Dependence Day

I'm old enough now to have learned that sadly, if a job offers health benefits, it's because you're going to need them. That's because most jobs are stressful and depressing. Many of them are sedentary, which contributes to obesity and other kinds of health problems associated with lack of exercise and repetitive motion. Once you've been prescribed medications to deal with all of these job-induced ailments, you are then dependent on the job to keep you in the medications that allow you to continue doing it. Vicious cycle, anyone? This is the genius of holding health care hostage--it's a way to get people to continue working at unhealthy and unfulfilling jobs.

Unlike the natural cycle of life, vicious cycles rarely have an end-- and this particular vicious cycle is ending many people's lives prematurely. I'm pretty sure the medical industrial complex is trying to kill my friend, Bob. However, they want to keep him alive long enough to drain him of his savings first. Here's some of the evidence so far. Bob has diabetes, and was on several kinds of medication to keep it "under control". However, Bob changed his diet and lost some weight. His doctor didn't seem to notice and prescribed yet another medication--before even seeing the results of his most recent blood test, which showed that his blood sugar was at pre-diabetic levels.

Bob was having pain in his foot, so he went to the doctor, who referred him to another doctor, who diagnosed a bone infection. He was told that antibiotics might not work, so it would be better to have surgery. He had the surgery, and was advised to take nsaids for pain, which slow healing. When the surgical wound wasn't healing, they then prescribed the antibiotics they said the surgery would make unneccessary. When the wound began healing, they decided a bone biopsy was necessary, so they reopened the wound--and didn't prescribe any antibiotics. Bob's infection grew worse as the result of the biopsy, and he was then told that he would need to have a needle implanted in his arm to deliver high doses of antibiotics, as well as having hyperbaric treatments three times a week.

He was told that there were antibiotics that could treat both possible types of infection, but that they only had one type on hand in their own pharmacy, so that was what was prescribed. It was simple penicillin, the poor man's (Medicaid) antibiotic. They inserted the needle and provided him with a pack to carry around with him at all times that dispenses antibiotics with a pump at regular intervals. They also provided some air bubbles in the pack, which made it necessary for him to go to the hospital to avoid being killed by one of them. The technician replaced the bag and needle with another one with air bubbles from the hospital pharmacy. After two replacements, they finally succeeded in finding one without air bubbles in it.

Meanwhile, Bob is recieving letters from the insurance companies (extortionists) who hold our health in their hands, some of which inform that he is responsible for thousands of dollars for these treatments and others saying he isn't. This leads to anxiety, worry, and higher blood pressure, which will likely cause them to increase his dosage of blood pressure medication. If this continues for any length of time, they'll also have to add an anti-depressant or two to the mix.

I haven't been to a doctor in years and I'm pretty sure that's why I'm healthy. I'm so angry at the incompetence and greed that seem to be the foundation of an inhumane "health care" system that creates and profits from human suffering. Any time someone sees a doctor, they are required to first sign papers agreeing not to hold doctors accountable for their actions. I am really afraid they are going to kill him. It seems there are more profiteers than healers in this industry. It shouldn't even BE an industry.

Now I'm having to do deep breathing exercises to keep from making myself sick from being so angry. If there were any way for me to afford to have him flown to another country where vultures aren't profiting from sickness, I would. It's hard to be poor in America. It's like it's open season on us, especially once we don' t have any more money to pay them to let us live. It took me a long time to find a friend like Bob. We both like poetry, sunsets, and laughing. The best things in life really are free, and I wish we were, too.