Wenatchee: Healthcare Hell (#1, 2008)

I have not been well for the last 3 months. Very, very, physically sick, and my son too. I need to elaborate on that, and on more of the computer problems I've had, and other "electrical" problems (like, my son's battery-operated toy that plays music going off by itself on Christmas eve and the next day). I was told to go to a computer tech about them, who is used by police and I guess, FBI a few times as well. He said that in his 15 years of being in robotics and computers, he'd never heard of the kind of thing that has been happening to my computers.

But first, while I hardly feel able to write tonight, I need to address healthcare problems in this Wenatchee, East Wenatchee, Chelan, area. I've had a glass of wine, 1,000 mgs. Advil, 500 mg. Aleve, 1/4 of a 10 mg. Flexeril, and about 1/16th of a 10 mg. Percocet I had to squeeze out of a plastic sheath "pill box" with a dampened Q-tip. Those who have severe chronic pain with unreliable pain management will understand. I took a hot bath too and turned up the heater. There's nothing like getting frozen out of healthcare in Wenatchee, which was never very good to begin with.

For Christmas, my Christmas or New Years' Wish was for a publicly owned hospital to come into Wenatchee and give the other clinics and "hospital", Central Washington Hospital, some healthy competition. I think it's an unselfish wish as I've heard I'm not the only one with problems getting adequate healthcare in this town, but I know my wish is a little bit selfish too. In the entire Wenatchee area, there is not ONE publicly owned healthcare facility.

Central Washington Hospital is a private, non-profit hospital that has refused my requests for information about who it's "owned by"; Columbia Valley Community Health is owned by its physicians (I think, will have to double check), Wenatchee Valley Medical Clinic is owned by its physicians, and that's it. There are no independent doctors in this town. Aside from Naturopaths, that is. At first I thought the different clinics competed with one another, but that is NOT the case. They run like a conglomeration and even Hamilton, the current CEO for CWH (Central Washington Hospital), admits to the Wenatchee World, that the prospect of Wenatchee Valley Medical Center opening it's own Emergency Room, is not viewed as a threat. This would seem good, at first glance. Cooperation among healthcare providers is always good, right? And yet beneath the surface, there is a serious problem. The predominant reason for this "cooperation" is an unspoken agreement that "if you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" and if one clinic is threatened with a lawsuit by a patient, the others will rally around that clinic to be sure if medical malpractice comes their way, they are returned the favor.

I have heard what it's like to break into the Asphalt and Gravel industry over here. There were "the big three" for years, according to Pamp Maiers, owner of Central Washington Asphalt, and it took some doing to squeeze in. I think it must be that way for any business over here, where there is a large community of small town folk who have mainly all grown up together and/or married into families which have come into the area and assimiliated. But it's especially strange and unique to see a kind of monopoly in effect with healthcare, where any nurse or medical practicioner is in danger of being blacklisted or out of a job if they bring up suggestions for the dreaded "change" or a patient questions lack of compliance for rules and protocol (following HIPPA laws, for example).

And, while there is "community clinic" that purports to "serve all" (Columbia Valley), the needs of the many are not met. There is ONE dental facility that serves low-income people, in the entire area, and the people in mainly hispanic speaking parts of town, where many immigrants live (and I once lived myself), have children with absessed and diseased gums, rotten teeth, and and while the kids are granted access to this dental facility (in theory), the parents are NOT covered unless it's an emergency and in that case, if you have a toothache, they'll pull out the tooth. Many adults are missing teeth, or have mercury amalgrams, even the front of their mouths.

I called this dental facility on behalf of one 10 year old hispanic girl whose parents worked for my grandparents in the orchard. She was visiting and I noticed something wasn't right with her gums when she smiled. One side looked pink and healthy, and on the other side, it was black or sort of dark brown. I also noticed discoloration on some of her teeth. I asked her if her teeth hurt and she nodded readily. I asked her where they hurt and she pointed to the discolored teeth and gum area. I asked if she would mind opening her mouth so I could see better. She didn't mind and I saw severe decay underneath the teeth, visible to the eye. They were rotting and her gums were infected and diseased. Then I saw more decay in the back of her mouth, on molars. She had at least 8 spots of disease and decay in her mouth, which were visible to the naked eye and this little girl was otherwise darling and pretty and only 10 years old. She was already losing her teeth. When I called the dental facility, they said this girl had had one examination and that 4 cavities were identified in total which had to be fixed, and she had missed her first appointment. When I talked to her parents, they said they hadn't been able to take her to the appointment, though they tried later and were told she couldn't be seen because she didn't show up last time. Whatever the exact truth is/was, what bothered me was that only 4 problem areas had been identified. I was given the exact information, over the phone as to which areas they were, too. Of course, in violation of HIPPA, and no one asked me who I was although they knew I wasn't a parent, because this is typical and standard in Wenatchee, to ignore basic laws. They were saying she had only 4 cavities? That's what they said the dentist said. She was to have one done this appointment, another done the next appointment...And no mention of fixing diseased gums. I guess I don't know that much. Maybe gums fix automatically when teeth are fixed. All I know, is that I cannot imagine it was pleasant for this young girl, to live with the pain. I saw her eating her food gingerly, on one side of her mouth. When I told the dental facility the parents said she had been refused service after their daughter missed her scheduled appointment, they said this girls problems were all her parents fault and that her parents were not good parents for attending to the problem. That didn't explain why only 4 out of 7 visible areas of cavity were identified by the professionals. The examination for identification had been recent, within 2-4 months of my call. And I would think her problems fit "emergency" standards, but the emergency hours are only early in the morning, one day a week for adults who cannot otherwise be seen. Shouldn't there be more than ONE dental facilty that serves low income, in this town? This dental facility was through CVCH, but I guess there are a few others that serve children in this town. This dental facility IS, though THE ONLY ONE in the entire area that will serve adults as well, who have full coverage through the state insurance, which usually applies only to pregnant women and special needs people.

I am too tired to write about my specific problems tonight, or to write the true story about a professional nurse who was found to be excellent in a big city, but blacklisted in this town when she suggested ideas for improvement. When I heard the story about this nurse, it confirmed the severity of the problem in this town. Whenever I think about how incredible the problem is, the big "Church Leader Sex Scandal" comes to mind. This was caused by mass hysteria and resulted in a witchhunt against innocent adults who were falsely accused of molesting thousands of children, and think it's incredible that even town police, CPS, and the judges here went along with it, and sent many innocent people to JAIL before they were exonnerated.

There are problems unique to Wenatchee. You live here as an outsider with a fresh perspective on what's going on, and it becomes apparent how this was possible. The scary part is, the environment hasn't changed. The mentality is the same, the grapevine is the same, the disregard for rules and procedures and favor for assumptions and gossip is the same. There are few checks and balances. Wenatchee is its own little "utopia" to some, and Hell for others, and anyone who lives here is on an island unto itself. When you have to drive at least an hour to 2 hours to get to another town, and there is only sagebrush and mountains inbetween, if you end up here, you may get stuck here, and will have to live with the problems as long as you're here. And believe me, those who man the fort will use anything in their power, if they don't like you, to rally support for your exile and do what they can to push you out, by force.

This night, I experience another episode of hysteria by individuals in the healthcare department, which spurs me to write when I'm not feeling well, because I hope to God someone hears this and will read the series of true stories I have to tell, from my viewpoint and the experiences of others, and be in a better position to fix the problems than I can.

This isn't the "big stuff" I have to write about, really, and it has nothing to do with certain discoveries I made recently, which came immediately before I started having massive security problems on my computer which even, according to the tech I spoke with, likely affected the health of me and my son. He said that for someone to do what they were doing on the computers I tried out, before I even went ONLINE, and to even target desktop computers and access them before I was online...He said they ONLY way to do this would be through sending a pulse to find my computer through very high radio frequency that was bleeding into my area, or by a magnetic field which is not possible without someone using sophisticated equipment or pointing a strong magnetic dish towards our house. It sounds weird, I know that. But he said this was the only way someone could do what they were doing. I will write about all the problems we were having, which I documented in a journal by hand, and the dates, very soon. It began in October or November of this last year, and continued until last Thursday night. The problems with laptops still continued even last night, but no one is accessing the desktop now, and our strange health problems stopped last Thursday. I had developed a very odd and severe unremitting pain as did my son, during this time, which I couldn't explain. I found out some things about the possible source for the severe fatigue, weaknesses, pain, and incessant muscle twitching that I and my son endured during this time. I overdosed on OTC meds and narcotics, which did nothing to help, several times trying to get rid of the pain which came out of the blue, and then ended as abruptly and altogether. In the last week my strength has come back a little, and my son is relieved from the problem as well, and has returned to his happy, independent and delightful self, though, I believe, not without consequence and side effects. He was a scared, clingy, and hurting little boy, waking up in the middle of the night, crying out the same time I was in another room suffering with the pain, or waking up next to him myself, wondering when I was going to be dead and thinking it had to be cancer. I could barely feed myself I was so weak. I couldn't write at all. I still ate well, and my son did too, but it took all my strength to lift a spoon to my mouth. I had thought my son's problems were behavioral. They were not.