This post is especially for the younger folks who don’t think much about being hospitalized because they think they are indestructible, or because they think it won’t happen to them, or they are just too busy to think about it at all, in spite of the reality that they are one slip on the ice, one red light runner, one trip on the stairs, away from exactly what I just went through.  My situation is caused by disease and aging and this was my fourth surgery.  Medical expenditures are not always the result of something that is under your control.

ujnews.com

May 2008
Baked Bean Diet Works Nicely For Nell

WHEN DOCTORS told Neil King tbat he risked bowel cancer be decided to change his diet and lose weight.

Tbe Essex man bas now lost 10 stone (140 1bs) in nine montbs - by eating six cans of baked beans a day.  King, 40, has munched his way tbrougb more than half a ton of beans in tbat time, reported the Daily Mirror.

Tbe mechanic serves tbem up for his breakfast, lunch and dinner and his weight has fallen from 30 stone in June to just under 20 stone today.

I’m considering blogging my overall experience with four spine surgeries, two cervical and two lumbar, all with fusion, in order to possibly make the experience easier for others.  I do believe I have some helpful suggestions to make surgical recovery easier for those facing such operations in the future.

However, my blog gets few visitors, so the only way it would be worth all the work is to see how search engines react to the key words.

So, here they are:

The less people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they will sleep at night.…
and the slight variation,
…

I have about made up my mind that laws are like sausages — the less you know about how they are made the more respect you have for them.
…

(Attributed to Winston_Churchill, Benjamin_Disraeli, Clarence_Darrow, Mark_Twain, Kaiser Wilhelm, and Otto von Bismarck, among others.)

So, in preparation for my next spine surgery, I’m looking up a wee tidbit of information  and come across what seems to be an interesting link.

So a few weeks ago I bought a bicycle — no gears, reverse pedal for brake, your basic no-frills cheapo.  Just like the Schwinn I grew up on but a lot cheaper, and lighter. 

Figured as long as I didn’t play in traffic or challenge a tree I might use it to retain just a smidgen of the present, or if really lucky, even a whiff of the past.  In any case, holding off the future, if only briefly, and only partially, well, that has to be a win, no?

ADVERSE DRUG REACTIONS

Having had one fairly severe adverse reaction to a medication during my childhood and only a few light ones in my adult life, I supppose I am fortunate, considering how many different prescribed and over the counter chemicals I have ingested. 

However, others have not been so fortunate.  Given the complexities of the human organism and the number of ingested chemical combinations possible through both pharmaceuticals and normal everyday processed food, it is probably a miracle we don’t have more frequent problems. 

It just doesn’t appeal to me.  The thought of it just doesn’t make my day.  I’m too busy.  I have no symptoms.  They just want to pad their corporate income.  I just don’t want to.  I don’t need to.

So you put it off.  You delay as long as you can, perhaps for years, not months, maybe even decades.  What in the world is so sacred about a spot on the calendar when a specific exam needs to be done?  Are we humans really all that predictable?  Not likely. 

Rest, never mind relaxation, just plain old rest.

The medical profession/industry has come full circle when it comes to assessing the value of rest, and I suspect the change has been spurred by the insurance industry, though I have not heard anyone in the medical profession admit it may be so.

I am old enough to actually remember when doctors made house calls.

I suppose I have enough experience with the world of medicine to have a credible opinion on the general subject, having had four surgeries and several “procedures” in two different hospitals in the last two years.

At the outset I should say that I am very fortunate in that I hold the doctors who have treated me in high regard.  When we moved here we chose a doctor pretty much based on geography (Read: “How far from the house is it?”) and that was a stroke of pure luck. 

OK, that was good.  Now touch the bottom of your foot to the inside of your other leg.  Good.  Now the other one.

Now put your feet on the floor and tap your toes up and down.  Good.

Now touch your thumb to each of your fingertips.  Good, now the other hand.

Now touch your index finger to mine and then touch your nose.  Good, now the index finger of your other hand.

The description of a new field sobriety test? 

In the way of surprises, I got one today, and it relates to one of my pet peeves. Actually, it is probably my number one peeve by along shot. When I think of it I can’t even remember what number two is.

Well, today, the reverse of it happened, and it shocked me so much, I backed up and made it happen again.

What was this momentous occasion?

Simple, really.

I called a doctor’s office this afternoon and got the usual machine on the either end, but THIS machine began with, “Please press one for Spanish…” !!!!