Dorie Morgan’s Rising Up
Navigating Twenty-Something Suburban Life
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Archive of "health reform" Category
Babies: How many should you have?
Last week in California, a woman gave birth in 8 babies. And by gave birth, what we really mean is that she had a c-section because humans are not animals designed to give birth to 8 babies at once.
The woman already had 6 children. She’s a single mother. She conceived all of her babies through in vitro fertilization.
And now America debates: How many children should a woman have?
And once again, America is talking about events that transpire between a woman’s thighs.
If this woman had birthed 14 babies naturally and without fertility help, people may raise a few eyebrows about the fun she must have been having at night but America would not be discussing her reproductive decisions. But her children appeared with the aid of fertility drugs and that’s where this gets messy. Why did she feel the need to be pregnant once again after already having 6 children? She was a single woman, she was pursuing her Master’s degree in counseling, she was living with her parents.
While the whole situation makes me shake my head in disbelief, I still must ask the question: since when is the number of babies a woman has any of your business? The last time I checked, that was an issue between the mother, the family, the doctor and God.
Yes, there is a concern if the state is picking up the cost of the children. Neonatal care for 8 babies does not come cheap. Diapers are not cheap. Formula does not come cheap (let’s face it: she doesn’t have the milk production that would happen if the mom had 8 nipples). Babies are expensive. And yes, there is a concern from the insurance company regarding the cost of hospital care and what they are legally obligated to pay.
But beyond that, why is America concerned? Is it genuine compassion and concern? Or is it, once again, a side effect of our voyeuristic tendencies and our chronic know-it-all behavior?
My belief is the latter.
But here’s the big problem with our behavior in this situation: by sticking our noses in another families business, we make it easier for our own lives to be invaded. Sure, the woman has 14 children. Maybe that does make her an easy target. But what happens further on down the line?
Could I someday be criticized because I want to have four kids? Would that become the government’s business, the community’s business, your business? Would someone outside of my family with no knowledge of my health or my ability to parent be able to make a decision about what was too much?
Or a scarier thought: could it someday be determined that you were not having enough children? Could the government or the insurance company someday inform you that you are expected to have three children when you really want one child or no child? By opening the door, this could go both ways although one way is much harder to comprehend.
Really, this situation has nothing to do with a woman in California who opted to have 14 children. We want to say it is to ease our minds but we’re only fooling ourselves.
If we are really honest, if we really want to think critically about the situation, we have to realize that this has everything to do with reproductive rights. The conversation is taking place in a different package than Roe vs. Wade but the heart of the conversation is the same. We’re okay talking about abortion these days even though it can still get a bit heated at times but we’re okay with it because we know what to expect. Person A is going to talk about how life begins at conception and Person B is going to talk about it is the woman’s body that matters and then Person C is going to say it is not a decision she could make but she will never restrict another woman’s right to make that decision.
So is it anyone’s business if a woman decides to use help to get pregnant by utilizing fertility treatments? And is it anyone’s business if she becomes the mother of a multiple birth? As a society, do we want to create a minimum or maximum number of children a family is expected to have? And does a single woman have a right to be a family with her children? Or is a family just a mother, a father and children? Where does this leave single parent households, grandparents raising their children’s children, gay couples and the polygamists?
Why I love holistic medicine
I’ve given up on Western medicine. I’ve had enough of it. I’m tired of the second opinions that seem even more out there than the first opinions. I’m tired of magic pills that are supposed to make everything better but come at the high price of side effects. I’m tired of trying to figure what health insurance covers and I’m tired of getting approval from the insurance company. I’m tired of multiple things being wrong with me when I think there is only one thing wrong with me. I’m tired of waiting for ailments to be socially or physically crippling before getting treatment.
I am sick and tired of health coverage and treatment in America. I am sick and tired of being tired.
So I’ve given up on all of it. It wasn’t working for me. And life is too short to keep things that aren’t working.
I’m going the holistic route. And honestly, I’ve never felt better in my life.
I’ve been seeing Dr. Michael Gorman at Gorman’s Optimal Health Solutions, Inc. for a few years now. Long enough that I consider his staff to be my friends (and both Sarah and Gio are my friends on facebook and myspace – which is either really creepy on my end or really cool on their end). Chiropractic care gave me my life back after chronic pain from a car accident seven years ago. Dr. Gorman has me drinking Core Vital Greens, taking supplements that smell funny and using ice to treat pain but I’ve never left his office hurting. At this point, I turn to him first before I turn to my insurance mandated primary care physician.
Dr. Gorman recently sent me to see Dr. Wendy Warner over at Medicine In Balance. What had started off as a slight problem with my birth control in early 2007 had spiraled out of control. I started seeing Dr. Warner about a month ago and I left her office filled with hope. I love that going to see Dr. Warner means there are reading assignments and homework. Healing is an active process and its great to see a doctor recognize that.
Dr. Warner also has me seeing an energy therapist twice a month. My energy therapist, Kristin, is helping work on my first and second chakra issues through Path Work. I have to admit, I was pretty skeptical about her ability to help me when I first met her. In three sessions, I think I’ve learned more about myself than in years of therapy growing up. I leave her office feeling more firmly routed in my body. And I leave her office with the hope feeling.
Earlier this year, I started joking that I should start a column in a local newspaper containing a list of the Who’s Who of Crappy Docs in the Philadelphia Region. But I’ve got to confess, the negative nature of the idea is brining me down. I’d much rather tell you about the doctors who are making a difference. And the doctors that are making a difference right now are holistic.
How can you tell if the holistic route is right for you? If you want to be cured, maybe you should go to a traditional Western doctor. If you want to heal, holistic is right for you. If you think there is a connection between your physical health and your mental health, go holistic. If you don’t think drugs are the answer to everything, make an appointment with a holistic doctor. If you think that long term health is a way of life – not just something that happens to you, I think you already know the answer.
What My New Year Resolutions Look Like: Goal 1
Goal 1: I will take better, proactive care of my health.
I thought this was going to be one of the easiest goals on my list for the year. I had these great plans of things I would do and suddenly everything would be perfect in my health. I was going to become the picture of health and fitness and my husband was going to love me more for it. I was going to go to the gym everyday! I was going to switch my family to an entirely organic diet! I was going to get eight full hours of sleep every night! I was going to eat three, square meals a day! I was going to schedule all of my medical appointments in a timely manner!
I was going to fail miserably because the only goal I managed to succeed on was the sleeping eight hours every night. But man, I’m good at sleeping.
If I wanted to keep my goal, I needed to reevaluate.
The first goal to go was the organic diet. Brian and I have the pleasure of living in Levittown, PA, which is not a bad place to live. It is a bad place to try to find organic food. Beyond Nature’s Promise brand at the Giant, your options are limited. And with the nearest Whole Foods located about 15 miles away, organic became so inconvenient that the stress of finding food for an organic diet seemed to cause more harm than good. The solution? My chiropractor recommended that I start taking Greens. I was not a happy camper about it for the first few days but it has now become part of my morning routine. I’ve also stopped buying junk food for my husband and I make an extra serving at dinner to take to work the next day for lunch. It may not be organic but only having fast food once in the last month is quite an improvement for me.
The next goal to go was going to the gym. My schedule is fairly limited and the only way for me to make it to the gym was to wake up at 4:45 in the morning to haul my booty over to LA Fitness. Seeing as the eight hours of sleep was the only aspect I was succeeding in, it just wasn’t going to happen. So I cancelled my membership and bought an ab-roller and exercise bands. It isn’t quite the same as working out at the gym but its what my schedule allows. And now I don’t feel guilt for not making it to the gym as I should. Score one for me
Finally, I’ve given up on having three meals a day. I tried it, but it was just not happening for me. I’ve always been a grazer. I have been eating about 6-7 meals a day (tiny meals I might add) and I feel better than when I tried to force myself to only eat at work at lunch time. With the one hour lunch, I kept binging and then starving myself. Now I feel less sluggish and more balanced through out the day.
Oh, and the medical appointments? I’ve temporarily abandoned hope of scheduling in a timely manner. I keep needing to schedule appointments involving needles and bloodwork and since I’m such a big baby about needles, I put it off until my husband gets mad. And for now, that works just fine for me.
Coming tomorrow: Goal 2 – I will be kinder to my body.
Peter Keating: The Tumor
I have an MRI scheduled for Thursday evening after work at the earliest possible time I could guarantee Brian could make it. I didn’t want to wait too long to have the test done but I need to know that my husband is there. I am terrified of needles and someone will have to hold me still while they inject the contrast for the scan into my vein.
I have always been a big baby about needles. The first time I remember receiving a needle was a traumatic and shocking moment and the experience has not improved from there. It does not help matters that I was sick and hallucinating at the time and I thought the old women in the hospital with blue hair were trying to eat me (in hindsight, I realize them telling me that I was “sweet enough to eat” was a lie intended to calm me down and not a promise of events to come). As an adult, I no longer blame those women but I do think that experience explains why I will never be a blood donor despite a belief in my family that blood donation is a patriotic and Christian duty. I suspect the Red Cross would rather not get my blood considering the ordeal I would likely put them through.
Brian will have to be there in order for anyone to survive.
The MRI is looking for a tumor my doctor suspects is currently growing on my pituitary gland and secreting hormones that should not be secreted. I am actually starting to hope that the tumor does exist. I’d rather know what is wrong than anything else. And I’d rather start treatment right away. In this case, ignorance is definitely not bliss.
I decided that naming the potential tumor that is lurking inside my skull would be a very good idea. I wrestled with the idea of naming it for several days as I don’t plan on keeping it inside of my head forever and perhaps I should not provide a tumor with its own identity but I ultimately decided that while the tumor is in me, it is not part of me and therefore should not share my identity with me.
I named the tumor “Peter Keating”.
My husband, who is not well read and who is not an objectivist, was very confused by this. I think he was also confused at the naming of a potential tumor but I’m fairly certain the tumor is there.
Perhaps I’m just putting the cart before the horse by treating a potential tumor as if it were here but at the same time, naming the tumor seems to make it better. As if by naming the tumor, I control the tumor. I control how long the tumor is here and I control what effects the tumor has on my life. It is almost as if I am Adam and God has given me the task of naming all creatures I am to have dominance over. I plan on dominating the tumor.
The fact is, without some sense of control, the possibilities of this tumor are terrifying. And while I know at some point I will have to be able to surrender the idea that I can have control or I will be humbled by something unexpected, but at the moment, I feel like a sense of control is a good thing. It gives me something to cling to.
A Tempting Offer by Democratic Hopefuls
Much like events transpiring in Nebraska, I have a tendency to ignore events in the Democratic Party because more the half the time, I find myself more than slightly agitated as a result. With an upcoming election year, I cannot ignore or neglect these news reports, as tempting as it would be, but I find myself intrigued by some of the ideas I am hearing.
Hillary has released her plan for universal health care. Despite my Republican, or rather Libertarian tendencies, universal health care is tempting. My husband has to pay close to $200 per month for mediocre coverage that often leaves us hanging. I luck out that the company I work for has amazing health coverage for all employees but spouses are not covered. Hillary seems to think mandating coverage is the way to go and we’ll be able to pay for our coverage through income tax credits. Hillary, in my opinion, has lost touch with the needs and wants of the American people. We want health coverage, but as our debt prone nation is often found doing, a tax credit is often found spent on more items we cannot afford as we attempt yet again to keep up with every other family on the block. My tax credit for health insurance would most likely be spent of fixing my car, leaving me to worry about my health insurance bill another day.
Hillary’s proposed health care plan is tempting. We will all have health insurance. There will be a tax cut. It is almost enough to lure you into a false sense of security.
Barack Obama has realized his proposed tax cuts as part of his campaign for the democratic ticket. And I must confess – if Obama wins the democratic ticket, he will have my vote. And I have never voted for a democrat in my life.
Obama said at the Tax Policy Center that the current tax code is working for the wrong priorities. As someone who really feels the impact of each tax dollar taken out of her pay check, I am apt to agree. After all, more than half of my take home pay goes towards student loans. If the present tax code rewards wealth instead of work, how can those of us who only have work ever hope to get ahead?
He also has great plans to end income tax for senior citizens who make less than fifty thousand a year. Thank Goodness. I look at all the time that is spent trying to sort out my grandparents income tax each year, mind you for an elderly couple who haven’t worked in over twenty years, and I have this hope that finally someone understands that taxing people who receive Social Security isn’t the brightest idea.
What really won me over to Obama’s plan though was the idea of five minute filings.
“There’s no reason the IRS can’t send Americans pre-filled tax forms to verify,” he said. “This means no more worry. No more wasted time. No more extra expenses for a tax preparer.”
Wow. Imagine not needing to spend hours at the accountant. Imagine just verifying a document and mailing it back. Imagine the IRS doing something more to justify their agency’s existance.
I’ve been sucked in already but we still have over a year to see how all of this will play out.
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