5-11 March 2001
Eighth week: Break
6 March 2001:
As my journey through the pharmaceutical jungle progressed, I came to realise that, by comparison with the reality, my story was as tame as a holiday postcard.Now, this comment is incentive enough to start reading this book as soon as possible. On a different aspect: I'm wondering whether Non-Fiction has become so creative, that Fiction can't keep up with the creative madness anymore. It takes a lot of good quality madmen (and perhaps madwomen, too) to set up the machinery of globalized economies and make it the juggernaut it has become.
8 March 2001:
I'm a bit concerned that swallowing has become a bit less elegant during the last days as I seem to have developed a sore esophagus again. I'll tell the doc tomorrow and if necessary on Monday again, when I will meet the gastro-doc. Probably the most significant change of the past weeks has taken place regarding nutrition. I am very much into fruits and yoghurts rather than into anything else. In general, I seem to prefer "sweet" against "salty" stuff. Sounds like I regress back to year 1, eh?
9 March 2001:
1. My GP was on sick leave today. 2. His deputy had no idea whatsoever who I was etc. So I suggested I better talk with the gastroenterologist on Monday than with her. She happily agreed. Afterwards I drove to the Disease Insurance Office to check another reminder of a bill, which I had received yesterday. I thought, the bill was paid in full, but to my surprise the lady behind the counter told me that in this case, I had to pay A$123.65 from my private bank account. I was surprised as the bill referred to the implantation of the catheter and my feeling was that this was clearly hospital-related, i.e. the Insurance pays the bill. Wrong. There's the "scheduled fee" again, and Medicare pays 75%, private insurance 25%, and everything beyond the "scheduled fee" has to be paid by the patient. In other words, the doc was greedy enough to put some extra-money on the bill after implanting the catheter. - Y'know, I am not warned how much he puts on the bill, they don't announce their greed in public. I returned home, went straight to bed, and slept for 2 hours to recover from this totally irresponsible Disease Administration and Management System, which is nothing else but a license for the medical profession to print money. Send lawyers, guns, and money - Warren Zevon.
Copyright © by Eberhard Wenzel, 2000-2001 |