Holy Cow Just got out of the hospital: I had a stroke!!!

[gopiscrap]

They did a shit load of very expensive tests..it will run me 300.00 for deductibles but I am so very lucky...it could have bankrupted me...the annoying part was that we were discussing stuff that we would never discuss had we had a single payer system...I have always been for Universal Health Care and am even more so now!!!

[LiberalLoner]

1. Oh gosh I hope you will be okay! I'm so sorry that happened to you!

Sending healing vibes your way! Be well!

[freshwest]

16. +1

[Curtland1015]

2. Yeesh! Glad to hear you're okay!

The bill sucks, but at least you're alive to pay it!

[Auntie Bush]

3. Sorry to hear that! Thank God (or Obama) for Health Insurance.

[Warpy]

4. If you got out without getting your throat cut

and your arteries cleaned out, it's all good. Being on a blood thinner and possibly an anti cholesterol drug will help keep it from happening again. I have a friend who's 25 years out from a significant CVA and doing really well on that combination. My own dad got about 15 years but he'd reacted badly to the anti cholesterol drugs.

Mini strokes are good things, warning signs that we need to keep our platelets from clumping together and our arteries from clogging any more.

However, yes, just getting the testing and doppler studies done is hideously expensive. We desperately need single payer.

[aquart]

5. You sound very relieved so I take it things are going well?

[Fumesucker]

6. Glad to hear that you will be OK both physically and financially..

[myrna minx]

7. I'm glad you're ok!

[spanone]

8. damn bro, welcome back.....

[randome]

9. Wow. You must be in good spirits to be willing to share.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. I'm so glad you're OK! Please take care, my dear gopiscrap...

I hope it was a little stroke, and that you will recover completely from it...

[riverbendviewgal]

11. What happened? did you have to be ambulanced

or felt something not right?

Had you had heart problems before?


These are good points to pass on to us on DU.

Glad you are okay and have insurance..

[gopiscrap]

28. I couldn't remember how to get from the store to the church I work at so I

thought I'd go to hospital (also my left leg) was numb. It took me two hours to fiugure out how to get four miles. My bp was 201 over 130 I went to the wrong hospital andf so ambulanced to the right one. Ihad been feeling wierd for about two weeks til then. I am very relieved and also grateful to have good insurance (my wife is in the teacher's union) and so the bills won't be too bad. I have some physical therapy to do and also need to take blood pressure med for the rest of my life. I AM A SERIOUS SUPPORTER OF UNIVERSAL SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE and have always been. Thanks every one for the good wishes!!! Let my stroke be a warning to all of us both physically and financially...take heed better than I did of the warning signs and keep on fighting for a single payer system.

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. Glad you are ok!!

[JI7]

13. glad you are ok

[Rhiannon12866]

14. OMG! So glad to hear you're okay!

Or at least well enough to be posting this! Wow! I totally agree with you about Universal Health Care, haven't had health insurance since 2007, myself, but I'm glad to know that you had what you needed when you needed it. Take care of yourself, okay?

[msanthrope]

15. Best wishes, and take it easy! nt

[Loge23]

17. Hope you are feeling better!

I had an event recently as well. Blood pressure dropped to 80 along with me to the bathroom floor.
My wife called the paramedics since gray isn't my normal color.
Three days and several tests later they let me go home.
Bills were $35K - thank heavens I have insurance.
Even with, it cost us about $2500 out of pocket.
All was fine after all - apparently it was a transitory event.
Here's the kicker: out of a $30K + hospital bill, they accepted Blue Cross's payment of $8500. Case closed.
Without insurance, they would have bankrupted me first then went to the government for the rest.

[grasswire]

18. the manipulations of hospital costs is so outrageous n/t

[malaise]

19. Glad you're recovering

[greytdemocrat]

20. Wow!

Great recovery!!!

[Chorophyll]

21. Glad you're okay! Take care of yourself!

[gateley]

22. Glad to see you're typing and still thinking clearly!

I had a small stroke years ago (my doctor called it that "stroke thing&quot and I was really lucky, too. I had insurance then, now I don't. We're ALL for Single Payer, and we're ALL relieved you had insurance to help you this time!

Don't do that again!

[Odin2005]

23. YIKES!!!

[lunatica]

24. Best of luck to you!

[onethatcares]

25. I had an appendectomy last month

I'm just getting the bills, the settled insuranceless ones, at this time.

Let's just say I made my deductibles for the plan my wife has for us.

Unsettled charges were over $65K for three days and the operation.

[Kalidurga]

26. The cost of health care is the leading cause of bankruptcy.

You can never know when you are going to have a serious event. It could happen anytime in your life. My youngest daughter was 7 years old when she had a major asthma attack. She never appeared to have asthma until that day. She went to school she seemed fine, then I got a call at work that she was having trouble breathing. Long story short she ended up in the hospital for 4 days and I was there the whole time. Her dad paid the deductible, I never saw the bill. Anyway, I know it was high because of the 4 day stay it's 500 dollars a day just for being in a hospital bed. Plus there was the bill from the clinic where we went first, I haven't seen a bill from that place under $250.00. If it wasn't for insurance we would have been doing without for a long long long time. I don't know how long, but at the time it would have taken me a year just to come up with $2,000 over and above our expenses.

One day we will have universal health care, I just hope it is before my children's children retire.

[xchrom]

27. It's all good - so long as you & yours are OK. Nt

[RebelOne]

29. Glad you are OK.

My sister had a stroke a couple of months ago and she didn't know what what was happening. Her arm went numb and then she realized something was wrong. Fortunately, she got to the doctor in time. And she does not have health insurance. The doctor prescribed Plavix, which cost her $190 for a two-week supply. I turned her onto the Canadian pharmacy where I get my meds. And she only paid half that for a 3-month supply.

[SheilaT]

30. Some years back a good friend of mine had a stroke.

In his case, he went to work, thinking nothing was really wrong. Fortunately, his co-workers took one look at him and said, "Don, you need to go to the hospital."

You have wonderful insurance if you are only out $300.00

For about seven months I worked doing out-patient registration at the only hospital in my small city. I had always been in favor of single payer, but that job put me over the edge. The only people who seem to oppose such things are those who have exceptionally good health care coverage, and simply have no idea what it's like for the rest of the world.

One of the arguments that can make me want to do serious damage, is the one about not being able to choose your provider. I'm over 60, and my whole life, the times I've had health insurance, there's always been a list of providers to choose from, otherwise pay more money. And I'm one of those annoyingly healthy people, which means I need to watch myself when someone posts about their health problems, because chances are I've never experienced anything like that.

Nonetheless, we should have universal basic health care. Period. End of discussion. I don't care what you do in your private life, even if you smoke six packs of cigarettes a day, drink a quart of whiskey, and weigh 800 pounds. Clearly, you're making some poor choices, but in the long run there are so few people at such extremes, that we can afford as a society to be compassionate and caring and give the health care needed to everyone.

[gopiscrap]

32. Bravo + 1000%

I had cancer several years ago (uninsured and it cost me 193,000.00) we went bankrupt and pretty much lost all we had that is why I am so grateful to have health insurance and so angry that a nation that is supposedly the greatest on earth can't have universal health care...to me it shows that we have our priorities fucked up!!

[TBF]

31. Sending healing vibes -

I take blood pressure medicine too (since the 2nd child ... for some reason that lower number won't come down without meds). Just one small pill in the morning. Worst thing is my co-pay but I know there are older meds that folks take that are generic and then it's much cheaper.