State of the Nation
Jan. 25th, 2008 08:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
randy_byersSo yesterday evening I took my undercapitalized co-editor to the Harborview ER. He had an infected tooth and was hoping to get some antibiotics. The day before, the Harborview Dental Clinic had turned him away because he wasn't delirious or swollen from the infection. Yesterday, his face was certainly swollen, and he was in a lot of pain. Pain, he said, was not a symptom the clinic had been interested in.
I spent a number of hours in the waiting room, reading the last pages of She and the first pages of Diva and watching life's cavalcade around me. There was a shattered-looking woman whose husband had apparently been in an accident and was in critical condition. A minister who was there separately for treatment of his own problem advised her that if God thought it was time for her husband to go, then praise God. Quite a bit later, another woman came in, sobbing, with her young son. Apparently another of her children had just been brought in by ambulance. The woman's sobbing jolted the shattered-looking woman out of her chair. She wandered in aimless circles around the waiting room, then sat down again. A fresh burst of sobbing from the other woman jolted her out of her chair again to drift around the room, eyes darting here and there, as though seeking the elusive source of the pain.
Behind me a homeless guy who was there for some warmth on a freezing night sat with a guy waiting for treatment and watching CNN. First was an inane celebrity "news" show that was all Heath Ledger speculation, all the time, except for the occasional "outraged" bits about Britney Spears and a custody battle between Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen. Later it was an "analysis" show where an outraged pundit inveighed against the (admittedly useless) Congressional economic stimulus plan. "It's a handout! It's more spending! It will only increase the deficit! Which is what caused the problem in the first place!" (No, you dumbfuck, it was greedy conniving Wall Street dumbfucks chasing El Dorado into a wasteland of financial mirages that caused the problem. And they'll probably get bailed out because public watchdogs like you will look the other way and blame Congress, you useless fuckwit.)
A woman on the show said, more quietly, "Other countries are watching this closely. Their economies are tied closely to ours."
The homeless guy behind me said, "I see what they're saying. People from other countries are coming over here to buy houses. They're asking for loans, and they're getting them with no questions asked!"
"Yeah," said the other guy. "People from other countries."
It was almost a relief that they weren't actually grasping the idiocy spewing from the television, even if their own theory seemed like a complete non sequitur to me.
After four hours of this (although it didn't seem that long, perhaps because it was such a scene around there), I was taken back through a maze of corridors to where the undercapitalized co-editor was being treated. It wasn't just going to be antibiotics after all. They had called for an oral surgeon. We discussed the next issue of our fanzine and the general topic of our editorial process. The oral surgeon showed up and rather obtusely (I thought) lectured the undercapitalized co-editor on his failure to see a dentist before this became a problem. (In the background I heard a nurse asking another patient, "How long have you been homeless and uninsured?") After more waiting, they made an incision in the gums to drain the infected area. The oral surgeon at least had the good grace to make note of the fact that his clinic had turned the undercapitalized co-editor away for no good reason the day before.
Six and a half hours after entering ER, we exited with bleeding gums and a bag full of antibiotics and painkillers. He came back to my place and spent the night, just in case there were any further complications. Today the dental clinic will see him to deal with the underlying problem.
Doot doo doo doo-doo doot doot, living in the USA. Do you think that it'll be easy? Do you think that it'll be pleasin'?
I spent a number of hours in the waiting room, reading the last pages of She and the first pages of Diva and watching life's cavalcade around me. There was a shattered-looking woman whose husband had apparently been in an accident and was in critical condition. A minister who was there separately for treatment of his own problem advised her that if God thought it was time for her husband to go, then praise God. Quite a bit later, another woman came in, sobbing, with her young son. Apparently another of her children had just been brought in by ambulance. The woman's sobbing jolted the shattered-looking woman out of her chair. She wandered in aimless circles around the waiting room, then sat down again. A fresh burst of sobbing from the other woman jolted her out of her chair again to drift around the room, eyes darting here and there, as though seeking the elusive source of the pain.
Behind me a homeless guy who was there for some warmth on a freezing night sat with a guy waiting for treatment and watching CNN. First was an inane celebrity "news" show that was all Heath Ledger speculation, all the time, except for the occasional "outraged" bits about Britney Spears and a custody battle between Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen. Later it was an "analysis" show where an outraged pundit inveighed against the (admittedly useless) Congressional economic stimulus plan. "It's a handout! It's more spending! It will only increase the deficit! Which is what caused the problem in the first place!" (No, you dumbfuck, it was greedy conniving Wall Street dumbfucks chasing El Dorado into a wasteland of financial mirages that caused the problem. And they'll probably get bailed out because public watchdogs like you will look the other way and blame Congress, you useless fuckwit.)
A woman on the show said, more quietly, "Other countries are watching this closely. Their economies are tied closely to ours."
The homeless guy behind me said, "I see what they're saying. People from other countries are coming over here to buy houses. They're asking for loans, and they're getting them with no questions asked!"
"Yeah," said the other guy. "People from other countries."
It was almost a relief that they weren't actually grasping the idiocy spewing from the television, even if their own theory seemed like a complete non sequitur to me.
After four hours of this (although it didn't seem that long, perhaps because it was such a scene around there), I was taken back through a maze of corridors to where the undercapitalized co-editor was being treated. It wasn't just going to be antibiotics after all. They had called for an oral surgeon. We discussed the next issue of our fanzine and the general topic of our editorial process. The oral surgeon showed up and rather obtusely (I thought) lectured the undercapitalized co-editor on his failure to see a dentist before this became a problem. (In the background I heard a nurse asking another patient, "How long have you been homeless and uninsured?") After more waiting, they made an incision in the gums to drain the infected area. The oral surgeon at least had the good grace to make note of the fact that his clinic had turned the undercapitalized co-editor away for no good reason the day before.
Six and a half hours after entering ER, we exited with bleeding gums and a bag full of antibiotics and painkillers. He came back to my place and spent the night, just in case there were any further complications. Today the dental clinic will see him to deal with the underlying problem.
Doot doo doo doo-doo doot doot, living in the USA. Do you think that it'll be easy? Do you think that it'll be pleasin'?
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no subject
Date: 2008-01-25 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-25 05:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-25 05:41 pm (UTC)If you're not running this in Chunga, it's good enough to stoke my own fanzine publishing fires. Well, it's good enough to do so anyway, but if it's available, I want, want, want it.
Then, of course, the trick is to see if I'd actually manage to do anything with it. And the other fanzine publish project that's already months late, too....
Randy, this shines. I'm sorry you and your undercapitalized co-editor had to live through it, but your account of the experience simply shines. Thank you for writing and posting it!
no subject
Date: 2008-01-25 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-25 06:49 pm (UTC)Permit me to send a bag of flaming dogshit to whoever was responsible for turning your friend away at the Harborview Dental Clinic.* Oh, and another to that "minister."
Is there some evil tooth-decay fairy flitting about? Someone else on my friends list had an extraction with complications and had to go to the oral surgeon the same day, my roommate is having infection problems with his recent root canal, there was a third LJ dental horror story I'm blanking on right now, my own tooth extraction this week, and now I read this.
The unifying factor in all these stories is the being made to wait for care unnecessarily, even in instances where the patients had insurance, or could pay for the necessary services if they could only receive them.
_______
*As I type this I realize someone could make a no-doubt-shortlived business out of being a proxy service for sending other people's self-flaming bags of dogshit. Closed box with flame-retardant lining and no return address, mechanism ignites a low flame as the box is opened, recipient sees flames right after the box is opened.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-25 08:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-25 08:08 pm (UTC)And I didn't mind the minister's ministrations. He was at least trying to help that woman process her potential loss, which was more than I was doing, and I imagine if she'd told him to STFU, he would have. I don't praise Da Lord myself, but I do think one of the things religion can actually be useful for is consolation to the grieving, if they are believing.
And I like your business idea. This may be a better way to get the economy back on its feet than itty-bitty tax rebates.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-25 08:49 pm (UTC)Thanks!
no subject
Date: 2008-01-25 09:19 pm (UTC)If it seems appropriate, do pass on my well-wishes to your undercapitalized co-editor for a speedy recovery.
The whole "undercapitalized" thing is a nicely subtle pun, btw.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-25 09:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-26 02:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-26 02:47 am (UTC)It's amusing to think of America riding back to prosperity on a wave of small, dogshit-based businesses. Dogshit isn't as easily repurposed as other kinds of fecal matter, so other entrepreneurs would doubtless offer competing lines of designer shitboxes. And think of how much this would help animal shelters and veterinary clinics -- a cleaning expense would turn into a profit center. Cheers me up just thinking about it.
Reading further, I'm glad your co-editor got further care and is doing well.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-26 03:19 am (UTC)[Copies into lino file.]
Good point about thanking God for death, too. But not an unusual Christian viewpoint, I don't think. Tolkien calls death the Gift to Man in The Silmarillion, IIRC, as directly opposed to the immortality of the Elves.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-26 04:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-26 05:59 am (UTC)