Lies:  Good and Bad!

Main Bonnie Page

Before the first radiation treatment Bonnie and I understood there was to be a "planning session."

This a session where they take X-Rays, and find the exact positions of the heart, spine, other organs, and the cancer mass.  The idea here is that they want to "aim" the radiation at about five centimeters above and five all around, actually, the cancer -- that way they can be sure they "get it all."

So, that planning schedule was set for this one day -- and Bonnie went in for that.

As I was waiting for her to be finished, I naturally asked about when the first treatment would be.  There had also been some "murmuring" about insurance coverage.

Let me state as a bald fact, based on some very intimate and personal observation of the "cancer system" and the "insurance system" for these several months, that the HMOs MUST find ways to ration care -- or they would go bankrupt.

Yet, there are laws that make them liable for private lawsuit if a patient is "improperly denied" medical treatment.

So, there is a "grand conspiracy" (which none of the participants would ever be willing to consider a "conspiracy") where:

• The hospital (or some government agency) convenes a "board of medical experts" -- probably both MDs and laymen.

• This "board" considers what should be the "standard of care" for that area for every conceivable medical situation.

• They come up with an exact protocol for every situation, and they even have a range of allowable protocols -- depending on which HMO or hospital they are working at.

• They decide, for instance, that the white blood cell count must be at least as low as XX in order for insurance to cover shots of Nupagen (at $207 per shot -- normally five shots in a series).

• If the doctor (or patient) "feels" that they should have these shots, but the white blood cell count is "not low enough," why, then, of course, the insurance won't cover it.

• So, the front-line doctors are constantly having to deal with different types of insurance, or "fee for service" patients, and they don't want to worry the patient by saying that, "XX Service is medically necessary for you, but the insurance won't cover it, and it would cost you $2000 to get it privately."

• They don't want to say that.

• So, this nurse looked me straight in the eye and gave me a complicated story about how the "planning" for where to aim the radiation therapy takes about three weeks to finalize!

• I couldn't believe this was true.

• I asked why?

• She said, "Well, they have to send the results of the initial X-Rays to the atomic radiation experts, do lots of calculations, and come back with the exact settings for the radiation device.  This takes about three weeks."

• I again suggested that there was nothing she was describing that could not be done in two minutes by a computer.  She just shrugged -- obviously, I didn't understand !

• I was ready to accept that data -- and even though, by this time, both Bonnie and I were convinced that the radiation should start as soon as possible, I accepted that.

• Not five minutes later the actual radiation doctor made a casual reference to the first radiation treatment "tomorrow."

• Apparently the insurance approval had come through and there was no need to create a false reason (calculations) for any delay.

• Perhaps there was some other explanation?

• I decided NOT to call her on this "apparent lie," because, and you should note this carefully, when you go in for conventional cancer therapy you are in the hands of people who know, in their hearts, that they do NOT have an effective therapy.  They are "sick in their souls!" over this, and have no great interest in admitting this to you, or to anyone. So, they give you crazy stories to hide the truth.

• The truth is that the insurance companies are rationing care, the doctors know this, the "good doctors" find ways to get around the insurance rigidity.   They are not about to "admit" that the insurance system is crazy, so they are willing to make up lies to "protect" the insurance companies.

• Now, having decided that these people are willing to lie to you -- straight in your face, you then must realize that two days later it may be this same nurse who is dialing a number setting on a radiation machine -- if she is just a bit "miffed at you calling her out?"  might she make a "mistake" with the number?

• I don't want to find out.

• How about the surgeon who installed the "porta-cat" for Bonnie, and where I later learned that he did a poor job, and that this device could not be used in one of the intended ways because of his poor job. The poor job was "discovered" when another doctor, suspicious, decided to send Bonnie for a special X-Ray to inspect how this Porta-Cat had been surgically inserted.

• He was "careful" to never blame the surgeon, but I could hear enough to know that the surgeon did not do a good job.

• Should I now complain about the very doctor who might soon be standing over Bonnie with his surgical knife in hand, to very delicately and thoroughly do a "clean surgical resection" of whatever might be left of the cancer following radiation and chemo?

• No way!

• So, the doctor's "mal-practice" gets a pass because you don't want an "angry doctor" carving on your or your loved one.

• So, this is different from a "lie" but it is a "wise refusal" to call out a poor medical procedure.

• So, as you move into the traditional cancer treatment arena, and, in fact, any medical system, you should realize that the system itself if in a state of "moral chaos."

• I could go on, but I have chosen THIS AREA of "improved morality" to be my calling rather than to write more about medical immorality.

Now, let me describe the other end of this spectrum.

When Bonnie was first being diagnosed with cancer, those who knew what to expect (not told to us) realized that she would need a "feeding tube" and that there would come a time when she could not even swallow her own saliva.

Part of the "service" that seemed so "compassionate" was the hospital nutritionist who "prescribed" a "medically approved feeding formula" that would be covered by the insurance.

In due course we got more than 100 cans of this -- Ensure Plus HN, which, I suspect, you cannot buy in any store.  They also delivered the feeding tube equipment described in the link just above.

Bonnie "tolerated" the feeding tube and formula OK, but was having reactions (probably caused by other dumb things I was doing.)

She wanted to change formulas -- I found a brand at Walgreens -- it worked fine.  It cost a bit less than $1 per can of 350 calories.

It worked fine in the feeding bag, and the feeding "pump" worked fine also -- there was no apparent difference between the consistency of the Walgreen's product and the "medically approved formula."

Now I'm going to be "careful!"  I am about to describe what "might be" because the "truth might get me in trouble!"

The nutritionist sympathized with us, that the Ensure Plus, HN, was "not working" and agreed to get insurance coverage for something like the Walgreen's brand.

She FAXed the request to the Primary Care Physician, but did not know what brand of "medically approved" stuff would be like the drug store brand.  She didn't designate any specific formula.

The primary care physician couldn't make that choice, so he did nothing to process the insurance request.

I happened then to be talking to the "home health nurse" who had delivered the prior supply of the "medically approved" formula.

She could not deliver any new formula without insurance approval.

She said, "If you are using the feeding tube pump and equipment for a non-approved formula, we will have to come out and pick up the equipment -- it is not allowed to use that equipment except with a prescribed formula! "

I "assured her" that I was ONLY using the Ensure Plus, HN, in the feeding bag and equipment.

Without that bag and pump there would have been no way I could conceive of for this feeding to take place.

So, should I tell the home health nurse to come pick up the pump?

I leave that to your imagination.

You have to work within an immoral system, and that doesn't make it very easy to "Seek to live with the truth!" which is one of the moral principles I try to live by.

What would you do?

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