Vandwellers Forum

[naturenut]

Hello vandwellers - this is naturenut and I am about to spill my guts - I will not be obscene or fowl so if you want to read this it is optional I just want an opportunity to vent. OK?

I have been disabled since early 2006 with a brain tumor - "anomaly" I have been through 12 doctors and 17 MRIs and 9 cat scans and tons on tests and medications - all of my Drs have agreed that I have brain damage (my wife would have said that 30 years ago) my vision makes me a barely legal driver only daylight and no bad weather - I have a poor sense of balance and have no stamina (often needing a nap and long nights in bed.
I am not complaining = I can live with this - I just buried a friend, his tumor was cancer (39 year old with 7 kids -so I am blessed with mine) No Dr can figure out my problem so the sent me from one to another till I ended up with the chief neurologist at Hershey Medical Center (best in our area) He says that the thing in my brain is located where operating is not possible and that it can't be a stroke and it is not acting like a "normal tumor" so he calls it an anomaly. that means he has no idea what is wrong but feels certain that I can live with it. GREAT now comes the rub - because he can not put an exact diagnosis on it the government does not have a number for it in their system therefor I am not officially disabled. Now after 4 years they have heard my doctors and have declared me disabled and the checks will start in late February - but again because there was no firm diagnosis until now I am not eligible for any retroactive benefits.

In four years - I have exhausted everything and would be homeless if it was not for my Church. I have not paid them rent in these four years since they bought the house so I would not loose it. I was counting on a decent check for retro benefits to pay them back an d buy a decent rig to travel in (one that meets the wife's standards)

I paid into social security for 40 years and every once in a while I got a letter stating how much I would get if disabled - don't believe what they say - and these are the people who want to run everyone's health care I do not want anything more than what I am due. I paid into their disability insurance every payday for 40 years (I was forced to or I would not have done it - I was never that smart when I was young - but fact is I paid in, all of my employees and relatives paid in and the idiots in Washington spent it. (Rs and Ds) Do you think any of they will retire without their bundle??????

I do not want welfare - there are those who need that but I just want the insurance benefits that I paid for. If I get a lawyer and go after the retro payments they will not pay me one cent until the case is settled in court - then the lawyers will get most of it. What do I live on as this case drags out a few more years? - these people are slower than my 98 year old mother in law.

I am very thankful for the medicare taking care of hospital bills and the Church and friends who have been helping but I am tired of being a "deadbeat"

So I am going to sit back and wait for that first payment and hope that solves the problem - kiss 4 years of benefits good bye - what a van that could buy!!!! - I am thankful that the government "forced" me to "buy" insurance every payday with my social security but why aren't they "forced" to hold up their end of the bargain????.

WHY? because they are all liars and only care for themselves and their own - when you and I are sharing the last can of spam they will still be eating fillet in the capital dinning room.

Now I feel better (for a while)

God bless the vandwellers and other simple people we may all die poor but we will still have our integrity in tack when the time comes.[/size][/size]
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1995 GMC Safari - cheap & simple homemade amenities for camping
I love this natural world around us and the creator so much that I can't wait to see the new one He's got for us - we sure have made a mess of this one!

[tvme]

naturenut,

I can't say I understand because I've never experienced anything like that. Its hard to even imagine how the "crap" SS added to your disability must feel. You are in my prayers.

Very occasionally, and only if it helps their re-election efforts, a member of congress will cut through some of the garbage and help with disability matters. This next election cycle may offer an opportunity.

Take care,
Bob

[naturenut]

I do not know how many read my rant but hope they all understood it was just that a venting of steam

I was supposed to have a 9 am phone appointment with them today - they never called - I tried over 40 times on redial and finally got through to be put on hold for an half hour - then the man who was supposed to call me earlier took my call and apologized nicely (first time for everything)

The frustration comes from 2 things

they have told us for years that this is ours something we paid for and have a right to - but try to get it - they make you feel like dirt

2 - these are the people who want to run everyone's health care

???????????

Am I ranting again? I did not want to - oh what a beautiful day - I think I will take my safari on a safari.

God bless all the people living simply in Haiti or simply living
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1995 GMC Safari - cheap & simple homemade amenities for camping
I love this natural world around us and the creator so much that I can't wait to see the new one He's got for us - we sure have made a mess of this one!

[bandett]

Hope thigs get better

[naturenut]

Tvme - thanks for the prayers i need all I can get - I don't know why I opened up on this site -guess I am feeling at home here - I feel guilty for being so upset to rant like that when people I know and don't know have it so much worse - There are people in Haiti how would be so thankful for a van without wheels and not running they would make it a home.

Bandett - thanks - things are already better

- and by the way thank you moderators for all you do !!!!!

When it gets a little warmer I am treating my self to a nice long time in the mountains alone - just me and my van

blessings and prayers to all vandwellers and other eccentrics out there - we sure have a better life than the "drones" and "clones"
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1995 GMC Safari - cheap & simple homemade amenities for camping
I love this natural world around us and the creator so much that I can't wait to see the new one He's got for us - we sure have made a mess of this one!

[naturenut]

HEY ANOTHER IDEA - THIS RANT SURE MADE ME FEEL BETTER - MAYBE SOME OF YOU MIGHT HAVE SOMETHING YOU WANT TO GET OFF YOU CHEST - WE WILL BE KIND TO YOU AND UNDERSTAND - IT SURE FELT GOOD WHEN I DID IT EXCEPT NOW I AM JUST A LITTLE EMBARRASSED BUT ----
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1995 GMC Safari - cheap & simple homemade amenities for camping
I love this natural world around us and the creator so much that I can't wait to see the new one He's got for us - we sure have made a mess of this one!

[PYSCHOWard]

I fully understand your Fight,my wife went thru the waiting and waiting to get what she worked for, all the while we know people, that NEVER worked a day in their entire life, but still get more than Twice the amt she does. May his light shine on you Soon.
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I Didnot Escape, I'm on a Weekend Pass.
If the house is a Rockin,Don't Bother Knockin, Just come on in (SRV)

97 Dodge 2500 Shorty
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[arthurwwebb]

Don't EVER feel guilty about ranting on here, Naturenut, we're a group of freinds, and part of what we do is 'listen' to each other's troubles.
I didn't reply before becuase I really had no response, but always ready to let my freinds vent to me. If it made you feel better that's a good thing. I will have you in my prayers.
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I'm not old, I'm Vintage!

[gungfusteve]

i'm sorry to hear about your troubles naturenut, i wish there was some kind of justice available for individuals like you and so many others who are ignored so easily by the institutions they support.

here is a short rant in commiseration...it will be kind of political. feel free to disagree with me : ).

It's about how our rights are being hijacked by corporations, those faceless entities whose only concern is to profit their shareholders without concern for the social cost of their gross misuse of resources and abuse of economic power. I was not aware that a corporation has a voice that is distinct from those who comprise it. Who amongst the employees of Microsoft does not have their own vote to cast and their own chance to contribute financially to election campaigns? Why should entities, the most powerful and wealthy of which have shown themselves to have a remarkable disregard for the local communities and ecosystems where they build their factories to extract our resources to sell to us, have any claim on freedom of speech rights? Am I to understand that the entire bill of rights applies to them as much as it does me? Am I to understand that any of the 10 Amendments could be next? How long before Microsoft wishes to address its Second Amendment rights and what form will that take? Can you imagine, for a moment, a world in which a corporation in control of weapons production or computer development begins to feel oppressed by our government?

Already, I fear what my government can do to me with its excessive corporate influence. Already, I find myself at odds with laws designed to keep me in line with the desires of the corporatocracy and in no position to do anything about it! I see a steadily declining situation with regards to our basic human rights, rights individuals have been trying to protect from government influence for as long as government has been around! You might argue that I need only move to another country, but you know as well as I that I would only be subjecting myself to the collective irrationality of a different political history. Anyway, don't get me wrong--it's not our country that I am at odds with. It is our government and those who tend it.

What I see when I look at the doings and goings-on of our government is an organization whose primary interest is itself. Our government does not care about protecting our freedom of speech nearly as much as it cares about maintaining the illusions that it cares about protecting our freedom of speech. The concessions it grants us are pacifying measures intended to dull the minds of the majority by giving them the impression that they are free. Corporate news and entertainment media may not have even reached the saturation point of their influence on public minds--who knows what enabling legislation will be passed by legislatures comprised of politicians who are able to garner the support of corporations who merely wish to express their newly-defined freedom of speech rights?

I don't know about anyone else, but I am willing and able to fight corporate america tooth and nail to my very last breathe if necessary. When I see that the cost of maintaining the social contract far outweighs the benefits; when I see that instead of merely protecting property rights, preventing violence amongst its constituents, and providing for the common defence against outside fources, the government punishes us for consentual crimes; when I see all this, I cringe. I know the government is overstepping itself.
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Better to be sick in the head than sane in the city.

[arthurwwebb]

True, and not news. All govornments are about the propogation of power, which is why the founders wrote the bill of rights. Not to 'give' us rights they believed were natural rights (god given, if one prefers) but to tell the new govornment they almost unanimously considered a necessary EVIL what it WAS NOT ALLOWED to do as regards those rights.
Well, surprise, surprise, every single right enumerated in the bill of rights has been infringed, by both parties, going back to before we were born. Honestly, NO MAN who seeks public office should be allowed to hold it. He's either a power monger, massively arrogant, or both
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I'm not old, I'm Vintage!

[wildthing]

I want to tread carefully because I probably don't want to start a debate about the pros and cons of socialized health care... but as a dual Canadian/US citizen who has lived in both places... I can tell you that having free access to medical care, at any age and at any time, creates a different kind of life. I know there's a huge struggle around health care reform in the US right now, and at the risk of sounding smug- which is NOT my intent (especially since our own Prime Minister is such a crony who was in Bush's pocket back in the day)- I can say that in Canada, we simply shake our heads in bewilderment, true puzzlement, over how the Greatest Nation on Earth doesn't have socialized medicine (actually I've heard that the term "socialized" is not exactly accurate in Canada's case, it's more like "subsidized"). And of course, our own government is constantly trying to take it away from us, but we fight and shake our heads in belwilderment then, too.

All I can figure, from my experience of living in Arizona and the horror at receiving a $300 bill in the mail for a soar throat and no one batting an eyelash whereas I was flabbergasted and crying, is that US citizens haven't experienced socialized health care so they don't understand what they are missing and how it changes everything, how important it is to fight for. To be honest, I want to shake my American relatives sometimes when they seem so dubious about socialized health care.

I'm not certain how much this comes to bear on the interesting 'rant' at hand, but since we're talkin gov'ts and healthcare and priorities and all... that's my 2 cents.
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torn between wanting to change the world and wanting to enjoy it, makes it hard to plan the day.

[arthurwwebb]

We have no direct experience with subsidized healthcare, but hear tales from nations that do, about people dying of cuases they would probably have survived here, on private insurance, becuase they're made to wait when with private insurance they'd have recieved immediate care, and a greater chance of survival. Also, remember that this 'greatest country on earth' has a healthcare system where drug companies 'recover research costs' exclusively in this country, so the same drugs sold outside the USA often cost HALF or less in bordering nations becuase Americans foot the R&D bill on them.
Sad to say, but here healthcare is a BUISENESS geared to making huge profits off those who HAVE insurance, and those who don't are largely forgotten. Then, of course, there is the fact that ERs here (at least in TX) are not allowed to turn away those who can't pay, and some go there for all their healthcare needs with no intention of paying, leaving those who do paying ridiculously inflated bills to try to make up for the deadbeats. (and some of us who would pay resonable bills refuse to pay the price as inflated thus, or the sometimes unecessary 'tests' sometimes used to 'diagnose' simple ailments)
Add in the fact that our Food and Drug administration is firmly in the pocket of the drug companies, and highly effective treatments that don't involve the use of drugs aren't 'approved for the treatment of' maladies they actualy CURE, and the only treatments 'allowed' are drugs that 'treat' but do not cure, and that dangerous drugs are permitted into production all the time, and then the drug companies get sued becuase their drugs kill people they were supposed to treat (not cure. if you cure the disease you can't make money 'treating' it for the next 30+ years)
Our healthcare system here is pretty screweed up, but there are lots of reasons we haven't gone for subsidized healthcare, mostly monetarily driven, but also driven by concern for the quality of healthcare. England, which has subsidized healthcare, has a much higher mortality rate for, say, breast cancer than the US, according to some sources, while Canada, as you say, is constantly trying to take away subsidized healthcare becuase it's a budget nightmare for the govornment and the taxpayers (what's the income tax like in Canada, percentage wise, compared to the US?)
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I'm not old, I'm Vintage!

[surfcam]

I have direct experience with subsidized healthcare but it is only my experience. If you have a medical emergency in Canada generally you will be well cared for. If you need elective surgery you may have to way years. Only 60% of the population have there own personal doctor so a lot of the 40% jam the emergency rooms. To me it's mediocre heath care on the cheap. Income taxes are higher in Canada to pay for some of the health care but also because Canada is such a big country with a small population. This makes the infrastructure cost a lot higher than the US. We have way more roads and power lines per population than in the US. I'm generally happy with the health care I get in Canada but I have never lived in the US. You can always find someone that had a bad outcome in the US or Canada. To really gauge a system you have to be some kind of the statistician.
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