Occasions of Grace and Goodness
Posted on | September 16, 2009 | 2 Comments
“Almost there — almost there — almost there!” Rocking back and forth in my seat, struggling to breathe as the waves of pain scorched my body, I chanted aloud in the car as we drove the twenty-five minutes from our home in a rural village to the closest large hospital here in Central Victoria in Australia. My husband’s jaw was set in a grim line and he simply concentrated on the road conditions, the traffic, and getting us there safely. He had gotten home to me far faster than an ambulance could have when I arose that morning and realized that something was askew because NO one’s body should feel like liquid fire and shards of glass were rippling through it.
What blessings we were bestowed with from the very moment we left the house because somehow we encountered no slowdowns on that busy Friday morning and made it all the way through town without being held back by even one traffic light. Arriving in the emergency room, a place that we had seen on other occasions to be consistently jammed full of people in pain and need, the clerk took me straight in when she saw my contorted face.
Grace, goodness, gentleness, compassion — I was softly swathed in those within minutes of arrival as the doctors determined that I was not having a heart attack but needed to be out of pain quickly so that they could find out what was actually the problem. So with pain meds flowing into my arm via an intravenous line, they began the rounds of blood tests and scans.
There was no back-up in the lab — a condition that is unheard of apparently — and those first tests came back in less than an hour. There was no waiting time for the ultrasound, the cat-scans, the x-rays and I just rolled straight in and straight out of department after department all the while hearing the same thing again and again from various orderlies — “It never really works like this!”
Kidney stones — rather a LOT of kidney stones were the verdict — and I was admitted to the hospital a few hours later for 5 days and 4 nights too many for my taste. Nothing can prepare you for pain like that and there are no adequate descriptions. I also have a dread of being put to sleep, but that had to be swept aside on Sunday morning as they briskly moved me to the operating theatre.
None of it was easy, but none of it was dire and the truly lovely and caring medical staff at the Ballarat Base Hospital made it quite a bit better than it could have been. No matter what time of day or night, someone was there in a flash with a soft word and a gentle pat on my hand. Not once was I left to ring for a nurse and wait endlessly.
I have lived in many places in the world including one of the richest nations — the USA. Upon reflection, it seems to be a much less fortunate country — a place where they seem to forget that all humans have the right to freely available health care and hospitalization and that no one should end up bankrupt simply because they became ill and needed medical treatment. I walked out of the hospital yesterday after 5 days owing not one penny!
Life in Australia is truly blessed for many of us a great deal of the time. But it is those occasions of extraordinary grace and goodness that really sear that understanding deeply into the brain more clearly.
Tags: goodness > grace > Health > kidney > kidney stones > medical emergency > medical professional > pain > renal > renal pain
Comments
2 Responses to “Occasions of Grace and Goodness”
Leave a Reply
Deborah Harmes, Ph.D.
Follow me on TWITTER!
Click here to follow me on TWITTER!
Follow me on FACEBOOK!
DARKNESS FOLDING INWARD: Print Version
SUBSCRIBE to this BLOG!
September 17th, 2009 @ 2:15 AM
Deborah,
If this would have happened to me, it would’ve cost realistically $20,000.000 – with all the tests, the surgery and especially the hospital stay.
When I filed bankruptcy in 2005, it was primarily because of a trip to the emergency room in 2004. The ambulance ride alone – one mile to the hospital- was $800. I was there no longer than three hours and my bills were in the thousands of dollars. My daughter had an emergency appendectomy in 2007 and the cost was outrageous. Luckily, she qualified for the hospital’s “financial aid” program. She still had to pay a thousand or so to the anesthesiologist and another doc.
It’s outrageous that there would be those in our country so blind as to think that quality across the board healthcare is socialism. I suppose they are those who have always enjoyed a good insurance plan. News bulletin: they are one pink slip away from losing that plan.
Reading a Big Island forum yesterday – a couple were in a panic because they were on Cobra (the plan you get on after losing a job) and had been turned down for preexisting conditions (of which they weren’t aware what those were). Looks like they won’t have healthcare anymore. Join the club.
Someone did recommend to them that one of them go back to school – that students at the university can get healthcare coverage through the school.
That still makes it an expense prospect – thousands for a healthcare plan or thousands for school – same thousands.
Aloha – great piece – glad you are well.
Anna
September 17th, 2009 @ 12:18 PM
I appreciate your comments Anna because you have BEEN there and can speak from that deep well of experience.
The fearfulness that I am seeing regarding the possibility of a switchover to full socialized medicine in the USA is simply bizarre to behold. We pay a bit more in taxes here in Australia — plain and simple — and in return for that, EVERY man, woman, and child can get health care.
How simple and beautiful is that?!!!
Thank you for taking the time to offer commentary. It is appreciated.