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Hi honey,

I want to write something on my blog and I don't remember how to get on there.

I posted my blog address in Cc, but it doesn't get me  there....?????

Love you.

Sorry to be such a pest.  It just doesn't stick to my brain????

Grandma

Medicare

To Medicare

I need help.  I would like to speak to someone who can help me.

Time is running out.

What I want is to find a physician nearby (I live in Berkeley-

for 60 years and in my house for 45 years.  I am soon to be 83.)

who accepts what Medicare pays, period.  I do NOT want any insurance

company in affairs of my health.  I have been with Kaiser almost as long

as I have been in Berkeley.   I do not need anyone to manage my health

care, especially those who know nothing about OLD.  They almost killed

me 7 years ago and since then all the MDs look13, sweet but not for me to

talk to, which is what most elderly people need...someone with listening

skills and a smattering of knowledge about the human condition...neither

of which do most MDs possess.

If I am not mistaken, it was the MDs who started this whole insurance

business, when their greed along with the AMA took over.  Insurance has

absolutely no business in HEALTH.  All they want is a free ride and nothing

but profits.  We do not need that.  The MDs wanted more money for their

services and sold their souls and got a lot of paper work and unscrupulous

profit oriented people to add to their coffers.  How this was permitted I don't

know, but for some reason the MD has always held sway in our society.  They

are  rarely special people.  In fact rather ordinary who are sometimes asked

to do extraordinary things.  They are not really well educated either, but very

self-centered, arrogant and people phobic, hence the white coat and maintenance

of a position of one upmanship with those they see.  I no longer refer to them as

'doctor'.  This after I asked one young man his name and he responded, "doctor

so and so".  "No dear.  That is not your name.  That is what you do for a living...as

plumber Smith or garbage collector Jones."  By the way, our garbage collectors

do more to keep us healthy than all the MDs put together.  Their salaries should

be reversed.  As to diagnosis of illness, my mother did much much better than the

MDs and she didn't even have a High School diploma.  We never even saw an MD

all the time  we were growing up, except when I had my tonsils out.

     So I don't go.  I will no longer waste my time and money and good spirits to go

to Kaiser for anything.  They do not know OLD, have poor people and listening

skills and are a waste of my time.

But, in my dotage I would like to find an intelligent, fairly well educated human being,

not too stuck on themselves for all the wrong reasons, who will take whatever MEDICARE
pays, which is more than enough for any working person, just to talk to, kick things medical

around with...eyeball to eyeball, equal to equal...intelligent and grown-up.

     So I need to find a few I can choose from who are not greedy, like people, and I can go...most of the time just to talk about what is happening with me that they might have some knowledge about that they would share with me.  As to 'specialists'...these days you seea different someone for your ear, your eye, your leg, your stomach and on and on and it is sick-making, not healing.  Although Healing is hardly a word you would ever hear coming out of an MDs mouth.  Not health either.  In fact, if it weren't for some of us brighter people they see, they would never have realized how much what you eat has to do with your physical health.  Maybe because if you eat right, you rarely need to see an MD...

So.  Of course I am waiting for Single-payer or Medicare for all, where I can pick whatever MD I want and change if I am not pleased or displeased on my own time and get explanations for terms like "patient".  I am not anybody's anything and I am not very patient. 

Anyone who touches me and sees me undressed (although I will not take my clothes off anymore for any of them) I call by their first name and they, me.

So much, little and big is broken in our medical system, it is a crime.  Hospitals, especially Kaiser are user-unfriendly, catering to the staff who treat you like a child no matter what age or experience you have had.  Sometimes you find an enlightened nurse who knows exactly

what I mean.  I have been known to refuse an MDs meds order.  If I'm conscious I refuse all narcotics and usually sleeping pills,because I still sleep like the dead. It is backwards and upside down.  We, the consumers know ourselves.  These 'quacks' as my British friends call them, with luck, know themselves....not me.  They NEED me all along the way to give them what they need to blunder through a diagnosis so that, with luck, they might be able to help.  Acupuncture is often much more effective that 5 MDs put together.

Well you can see where I am with the entire medical profession.  At this point, they do nothing right.  I need to get OUT of Kaiser or I just die in my bed when the time comes with no consultation or appropriate treatment.  I will no longer suffer fools.  My money.  My time.  My body.  I want decent, responsible, knowledgable. appropriate treatment whenever I force myself to go to them...which is also absurd...an elder getting out of bed at any time of day or night to GO TO a perfectly healthy MD...or dragging a sick baby out of the house to sit in an emergency room for hours waiting to be seen.  I almost lost one of my newborn granddaughters to a very badly functioning ER, doing nothing when she was dying...because gunshot wounded men were lying on stretchers in the hallways.  We left and went to Children's Hospital where they rushed her into quarantine and on the machines.  O.  I should write a book.  I almost did just now. Believe it or not, I am a very likable person, with strong opinions about much to be sure, a political activist in my old age...on the computer...and a very happy old lady...as long as I stay away from medical people and places.  

However, I'm smart.  I grow older.  Things break down.  I'm strong and quite healthy, but I'm no fool.  I want someone I can like.  Someone I can trust...to know a lot and tell me when she doesn't know.  That I would like.   No insurance companies.  She accepts 'gladly' what Medicare has to offer and all my health needs are met by this arrangement.

Is it possible?  Are we there yet or is money still talking all over the place while everything else just keeps walking.

I need help.  I doubt if I will use the service much or often at all.  I just want it there if I need it.  I am on some meds (which I never take, even OTCs) but which keep my BP that of a girls.  So, I'm no dope. I do not feel any ill effects, even if they are going on inside.  Six of one, half-a-dozen of another.  I take them regularly and that is all I do regularly and I never go see an MD if I can help it.  I need someone who doesn't need to be called by what they do, but rather who they are and will not refer to me as a "patient".  I am a consumer of her services.  That's it.  I want someone who can have an intelligent two way conversation and consider it doing her job.  There are some products I need to order regularly that are essential to my well being that I get through Kaiser at a greatly reduced rate being a member.  What happens on Medicare with this sort of thing?  I get free flu shots at Kaiser, which I didn't do this year.  Just could not get myself down to that awful place.  I understand I can go into any pharnacy and they will administer the shot free of charge.

 

I must stop now.  I hope I am not just talking to the wall.  I hope there is someone at the other end of this email and that this shall not be for nought, but that I will receive a reply addressing the issues that are presented here.  I would gladly participate in an interview, preferably at my house for I rarely leave it.  I am very happy and comfortable here.  But other arrangements could be made if essential.

Please get back to me immediatly if not sooner.  Time, as you said, is of the essence.  That deadline looms

Sincerely,

Nura

aka Marcia Berman

Berkeley CA 94708

OWS

To Oakland's Police Chief...whose email address I could not find,

alas.

 

I am an old lady.  I am so pleased and proud of America this day.

The people are finally waking up and realizing that they have some

power to do themselves and others some good. 

Please do not hurt them in Oakland.  It is their DEMOCRATIC RIGHT

under our beautiful Constitution to PEACEFULLY Protest and express

their grievances...in great number.  How else can they be seen?  Heard?

Effect a positive change?

 

They are sitting in for you too and all those exploited, even slightly, by the

rich and powerful.  They are not hurting anyone.  They are the best and the

brightest and the bravest of us all. 

 

PLEASE APPRECIATE THEM.  VALUE THEM!  HELP THEM FOR THEY

ARE TRYING TO HELP ALL OF US WHO WORK FOR A LIVING OR WANT

TO.

 

PLEASE no more gas, rubber bullets, meanness of spirit.  THEY ARE YOU.

You are them.  Your job is to keep the PEACE.  They are maintaining the PEACE.

Don't make them "THE ENEMY".  They are anything but.  They are ACTIVISTS.

I am so proud of them.  I wish I could join them.  If I were there this morning when

you so wantonly attacked them FOR  NO REASON, I could have easily died due

to your behavior.  I'm only 83, but hardly as strong as I used to be.

 

Be on their side as long as they keep the PEACE.  After all, that is what our

wonderful protectors are...you are...PEACE OFFICERS.  That's who you are,

one and all  and we love you for it.

 

You, too,  be the BEST you can be as these PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATORS are

trying to be.  It is a brilliant moment in American HISTORY.  Please don't muck it up.

Be part of it.  Honor it.  Support it.  Be WITH it.  PLEASE.  For your sake as well as ours.

Don;t miss out on this very great happening.

 

In solidarily and compassion and respect for all the "Springs" springing up in our world,

even and especially HERE in AMERICA.  Let's help them reach their goals.  Support

them.  Not hinder them.

 

HOORAY FOR US! 
HOORAY FOR YOU TOO!  Be the very best you can be and ACT WISELY.

These wonderful people demonstrating now in Oakland are on your side.  They endure

the discomfort, hardship, even your cruel OVERREACTION to them FOR ALL OF US...

you and me too.

 

Thank you for listening.

I weep for those you hurt.  You didn't have to do that.  You were not seeing clearly.

This is a PEACE MOVEMENT!  It is FANTASTIC!  You, too, should be proud of our

country and the people in it at this time.  You seem to be missing the wonder of what

is going on right in your  midst.  You really should be facilitating them.  It is good for the

children in the community seeing the grown ups peacefully getting out there and collectively BEING

for their rights to survive in a nation that provides the space for all to demonstrate for JOBS,

FAIRNESS IN THE WORKSPACE, EDUCATION AND THE BEST HEALTH CARE FOR

ALL and above all, the RIGHT to REDRESS GRIEVANCES publicly without fear of reprisal!

 

This is good for all of us and I thank those sitting in, sleeping in, finally taking a stand against

injustice, no matter who the culprit is; against being exploited by the rich and powerful as it used

to be in other lands under Kings and Queens and still is in some

 

They are just taking their rights as given to them under the American Constitution.

Respect them.  Honor them.  They do it for you too.  BE ON THEIR SIDE.

PLEASE DON'T HURT THEM ANYMORE.

PROTECT THEM.  THEY ARE THE BEST OF YOU...THE BEST OF ALL OF US

AND THEY SHOULD BE COMMENDED...PRAISED...YES, EVEN REWARDED...

but never hurt.  PLEASE!  (It is so hard not to weep for those you did hurt...)

PLEASE...no more.

 

Thank you,

Marcia Berman

Berkeley California

 

"Regulation"

Stop the political grandstanding already and get to work doing what you were sent to Washington to do....govern in the name of the PEOPLE, not your political future or personally peculiar ideas of how you would llike to see America and the American people treated.  This is DEMOCRACY for ALL.  Remember?  DO YOUR JOB.  Punish those who nearly destroyed us and focus on the needs of the people for work and homes and health care and education and freedom from want.  They are the concerns of Congress.

We did fine with appropriate regulations during the war.  The PEOPLE stepped up and went to work and what a happening that was to see and be part of!  The people can do it again.  Just give them the work.  Public projects.  Goodness knows this country's infrastructure is in dire need of repair.  Non toxic energy production is begging for people to build its new structure and set it in place, like solar panels, wind turbines, water facilities as well as air...clean processes by which to run this nation...CLEANLY and HEALTHILY.
Congress.  Do your job.  Do what you were sent to Washington to do.  Make sure the PEOPLE live decent, productive, blessed lives.
Thank you.