I was recently doing what I do, perusing the internet looking for things to get worked up about (good or bad) when I came across a new post on a brain cancer forum I follow on Facebook.
These peeks behind the curtain (skull?) are really interesting. I want to zoom in on the awake craniotomy idea... ever see Hannibal? I recall seeing Ray Liotta in that sort of predicament at one point in the film. It was creepy!
Stuff like that really used to creep me out more than anything, but the older I get, the less brain stuff bothers me. Maybe it's because I kind of think there's no "absolutely healthy" measure for a mind, and I've noticed my own brain doing silly things from time to time, or maybe it's because I just know a lot more about how things work than when I was a kid... but the weirdness/fascination aspect is still there. Brains being slightly off is kind of like a version of the uncanny valley, maybe.
Well, I was unconscious for most of it, but… basically they expected to find one thing in my noggin and saw something else and my head got held open while the surgical team dealt with the insurance company to get permission to do what they thought needed to be done. It didn’t get done and I was back in the hospital two weeks later for an emergency surgery after I almost died in an emergency room due to infection complications in my brain.
Damn, man. It sounds so surreal to me that a realtime medical procedure should ever defer to a non-medical third party like this, but I also know very little about the way insurance works in the US.
Glad you've pulled through despite the complications.
Thanks. My situation could’ve been really bad. I know non-private healthcare has its downsides but most Americans have no idea how terrible private insurance is until they get sick. The term “death panels” was used to scare voters from universal healthcare back in the 2000s, but something far scarier exists under the current system for anyone who isn’t very wealthy. In fact, I was only diagnosed after I partially paid for an MRI out of my own pocket. And that was after several years of NOT being told that that was even an option because most medical professionals assume all of their patients are going to use insurance because the tests cost so much. It’s complicated and terrible.
Well, shit. I often hear or read anecdotal horror stories about the US health insurance, yet I try not to generalize based on those. (Because it's typically the most extreme stuff that makes the headlines.)
But this is yet another drop in that bucket.
Sounds like you've dodged several proverbial bullets. And it's great you get to use your voice to shine some light on it.
The American system works really well as long as you don’t get sick. Like yearly physicals and dealing with the more easily manageable conditions like high blood pressure, etc. it kinda falls apart if it gets trickier. I knew a guy with great health insurance who still lost his family home. And then he died.
My family ran up well over $100k in debt just dealing with all the costs our insurance didn’t cover. We got through it, but cancer stuff can get very expensive very easily. I wish I didn’t know so much about this topic.
Wow, that's no small change. Sounds like something worthy of writing about, but I understand that your focus is much more on the personal impact of cancer than a somewhat broken system.
These peeks behind the curtain (skull?) are really interesting. I want to zoom in on the awake craniotomy idea... ever see Hannibal? I recall seeing Ray Liotta in that sort of predicament at one point in the film. It was creepy!
While I know that an awake craniotomy is painless because no pain nerves, it still freaks me out.
Stuff like that really used to creep me out more than anything, but the older I get, the less brain stuff bothers me. Maybe it's because I kind of think there's no "absolutely healthy" measure for a mind, and I've noticed my own brain doing silly things from time to time, or maybe it's because I just know a lot more about how things work than when I was a kid... but the weirdness/fascination aspect is still there. Brains being slightly off is kind of like a version of the uncanny valley, maybe.
I'd be curious to hear more about your surprisingly long biopsy if that's something you ever end up wanting to share.
Well, I was unconscious for most of it, but… basically they expected to find one thing in my noggin and saw something else and my head got held open while the surgical team dealt with the insurance company to get permission to do what they thought needed to be done. It didn’t get done and I was back in the hospital two weeks later for an emergency surgery after I almost died in an emergency room due to infection complications in my brain.
Damn, man. It sounds so surreal to me that a realtime medical procedure should ever defer to a non-medical third party like this, but I also know very little about the way insurance works in the US.
Glad you've pulled through despite the complications.
Thanks. My situation could’ve been really bad. I know non-private healthcare has its downsides but most Americans have no idea how terrible private insurance is until they get sick. The term “death panels” was used to scare voters from universal healthcare back in the 2000s, but something far scarier exists under the current system for anyone who isn’t very wealthy. In fact, I was only diagnosed after I partially paid for an MRI out of my own pocket. And that was after several years of NOT being told that that was even an option because most medical professionals assume all of their patients are going to use insurance because the tests cost so much. It’s complicated and terrible.
Well, shit. I often hear or read anecdotal horror stories about the US health insurance, yet I try not to generalize based on those. (Because it's typically the most extreme stuff that makes the headlines.)
But this is yet another drop in that bucket.
Sounds like you've dodged several proverbial bullets. And it's great you get to use your voice to shine some light on it.
The American system works really well as long as you don’t get sick. Like yearly physicals and dealing with the more easily manageable conditions like high blood pressure, etc. it kinda falls apart if it gets trickier. I knew a guy with great health insurance who still lost his family home. And then he died.
My family ran up well over $100k in debt just dealing with all the costs our insurance didn’t cover. We got through it, but cancer stuff can get very expensive very easily. I wish I didn’t know so much about this topic.
Wow, that's no small change. Sounds like something worthy of writing about, but I understand that your focus is much more on the personal impact of cancer than a somewhat broken system.