"Government Run" Works, Look around you

"On a scale of one to ten, how would you describe your pain?"

"Today it feels like a three to a four sometimes throbbing into a five. I just want to sleep but the right side of my head with pressure behind my right eye won't let me. Plus it hurts to think, maybe that is a seven or a six pulse. Maybe coffee will help. Had trouble swallowing, which is a problem because I need to take my morning Keppra with Zoloft. My stomach feels queasy, have some Zofran which will help."

That was not a conversation between two people.

It was a question from memory verbatim asked me by my Doctors and Nurses, followed by my condition this morning, which is also Elders For Health Care Reform Day.

Convenient that, as much as I advocate the imperative, the chance, the opportunity to change U.S. Healthcare now, for the benefit of those living and yet to be Genetically Recombinated; today I feel sick, am disabled, with a functioning brain experiencing a headache, and enjoying an internet connection.

I believe it can be helpful that I share my experiences of the past 18 months after being uninsured for, oh! since 1986, interpolating my Social Security Statement from the Social Security Administration, "Government Run", which is accurate and accessible.

Look up your data- http://www.socialsecurity.gov/mystatement/

It is also available to the hearing impaired TTY 1-800-325-0778

Y español, llame al 1-800-772-1213

This is important to remember when threats and allegations are bandied negatively about "Government Run". I think about the Military. They handle logistics of food, clothing, shelter, sanitation, payroll, the needs of a mobile community in hostile, alien land. Then domestically, Cops, Firemen, Coast Guard, yep even the IRS. They are all tightly run operations. I state this with the personal conviction that when I'm right no one remembers, when I'm wrong no one forgets. Think that thought the next time you read a newspaper, listen to talk radio or watch a cable news program bad rap one of these groups and pretend it is you they are talking about.

Are ya' feelin' good about all that you've done for others lately?

During one of the two times I was Homeless/Transient I filed my tax return with my address as Homeless. It is on file. In 2005, while talking with the IRS representative, a transcript was faxed to Truman College Financial Aid office . "The call was being monitored to improve customer service." Thanx to Pell, I became a full time college student, again!!

30 years earlier the ISSC helped me for one year, then because my grades weren't up to requirements, my life of meandering began.

Here's how You Can Change with another "Government Run" system, the Department of Education.

http://www.ed.gov/programs/fpg/index.html

Ok, moving up the calendar to January 8th, 2008, in Killeen, Texas. While nailing the 6th-to- last sheet of 5/8 drywall, in a ground-up construction of a pole barn, my left foot steps on the third rung of the 6 foot ladder. The ladder snaps left then, shoots right. My right foot tries to stabilize the ladder but there is nothing there. I go flying with a Dewalt roofing nailer in my right hand.

The ground approaches slowly and hard, fracturing my left distal radius cutting the top of my head, and fully tearing my left rotator cuff (diagnosed by MRI 3 months later through friend of a friend of a radiologist). Blood flows good enough to stain the floor and soak a shirt used as gauze. With help from my brother Tim, who was getting the 5th-to-the- last sheet ready, my shoulder and wrist get ice-packed and slung, then he drops me off at Metroplex Hospital http://www.mplex.org/ for Emergency Evaluation and Treatment. Time from fall to triage, 12 maybe 15 minutes.

It is determined that surgery for the wrist is necessary.

As I am Out of State and uninsured, Metroplex personnel help me apply for financial assistance, for both surgery and emergency care.

Then on January 11,2008, after Orthopedic Consultation and initial payment of $5000 by my Army Doctor Brother David, the Home Owner, an Extended Fixator is installed, after reduction, to stabilize my wrist for 8 weeks.

Eventually due to Charity from the 7th day Adventists and discounts from my Army Doctor Brother, bills somehow get ameliorated. However the radial alignment was set at 40 degrees where as we are built with 5-10 degrees. My wrist has 90 degrees less suponation.

Back in Chicago, cash from savings are used for Orthopedic consultations. While Orthroscopic surgery is necessary to reconnect my shoulder and reconstruction surgery is necessary for my wrist, forty grand is not in hand. Sooo I move forward, I can still ride my bike, just can't lift things like I used to. But a friend of a friend asks "How'd ya like to park cars? It's Cubs Season Home Games I can use the help!" Sooo rent, food, phone, internet problems get solved.

June 6th, 2008 disappears, I have a seizure in my apartment and not even I know it happens.

June 7th, 2008 my friend Jim and new friend Tim come yelling, "Yo Pete!"

I was supposed to park cars the night before, and didn't show up. That's because I was unconscious at the time. They took one look at me and Jim says "you had a seizure" I guess I looked pretty lousy. I thought it was side effects from medication I had been taking because of my accident in January. Nope this was something new. My Primary Care Provider at Erie Humboldt Family Center thought that I had a different problem, which took the form of what I called "Frozen Moments". I would want to talk but couldn't and my left hand would not cooperate.

We were in the process of scheduling MRI's & CT's when life intervened.

On June 21st, 2008 a small seizure occurred while trying to pay a fare on the BNSF from Downers Grove to Chicago. I was on my way home from a surprise 40th birthday party for my brother Chris. The conductor radioed for EMT personnel to be waiting in Union Station. They were waiting for me at the train door and walked me to a gurney then took me to Northwestern Medical Emergency. The physicians on call examined me and asked me what I wanted them to do. I told them to be a third party observer, document everything because my Primary Care Provider would need their input, then they could release me. They did as I requested.

Sunday June 22nd, 2008 while talking with a friend, Steve, regarding a three bedroom, two bathroom apartment he needed help with getting ready to rent for new tenants, I had what was described by Chicago Paramedics as a Grand Mal Seizure. According to Steve, "Your face was turning blue, you were foaming at the mouth, your legs were kicking like a dog scratchin' fleas." I woke up to questions from two faces under a moving ceiling, "Sir, do you know where you are? Sir what's your name? Sir who's the President of the United States?" I slowly slurred a reply "beeyush."

They were Illinois Masonic Emergency Room Staff, an MRI was done revealing I was sicker than I knew. There were three lesions, one on top of my brain center right was accessible, two in the back right were not.

Their advice was "your here, let us help."

Financial assistance forms were filled out, a biopsy was performed and I was released on Saturday June 28th, 2008 to await results.

July 1st, 2008 have another MRI done, back at Northwestern per my Primary Care Physician's arrangement. This following excerpt from my entry of July 2nd 2009, After One Year, Still Here, Yeeha!! On Oak Street Beach with my bike in some shade, feeling a lake breeze, watching girls in bikini's, hearing waves roll in mixed with laughter, behind me Lake Shore drive just whooshed, whooshed, whooshed then Harley roared by. Sounds bowed to attention on the cell phone ear piece. Doctor Kranzler explained that this was a "slow growing" type of cancer. He said other words in kind tones, which got blurred by superseding thoughts exploring the word "next"

Next! Bulk e-mails to family, friends, customers explaining my condition and requesting ideas. One response was a referral letter from my Army Doctor Brother David regarding Clinical Studies at the NIH. This I pursued. An appointment to be examined for the study was kept with help of my brother Charles. He likes to drive. Chicago to Bethesda by way of Harrisburg no problem!

On July 11th, 2008 The Principal Investigator explained how the study worked. What they could and would do. How this was research oriented, they had the facilities, based on my health I qualified. All I needed to say was yes. I asked them when? Things moved real fast after this point, with clear direction. They said July 17th-29th. Again this is "Government Run". as you might grasp at this point the rancorous aruments against "Government Run" in Town Halls, from RNC networked organizations, just don't make sense to me based on my positive experiences to the contrary, which are 18 months and counting.

This includes Orthopedic surgery, Neurosurgery, Left side Paralysis Recovery, Concomitant Radio/Chemotherapy then 12 months of 5day cycles of Temodar. Only recently have I begun intensive physical therapy.

I am on Temporary Disability and Medicaid. The state has given me three years till a renewal review. I see it as new definition for Deadline; pretty motivational. None of this was on my dance card. I have been riding my bike as transportation for over 30 years in Chicago but haven't since July 16th 2008. I don't smoke, my lungs won't allow it. My sobriety date is September 9th, 2004. So for what it's worth I celebrated 4 years of Sobriety with Brain Cancer, yeeha!

Healers want to Heal. Let's help them. There are alot of people who do want to help and God Bless 'em. You might not ever meet one of these people but they are why this whole system works. That's the thing to remember to build a healthcare system that is of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Here is what the other side has to say http://www.rnc.org/splashpage/index.aspx

The next cry of socialistic medicine, should be met with the question, "On a scale of one to ten how would you describe your pain?"

Best of health to you and yours,

Sincerely,

Peter Lott Heppner