womzilla | Dredging the past

One of my relaxation habits is to re-read my old Usenet posts. It's sort of like re-reading a diary (or an LJ for that matter), since I record a lot of personal data along the way.

My current reading has brought me up to late 2002. I read this and shuddered.

On Thu, 26 Sep 2002 10:53:24 -0500, Beth Friedman <bjf@wavefront.com>
wrote:
>I don't know what the percentage is, but there are a hell of a lot of
>conditions that cost $200,000 or more to treat that won't kill you if
>you get proper treatment.

I am fairly sure that my father has run up over $200,000 in the last
fifteen years for medical treatment of a minor, treatable, progressive
health problem. If he had not had treatment, I believe he would now be
dead from it; with treatment, he's healthy, but the problem will
almost certainly recur and need more treatment in the future.

And that's not counting the unrelated pulmonary circulation problem he
had in the late 1980s, a problem which kills about 1/3rd of the people
who leave it untreated but which has caused him no lasting problems
because of quick and thorough and expensive treatment.

Crap. Crap crap crap.