Member-only story
With Health Care at These Costs, It’s Cheaper to Die
I used to be on top of my health. Now, it’s urgent care or nothing at all.
Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.
I was not raised to be one of those Black men who avoid the doctor at all costs. My mama, a nurse, made certain that whatever the health care equivalent of “nails done, hair done, everything did” was, we had it.
The names of all of the specialists escape me, but I saw plenty of them and well before high school ended. Of the various problems, the one constant involved my ears — I have been told repeatedly that I have an incredibly thin ear canal. As a result of that, every few years, I get an excruciatingly painful ear infection that always, always, always forces me to take a trip to an ear, nose, and throat doctor. Around 16 or so, I was required to have some operation that sought to remove ear wax stuck to some kind of bone in my ear.
I swear I am not a dirty, dusty peasant. I also know that Q-tips only worsen such a situation. It’s not that I am forgetting to wash every part of my body. I’m not — never mind. I have a condition! I can’t help the ear canals I was born with the same way I can’t alter the fact that my ears are slightly too big for…
