EDITOR’S NOTE: Kudos to Kesha for coming clean and being so forthcoming about her condition.I started working as a radio personality in 1995. I’ve had health insurance from the moment I started working. Even as a cashier at Wendy’s, I’ve ALWAYS HAD HEALTH INSURANCE. But I rarely used it. I never had to. I had the perfect bill of health. And then, I secured a position at Shaw University in North Carolina. I worked 18-20 hours a day. It was an independent contract aka no health insurance included. The job was extremely stressful. In March of 2011, I started experiencing abdominal pain in my office one day; but because I didn’t have health insurance and decided to “wait it out”. Maybe it was something that I ate. Maybe my job was causing ulcers. Granted, I refused to create an outrageous emergency bill. I swallowed a few tums and drank that nasty Maalox combined with some Metamucil. Nothing worked. In fact, the pain got worse. And worse. I waited until July and decided that I couldn’t take it anymore. We went to Rex Hospital. They did a few blood tests, a urinalysis and a couple of stomach x-rays. Nothing. They suggested that I may had have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, told me to add more fiber to my diet and some Metamucil and take my azz home. I tried the recommended remedies”¦.but the pain only got worse. You have to understand my mindset. I don’t like creating bills that I can’t pay”¦so my mind did not want to go”¦but the pain was getting worse. Worse to the point where I could barely breathe. I went back to the emergency room over and over again. I went to Duke. I went to Wake. I even went home to New York and sat in the emergency room at Long Island Jewish for 8 hours. They didn’t even give me a prescription. They told me to get an over the counter drug called, Colace. It’s a stool softener. :/ They were all somewhat dismissive. Eat yo’ spinach and go home. You have doo-doo in your x-rays. Move your bowels, honey chile.This was the most frustrating situation ever. I KNEW that something was wrong. I could literally feel a blockage in my abdomen. It was difficult to breathe. Nevertheless, none of these emergency doctors felt compelled to do (read more here)
