Insert Title Here.

Myrrh

Myrrh

Unstoppable Limecat~
Adventurer
Joined
Aug 9, 2005
Messages
7,485
Age
38
Location
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Nation Banner
Windy
Main Job
Summoner-Male
Secondary Job
Summoner-Female
Third Job
Ranger-Female
Server
Quetzalcoatl
Linkshell
Rise
FFXIV
Myrrh
Okay, so about a week ago a friend and I were talking about health care and he said two things to me that have had me thinking.

The first was that those with illnesses shouldn't live day to day in hopes of a cure and should just enjoy life. Keep themselves healthy on their own terms. It's nice to hope for something but that shouldn't take away from our enjoyment of life.

That has had me thinking about how many times I woke up and said to myself "I hope theres a cure for CF soon" and since he said that to me I haven't thought about a cure. I'm going to enjoy my life. Fuck em. lol

The second thing was that even if they make a cure for any illness the chances of them releasing it to the public is slim to none. There is more money in death then there is in saving lives.

That one has had me thinking a lot. Is the government so greedy that they would do that?

What do you guys think?
 
My parents and I were just talking about that recently. They'd watched I Am Legend and were saying that something like that is possible. If they did release it it would be rushed and not thoroughly checked enough just so they (the government) and the insurance companies could make tons of cash. My mother and I agreed that even if they did find a cure to something like AIDs, any type of melanoma or even CF that they insurance companies would probably block its release due to the exorbitant amounts of money they receive from every day innocents paying for treatment.

I find it disgusting that healthcare has become more of a business than an actual forum for wellness.

As for what your friend said, thats 100% true. Don't be a victim of <insert illness here>, be a person living with <insert illness here>. Just because you have something doesn't mean you should stop living your life. Yes, hope is phenominal to live with for the spirit, but to live on hope? Its just a way of letting yourself down time and time again.
 
Last edited:
It is true there is more money in treatment then there is in cures, but to think that the cure would be withheld from the public is a horrible idea. I really hope something like this would never happen.
 
Really lost for words at that kind of notion. Seriously, but regarding any sort of new medicine or design. It takes years to perfect anything really, you could almost view new releases of cures as human experimentation before people start to sue or suffer from side effects even when well tested... Then in the next few years it would be "perfected".

That's horrible to think about but still, even if there was I would wait. Nothing material should hold you back from living life like your friend said unless it's your fault, which it obviously isn't. The doctor shouldn't have given false hope like that.
 
I don't see why any government would want to withhold a cure for any deteriorating type of illness, since a lot of money is paid out from the government into health care in Canada anyways. The more people in a hospital with any sort of illness that is long term or terminal costs a lot of moola. Hospitals are always in need of more money from the government.

I think a competent (haha) government would see that the costs that they have to invest into health care would be less if they could treat/cure all the long term patients in a hospital than to have them spend months there, waiting for die (as it is for most serious illnesses, wouldn't you agree?).

I don't think any government would withhold a cure based on what we know about cancer. While we don't have a 100% cure, there are many treatments and procedures available for it. Since a majority of people get cancer, wouldn't it have made sense for the government not to let these treatments/cures/procedures released to the public if they could get more money by having people stay in the hospital to die?
 
Morwen said:
I find it disgusting that healthcare has become more of a business than an actual forum for wellness.
Click to expand...

This is applicable to everything. It is rare to find anyone in the world now who does anything simply as a labor of love, rather than a way to make money.

People don't become doctors to save the sick anymore, they become doctors so they can drive BMWs (no offense Kotsu, I know you work with some luxury car manufacturer lol)/ Mercedes/Hummers etc.

It's the major part of the reason why there's a drastic shortage of nurses in hospitals; there's no money in it.

Hoping for a cure isn't necessarily a bad thing, Myrrh. Like Morwen said, devoting 100% to that hope can be unhealthy, as at that point it becomes an obsession rather than hope or faith.

Case-in-point: I hope drastically for the day that people wake up and realize that they are not better than anyone else, and that the people around them are not all that bad. I don't hold my breath because I accept it won't happen, but it doesn't leave me wishing for that day.
 
Lanien said:
It is true there is more money in treatment then there is in cures, but to think that the cure would be withheld from the public is a horrible idea. I really hope something like this would never happen.
Click to expand...

Key example #1. The technology has been available to test a bloodsugar (mainly for diabetics) using an infrared monitor without test strips for over 10 years. The companies with this technology are not releasing it do to the HUGE amount of money that would be lost by the test strips. This is something that a diabetic is supposed to do 4 times daily, at a buck a strip is $4/day, or $1,460/year/diabetic. This is a ton of money that would be lost out on were the new meters to come out, so they have been held back for a long long time.

Key Example #2. I was self-employed for a period of 15 months (ending last december). In that time, I had to pay full prices for quarterly dr. visits as well as insulin costs because there is no coverage available to diabetics unless you are included on a companies plan. I have 8 insurance plan rejection letters sitting in my file cabinet upstairs.

The government will pay for a war overseas, but won't pay for adequate medical treatment within the states or regulate for better treatment of the ill. Myrrh's thoughts are easily within reason.

P.S. I was diagnosed Type 1 diabetic at 15 months old, with no prior family history. I've obviously thought about this for quite awhile.
 
jamal said:
P.S. I was diagnosed Type 1 diabetic at 15 months old, with no prior family history. I've obviously thought about this for quite awhile.
Click to expand...

I'm like that too with CF. No one in recorded history in my family has ever had CF. There should be someone who has had it before me.
 
Myrrh said:
I'm like that too with CF. No one in recorded history in my family has ever had CF. There should be someone who has had it before me.
Click to expand...
I'm sure the "Why me?" thought has crossed your mind many times then.
 
My favorite answers to that are "Because God has a plan" or "Because you're strong enough to handle it" lol

Faaaaaaaaaaak That
 
jamal said:
My favorite answers to that are "Because God has a plan" or "Because you're strong enough to handle it" lol

Faaaaaaaaaaak That
Click to expand...

It's always the perfectly healthy ones who say that too.
 
The really sad fact is that money makes the world go round. It sucks. But you look at the world, and I'm not just talking about in terms of medicine. There is a reason why certain regions are living in poverty and rampant with disease. There's a lot of politics involved in who is living in the lap of luxury and who is starving to death.

I'd like to believe if there was a vaccine for say, AIDS, or any number of the other diseases that affect huge portions of the world, that it would be made available to anyone who needs it. I'd hope that if an organization tried to supress something that could dramatically alter or save lives, that someone responsible would make it public.

Hope is a powerful thing. It can give you strength or take it from you depending on the type of person you are. There's nothing wrong with hoping for the day when there will be a breakthrough, just don't miss the life that's going on now while you're looking forward.
 
Myrrh said:
It's always the perfectly healthy ones who say that too.
Click to expand...

Heh, there are hardly any people that are "perfectly healthy" in all states of mind, physical, and spiritual. Not to say that one situation isn't worse from another, but there are things about people we don't know and have to consider, given benefit of the doubt.
 
Myrrh said:
It's always the perfectly healthy ones who say that too.
Click to expand...

Just remind them we're all going to die one day. That knocks people down a notch.
 
Myrrh said:
It's always the perfectly healthy ones who say that too.
Click to expand...

Or, the ones that are just trying to make you feel better when they don't really know what to say. :P
 
For something like CF that's genetically linked, it's really something that could be treated with gene therapy that's already in it's early stages. It's something they're working on, and there have been several clinical trials. You're young enough to where you're getting the best treatment that's available now, and that you should see better treatments come out in the near future.

The catch is though, is that you can't just be passive about it, you have to be demanding about what you want and yes, don't let your illness run your life. Be in charge of your life, keep a notebook when you visit the doctor because you can't always rely on them to have accurate records. Regardless of what you have, it's always important to stay healthy and as active as you can.
 
Lanien said:
It is true there is more money in treatment then there is in cures, but to think that the cure would be withheld from the public is a horrible idea. I really hope something like this would never happen.
Click to expand...

Its less that the cure is withheld from the public, and more that X company makes a drug and has to jump through some of the most ridiculous hoops just to be able to get it to people.

My parents and myself are both very involved in things like this and volunteer for almost every medical research study that comes around, and since the University of Minnesota is almost a world leader in things like that, it makes me feel like i might actually be helping.

Of course, the hoops are there for a reason, because in a matter that involves people's lives one mistake can land a multi-billion dollar cooperation bankrupt in a matter of weeks. When it comes to health or clinical malpractice the sue button is usually the first button people reach for, weather or not it was actually someone's fault.

Looking back now, i don't quite know why i quoted Lan, oh well.
 
makelith makes a good point. the fda (who I can assume regulates these things?) was created to prevent anything harmful from entering food and drugs, thereby making a necessary safety net to ensure that the things we put IN our bodies will not kill or damage us.

granted, they don't catch *everything* -- lead paint, for instance -- but they do their best.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top