Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts

Friday, April 05, 2013

Aargh!

Sometimes, I hate reading the news. Between President Obama's willingness to cut Social Security and Medicare, cuts "which would affect veterans, the poor and the older Americans," and the state of Tennessee's foolishness:

"A Tennessee bill that would cut welfare benefits of parents with children performing poorly in school cleared committees of both the House and Senate last week."

and

Twice a year, Tennessee holds a “health care lottery” that gives some hope to the uninsured residents in the state who can’t afford health coverage. Tennesseans who meet certain requirements — in addition to falling below a certain income threshold, they must be elderly, blind, disabled, or a caretaker of a child who qualifies for Medicaid — may call to request an application for the state’s public health insurance program, known as TennCare.

[snip]

State residents who have high medical bills but would not normally qualify for Medicaid, the government health care program for the poor, can call a state phone line and request an application. But the window is tight — the line shuts down after 2,500 calls, typically within an hour — and the demand is so high that it is difficult to get through. [...]

[snip]

If Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslan (R) opted to expand Medicaid under Obamacare, more than 180,000 people would be able to be added to the TennCare rolls by 2019... Haslan has not yet decided whether Tennessee will accept Obamacare’s optional expansion of the Medicaid program, although he has indicated that he may make his decision sometime this week [week of 25 March 2013].
I despair of our ever having a truly effective safety net.

Also, it must be nice to have the luxury of time to decide if 180,000 people who need healthcare can get it. Uh-oh, Governor, your privilege is showing!

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Slip, Slip, Slip

Today is already the last day of January. I am so tired, but it is not necessarily in an unpleasant way. But I am amazed sometimes by how time seems to slip, slip, slip by me. I want to throw up my hand, plead to catch my breath, rest for a minute.

We don't get that option. I am torn between one of my father's favorite sayings, "You can sleep when you die" and my desire just to be perfectly still for untold moments.

I don't know how to make peace between those two.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

The Continued Erosion of Reproductive Rights

From s. e. smith:

The attack on reproductive rights in the United States is likely to heat up in 2012, and we have an early entrant in the race to the bottom in the form of a court decision that went through on Friday, ordering the immediate enforcement of a mandatory sonogram law in Texas. More specifically:

The law, enacted in 2011, requires abortion providers to perform an ultrasound on pregnant women, show and describe the image to them, and play sounds of the fetal heartbeat. Though women can decline to view images or hear the heartbeat, they must listen to a description of the exam…unless she qualifies for an exception due to rape, incest or fetal abnormality.

This is not the first state with such a law and I fear it’s going to become a growing trend in the US, right along with dismembered fetus anti-abortion ads on television. The right wing is bent on making abortions as difficult to access as possible through every possible means, and that includes coercive, invasive, and unwanted interference from their medical providers. As spelled out under the law, this is yet another hoop in the series people with unwanted or dangerous pregnancies must jump through to get access to medical care, and it’s a humiliating and shaming one.

Says Texas Governor Rick Perry:

The Fifth Circuit’s decision requires abortion providers to immediately comply with the sonogram law, appropriately allowing Texas to enforce the will of our state, which values and protects the sanctity of life.
Texas "values and protects the sanctity of life," said, I am sure, without irony.

But... this is Texas, number one in the number of executions carried out in the last 35 years and the state where the legislature hoped, just last year, to gut education, health care, and social services.

I guess, however, with regards to a state in which lawmakers "slashed family planning funding by two-thirds," we should not be surprised at the continued erosion of reproductive rights.

Doesn't make it any less scary.

Thursday, August 05, 2010

No Place Safe

(Wrote this a month ago. Forgot that I didn't publish it here. Will give you some idea of my summer before I start writing more)

Today, I am on the bright side of the sickest period, physically, of my life. And days ago, while I lay on my bed, thinking I might be slowly dying, my darling father actually did. To say that I am not well is an understatement. My family and friends banded together to bring me back to the city to better care and I am feeling the effects.

The nausea no longer turns me inside out.

I no longer have to close my eyes while my best friend or my mom or my sister bathes me.

I can actually make tears and jokes and dear God, words.

But just now in this hospital, the sickness has rebounded in away. I feel assaulted, so shaken, so fucking tired that I can only do the one thing I feel that I know how sometimes--write.

The other day, long dark hours ago, when I couldn't speak and my mother was telling one of the aditting doctors that I was a professor, and of history no less, I should've felt the warning come of him, but Lord I was so ill. He said something like, "A-ha! Is she ready?"

He came back today. I was not ready. He pulled his chair up in the middle of this room where my mother and I sit now and began with the questions. What did I teach? Surely I realized the broad scope of my fall classes? Had there been black films made in a protest tradition? Could I find copies of them?

Did I get the Amazon suggestions he left at my bedside table the other night while I was vomiting--books I should read as a historian, he assured me. My mom asked had he been a history major. "No," he said imperiously, "I just read."

Because of course she doesn't.

And then came the heart of his argument. Could I understand the position of white people like him who respected black people who had seen real racism in the 1940s and 50s but now had to deal with the anger of black people for whom racism was rare, and mostly a memory?

A memory of resentment, I think he said. No black person born after 1970 has really encountered racism--well, maybe me from Louisiana, but here? Oh no. No, we want to preserve our racial preferences without acknowledging our racism. We too often assume racism.

As an example, he'd grown weary of his black friend who often wondered if poor service was a result of her race. Anyone could be served badly in a Texas city by the end of the 20th century.

And yes, he understood the feelings of (black) nurses' aids who cared for (white) patients who were subjected to racist abuse. BUT alzheimer's... delirium... old memories... and couldn't I understand that one of the greatet fears of old white women was thata black man would come do something to them into the night?

Also, when would I teach about the Palestinian-Israeli comflict? Wasn't Israel as guilty as South Africa? Step outside my comfort zone--it was as easy to teach about others as ourselves.

Finally, he prepared to leave after telling me I didn't talk enough for him. Me with the nausea and the phlegm and the cracked lips.

He doesn't see racism (or sexism I'm sure)

but he

came into my room

turned down the TV my mama was listening to

disregarded my recently delivered dinner

ignored my signs of discomfort and final outright silence

advised me on what to teach--though he never asked my specialties

gave me homework

had a history of dismissing black women's opinions and experiences

planned to challenge me and my authority from the moment he knew my title.

Before he re-situated his chair and left,

He said, "I feel better now."

My blood pressure when they just checked it?

149/104

and all I can do

is write.

Will this be my life?

ProfessorWomanofColor?

I don't want it right now.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Life, the Update

Thank you to everyone, here, on facebook, and via e-mail, who expressed concern, offered prayers, kind words, good vibes, etc. I have had a tumultuous two weeks, but everything else fades compared to concern for my dad.

Last Thursday, he had the lower portion of his left leg amputated. This time, the wound is healing just fine. They moved him today to a rehab that his doctors promise us is the best in the area. And of course, while I have all the "What can we do to facilitate his physical and emotional healing/get him through this?" sorts of questions, my sister had the practical ones. "Is the place clean? What's their health record like? Are the caretakers kind? What should we do about having a ramp built at home?" I'm smiling as I think of it.

Everything else is coming along. The car probably only needs a radiator. The conference is over and I didn't suck. My grad class dropped to six, but is back at seven, so it might hold. The baby shower turned out nicely. I finished my survey syllabus (wasn't stressing initially cuz I teach it every semester, but condensing fifteen weeks to five? Gulp!). I still have some worries, but am feeling a bit better.

I wish I could hug all of you back and cook dinner for you.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

A New Meme: Please Get One

ETA please see Nezua's post at The Sanctuary

I'm preparing to be whipped into a frenzy about the breakout of a mutated strain of swine flu. What I wasn't prepared for was how quickly the "blame the dirty, diseased immigrants" meme would take hold. This, despite the facts that 1)the source of the outbreak could be a CAFO in Mexico owned by our very own Smithfield Farms and 2)"the US was already looking into cases within our own currently designated borders," as noted by Nezua.

But those facts mean nothing to more rabid right-wingers. From Media Matters:
During the April 24 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage stated: "Make no mistake about it: Illegal aliens are the carriers of the new strain of human-swine avian flu from Mexico."*

[snip]

"[C]ould this be a terrorist attack through Mexico? Could our dear friends in the radical Islamic countries have concocted this virus..."

[snip]

"How do you protect yourself? What can you do? I'll tell you what I'm going to do, and I don't give a damn if you don't like what I'm going to say. I'm going to have no contact anywhere with an illegal alien, and that starts in the restaurants."

During the April 27 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Neal Boortz asked: "[W]hat better way to sneak a virus into this country than give it to Mexicans? Right? I mean, one out of every 10 people born in Mexico is already living up here, and the rest are trying to get here... ."

In an April 25 blog post... syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin suggested that the outbreak was due to the United States' "uncontrolled immigration... 9/11 didn't convince the open-borders zealots to put down their race cards and confront reality. Maybe the threat of their sons or daughters contracting a deadly virus spread from south of the border to their Manhattan prep schools* will."
"Mexican@s & Latinos already had a hell of a time w/all the hate," Nezua wrote on Twitter.** This flu outbreak gives right wing pundits an opportunity to ramp it up.

Early signs of what the outcome could be? Already, this flu is being framed as "more of one or another kind of Mexicanicky “spillover.” At Vivir Latino, Maegan suggested that, "swine flu is the new racial profiling," pointing to this summary of Homeland Security Secreatary Napolitano's instructions:
Secretary Janet Napolitano also said border agents have been directed to begin passive surveillance of travelers from affected countries, with instructions to isolate anyone who appears actively ill with suspected influenza.
Then there is the story of Israeli Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman's suggestion that the flue be renamed the "Mexican Flu." The CDC has advised against non-essential travel to Mexico--and while I can understand how that might be practical, I cannot help thinking how this advisory will be perceived in a country where Mexico is constructed as hopeless, corrupt, and inadequate.

Reading Maegan's and Nez's tweets on this made me reflect on the long history within the U.S. of categorizing "undesirable" immigrants as dirty and diseased. They were undesirable, of course, because of their racial/ethnic, linguistic, cultural, and religious differences from the WASP-y mainstream. In the 19th century, much of the anti-immigrant sentiment focused on the Irish and Asians (particularly the Chinese); in the early 20th century, "undesirable" expanded to include the "new" immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, the disabled, and most Asians.

Part of characterizing these immigrants as undesirable was claiming, in no uncertain terms, that they represented a danger to Americans and the "American way of life." For example, here is George Frederick Keller's (in)famous depiction of what the Statue of Liberty's counterpart in San Francisco Bay might look like:



And I borrowed this from here a while ago to show my students:



A few years ago, I wrote briefly about some works that talk about the old "immigrants carry filth and disease" meme:
American citizens tend to impose their own standards of housekeeping and "cleanliness" on immigrants and judge them deficient. Nayan Shah, for example, posits that Americans considered San Francisco’s Chinatown dirty, overcrowded, and unacceptable. From there, Chinese were cast as health hazards, rife with disease and in need of police and medical supervision. Taking this cue, some African Americans in San Francisco complained that, “on the streets of the Chinese section of town… one could find filth actually personified and the stench which arises and penetrates the olfactory nerves is something perfectly horrible.”

Mexican immigrants, too, became a perceived threat to American health and hygiene. According to Howard Markel and Alexandra Minna, the porosity of the border worried U.S. health officials in the early twentieth century. In response to a typhus epidemic in Mexico’s interior in 1915, the U.S. Public Health Service quarantined Mexican immigrants and treated them as if they were “vermin-infested.” Along the border, Mexican immigrants were subjected to invasive, humiliating examinations before they were "certified" disease free. That quarantine extended until the late 1930s, long after the epidemic had passed, a testament to the American perception of Mexicans as infectious germ carriers.***
And now, the "new" immigrants of the 21st century--so labeled because they came largely after 1965 and because, more recently, they are traveling to new settlement areas****--are facing the same attacks. Of course, part of the reason is that they share the label of "undesirable" that I defined above. This is a distinction that, as Liss convincincly argues, is becoming synonymous with "immigrant":
In between the disparate uses and meanings of "immigrant" and "ex-pat" (expatriate) falls everything that underlines the racism, classism, and xenophobia of the immigration debate in America.

White, (relatively) wealthy, and English-speaking immigrants are ex-pats, with intramural rugby leagues and dues-drawing pub clubs and summer festivals set to the distant trill of bagpipes.

Non-white, poor, and non-natively English-speaking immigrants are just immigrants.

Ex-pats are presumed to have come to America after a revelation that their countries, in which any white person would be happy to live, are nonetheless not as good as America.

Immigrants are presumed to have come to America because their countries are shit-holes.

Ex-pats are romantic and adventurous, with wonderful accents and charming slang.

Immigrants are dirty and desperate, with the nefarious intent of getting their stupid language on all our signs.
John Higham posited that nativism ebbs and flows, and we seem to be at a high period (and seem to have been frozen here for well over a decade). Given that, the fact that anti-immigrant sentiment tends to rise during periods of economic hardship, and the long-standing practice of associating certain immigrants with germs and disease, I don't expect the right-wing attacks to stop.

That doesn't make them any less disturbing, however.

(cross-posted)

Many thanks to Nezua, Maegan, and Liss, for pointing me to links and for their own words which helped me work through my thoughts.

h/t
Jill and The America's Voice Blog, whose posts I also consulted.
_____________________________________
*According to Media Matters, "Officials think they [some NYC high school students] started getting sick after some students returned from the spring break trip to Cancun." Thus the disease was brought to NY by returning tourists, not immigrants.

**Deeky expands on that sentiment here.

***Discussed works:
Nayan Shah, Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco’s Chinatown (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001).

Arnold Shankman, “Black on Yellow: Afro-Americans View Chinese Americans 1850-1935,” Phylon 39, no. 1 (1978): 3.

Howard Markel and Alexandra Minna Stern, “The Foreignness of Germs: The Persistent Association of Immigrants and Disease in American Society,” The Millbank Quarterly 80, no. 4 (2002): 765.

Similar characterizations were made of Slovak immigrants, M. Mark Stolarik, “From Field to Factory: the Historiography of Slovak Immigration to the United States,” International Migration Review 10, no. 1 (1976): 96-97.

****Most of my knowledge of new settlement areas comes from my work studying the poultry processing industry, so I'll point you to the works of
William Kandel, Emilio Parrado, and Leon Fink.

Monday, March 02, 2009

The Other Louisiana

Some time ago, I asked what Louisiana does Senator David Vitter, who opposed the S-Chip reauthorization in 2007, live in.

After Bobby Jindal's speech and his rejection of some of the stimulus funds, I have to ask the same of him.

I am really at the point where I can't utter much more than, "How dare his ruthlessly ambitious, selfish, trying-to-score-a-political point ass do that?"

From my micro-viewpoint of the north-central/northeastern portion of the state, I'd just like to point out people in Louisiana are suffering. There have already been budget cuts and guess where those disproportionately occur?

Higher (public) education and health care. This is a result of politics as usual in Louisiana:
Over the years, lawmakers have locked more than half the state's income into specific programs -- everything from elementary and secondary education dollars to wildlife and fisheries funds -- making the money largely protected from budget cuts. When the state faces a deficit, the governor and lawmakers have little discretion to cut those shielded programs.

That situation leaves Louisiana's public colleges and health care programs to take the largest hit in tight budget years. They are the two largest areas of unprotected spending.

[snip]

Higher education and health care could lose more than $380 million each in budget cuts next year because the state is expected to bring in $1.2 billion less in state general fund revenue in the fiscal year that begins July 1.
If you look at that Vitter post you can see some of the dismal statistics re: health care (and access to it) in Louisiana. But here is a summary from LPB's Louisiana Public Square January "Backgrounder" entitled "Guarded Condition: Healthcare in Louisiana":
Louisiana is one state away from leading the nation in:

- Infant mortality, with an average of 10 infant deaths per 1000 live births;

- Cancer deaths, which kill 223 out of every 100,000 Louisianans; and

- Premature death, where poor preventive care practices annually kill 11,000 of our citizens before their time.

Health outcomes like these have placed the state either 49th or 50th in the United Health Foundation’s national health rankings for the last 17 years.
Medicaid and CHIP are (again) underfunded in Louisiana. According to FamiliesUSA, that has translated into a reduction in the number of monthly prescriptions covered by Medicaid for most adults, "delayed implementation of programs that provide services to certain seniors and people with disabilities," and "reducing how much providers who participate in the programs are paid for their services."

As if it is not already difficult enough to find providers willing to accept Medicaid.*

On the education side, Louisiana's public universities have already had $55 million trimmed from their budgets.

What that means in my North-Central Louisiana home area is this:

Louisiana Tech has had to lay off 30 employees and had $2.65 million cut from its budget.

UL-M has frozen hiring and had $2.38 million cut from its budget.

Grambling has had $1.33 million cut from its budget.

Friday, I talked to a colleague at LA Tech who asked me about going to the Organization of American Historians' Conference at the end of this month. Someone from his department was going to go, he said, but then travel funds were frozen. I read somewhere that such is the case on many campuses. And adjuncts, already in a tenuous position, are being fired.

The University of Louisiana System could have as much as $116 million cut from its budget next year. That particular scenario:
would result in the loss of approximately 60 academic programs, 1,500 jobs, 3,000 furloughed employees and a possible drop in enrollment of 12,000 students.
The technical colleges are hurting, too. As noted on the Louisiana Community and Technical College System website
LCTCS institutions have the lowest tuition rates throughout the state per full-time equivalent student, and are the most reliant on state funding. Therefore, across the board cuts have a far greater impact on our ability to serve students.
The restrictions are not enough for some Louisiana lawmakers, though, who actually want to see some of the schools close.

Gotta love our priorities.

Lower levels of education are affected too, of course. mrs. o's high school is probably closing in May, after a bitter, protracted fight. She and I both find it ironic that one of the selling points of closing the school and combining it with the larger high school in the parish seat is the availibility of the dual enrollment program at the local technical college. Budget cuts means there is a lack of funding for the program!

The summer program that I usually work, funded by the Louisiana Department of Education, is cut. I'm not sure if its school year existence (when it is held as an after-school program) is in jeopardy or not.

And then, late last week came the news that Pilgrim's Pride plants in Farmerville and El Dorado are closing. The direct impacts of the loss of the Farmerville plant in North Louisiana, according to that article, are 1,300 in-plant jobs gone by summer and 290 contract growers (and my God, their situation merits a posting of its own) in limbo. I'm not sure the article took into account the Louisianans who cross the state line to work in Arkansas. I've already written about how earlier reductions hurt the region. This will be devastating. As mrs. o told me Friday night, by summer, neither she nor her husband will have a job.

This is the context in which Bobby Jindal takes it upon himself to turn down money. And that speech he gave--I'll be honest and say that I focused, horrorstruck, on that image he tried to paint of Louisiana as "regenerated" in the aftermath of Katrina.

A Louisiana to which many people can't come home (not that they're wanted to come back, of course) because of lack of housing** and health*** and social services.

A Louisiana (particularly New Orleans) in which he admits to abandoning the public school system brags about "opening dozens of new charter schools, and creating a new scholarship program that is giving parents the chance to send their children to private or parochial schools of their choice."

A Louisiana in which state agencies still report delays, loss, and confusion as a result of the 2005 hurricanes. My own experience has reflected this. Just one example: in September 2007, I sent my son's birth certificate to the Louisiana Vital Records Registry for a change. In April of 2008, I called them. The alteration had just been assigned to someone in February, an employee told. She specifically connected the backlog to Katrina. In June, I received a letter requesting that I send in a new check as the previous one was "outdated." I said forget it and went to a local health unit and paid for another copy. I have never received the original back.****

Many Louisianans are poorly educated, in poor health, have little economic opportunity, and little job security. The fact that Jindal can stand there with his fake grin, crafting tales, and declaring "Americans can do anything" while marginalized Louisianans, ill-equipped to withstand the realities of this recession, are hurting, is disturbing. He's keeping his eye on the big picture, though, right? Too bad for the residents of a little state whose realities are getting in the way of the story he wants to be able to tell.
______________________________________________
*One of the things that strikes me most about the "Oh, no, universal health care is a socialist evil!!!" arguments is the one that says people might have to wait long periods for health care. Not desirable, but totally based upon the experiences of a certain class. Poor people already wait long periods and the health care they receive is often inadequate. The waiting times at "charity" hospitals (I am most familiar with the LSU hospitals in Monroe and Shreveport and the stories of Ben Taub in Houston) are unbelievable. People sit for hours and hours in ER waiting rooms. Getting in for routine, preventative care at the LSU Hospitals or the Parish Health Units often requires trying to schedule months (even a year) in advance. But as long as it's poor people waiting...

**Click through that whole presentation!

*** Though the shortage of healthcare providers is not nearly as acute as it was as late as 2007, there are still issues surrounding access to healthcare.

**** The other major issues for me, as a historian, have been research related.


Monday, December 29, 2008

Support The New Orleans Women's Health Clinic!

I'm going to put a section of the e-mail here with pertinent details about donating, but the text of the entire e-mail is below the fold.
Please help the New Orleans Women’s Health & Justice Initiative (WHJI) and the New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic (NOWHC) to continue prioritizing the needs, experiences, and leadership of women of color and low-income women in the region. We ask for a donation that will:

* Expand the Clinic’s ability to continue to support and subsidize the cost of care and medication for uninsured women who access services at our Clinic through our Women’s Health Access Fund.

* Build the Clinic’s Sexual Health Youth Advocacy Institute – focusing on comprehensive sex education, sexual violence prevention, sexuality, and STI education, and HIV prevention justice advocacy

* Open the WHJI Women of Color Resource & Organizing Center to serve as a resource and organizing hub to end violence against of women of color and gender variant members of our community

* Develop our joint Action Kits and Toolkits, including informational pamphlets, posters, and fact sheets on safe forms of birth control, STIs, breast health, fibroids, environmental toxicants & reproductive health, gender violence prevention, alternative health and healing remedies

We are asking you to further our work this holiday season by giving a gift of justice.

A Gift of $50

* Subsidizes a well-woman annual exam, including a pap smear, to an uninsured low-income woman
* Funds the expansion of the WHJI Women of Color Lending Library

A Gift of $100

* Subsidizes the lab cost of uninsured patients at the Clinic, and
* Develops WHJI sexual and reproductive justice organizing tools and materials

A Gift of $250

* Supports the involvement of youth in the Clinic’s Sexual Health Youth Advocacy Institute
* Contributes to the planning, coordination, and convening of WHJI Organizing Institutes

A Gift of $500

* Bolsters the Clinic’s Women’s Health Access Fund
* Supports the opening of the Initiative’s Women of Color Resource & Organizing Center

A Gift of $1000

* Supports the salary of a full-time paid executive director and medical staff for NOWHC
* Strengthens the long-term sustainability of the Clinic’s ability to provide safe, affordable, non-coercive holistic sexual and reproductive health services and information

Financial contributions should be made out to our fiscal sponsor: Women With A Vision, with NOWHC and WHJI listed in the memo line. All contributions will be split evenly between NOWHC and WHJI, so your donation will support the work of both organizations. Checks should be mailed to the:

New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic
1406 Esplanade Ave.
New Orleans, LA 70116

Your gift is tax-deductible and you will receive an acknowledgement letter with the Women With A Vision Nonprofit EIN#
.


Full text of the e-mail:
December 2008

Dear Friends and Supporters,

With 2009 rapidly approaching, the New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic (NOWHC) and the New Orleans Women’s Health & Justice Initiative (WHJI) would like to wish you and yours a happy and healthy holiday season, and thank you for all of your support this past year. Thank you.

As NOWHC and WHJI continue to work together to equip marginalized and underserved women with the means to control and care for their own bodies, sexuality, reproduction, and health, while developing community-based strategies to improve the social and economic health and well-being of women of color and low-income women, we ask you to support the ongoing efforts of our organizations by making a donation this holiday season. This appeal presents accomplishments of both of our organizations for your giving consideration.

New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic
The women we serve at NOWHC are the women we stand with, the women we are – women of color and low-income women most affected by disasters (natural and economic), women whose bodies are blamed and used as decoys for systemic injustices. We recognize that the New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic cannot simply end at addressing immediate needs through services delivery. NOWHC works to integrate reproductive justice organizing and health education advocacy into our clinic to address root causes of health disparities and sexual and reproductive oppression. Our programming acknowledges intersectionality and addresses the social and economic determinants of health disparities, while challenging punitive policies around social welfare, housing, and reproductive health.

With the support of hundreds of donors like you, in just 19 months, NOWHC provided safe and affordable comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care services and information to 3,040 women from throughout the Greater New Orleans Metropolitan area as follows:

* 618 unduplicated women accessed direct medical services, 432 of which had repeat visits
* 820 additional women accessed health information and counseling services.
* Approximately 1600 referrals for service were provided over the last 5 months.
* Subsidized the cost of direct medical services for hundreds of women through the Women’s Health Access Fund
* Partnered with the B.W. Cooper Housing Development Resident Management Corporation, enabling NOWHC to advocate and organize directly in the communities where many of our constituents live.
* Launched a Sexual Health Youth Advocacy program, focusing on comprehensive sex education, sexual violence prevention, sexuality and gender identity, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) education including HIV prevention justice advocacy

The women accessing and utilizing services at the clinic and the need for safe and holistic sexual and reproductive health services and resources, paint a portrait of the unique vulnerabilities that women of color, low income, and uninsured women face in accessing health care. Take for example, the demographics of our clinic patients:

* 65% of our patients who access care at the Clinic lacked health insurance. Without our support, most of these women would have gone months or even years without receiving safe, affordable, and unbiased care.
* 72% reported annual incomes of less than $24,999 –nearly 40% earned less than $10,000 a year
* 60% identifies as Black/African-American, and nearly 20% identifies as Latina/Hispanic – many of whom are undocumented. The Clinic provides a safe space to alleviate this fear of deportation for many undocumented women.
* 70% identified their housing status as ‘renting’ and
* 84% were between the ages of 18 to 40 years of age

With your continual support, NOWHC can expand our integrated approach by improving the sexual and reproductive health of low-income and underserved women and their families.

Women’s Health & Justice Initiative
Much of the work of the clinic is done in concert with our sister collective, WHJI. WHJI impacts the reproductive and sexual health lives of women of color and low-income women, by mobilizing our communities to engage in racial, gender, and reproductive justice activism that challenges the legislation and criminalization of women of color and poor women’s bodies, sexuality, fertility, and motherhood. As a predominately all volunteer collective, WHJI has:

* Launched organizing efforts to establish a Women of Color Resource & Organizing Center, to serve as a resource and organizing hub to nurture grassroots organizing and activism to end violence against women of color, linking struggles against the violence of poverty, incarceration, environmental racism, housing discrimination, economic exploitation, medical experimentation, and forced sterilization. The Center will house a Radical Women of Color Lending Library, a cluster of computers for community access, meeting space, and a host of movement building and leadership development programs and resources.

* Sponsored a series of Organizing Institutes, focused on examining and challenging gender and sexuality-based violence against women of color and queer and trans people of color. The Organizing Institutes have both facilitated community building conversations between grassroots social justice organizers and health practitioners, and created a space for developing grassroots strategies to equip those most disenfranchised by the medical industry in exercising their agency to take control of the their bodies, reproduction, and sexuality, while organizing for racial, gender, and reproductive justice.

NOWHC and WHJI COLLABORATIVE WORK

* Led a coordinated effort to respond to the particular vulnerabilities of women of color, low income women, and women headed households (including women with disabilities, seniors, undocumented immigrant women, and incarcerated women.) We made over 700 calls, assisting our constituency and their families develop and implement evacuation and safety plans as communities across the Gulf Coast region prepared for Hurricane Gustav. Ironically, this occurred on the eve of the 3 year anniversary of the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and subsequent government negligence.

* Immediately following Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, WHJI and NOWHC took the lead in responding to the eugenic and racist legislative plans of Representative John LaBruzzo (R) of Louisiana to pay poor women $1,000 to get sterilized under the cloak of reducing the number of people on welfare and those utilizing public housing subsidies. Our organizational responses to Representative LaBruzzo’s eugenic agenda, and the outcry of social justice organizations and community members around the country, resulted in LaBruzzo being removed from his position as vice chairman of the House Health & Welfare Committee.

Please help WHJI and NOWHC to continue prioritizing the needs, experiences, and leadership of women of color and low-income women in the region. We ask for a donation that will:

* Expand the Clinic’s ability to continue to support and subsidize the cost of care and medication for uninsured women who access services at our Clinic through our Women’s Health Access Fund.

* Build the Clinic’s Sexual Health Youth Advocacy Institute – focusing on comprehensive sex education, sexual violence prevention, sexuality, and STI education, and HIV prevention justice advocacy

* Open the WHJI Women of Color Resource & Organizing Center to serve as a resource and organizing hub to end violence against of women of color and gender variant members of our community

* Develop our joint Action Kits and Toolkits, including informational pamphlets, posters, and fact sheets on safe forms of birth control, STIs, breast health, fibroids, environmental toxicants & reproductive health, gender violence prevention, alternative health and healing remedies

We are asking you to further our work this holiday season by giving a gift of justice.

A Gift of $50
* Subsidizes a well-woman annual exam, including a pap smear, to an uninsured low-income woman
* Funds the expansion of the WHJI Women of Color Lending Library

A Gift of $100
* Subsidizes the lab cost of uninsured patients at the Clinic, and
* Develops WHJI sexual and reproductive justice organizing tools and materials

A Gift of $250
* Supports the involvement of youth in the Clinic’s Sexual Health Youth Advocacy Institute
* Contributes to the planning, coordination, and convening of WHJI Organizing Institutes

A Gift of $500
* Bolsters the Clinic’s Women’s Health Access Fund
* Supports the opening of the Initiative’s Women of Color Resource & Organizing Center

A Gift of $1000
* Supports the salary of a full-time paid executive director and medical staff for NOWHC
* Strengthens the long-term sustainability of the Clinic’s ability to provide safe, affordable, non-coercive holistic sexual and reproductive health services and information

Financial contributions should be made out to our fiscal sponsor: Women With A Vision, with NOWHC and WHJI listed in the memo line. All contributions will be split evenly between NOWHC and WHJI, so your donation will support the work of both organizations. Checks should be mailed to the:

New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic
1406 Esplanade Ave.
New Orleans, LA 70116

Your gift is tax-deductible and you will receive an acknowledgement letter with the Women With A Vision Nonprofit EIN#.

The New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic and the Women’s Health & Justice Initiative warmly thank our network of donors and volunteers for your continued generous support. Please support this essential work with the most generous donation you can give. Our ability to provide needed services, maintain autonomy and organize to build power and a healthy community is made possible through the support of individuals and organizations in our community and nationwide.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic Board of Directors
Women’s Health & Justice Initiative Collective

Friday, August 22, 2008

Survival Topics for the Uninsured

Copied with permission from Cure This. This is Part 1 and contains Topics 1-6 (of 10).
Topic #1: Stuff happens. Think ahead.
Find the time to learn about the medical, social, and monetary resources available in your area in case you have a major medical disaster. I discovered how difficult it can be to find help and information in a hurry. If you can, build up an emergency fund. It's easy to put off, but this sort of planning is as important to your family's welfare as any other crisis preparedness.

Moving has special challenges in this regard. When relocating, consider support systems and resources the same way you consider crime and cost of living. If you don't do this ahead of time, you should do this right after you arrive at your new place. Find and make appointments with new doctors ASAP, even if you have to pay for the visits. You need to establish relationships with them. Line up reliable baby-sitters. Look for ways to build strong ties to your new community. This might include investigating public programs, which vary drastically from state to state. Make new friends quickly by joining a church, club, or PTA. Don't count on friends from work. Unfortunately, those associations can dry up overnight if you lose your job.

This might all sound obvious, but I know from experience that the pressures and pleasures of a new city, new schools, and new jobs leave little time for anything else. If you are unprepared and disaster strikes, you may have to decide - like I did - if it would be best to stay put or to head back to your hometown.


Topic # 2: Meet Hill-Burton

Familiarize yourself with the Hill-Burton Act, a federal program started in 1946. With Hill-Burton, hospitals receive federal loans and grants in exchange for providing a certain amount of free care to needy individuals. I found out that not all hospitals participate in the Hill-Burton Act. Each hospital seems to have its own rules within the federal guidelines for eligibility, benefits, applications, and decision notifications.

For example, my husband's hospital paid 100% of the cost of care for qualified persons, and rendered their decision before admission or treatment. My hospital provides a percentage of the cost for qualified persons on a sliding scale, but does not make a decision until after an admission or procedure has been completed. Both of those facilities will also consider Hill-Burton funds for out-patient care and insurance co-payments, but apparently not all do.

Also, at some hospitals, it's far better to try for assistance earlier in the year before funds run out, while others may dole out free care monthly or quarterly. It pays to ask. If your admission is urgent, you might call other hospitals where your physician is on staff to check on the availability of funds. If it's not an emergency, you might be able to postpone it until the next disbursement period.

Topic #3: Pay Less for Prescriptions

Ask doctors if they have drug samples, especially for new prescriptions. It is awful to buy a month's worth of an expensive drug only to find it doesn't work or you can't tolerate it. Often, my doctors prescribe my meds based on what they know they get samples of regularly.

Look into pharmaceutical manufacturers' patient assistance programs. You can try the widely-advertised Partnership for Prescription Assistance website. However, my experience has been that PPARX underestimates a person's eligibility. Also, not all drug makers participate in PPARX. I have had much greater success going directly to the website of each individual company. You might have to search hard for the link to the patient assistance program or you might need to call. Not every maker has a program and programs vary wildly in requirements and benefits. You'll often find coupons instead of or in addition to assistance programs. Programs all require your doctors to fill out forms regularly. Ask your doctor to forgo some or all of the fees for this service.

(Pennsylvania has two programs called PACE and PACENET. These helpful programs benefit older residents, but your state may have similar ones. Although the age requirements presume you are eligible for Medicare, what's special about them is that they supplement or replace Part D for low income individuals. This might be helpful for future reference.)

As I have never actually used any of these options, I'll just mention them. Consider alternative medicine. It may be better and/or less expensive. However, this is a subject about which I know nothing. Mail order prescriptions are widely available via the Internet and could be worth exploring. I am aware that many people acquire their prescriptions by traveling to or ordering from Canada and Mexico. I wish I could comment on the quality of those drugs and the legality of this option.

Nowadays, Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Target, and numerous grocery chains such as Krogers, Giant, Food Lion, and Safeway offer $4 prescriptions for generic drugs and other great deals. There may be other stores with similar bargains. Some of these companies have their $4 lists posted online. Ask your doctor to prescribe from these lists if possible. Ask your doctor or pharmacist if they have or know of any coupons for the medications you have been prescribed. Request generics where available.

Beyond that, prescription prices differ significantly from store to store and from week to week. With a monthly cost of $1200 to $1800, I could never afford to get a full month's worth of prescriptions all at once for my husband. Pharmacists are generally willing to fill partial prescriptions, by be aware that you may pay dearly for this.

For example, one of my husband's drugs was $350 for a month's worth, $250 for two week's worth, and $150 for one week's worth. Sometimes, I could only afford one or two pills before payday. Every single week, I called every single local drugstore and got prices for every single drug my husband took. I always had to go to at least three pharmacies to get the best overall price. Some pharmacists were nice about this and others weren't. Eventually, the owner of one small pharmacy said he would match the lowest price being given anywhere else. I still had to make the calls, but I sure did save time and gas money.

Topic #4: Save on OTC Drugs

There isn't much new I can tell you about OTC drugs. Shop sales, use coupons, look for stores that double coupons, buy in bulk and share with others, and try store brands. If you have prescription coverage, ask your doctor to write a script for OTC drugs whenever possible.

Topic #5: More-Affordable Medical Devices

Check with friends and family. Of course, try want ads, CraigsList, and FreeCycle. That's where I have seen $100 hospital-style bedside tables for $5 and free non-motorized wheelchairs. Put up ads at the supermarket. Contact the hospitals, churches, and local organizations. Watch for estate sales. Look for places that sell used durable medical equipment. You can sometimes rent this kind of equipment, but that is often the most expensive route in the long run. Ask at the doctor's office, at work, and at even your child's school. Most makers offer at least one of their glucometers at no cost. Just be sure to check the price of the testing strips before you order one. They vary widely.

Where I live, it is against the law and it carries a stiff fine to put used syringes and lancets in with the regular trash. My trash collection company charges a fortune to take them away. I discovered that the local hospital has a program to collect these items. They must be in safe containers, like coffee cans with lids, and be clearly marked with the person's name and phone number. It must also be noted on the containers that they hold hazardous medical waste.

We bought my mother's stair lift gently used for $2000 (including installation) at a company that sells them. After she died, we sold it there for the same price (including removal) minus a small commission. The one she had would have been about $6000 new. I got my husband's hospital bed for only $25 through a lead from the local veteran's center. A family member found us a free wheelchair through a former co-worker of hers. After my husband died, I called the school nurse. She happened to know of a child who was in desperate need of a hospital bed and wheelchair. I donated those to him. Various organizations like the Lions offer assistance with glasses and hearing aids. LensCrafters has a campaign during which they provide eye exams and new glasses to the needy at no charge.

Topic #6: If you think you're dealing with serious and/or long-term illness

Start a journal immediately and keep it with you. Record emergency phone numbers; names of doctors and hospitals; symptoms and diagnoses; allergies; treatments, doctor visits, and hospitalizations (dates, locations, outcome); prescriptions (names, doses, dates filled, efficacy, side effects, interactions, warnings, prices at different sources); phone calls (contacts, dates, reasons, outcome, follow-up); "significant events" like accidents, strokes, heart attacks, seizures, 911 calls (dates, treatments, where treated, outcome); programs (contacts, application date, outcome, follow-up); notes and anything else pertinent. Keep copies of medical reports and aid applications. You will refer to this journal over and over again.

I condensed the emergency and medical information into a spreadsheet and kept a copy in my purse, my husband's wallet, and on my refrigerator. Doctors, ER staff, and EMTs were thrilled when I was able to present this and I know it expedited my husband's treatment. Now I utilize the Vial of Life. This is a large pill container with a rolled-up paper inside listing all pertinent information. It comes with a bright sticker to affix to your front door that notifies emergency personnel where to find it. It also has Velcro on the outside so you can stick it anywhere. Some people keep it in their refrigerator. I have three, which is not uncommon - one in my purse, one in my glove box, and one on the outside of my fridge. I got mine free at the front desk of my hospital. There are several other similar products available.

Begin saving every medical-related invoice, cancelled check, and receipt in an organized manner, including for OTC drugs and parking/gas or bus/taxi fares for doctor/hospital visits. This may become vital when applying for programs, declaring bankruptcy, doing your taxes, and other circumstances. For example, my son was given better terms on his student loans because of our situation. Some students receive additional grants or tuition reduction. To get this benefit, though, I had to submit copies of everything I listed above to the financial aid department of his university - in a very large box.

Apply for Social Security Disability right away if it seems that the patient will not be able to return to work. Even the Social Security Office recommends this because there is a six-month waiting period for benefits once you have been determined to be disabled. You can always withdraw your application if things improve.

Cut back as much as possible on your expenses. Even with a great deal of help, without insurance, you will probably accumulate massive debt. You are likely to miss work or even lose your job. Use the money you save to pre-pay utilities and your mortgage (be careful - check with your mortgage company about the way to do this that is most advantageous to you), to build up your pantry, and to cover medical needs. Be aware that if you simply bank your savings that it may hurt you when you apply for help.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Oh, No, the Na-Na!

I've been thinking about my relationship with certain parts of my body. Started with worries over my hair and went from there. Somewhere along this as-yet-unfinished continuum, I began to think about how my vagina* has become this thing that's a part of me, but not. I think it's because, for my whole life, it has been defined as a problem area.

The primary descriptions I got for my vagina as a child were 1) It needs constant tending and 2) It gets you into trouble. When I first began hearing people say that the vaginal area was delicate, I was amazed. My mother and grandmothers taught us that the goal of vaginal cleaning was to erase any scent and to prevent it from coming back for as long as possible. I can't tell you how offensive vaginal odors were deemed; I can tell you that we would've been in trouble had we ignored the extensive hygiene routine. We were taught that our vaginas were smelly and could cause great embarrassment.

So, we did not treat our genitalia delicately. We repeatedly scrubbed with gold Dial until it passed a finger test. My grandmother added brown lysol to our bath water, my mom added bleach. I grew up seeing douches and Norforms in our medicine cabinet and linen closet. We marvelled at the cleanliness of my mom's cousn who mixed a little bleach in her douche. When we were a litle older, my mom suggested we wash with vinegar, which created an even more intensive routine--lather up with the Dial a couple of times, rinse, wash with vinegar, rinse, lather with Dial again to remove vinegar scent. We took two full baths a day and sometimes washed our vaginas in between.

And then there were the dreaded periods. Menstrual blood was nasty, funky, and mandated even more washing. I have a friend whose stepfather required that she and her mom bleach the tub after they bathed when they were menstruating. For us, period days were three bath days--before school, after school, at night, with plenty complaining about how we hated our periods and our vaginas in between.

By the time I was 17, I was douching, spraying FDS, and constantly bathing. I'd also learned to be wary of my vagina because it was a source of trouble in a sexual sense. I was never taught pleasant things about sex, only that my vagina was a pathway for STIs and for pregnancy. To say that I had a complex about sex is an understatement. I entered my 20s worried that I was going to be "punished" with an incurable STI because I was having sex. Oh, I would've never acknowledged that--I knew that was an ignorant, offensive, untrue deduction, but there it was. That didn't just come from my Baptist background--there's only so many times you can go to a public health unit with nurses whose primary concern is stopping you from having sex. Being told to use condoms so "He doesn't shoot you up a load of AIDS"** and repeatedly seeing the pictures of sexual organs with various bumps, sores, and swellings are pretty efficient scare tactics.

Couple the vagina = road-to-trouble with the vagina = smelly training and you get the makings of a sexual dysfunction--how can you enjoy sex when you're sure death lingers around the corner or you don't want your partner to perform oral sex because their nose will be "right there" or you can't have it spontaneously because you don't have sex except straight from the shower? And the "sex bath" is even more intensive than the regular one.

So my life consisted of fear-imposed bouts of celibacy, constant check-ups and testing, and unhealthy cleaning practices.

And then, for my mental and physical well-being, I had to stop. Stop most of the incessant cleaning because my body was rebelling. Stop the fear, because I learned enough and grew enough to reject the "STI = horrible punishment for bad girl."

But I still haven't accepted my vagina as a delicate-but-strong, precious part of me. I haven't fully given up my hygiene routine. I am, at best, ambivalent about sex because I hate worrying about whether or not everything is "just right."

I'm angry, because none of the guys I know were ever given these kinds of lessons about their genitalia. I'm angry because I've been taught to despise such a "womanly" part of myself. And I'm angry at myself because, while I realize this is yet another way women are shamed and taught to feel deficient, I just can't let it all go.
_____________________________________________
*I am using "vagina" as an all-encompassing term.
**Yes, a nurse really told my 19-year-old self that. I will never forget that
.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

The U.S. Healthcare System, Embodied

To be poor, ill, and without insurance in the United States is an absolutely horrible place to be. You can fall out and die on the floor of a hospital and no one will give a damn.

There is video.

I emphasize poverty, illness, and lack of insurance because I believe these three factors give many healthcare "professionals" license to mistreat anyone. But I don't believe it is coincidence that this woman and Edith Rodriguez are women of color. To quote the title of this article, the American health care system is failing women of color.

Monday, March 24, 2008

UNC-Chapel Hill: Obesity May Keep Some Women from Getting Screened for Breast, Cervical Cancer

From Newswise:
A review of cancer screening studies shows that white women who are obese are less likely than healthy weight women to get the recommended screenings for breast and cervical cancer, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Public Health.

The trend was not seen as consistently among black women; however there were fewer high quality studies that examined black women separately.
Let's, for a moment, ignore the disappearing of women who are not black or white and the curious "healthy weight women" remark, shall we? Within this study, women who are labeled obese are less likely to get pap smears and mammograms. When asked why, Sarah S. Cohen, lead author of the article, replied, "Our review doesn’t tell us why larger women are not getting screened as frequently for these cancers. It only reveals the trend."

I'd like to offer a couple of suggestions. Maybe it's because doctors make us feel similar to the little things that crawl out when you turn a rock over? (Until you get the stern "Shame on you, fat girl, you might die tomorrow!" lecture, you haven't experienced a doctor's visit!). Maybe because we're taught to hate our bodies and the idea of getting naked in front of anyone is terrifying? Maybe, deep down, given the fact that we're taught fat is bad from, oh, say, the womb, we might believe being ill is our just due for being fat?

Zan says what so many of us feel here:
I hate seeing new doctors. There's always the hesitation, the worry -- is this doctor going to take me seriously? Is she going to believe me when I describe my symptoms? Or is she going to dismiss it all because I'm a fat girl? Is she going to try to sell me on weight loss as the cure-all for my ailments -- which she doesn't even believe exist anyway.

I went to doctors for four years before I was initially diagnosed with Fibromylgia, then with Lupus. They all told me, to the man (and funnily enough, they were all men), that I was just stressed and overweight. If I learned how to relax and lost some weight, why all my pain would just disappear!

And so, I have a great fear of being dismissed and reduced to my weight when I see a new doctor.
And a couple of years ago, I talked about my experiences:
My PCP in my late 20s was a brusque woman who was absolutely appalled by my "choice" to be fat. I went to her for over a year, feeling that I deserved her insults, hoping they would spur me to do something. Some of the most memorable:
(When having me stand and stretch) "Stand with your feet together. Well, as close as you can get them."
(When I went to her crying with back pain) "You should really consider getting your breast size reduced. If you lose weight. As far as the pain, I'm not going to treat the symptoms if you won't remedy the underlying cause."
(During a routine check-up) "Your knees and back are going to be gone in a decade.
(During a painful Pap smear) "I'm sorry, but I have to press harder and really search for (whatever the hell she was looking for) in a woman your size.

Only after talking to some friends, who looked at me as if I was crazy when I talked about my experiences, did I realize I didn't have to take that treatment, that maybe every complaint I had was not an outgrowth of my being big. I mean, I went to the ER after the back fiasco and found out I had pulled a muscle and I'd never had a painful Pap before. I could be hurt or sick in a way unrelated to my size. That was amazing.

The latest incident involved an ER visit with a seemingly nice doctor who apparently decided I was a moron:
"What's bothering you?"
"Abdomen and lower back hurt badly. Really bad nausea. My doctor can't see me til Wednesday."
"Does it hurt when press here? Here? Can you jump? Does that hurt? Can you bend? Does that hurt? Has it gotten any better? Are you sure it's your abdomen and back? Do you think you could be pregnant?"
I answered each question patiently. Then he asks:"Have you eaten?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because of the nausea."
"What about it?"
"If I eat, I'll throw up. If I throw up, I can't stop."
"Oh. Well, are you hungry?"
"Um, no."
"Okay. Would you like someone to bring you something to eat?"
"No!"
"Fine. Are you sure you're not just hungry? Have you eaten anything?"
Five minutes of this until he decides that, despite the fact that I'm fat, maybe, just maybe, I'm not currently interested in food. Eventual diagnosis: bladder infection.
So many times, for me, going to the doctor has been like getting every negative message ever aimed at me for being fat condensed (and sharpened) into a 15-minute block. It's overwhelming, shaming, draining.

And it's why I hate going to the doctor's.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

What Louisiana does David Vitter Live In?

So Bush vetoed the SCHIP reauthorization. And in his usual cowardly manner, he skulked off to do so.

Bush is so distasteful, dishonest, and really, just so disgusting to me that I just don't spend much time talking about him. I need the supposed naivete of these children, I guess:


But guess who agreed with him?

David Vitter.

Of Louisiana.

You know, Louisiana, with one of the highest poverty rates in the South? (And that says something).



I've been shaking my head about that for a few days. I have to ask, in what Louisiana does David Vitter live? Surely it can't be the one in which 91,000 children still are uninsured (LaCHIP covers about 107,000 children)? Where, consistently, about one-fourth of children live in poverty? And another 23 percent live in families whose income is 100-200 percent of the Federal poverty level?

And the percentages of low birthweight babies and pregnant women getting late or no pre-natal care, the infant mortality rate, the shortage of primary health care providers? All higher than the national average.

Health care in general in Louisiana is in an abysmal state. But the LaCHIP program has made a difference for our children--since 1999, the number of uninsured children in Louisiana has dropped significantly.

And David Vitter has the nerve to ignore all that. Why, Mr. Vitter, why?

His official answers:
Because he wants to make sure "individuals who already have employer-sponsored health insurance [are exempted] from eligibility for SCHIP coverage." Mind you, according to Governor Blanco, "only 10.5 percent of children with LaChip live in families with access to employer sponsored health insurance."

Because he's worried about that evil of all evils, socialized medicine--he called the bill "Hillarycare." (Way to score a point and strike fear and loathing in the hearts of his supporters, huh?)

My official theory:
Despite the very real need for the SCHIP program, and the demonstrable effect it has had, in the state that he's supposed to represent, Mr. Vitter's still trying to stay in his party's good graces. He's had enough trouble without adding the burden of voting against the Disaster Decider.

Politics. I really wish they'd get back to being about people.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Mind Swirl--the Personal Things

So much on my mind these days. It all goes in circles, seems to link, then falls apart into fragments again.

I have one class that I don't feel I'm reaching. Granted it's primarily first year students at 8 o'clock in the morning, but still! I hate that feeling of looking out and seeing empty or bored or confused eyes. I've talked to my department chair and repeatedly to the class. It's just strange, because I teach the same class at 1 PM and the students are much more engaged, lively, up for debate, and willing to ask questions.

My 17-year-old niece is pregnant and, out of fear of everyone's opinions, hid it for five-and-a-half months. Her daughter is due December 1. She just began receiving medical care mid-August. My feelings are a mix of worry and anticipation.

My 18-year-old niece is diabetic and not taking her insulin properly. She's having high glucose levels--I don't know all the correct terminology, but hers has been up in the hundreds. They're checking it everyday at school now. She doesn't get it. There are so many other things she's worried about--am I going to take her shopping for dresses to wear for homecoming since she's on the court? Who's going to do her hair? Will I help her fill out her ACT form (of course, helping turned in to my filling the tedious thing out by myself)? How can she ask my parents for the money for the deposit on her senior supplies? On and on and on.

My questions are much different. How long before there is irreparable damage to her organs? What is the "sugar coma" that I always hear people speak of? How do I get through to an 18-year-old?

And then there is so much sickness and death right now in this small area. My nieces' aunt is in a coma in a hospital in New Orleans. Her kidneys failed in her early 20s. She received a transplant a few weeks ago (hence the New Orleans hospital). Her body is apparently rejecting it. We don't know if she will live or die. She's 26-years-old.

Then, there is Petey. Whom I taught in fifth grade. Who was murdered some days ago. And the stories are swirling around--that her boyfriend and his brother killed her because she told someone they broke into a house; that white people in the area will be seeking vengeance (Petey was white, her boyfriend, the primary suspect, is black); that white parents are treating her as a model, warning their daughters why they should not be involved with black men. I can't tell you how many people have asked me, in hushed voices, "Does it seem like the white people are acting funny now?" I have been warned not to go out at night by myself. I don't believe all of the retribution rumors. But part of me remembers that I have not been in the area for six years and that I can't not underestimate anything.

A friend's mother died of cancer. At her wake, my friend said her chest felt as if it was caving in and it was so hard just to lift her head.

Just so much right now.

Friday, November 03, 2006

Study could dispel myth about blacks and suicide

from the AP: "More U.S. blacks attempt suicide than previously thought, according to a landmark study that could help explode the myth that black suicides are rare because of a mind-set that took hold during slavery."

Highlights:
...there is a common misconception that suicide is rare in the black community because of cultural and religious beliefs dating back to slavery times...

The study is the first to look at suicidal behavior among the two leading ethnic groups within the U.S. black community _ African-Americans and Caribbean Americans.
The lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts was much higher among Caribbean-American black men, at 7.5 percent, suggesting that about 53,000 try at least once to kill themselves.
The reasons for that relatively high rate are uncertain. Although the study lacked data on how long Caribbean-American blacks and their ancestors had been in this country, it is likely many were more recent arrivals than African Americans and thus more vulnerable to frustrations with discrimination and other societal pressures...

Historically, suicide was taboo in the black community going back to slavery times, at least partly because "it was really frowned on by the black church," said Dr. Alvin Poussaint, a Harvard University psychiatry professor and race relations specialist. "It was a stigma and it brought shame to your family."
Blacks "thought life was supposed to be hard for them," and that may have helped protect them from suicide, Poussaint said.
Interestingly, suicide attempts in the study were least common among blacks in the South, where that mind-set may linger from slavery times, he said.
OK, I have mixed feeling about why people think this study is such a shock. Of course I'm proud to be part of a people who've proven to have an amazing resiliency and incredible faith. I say faith, because, as Tavis Smiley pointed out, it's not/it wasn't hope. There was very little to give us hope.

But I worry that such resiliency is misinterpreted as an excuse to mistreat, to disdain, to exclude. Sort of a "They're black. They can take it."

What this study may show is that, resilience aside, the things we face in this country--the opposition, the racism, the poor health care, the inadequate educational system, the justice (hah) system, the stigma, stigma, stigma--takes its toll on us, as a people and as individuals. Yes, we can survive, but we want so much more than survival.

And I think it's especially telling that rates among young black men are rising.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Why I Hate Going to the Doctor's Office

There's this strange place I inhabit, a fine line I walk between being a virtual hypochondriac who obsessively searches herself for signs of catastrophic disease and being a woman who dreads going to the doctor's office. Here, the intriguing intersection that shapes my identity--that fact of being a fat, black, once poor woman--has influenced, probably dictated, the treatment I receive behind medical offices' closed doors.

It began when I was 18 or 19. Home from school, I went to the parish health unit to receive a prescription for birth control pills. Newly sexually active--but not all that naive--I tried to answer all the nurse's questions truthfully. She asked these two back-to-back: Do you use a condom each time you have intercourse? Have you ever had an STD? My answer to both of those was no--a contrite "no" to the first, of course. But my contrition was not enough. She stopped in her survey and told me, "You're lucky. Next time he might shoot you up a load of AIDS." Now, that may have just been her way of talking or her attempts to scare me into safer sex, but I was humiliated. I left that day and have never been back.

5 years later, and 5 days overdue, I went to my hospital's maternity ward complaining of back pain, and a trickle of fluid from "down there." I had a "new" nurse who told me that as long as the bottom line on the monitor didn't move, I wasn't having contractions. Well, the bottom line kept moving and she kept saying, "You're not in labor. Your waters haven't broken." She kept trying to check my cervix, was unable to do it, and had to call in another nurse repeatedly. I lay on my back from 9:30 to 3:30, in pain, until my impatient, angry sister said, "We're taking her home." A few hours later, I was back, straight into delivery, amnitoic fluid long gone. Afterwards, in an obvious face-saving move, the doctor told me, "First babies come fast like that some time." He couldn't explain why the nurse didn't know my water had broken.

Fast forward another 5 years (and several horrible experiences later). My PCP in my late 20s was a brusque woman who was absolutely appalled by my "choice" to be fat. I went to her for over a year, feeling that I deserved her insults, hoping they would spur me to do something. Some of the most memorable:
(When having me stand and stretch) "Stand with your feet together. Well, as close as you can get them."
(When I went to her crying with back pain) "You should really consider getting your breast size reduced. If you lose weight. As far as the pain, I'm not going to treat the symptoms if you won't remedy the underlying cause."
(During a routine check-up) "Your knees and back are going to be gone in a decade.
(During a painful Pap smear) "I'm sorry, but I have to press harder and really search for (whatever the hell she was looking for) in a woman your size.

Only after talking to some friends, who looked at me as if I was crazy when I talked about my experiences, did I realize I didn't have to take that treatment, that maybe every complaint I had was not an outgrowth of my being big. I mean, I went to the ER after the back fiasco and found out I had pulled a muscle and I'd never had a painful Pap before. I could be hurt or sick in a way unrelated to my size. That was amazing.

The latest incident involved an ER visit with a seemingly nice doctor who apparently decided I was a moron:
"What's bothering you?"
"Abdomen and lower back hurt badly. Really bad nausea. My doctor can't see me til Wednesday."
"Does it hurt when press here? Here? Can you jump? Does that hurt? Can you bend? Does that hurt? Has it gotten any better? Are you sure it's your abdomen and back? Do you think you could be pregnant?"
I answered each question patiently. Then he asks:
"Have you eaten?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because of the nausea."
"What about it?"
"If I eat, I'll throw up. If I throw up, I can't stop."
"Oh. Well, are you hungry?"
"Um, no."
"Okay. Would you like someone to bring you something to eat?"
"No!"
"Fine. Are you sure you're not just hungry? Have you eaten anything?"
Five minutes of this until he decides that, despite the fact that I'm fat, maybe, just maybe, I'm not currently interested in food. Eventual diagnosis: bladder infection.

I'm really curious as to whether this is commonplace. Do other people experiece it? Am I just especially sensitive? And no, I don't mind my doctor saying, for your health, you should consider weight loss. My current PCP said just that, but she talked to me about methods, alternatives, etc. without being condescending or cruel. She works in a clinic that sees mostly underserved clients which is why, despite the long wait for appointments, I chose her. So finally, I'm happy. I get to be treated like a whole person and not some conglomeration of unappealing parts.
Revelations and ruminations from one southern sistorian...