Pics not for the squeemish, only I get hurt installing...

[Marlin]

LOL, you want some of my 4 inches!!!!!

[vt_maverick]

Well, for the ridiculous people that support public health care, I can tell you first hand what kind of care it will be....plus in order for me to go to medical, I would have to drive all the way over to the base (4 miles) and have them tell me I need to go to the ER. Then I go out in town and sit in the ER for 4 hours for them to tell me it is too late to get stitches. No thanks, I will cut out the middle man.
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+1 - Military medicine is a joke. If I took the time to list everything that has gone wrong for just my wife and friends, I'd still be here Monday morning. (She was prior AF active duty, now Air National Guard).

The best summary is this story: A few months ago she collapsed while on the job and was taken to the base hospital. When I walked into her room I asked two questions: "Are you okay?" and "Seriously? You couldn't crawl out the gate so the civilian hospital would come get you?" Yes it's that bad. We were at the hospital 13 hours before she was discharged. In that time she had a CT scan, then an MRI, then a CT scan with contrast (because the first CT didn't work - duh). Hours literally passed between doctor and nurse visits. When the resident obgyn came on duty she took one look at her chart, said something to the attending physician that must not have been a compliment, and she was out the door in 15 minutes. Turns out the problem was related to a post-pregnancy complication we already knew she had (and which we told the doctor was probably the problem up front).

Sorry for the rant, like I said, that's just one small example. Marlin's on the money, trust me, you do not want government health care.

[Marlin]

Sorry for the rant, like I said, that's just one small example. Marlin's on the money, trust me, you do not want government health care.

I will say the health care for my family is awesome. Of course, they get seen my civilian docs

[technocoy]

For every ****ty story there is a good one, so it's always hard to judge. Plus, those who get the dud experience always complain the loudest.

My buddy crushed 4 of his vertebrae while in Iraq, they not only paid 100% for a back surgery that would have broken him otherwise, but he got a medical/honorable discharge after 10 years in and topped him another 50 percent of his pay grade in retirement money since he was hurt while on duty. He was gonna stay in, but they said there was too much liability involved which I kinda chuckled at since you are fighting a WAR. ha.

Hard to complain about that scenario.

My stepbrother who has 7 kids (don't ask, also all girls!) and was in the Corps for 12 years gets great care (in his opinion) for the whole family for a fraction of what I pay for myself, my wife and our 1 daughter. I could make a really nice car payment for what I pay in insurance, if not approaching a small house payment.

Also, decent insurance that is 100% coverage like you get when enlisted is a good clip more expensive than what most Americans can pay for the whole family, which defeats the whole purpose when you wind up with a 200,000.00 bill that gets only 60-80 percent paid. You're still gonna be broke for a LONG time.

That being said, Marlin, I'd say you may be too late for stitches, but make sure once it scabs you keep something on it during the day, especially with all the hands on stuff you do. My best friend nicked himself on the chain of a transfer machine and he did the same thing. wound up losing the tip of his finger from infection.

It's funny though, in my head, that cut is placed perfect so that you could get some extra bend out of your finger ;-) assuming there was no bone there. HeHe.

I do the same crap, I'll weld, build, cut whatever and wind up ripping a fingernail off changing a O2 sensor or some crap. Ugh.

Also, not sure where you guys live, but at any busy hospital sitting 13 hours waiting for some service isn't a far stretch no matter where you are in the spectrum. If it ain't obviously life-threatening or giving birth, then you are LAST in their line.

[vt_maverick]

For every ****ty story there is a good one, so it's always hard to judge. Plus, those who get the dud experience always complain the loudest.

My buddy crushed 4 of his vertebrae while in Iraq, they not only paid 100% for a back surgery that would have broken him otherwise, but he got a medical/honorable discharge after 10 years in and topped him another 50 percent of his pay grade in retirement money since he was hurt while on duty. He was gonna stay in, but they said there was too much liability involved which I kinda chuckled at since you are fighting a WAR. ha.

Hard to complain about that scenario.

My stepbrother who has 7 kids (don't ask, also all girls!) and was in the Corps for 12 years gets great care (in his opinion) for the whole family for a fraction of what I pay for myself, my wife and our 1 daughter. I could make a really nice car payment for what I pay in insurance, if not approaching a small house payment.

Also, decent insurance that is 100% coverage like you get when enlisted is a good clip more expensive than what most Americans can pay for the whole family, which defeats the whole purpose when you wind up with a 200,000.00 bill that gets only 60-80 percent paid. You're still gonna be broke for a LONG time.
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Then I'd say you get what you pay for.

[vt_maverick]

Also, not sure where you guys live, but at any busy hospital sitting 13 hours waiting for some service isn't a far stretch no matter where you are in the spectrum. If it ain't obviously life-threatening or giving birth, then you are LAST in their line.

You'd think. But they allowed their "LAST" priority to consume 1 of their 4 triage rooms for 9+ hours, then 1 of their 6 exam rooms for another 3 hours. Apparently she was in enough danger that they wouldn't let us leave, but not enough danger that they couldn't take 12 hours to figure out what was wrong. And apparently it was serious enough to waste one of their rooms all day while 30+ people were in the waiting room, but not serious enough that the doctor would call the on-call OBGYN at any point.

Btw, there were enough complaints a few years ago that this base hospital lost their certification as an emergency treatment facility - they literally had to send military folks off base to receive emergency treatment. They just regained that certification a couple years ago. So yes, it is as bad as it seems.

I will concede that there are exceptions to this rule. My wife and grandfather (both vets) have been seen at Portsmouth Naval Hospital in the past, and we've had an outstanding experience each time (staff are very friendly and helpful, plenty of doctors on the floor at all times). But then again there is the ridiculously long wait at the dispensary counter...

[technocoy]

You'd think. But they allowed their "LAST" priority to consume 1 of their 4 triage rooms for 9+ hours, then 1 of their 6 exam rooms for another 3 hours. Apparently she was in enough danger that they wouldn't let us leave, but not enough danger that they couldn't take 12 hours to figure out what was wrong. And apparently it was serious enough to waste one of their rooms all day while 30+ people were in the waiting room, but not serious enough that the doctor would call the on-call OBGYN at any point.

Btw, there were enough complaints a few years ago that this base hospital lost their certification as an emergency treatment facility - they literally had to send military folks off base to receive emergency treatment. They just regained that certification a couple years ago. So yes, it is as bad as it seems.

I will concede that there are exceptions to this rule. My wife and grandfather (both vets) have been seen at Portsmouth Naval Hospital in the past, and we've had an outstanding experience each time (staff are very friendly and helpful, plenty of doctors on the floor at all times). But then again there is the ridiculously long wait at the dispensary counter...

I can see that for sure. Course that's the case with all hospitals. The one from my hometown was just notoriously bad. Especially for waits. Of course, it was the only hospital for 30 miles, whereas in Raleigh you have about 5 hospitals within 15-20 miles.

Of course, this also gets into the larger problem in that most of the medical system is in need of serious overhaul.

I can sympathize in most the situations (except of course that my experiences weren't with a military hospital) so I'm not knocking anyone, just playing devils advocate a little. The clearest perspective is always our own. That's why I always take a minute to try and put myself in others shoes. I'm pretty good at this in all my life situations except driving. Man, I got some road rage for sure. We all got our character flaws, eh?

Cheers guys, didn't mean to threadjack on Marlin and his gimp finger.

[technocoy]

You'd think. But they allowed their "LAST" priority to consume 1 of their 4 triage rooms for 9+ hours, then 1 of their 6 exam rooms for another 3 hours. Apparently she was in enough danger that they wouldn't let us leave, but not enough danger that they couldn't take 12 hours to figure out what was wrong. And apparently it was serious enough to waste one of their rooms all day while 30+ people were in the waiting room, but not serious enough that the doctor would call the on-call OBGYN at any point.

Btw, there were enough complaints a few years ago that this base hospital lost their certification as an emergency treatment facility - they literally had to send military folks off base to receive emergency treatment. They just regained that certification a couple years ago. So yes, it is as bad as it seems.

I will concede that there are exceptions to this rule. My wife and grandfather (both vets) have been seen at Portsmouth Naval Hospital in the past, and we've had an outstanding experience each time (staff are very friendly and helpful, plenty of doctors on the floor at all times). But then again there is the ridiculously long wait at the dispensary counter...

Oh, I agree Maverick, it aggravates the hell out of me to ever need to go to an emergency room. I was just pointing out that it's not really a military care problem alone. The rest of the country is just as befuddled as you are.

I personally loved it when my sister was bleeding from her head and had part of her bone sticking out at the elbow and they were hassling her about insurance and identification but the dude that came in right behind us (who didn't speak English, conveniently) had neither and they didn't so much as wince before taking him on back for what appeared to be a burned forearm.

Just sayin'

[Marlin]

Oh, I agree Maverick, it aggravates the hell out of me to ever need to go to an emergency room. I was just pointing out that it's not really a military care problem alone. The rest of the country is just as befuddled as you are.

I personally loved it when my sister was bleeding from her head and had part of her bone sticking out at the elbow and they were hassling her about insurance and identification but the dude that came in right behind us (who didn't speak English, conveniently) had neither and they didn't so much as wince before taking him on back for what appeared to be a burned forearm.

Just sayin'

They just billed Obama...

On a happy note, the wound already closed over. I am thinking of getting some adamantium claws installed. With my super healing ability...the possibilities are endless.