From:         "nanorc" <huh@mindspring.com>
Subject:      Nanorc, the slave?
Date:         09 Jun 1999 00:00:00 GMT
Message-ID:   <7jmkrn$6it$1@nntp6.atl.mindspring.net>
Organization: If only you knew
Newsgroups:   alt.fan.bam,alt.fan.tom-servo,alt.support.cancer,
              talk.politics.medicine

My hospital bill looks to be in the $130,000 range.

Don't worry!

It's a running joke around our household that they expect us to
PAY.  We used all 99 sheets (yes, it was itemized, and, no, I am
not making that number up) of The Bill (with capital letters) to
make paper air planes.  It's as though Wake Medical Center (name
of the hospital where I stayed) were owned by Dogbert, run by
Catbert and staffed by supermodel nurses.  (Oh and did I mention
that does *not* include the price of my multiple surgeries: a
pericardial something to drain the fluid from around my heart
or the other and multiple biopsies to find out what kind of cancer
I had.)

I'm trying to *warn* everybody about this so they'll know how
incredibly screwed up medicine is in America.  I have no desire
for donations of *any kind.*  My hand isn't out. Please don't
take it that way.  Laugh if you share my sense of humor, cry if
you don't but:

a) remember it next election
b) get yourself, no matter what, some good health insurance
 (I, being a humble 19 year old student, had just fallen off
 my family's policy 6 months before(on my 19th birthday).
 What a pisser, aye?)
c) remember: they'll fix you, they'll keep you alive, they
 may even make your nearly month long stay in the hospital
 as comfortable as possible but afterwards They Own You.

[Oh, yeah: If this is poorly typed (partially) blame those Wake
Medical Center: my second Chemo treatment - the one they gave
me on the night I left the hospital - was given through an IV
in my left hand(and, yes, I'm left-handed).  Guess what that
does, Childrens?  Why gives you permanent nerve damage in that
hand of course!  Now, old as I am, my left hand shakes ALL THE
TIME.]
                     
Nanorc
...born of fire and pain
  ...have I said FUCK yet?

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