It happened to me.
Downsized a while back.
COBRA'd.
No affordable insurance post COBRA.
Uninsured.
I'm a statistic.
I almost became a mortality statistic last weekend.
The day started in the usual way last Sunday. I was in no hurry to get up. I had a leisurely breakfast. Puttered around the house picking up. The lawn needed some attention, but ninety-five degrees is too hot to do lawn work. Needing something to do, I decided to go and workout for a couple hours and planned to do the lawn late in the afternoon. Who knew that deciding to go to the gym was going to be life threatening?
It wasn't the exercise. I'm careful. My heart rate doesn't go over my limit. I warmed up, worked up a sweat, but not too much of a sweat. I finished off on elliptical and cooled off by walking for another 10 minutes. Feeling good, I left for home.
The lawn work was on a rain delay which was a good thing because my lower back ached. That's just a part of my life these days. A shower didn't relive the ache. While looking for the ibuprofen I saw the naproxin sodium. That should do the trick, and I took two. It was still raining - no lawn work.
It finally stopped raining, but it was time for dinner. Hubby went to the yard and I went to the kitchen. About 20 minutes into chopping up the vegetables I noticed I was feeling "funny". I started to get stuffed up. I felt a tightness in my chest. I put down the kitchen knife and headed toward a chair and my purse.
I'm thinking what did I touch that was new? What did I eat, drink or feel that was new? Allergies are old news to me. I got my inhaler and got the quick melt Benedryl. Popped 50mg. Held off on the inhaler. I remembered. I used a new body soap in the shower. I look down at my arms and they're turning sunburn red. My legs start itching.
Aw, hell!
"It's the soap!" I think and grab the baking soda and head back to the shower. Cool this time and used the baking soda to scrape off any soap residue. I get back out of the shower and see my arms and legs are still beet red, but that could be the abrasive baking soda. The itching is diffuse and worse. The chest tightness is worse. Breathing worse also. I get worried.
Hell, hell, hell.
"Mommy? Daddy sent me in to find out what you were doing. He needs you in the back yard."
My daughter is in her early 20's, but I still don't like to alarm her. "Honey, I think I have an allergy problem. Tell your Dad to handle it and I'll meet him in the kitchen." With an afterthought, "I need you to make me a cup of coffee extra strong, sugar, no milk; ok?" She was puzzled, but agreed. Somehow, I got dressed and back to the dining room chair and was holding my inhaler and a cup of expresso (instead of strong coffee) when hubby showed up to give me a piece of his mind.
One look was all it took. "What did you do, touch, drink, eat?? How's your throat? Tongue?"
"Damn! When did it come to this?" I thought. I dropped an ice cube into the espresso and downed it. "I thought it was the new soap. I took another shower with baking soda. I'm still red and sweating, so it's not the soap." I gave him the run down of what I did, shower, soap, naproxin, making dinner, shit happening, second shower, no better, no clue.
"What do you want to do? Call 911, go to the hospital...what?"
At that point I really didn't know. I reported. "My nose is stuffed up. Throat clear. Tongue, normal size, but weird feeling. Chest tight, no pain. Skin, red as beets. Head sweating, but not sweating anywhere else. Pulse....." I realized I hadn't taken my pulse. I pressed on the heart monitor function on my watch. Of all the damn times for it to turn itself off! I looked at my watch and put my fingers on my carotid.
Really?
Usually the pulse goes faster than the seconds because I take it while working out. My pulse was about 50/minute.
That. Didn't. Compute. My heart is never below 65 resting.
"Pulse, too slow for me. Good thing I drank the espresso. Maybe we should head for the emergency room." I tried to stand up and promptly started to keel over to starboard.... or maybe it was to port....not sure. Luckily, hands grabbed me and put me down in my chair. That's when I clued in that I was dizzy and couldn't see very well.
Someone said, "911 it is."
"Wait, I'm breathing, talking, low pulse, dizzy, can't see well, but can think. I'm uncomfortable, but not totally out of it .... could it be naproxin? Someone check the side effects, please? I can't read." I've taken naproxin many times as well as any other NSAID. Never had a problem. Why I thought it would be the naproxin... Let's just say I've had a bad experience....lots of them.
They found a web site that listed the symptoms of a bad reaction to naproxin. It was like I hit the lotto of bad karma. My husband asked me, "Feel like spending $5,000 or $10,000 at the emergency department?"
That concept cleared my vision. Spend $10,000 because I'm uninsured when I know someone with United Health Insurance would likely pay $1,000 plus $125 copay. That's reality. "At least I won't have to pay $600 for the ambulance. Let's go."
We moved to the car, but it was apparent to everyone that I was getting better by the minute. I was less dizzy. Less wobbly. Stronger. Breathing better. Tongue less weird. Seeing better....a lot better, like normal....the Benedryl was working. The itching was half what it was. I took my pulse, 58. Espresso is an unsung home remedy.
I looked at my family, "Sweeties, I think we're good. We don't have to go anywhere. ...but I'm not cooking dinner."
I'm not alone
Drew Altman of Kaiser Family Foundation noted in April of this year:
When the historic recession started to bite in 2008, people began to put off elective health services: they went to the doctor less, had fewer procedures, and purchased fewer drugs. Even hospital days fell. But utilization continued downward even after the recession technically ended in June of 2009 and the economy started to slowly recover. Current data on medical use in the private sector are sparse, but from what we can tell from the data we have and from anecdotal reports from health insurers, utilization has not picked back up, at least not yet.
I can go over the
stats and show you
survey results, graphs and trend lines for the decline in utilization, but sometimes reading about someone's personal experience says it best. I could have gone to the emergency department and had reassuring care. I was going to be all right. They would have run a ECG, done a bunch of lab tests and referred me to an allergist all for the low, low price of outrageous. I could spend $10,000 on this - a problem I know....but what if I get a diagnosis of cancer? If I spend the $10,000 on this, I won't have the $10,000 to spend on the cancer. That's the reality of the uninsured. You just don't know.
The post script is that I'm ok now and I'll be getting a new epe pen in the very near future via more affordable outpatient care.
Where do we go from here on health care reform? Until we get the haves to have some compassion for the have nots on health care....I'm screwed.
UPDATE: Thanks for the recs. I was writing about this and didn't have a title, then the perfect sister title showed up on the rec list. Thanks for your kind thoughts.