LadyEllen
Posts: 10931
Joined: 6/30/2006
From: Stourport-England
Status: offline
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As some here will know, I have arthritis – in the spine mainly but also it affects hips, ribs and shoulders. I have little to no pain and remain remarkably unaffected by stiffness and able to live what I’d think was pretty much normal life – OK, I cant do some of the things I could before all this hit 22 years ago, but then a 41 year old shouldn’t necessarily behave like a 19 year old anyway.
There is a simple reason for this, for me having avoided the usual prognosis for this condition if left untreated (total immobility, never ending pain, eventual death from even a minor respiratory illness) – access to doctors and medicines through our National Health Service.
Through such access it has been possible for me to work full time for 20 years I likely should not have otherwise had, live well and take part in raising two kids. And it has been possible for me to put in the effort and commitment to building a business that employs others.
Without it, I should be in the position that so many describe here; unable to work, “living” on welfare, possibly homeless or still with parents, helpless, desperate and suicidal, if I weren’t by now already dead from pneumonia or something similar.
If tomorrow the treatment stopped, I should face such a situation no doubt. Except I would simply not go quietly; living where I do, I can get hold of “non prescription” equivalents of my treatments quite readily, and as a result become a drug addict proper rather than a drug dependant patient as I am now. It would make things more difficult for sure, it would present problems all of its own for sure, it would be dangerous for sure, but the alternative of no treatment at all is simply unacceptable and the prognosis thereof equally so and not just for me but for my kids.
Yes, I’m addicted – but like many others I show the lie that is taken for gospel by officialdom and the general public that those dependant on narcotics are useless scum and/or weak and/or immoral and/or simply looking for a high. The same range of wise commentators who condemn the likes of me whilst opening a second bottle of booze - because of course they’re connoisseurs, having a good time, relieving stress or indulging some equally hypocritical and nonsensical reason for their addiction to alcohol – a substance far more dangerous and socially damaging than any painkilling narcotic, whether used as such or not.
It seems to me that the comments here illustrate even more – for there have been more than enough similar instances on threads here in the past – that the US needs an NHS too. For all its faults, ours is the best thing we have in the UK. And for those who rail against such ideas, who seem to think that their current health is something that is a given and that insurance will always be there for them, consider that at age 19 I might well have thought the same way; this thing came out of nowhere, crippling an active teenager with a great future almost overnight. If we could predict if, when and how we would become ill then we might avoid it – problem is, that’s a difficult thing to do – and once one does suddenly fall ill, help is needed regardless of ability to pay. Such help becomes cheap if it allows people to participate economically who otherwise should be unable – and not only in terms of the tax take vs the welfare burden but also in terms of the social profit and loss account.
E
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In a test against the leading brand, 9 out of 10 participants couldnt tell the difference. Dumbasses.
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RE: Chronic Pain, or fuck the Doctors - 
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