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Bah, she can be grateful for the system later if and when she survives, her fingernails have grown back and she can button up her own shirt. Meanwhile, I found

Bah, she can be grateful for the system later if and when she survives, her fingernails have grown back and she can button up her own shirt. Meanwhile, I found the insight into her situation educational and heartrending. If you step on a lego piece, do you immediately yell 'what a valuable and well-crafted toy product', or 'fuck that hurts'?

seibelj 7y ago
The details of what it’s like to live with that disease are insightful. I have a more raw understanding of what that is like now. But intertwined with the article is a critique of every single bit of the system, and larger society, that is fantastically successful at keeping an ever increasing number of such patients alive. The author critiques the economic system, the hospitals, the doctors, the genders of the care staff, the drugs themselves, whether she even deserves to live given the potential to harm the environment, and on and on. I’m an optimist, and in her position I would be so thankful that I have the opportunity to survive. My brother beat a horrible kidney disease at 6 years old that necessitated a 12 month hospital stay, and his memory from that period has been wiped. I do not hate the capitalist system that saved his life, I am very very grateful for the doctors, researchers, and support staff that saved him - as is he.
- jcims 7y ago
  I generally agree with you, but after being a bystander to almost two years of treatments and probably half a million in medical bills being handed over to insurance, I can say with certainty there's a lot of fuckery and twisted incentives in the system. Yes amazing things are happening too, but there's a lot to get pissed about, and I'll give her some room to vent.
- robotresearcher 7y ago
  You've explained clearly that you would be a more grateful, appreciative suffering aggressive cancer patient than the author, whose choices doomed her to suffer alone.
  - seibelj 7y ago
    HN comment section serves to allow us to debate and discuss the linked articles. The author explicitly chose to make her editorial not only about her situation but a larger critique of society, throwing bombs at everything. I’m not going to give her a pass because she has cancer as I vehemently disagree with her.
    - deleted 7y ago
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    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
- markbnj 7y ago
  Did you read this part? > In the capitalist medical universe in which all bodies must orbit around profit at all times, even a double mastectomy is considered an outpatient procedure. After my mastectomy, the eviction from the recovery ward came aggressively and early. The nurse woke me up from anaesthesia and attempted to incorrectly fill out all the questions on the exit questionnaire for me while I failed in an attempt to argue with her that I was not OK. I told her that my pain was not managed, that I had not yet actually gone to the bathroom, that I had not yet been given instructions, that I could not stand, let alone leave. Then they made me leave, and I left.
  - refurb 7y ago
    Unless you live in a world where money grows on trees, that happens in public systems too. There are finite amount of resources and keeping a patient overnight, when it could be out-patient, means another patient, who needs that bed more, has to go without. It’s not due to profit. And actually, the hospital would likely make more profit if they could keep you overnight.
    - markbnj 7y ago
      > It’s not due to profit. And actually, the hospital would likely make more profit if they could keep you overnight. It has nothing to do with the hospital's profit, and everything to do with the insurance provider's costs. What makes you think the hospital is calling the shots in this case? The people who write the checks call the shots.
    - chii 7y ago
      > has to go without. if the current patient is only considered as an out-patient because their bed is needed, then i say the hospital doesn't have enough beds, and should either charge more per bed, or invest in more beds.
      - refurb 7y ago
        Sure, but there is always a need for more beds. It doesn’t end. At some point, the money runs out. That’s what countries like the UK do with QUALY measurements. You have X billions of Euros to spend, so you spend it on the most effective measures and say “no” to everything else.

seibelj 7y ago

The details of what it’s like to live with that disease are insightful. I have a more raw understanding of what that is like now. But intertwined with the article is a critique of every single bit of the system, and larger society, that is fantastically successful at keeping an ever increasing number of such patients alive. The author critiques the economic system, the hospitals, the doctors, the genders of the care staff, the drugs themselves, whether she even deserves to live given the potential to harm the environment, and on and on. I’m an optimist, and in her position I would be so thankful that I have the opportunity to survive. My brother beat a horrible kidney disease at 6 years old that necessitated a 12 month hospital stay, and his memory from that period has been wiped. I do not hate the capitalist system that saved his life, I am very very grateful for the doctors, researchers, and support staff that saved him - as is he.

jcims 7y ago
I generally agree with you, but after being a bystander to almost two years of treatments and probably half a million in medical bills being handed over to insurance, I can say with certainty there's a lot of fuckery and twisted incentives in the system. Yes amazing things are happening too, but there's a lot to get pissed about, and I'll give her some room to vent.
robotresearcher 7y ago
You've explained clearly that you would be a more grateful, appreciative suffering aggressive cancer patient than the author, whose choices doomed her to suffer alone.
- seibelj 7y ago
  HN comment section serves to allow us to debate and discuss the linked articles. The author explicitly chose to make her editorial not only about her situation but a larger critique of society, throwing bombs at everything. I’m not going to give her a pass because she has cancer as I vehemently disagree with her.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
markbnj 7y ago
Did you read this part? > In the capitalist medical universe in which all bodies must orbit around profit at all times, even a double mastectomy is considered an outpatient procedure. After my mastectomy, the eviction from the recovery ward came aggressively and early. The nurse woke me up from anaesthesia and attempted to incorrectly fill out all the questions on the exit questionnaire for me while I failed in an attempt to argue with her that I was not OK. I told her that my pain was not managed, that I had not yet actually gone to the bathroom, that I had not yet been given instructions, that I could not stand, let alone leave. Then they made me leave, and I left.
- refurb 7y ago
  Unless you live in a world where money grows on trees, that happens in public systems too. There are finite amount of resources and keeping a patient overnight, when it could be out-patient, means another patient, who needs that bed more, has to go without. It’s not due to profit. And actually, the hospital would likely make more profit if they could keep you overnight.
  - markbnj 7y ago
    > It’s not due to profit. And actually, the hospital would likely make more profit if they could keep you overnight. It has nothing to do with the hospital's profit, and everything to do with the insurance provider's costs. What makes you think the hospital is calling the shots in this case? The people who write the checks call the shots.
  - chii 7y ago
    > has to go without. if the current patient is only considered as an out-patient because their bed is needed, then i say the hospital doesn't have enough beds, and should either charge more per bed, or invest in more beds.
    - refurb 7y ago
      Sure, but there is always a need for more beds. It doesn’t end. At some point, the money runs out. That’s what countries like the UK do with QUALY measurements. You have X billions of Euros to spend, so you spend it on the most effective measures and say “no” to everything else.