VOODOO or HEALTH INSURANCE? Dr. Dale’s Journal Part 5
For this entry to make sense, first read Dr. Dale’s Journey Part 1: “DIAGNOSIS BLACK,” Dr. Dale’s Journey Part 2: “HEMLOCK” (chemotherapy); Dr. Dale’s Journey Part 3: “FALLOUT” (Radiation); Dr. Dale’s Journey. Part 4: “THE NOVELTY OF HAVING CANCER has WORN OFF”
One experience that prompted me to share Dr. Dale Maxwell’s journal was an accidentally hit on blog post by a writer, unknown to me, and as far as I know, unknown to the world. I’d landed on the site exploring hiking options in New Mexico and this woman happened to be on a Taos hiking vacation with her husband and three young children the morning of my search.
But she wasn’t writing about her hiking experience. Instead, out of the blue and floundering, she’d decided to write straight out about what was really the focus of her life at that moment. And it wasn’t the kind of mountain you can climb.
Thirty minutes before writing the post, the writer had learned her ‘results’ were in from her gynecologist. She had the advanced stage of the same hereditary-influenced ovarian cancer that had killed her mother at age thirty-nine.
She hadn’t told her family yet. She didn’t know if she wanted to wait on that. Yet with me and others she shared how scared she was. She asked that we listen as she listed the tests, the possibilities and inevitabilities. If you are running a judgment through your head criticizing her decision to post her thoughts–let it go. A person who just learns they have terminal cancer can do whatever she wants.
Here she was able to reach out to maybe thousands with her one tiny voice and remind us that social media can be a good thing. I’m convinced she could ‘feel’ our shock and caring. When she said “Go kiss your children,” she reached right into the hearts of strangers and reminded us of what was important.
With her diagnosis, she’d been given a myriad of suggestions on treatment. Mostly, she was told she’d have to wait. These tests take time.
What? I’m thinking. Time is what she doesn’t have. How would you react in her situation? I picture myself demanding to be knocked out until more test results arrived. Perhaps you are braver. Dr. Dale was definitely braver. And he talks back to the insurance companies.
(I returned to the site for more news, but the woman never made another post.)
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Dr. Dale Maxwell:
On March 21st I had [my] 3 month follow up ct scan. Some people thought the peripheral mass was back and bigger. Some thought not. Some say biopsy—some say not.
I had classmates that went into general practice in Kentucky and Tennessee. They made house calls. Medicine was cleaner then. You’d go to patients’ houses and examine body fluids with [a] lab that fits in [a] black bag including [a] small monocular microscope. Then you give [the patient] a shot of penicillin. His wife gives you a cup of coffee and an apple pie.
Three days later the wife drops off chickens at your house and says he [the patient] is just fine.
Now you [the doctor] don’t touch [the] body fluids of people you like, let alone strangers. The lab you need to do the lab work you order won’t fit in a patient’s house, let alone your black bag. Instead of the penicillin shot, you give him [the patient] papers that say:
- You [the doctor] have given him [the patient] a bunch of tests but there are $50,000 [worth] of more tests you didn’t do, but he can have them if he wants them.
- Some people die when they take the treatment so you [the doctor] don’t recommend it.
- Some people die when they elect for no treatment, so you [the doctor] don’t recommend it.
- Some people with no treatment get well—but you don’t know which ones will get better or and which ones will die–and anyone who says you [the doctor] do know– is a liar.
- If you [the doctor] think the treatment option is best for the patient, but your contract with the insurance company opposes that option, you are not allowed to recommend treatment. This is because the insurance companies are in charge of the money and therefore know which medicine is the cheapest and therefore best for the patient.
- If you [the patient] choose to take their medicine and neither get well or die—then I as your doctor can then tell you what I recommend.
Lastly, if you [are paid by your patients with live chickens] in metro Atlanta, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation comes to see you . . .
“Planning some voodoo satan worship perversions with them chickens?” the nosy officer will ask. [“We’ll have to run some tests.”]
“Naw, just wanted some fresh chicken.”
“Kroger’s has fresh chicken in nice packages—what are you [really] doing with the chickens?” [About those tests . . . you’ll have to wait.]
“Really,” you say, “[I don’t want any more tests.] I just want to wring their necks and when they stop running around spurting blood from their necks, I will clean ’em and cook ’em—just like my mama did when I was growing up.”
The Georgia Bureau says, “Put cuffs on this sicko and put out an APB for his mother. [Order lots of tests.] I’ll have the lab check the feathers for traces of semen.”
But I digress. So we got more info [from the scan] than we knew how to process and didn’t know what to do. So we waited 2 months and repeated the scan. For the truth.
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