Dear @standinginfaith

Thank you very much! I pray you can keep standing for the medical care that you and others deserve!
Here is another article on how "medical administrative harm" happens. https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/calamities/117085

Thank you fo describing your saga. I grieve for us as a nation each time I hear about what passes for medical care in rural and indigenous American communities. I have seared in my memory two lines from two documentaries:

1. A documentary about how rural areas are ending up with no hospitals and very little heath care overall since cost cutting for "efficiency" always leads to the same conclusion: Rural hospitals cannot make enough money to satisfy shareholders. This particular documentary focused on South Carolina, where multiple rural hospitals had closed and more were on the block. At a televised event, then Governor Nikki Haley was asked about this. She said that the key was for South Carolina to do all it could to help boost the business sector and once that was done, other investments like healthcare could be made. As a former business-person, if feel very comfortable asking: Have we ever seen the business sector say that they have enough?

2. A radio documentary on the prohibitively high cost of health insurance. A lady in her mid fifties had two chronic medical conditions which were not being treated because she did not have insurance; she was asked how she felt about that. She very humbly replied that she could understand that there were very important people, heads of companies and the like, who really needed and deserved excellent healthcare and so she realized that not everyone could have that. I was stunned, and ashamed. That anyone in this nation should be led to think this -- to think that they were not worthy of healthcare -- saddened me terribly and still does.

Our veterans in particular, should be able to count on competent and respectful care.

But let's be very realistic. We have to take on a lot of responsibility ourselves even when we have access to great medical services. In the course of helping family members deal with illnesses, I have found that it pays to:

- Document as much as possible about the illness, dates, symptoms, changes, things you have tried already as treatments, reactions, etc.

- Do a lot of research online. The Mayo Clinic and other leading medical centers have very good sites that explain the basics about many illnesses. After learning those things, You can also ask Claude.ai or another chatbot things like what questions you should ask when you are going to meet with a doctor. Do not share detailed medical or identity information on AI chatbots, but you can input something about the diagnosis, for example, and ask for help in generating questions.

- Persevere. I have found that some doctors want to give you the minimum information about the illness. Ask your questions, and ensure that you get real answers. When you have a disease, join a support group so that you have other people's experience to draw upon. The doctors tell you stuff based on the "average patient" -- by definition, each person is different. This means that you go home and are left to figure out if that pain or that rash or that tiredness is something that will pass or something that needs attention. Support groups are a great source of information on that kind of issue.

And don't get me started on age-ism. We have to make it clear from the start that we are not silly old ladies or gents! And that we know we deserve full care, not "people that age have a lot going on" care.

As the Italians say, "Forza"!