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Most of what I've written has been published as e-books and is available at Amazon. Match Play is a golf/suspense novel. Dust of Autumn is a bloody one set in upstate New York. Prairie View is set in South Dakota, with a final scene atop Rattlesnake Butte. Life in the Arbor is a children's book about Rollie Rabbit and his friends (on about a fourth grade level). The Black Widow involves an elaborate extortion scheme. Happy Valley is set in a retirement community. Doggy-Dog World is my memoir. And ES3 is a description of my method for examining English sentence structure.
In case anyone is interested in any of my past posts, an archive list can be found at the bottom of this page. I'd appreciate any feedback you may have by sending me an e-mail note--jertrav33@aol.com. Thanks for your interest.

Monday, February 8

Salve Like Gold

I went to the wound center for my biweekly visit to see how my two holes were doing (wounds, that is). By "my two holes," I mean the two wounds that mysteriously appeared on my left calf almost exactly at the sites of my two series of radiations a year ago. The doctor wasn’t happy with the healing rate after a month and decided to put me on a different treatment, a collagenase called Santyl Ointment. Regardless of what it’s called, it sounded to me like another one of those hold-your-breath-here-comes-the-price salves. And I was right. Thirty grams cost $108. I was still gulping and didn’t think to ask if any of the retail cost was covered by insurance. I’m assuming none was covered. Okay, this one along with the Efudex I got three months ago and the Taclonex I got a week ago comes to 170 grams, with a combined retail cost (what the pharmaceuticals would charge without insurance) of $1658 ($108 + $700 + $850), which then comes to $9.75 per gram. For those who don’t really know what a gram is, if I squeezed enough to lightly cover a dime, that would be about a gram. This number offends my sensibility, and I want to know why we citizens of this country put up with the banditry of pharmaceuticals. President Obama wants to pass a health care bill that would put limits on drug costs, on hospital costs, on doctors’ charges. Why won’t we let him do it? Why are the Republicans so set against not just his bill, but any form of any bill? It offends my sensibility. It enrages me. I feel it seething inside me and I want to vent it but I can’t find any venting place or anyone on which to vent it. Does anyone out there agree with me?

1 comment:

Amy Z said...

You've got my vote Uncle!!!
Amy

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