USA is Mecca for Innovative Medicine at Least for Now
With all the talk about Obamacare and the opposition to it, you may have heard propaganda about how wonderful the government health care is in UK, Germany, and even Cuba, but please do not believe it. (God help us — have you seen photos of some Cuban hospitals? Those conditions would never be allowed here even in the worst cities — but try to tell Michael Moore that).
Sometimes it takes a personal experience and the need for a rare procedure to bring home the fact that no where else but the USA do we have certain innovative medical procedures that are available to all. The need for this rare procedure was never more evident to me than a few days ago when I experienced a Posterior Vitreous Detachment which is not yet complete. I am still on watch for retinal detachment.
Here is an exact quote from an Australian Pilot’s message board archive that describes what I went through…
“I suffered a Posterior Vitreous Detachment in one eye last night. Very sudden and very scary, although totally painless. Lots of flashes of light and masses of black blob-like and spidery black “floaters”, plus what seemed to me like an additional translucent flickering eyelid on the right side of my eye.”
Apparently even in people with very healthy eyes who have never experienced any sort of troubles, are susceptible if they have had Myopia since childhood. It is one of the factors that determines who is at risk for PVD.
Even though 85% of us are merely left with obscured vision from the gel that has detached, it is a potentially dangerous condition because it can CAUSE retinal detachment within the first 6 weeks. So a trip to the doctor is in order right away. Then you will be watched for those ensuing 6 weeks to make sure when the detachment of the gel completes, it hasn’t taken the retina with it. Meanwhile, the blob of gel, hanging suspended from the tether that is still attached to the back of the eye, makes for the sensation of having gotten a bit of cold cream in the eye that refuses to be washed out. Sort of like a nictitating membrane! (Third opaque eyelid found in lizards and birds!)
Speaking to the issue of how to remedy these large pieces of debris that are floating within the eye and obscuring a person’s normally good vision, there are a few doctors in the USA that are using lasers to safely and easily remove clear and present blobs of the stuff that is floating around obscuring one’s vision…
Here are a few:
http://www.EyeFloaters.com (Virginia, USA) Dr. Karickhoff
http://www.vitreousfloaters.com/ (Florida, USA) Dr. Geller
http://www.oclaservision.com/ (California, USA) Dr. Johnson
http://vitreousfloatersolutions.com/
In more than one place I have done research, I have seen people from UK, Australia and even Germany, a country we view as modern and technologically advanced especially in the area of medicine, admit that they can hardly get good treatment for detached retina let alone the annoying condition one is left with under PVD.
The pilots on the Australian bulletin board were told they would have to live with the condition and were concerned for their flying credentials. And my doctor in USA has said I should learn to live with it.
However, it is nice to know that if my condition does not improve, I might be able to visit one of the clinics mentioned above and get this treatment. But with the coming of Obamacare in 2014, who knows what will happen with regard to who gets treatment for serious illnesses, let alone quality of life issues such as these?