Posted by
PETE WEAVER on Saturday, May 17, 2008 11:15:38 PM
Saturday, May 17, 2008
I need to preface this commentary with a story about my daughter, the mother of five children.
When my daughter was 24 years old, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease, a cancer of the lymph system. Her upper torso and head were radiated with the maximum allowable dosage, and the cancer was brought into remission. She later developed Graves disease and had her thyroid gland removed.
In the summer of 2005, she was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 35. We later found out that high doses of radiation in the treatment of Hodgkin's greatly increased the risk of breast cancer. In fairness to the medical profession, this increased risk was discovered subsequent to her treatment for Hodgkin's.
Since she could not be treated with radiation, the preferred treatment for the type of breast cancer she had, she was subjected to a radical mastectomy and removal of her right breast. In August of 2006, she underwent reconstructive breast surgery. Three days before Christmas that year, she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in her lungs and bones and underwent more chemotherapy.
We took her to Alaska in May of 2007, one of her fondest wishes. The picture below was taken on top of a glacier where she and I went for a dog sled ride.
In July of that year, she was further diagnosed with metastatic brain cancer. She died September 17, 2007, seventeen days after her 39th birthday and four months after this picture was taken. Now that you know some of her life story, I will get to the point about Government Health Care.
With five children and her uninsurable medical history, she was forced to depend on Medicaid and the State of Florida's Healthy Women's Program for health care. There was no way her husband could earn enough to support the family and pay for private health care. From the time she had the mastectomy for the breast cancer, until she became terminally ill, there were no follow up CT Scans or MRI's to detect the early spread of this disease. She was most definitely at high risk.
I know that these procedures are expensive and the bureaucrats that manage governmental health care would rather save money than possibly save or prolong someone's life. For all of those who want the government to mandate, manage and make decisions on who gets care and what kind of care, you better think again. I firmly believe that when it comes to matters not defined specifically in our Constitution and it's Ammendments, the politicans and bureaucrats screw up everything they touch, Don't get sold a bill of goods that Washington and it's disgraceful partisan bickering know better than you.
Remember Shelly's story and call, write and email your Congressmen and Senators to get off the "Government Knows Best" drumbeat and tell them to be responsive to the people. After all, they work for us, and not the other way around.