WTF???
I have a buddy here, the same one who used to accompany me on all of my estate sale excursions. We've been buddies since we were 7 years old and were best friends growing up. He's exactly, to the day, 3 months older than me. Heck, his mom was our Cub Scout leader. We have a long history and he drops by the house every week or two to drop off fresh eggs for Lynn (he has a bunch of chickens) and we always have a b/s session while he's here. Last month he dropped by and said he'd had some vision problems lately and went in for an eye exam. They found he had Melanoma of the eyeball (intraocular melanoma). I thought that was just a skin cancer kind'a thing. He informed me he thought the same, but his doctor educated him and explained you can have Melanoma in or on any part of your body and cited an example he once experienced of a woman with Melanoma of the vagina! WTF?? It's a fast spreading cancer and he had his final appointment yesterday (Friday). They informed him his cancer has progressed to the point they're going to have to remove his eyeball.
Ok, that's sucky enough, but when I asked him how long he'd be hospitalized, he said they told him it would be an out-patient procedure and would take about 3-hours! DOUBLE WTF!!?? Now here's what I'm wondering, he has never made a lot of money. It's just never been important to him. He lives on some acreage he purchased out in the swamp, in an old singlewide trailer someone gave him (he just had to move it to his property) and he's totally happy there. He's a bit of a loner anyway, so it works for him. He's been a self-employed carpenter all his life and I have no idea how he handled his finances regarding IRS, taxes, etc. When he retired he started drawing Social Security and has only Medicare coverage (I doubt if he has any sort of supplemental coverage, but really don't know for sure). Due to his low income status, he was on Medicaid before he retired and applied for Social Security.
That said, I just couldn't believe his eyeball removal would be done as a 3-hour out-patient procedure, then sent home. Out of curiosity, I Googled "average hospital stay after eyeball removal" and these are the first few results that came up:
Most patients stay in the hospital for one or two days after enucleation surgery, which is the removal of the eye, and ocular melanoma surgery.
If you and your doctor choose to remove the eye, you will be admitted to the hospital and your eye will be removed under either local or general anesthesia. The patient usually leaves the hospital one or two days after surgery.
All of these operations are done while you are under general anesthesia (in a deep sleep). Most people will stay in the hospital 1 or 2 days afterward.
My question is, do you think the out-patient surgery may be a result of shitty insurance? Something about this just smells to me. I can't fathom walking into a clinic, them cutting out your eyeball, slapping a patch over it and sending you home. I dunno, maybe times are changing, but I'm getting a bit grossed out thinking about it.
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