He is 60. Grew up in China during famine, cultural revolution, etc. Finally made it to Hong Kong in his 30s and worked till the 40s, started a business and eventually sold it, and retired in the US in the 50s with my mom, and went to school for 10 years waiting for his green card.
He was a smoker since teenage, and stopped about 10 years ago. Had hepatitis in the youth (the non-STD one) so he has the antibody. He does not exercise, likes to eat meat and organs, and mom always give in to his demand after a few rounds of whining.
He had regular checkup with a local hospital in San Francisco that charge him fairly low rate (compare to other hospital). He had high triglyceride and was prescribe a medication that is bad for his liver. With the medication the triglyceride is lowered to a reasonable level, but this year the doctor said it needs to stop due to potential damage to liver, and order him to exercise. Of course, he did not, but did eat slightly healthier than before.
Last Dec they finally got their green cards, and decided to go back home (China) to visit all the relatives for 3 months after being away for 14 years. 14 years ago they though that they won't see each other again because of the difficulties in getting tourist visa to US, and the old age of a few of the relatives. While feasting away, they did all the checkup possible ever (only cost 5% of US health care, plus my aunt is a retired supervisor nurse in one of the biggest hospital). Things seems good and their health seems reasonable.
This Sep, my parents went on a 17 day tour to Europe. It was a cheap tour with bad bus, bad food, bad hotel, and really stressed them out. If you ever think about going to Europe for $3700 for 17 days, stay away, it is too good to be true. Prior to leaving Europe, dad got a hive and the doctor prescribed Hydroxyzine HCL since Clariton doesn't work.
Hydroxyzine works fine for him, but on the 12th day of the tour, he woke up and realized his vision is doubled. For the fear of complication he stopped the med immediately, and hang in there till he came back last Saturday. The double vision remains, and the visit on Mon and Tue to the doctor and an optometrist confirms that it isn't the medicine, but seems to be broken vanes inside the brain (according to dad's word, probably a minor stroke).
His vision in both eyes are fine individually, but the horizontal axis on his right eye is now 6 degree off. My search on wikipedia said it is either the eye muscle control or some nerves system got into problem, or a stroke. The problem is still here, no med is prescribed pending a CAT scan, but being uninsured, it cost $4000. He probably have to fly back to China to see if he can get this taken care of.
While not being poor, not having insurance sucks. He basically brought over all of our life saving from Hong Kong and spend it here as a full time student. Since insurance cost so much, and he got free health care back home, he didn't buy any. Now of course it is too late because of "preexist" condition. I can totally feel how frustrated this is to all of us Americans who could not afford insurance, and even those illegal aliens who ruins our health care system (despite I don't like that idea, what other choices do they have when they are sick?).
So, if you are a medical professional, please let me know what most likely this is and whether it is 1) too late to do anything or 2) must act quick or else his life/health/vision would be in danger?
He was a smoker since teenage, and stopped about 10 years ago. Had hepatitis in the youth (the non-STD one) so he has the antibody. He does not exercise, likes to eat meat and organs, and mom always give in to his demand after a few rounds of whining.
He had regular checkup with a local hospital in San Francisco that charge him fairly low rate (compare to other hospital). He had high triglyceride and was prescribe a medication that is bad for his liver. With the medication the triglyceride is lowered to a reasonable level, but this year the doctor said it needs to stop due to potential damage to liver, and order him to exercise. Of course, he did not, but did eat slightly healthier than before.
Last Dec they finally got their green cards, and decided to go back home (China) to visit all the relatives for 3 months after being away for 14 years. 14 years ago they though that they won't see each other again because of the difficulties in getting tourist visa to US, and the old age of a few of the relatives. While feasting away, they did all the checkup possible ever (only cost 5% of US health care, plus my aunt is a retired supervisor nurse in one of the biggest hospital). Things seems good and their health seems reasonable.
This Sep, my parents went on a 17 day tour to Europe. It was a cheap tour with bad bus, bad food, bad hotel, and really stressed them out. If you ever think about going to Europe for $3700 for 17 days, stay away, it is too good to be true. Prior to leaving Europe, dad got a hive and the doctor prescribed Hydroxyzine HCL since Clariton doesn't work.
Hydroxyzine works fine for him, but on the 12th day of the tour, he woke up and realized his vision is doubled. For the fear of complication he stopped the med immediately, and hang in there till he came back last Saturday. The double vision remains, and the visit on Mon and Tue to the doctor and an optometrist confirms that it isn't the medicine, but seems to be broken vanes inside the brain (according to dad's word, probably a minor stroke).
His vision in both eyes are fine individually, but the horizontal axis on his right eye is now 6 degree off. My search on wikipedia said it is either the eye muscle control or some nerves system got into problem, or a stroke. The problem is still here, no med is prescribed pending a CAT scan, but being uninsured, it cost $4000. He probably have to fly back to China to see if he can get this taken care of.
While not being poor, not having insurance sucks. He basically brought over all of our life saving from Hong Kong and spend it here as a full time student. Since insurance cost so much, and he got free health care back home, he didn't buy any. Now of course it is too late because of "preexist" condition. I can totally feel how frustrated this is to all of us Americans who could not afford insurance, and even those illegal aliens who ruins our health care system (despite I don't like that idea, what other choices do they have when they are sick?).
So, if you are a medical professional, please let me know what most likely this is and whether it is 1) too late to do anything or 2) must act quick or else his life/health/vision would be in danger?
