Ok, on to todays topic. No this was never meant as a slam towards the disabled. Perhaps I need to choose my titles a bit more carefully.
As I stated previously, and what might seem fairly obvious with the varying times I am free to post, and my transposing of words, and blatant poor spelling at times, I have a disability that affects my cognitive functions, my motor skills and some other aspects of life. I have an acute early onset of a condition called Meniere's Disease. My symptoms are extremely atypical on top of this. Too make a long story short, my hearing is leaving me, my balance centers are wonky to say the least (forcing me to now walk with a cane), my mind is in a perpetual fog, and unexpected and/or high pitched noises are like an icepick to the head. Before you start to feel pity for me, stop. I am okay with this. These things happen.
There are a few things that have made the situation worse. First is the American Medical Association. I first presented with syptoms of this disease at the age of 18. This is the first time I developed dizzyness so bad that I had a falling attack. Malnutrition was blamed as I was 5'11" and weighed 150 lbs. I was told to gain weight. I eat like a horse, and always have (which is why I am no longer 150 lbs
). However I kinda brushed this off and went about my daily life. After all, I was 18, and still feeling rather invulnerable at the time. Through the following years, I would have times wear I would get dizzy for little to no reason, my left ear would feel completely stopped up, and I would temporarily lose hearing in that ear. I visited doctors multiple times for this, in fact other than my appendix bursting when I was 30, and two cases of pnuemonia, the only times I remember being ill, was when this was happening. What I thought may have been the flu seemingly was caused by my equilibrium being thrown off, and a basic attack of extreme motion sickness. However, when I brought up my ear pressure, and the other symptoms to my Primary Care Physician, it was laughed of as sinus pressure. I was placed on decongestants, and sent on my way. Note, mind you, when the doc listened to my lungs/breathing, there was no signs of wheezing, or any fluid build ups. Only about 1 in every 10 visits did I even have a runny nose. The attacks came more and more frequently, and as of last fall were happening so frequentlythat I was missing at least 3 days a month from work due to nausea.
It was 14 and a half years before a doctor from another practice even mentioned Meniere's (This was Januaryof this year). It was a passing mention, and she also wanted me to try decongestants first, as I am way too young to have this disorder. So, when I came home, I looked up Meniere's and found that the symptoms were an exact match for what I had been going through. The next morning, I called the doctor's office,
I told the nurse that I wanted to proceed with testing for Meniere's as I have been battling this for some time now. At this point the nurse told me that I needed to continue on the decongestants as they needed time to run their course. She also mentioned that I would need to come back to have my ears cleaned as I had some impacted ear wax???? I questioned this, as the doc had said nothing about this the previous day. She assured me that she knew what she was talking about. She and the doctor were professionals. Come to find out, the ear wax thing was where she had been reading a chart from another patient the enitre time. I followed their instructions with the decongestants though as I had veen told, until 3 nights later. I had another attack so bad that when I stood up to make the run for the restroom (due to nausea), I actually lost conciousness from the dizzyness. I was rushed to the emergency room, and I was recommended to see an ENT specialist the next day for my ear drum to be punctured, and fluid to be drained.
I visited the ENT, described my symptoms and the incident and the doctor immediately said it was menieres. He also said that many American treatments were pure hoo-doo, and surgery was to risky at this point (anytime before my hearing is completely lost in that ear). I attmepted to continue working and an extremely low sodium diet, and a few medications for the sea-sickness during attacks, however the attacks kept coming with greater frequency and intensity. Then the attacks started with the right ear in mid-February.
At this point, the doc had no choice but to put me on the sidelines. He could no longer allow me to work, as it presented a danger to me. I also had to completely give up driving, as essentially when the attacks come, at best I might be feeling a similar sensation to being so drunk I have the spins, at worst, I suffer similar to that of a small stroke. Okay, this is my cross to bare, once again, please no "I am sorry for what you are going through." The major downside to all of this is how long I had gone through this before diagnosis. The specialist told me in no uncertain terms that had this been caught even 8 months previous, it would not have gotten this bad. So essentially, every doctor I saw for 14 years caused this.
So, for the first time since I was 14 years old, am was not working. I filed the paperwork with my insurance company, and am still waiting 4 months later for the approval of benefits. The main reason that they are not honoring my claim is the lack of pain. It is the position of the company that if work does not cause physical pain, that I am not disabled. There is also the fact that I was not in some kind of accident or some other life changing event that caused this that makes them second guess my claim. I have seen at the request of the insurance company 4 more specialist, including a cardiologist, a neurologist, and 2 more ENT's, all of whom say that surgery will not work, and there is no way for more to function in a normal routine any longer.
I am still waiting for my first payment, from a policy that was set up 6 years ago, paid faithfully, and was in place for just this kind of event. According to other members of my disability support group, this is just par for the course. Even those that did suffer life changing events, even one who lost a limb, no payments are coming any time soon.
This is in America. The only (to the best of my knowledge) Western, industrialized country that does not have a socialized health care program. A country that scoffs at politicians that endorse health care reform, stating that they might as well be communists. A country that is ranking #1 in quite a few technology based fields (and consumption of said technologies), but ranks just above some 3rd world nations in medicine. Meanwhile we can easily get 5 different types of "male performance enhancement" medication.
All I have to say is WTF?
Tomorrow's topic: One third of all americans cannot be that stupid.
*Once again, the point of this post was not to draw sympathy, but hopefully outrage.
), but he is definitely a tactician, and the luckiest one I have ever seen. I am actually at the point where I have considered stacking the deck against a couple of times. I haven't yet, but I have considered it.. you know... for his own good (and not because it is driving me nuts when I lose, I swear).