Our saga continues.

I finally got out of the hospital FIVE HOURS after the doctor said I was good to go. It didn’t matter that much, I suppose. I went from lying in a hospital bed with fluids being pumped into me to lying on the couch at home sipping Gatorade.

It could be argued that all sides of the health care debate agree that there is a scarcity of medical care. In fact, the whole health care debate may just hinge on the question of whether the government or the market represents the most efficient and humane principal source of distribution of care — although the more ideological proponents on either side would likely insist that their positions are simply right, and that efficiency and / or humanitarian concerns — while addressed better by their approach, anyway — are simply not the issue. But assuming that at least a some part of the debate has to do with how best to handle scarcity, I’m left with wondering what that five-hour wait implies.

Personal update: I’m hoping to check out of the hospital today. I’ve been in for the past two nights after the back and chest spasms that initially caused me to miss this week’s show turned into a whole melange of seemingly unrelated symptoms. The final diagnosis is severe gastroenteritis of unknown cause. A CT scan showed my appendix as borderline, but my doctor (and a couple of his buds he conferred with) agree that it’s not the culprit so it stays. Anyhow they’ve had me on an IV for two days and I’ve finally stopped vomiting — plus the pain is mostly gone — so I’m hoping to get out later today.

A couple of days in the hospital is a handy reminder that — although we have made huge steps forward in basic medical care in recent years — we still have a long way to go. One of my three wishes is for everyone on earth to be healthy. For that to truly happen, human illness needs to become a solved game. We have a long way to go before that’s the case.