B.L.U.F.
Filler. Yapping about medicine and my kids having a tough time after oral surgery.
(550 words)

It has been a long weekend for us, here at the house.

On Friday, the kids finally got in to see the oral surgeon. A few hours later, they no longer had wisdom teeth.

My youngest has been having a hard time of it. They gave them a total of 5 does of Oxy and 600 mg Ibuprofen.

They were able to eat some soup today. The broccoli in it was too hard, so we had to put it in the blender.

My youngest son only had 3 wisdom teeth to remove. He’s been doing much better than his sibling.

I am so proud of him. He got up this morning, decided he wanted scrambled eggs. He made them himself and made extra for his sibling and made sure they ate some protein.

He spent most of the day on his computer playing games with his friends, yelling and laughing. I think he over did it as he looked a bit sore today.

So what is it about modern medicine? Well, first and foremost, it is freaking amazing.

While both kids are sore, there was no pain while their teeth were extracted.

They have antibiotics and pain meds for recovery. The odds of something bad happening is nil.

We saved up the money to cover the parts of the surgery that insurance didn’t cover. It was still something that we could do.

My wife has had 4 knee replacements. We are not bankrupt from medical bills.

I know that there are people who are not as fortunate as us.

On the other hand, I have a hard time with the people who say that they cannot afford health care.

I have a friend who has not had insurance in years. When her appendix burst, it was handled on an emergency basis. They took care of her. They didn’t worry about money until afterward.

When they learned she had no insurance, they got her to the finance people, and they basically paid for that surgery from their uninsured patients fund.

While they were taking pictures of her appendix before starting the surgery, another organ photo bombed the x-rays. The radiologist, with an abundance of caution, said it could be cancer, and she had to have it inspected.

That was another expensive procedure, as they had to take x-rays from the inside. Again, it cost her very little.

Years ago, I watched a show where a couple was trying to live as “poor folk”. The man got a job and the woman stayed at home, I think. She was prone to UTIs. She got a UTI. She knew it was a UTI.

Instead of scheduling an appointment to see a doctor or going to an urgent care clinic, they decided to go to the Emergency room.

They reported that it cost hundreds of dollars just to get antibiotics.

I’ve been there too. A friend without insurance got an infection. $100 at the urgent care clinic and they walked out with a bottle of antibiotics after the doctor reviewed her symptoms.

There are options. Make plans if you need to.

(It was a babble or pictures of ice and snow while telling Miguel that he should be happy he lives in the warm country)