My hospital also had really good food

Maybe you remember it that way because Deb came and brought you homemade vegetarian food.

Though the final dinner was yummy.

With Emmett we were out of the hospital the next day. It totally sucked. We had to keep trekking back because he was jaundiced and EM had severe post-partum depression, and we had a lot of trouble with breast-feeding. The first six weeks were hellish until EM went on ADs.

JZ had a breast-feeding specialist on-site working with her until she got into a groove which took until the fourth day. That made a huge difference. And I think the rest made a difference in her healing, because she was able to get up and down the stairs after her c-section immediately.

Yeah, I have to do whatever it takes to stay insured.

However, someone pointed out that I *have* to have maxed out my yearly out of pocket a long time ago, so why am I still paying shit? I really need to look that up before my next medical encounter, which is...tomorrow.

My sister was opining that everyone needs a doctor friend and a lawyer friend. But I don't think a doctor friend works for you in the US like it does in Jamaica. Everyone has been bending over backward to mollify my mother since her diagnosis, so a lot of her individual consultations are free. Hell, I needed to see a doctor, and separately get some meds, and the meds appeared free a couple days later, and the doctor's appointment was free and an hour after we expressed a need for it. I did have to pay for my blood draw, but it was much cheaper, rightfully, than it would have been here.

However, my mother is being fucked over wrt insurance, because her birth certificate dates don't match her passport (bc is wrong, passport is right) and the insurance company wants to see her birth certificate. They won't pay her hospitalisation costs otherwise. They also won't believe it's the wrong date.

If you need to feel better (god knows I do), the McGill Cancer Research Centre gets its groove on: [link]

Yeah, I have to do whatever it takes to stay insured.

That's the main reason I go back to the tech industry, even tho' I would like to take a shot at being the freelancing creative one in the household. The idea of not having insurance (or steady income) freaks me out. Enough to where I can't concentrate as effectively on the freelance stuff I do.

But I don't think a doctor friend works for you in the US

My doctor friend is such an asshole, I can't even express it. I think I've shared this story here. He doesn't think health insurance should exist at all, that everyone should pay out of pocket whatever the doctor/hospital charges.

He then went on to opine that people who choose to smoke or do drugs or... (and at that point he trailed off with a pointed look at my not-inconsiderable size) shouldn't be insured because of the choices they made.

I'm not sure I've ever really talked to him since then, nor do I particularly care to.

No, wait -- when I went to the hospital last year with what seemed like chest pains, he was the ER attending doc. So he was, in fact, paid by my insurance. I wonder if he refused the payment, since he's so opposed to insurance?

I just laugh at the idea of retirement. I've got some annuities with the total of a year and a half's income in them, but I'll be working as long as I possibly can.

My doctor friend is such an asshole

That's not a friend, that's a person whose orbit you occasionally cross.

My doctor friend is such an asshole,

Forgive me, but I think, based on your further descriptions of him, he is not a friend.

Yeah, I gotta agree he's no friend of yours, Steph.

Brenda, that's marvellous. I can't watch it right now, because it's making me cry, but it's marvellous.

Probably not. (although he could be the one purist in the world.)