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Tonight, Ty and I were watching Glenn Beck on CNN and he ran a story that just puts my mind on a twisty roller coaster. It seems an 11 year old child in Wisconsin died recently due to untreated diabetes. Her parents' religious beliefs caused them to not seek medical attention, but to turn to God in prayer. "If it be God's will..." Now the family has had the other children removed by the State and is facing charges of neglect and abuse. Here is my quandary. What is the "right" decision in this situation? The mother in me is screaming, "Charge them!!! Send them to jail forever! What kind of parent could sit and watch their child suffer in so much pain and do nothing to help her? It's barbaric." Then there is another voice in my head that says, "What right does the State have to dictate what I am allowed to believe? America is awesome because it affords us the right to believe any way we wish and also to act on those beliefs. Her parents didn't do 'nothing,' they petitioned the Lord to intervene and heal their baby and if that wasn't His will, they were willing to 'give' her back to Him. Where do we draw the line when it comes to the government's involvement in our lives, and how can we draw a hard line when there are so many shades of grey?"There are so many aspects to this situation. Literally, my brain has been arguing with itself since I heard the story. Parents have the right to raise their child in the way they see fit. To not seek medical attention for their little girl is abusive and cruel. Prayer is the most powerful tool we have here on this Earth and who is to say it is or isn't what He would have us do? God put people on this Earth who are committed to healing us and to whom God has given the minds to come up with treatments and cures for the illnesses of our existence. As a smart, articulate, loving mother, I have the right to decide what medical treatment is "right" for my family. I shouldn't have to immunize or medicate my child just because a medical professional says I should. What if a child refuses treatments that may or may not save/prolong their life? The debate goes on and on in my head even to remembering a woman I knew when I was pregnant with Tristan. She believed that we, as women, were given a divine purpose in the birthing of our children and that God did not want us to interfere with the child-birth process by taking any sort of pain relieving medication during labor and delivery. To do so would be an affront to the experience. My response was, God gave the inventor of the anesthesia the ability to create the miracle of epidurals for a reason and plus, you don't get bonus points for doing it natural! (Of course, then the epidural didn't work the way it was supposed to and it was a moot point - why did I have to marry a guy with such a HUGE head anyway!!!)I just don't know how I feel about this whole thing. Not that it's any of my business to begin with! Personally, I would take my baby to the best doctor I could find. I do choose to immunize my children. I do medicate my ADHD son and take medications for my own ADD. But, what gives me the right to say that YOU have to do the same?
It keeps going and going and going.
As you know, I have been trying to get whatever is making my underarm (and arm and chest) taken care of, and as you know, it's been a pain in the rear. When I called to get an appointment with my Primary Care Physician (PCP) they told me I couldn't get in until April 25th. Ach. I told the woman that I am in a lot of pain. I'm taking narcotics to ease said pain. I am almost out of said narcotics. she compromised saying she would send a note to the doc's nurse and I would hear something in 24 hours. 20 hours later, I called back. This time I got a much more helpful woman who saw a cancellation and gave it to me.
I saw the doctor yesterday. She warned us that going through the HMO side instead of the PPO side would be a lot more red tape but stipulated that she was willing to be the "Medical Mafia" if needs be. Those were her words, "Medical Mafia!" Ty and I laughed at that one. She put in a referral to the surgical powers that be and ordered blood work.
I went to get my blood sucked today. I told the lab tech how impressed I was with her technique (I didn't feel a THING!!!) she replied that she'd had a lot of practice over the past few weeks. Oh yeah! They've been taking care of all the people who were possibly infected with Hepatitis-C and HIV from those skanky clinics y'all have heard about on the national news.
OH! The doctor also put in a referral so I can get a new therapist. Seeing as mine has been arrested for check fraud here in Vegas (trying to pass over $300,000.00 in bad checks at local casinos) and sexual misconduct with two patients in Oklahoma (he gave them Herpes and I don't mean cold sores.) Gotta love Las Vegas!!!
I know, right? I'm just as shocked as you are!!! Today, I went in to pre-register for the surgery my surgeon ordered. Half-way through the process the lady turns to me and says, "Okay, your insurance only pays 80%, so we are going to need a $300 down-payment." Hospital lady say what? I asked her for an estimate of the total cost and she completely dodged the question. So I decided to pull back and re-group. We can't afford all that for heaven's sake! Now, I need to can Dr. P. and cancel, call the insurance company and ask if they will go without a referral from my Primary Care Provider (PCP) since I already have a doctor's orders for the surgery, and then go from there. Hopefully the Ins. company will allow me to skip my PCP, seeing as I have never met the woman. The worst part is, I got this information at 5pm on Friday, so I can't do a dang thing about it until Monday. I don't do waiting very well. *sigh*
Jenny had this on her blog and it was so much fun. Jane Austen is a favorite, so I couldn't resist. I was first introduced to Jane when I was on bedrest with #3 and a friend brought me the BBC mini-series version of this story. I love Jennifer Ehle and I fell in love with Ms. Austen then and there.
Take the Quiz here!
Thanks Jenny!
I actually stole this blog from my MySpace account. I figure I'll be talking about the situation again in the future, so I thought it only right to post it here as well.
20 Feb, 2008
The answer is, what the ultrasound tech thinks is growing under my left arm! Starting back in November, I had some pain that felt like I had pulled a muscle in my armpit. Sore and annoying, but no big deal. It went away after a few days and I forgot all about it. Then, when we were in Idaho between Christmas and New Year, the pain came back, but this time, it was accompanied with a little swelling. I had a cold at the time, so I figured a lymph node was swollen and went on with my life. It was gone by the time we went home. But, just over a week ago, the pain came back and it was much, much worse. It was actually keeping me up at night. And the swelling was worse, too. So I decided I needed to have it checked out. First, my Dr sent in a P.A. The P.A. first thought it was an abscess, then changed his mind to an infected lymph node. He said he's prescribe some antibiotics and all would be well in 3-4 days. The Dr came in shortly after that and said, "No, no, no, no" after he had had a chance to peek. He was a little more concerned than that. He ordered an x-ray to be done there at the office, but it came back clean. He scheduled me to come back on Saturday for an ultrasound and referred me out for a mammogram and a MRI. The ultrasound revealed a huge mass just barely below the armpit. It's more than 5cm across. He couldn't get an exact measurement because the tissue surrounding it is irritated, so the edges are unclear. What was clear is that it pushes into my left breast a bit and wraps around into my back. It was really cool to see. It was so obvious, even my untrained eye could see it. He also showed me how there is no blood flow in that area either. The tech said it looks like a large Lipoma which is basically a fatty tumor. Usually non-cancerous. I had the mammogram yesterday and there was no evidence of cancer in that area. *whew* My MRI is scheduled for tomorrow, and then I will have to go back to the Dr to discuss the findings and our options. I'll keep you posted.
(((HUGS))) to all!!!Since I posted the above, I have had two MRI's, was referred to a surgeon, and had a CT scan. I go back to the surgeon tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, the swelling is mostly gone and I think he's gonna tell me that we can't do anything until it comes back. Egad. I don't want to go through this rodeo again.Think good thoughts for me. I'll post again tomorrow night to share the news.
It's horrible, but my first blog is one of mortification!This weekend, we went up to Utah to visit my brother's family and see his beautiful baby boy be blessed. It was a quick trip, but worth it. We went to Brazos Grill, played cards, Ty got his Mushroom Bounty Cheese and all was well. Not to mention, my adorable nephews, my brother, and my SIL are closer than 5 days away, so we can visit!!! Back to the story, as we were driving back to sin city after our whirlwind mini-vaca, my husband says to me quietly. "I guess Samantha made Sandi blush this weekend." My tongue went a little numb as I imagined the cause. "What," I whined. "She told her a joke." Oh crap. So I turned in my seat and made Samantha take off her headphones. "What joke did you tell Aunt Sandi this weekend?" She claimed she couldn't remember how it went, so I tried a different approach. "Where did you hear this joke?" I asked. Tristan heard it from a boy who's name will not be mentioned here. Tristan's turn to remove the phones. "What's this joke I'm hearing about?" Tristan starts sputtering and begging me not to make him tell. Uh-oh, this is gonna be bad. After asking repeatedly and then yelling at the boy, I pointed out that the very fact that he didn't want to share it with me tells me that it's not a joke he should be telling. "Samantha, you are not in trouble, but I need to know what this joke is." She paused and then began, "There was this kid and a dad and sometimes the kid has to take a shower with the dad..." Are you kidding me!!! -The joke was really bad and I am NOT going to repeat it, so don't ask!- I could see Sandy's shocked face in my mind and I was mortified! My skin got too tight for my body and my breath caught in my chest. Samantha didn't even know what the joke meant. Tristan did and would have loved to be "beamed" to Outer Mongolia at that moment. So we got to have the talk about what is and isn't okay to repeat, what to say if someone starts talking about something like that, that it's okay to come to us if you hear something you don't understand and so on. Tomorrow, I get to call Sandi and apologize profusely and since the family of the boy who told the joke to Tristan is in St George for the week, I get to ruminate on how to broach the subject with his mother when they get back. Yeah!After the "talk", just when my heartbeat had almost returned to normal, I heard Samantha's voice form the backseat, "Dad, what does the joke mean?" Oh joy. Ty stammered, "It's not something you need to know about right now."Parenting is not for the faint of heart!
