YouTube video by Shannon Nelson / Pinkynel

There's been a lot of talk over the past year about the state of healthcare in America. I’ve lived through seven, going on eight decades, tangled in the tubes, pills, forms, and fees of the American healthcare industrial complex. December 16th marks 12 years since I went to the hospital, where I spent a month on my deathbed. That was the inciting incident for my memoir, Views from Atop My Bedpan, which begins with my death — or at least what will likely be my last dance with the Grim Reaper, then travels backward through time. I figured I'd get the pain out of the way first.