I live they are spending millions of dollars on swimming pools, civic centers, commissioning art statues for the patios of the fire stations, while we don't even have a public health care clinic or the most basic of public transportation. I just don't get it. These people need to go back to first grade in their own school district."