Lost in all the excitement about the Jimmy Fund Walk was last Saturday’s Walking with Jane Relay for Life Fundraiser at Scott and Wendy’s. Their daughter had suggested we do an event in conjunction with the massive yard sale that happens in their neighborhood every year.

So I loaded up the car and hauled everything out to the country for the two days. We raised just short of $250 over Saturday and Sunday. That will be our initial deposit  for this year’s Relay. Nice job M.

But more important than the money was the number of people we were able to educate a little bit about neuroendocrine cancer. A number of folks came by who said they had been diagnosed with IBS and still did not know what the real problem was. Many planned to have their doctor consider the possibility their IBS is actually NEC related.

And then there was the woman who was almost too shy to ask the question. She stood at the end of the driveway squinting to see the sign. “I’ve got IBS,” she mouthed.

So I walked down the driveway to talk to her. She told me she had been fighting IBS for years. She had tried making changes in her diet, with no effect. She had trouble sleeping. She had hot flashes despite being a bit young for menopause.

I told her she needed to talk to her doctor, but she worried about whether the testing would be covered under MassHealth. I did not–and do not–know the answer to this. I hope she will be–and that she gets to the doctor and presses for testing in any event. She had all the symptoms Jane complained of for years. I may not be a doctor, but this is one devil I know when I see it.

But the encounter got me thinking. In Massachusetts we all have health care insurance–at least on paper. But how good are some of those policies? The federal government is headed in that direction–but again, how good will those policies be?

People worry about government rationing health care–about deciding who lives and who dies if we have a real national health program. But we ration health care today. Even with our platinum level health insurance, we had to call to ask permission for all of Jane’s stuff in advance. What would we have done if they had said no?

If we had been under an HMO the process would have been even more difficult. And who makes those decisions–not doctors or nurses most of the time. (And I mean no slight to nurses there. The fact is I would rather have nurses making those decisions than doctors. Our doctors were great, but I have heard too many stories about doctors without hearts–and have met one or two I had the luxury of firing. I have not met a nurse yet that lacked a heart.) We have health care rationing–it is based on profit and loss statements of insurance companies–and the decisions are often not made by medical people but by MBAs and BBAs.

So I worry about that young woman I met on Saturday afternoon. I wonder if her concern over cost or visit limits will cause her not to get checked for this thing–will cause her to think twice about even trying.

This is a disease no one should have to think twice about getting treatment for. It is not a disease you can afford to let fester. The only real chance of a cure is to find it early and remove it early.

We want to change that. But we are not there now. Please, if you have not read the About NEC page–have not looked at the symptoms–make that your next stop. And if any of it looks or sounds familiar, make that doctor’s appointment today. Get checked.

All the money in the world won’t matter if you are dead. And all the money in the world will not fill the empty space in the lives of those who love you when you are gone.