Today marks a special anniversary for me. A year ago this date I underwent successful open heart surgery. (Obviously it was successful, you loon. You're blogging about it aren't you?)
Where was I? Ah, yes...the surgery. Anyway, as I was saying, it is hard to believe that a year has passed already since I remember being prepped for the procedure, being dry shaved from collarbone to toenails by a very cute attending nurse, imploring her to "be gentle," as this was my first time and "I try not to kiss on the very first date." She laughed one of those "I've heard it all before" laughs and proceeded to go about her assigned task that I have no doubt she had performed dozen of times previously on patients who had far more original and humorous lines of banter than did I.
The next thing I remember was waking up (if you can call being as mentally sharp as a floundering carp being awake) in my SICU room with more tubes coming our of me and monitoring cables attached to me than the space shuttle is required to have prior to lift off. My dearest wife whispered in my ear, "The operation was a complete success. I'll put your last will and testament away in the safe deposit box and call all of your creditors and tell them to keep those cards and letters coming." Funny...
As the anesthesia began to fade, I became acutely aware that there must be someone or something sitting on my chest, as I could only breath in tiny, laboring sips. "Well, Mr. Latchford, how are we feeling?" said my first attending nurse. (Don't you just hate that question?) Good thing I could not muster up enough breath to venture forth a vindictive answer, but the look on my face I am sure convinced her that had I been able to get to my feet I would have desperately attempted to beat her within an inch of her life with my bedpan! "We must begin ASAP to accomplish two things: get you to your feet and have you breath into this breathing monitor." "Yea," thought I, "when pigs fly!!" A week later, however, I was not only walking around the unit on my own, I was breathing into that torture device well enough to be discharged from the hospital to begin my 8 week convalesce at home. Now 365 days hence, I feel great...except my knees creak when I walk and my hip joints are an ever present source of annoyance. Hey, it could be worse...I could have piles! All being said, I am thankful...
There is no doubt that our health care system is in need of a major overhaul. The cost of obtaining medical attention for even something as risk free as an annual check-up is far too expensive, and projected to continue to increase in expense well in advance of the annual cost of living. (My triple by-pass cost over a $100,000. Thank God at that time I still had health insurance and my church picked up the deductibles that we could not pay due to the fact that I was laid off from my previous employer the Friday prior to my scheduled operation.) The two driving forces behind the present state of affairs is the insurance companies unregulated quest to derive more and more profits to cover fewer and fewer cherry-picked policy holders, and unscrupulous trial lawyers who envision a multi-dollar malpractice suit behind every decision a physician deems prudent, if not necessary. Doctors, 99% of the time, do not order more and more tests just to drive up their profit margins, but to hopefully minimize the real and persistent threat that their failure to explore every diagnostic avenue to address a patient's malady, and thus resulting in a successful outcome, leaves them open to second guessing by an ambulance chasing law firm waiting behind every television and radio advertisement extolling their bulldog tenacity to extract a pound of flesh for their opportunistic client's complaint of an infected hangnail gone awry.
Make no mistake, however, and be thankful that we live in America where the world chooses to come for medical treatment. It is by-and-far the best and most advanced practice of medicine of any nation in the world. Yes, my operation did cost in excess of one-hundred grand. But I am most appreciative and thankful that my cardiologist recommended that I undergo a stress test, that for having done so my rapidly deteriorating heart vessels were diagnosed, and the surgeon who performed the triple by-pass repaired by heart so that I now have many more years yet to live rather than mere months.
Could my type of operation be performed at a far less expensive cost? I absolutely believe it can and should, but I do not believe that President Obama's plan for health care reform is the answer. Our nation is comprised of the best and brightest minds. There is no problem which, when we assign these intelligent and inquisitive minds to the task, we cannot solve for the greater good. The answer lies not within the buttressed walls of Congress, but in the determined tenacity of the American people who must make their voices heard so that those who would burden generation upon generation with suffocating debt will finally and resolutely bow to the will of the people. Health care reform is a must. But let's not be so foolish as to believe that by allowing our present government leaders to tax us into submission is the answer. Our health is at state. It is we who should dictate how it is to be made available, fairly and affordable for all.
In the mean time...I am celebrating my anniversary. Lord willing (and I can once again afford to purchase a health care policy) I'll be celebrating again for many more years to come.
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