Map Project - Art House Co-op

Here they go again.

This weeks project: Map Project. It's free, just like any other time.

Draw, build, print... just create a map, or something similar and mail out by the due datem, which for this entry is April 30th 2012.

I'll get mine going. Thanks to these small projects, I've been feeling at least reasonably accomplished!

Random Ramblings

Have I had one of these moments before? I must have, but maybe not under the same title? Who cares, actually. 

Tonight, I'd simply like to share my frustrations with the American healthcare system. It's not even about the financial side of it: the whole deal is expensive, yes, and we all know it. You pay a ton for your insurance, then you pay a few more tons almost every time you see a doctor. Eventually, when/if you get really sick, you end up piss poor and voila - nobody cares. That's all fine and dandy and we've talked about it a million times. There really isn't anything new I could say about it.

I suppose I am lucky enough because I get insurance through work so my little policy is actually part of some group deal, blablablawhatever. Neat. It covers some things, but doesn't cover what I actually need right now. No suprise there. Almost every time I see a doctor, I need to invest a few hours into studying paperwork, dialling numbers and yelling at random people. After that, I can finally relax because my sky-high bills all of a sudden become at least partially covered, just like they should be. Why? Because the freaking policy I pay for says so. It's the service I buy, which they don't deliver. Why? Simply because they are thieves and they can get away with the shit they do. 

I am not quite sure why that keeps happening as if it were okay. Maybe it simply is, because no end user other than myself (and maybe someone else here and there) actually gets upset when they are being charged for what needs to be free? Maybe because nobody actually understands how things work? Or maybe everyone here happens to be so rich that they don't care, at all, where their money goes? I really doubt the latter is the right answer.

I do notice that many people I get in contact with have no clue what even happens with or to them at their doctor's office. They'll take some drugs because their doctors prescribe them, they'll do tests because they doctors say they should and life will be good. I can't do that. I do nothing, nothing at all, if I don't know what it is, its name, its purpose, the reason I should be taking it, or put through it. I want and demand to know how it works, why it works, why it wouldn't work and what to expect during and after the treatment, procedure or any other thing. I demand to see all of my test results and actually archive my own copy of whatever paperwork they might gather and put into my file. It's mine, it's about me and I want it. All of this probably annoys the majority of doctors I've met in this country, but at the same time, I have to admit that, after a long search (errr, trial and error, actually) I did manage to find three that I can work with. Hell, I actually even like them. But they do have to work a bit for their money, that's for sure.

So now that I've shared the fact that I am a little bit of a medical freak (yup, I probably know more than you should, if your college degree has nothing at all to do with a med school of any sort), I can move onto another thing that I find horribly frustrating.

From what I've heard, both in person and through the media, many Americans are scared of any and all forms of universal healthcare systems. They consider them to be an evil creation of communism, or probably something even worse. They tend to believe that, should a system like that get introduced here, that they would be banned from just about any choices and options. (They also seem scared of others, who I won't name or describe in any way, somehow spending all of their hard earned money by using health services 24/7 and not paying a penny for any of it, but this part of the story is a lot less relevant here.) So they believe that they would no longer get to choose which doctor to see, or which hospital to go to. I suppose that's how they imagine communism, then, because I can't possibly  understand where else a fear like this would come from.

 At the same time, in this big country of apparently any and all opportunities, I can't seem to find a doctor, a nurse or just about any healthcare provider of any sort who would work with me the way I want it for my own money. In Croatia, as well as in many other European countries (likely elsewhere in the world, too, but I tend not to talk too much about things I know little to nothing about), these kind of doctors would be referred to as private practice, which means they wouldn't collect their money through insurance, but instead straight from your pocket. They are simply governed by the free market and they operate like any other business. 

A doctor (with his medical degree and all other certificates, permits, credentials and funky stuff they need) gets himself a nice office, buys some equipment, gets a nurse or two or twenty and runs his own small business. They advertise their services and you buy their shit. It's really that simple. Some of these doctors are affordable, some less so, but it all works out in the end, as pretty much all of them find their own target group. Don't have money for these? That's fine, there's still the regular healthcare that's paid through taxes and for the most part if works just fine. 

Well, here in the land of the free and the home of the brave, etc. etc. etc., I can't seem to go anywhere and get what I want, just simply because I want it. Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to get something illegal done, or even immoral, hell, not even questionable or weird! Today, for instance, all I wanted was an ultrasound scan. One simple scan. One of those where you walk in, say hi, ask them to put a nice wand into your private part and take a few looks. Then they also may or may not print some pictures for you which you proudly get to take home, even if they're just an ovarian cyst (such as my dear late friend Fifi, who disappeared sometime between 2009. and 2010.) or something as stupid as that. That is all I wanted today. It wasn't anything important, serious or, god forbid, something my life depended on. I was not in pain, I was not pregnant, I was not miscarrying, I had no STDs or any other big issues. I pretty much got curious (err, okay, angry and perhaps somewhat worried) because of some out-of-line number I was given today as a result of my yesterday's blood work. So I wanted this scan. I wanted it bad.

And I couldn't get one. It's just not possible to schedule it. I talked to my ob/gyn's nurse (nice lady, I can't complain), but she couldn't do anything about it. The doctor himself (also very nice guy) couldn't help me. He wasn't concerned about that thing, he didn't really order the blood work either (he wrote the referral, but I demanded it and apparently nearly lied in order to get it approved) and he couldn't then, for no good reason at all give me an ultrasound. Imagine? An ultrasound! I wasn't even requesting a third breast implant in the middle of my left elbow, followed by a completely unnecessary toe removal. Nope. I wanted a routine scan and I couldn't get one.

I didn't even want it to go through insurance, since I didn't care to argue with them, or even to put the doctor in a stupid position where he has to explain things to whoever takes care of the claims there. I would have paid for it out of pocket, at the spot, with my own money, straight into the hospital's register. But I couldn't, because this country does not even have an option of that sort. There are no places, at least that I know of, where I could nicely (and above all legally) walk into and ask for a service I would pay for. Instead, you need to play a stupid game by who-knows-whose rules, wait a million years for an appointment and, in the end, often get next to nothing done. Once you do accomplish things, then it's hard to get your medical records and answers to any and all of your questions. I guess it scares them if you actually know what's going on? Maybe they are also scared you would fall into a raging fit if you knew that your blood sugar was 4, progesterone 45 and that your kidney actually had a stone or ten in it? And it's all happening for your own money.

Shitty. Very shitty.

All I got was a piece of dead cow...

I really wanted steak today. I wanted one yesterday, too, but I couldn't come up with a place to go to. I am by no means a fan of meat, but every once in a while, I just want steak, ok? It didn't feel or sound right to go buy a piece of something and prepare it myself (no grill in Minnesota in March), so we decided to go out. We chose Olives, a really nice place in the downtown area (I'd personally move them out of the hotel building they're in, but I don't think anyone's asking for advice, really) and all I got was - a piece of dead cow. No, I'm not turning orthodox vegetarian and calling steak names, it's just that they overcooked my poor New York Strip to the point where it resembled a shoe sole of some sort. Meh. I hate things that bleed on my plate, but I don't really eat rubber either. No idea what happened because last time we were there, my well done piece of cow was really pretty damn good. As for its size, the little chirpy waitress either horribly lied about 10-12 ounces of meat, or the process of cooking squeezed not only life out of the cut, but some odd 7 ounces as well. I also learned I shouldn't really ask for substitutes often either, because they replaced a baked potato with some sauteed vegetable mush I didn't even touch. Ick!

So that's my steak frustration of the day. 

Here. I stole something from the internet. I bet it tastes better than my dinner!

I guess today was overall a very bad food day. I've been lazy this week so there was no homemade lunch today and I had to forage for food around noon (unfortunately, my March schedule forces me to believe I am hungry at least an hour too early). I went to the Coffee Hag and got all excited about their salad of the day: Pad Thai! The ingredients sounded just right; they were exactly what I wanted. I took a bowl (cheap!) and drove home and then: BAM. Cilantro. Freaking cilantro everywhere. Blergh. I can't think of a flavour more repulsive than that damn herb. I ended up eating Noodle&Co's Bangkok Curry. Yay for junk food. If anyone wants a serving of Cilantropad Thai, please have at it. It's in my fridge (should I take another photo?), probably waiting for a raccoon to munch on it. 

And this is all I have to say on this great day. Or night. Perhaps evening.

I do have a photo

I guess nobody gets to kick my butt.

I won't be submitting this one, though. I need to get the real camera and take a better shot. The contents of the fridge are likely to be the same, except for maybe all the nasty soda part. Derek might go through it before I am done taking pictures.