Friday, November 7, 2008

Randomly thimkin agin

Shades of the desire for the nanny state continue to show up in the darndest of places.

This morning's Argus online poll asks the question: "Do you support a legislative effort to ban smoking in bars, restaurants, casinos and all other indoor workplaces in the state?" As of 8:42 am the result of 985 votes is: 645 - Yes and 340 - No.

Well, to my military mind, the more we depend on gummint to dictate what business can and
cannot do, the more we are decreasing our freedom. This country became great due in part to the openness of businesses to cater to the needs and wants of the public.

It is truly a sad day, when people are so lazy they would rather see new laws passed, than allow businesses to change on their own.

Should the 65.5% who desire the law to prohibit smoking in public establishments let those establishments know they prefer the non smoking ambiance, who knows what would happen.

It would certainly be instructive to go to some of these public places and find out what the break down is of people there who smoke and do not smoke.

Having been to one of the bigger casinos here in the area more than once, I have seen the majority of the people, with gaming club cards, smoking. At any given point of time, you will find that just about everyone in the place are smoking.

I personally do not smoke, and have not since 1974. Would I like to exist in a smoke free environment? I don't really know. I do know I am never gonna expect someone else to live the
way I do. And I will never call upon gummint to force someone to live the way I choose.

We used to have a saying: "All you have to do is pay taxes and die". To me, that means, I am free to live as I wish as long as I pay my taxes and understand that one day I am gonna die.

That in itself is an interesting thought. I have been in a head-on collision at 80 mph, and have lived, I have spent my thirteen months in Vietnam and survived. I was a drunken alcoholic for ten years, paying no attention to my physical or mental health. I have been in places where men
have pointed handguns at my head and threatened to shoot me.

Yet, here I am getting ready to enter into my 63d year of life. And not once have I called on the gummint to do anything...I am told that had I used the seat belt I might not have endured the injuries I did - but I didn't stand up and say, better make it mandatory that every one hook their seat belt.

OK, nuff ranten...

I am really tired, no, really sick of so many people crying out to gummint to come to their aid.

How did we come to be such a pussified community?

Now I begin to see how the old country songs have such a draw.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Thinkin outloud

OK, so, the plot thickens...I thot I was having complications from an accident I had a coupla years ago, when I lost my rotator cuff. So, my regular doc scheduled a consult with the orthopedic people at the hospital; I saw them today.

First, they xrayed my shoulder four different angles. The doc looked at the pix and did some things with my arm and shoulder.

Said, he didn't think my problem was with the shoulder, itself, per se, but perhaps there was something else going on. So, back to xray for a coupla xrays of my neck. Doc looked at xrays and showed me where the vertebrae (or whatever the things are called) did not have the regular amount of clearance, and was perhaps pinching the nerve that would cause numbness in my entire arm and pain in my shoulder.

So, I am being processed for an MRI of my neck to give a clearer view of the situation, so doc can make a decision on what to do.

Well, I have always heard that bad things come in threes, so, perhaps now, I am done with receiving bad things for a while...you have to ask what three? Why my half a day in ER on Monday, now this possible spine problem, and the worst presidential election in my lifetime.

Come on Scotty, can't you at least beam me up? There ain't a lot of intelligent life on this planet.

Monday, November 3, 2008

So, how was your morning?

Spent half a day in the ER today.

It was one of those nites when sleep seemed to elude me; toss n turn, roll over, roll back.

About 3:00 this morning, I got out of bed, and was dizzy, my head was full of congestion, my face was burning, and I didn't feel right at all.

Well, went out and got a drink of water out of the fridge, and made a potty break, and climbed back in bed. Still not able to get comfortable, felt like I was hyperventilating, and tried to settle my breathing down.

About 4:00 I got out of bed again, and debated if I should go in to ER, or crawl back in bed and see if whatever would pass. So, I crawled back in bed, only to realize that I wasn't getting any better, and the hyperventilating seemed to bother me, since I couldn't get it under control.

Finally decided to go to ER and see if they could figgure out what was going on.

Walked into ER and was immediately asked what I needed help with. I asked them if this was the place I should come to die, cuz if they couldn't figgure out what was wrong, I would need to die just to feel better.

Finally got walked back to an exam room, and got the backless gown and directions to put it on.

While still getting undressed and putting on the gown, the nurse came in and started talking with me. That's ok, after 29 years in the military I ain't got a lot of concern bout modesty in a hospital.

Next came the temp taking, seems it was 97.? Placed the blood pressure cuff on my arm, and activated it, when alarms started going off; seems my heart rate was up to 103.5, and the nurse was concerned I was having a coronary.

So, called in the girl with the EEG, who dutifully stuck the stickys all over my chest and legs, did the EEG, and announced everything was alright.

Then the doctor came in, and introduced herself to me, and said she wanted to take my temp, just becuz that was how she worked. She reported a temp of 99.? but was alarmed because my skin was red hot, and heat waves were rising off every part of my body. Eventually, the doc decided we needed to do a rectal temp and came up with a temp of 135.

Now she knew something was up.

Somebody set me up with an iv needle, and then took blood for blood test and a culture.

Next, I was taken to xray where pictures were taken of my lungs to see if there was anythihg going on there. Negative.

Next on the agenda was a trip to the CAT scan to find out why my face was burning and what was happening with the major congestion. That showed a major sinus infection on the right side.

After being returned to the exam room, I was notified that the doc wanted a urinalysis, and of course, I guess I was dehydrated, and the trip I made to the bathroom at 3 that morning, seemed to have taken care of anything in the holding tank.

The nurse I had, was really nice, she was a refugee from Lafayette, LA. We talked some about the crazy stuff going on in LA, and she was of the mind that if O. Hussein B, does not get elected there will be a lot of unhappy blacks in the south. Anyway, her shift was ending, so she left.

Doc came in while I was peeing in the bottle, she said she was waiting for the urinalysis results to come back, and I informed her, that the sample had not been taken down yet. So, she took a sample and left.

Well, the doc came back in and informed me that she was worried becuz the high temp and the headache, and the white cells in my blood, told her there was something else going on.

Wouldn't you know it, she was concerned that I might have meningitis, which would cause white cells to activate, and temp to spike and headache. So, she discussed doing a spinal tap, lumbar poke, to test the fluid in the spine to rule out meningitis.

Well, her shift was over too, so, two male docs came in and splained to me what was gonna happen.

Well, finally, about 11:15, the doc came in and told me the spinal fluid was clear and there was no meningitis there.

I was free to go home, but I would need to get a Rx filled for antibiotics (spelled horse pill).

Well, I am home now, and still out of sorts, guess it gonna take a while for everything to work its way out of my system.

So, how was your morning?