In July of 2010, I, like most Americans, lived a normal life.  I was on summer break from school.  I was working part-time at a law firm doing various projects “as needed” and generally laid around my boyfriend’s apartment.  One weekend, I took a trip to the beach with my cousin, and unbeknownst to me, was able to trap some ocean water in my right ear.  One week later, on July 23, 2010, I woke up in the middle of the night in serious pain.  I thought my ear was going to explode off of my head.  Looking back now, I should have just taken some pain meds and gone back to sleep.  Being the cautious person I was (and still am), and remembering horror stories about people taking simple meds to ignore pain and dying in the night from an aneurysm, I considered going to the hospital.  I was covered by my school’s insurance plan (and my father’s, turns out — more about that later), and I figured — what’s the harm?  I’m in pain.  It’s the middle of the night, and I’m freaking out.  The internet is leading me to believe my brain could explode, I have health insurance, and I live 4 miles away from a hospital.

Let’s roll.

My boyfriend drove me to the emergency room. After waiting for a few hours, a tall, thin doctor (who was NOT named “Dr. Fred Revoredo,” although all my papers and wristband said that when I was checked in) with glasses and dark grey hair looked in my ear. “It’s just an outer ear infection, you’ll be fine.  Why didn’t you just take some medicine?  There’s no reason to be in pain.”  Hurumph.  He prescribed antibiotic ear drops (retailed at about $120, in a teensy bottle — surprise), and gave me an aspirin in the ER.  I was discharged, and we got home before 6am.

In a few days I felt much better; two weeks later I was 100%.

But like I said, I wish I wasn’t writing this right now.  Because right now, on June 21, 2011, I am gathering documents to fax to a collections agency.  Right now, I am starting to publicize my unnecessarily long, frustrating, confusing, heartbreaking, awe-striking journey into the depths of the American health system.  I wish I had been billed correctly.  I wish my story had ended there.

My friends, it had only just begun.

See: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/01/there_is_no_internet_in_egypt.html

You click on a point in the box on the left that best represents your mood– between Energetic and Calm, Dark and Positive– then you customize the genres of music and eras you want to hear from and Musicovery does the rest.

Here’s my pick for the moment: