Diagnosis; not good

I’ve been diagnosed with some kind of non-alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver, or fatty liver disease, along those lines but even though I have excellent and very expensive health insurance, the walls that the medical bureaucracy has constructed seem almost impenetrable.

May 23rd went to a new gastroenterologist who in fifteen minutes sent me to hospital in San Antonio. Two confusing nights there. Nobody tells me what I have. 4 liters fluid removed, different prescriptions with little or no info about them. Sharon Lubben my driver stayed with me all the way.

They give me an appointment June 5 with a PA, not the doctor. Twelve days later, growing weaker, Sharon again driving left here with me at 9 a.m. Their big building of gastros was like a cattle call.

Appointment at 11. Sat there on hard chair until 12:30. Woman PA reads all hospital tests, orders more, doesn’t tell me what kind of liver damage I have but it seems serious. Talks fast, doesn’t ask me any questions, I try to tell her I am a writer and have a book I want to finish, she barely hears me and after 30 minutes I am off to get blood drawn. 10 vials. Sit on hard bench waiting my turn.

Then sent to ER to have more fluid removed. More endless waiting on hard chairs amid mob of sometimes-weird, sometimes-ordinary people. Nothing to eat because food court does not have gluten-free. Finally had fluid removed (paracentesis), then ER doc wants more blood tests so back amidst ER crowd on hard chair waiting for blood-draw tech. Called in, blood drawn, back to hard chair amidst mob; waiting for ER doc to sign release forms and she talks to me a minute or so but I am in so much pain from pinched back nerve I am barely coherent.

We left there at 9 p.m. Stopped by HEB to get some food, grapes and I forget what. So I am apparently very ill with a life-threatening disease, have good insurance, but I spent 13 hours sitting upright on hard chairs, no food, and no pain relief. None.

Now I feel myself growing weaker by the day, can’t eat, nausea, I am starvation-thin. Next appointment is July 3rd. I think. Almost a month. What to do?

How do I find out about my chances of survival for say, six month? How can I make myself eat? I am thinking the only way around this obdurate and inhuman medical bureaucracy is to go to Mexico. The medical competence of their doctors is about the same as the US but it’s direct-pay, which I can afford, and none of these long waits for an appointment while you grow sicker and sicker, no mobs of people desperate for help in depressing ugly offices, and medical people who actually LISTEN to you.

So I have this up, for information to all concerned, and must Get hold of Elvia and the Contrerases. There is quite a lot of medical tourism near the border, good hospitals, they will advise me. However I would have to have a lot of help finding places for my animals, packing up, closing the house and getting THE TAVERN AT THE END OF THE WORLD onto my tablet, or just print out and take mss. with me that way.

All my info comes from online — apparently some people have survived with this for years but I must have reasonably prompt and informative medical care.

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