Yeah so she's a stripper. Get over it. She goes to work everyday, supports her family and she's not on welfare. Two little girls at home she loves just as much as any mom loves her little girls. With all that said you should also know she has cancer. She's had it ever since I've known her; about a year and a half. No, I don't fuck her. Never have. Never will. She's my friend. A good kid. 23 years old.
After Pantera died she was about the only person in real time that gave a fuck about me. She'd kick my ass when I was getting depressed. Made me work out when I was turning into Elvis. Always greeted me with the brightest Mona Lisa smile even though she was racked with pain from therapy. Started out with cervical, then a lump in her breast she never had biopsied -- so she was never really sure. Alternative treatments to suppress her testosterone production (yeah she's got more balls than most men I know) that spreads cancer seemed to be working and her blood tests for the last two months had been totally clean. But, she called me yesterday, Thursday March 23, and asked me to come by the club because she needed to talk to me.
Seems that the hospital had called her and in their dead pan tactful way left a voice mail on her answering machine telling her that the last blood test showed her to have some abnormal cells. Pre-cancerous. No telling where the evil little buggars are going to land. Now aside from all the other things I'm going to rant about here -- there's probably nothing more evil about the health care industry than the cold impersonal treatment it gives to it's customers. Yes. I said it. Customers. They'd like for us to think we're not customers by referring to us as patients. But we're customers and we deserve to be treated as such.
Now her doctor wants her to start Chemo. Can't afford it. No health coverage. Strippers work for tips. She tends bar too and that pays a straight up wage that gets taxed and all… but no health coverage. She's worked all through therapy so far because that's the only way she could pay for it. Her husband is a kid himself and is going to college. She's the sole breadwinner.
Not only can she not afford it… she's scared to death of it because she watched her mom go through it unsuccessfully a few short years ago. She only weighs a hundred pounds soaking wet and can't keep weight on. What the hell will Chemo do to her? How will she be able to work? How can she have therapy if she doesn't? What happens to her girls if she doesn't make it? She's got a lot on her mind.
One thing she shouldn't have on her mind is affording the therapy. I'm no advocate of a health care system administered by Uncle Sam, but the pieces of it we have in place to protect the public like medicare and medicaid don't work right. This case is what "welfare" is for. She should be able to stop working, get the care she needs, have her family provided for, and when she's cured go back to work and get on with her life. But our system doesn't work like that. While our Senator's and Congressmen have addressed the issue of pre-existing conditions with private insurance carriers for people who change jobs, Medicaid has told her she can't be covered because it is a pre-existing condition. What the fuck?? So we're going to throw away perfectly good people because they are not covered by insurance??? (Oh, I forgot, she's not a perfectly good person because she's a stripper.)
When my dad went for his first cancer test medicare told him they wouldn't pay for the test unless it was positive. What the fucking fuck? So, if he sat around and waited until the cancer was totally evident then they wouldn't mind spending half a million to try to cure him but he'd probably die. If, on the other hand, he gets tested early when it's treatable, if it's not positive he has to fork over the $1500 for the test. Now that's a serious consideration for someone on a fixed income.
People may think I have a hard-on for the health care industry. I do. It's shit. It's the best in the world I know… but it's shit… and we deserve better than this. It is the largest industry besides the Federal Government. It rakes in all the money. And it doesn't fucking work. Because we forgot we were customers.
Shouldn't our health care industry get paid for doing it's job instead of just trying? Would you pay a mechanic that tried to fix your car, but couldn't save it? Would you pay a taxi driver for a trip halfway to your destination? Would you go to a store and pay them for clothes you tried on and didn't fit? What the fuck have we done to ourselves? We ought to pay our doctors while we're well and stop paying when we're sick. That's the health plan we need.
Some of you who know me may be thinking this guy sure knows a lot of people with cancer. Well, I'm willing to bet that you do to since one in three American's has some form of it right now. We've been quiet too long. We need to get as pissed off about this as we are about AIDS.
