Other More Important Things

Having recently become an ex-smoker, I hesitate to post this, as I don't want to be accused as being one of those anti-smoking-fanatical-ex-smokers... because I'm not... at least not at the moment... but this caught my eye: I was typing this report about a lady who came into the emergency room with back pain so bad she couldn't even walk.

She was supposed to follow up with a neurosurgeon on September 6, 2005, but she lost her medical assistance on September 1, 2005, so she was not able to keep the appointment. The patient previously had been going to XXX Clinic, but they will not take her any more because she has no more insurance. She tried to go to YYY [charity] Clinic, and apparently she said that they told her that she has too many medical problems for them to take care of her.

At this point in time, she says that she is supposed to get her insurance reinstated January 1, 2006, but as it is not even October yet, she is still looking at 3 months of trying to deal with this. She seems to be shut out of everywhere else. It looks like the prognosis would be every 48 to 72 hours she would be back in the emergency department for more pain medications.

Now... why do I find this annoying? Under "Social History" is says, "She is a smoker."

Cigarettes cost about $6 per pack in the U.S. That's $180 per month. That would certainly go a long way (about halfway for an individual, to the best of my memory) to paying for that insurance that she seems to so desperately need.

Well... ya know... I'm just sayin'.