Thread 12 - TalkLair: “I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.”

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 11).

The days are gradually growing longer, but the worst of the winter weather is not yet behind us. In the TalkLair, we remain hunkered down keeping cosy and warm. The hearth is glowing, the walls covered in dubious artwork, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, rugs are down on the floors (and assorted pets curled up on them).

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

Drunk History where a seriously drunk academic will tell you everything you need to know about Alexander Hamilton, played by Michael Cera with Jake Johnson as Aaron Burr. I first saw this years ago and the professor in this remains the most drunk of any of the drunks I ever did see in one of these. It's also one of my favourites because of his sign off about being on money.

Me and Mrs Pike went to that London to see it a few years ago. It was great but I found the theatre seats too cramped for such a long performance ( that's my way of saying I was too fat/huge for them) so resorted to standing at the back for the second half, which was also fine.

Hopefully with my sylph-like figure that shouldn't be a problem. 😃

Bloody hell, this thread. Of course, I knew things were bad, but just some awful stories.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4998653-to-think-you-dont-quite-realise-how-badly-the-nhs-is-suffering-until-you-witness-it-first-hand

We found out how bad things are in the Midlands last year. My dad, 88, fell and broke two vertebrae and it took the ambulance 24 hours to get to him.

One fortunate thing for me and Mr Veg is that we've been patching each other up for 38 years and have very well stocked first-aid kits, one in each car and one for the house. One in each car as they're work vehicles and knocks/scrapes/getting something in your eye go with the job.

duc748 · Today 11:59

Bloody hell, this thread. Of course, I knew things were bad, but just some awful stories.

Blimey, that's just awful, isn't it? I think we're really lucky, as I'm always able to get doctor's appointments on the day. We also have a walk in blood testing service at the minor injury clinic, results on Friday, if taken on Monday.

My stepmother broke her hip coming up to a year ago and the ambulance was there in less than 20 minutes (although I do have friends and neighbours who've waited 2 hours) and they replaced it after a couple of days letting the swelling go down.

Just thinking back to 2010. I had appendicitis, went to the local community hospital and was diagnosed there. The hospital called an ambulance but we were told that as I was in a 'safe' place it might not turn up, so after waiting a good while, Mr Veg drove me to the main one about 12 miles away. Even then it was the end of the following day before I had surgery. It's a bit hazy but I remember lying in bed becoming increasingly out of it and every now and then a doctor would come in and ask 'How much does it hurt?', which got hard to answer because I was too out of it to say. I dread to think what might happen now.

That's a completely horrifying thread @duc748. I mean, I knew it was bad, but I didn't really know, if you see what I mean.

Last week whilst back home I met up with a bunch of friends from school, some of whom I hadn't seen since we finished O-levels! Anyway - a couple of them are medics now, and they all said they were warning their teen/young adult DC not to study in the UK because of the awful state of the NHS. Apparently it's a talking point amongst the medical community half a world away. All I could do was nod along gloomily, and that was before I read that thread!

My plan for the past few years was to do PG medical training. That well and truly went out the window last year. Some of my friends are still going ahead with it, but the NHS is no longer for me. The Scientist Training Programme opened last month which was another strong contender for a long time, but I found myself half-heartedly filling out the application and abandoning it before I got to the end. Another friend who was originally very keen on the STP didn't even bother. I'm now going into a completely different area of science.

Over here where health care costs a fortune, we still have delays in getting a GP appointment and a trip to the ER can take a long time. The hospital rooms and doctor’s surgeries are (to my NHS-accustomed eyes) rather well-appointed though. When my DDIL had the grandchildren, she had a large room to herself with an en suite bathroom and lovely finishes. However, despite them having decent health insurance (which of course costs several hundred dollars a month) they still ended up having to pay an additional $3000 per child.

I am on Medicare, being over 65. That’s the nearest thing we have here to the NHS and they negotiate very low prices with medical providers, which is why not all providers accept Medicare, though most do. My Medicare payment comes out of my Social Security before I get it, and amounts to about $100 a month I think. On top of that I pay a Medigap insurance (Medicare only covers the first 80% of the bill) and a prescription insurance that between them cost over $400 a month, and then there’s the dental insurance that covers me and DH for $136 a month and pays about half of the dental bills…

But when I tell you that when my stepdaughter broke her arm badly and had no health insurance and had to have an operation, she wound up with a bill for well over $30,000 after the hospital wrote some of it off, you'll understand why all this insurance is necessary.

When my mum got Covid back in April we called 111 and, because her temperature had been crazy high (albeit not quite as high as mine had been but I’m not in my 90s), they sent an ambulance which came pretty quickly and took her to A&E. She was home later that day (having been quite vocal about not staying in, I think) having been observed for a few hours and given a chest x-ray. All in all, pretty lucky I think!

@Britinme I am on Medicare, being over 65. That’s the nearest thing we have here to the NHS ...

One problem with Medicare/Medicaid, as I learned the other day, is (if I understood correctly) it's state-based and doesn't cover you for treatment in another state. So a friend's autistic, non-verbal brother, early 30s, was taken from the Portland area to Boston, because Portland didn't have a bed for him. Or so they said. There he has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, which is bad enough, but although Boston is very much the best place to be, he's not covered. And the bills will be phenomenal. His big bro is now fighting to get him on something called COBRA. Awful.

That's a hell of journey, right across the country!

Arf! Portland Maine, not the other one.

Medicare is for the over-65, and Medicaid is for people below a certain income level or with certain disabilities - I honestly don't know too much about that but according to Wiki Medicaid covers 23% of Americans. It is usually state-based, or sometimes regionally-based though. People in employment-based health insurance programmes aren't necessarily limited in that way.

Your friend's brother could certainly be treated for cancer here in Portland, Maine, under Medicaid. He can also be treated in Boston but Medicaid won't cover him unless he starts to reside in Massachusetts. Some hospitals (probably Dana Farber if he's being treated for cancer) have a better reputation than others, but not everybody can choose to go to that hospital. I think (again, not sure) that if I had cancer I couldn't just choose to go to Boston and expect Medicare to cover me.

I'm not sure about COBRA, which I always understood to be a programme designed to cover people who have left a job with one employer's health benefit programme and haven't yet enrolled in another employer's programme or sorted out non-employment-based private insurance, but again I'm operating from a very limited knowledge base. It's extraordinarily hard to find general answers to these things on Google.

It must be Medicaid, then. In any event, whatever covers him in ME doesn't cover him in MA. He didn't choose to go to Boston ... he's unable to choose anything. The ME hospital just passed the buck ("Sorry, no beds") and shipped him down there without even formally diagnosing him. Obviously his mum has had to go to Boston with him, because he can't communicate, and this will have a knock-on effect on her income and possibly lose her her job.

His brother (my friend) is a healthcare professional in ME - something to do with respiratory therapy - and is prepared to go to war over this, so fingers crossed for him!

@Gonners I'll be very interested to hear the outcome of that. I am really surprised about the "no beds" comment because we're not short of hospitals and oncologists here. I wonder if they felt that his other issues couldn't be properly accommodated here, but I find "no beds" quite alarming.

I had to stop reading that thread because it's upsetting. I consider myself pretty lucky with the treatment I'm getting and the upside of cancer is that you sort of get fast tracked through other problems, so same day appointment - generally phone but I prefer that for most things - with the GP, faster treatment at A&E and even then it's slow because despite me getting faster treatment I'm not blind to the waiting and the waiting and the waiting of so many others.

Today was a good day after a bastard of a week and, given the topic at hand, it was supposed to another bad day that saw me back at A&E after a trip there on Monday - I was sent there by the chemo "hotline". ANYWAY! I ended up not having to go to A&E because sing hallelujah and all praise to Saint Bonaventure (the patron saint of everything to do with bowels), after over two weeks of my bottom being closed for business, pain, shit take home enemas that did nothing and more laxatives than anyone would think would cause a herd of cattle to cover every field in the UK with pools of poo, nothing, precisely nothing was happening. Today would have been a proper enema - and frankly the doctor who saw me on Monday should have administered one - finally, finally, I did a poo! I have to continue with the laxatives, slightly less but still a lot, to ensure that movement continues.

The relief is almost indescribable. I am back in a good mood and it's going to take a few days for everything to be "normal" in my Bonaventure, but life is a lot sweeter than it has been for the past couple of weeks. Also, as well as the relief of movement it will be a HUGE relief to not think, talk and basically live a life that is dominated by poo all the bloody time.

Perhaps one of the less prestigious sainting gigs, but I'm glad he's doing his job for you.

He's currently my favourite of all the holy messes.

Hurrah for the holy poo of Saint Bonaventure!

NoBinturongsHereMate · Today 00:22

Perhaps one of the less prestigious sainting gigs, but I'm glad he's doing his job for you.

😁

Thank goodness we have a Poo Saint, glad to hear he's doing Good Work, Mouse!

Hooray for St Bonaventure (who until now I only knew as a distinguished theologian, I wonder how he got the side gig?).

I'm sorry you had such a horrible time, so painful and depressing and making one very aware that the gut brain is indeed a thing - was it just the reduced food intake, or did the meds contribute? Stewed apple (chop Bramley apple into bowl, cover with a saucer, zap in microwave for three minutes (1), eat) might help, as might pureed prunes or apricots mixed with Greek style yoghurt and cream.

(1) tip the saucer with a spoon or knife before removing to save yourself from a steam burn.

My go-to for those uncomfortable times is spring greens and lots of them, it works really well for me.

You don't realise how thoroughly miserable and just wrong constipation is until you experience it yourself. The reality of not being able to have a shit when you know you need one is awful.