A NEW DAY DAWNED
Hanns F Skoutajan
I have rendered up my pound of flesh. Well, my tumor wasn’t quite a pound, some ounces, perhaps.
A few days ago in the early hours they rolled me on a gurney into an operating room and laid me on a narrow table under the big lights. Shortly afterward my light went off. I slumbered peacefully while the surgical crew cut and clipped and whatever else they do, then sewed me up again. Two hours later I experienced a new dawn in another hall lined with beds like mine containing others like me who were coming out of their dreamless night that had protected us from pain. I became conscious of some soreness about my chest. Someone informed me that all had gone well and I was now without a tumor. I relaxed and thus reassured drifted off to sleep again.
Eventually my bed was pushed down endless corridors, around numerous corners and doorways, into elevators and out, a gentle and strong hand on the tiller as they hummed a little tune. I am pleased to say that all this was accomplished without discomfort. My conveyance/bed found a place beside a window in a much curtained room. In time a tray of food was pushed under my chin and I did eat.
Family arrived, comforted and cheered me with news from beyond my new world. I rested that night while listening to the groans, rumbles and snores from my three roommates. Every time it seemed that I was about to crash Florence Nightingale, male and female, arrived and gently prodded me to take my vital signs. I thanked God for the bed pan.
Once more day dawned and I watched snow flakes gently falling fine and white beyond my window. More trays and carts arrived and technicians with needles and questions.
The hospital chaplain, a personal friend, also popped in . He told me about his daughter who had moved up from south of the border because it was found unaffordable to get sick down in the home of the of the brave and the land of the fee where nothing is free. There in a hospital everything is tallied from bandaid to artificial hip joint while all that awaited me was my parking fee.
How fortunate we are in this country to have Medicare and how foolish of those who believe that privatization is the better way to go. For the wealthy and those with a generous insurance coverage private medical services may be better, sooner and accommodation more luxurious. But even they have auditors watching their account and cutting all vestiges of fat. Its best not have a preexisting medical condition if you are shopping for insurance coverage.
I am home now. My family run errands to the pharmacy, where one of my medicines that costs $ 3 thousand plus a month but is covered and sets me back a mere $2.00 a shot. Thank you dear tax payer!
Yes, I feel sore and encumbered by my bandaging, but that will change and my normal agility and energy will return and allow me to revisit the coffee shop to share my misery and good fortune with my friends.
In the meantime, I am grateful to all who have attended to my needs, the cleaning crew, the waiters that brought my meals, the porters who have moved me about, the technicians who have perforated me with needles and questions, clerks that kept the records, the nurses and doctors and indeed the whole institution as well as the people of this wonderful country who believe that public is best.
Don’t let us lose this system, rather let us improve it, keep it humane and not a business venture.
Thanks Everybody.
Spirit Quest December 5, 2014
