Mi otro trabajo: trabajadora social

This morning, one of the first patients I saw at eye clinic was Mr. J. I asked if he has refilled his diabetic medications, and he shamefully said no because he didn't have the money. I lectured him about how he needs to call me when this happens because his health is very important, but then he politely apologized and explained that he didn't have the money because he had to pay an $800 ticket. I asked why, and he explained that he was pulled over last week for running a traffic light that the cop said was red by that Mr. J. said was green-turning-yellow. Mr. J. is undocumented, and when he was unable to produce a driver's license, he was held overnight in jail and then given an $800 ticket to pay. That is normally how much Mr. J. makes in a month doing manual labor in the Savannah area. However, the conversation was kind of bitterly sweet because we had both heard talk that Gov. Deal of Georgia was going to sign HB 87 into law later today; if Mr. J. had been pulled over for "driving while brown" after July 1, he would be sitting in a detention center awaiting a deportation trial.

A few minutes after this conversation, I talked to Mrs. S. and her 4-year-old son. I asked if the son goes to pre-school and she said no because in order to go to a state-funded program (paid for by the Georgia Lottery by the way), her son would need proof of residency. He is a U.S. citizen by birth, but she lives in a trailer that is owned by someone else and the bills are made out to that other person. This is an issue that many trailer park owners near my clinic are trying to crack down on, but I don't really know what they're going to do because most of the parks would be empty if they only allowed people with documentos buenos to stay. I emphasized to Mrs. S. the importance of children going to school, but the other problem is that buses won't pick up the kids and she doesn't have a car. She has a neighbor that will charge her $40 round-trip to wherever she needs to go, but that's not exactly sustainable for a school year. I asked her what she's planning on doing, and she said that it probably didn't matter because if HB 87 was signed today, she probably wouldn't be staying in Georgia much longer anyway "because of the risk of being separated from my son." I told her that she needs to at least wait the 6 weeks it'll take for her glasses to arrive, but I'm not too confident in that decision...

After spending 3 hours interpreting at the eye clinic, I drove to my regular clinic and listened to all 15 messages that had arrived between 5:30pm yesterday and 11am today. One was from the medical director of the local cancer center, so I obviously called him back first. There’s this woman, Mrs. Z. (I’m starting to run out of letters to use for these examples) who was diagnosed with breast cancer about 6 months ago out in the boondocks of Georgia. Mrs. Z.’s one aunt died of breast cancer, and her other aunt survived after a serious set of treatments. Mrs. Z. is 38 and has a 3-year-old, 6-year-old, and 9-year-old. She is undocumented, but all three children are U.S. citizens by birth. Anyway, she had a mammogram, breast ultrasound, breast biopsy, and right mastectomy at a little community hospital, with the last appointment being the beginning of March. She was then told that she would need several rounds of intense chemotherapy beginning sometime in the next three months, but that she’d have to find somewhere else for that to take place. I’m pretty sure that’s illegal and called “dumping”, but since she’s undocumented and speaks about 5 words of English, who was going to file a complaint? She has a parish priest trying to advocate for her, but his Spanish is far from perfect and he is a very busy man. Unfortunately, the cancer center here came to the difficult decision not to accept the case because the medical director feels like the other oncologist never should’ve started the treatment without being willing to follow-through with it. The medical director here is a very kind and generous man who has accepted every case I’ve given to him, but he said this was a much larger community issue for the county somewhere in the middle of Georgia. I just hate to think of Mrs. Z.’s life being sacrificed so that people could “learn a lesson” about how to treat cancer patients.

Amidst trying to clear off my desk today, scheduling a neurology appointment, multiple surgeries, and some specialized imaging orders, I got a call from a community member who talked at me for about 15 minutes about how his throat is closing up and how he’s living on Ensure because he hasn’t been able to swallow solid foods in several years. He went on and on about he paid taxes for 30 years and now he’s going to die because no one will help him. I obviously feel bad for this guy, but my patience was kind of low at this point in the afternoon after a long week. I suggested he call a general surgeon who will do a consult for $168. He said he didn’t have any money and that he’d just die waiting. I wish there was something else I could do, but there aren’t any surgeons who will do things for free around here. The guy probably needs his esophagus expanded, but he has other medical issues, and every procedure has risks. That’s not something my clinic can handle, and I’d be giving him false hope if I made him an appointment. Still, it sucks to feel like another person who’s just not helpful in a very cruel society.

I thought my job this year was "office coordinator"?