Tag: health

Different take on the news

I need to get a different take on the news for a while.

You start writing a blog post, and sometimes, at some point, it just loses its joy.

Yeah, I was going to write about the lying Ryan Lochte and the other Olympic swimmers, and how he particularly was the Ugly American abroad. And Rio 2016 spokesman Mario Andrada downplaying their actions may be a case of white male privilege– OK, probably is, while the black girls’ hair is analyzed.

And I was going to write about the Louisiana flooding and whether there was enough media coverage – the New York Times acknowledged it was slow on the story, but I saw it daily on TV – and which politician should visit when, and whether Obama was responsible for Katrina.

And there’s this story about Donald Trump’s health report that was released in December of 2015, when most people thought it was bogus. So why is it a big news story only NOW? Because there are folks with a conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton’s health, which Trump has helped spread, which the Democrats are contradicting.

Plus stuff about Paul Manifort and the Russians, and California fires, and explaining that this story about Obama banning the Pledge of Allegiance is bogus. I had thoughts on all of it. But then I realized something, that was just for a while, a little more important to me.
llws
That is: a team from Maine-Endwell, NY is in the Little League World Series, after going 19-0. The hamlet of Endwell is in Broome County, where Binghamton, my hometown, is the county seat. “It’s the first time in over 35 years that a team from anywhere other than New York City has represented the Mid-Atlantic region in Williamsport.”

M-E won its first LLWS game on Thursday, 7-2, over a team from New England, Warwick North (Rhode Island). The team will play today in the double-elimination tournament, which means that, if they should lose today, they’re not yet eliminated.

I need to get a different take on the news for a while and may take a hiatus from the cares of the world, especially on Facebook. Instead, I will concern myself with fastballs and turning the double play, for a little while. Well, except for the stuff I’ve already written, and if something REALLY big happens…

The Health Report, July 2016

bronchitisAt the end of the school year in late June, the Daughter was very lethargic. It wasn’t some sort of short-timer’s syndrome, but rather some unidentified malady. One Friday evening, the three of us went to the Urgent Care place.

The Daughter was going to get tested for strep throat, which she understandably hates; the gag reflex is a powerful reaction. Now, I’d been having a scratchy throat for a couple of weeks, but I was otherwise asymptomatic. Still, I became a patient too.

Well, the Daughter did NOT have strep throat. But I DID. She took some odd pleasure in this finding. I did the ten-day antibiotic regimen that ended shortly before our vacation. I felt reasonably well on the trip, though sleeping in unfamiliar beds sometimes makes it difficult to sleep through the night.

I get back from vacation, actually on the last leg of the trip, from Auburn to Albany, and my throat’s scratchy, maybe from too much air conditioning. But going back to work on Wednesday and Thursday, I also developed an uncontrollable cough. And I just felt washed out.

I stayed home sick from Friday with a fever of around 100F, and alternatingly feeling chills and overly warm. (One hates to take sick time right after vacation.) And after a particularly awful Friday night waking to a coughing jag every two hours – so I’m now EXHAUSTED, as well – The Wife drags me to the Urgent Care place for the second time in a month.

Good news – I don’t have strep throat again. The bad news is that I have – well, let’s check in with JEOPARDY from Monday, July 11, the last episode I watched before I became so loopy that I lost the DVR remote for days.

The category is THAT’S B_S!, where each correct response will begin with a “B” and end with an “S”: “This inflammation of the air passages in the lungs causes an increase of mucus production.”

Can you say, What is bronchitis?

The Wife took the Daughter swimming so that I could rest Saturday afternoon. I missed church Sunday plus a production of Chicago at the Mac-Haydn Theatre. I want to see some movie, notably Ghostbusters, but don’t want to hack my way through a film disturbing the audience.

Grr. I get back to town and I have no energy; this was really aggravating.

My throat is constantly sore, as though someone’s fist is there. I’ve decided that there are foods that are easier to consume:
Scrambled eggs: GOOD!
Yogurt: GOOD!
Toast: BAD!
Strawberry milkshake, Good, but that real strawberry that went through the straw I better chew about 30 times.

Bedtime is the WORST, because the coughing hackathon tends to start in the evening, after a busy day of sitting on the sofa, lying on the sofa, getting dressed (maybe), eating cautiously, drinking a lot (non-alcoholic, alas), watching other people’s Facebook fights.

I want to blog and have plenty to write about. I’m burning through my pre-posted stuff rapidly. If my July 31 post – which looks at things others have written – is unusually short, you’ll know why.

But I’m in a fog, mostly out of sheer exhaustion. I said to The Wife on Saturday, “If I feel better, maybe I’ll go to the movies on Monday,” one minute after she said, “That movie theater is closed on Mondays,” which I knew in my right mind anyway.

So if I haven’t commented on your blog, ABC Wednesday people, and others, I will eventually. If I haven’t commented on your Facebook, and you didn’t tag me, it’s more likely than not that I didn’t see it, going back to the beginning of vacation on July 10.

I think I’ll take a nap now. Then again, probably not: too tired to nap.

NYS: end HIV/AIDS in the state by 2020

The Centers for Disease Control is planning a National HIV Prevention Conference in December 2015 in Atlanta to “continue refining, improving, and strengthening our nation’s response to HIV.”

AIDS.homepage-graphicIn the summer of 2015, I went to a dinner and discovered that there is a plan by the New York State Department of Health to end the epidemic in the state by 2020.

The three-point plan:
Identifies persons with HIV who remain undiagnosed and link them to health care.
Links and retains persons diagnosed with HIV in health care to maximize virus suppression so they remain healthy and prevent further transmission.
*Facilitates access to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for high-risk persons to keep them HIV negative.
Implicit in the framework was making sure people were not being shamed into hiding their HIV status, which merely makes it harder to treat.

There was a headline from a couple of months ago that surprised me:

Everyone who has H.I.V. should immediately be put on antiretroviral triple therapy and everyone at risk of becoming infected should be offered protective doses of similar drugs, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday as it issued new H.I.V. treatment and prevention guidelines.

The guidelines increase by nine million the number of people who should get treatment and by untold millions the number who should get protective doses. Previous guidelines recommended them for gay men, prostitutes, people with infected partners and others; the new guidelines effectively bring in millions of women and girls in Africa.

How much that will cost and how it will be paid for are not yet determined.

Advocates around the world welcomed the new guidelines — usually without addressing the cost.

Dr. Mark Dybul, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said the two recommendations were “critically important to moving us toward fast-track treatment and prevention goals.”

This was exciting, though: Truvada Protected 100 Percent Of Study Participants From HIV.

The Centers for Disease Control is planning a National HIV Prevention Conference in December 2015 in Atlanta to “continue refining, improving, and strengthening our nation’s response to HIV.” Because it’s not over yet.

The health report, September 2015

Naturally, I started fearing the worst, stomach cancer, or other dreaded disease.

umbilical_hernia01Early in the past week, I went to a vascular surgeon. I don’t have varicose veins, but I have a related ailment in my left leg. So I’m getting compression stockings.

Meanwhile, there was a little lump in my belly, near my navel, a month or two ago. I wondered what it was, then promptly forgot about it. Then it got bigger, and I couldn’t ignore it, so I went to my PCP (primary care physician), or actually, her partner, a couple of days ago.

Naturally, I started fearing the worst, stomach cancer, or another dreaded disease. As some now-disreputable comic once noted, doctors are wonderful people, but they’re always touching things. “Does that hurt?” “DOES THAT HURT! DOES THAT HURT!” Same with this guy. Before the visit, I had minimal discomfort. But now – ow, ow ow, ow.

Still, he believes I have an umbilical hernia, which is rather reassuring. I am seeing a specialist later this week, and I hope that, whatever it is, it’ll be addressed soon.

Meanwhile, I have a Weird Al song stuck in my head. As SamuraiFrog wrote: “This is a song that benefits enormously from having a funny video (which was shot on the same set as the James Brown video). It’s pretty funny, and it’s a good re-creation of a Brown song.”

It’s also very informative, about the different types of hernias. And it ends with, “I feel bad!” I would rank it much higher than Mr. Frog did.

Here’s Living with a Hernia.

$30,193.86

I HIGHLY recommend that you get a notebook when you go to the hospital with someone – and you SHOULD have someone, if at all possible.

hospital-billThe bill came for the Daughter’s two-day stay at a local hospital:
Over $4,000 for the emergency room
Over $4,000 for the MRI brain scan
Over $12,000 for the MRI spine scan (which they probably didn’t finish when she balked after an HOUR)
Over $4,000 for various labs
Over $4,500 in “accommodation fees”
Plus drugs and physical therapy

The hospital actually got $4,889 from my insurance company, with over $25,000 eliminated by the “Insurance Contractual Adjustment.”

That made the total due from us $100.

THAT is why I LOATHE it when I’m without insurance.

One can argue whether it was all necessary, to eliminate what she might have had, but evidently did not. Had she suffered from Guillain-Barré syndrome, rather than the viral infection she likely had, it would have been terrible.

One more thing on this topic: the Wife and I were at the hospital all the time, but not always at the same time. I HIGHLY recommend that you get a notebook when you go to the hospital with someone – and you SHOULD have someone, if at all possible. You are likely going to see so many different people, it’ll be difficult to keep track of what each one said.

I’m always coming across people – writers, artists, musicians especially – who have no insurance. It’s usually in the context of someone who has had some illness or injury, and is now facing some catastrophic bills. This is why I’ve supported the single-payer insurance plan that never got off the ground in the bulk of the US; Obamacare is definitely a half a loaf, but, I’m hoping, better than nothing for those people going forward.

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