February 2, 2009 by
Harry,
Pain, ethics & Doctors: getting treated in SF
Once we arrived in San Francisco, my knee got some rest, but it did
not get better. After we moved to Bradley & Saskia’s place, I could
not even walk and we spent X-mas inside the house.
I asked around and a friend of Ali referred us to a private clinic
in town. I contacted them and could get a quick appointment with a
doctor. She was an osteopath and very friendly and though she could not
do much for my knee, she diagnosed my back and started treating
immediately.
Apparently some of my vertebrae were a little ‘off’, causing the
constant inflammation to the connected ribs and the pain that comes
with it. As she is both a medic (she could prescribe me new medication,
which helped to ease the pain) as well as a chiropractor, she could
start fixing me right away.
Doctors are expensive and private clinics are even worse, but as I
was a tourist, they waived the ‘membership fee’ and the doctor told me
that she would see what could be done about the size of the bill. Even
though we are covered by our WorldNomads insurance, it is always unclear when and how much I could get back, so I appreciated that.
She was a sportswoman herself and wanted to support our trip and
offered me a free 2nd consultation a few days later. I gratefully
accepted and after the 2nd treatment my back felt much better, though
my knee was still incredibly painful and useless.
She told me that I could come back for another free treatment after
our little road trip, but the night before our appointment I received
an email. Apparently she had been reprimanded for offering free
services.
(…) I have just finished a conversation with my employer
who suggested that my offering to treat you here in this office
“pro-bono” (for free) is ethically unsound. He has
asked that I request that you not come by the office tomorrow, January
6th. The other visit that has already taken place is in the past, is
“OK”, but no further visits should be allowed.(…)
I
always thought that helping patients was the thing that was ethically
sound for doctors (something about oath and Hippocrates?), but I guess
I was wrong. I wrote her back that I would have gladly paid for the
service anyway, but after this message I would go elsewhere.
I know it was not her choice to refuse me, but for me it is ethically unsound to
pay very expensive treatments just because you might get it back from
the insurance.. I even paid for a $20 membership of the Walgreen
pharmacy, so my medication would be (much) cheaper, even though I will
get it back from WorldNomads.
Mitch’s friend Adriana told me that her friend Hal Rosenberg was a famous Chiropractor and I should call him to schedule an appointment.
I ended up in his office a few days later and got treated right
away, both for my shoulder as well as my knee. Using the Crafton
technique and electronic stimulation he removed a lot of scar tissue
from the knee and though the pain remained during the treatments, I
could use it again.
Though I felt at times that he was aiming to kill me, the twisting
and crunching of the neck and back improved the back a lot as well,
though when not taking the anti-inflammatories the pain would come back
quickly.
I also had a few sessions with Bobby and Steve, the in-house
physical therapists, and they gave me specific exercises to strengthen
the core and leg muscles that were influencing the movement of the
knees. In total I had 6 appointments and though more probably would
have been good, we felt that it was time to try to move on, going South
again!
San Francisco: cultural diversity, faded flowerpower and civil rights
The bus and streetcars must be some of SF’s greatest and cheapest
attractions. Unlike the ‘clean’ BART underground, the public transport
that runs above the surface is the best way to see another face of SF.
It is a continuous show of people of all types and colours: tourists,
homeless people; some youth dressed-up in party gear, others completely
off the planet. Some people were on their way to work, others were
doing their business on the bus itself.
It reminded us about Weird Al Yankovic’s Another One Rides The Bus (video & lyrics here), especially the streetcar going down Market Street was great fun 
Other well-known aspects of San Francisco are the birth of Flower Power
and the civil rights movement, especially the gay rights.
We visited Haight & Ashbury, the famous area where Janis Joplin,
Jimi Hendrix and many other musicians and artists once lived, but got
depressed by its current state: a lot of so-called cool shops, selling
stuff for smoking weed and ‘spiritual’ goodies, one of the few
McDonalds visible in the city, and homeless kids on the streets, many
of them who look like they are there by choice and that it took a long
time or a lot of money to get those clothes look ‘alternative’ and worn.
More
interesting is the nearby Castro District, birthplace of Gay Rights and
still the gay capital of the USA. It has nice streets, friendly people
and good little restaurants.
It is were the movie ‘Milk’
was filmed as the historic events depicted all took place in this part
of town. Not only is Sean Penn’s acting phenomenal, it was especially
great to be able to see the movie in a fully packed famous Castro
Theatre, which even features in the film
They included a slideshow about Harvey Milk, and an original organ
player playing music while the crowds came in. The cinema was filled
with locals, as every reference to local places and events were met
with chuckles and comments.
It is strange that exactly in the liberal and generally intelligent state of California
a law passed on election day, which basically made it impossible for
gays to get married anymore. This ‘Proposition 8’ turned back a lot of
civil rights that Milk had been fighting for and we went out to join a
candlelight vigil to show our support.
Imagine
that your partner you have been living with for 20 years gets ill and
you are not allowed into the Hospital for visits, or if he or she dies,
and you will not be entitled to receive any of the shared memorabilia
you gathered together.
Somehow millions of people, who would not be harmed by equal civil
rights thought that they should impose their ‘morals’ onto others, so
let’s hope that this situation will be rectified and California is recognized as a forward-thinking State again…
Kiva: opportunities for entrepreneurs in developing countries
On a more positive note, we got introduced by Nate & Kim to their friend Jeremy. Coincidentally he works at Kiva, an organisation we have been supporting during our trip, so we visited their office in SF.
It was great to see the heart of the small company that has already
made such a huge impact (they loaned over 60 million dollars to mostly
one men/women businesses in developing countries on 5 continents).
We talked with Matt, the founder and CEO and took a look at the worldwide volunteers map, all very inspiring.
Read more about Kiva and their work here on our blog and lend (not donate) some money yourself!
San Francisco is great in many ways, but there were many things to
see outside the city as well… next part, coming up soon: Snow in
Truckee, bears & rocks in Yosemite, music in Berkeley and wine in
Napa!
