Reply #46: I have a friend who has no insurance. He is good natured and works hard. [View All]

[ejpoeta]

He would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. Well, he hasn't been feeling well. He displayed this in front of my husband just after he pulled in the driveway a few months ago. Dropped to the ground in pain. He doesn't have insurance so did what anyone with no insurance tends to do.... hope it goes away. But it didn't. It got worse. He'd be driving and would get a warning right before a seizure so he'd pull over to the side of the road. The last time it happened he didn't get a warning, I guess, and it scared the heck out of him. he went to the hospital. They found a tumor on his brain. The size of a golf ball. He was at Strong in Rochester. They didn't worry abut money... went in and removed it. Set him up with chemo meds through the mail so he'd have em... That and radiation.

He is in the hole 65k right now. They took care of him though. I think about if he had waited much longer... He was at stage 3 cancer. What a different outcome it might be. Instead of walking over to physical therapy and being home and out in my back woods hunting. I am so thankful that the hospital took care of him. But you are right... if he had insurance he would probably have gone to the doctor before. Maybe it would have been something they could have taken care of even easier.... and the position of the tumor was such that they could go in and remove it easily (for a tumor in a person's brain). I am so thankful he is ok. I want everyone to have the chance at a good outcome and having access to health care BEFORE it becomes something really bad is what we need.