Alan O'Hashi

Views from Atop My Bedpan (eBook, ePUB)

Living seven decades through the healthcare industrial complex

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

"Views from Beyond My Bedpan" is a story about my life spanning seven decades, but imagined if I lived it in reverse. Rather than being born as an elderly infant, this story follows my life as if I died old, am reborn, and then transfigured to age in reverse.

¿¿¿¿¿I've been thinking about aging and have recounted some of my experiences in the context of the American healthcare industrial complex paradox-that's a lot of Xs.

Public and private health care providers are dedicated to keeping people alive and free of disease, but, at the same time, they must financially profit and maintain themselves. Nonprofit organizations can make money but are disallowed from distributing dividends to owners and stockholders.

Meanwhile, the industry keeps its heart thumping and pumping based on continually expanding the number of patients who consume pharmaceuticals, visit doctors, and are tested by new machines. It's better that people stay a little bit sick than be cured, at least from a profit-and-loss standpoint.

Now that I'm an old guy and have been sucked into hospitals and doctor's offices more than ever, I've grown increasingly distrustful of doctors and hospitals. Based on a health scare in 2013, I'm never sure if they make decisions in my best interests. I could have benefitted from additional healthcare and financial advocacy.

The squeaky patient gets the bedpan. I've learned that going to the Emergency Room in an ambulance increased my chances of being admitted to the hospital by the ER doctors. Movies and TV shows have depicted ambulances and ERs as reserved for emergencies like rescuing car accident victims and triaging casualties from mass shootings.

It's different now. ERs are the first point of contact for any patient needing routine or emergency care.

So far, my life has been lucky when facing life-and-death situations. Over seven decades, I've had three close calls with mortality every 20 years or so. The most recent was after being admitted in December 2013, arising from my deathbed a few days before the 2014 Super Bowl, and recovering from an exotic lung disease I contracted because my immune system failed from working too hard.

At last check, according to the Social Security Administration actuary chart, I have 10.4 years to go, which means I will be dead when I'm 79. My next meet-up with the Grim Reaper will likely be the last.

We all have unique experiences as we move through life. Being at the top of my game has been hard work. I'd rather have a positive influence on others I meet rather than a negative one.

Alan O'Hashi

Boulder, Colorado

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Boulder Community Media
• Seitenzahl: 174
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. April 2023
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781088125892
• Artikelnr.: 67658593

Autorenporträt

Alan O'Hashi and Boulder Community Media (BCM) work with community-based media producers, organizations, and socially-responsible businesses to develop their content in a culturally competent manner. His work through BCM seeks to capture the nuance and complexity of self-identity and expands the wider community's understanding of our pluralistic world.Alan creates films and writes books that are not only important and meaningful but also entertaining and inspiring.Through his books and movies, Alan wants audiences to experience the world from multiple angles, challenge their assumptions through stories and gain a deeper understanding of individual self-identities and those different than our own.His writing and movie-making explore the complexities of identity through his personal experiences with other people. Alan's works are powerful explorations of the intersections of race, ethnicity, culture, nationality, and gender and how these facets of identity shape our lives. He complicates the notion of what it means to be a non-white person living in the modern world and challenges the assumptions of others by sharing his experiences and perspectives. By telling his stories on silver screens and the written page, Alan invites readers and viewers to reflect on their lives and grapple with the complexities of self-identity, not only in the present but also in the past. "My hope is to create a more equitable and just society in which people from all backgrounds can be seen and heard."After being laid off from two jobs following 9/11, Alan grew tired of working for marginally competent bosses and qualified for unemployment twice. "My friends told me to take a risk and try something I've always wanted to do, but I didn't because I was always stuck in a job."Alan enrolled in some video production and screenwriting classes at the local public access TV station. Backstopped by unemployment and student loans, he jumped off the entrepreneurial cliff and is the BCM Executive Producer."Self-employment isn't without its challenges. Every morning I wake up unemployed and constantly developing the next project."