The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1834

So, I was at work on a Saturday and crazy stressed, which is a side story in and of itself. Basically a special needs student at school was being bullied and harassed by his peers, and the school was refusing to do anything about it and the parents were all in denial, because Asia is really bad about mental health issues. I don't want to go into detail about that, or rather I do but I shouldn't because privacy and ethics, but basically it had been a really bad week for this student and I was trying to help him and being unsuccessful.

The point is this issue took so much of my time that that week I hadnt really gotten much work done, so I had to go to school on Saturday to do lesson plans and catch up. We also had a school sports day on Sunday, and had had an education fair the weekend prior, so I was looking at a straight 19 days of work.

I was also really stressing hard over this school issue, because who wouldn't, and because I was really taking it personally due to my own history with depression at school and being bullied etc.

So I was in the office on a Saturday and really stressed out.

And I started having chest pains.

And I was like WTF, I can't be having a heart attack, that is not possible, I'm 32, have a good diet, low blood pressure, exercise more than most people and had a physical just like half a year ago with no issues. So I kept working.

Then like an hour later my left arm started hurting.

And I'm telling all this to my then girlfriend now fiance and she's like GO TO THE DOCTOR.

And I'm all like naw I need to work there's no way this is a heart attack I'm not at risk of that at all.

And she's like YOU ARE FUCKING STUPID GO TO THE FUCKING DOCTOR RIGHT THE FUCK NOW.

So I drove myself to the doctor, and they did some sort of test and told me no my heart was perfectly healthy and they thought I was just stressed the fuck out and I needed to go home and relax, gave me a note so I could take the next day off work, and I went home and watched cartoons and the pain went away basically immediately. Doctors visit was free and I was only in there about 20 minutes.


Anyway the moral of the story is I realized later that if this had happened in USA I wouldn't have gone to the doctor, just flat out. There's absolutely no way I would have gone. And not only that, not going to the doctor would have been the correct decision, because I was right in my self diagnosis and would have avoided a big pointless bill.

But in that situation in USA I could have made the correct decision to not go to the doctor and then died of a heart attack.

So not only did a single payer healthcare system turn out to be really helpful and preventative there, but I felt like it also showed how growing up in the US system taught me a logical process in regards to my health that is basically ass fucking backwards, while my fiance had a much more sensible rationale towards the whole thing.

I think we all realize that the US medical system encourages you to not go to the doctor and that that's stupid as fuck, but basically this really brought home and crystalized for me just exactly how stupid it truly is.

It's pretty fucking stupid.

Our health stuff is a bit of a mess. Tend to go to private mostly myself but a visit to the doctor which I went end of last year cost me like R200. Which converted would be around 15$. In terms of big Macs it's about 5. Never quite understood why it's so expensive over there even if it's a bit of a mess.

I've never been in situation where felt "I can't see the doctor" and never really heard anyone say that. Mostly about going to the clinic(Which is free) over going to private.