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James,

I was just watching something on the Discovery Health Channel called Mystery Diagnosis and a story came on that sounded in some ways very similar to yours. I have mentioned your story to my husband several times and after we saw this story, we both looked at each other and said--that sounds like my Candadian friend James.

The man on the show had mysterious pains in his chest, difficulty swallowing and breathing and odd weakening of his arms from time to time. After 9 years of suffering with these strange, seemingly unrelated symptoms he gets critical. They finally do a catscan and found that his lymph nodes in his neck and chest have calcified--turned to stone and were putting pressure on his heart, esophogus and and on his nerves causing the strange sensations of weakness in his extremeties.

The reason for the lymph nodes doing this strange thing is a disease called Histoplasmosis which is caused by a fungal infection of the lungs. In most people who suffer from this disease, they get cold/flu symptoms for a week or two and recover--apparantly this is very common. But in some people, the reaction is very severe and leads to many bizarre and seemingly unrelated problems, which can include this calcification of the lymph nodes, among other things.

The cure was a surgery to remove all the calcified lymph nodes. They couldn't be seen on mri or xray--only on catscans. It was a difficult and dangerous surgery because it had been going on so long. But it provided immediate relief and cure.

This makes me wonder if the lipomas they saw were truly lipomas and not calcified lymph nodes. This is a possible diagnosis that I would study and bring up with every doctor you see.

You know, when I was young and idealistic, I used to think that a national health care system would solve the problems of the American Health Care System, but hearing just one story of its failure in your case has completely changed my mind.

You know, James, it just seems to me that at this point you might be better off going into some serious debt in order to get your diagnosis. I urge you to find a way to get to the US and one of the best diagnostic hospitals we have here. Someone mentioned a mayo clinic. I have always heard they are the best, but maybe someone else will have more knowledge on the subject. I just think it might be better to get diagnosed and get better even if you are in debt, because you will be able to return to a productive and lucrative life style. Of course, this is just my opinion. But I would rather be in debt than suffer, personally. You are so young and it seems like if you can just turn this corner you will be able to bounce back and return to a normal life.

Jen

James, I couldn't disagree with Jen more....and being one of the 50 million in this country without insurance, let me tell you why.

1. Is a "specialist" in this country going to see someone from another country without American style insurance? Not no but hell no. When I had my septoplasty last year (that my dear mother paid for because I couldn't) the Doctor wanted to be paid in full 5 days before the surgery. That's how the so called healthcare system treats people that don't have insurance.

2. When I had complications, (two nose bleeds) I went to the ER twice. The Doc's were over $500 and I now am the proud owner of a 5 year note with the local hospital for their charges. This is a separate charge from what the Doc's charged.

3. The first question asked at ANY American hospital / Doc's office is, "what kind of insurance do you have?" If the answer is, "I don't" then you are not too likely to get services.

4. In Canada, you might have been getting crappy service, but you were / are GETTING services, unlike here.

5. I REALLY hope you get to the bottom of this...I really do, but coming to this country seems like a really bad option from where I sit.



JeffH

hi all,

havent hear anything about james latest development for quite sometime...anybody know how is he doing? how he is well.

mckooi

No, I haven't and I sure do wish we would!!!

JeffH, I have to disagree w/you. It can take some doing but there are those who will treat and treat conscientiously those w/o insurance.

Back in 1976 whilst we were at Mayo Clinic for my husband's back, he was hospitalized and I was staying at a local motel. A cab driver pulled in and brought a young girl, 18-20 into the motel lobby. She had nothing w/her but two brown paper grocery bads, one filled w/bottles of medicine and the other w/a few clothes. The cabby had found her sitting at the bus station in Rochester, down to $2 and no idea of where to go next until Mayo Clinic opened in the morning. The motel put her up in a small room at no charge, the cabby picked her up and took her to the Clinic the next morning. No charge. Mayo Clinic has a specific office for assistance for the indigent including helping to find lodging whilst there. I didn't see her after the next morning when the cabby picked her up. But he did tell us a couple of days later that he had seen her and she was being tested at the Clinic.

Of course, that was before outsiders and the chains took over Rochester from the locals. I don't know that you would find a cabby or a motel that close to the clinic today in Rochester that would do that but there's no reason to think that Mayo has changed their rules of compassion which is one of the tenets the Mayo brothers establshed when they established Mayo Clinic.

But James is not indigent and he is Canadian. He has insurance, in Canada. I'm not sure the Mayo Clinic would look into Jame's case gratis or at little cost given that, unless they viewed it as a challenging case they would like to solve. Then, they MIGHT consider reducing the cost. My hope is that some doctor, somewhere in Canada, would find his case something they would really like to investigate and resolve. If a doctor at an American hospital would do that, without it costing him everything he has, that would be fine too.
I am agreeing with JeffH. An American institution is not going to treat someone without American type insurance, unless they can PAY and pay bigtime! An American indigent might get financial consideration, not a middle class Canadian.

Re Canadian insurance. Each province administers its own health insurance plan. There have been a couple of cases here in Ontario where the province had to cough up to pay for treatment done in the US that patients couldn't get in Canada. Of course, they fought like hell not to pay.

Another problem here is that pressure is put on docs not to have patients take "unnecessary" tests. So...if a doc thinks there's not much value in the test, he/she won't order it. BTW, the docs are paid by the province and their billings are scrutinized. It helps keep down medical costs. I've stayed in the US and rec'd medical care there, and the US docs are like robber barons!

Hopefully, hopefully, James will find the doc in Kingston to be helpful.

hi all,

hope james is well for sure.

i have someone that i know when for brain surgery due to arunysym years ago and hospitalised for 3 months....the cost almost USD$250,000 an that was in 1996.

another case of arunysym hopitalised for 3 weeks $200,000 back in 2005. that is very scary of the stagering medical cost nowadays. the medical cost and dostors fees are very very scary....worst to come.....i suggest everyone to take a look at the movie call SICKO.............capitalism approaches will destroy far more lives than social needs in context.

What the movie SICKO and you can tell more...

Mckooi