One is the loneliest number

Last night, I received the program participant list for my time in Ecuador. The list looked like this:

Elizabeth D------ (myemailaddress) (mycontactinfo)

I scrolled down looking for more names. There were none. So I emailed the lovely people at CFHI to tell them they didn't send the rest of the participant list and could they please re-send it?

The response: No, you have the whole participant list.

...
...
I am it. No roommates. No friends. No traveling companions. I will be staying with three Americans in Quito, then it's off to Puyo. By myself.

Needless to say, this knocks the anxiety up a notch or two or seven.

warning: insurance soapbox... read at your own risk

People have lost their moral compass.

Not to sound like a raging neo-con, but what has happened to our humanity?

Take this, for example:
"A slim majority of Californians, 53 percent, said they would be willing to pay more -- either through higher health insurance premiums or higher taxes -- to increase the number of people who have health insurance." -- SF Chronicle

That makes me sick. Just sick. Yes, 53 percent will part with some of their precious precious MONEY so that more people can LIVE. But that means 47 percent of Californians are cold-hearted ... people. Well, I've made very little money in the past year, and I would give my entire savings account if I thought it would make a dent on the misery caused by our health care system to millions of others.

Seven million people in California are uninsured. I will be joining them on Friday. Hopefully, I will be getting some travel insurance to cover the emergencies, but there's plenty of people way less fortunate than I.

47 percent of people would rather spend money on another ski trip to Tahoe or another Lexus SUV or another yacht rather than providing insulin to an elderly diabetic. There are some freakin' RICH people in California. But I bet the RICH people are mostly in that 47 percent of inhuman slime.

Travel insurance won't pay for my last rabies vaccine. Why? Because they have done a "cost-benefit analysis" and determined they'd rather risk me dying of rabies than pay 200 dollars for the last shot. How do these people sleep at night? I mean, really?? They are KILLING people with their cold accounting. I can't even make coherent arguments when it comes to this because I am so enraged.

I guess that's how capitalism works. Everything is numbers, money. Your child needs a flu shot? Hmmm, how much will that cost? You need food? Well, we're going to have to charge you. Don't have money? Oh sorry. No food for you. You don't have any money? You must be a failure! You certainly can't be intelligent, because smart people always figure something out.

Yes, I figure something out. I guess I am smart. I plan. I save. But I can't buy into this huge machine. That's why I can't be a doctor. I can't deal with this system. I couldn't let people DIE because they didn't have insurance. I can't fight all these ignorant fools who swim in money rather than seek friendships or experiences or human connection.

It will be good to leave this country. People can be monsters. Though I guess that's everywhere nowadays...

México - El programa para madres muy pobres

The program for very poor mothers.

http://members5.boardhost.com/CasaLibertad/msg/1154627353.html

As many of you know, Mark and I went to Mexico in the beginning of August and stayed with retired U.S. Marine Bob and Mexican nurse Vicky at their beautiful home in the small seaside town of Rincón de Guayabitos in the state of Nayarit.

One day, Vicky roused us all after breakfast, saying "Hurry, hurry, a girl just had a baby in the countryside and she is very poor, we need to help."

We jumped in the jeep (no seatbelts of course, old school), and headed up a jungle-covered hill over cobbled-together rural roads. The girl in the picture just gave birth to her second baby. You can see the blue tub of baby stuff I just handed her on the bed and the groceries that we brought in the chair. Mark and I donated $50 to this community, not much because we are poor kids ourselves, but it is a small fortune there. For example, this girl's husband makes 150 pesos (less than 15 dollars) a day. (Though familes in Ecuador make a fraction even of that!)

I have given Vicky and Bob information about VIDA, hoping some of their friends will be able to take medical supplies there in the future.

Comments

I fixed the comment problem. I got complaints that it wasn't letting you comment without registering. Turns out I had the setting "Who is allowed to comment?" set to "Only Registered Users." Now it is set to "Anyone" so comment away...

And I thought I was unpopular...

Insurance companies are shady

I went to the travel clinic yesterday. The nurse shot me in the arm four times, Hep A, Yellow Fever, Tetanus, and Rabies. If I haven't had rabies vaccine, I will need two more shots. Plus, I might need Hep B. The typhoid vaccine is oral. Sixty bucks for four little pills! I have to take them over a week period, but I don't want to take them right now because I think between all the shots I got yesterday, I am a little sick. I have had a headache and fill cruddy in general since yesterday. But I have to do the typhoid before the antimalarials start!

So, here is my insurance companies are shady story:

There are several antimalarial drugs. The cheapest one by far is mefloquine (or Lariam). Thing is, it's horrible! It has horrible side effects and causes psychosis so bad that people have even murdered their families on it. It basically is like LSD for some people. Okay, maybe not, but it causes self-mutilation, suicide, homicidal thoughts, hallucinations. Doxycycline can also be used, but it is a powerful antibiotic and also has side effects, though not nearly as bad as Lariam.

Then, there is the best antimalarial drug out there... Malarone! Malarone has almost no known major side effects, it is not known to cause yeast infections like the traditional antibiotics, and it's 98% effective.

So why don't they give everyone Malarone?? It's expensive. And if you only pay 35 dollars for a generic prescription, the insurance company want it to cost them as little as possible.

I go into the travel clinic and the nurse practitioner rips me off a Lariam prescription. It's pre-typed and everything! She didn't even ask me anything or tell me anything. Here is the conversation:

"Here. This is for malaria. Take it to the pharmacy."

Me: "Aren't there really bad side effects? Like psychosis and stuff on mefloquine?"

Her: "Where did you hear that?? You should be fine. You don't have any psychiatric condition."

Me (exagerrating): "Oh, but I had a lot in the past. I've had all kinds of psychiatric problems. I WON'T take mefloquine."

Her: "Well, I'm not authorized to prescribe anything else. If you really want something else, you can ask your doctor for DOXYCYCLINE."

Me: "How about Malarone?"

Her: ...very surprised uncomfortable look... pause... "How do YOU know about Malarone?

Me: "Isn't it the safest and best antimalarial?"

Her: "You're going to have to go see you doctor if you think..."

Me: "Fine, I will..."

So, I go to my doctor. He says "Oh, I am so glad you came to me. I NEVER prescribe mefloquine. It's a horribe drug, and I don't think it's even very EFFECTIVE. Of course, here's a prescription for Malarone."

I hate the way healthcare in this country works.

At least now I have my Malarone, which cost the insurance company $460 instead of pennies. But I won't go psycho and kill any of you.

So one painful arm, several vaccines, $150 from me, and one heck of an antimalarial drug battle, and my body's prepped to go... almost...

Travel clinic

I have to go to the travel clinic.

Only thing is, my insurance sucks.

My program says I will probably need a vaccination against yellow fever, typhoid, hepatitis A, and hepatitis B. Hopefully, I already have the hep shots because they take months. I think I do. Maybe Mom will know.

Then I am supposed to pick up prescription anti-diarrheal drugs.

Then there's the anti-malarials. These are the worst. You have to start them before you leave, take them religiously the whole time you are there and for four weeks after you get back. The problem is these drugs are POTENT! They are no laughing matter. They can make you very sick, cause raging yeast infections (I know, ick), and even cause psychosis. The psychosis possibility is pretty bad. They say if you've ever had anxiety or depression they need to watch you closely for psychosis.

Then, even if you do take the anti-malarials, survive the very likely yeast infections and possible psychosis, it's not 100% safe. They say if you get a fever IN THE NEXT YEAR, that you need to go the emergency room and tell them you are at risk for malaria.

Great...and I don't tolerate meds well, anyway. And my insurance might not cover them, and they are expensive.

Hope I'm not scaring any of my relatives :) Don't worry, please, I am worried enough for all of us!

If anyone out there has taken anti-malarial drugs, please let me know how that went for you.

I guess I should feel "lucky" because a lot of children die from malaria, and because they are not from rich USA like me, they don't have the choice to take anti-malarials drugs.

It begins

This is a long post as it is the first....

On August 15, 2006, I was accepted into CFHI's Amazon Community Medicine Program.

CFHI stands for Child Family Health International. They provide students with service-learning opportunities in healthcare fields throughout the world. Their programs are in India, Mexico, Bolivia, Ecuador, and South Africa. You can see CFHI for yourself at www.cfhi.org, and click on the Amazon Community Medicine Program if you want to know more about their description of the program.

I met people at CFHI while working for VIDA, Volunteers for Inter-american Development Assistance, for the past year. VIDA is in Emeryville, CA, at the end of the Bay Bridge across from San Francisco. The website is www.vidausa.org and is available in English and cruddy Spanish. (Our partner is at www.vidaperu.org if you speak Spanish. Their site is pretty good.) What VIDA does is collect medical supplies from Bay Area hospitals, like Stanford, that they are going to throw away. Sometimes, because Stanford has so much money from their big endowments, they will just throw away perfectly good hospital beds that somebody else could use for years! VIDA rescues this stuff. We only take good, unexpired stuff because we don't believe in sending our garbage to the Third World just to get it out of the US and make ourselves feel good. We are only helping if we send quality donations, not if we send trash... that offends people. People living in poverty still have dignity and pride like everyone else.

CFHI works with VIDA sometimes. CFHI sends pre-medical and medical students and others interested in healthcare on month-long programs in other countries. This is NOT actually a medical mission. See, in a medical mission the idea is that you provide care to people so poor they don't have any other choice. This has actually hurt people in the past, because unqualified younger students from the US or Europe would go to developing countries to "practise" on people who had no choice but accept sub-standard care.

The problem is because many people still do not trust "Western" medicine. For example, they may rely on what we call shamans ("curanderos" in Spanish) to treat their illnesses. If they take their child to a Western medicine doctor or student who is not really qualified, and their child does not get better, they may never trust Western care again. So it is very important that only well-qualified doctors trained in cultural issues attempt what we think of as "medical missions."

So what am I doing then? I am assisting and observing healthcare providers in the field. This is more like a cultural exchange or opportunity.

CFHI works with VIDA because sometimes they send medical supplies with students, and VIDA can provide them with supplies. Well, since my job at VIDA is ending, I thought I'd give it a shot and see if CFHI would grant me one of their scholarships. They did, and now I am going to spend October in the program, and then I will contine traveling Ecuador through November.