Delays

As some of you know, I went to New York two weeks ago to see the premiere of my girlfriend's play - the one she wrote, not the one she acted in, as she would likely never actually get on stage as a performer. She can barely handle the thought of people listening to her words being spoken on the stage, as she waits and hopes for signs of the audience's approval. Given that I was flying to New York, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to fly Jet Blue and see what all the hype was about. My own personal TV? How bad could it be.

My flight out was early in the morning, maybe 6AM. It was a fairly empty flight and everyone managed to get there on-time and board in an orderly fashion. Everyone that is, except one of the pilots. Good times. We sat there in the plane waiting for 30 minutes until the pilot managed to get to the plane. Once we were airborne, the Direct TV refused to work. So, they gave us free movies. Not bad. I watched Kung Fu Panda (something mindless that I did not have to give serious mental thought to) and because they build so much extra time into their arrival times, we easily arrived on-time. So, while I started out disliking Jet Blue and thinking they were incompetant, I left thinking maybe it was just an anomoly.

While in New York, I got to see two or three performances of my girlfriend's play, see and meet fun people, and sample delicious food. It seems like delicious food is everywhere up there, much like it is in Chicago. You generally do not have to worry about whether you will like the food at a particular restaurant because, one way or another, you are going to. (Except for the overpriced fish that I ordered that tasted a little too much like fish. Although, I have to admit, it and all of its accompaniments were cooked perfectly. Plus, I had tacos before I arrived. So, I was already well fed.) I also got to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and experience what it is like to be surrounded by hordes of rude, annoying people that I really just wanted to push over the side. It was also on this walk that I discovered that my digital camera was broken, with a huge crack in its LCD. Good times.

The house we were staying at had a king sized Temperpedic style bed. Except, it's a different brand called Isotonic. That bed was amazing. It was like I could sleep forever on it. You woke up and if you didn't want to be awake yet, you just rolled over and fell back to sleep. Absolutely fantastic. I have a terrible time sleeping - the act often aludes me, especially if I want to sleep extra, but I realize now it is because all the sleep has been hiding in this bed. Fantastic. Unfortunately, the owners of the house also had a dog. It wasn't there while we were, but as anyone who knows me and my allergies can attest, that doesn't matter.

Now, to be fair, it is unclear whether I had a cold or allergies or both. What is known is that by night two, I had a sore throat and I remained sick for the next two days I was in New York. To add to my feelings or terribleness, Jet Blue delayed my return flight for five hours (four in the airport and the next one on the plane). I met two seasoned fliers in the airport that explained it was not just bad luck, it was Jet Blue. In fact, as I looked around the airport, I saw that all the surrounding flights out were also delayed. I now officially hated them. We eventually filed onto our very full flight, and there I was sandwiched in-between two women - one young and one old. Like before and after photos maybe. (My girlfriend stayed for the following week in New York, as she still had more shows.)

I arrived home, and placed a call to my office, leaving a message to let them know there was just no way I could come in on Monday. My voice sounded awful and I had a fever. During the course of last week, I went from feeling like I was almost better to losing my voice and feeling like I was never going to be able to speak again. My doctor wasn't sure what I had, but he gave me antibiotics in case it was a sinus or respiratory infection, given the blood and other oddly colored fluids emanating from me, it seemed like a safe bet. However, I delayed in starting on the antibiotics, as he and I wondered, maybe it was just allergies, delaying my recovery. Finally, towards the end of last week, when my voice was almost completely gone, I started on the antibiotics, and then spent this entire weekend doing nothing but sleeping and reading. I think my voice if slowly coming back now, but it will probably not be until the end of next week that I am fully recovered. Somehow, I know this is all Jet Blue's fault.

Too Much Wisdom

I have never had my wisdom teeth removed. They just grew in with no pain or problems. Unfortunately, my jaw bone inhibits me from actually reaching them when I brush my teeth and I got cavities in all of them. When the dentist filled two of them, he found the cavities were deeper than he thought and decided that what I really needed was to get them extracted - an operation he wanted to do right then and there with just a little Novocaine and he said I would be fine with just some Tylenol after. I told him thanks but no.

Recently, about a year ... maybe two later, I just sat down with an oral surgeon to plan on finally having it done. I will be put asleep before it happens and be taking Percocet after. Although, I think it will still be a miserable experience, I keep thinking that just leaving them in and one day getting an infection in the nerve will be far more miserable because then I'll have lots of pain before the surgery, as well as all of the pain after.

Fortunately, I pay for dental insurance and it will cover most of the cost of this and I will only have to pay a few hundred dollars. Although, the amount I have paid for the insurance over the years may all equal it out. It's hard to say for sure, but it has also paid for lots of other stuff like preventative measures - cleanings, periodic X-rays - not the really good X-ray I needed for the the surgeon, but all the other ones.

One of the paralegals at our office has an illness and with all of the medications that she has to take, all of which our health insurance company indexed to the highest tier - $60 each. Plus the tests that she needs that require her to meet our $2,500.00 deductible before they cover her, she has been spending almost all of the extra money she makes (the money that exceeds her ordinary monthly bills) on her medical needs. The thing that gets me about this is she has health insurance. This reminds me a lot of what I went through last year with my shoulder surgery - I needed my entire Christmas bonus to pay for my shoulder surgery and physical therapy, and I had health insurance.

A few weeks ago, I watched Sicko. I did not find it the profound revelation of a movie that so many others seem to have seen it as. I thought it was interesting, but I really wanted to hear more about both sides. I wanted to understand what average people (not seemingly wealthy people) thought of their medical insurance in these countries with government funded medical insurance. I mean there simply must be disgruntled people in those medical systems, right? Because if not, I think we should adopt one of their medical plans today.

NPR did a series on most of these countries, trying to cover how each one worked. Often, they would find a family from the United States who had been forced to relocate to one of these countries so that they could receive the medical treatment they needed for their ongoing conditions. Clearly, these systems have their benefits. However, what about people coming here for treatment? I have heard that happens. Does it happen? How much does it happen? Are there lots of people in these other countries receiving substandard treatment? Does that happen here too? How long do they have to wait for their surgeries? What about at the ER? And what will the cost really be - yes, our taxes will be higher but our employers could also afford to pay us more.

One of my physical therapists had done her internship over in England. She had said the medical system was not so bad over there. It had its shortcomings, but it was not bad. One of the women I know who lives in Toronto always seemed to get all the treatment she needs. I don't know. The thing I find really unfortunate is how hard it seems to be able to find this type of information. You would think more news agencies would take the time to do a really thorough exploration of issues like these. Issues that really seem to matter. They may find that if they did more people would read them.