This past season, 2011-2012, has been a period of great activity for me and Your Health Care:Choice or Chance?. First, I am now writing my one-woman show based on my medical memoir, ELLEN IN MEDICALAND:TRUE STORIES OF HOW I FELL DOWN MEDICINE'S BLACK HOLE AND STILL LIVED AFTER ALL, which is on Kindle and is a WOW! Ellen In Medicaland is about my wild and crazy experiences at a Harvard-teaching hospital as a patient and my Mom's caregiver. As a result, the show should be outrageous and a hoot, with a Q&A; at its conclusion.

I do want to make it clear, though, that Ellen In Medicaland, the memoir and the one-woman show, does not bash the medical profession. In fact, this year, when I was very sick with a mystery virus, my medical team was wonderful. However, I believe very strongly that you must be vigilant when you enter Medicaland and, therefore, I provide you with nineteen tips to deal successfully with your doctors and nurses.

Second, I have just completed six exciting shows for Your Health Care:Choice or Chance?, which will air on public access tv on Cape Cod, Burlington and Wellesley, as well as on podcast on this site at www.tvyourhealthcare.org. Towns on Cape Cod that will air Your Health Care are Sandwich, Mashpee, Barnstable, Cotuit, Marstons Mills, Osterville, Centerville, Hyannis, Yarmouth, Dennis, Harwich and Chatham. A seventh will be produced next month. Your Health Care:Choice or Chance? is produced at Mashpee Community Television. The shows are:

- Three programs with Francis (Sandy) Eaton, the King of Health Reform and a retired nurse from Quincy Medical Center, who talked with me about Single Payer, Obamacare, and the Activism of Nurses. Talking with Sandy for more than an hour was very exciting and informative because he is so well-versed in what is happening in Medicaland today.

- Two programs with John T. James, Ph.D, Chief Toxicologist at the Johnson Space Center, and a Patient Safety Activist, who wrote the medical memoir, A Sea of Broken Hearts. This memoir is about the unnecessary death of his beautiful son, Alex, 19, through multiple medical errors. The first show discusses his book and the second focuses on A Patient Bill of Rights, which John believes should be passed by Congress.

- A program with John McCormack, retired Mass. State Trooper and Desert Storm vet, who discusses with me the Mass. Medical Board's favoritism of physicians over patients. John is very familiar with this situation because when his enchanting baby daughter, Taylor, died at 13 months of a medical error at a Harvard-teaching hospital, John was not allowed to testify on her behalf before the Board. But her doctors could appear in their own defense. Among other things, John talks about what he did to change this egregious regulation.

- A program with Senator Dan Wolf (D) Harwich on Health Care in Massachusetts.

Many thanks to Jeff Clough, Executive Director of Mashpee Community TV, for all his assistance with this project. Jeff is a great Director and helps to make Your Health Care:Choice or Chance? such a pleasure.

I also want to thank Burlington Community Access Television for its strong support. BCAT has allowed me to spend countless hours at its studio to dub Your Health Care:Choice or Chance?. Special kudos to Jennifer Dodge, Executive Director, for her generosity.

Kudos to Wellesley Community TV and its Executive Director, James Joyce, for continued airing of Your Health Care:Choice or Chance?. Wellesley is very supportive of the show.

Also, thank you to Linda Sandhu, Host of Profiles on Cape Media, for her wonderful interview with me in April about Your Health Care:Choice or Chance? and Ellen In Medicaland. Kudos also to Susan Johnson, who produced, directed and edited the show.

And, of course, thanks to Taylor Anderson, who maintains this website. He has worked with me on this project for more than a decade, providing me with his vast knowledge and expertise of all things technical. He is terrific and I appreciate all his help. I also want to thank The Kenneth B. Schwartz Center of the Mass. General Hospital for adding Ellen In Medicaland to its Resource List.

Clearly, it is an exciting time for me and Your Health Care:Choice or Chance?. Please be in touch with any ideas for the program at e_kagan@yahoo.com and any topics that you would like discussed. Also, if you would like me to discuss Ellen In Medicaland with any groups who also need help handling our health system, I am happy to be of service.



Cordially,
Ellen