It's a Pissah

Well, probably gonna be here a while yet - my doctor says somewhere towards the end of next week that she'll probably send me home.

So, this is the story.

I definitely broke my middle toe, and I just had another CT scan to determine if I'd broken something in the arch of my foot. I just cannot put any weight on it without it screaming at me not do do that. The local podiatrist suspected there would be some fluid buildup with an infection, so he numbed 'er up and did some poking and he was right. Had quite a bit of fluid. I've also got an infection on my shins that is often part of problem edema. They've got an IV port on me and shove two different antibiotics through.

My right foot just appears to be sore with a gash on the big toe. It's healing up nicely. I'm also on massive amounts of diuretics, which have been introduced intravenously. The same diuretics in pill form have let me down, but if ya shoot 'em up, they work great.

Which brings me to the worst part - the damn catheter. I hate 'em. Feel like ya gotta "go" when what you really wanna do is pee the damn thing out. I'm on number two bag - one developed a leak. Guess it had been leaving a hard life.

So, I can't walk, can't pee normally, and am pretty well bedridden.

Someone tried to call the room phone earlier today. Pshaw. After I've dropped the bed, squeezed the boys sliding across the blanket, and obtaining an Act of Congress to move, the phone would have quit ringing.

Long story short - I ain't gonna answer that thing. I've got a cell phone within reach, and if you can't call on that, I don't have the ability to answer a landline.

Thirty years ago, I'd think part of my treatment would have been pretty damn cool, but not so much now. I speak of Percocet. Jeebus Kee Riste is that shit powerful. It's about all I can do to stay awake, much less pay much attention to anything else. I sure as hell don't hurt - which is a good thing. These damn beds are so not supportive - I've got dangly bits and limbs going to sleep all the time.

They wanted me to use a sort of air pressured circulatory "socks" and I did try 'em. Sticky, clammy and then I really am rooted to bed, because those damn things have to be disconnected to get out. Sometimes, I just like to sit on the edge of the bed, and that about requires help. I hate having to use that call button as well - I know they're pretty busy and my wanting a diet pop is pretty low on their totem poles.

But I can't get out on my feet just yet.

And I've been taking off a ton of water - for some reason my weight isn't dropping as fast, but they can only push my kidneys so far. Earlier, I had some pretty severe cramps in my left arm - the first time lasted about fifteen minutes, but the second time was close to three hours. I just had to give up trying to straighten that hand out. All I could do was watch it writhe and twist into new and artistic shapes. But, my potassium and magnesium dosages have increased considerably, which seems to have done the trick.

I'm sure that after I'm dismissed, I'll be headed to an appointment with a weight loss clinic in Wichita. My concerns about being unable to go there two and three times a week appear to be unfounded - apparently they all use Skype for their conferences.

We shall see, eh?

Kinda Crispy Lookin'

For the past several months I've been gaining weight. As in fifty or more pounds. Honestly, it has been more than I can bear - I just cannot carry around anymore. I can't walk across the room without getting winded. Any time I eat anything, it cuts into my breathing. There just ain't room.

Of course, it's water weight.

I've even been cutting way way back on portions - like I should have been for years. And now my insulin resistance has changed markedly - it takes a lot less to do the same thing. Which has gotten me in trouble a couple times - hypoglycemia is not my friend. I've considered lap band surgery in the past, but the biggest problem is that there are no "providers" in this area. Wichita, Topeka, Denver, OKC  and KC no problem. Here not so much.

Plus all this weight gain has caused me another problem - been having trouble with a pinched nerve killing feeling in my legs when I'm at home wearing underwear and a tshirt. Relaxing uniform of the day for this fat boy. Fully clothed for whatever reason does not bother me, other than not having the wind necessary to do a damn thing.

So, when the front of my thighs started going numb, I'd park my butt on a chair for a few minutes and go on about my bidness. Sunday night I gambled on making it to the ol' easy chair in front of the tv rather than having a pit stop at the kitchen table. It didn't work. My legs buckled and my butt landed on my heels. I hypercompressed the ol' toes, the foot against the ankle, and just plain exceeded the design specs of said feet.

It really didn't hurt very bad, and I was able to regain my feet in short order. I iced the left foot quite a bit, but was really quite shocked to see what you see a  couple days later. The other foot - the toes were bent back, but not badly.

So, just try to walk around without using your toes. I had an appointment for Monday, but could not see walking that far into my doctor's office. Rescheduled, by golly. Had to postpone some other appointments as well - one with my chiropractor, who had been trying to ease the nerve pinching. It's about been all I can do just to walk from one side of the house to the other, so I guess it's been just as well that my diuretics have been failing. Lots less traveling, as it were.

I went into the office with a mission - I'm tired of living like this, I have tried dieting, and even now it's not working for me. I've gotta do something, or my time is extremely limited here. I wanted a recommendation from her for a weight loss surgeon, procedure or whatever, as well as figuring out what's going on with the water retention. Not all that swelling is from bruising - my ankles and calves weren't affected by this fall. That's just water, period. You aren't seeing how my skin is erupting in blisters that are oozing fluid.

Got the advice and more. She admitted me into the hospital, where they've been x-raying and so forth, blood testing for a jillion different things, got me hooked to a Foley catheter and giving me diuretics intravenously. Congestive heart failure is the main diagnosis. Anemic, slightly higher than normal liver creatine levels, antibiotics for the infection in my foot, you name it.

Things are already progressing for the better, and there are gonna be some changes made as well. If I've got to drive to Wichita for weight counseling all the time, so be it. Otherwise, I might as well kiss my arse goodbye.

Not ready to do that yet.

This Is New

Found this in the spam trap first thing this morning:

After I initially left a comment I seem to have clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now whenever a comment is added I receive four emails with the same comment. Is there an easy method you are able to remove me from that service? Appreciate it! Feel free to surf to my web page on (redacted).

Mmmmkay, let's look at this right here. Y'all commented anonymously, so no email address was required nor given. So, you ain't been getting any damn emails. Kinda tough to do that. Plus, if you did comment logged in, the "notify me" controls are all on your end, oh spammer genius.

Since this was caught by Blogger's spam filters, you need not worry, your post has not seen the light of day until now. I will not be promoting your web page. In fact, I feel free NOT to surf to your web page, which was your point all along.

Gonna have to do better than that, genius.

Google Finally Updated

The aerial views in this vicinity. I can assure you that the bales you see are new crop - there was nothing there after the fire. And you can see the only thing left standing (besides the windmill, which you really can't see from the vertical perspective) is the grain bin. All the buildings and most of the trees - rubbed out.

Oh well

Not Happy. Not Happy At All.

Ted Rall is not very pleased with Teh Won. He's been pissed for quite some time now, and the schadenfreude is pretty thick here, I gotta say.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with Ted here. I think this is a pretty good analogy, and the flippant attitude by Dear Leader in the comic belies the arrogance he displays in public. Not his fault, he didn't know, it's someone else's problem, he inherited the problem - yup, clear signs of a responsible thoughtful leader who is committed to change for the better.

Yeah.

And edited to add:

See, now, ol' Ted and I have it all wrong. Dear Perplexed Leader is watching Republicans tear down his O-Care, and the insurance industry is sucking it down as well. It's clearly not Teh Won's fault, you racist bastage - the whole debacle of the website (which had absolutely zero input from ANY Republican in Congress) is all the fault of the Republicans in Congress. I hope you can follow that, because I sure as hell cannot.

Moral Equivalence

Jimmie Margulies can bit my arse. Better yet, move to Syria.

Because, Gawd knows, trans fats are morally equal to the freaking poisonous gas Syria used on it's own people. Get it? Our society is morally corrupt for allowing the usage of the killer trans fats. Yep, I bet if you sprayed trans fats on the general populace, it would kill 'em dead right there. Just like poison gas.

And so that also means that our society here in the good ol' US of A is not all that, so the so called American Exceptionalism ain't for real. Just ignore all the positive things our society has managed to do for the world over the past couple hundred years - all the life, labor and quality of living inventions and medical cures, procedures, medicines, managing to feed ourselves and the world cheaply - none of that matters.

Because we have allowed trans fats to be used. Just like Syria's poisonous gas.

Got it?

Sweet Karma

Oh, please, God - let this be the truth of the matter!

Armistice Day

Or Veteran's Day, whichever you prefer. Of course, on this day we thank our veterans, alive and deceased, for their service.

But, in a corner of your mind - remember why this day - the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of 1918 - is relevant. Yeah, that was when the Armistice started - and hostilities more or less ceased, but it was painfully important to those who lived in that time.

When you think about it, the War to End All Wars pretty well rubbed out a generation of young men, and making significant inroads into those preceding the young men. All of Europe and major portions of Russia were also involved, with lesser impacts on the societies of the other Allies.

That war was a meat grinder, end of story. Best remember that, too.

K Staters remember, too

Makes Sense To Me

link

Who knew? Ashton Kutcher, formerly famous party boy, appeared on the Teen Choice Awards and gave a rather inspiring speech about how hard work is preferable to an entitlement mentality for young people.

He then appeared on Ellen to talk about it. Turns out he's an entrepreneur as well as actor these days, and has some very definite thoughts.

He's not quite setting the standards Mike Rowe is, but I'm willing to cut him some slack. Surprised the whee outta me.

A Tad Peeved

Don't you know it.....

Picked up my mail the other day, and lo and behold, I have a bill from a bill collection agency. It's for my emergency hospital stay. All the bill said was that the total was such and such, and I owed so and so. No itemization or squat - no indication of individual items and what the insurance paid, had not paid, or was pending. Just a bill.

From a collection agency.

Made me stew for a while, and I did have plans to call them and ask for an itemized bill, and then this morning, after I fired up my cell phone, I had a voice message.

From the bill collection agency.

Are you f$#@ing kidding me? I just got this bill in the mail about three days ago, no bill before, and already I've got bill collectors after my ass? For what?!?

I have no plans of NOT paying this thing - but I'd like better information. So I called 'em back and told 'em I did NOT get an itemized bill, and before I paid the complete balance, I expected to see one.

I've had this problem before - it's the voice of experience. This time it's the hospital, last time it was a certain medical center in the certain town with Boot Hill and Wyatt Earp Blvd. off to the east. When checking in there, they require you to at least make a payment on any outstanding bills. I was seeing a doctor there fairly regularly. I was paying every time I went in. Each time, they required at least fifty bucks. Finally, one day, I got an itemized bill. They were into me for several hundred dollars - there was no need to keep adding money to my balance. They'd been billing me for the full amounts before the insurance settlements, getting the settlements, and never letting me know I had a balance. So, the next time I went in, I was told I had to make a payment. I asked why? Well - because I owed it. Really? You want fifty bucks when I've got over two hundred on account? You tell me why again.

Oh. Well. We don't look at that.

Well, that little experience let me know that the billing side of their business is set up to draw in as much money as possible, legit, owed or not.

I was highly peeved and let the person know about it. They could have given a rat's ass. They've all justified their despicable behavior so they can sleep at night.

So, this gal today would send my itemized statement right out. I told her I'd put five hundred down (the bill is over $1800) just so they knew I was gonna pay. Of course the next thing was to get me to agree to monthly $500 payments.

Nope, not gonna happen until I get the itemized bill, and make sure the insurance company is through paying.

Honestly, I'm sure that my health insurance had paid off, and this is the final bill. But I don't know that for sure.

Y'see, this whole mess is one reason why I grate my teeth when the subject of uninsured patients come up. Why in the wide wide world of sports do ya think this crap goes on? Why do you suppose that bills are padded, services are overcharged and people who actually pay bills harassed? Why do you suppose that many doctors take cash payments that are severely discounted compared to what insurance companies pay (excuse me - partially pay).

It's to cover the uninsured who do not pay their bills. It's to pay for the illegal aliens who register under a false name and no billing company on earth can track 'em.

This is hardly the most equitable of income redistribution, but it is happening. Most of these for profit health organizations are quite healthy in the ol' balance sheet, and it's not because they're such Good Samaritans when it comes to people who can't afford their bills. They've just gamed the system to have the rest of us cover it.

And now Barry and the Democrats want us to cover even more expenses, and we're gonna have the IRS as the collection agency.

What could possibly go wrong?

Are You Freaking Kidding Me?

Where? Where IS this "Working Health Care System?" What in the hell is wrong with these people? They have eyes that refuse to see and ears that listen only to what lying politicians tell them. When Matt Davies comes up for air, he'll be cleaning fecal matter from his ears.

Thing is - we HAD a working health care system. Just ask the foreigners who decided their free health care wasn't worth it and came here to pay for theirs. But oh, no, the dickweeds have to destroy it.

We are so screwed.

US Spitfire Reconnaissance

link  big screen link

I'd forgotten that I've seen this before. If you have as well, it's still worth a few minutes of your time.

An unarmed, unescorted reconnaissance plane over WWII Germany? Just for a chance for a high school graduate to fly?

These men had steel nards, and we owe a lot to them.

H/T Michael Z.Williamson on Facebook

Quit Messin' Around

Jeffy demands precision for planning his itinerary. He doesn't have time to be hangin' around waiting on Mommy and PJ, dammit.