Tell Us Your Health Care Story
What's your experience in the health care system? Do you have a story to tell? Submit your story here on Panorama - and join the health care discussion.

We'll select ten of these stories for a two-day intensive digital storytelling workshop. One workshop will be held in Grand Junction and the other will be held in Pueblo, dates to be determined. The workshop is brought to you by the Center for Digital Storytelling, a non-profit arts organization that helps people use the tools of digital media to craft, record and share their stories. If you're selected, you'll have the chance to create a short video - combining scripts, images and music. Your completed digital story project will then be featured on our website and possibly on air.

 

T.R. Reid, veteran correspondent for The Washington Post and a Denver resident, recently traveled the world for the "Frontline" documentary "Sick Around the World," to see how other industrialized countries manage their health care systems and what we can learn from them. In the following video segments, T.R. Reid introduces excerpts of the film and relates it to Colorado.
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A few years ago I was extremely healthy, being a skier, hiker, bicycler, etc. I would regularly do the Incline in Colorado Springs.

In 2004 I developed a slight cough that got really bad. Nothing could curb it. Only massive steroids. I went to Jewish in Denver, where I was "an interesting patient". Eventually I was put on Sporanox (an antifungal) after 5 months I started losing weight. I lost 25 pounds in a month. My blood pressure went from 110 to 160. I developed glaucoma.  I was taken off Sporanox, and one week later I massively clotted up (all 5 lobes of my lungs). I have (or more likely developed) Anticardiolipin antibodies.

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My husband Doug and I are both retired.  We both feel fortunate to have Medicaid and Medicare Part B but know that you can only get so far with that.  I won't tell our ages, but I am sure you can make a close guess.
It's funny how mom never told us that much about the aging process.  I guess it's something that we all have to "experience" for ourselves.

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As part of our "Critical Condition" outreach, we invited nine Coloradans to participate in a special digital storytelling workshop on their journeys through the health care system. Here are their stories.
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A problem with the health care system in this country is that it is a bureaucracy that feeds itself and we pay for it. I think the health care in can be improved by making it more efficient.

Last year one big toe was bothering me, an ingrown toenail became infected. In the week or 2 that I was hoping the problem would just subside I got a sore throat. I wasn't too painful but now I had a sore throat and a sore big toe that I knew needed a doctor's attention so I called the nurse of my heath insurance hotline.

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This is my story.  Since I started by menstrual cycle at age 14 I have suffered from severe menstrual cramps and PMS.  At age 19 I was diagnosed with Fibrocystic Breast Disease and the doctors suggested that I cut back on my caffeine intake.  Over the many years no doctor ever gave me any suggestions or recommendations on how to get relief from cramps or PMS besides cutting back on caffeine and taking Midol for cramps.   The Midol aggravated my Fibrocystic Breast.  Once I was on the birth control pill I did get relief from the severe menstrual cramps and some PMS relief.  I was on birth control pills for approximately 5 years.  I started to get concerned about taking birth control pills for that long that I stopped and we used alternative methods of birth control.  I had my first child at age 30 with not complications and he was a nature birth.  I had my second child at age 33; he was breach so I had a C-Section.  I nursed for 13 months so during my pregnancies and nursing I did not have a menstrual cycle.   I had no problems with both pregnancies.  My first delivery was under 5 hours.  For the most part I consider myself to be a healthy individual.

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I have had 49 surgeries. 6 of them were tumors removed from my neck and head.  Several were attempts to reopen my nasal ports, bionectomies, Laprsocopies, Phyrangial flap, sinuses remodeled.  Planters Faciitis and Tarsal Tunnel, Hysterectomy took out 5 tumors and 4 cysts. Hernia, Cataract removed from right eye age 9, muscles tightened right eye age 10. Getting ready to have my colon removed due to Colon Inertia in Denver sometime in the next few weeks.

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When I was working, as a guard at DOC in Illinois and then as a Masters Level Clinical Social Worker with Licensure in Illinois, I had very good health coverage. I never doubted it would ever be different. However, when I was forty-eight years of age, I was diagnosed as being adult ADD. This explained many problems and advantages I had in a total of approximately 20 years of employment in these fields, as well as my entire life in actuality.
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I think I'm an example of the middle class, which is being squeezed from every direction. My health care is tied to my job. When I don't have a job, I am uninsured. I am a very fit, active and healthy 30-something who applied for individual health coverage in April, after losing my job and not being able to pay for COBRA, which is prohibitively expensive. In the past, I obtained BlueCross/Anthem coverage with little trouble. But this time, the questionnaire was much more intrusive and I would up being offered a premium which was MUCH higher than what was originally quoted for my age because I was honest and said that I suffer from the occasional migraine. The premium they wanted was close to $400 per month and they lump in this type of headache in with much more serious afflictions, such as epilepsy. So, I went without coverage for two months, until I got my next job. But what if something happened to me during that time? Who would pay for it? Unemployment benefits don't include some form of health coverage, which I think is criminal. Aetna's individual coverage also includes a preliminary "nursing department" phone call that pelts you with a barrage of very intrusive, embarrassing questions and they even demanded pathology reports from my doctor, going back 7 years. Frankly, the number of uninsured will continue to rise unless the insurance industry is stopped. If you ever have even the most minor medical problem, they will find an excuse to raise your premiums or drop you all together.

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I had an on-the-job injury that led to me losing my job and my health insurance.  Two months ago I developed some hoarseness.  I went to my physician at Metro Community Physician Network (MCPN).  The evaluation was done and resulted in a recommendation for a direct laryngoscopy, so I was referred to an ENT specialist.  With the help of the patient navigator at MCPN, I was able to see Dr. M Tralla (previously a volunteer physician at MCPN) in his office.  At the time of my first visit I was told by the front desk that I needed to pay $450. up front.  I didn't have the money so I left.  I was called by the patient navigator and was told that the physician services would be free, and this was communicated to the office staff.  I was seen at the time of my second visit.  After the exam he told me that I needed a biopsy of the vocal cord.  The physician service is donated, however, I would have to pay for the facility service.  My son had to co-sign a promissory note so that I could get my health services at the facility.  The surgery is set up for mid-October.

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