Prairie Fire Journal

Two years ago I was diagnosed as having chronic bronchitis COPD. COPD (or any chronic pulmonary disease) demands the services of a Pulmonary Specialist (and a Respiration Therapist) to assure the correct diagnoses and treatments. Unfortunately I don't have health insurance and I'm currently unemployed. As a result, I have had to depend on a rural health clinic that changes doctors more often than the seasons change. At times only a physician's assistant has been available to provide treatment.

After reading extensively on the treatment of COPD I've come to the conclusion that this clinic is ill-equipped to provide the proper medical care that I need. The county I live in has a population of only about 4,000 people and no advanced medical facilities or pulmonary specialists. I don't qualify for indigent healthcare services in a larger county that has such facilities because I'm not a resident of that county. The state of Texas certainly isn't going to help.

I've reached the point to where even the simplest tasks leave me gasping for air. In a country that prides itself on having the most advanced medical care in the world, it appears that I'm destined for an agonizing death by slow suffocation because I don't have any money or health insurance to pay for all those wonderful medical treatments. I know for some of you that's probably cause to cheer.