Johnson wrote:
Jim wrote:

I had to wait 6 weeks to see a ear specialist at UCLA. They had
nothing worthwhile to say, waited another 4 weeks to see the House Ear
Clinic. They knew what to do, but told me it was too late, I should
have come on earlier.

That's not better.

Your fault. Find better service elsewhere.

My fault? Those waits are what all third level referrals get. First is
your primary care physician, second is the specialist, third is UCLA or
House Clinic.

That is how the American Insurance Industry run health care system
works. I hope you never get to find out how wrong you are.


In Canada, it's not an option within their healthcare system. People who
try to contradict this are either stupid, mislead, or have an agenda to
push.

It's always revealing when an American attempts to tell a Canadian how
the Canadian healthcare system works.


I'm always amazed at how US citizens tell the rest of us how the
Canadian system does not work and they all hate it.

My Canadian friends seem to be proud of it. We don't have a system
unless you are lucky enough to have an employer who provides it, or you
are over 65.

Of course anyone replying in the negative about the Canadian system will
be suspected of being an American telling me how unhappy Canadians are.

I have what's considered a "Cadillac Health Care" plan. How dare we
consider someone with a good health care to have something with a name
that seems to say my health care plan is better than it needs to be?

It is good, but I'm having a problem with the level of care I got. The
second level was nothing more than a couple of old geezers who didn't
want to look very hard. Cost me some valuable time, which cost me a lot
of my hearing.

On Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:03:54 -0800, Jim wrote:

Johnson wrote:
Jim wrote:

I had to wait 6 weeks to see a ear specialist at UCLA. They had
nothing worthwhile to say, waited another 4 weeks to see the House Ear
Clinic. They knew what to do, but told me it was too late, I should
have come on earlier.

That's not better.

Your fault. Find better service elsewhere.

My fault? Those waits are what all third level referrals get. First is
your primary care physician, second is the specialist, third is UCLA or
House Clinic.

That is how the American Insurance Industry run health care system
works. I hope you never get to find out how wrong you are.


In Canada, it's not an option within their healthcare system. People who
try to contradict this are either stupid, mislead, or have an agenda to
push.

It's always revealing when an American attempts to tell a Canadian how
the Canadian healthcare system works.


I'm always amazed at how US citizens tell the rest of us how the
Canadian system does not work and they all hate it.

My Canadian friends seem to be proud of it. We don't have a system
unless you are lucky enough to have an employer who provides it, or you
are over 65.

Of course anyone replying in the negative about the Canadian system will
be suspected of being an American telling me how unhappy Canadians are.

I have what's considered a "Cadillac Health Care" plan. How dare we
consider someone with a good health care to have something with a name
that seems to say my health care plan is better than it needs to be?

It is good, but I'm having a problem with the level of care I got. The
second level was nothing more than a couple of old geezers who didn't
want to look very hard. Cost me some valuable time, which cost me a lot
of my hearing.

I'm curious what you were diagnosed with?

jps wrote:

I'm curious what you were diagnosed with?

The initial diagnosis, from the level two "specialists" was long term
hearing loss. This is the result of being around loud noise. UCLA
seemed to agree, everyone looses some of their hearing eventually,
iPods, bands, bars, jets taking off, power tools, loud work places.

The eventual diagnosis was sudden hearing loss, which is usually caused
by a virus. This is treatable by steroids, but you only have a week,
beyond that, it's permanent.

I knew it was sudden, I remember when it happened, 4 pm, May 3.
Everything sounded tinny, then I couldn't hear the higher frequencies in
my right ear.

Usually this happens to people at night and they aren't aware, but the
people they deal with know they can't hear. "Speak up!" "Stop mumbling!"

I had hearing tests that showed this wasn't long term, but the doctors
refused to look at them. They told me I didn't know what I was talking
about. ENT (ear nose and throat) doctors don't want to accept anyone's
audiological exam except theirs.

Lesson learned was that I SHOULD have been getting yearly hearing tests
and documented where my hearing was, so that the good doctors could not
tell me this was a long term thing when I knew different.

To this day, no one thinks monitoring my hearing is something that
should be done, but I'm doing it myself, getting a hearing test anywhere
I can. I made a graph. It's not as lost as I was told. It has been
slowly been improving. I can now hear most of those missing frequencies.

It's not what it was 6 months ago, but it is acceptable. The doctors
recommended a hearing aid, which I now don't need.

$2500 not covered by my insurance. But I'm glad I don't need it.