I'm an American girl, with an American nodule worth a thousand bucks

Ahhh, America. Hot dogs, apple pie, country music, and a health insurance premium you probably can't afford to pay.

I'm so happy to report I'm leaving for London Wednesday, finally starting a grad course I've long wanted to start. Just one problem: I've been a bit sick. Months ago I was diagnosed incorrectly as having bronchitis, then a sinus condition by two or three doctors, both in Texas and DC. I may have had bronchitis at some point, and may have also had a sinus condition or do, but there's more to the story.

A few months ago I was in Texas applying for jobs, worried though that once I gave up my Medicaid plan I could suffer at the hands of the American capitalistic healthcare system. I was right. Because I got a well-paying job, which came with health insurance, but not until two and a half months after I started working there. Because I'd moved out of state, I was not allowed to partake of my free Connecticut plan. I was able to get an exception for an ER visit or two, which I did, both in Texas and DC. However, after that second ER visit my health required immediate followup with a physician. Yet, I knew I had to wait til Aug. 1 before I saw a doctor.

By August I did see a doctor, but it took a while, and two scans -- CT and thyroid sonogram -- to find out what my primary problem appears to be. I have an enlarged thyroid gland and several nodules on my thyroid. I was told by a radiologist that one of them is "indeterminate". I knew I needed to follow up with endocrinology before my insurance ran out.

Today, two days before my departure to London, I walked three quarters of a mile in my lovely neighborhood of Falls Church, Virginia, an historic area graced by Colonial homes and expansive lawns, to an endocrinologist I'd looked up online. I was in a great mood, knowing I was taking care of myself and heading out of town in two days for Blighty. And then my plans hit some quicksand -- ironically, after I'd just read the Leo horoscope informing me that "Bad is good and good is bad today, and in many other ways, what you expect is likely to be turned upside down. Be ready for anything."

"Ms. Wiegler," the doctor's secretary said. "Your insurance ended September 30th."

I explained that I was electing to continue through Cobra.

"Can I take a look at the paperwork?" she asked softly.

"It's not with me - but I have it - and I know I have till early December to formally elect it. I am in a grace period."

Well, long story short...after calling my former employer's HR department, the fog cleared. I hadn't read the paperwork carefully enough. I would need to pay the premium at the time of electing to continue coverage, and that is what I have til early December to elect.

So now I'm home. I am home with my swollen thyroid gland and indeterminate nodule. I am heading on a plane to a new country, worried about the mucus with blood I'm coughing up, worried that a big thyroid gland could impede my ability to swallow.

Luckily, I know that I am going to a country with a national healthservice, and once I get through the paperwork and confusion as part of any transition, I'll probably be better off. I paid just a little over $300 for an entire year with the NHS.

Shame on America for letting it get to this. I could have cancer. I told the doctor's assistant I'd be blogging today. I am not angry with them, of course, as they are as much a victim of the American how-much-is-your-life-worth system as I. Shame on all of us, a country that so readily helps flood victims but refuses to analyze a possibly cancerous nodule of a 56-year-old woman. Shame.

Photo: the author, by Charlotte LoBuono