Monday, September 21, 2009

Health and Wealth

Places to Go; Sites to See

UFOs are easy to spot in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Just go to the places marked on the map to see the homes of Urban Fairies. Aside from a tendency to copy the styles of the facades of the human habitats they abut, the fae folk show amazing skill in carpentry and architecture. You’ll find the Urban Fairy Organization Here.


When Geeks get Bored they often find some delightful ways to entertain themselves. They also put it on a web site for the rest of us to enjoy. Some terrific photography, wacky pics and the really, truly best animal photos can be found by swinging over to here.

Sorry! Can't add photos now. Bad blog! Bad blog!

Grammar Gripes
Often people use too many question marks for my personal comfort. Don’t they???? However, often it isn’t too many Os in the word meaning also but not enough. Does that bother you too? Too has two Os unless you’re going to use it as a preposition. I’m a petty, pretentious, pedantic grammarian who can’t spell without a dictionary or a spell checker.

Good Health
I’m tired of hearing politicians and ordinary Americans denigrating universal health care. Not only do statistics show that American health care, in general, is horrendous, but my personal experience with health care in Norway, Holland and American is the opposite of those who are making untrue claims in their comparisons.

Granted, I’ve not heard anything good about British health services, but that is Britain, a country that still doesn’t use the Euro nor recognize European Union id cards.

And doctors are similar to any other profession; some are excellent and others suck. However, these are usually the general practitioners/family doctors. In both countries excellent specialist care is available. The difference is the availability of this care.

In Holland, everyone is treated with much equality. The health care is quickly available to everyone. When I contracted a staph infection that permeated by entire body, I spent two months in the hospital. I shared a room with three others because we all needed similar special care.

One woman was a 92 year old whose family showed all the signs of being very well off, well educated and caring. Another woman was an ill-mannered slob whose family was numerous, thoughtless and loud. Both were treated the same even though the nurses thought less of the second woman because of how she treated them. (Being in their care for eight weeks meant the staff and I got to informal relationships that allowed me to share their feelings rather well.)

The entire stay cost me a total of less than 200 Euros and included a CAT scan, two MRIs, an endoscopy, solar gram, a bone scan and visits from many different specialists. The cost was for my private TV and phone! And now my medication is also totally free. When I needed some renewals while traveling in the States this summer, I was shocked at how expensive my medication was. It amounts to hundreds of dollars/Euros a month.

Now my husband faces some test and possible health related care. I’ll let you know how I feel about his treatment. Sometimes when it is someone special and not yourself you see events differently. We’ll see.

Quote Quip
When the external begins to define the internal instead of the internal defining the external, one begins living as a mortal rather than as the being you really are.