Haven't posted in a while using Facebook far more often. Still, it's good to have a place for a long rant.

Happy Holidays from Positively Cleveland - 2010

Rant part 2

At any rate I was eventually seen by my set of docs, not the same set as his, and sent home to be managed for about 4 weeks or so. It's more complex but I'm tired of fussing with the cats. penfold wiped out an hour's worth of typing and explanation. Suffice it to say I was tol I was being kept to treat me when i was being admitted rather than treated at home, thn th next day was "told" I was being dischrged to be treated at home withou ever really bein told by the doctors I was being discharged. I was told by the pharmacy tech. So once again it was one hand, the "plumbers", not knowing what the other hand, the "electricians" were doing. cardiology is now two specialties, those who deal with arteries, veins and valves, and those who deal with the pcemaking circuits of the heart. The plumbers and the electricians. The plumbers wanted to send me home, the electricin to keep me. Plumbers won. I lose in that I will be more tired and short of breath for the next month or so.
I didn't spell check as I just don't give a rat's butt right now, so be alert for wods that don't seem right. Also the cts may have contributed and I didn't check for their additions.

RANT Against Doctors

Tuesday I had an appointment with the vascular clinic at the VA re; my right leg and the angioplasty done at the end of May. At that time they sai the had been unable to clear all of the blockage but that they had some alternatives they wanted to talk about. They then did as they often do, made appointments for me without regards to my schedule at all. As I was still working for the census, I cancelled them and said I'd reschedule. I knew I had an appointment with my nurse practitioner last week and wanted to talk it over with her first. Meanwhile for the last month or so I'd become increasingly short of breath even doing basic things like going upstairs. They had put me on metropolol to reduce my pulse, but it hadn't done so. Vascular called back and we set up an appointment for the 20th.
The car broke down a couple of weeks back and I took the bus to the VA hospital, a two but trip and then a walk that usually takes me about 20 min. When I saw my nurse, I told her about being increasingly SOB. She had some bloodwork drawn. She said she could not see my appt with vascular in her computer.
Later in the week vascular called and confirmed it was for the 20th at 0930.
On Tuesday I left but missed a bus I needed and so I was late for the second bus, getting on it at about 0930. I did call the office and say I'd be late and they said come on in. When I got off the bus it took me over 40 min to walk to the VA. I got there a little after 1015 and was told I'd bee seen when something opened up. I was ok with that. A little after 11 or so I was seen and told that they did not plan on doing anything else about my leg as I had no symptoms and had good collateral circulation around the narrowed artery.
But while taking my pulse the nurse found it was fast, about 90-100, as it usually is but taht it was irregular. So I was sent to ER for an EKG. Now Iwas not happy. I had planned on running some very important errands on the way home and stoppin for lunch and maybe a movie. I did not want waste time in ER. But they took me in fairly qick and did an EKG. A few minutes they came back and did a scond, longer "rhythm strip" EKG. After quite a while I was visited by different docs. One said they might keep me or they might send me come on warfarin and bring me back as an outpatient for cardioversion, as I was back in atrial flutter/fibrillation. They were not putting too fine a point on it. The second said I was being admitted as it made more sense to keep me for a few days, get me on anticoagulants and zap me sooner rather than later since I was there. Needless to say I was not happy, and my blood sugar was down from not eating so far. I was told about 1330 or so and when I tried to call Betsy to tell her found both my phones had died.
I got to the floor abou 1600, and was checked in about 30 or so min later. I finally saw a doctor around 1800 or so and she said I would be started on some IV's for dehydration, given a heparin drip (anti coag) and be NPO after 2400 for procedures the next day. She did order a diet for me. I ate at about 1900 and had a snack about 2230 since I could have nothing later. I was given a pair of way too small pj's. Asked for anothe pair but never got 'em.
They did get a CPAP for me, but screwed that order up, having the respiratory people told to put me on oxygen 2L/min. When he arrived and as he was setting up he asked about what oxy level I was on at home, and pointed out I wasn't. So he didn't connect the ox but did check back later to see that the CPAP was working and my oxy level was good. It was. At 0400 they woke me to draw blood. As I'd slept from about 2300 I did not get back to sleep.

Of course I could have no breakfast, but as I did not get my diabetic meds in the morning, nor had I the night before, I was not too hungry. I was given a clean towel and pj's and asked for a larger set, as the ones given were also too small. I was told the cardiology team would be in to see me about 0900. I was given anew set of pj's and was going to put them on after I'd washed up. About 0900 a woman form the echo cardiogram unit came toi get me and asked if I could walk as she wanted me to come down for a cardiogram. I said yes but I'd need a moment to change pj's. She said ok but hurry and she would wait at the desk. Just as i went to change a team of docs came in to see my roommate, who was also in for a heart problem. I figured Agggh Penfold just erased 3 or 4 paragraphs.
To be continued.......

May Waited Till The End to Get Me

Those of you who have known me to rant on a bit in the past know that I have two least favorite months: November and May. November is generally a bad month for many reasons, not the least in that both my parents died in November. Now I did have a sister and two cats born in November, which redeems it a bit. Thanksgiving is mixed for me. May is a month of changes , transitions, bad decisions and odd happenings. May to me is like Chinatown to Jake. Now so far this May had not been too bad. A couple of good things seemed to be happening. I was told the least invasive angioplasty procedure for my right leg would be good, rather than a bypass graft. We had an old bank error in our favor. My census job has been puttering along, with my last AA being a snap compared to my first. But now to get to the unhappy stuff: 1)Lindy went out a week ago Sunday AM and has not returned. And, yes she has been out longer before (three months once) but not lately. 2) My angioplasty required me to go in the night before and a day without driving after so I was off three days last week. This is a mixed bad/good thing. 3) The angioplasty only took care of the blockage in my popliteal artery but not the blockage lower down, so they are talking bypass again 4) I finished up all but one of my last AA book, and that one may be a "problem" 5) I was assigned a new AA book, with a lot of apartments. The good thing is they have one office which I can get the info from re:vacancies - the bad thing is the manager was busy today but had time to tell me the census taker was here just two weeks ago to get info and she helped him then. One of the American Community Survey folks? One of ours with a different set of buildings ( I doubt this as I have both sets.)? If it is Comm Survey I am really pissed with their timing. We have had to deal with that back when I was starting the group quarters enumeration prep. I do have just 5 single households, of which I serve NVs to 4 and got one complete. 5) Doc Zorba is making very bad sounding noises at times. Not sure where they are coming from but they sound expensive. 6) This deserves a rant of it's own but I'll just toss it in here. Betsy and I decided to go see Todd play at The Bodega up on Coventry. He'd been scheduled the last two weekends or so but we felt it was a bit more than we wanted to spend as it is not really our type of place (read expensive) but we did get Betsy's CPAP ordered for less than what we had planned so with the help of a gift cert from Restaurant.com we figured we could do it. Betsy thought bit about it figured with me getting a new book and her working today, that maybe last night would be the best time to go. We arrived about 7:30 PM to find it not very busy. We had a wonderful dinner but they cancelled Todd at the last minute. We did get to meet him and some friends of his there. But it was not what Betsy was looking forward to. See a bit further down in this post to see my praise of this place. 7) When I got home from a less than pleasing start to my new AA we had a notice from the city re : yard work which had been a part of their previous notice of violations but that we had till October to fix. We now have several small but tedious tasks to get done in one week. Crap. What also ticks me off is that in late March or early April, I think, there was a Groupon offer or one of the other offers for a really nice yard service for only $75 as a season starter deal which I asked Betsy about and got a non committal reply until the deal was past.
On the bright side today I got home just as Fed Ex was dropping off the package with the CPAP.

The Bodega is a very nice tapas bar/restaurant but it is in the wrong neighborhood. It is far too upscale for Coventry. The food was great, as was the service, and they had the class not to make us feel unwelcome even though we were way out of our normal price range.I've been to places that look at you like dirt if you don't meet their idea of what they think a customer should be. These folks were very nice. Attentive without hovering about. Betsy had the Bay of Fundy Salmon, and I had the Grilled Tuna Nicoise . Both were excellent. I had a very good German beer, and we shared an eggplant appetizer. Then we had very good desserts. Betsy had the creme brulee, and I had the bread pudding. I found I liked hers better and I am not a creme brulee fan. It was just that good. The price was reasonable for that kind of food in that setting, and it was steeper than we usually spend.
The place was never busy however. By 9:30 when we left there were still many empty tables, and the whole lounge area seemed vacant. The bar was busy, but not crowded. This was a really nice Friday night and Coventry was full of people as we went out and back to our car. The Winking Lizard seemed busy. I think the Bodega would be better off in the Eaton Park area or in one of the new lifestyle malls, or in Westlake or even downtown. We had a nice time however and If I ever feel a need to spend a good deal more than usual for a nice meal we'll return.

So, now I sit with Betsy at work, my 4 PM appointment 2 and a half hours off, a bit bored, a bit ticked off and a bit depressed. Drat, now I could use a good German beer. I'll have a Paulaner Slvatore Double Bock, bitte.

Warning! Thar' Be Spoilers Ahead!

IF you have not seen "Avatar" don't read this- or at least be warned of spoilers.

"Avatar" 3-D . Okay, so now I know why it did not win best picture. While the movie was 3-D the characters were 2-D at best. A predictable plot I've seen many times. A greedy weak company man, evil military man, noble savages.Was it pretty to look at? Yes. Was it impressive special effects? Made Betsy almost ill a couple of times due to the 3-D. Not sure if that's impressive. It was better than the old re/blue glasses 3-D. But it was still used the same way.
Did 3-D advance the plot? No. If you're going to tell an old story, give it a fresh twist. Have a strong company man who joins in to stop the colonel. Have a colonel who realizes what the company is doing and has a change of heart. Or deepen the plot, make him more evil. How did Jake's brother die? Was it an accident that the colonel just happened to get a former marine, that needed legs, to use as his spy - or was that robbery more than a lucky accident for the colonel?
Or you could have the noble savages be just a little less in need of an outside savior? In all this time had they never captured any weapons? Had they no technology? How about sabotage? Guerrilla warfare? Umm.... wait... weren't those guns that at least two of the good guys had in the final battle? Where did they come from? And how was Jake able to communicate with everyone in that battle? Looked like radio to me. So where did he get them?
And on the subject of plot holes... Jake didn't have his brother's training. Okay, that's a given. But then they take a valuable avatar and throw him in the field without so much as a "this looks deadly, but isn't"-"this looks deadly and is" " Don't touch, eat, smell or step in this" ? Come on folks.
And what about the big blue folks? Why do the Na'vi have breasts and hair? Are they mammals? They have navels ( navi means navel btw) but why?
Okay, I didn't hate the movie. When I was 10 I would have loved it. But I have no particular need to see it again. I've already seen it more than once.

PS As long as I'm in a movie rant mood, why in the Hell remake "Death At A Funeral"? It was a smart, funny, "black comedy". I have liked some remakes which can stand on their own- "Magnificent Seven" and "Seven Samuri" come to mind Looking at the previews I have great fear. If I see it I will wait till it comes to the cheap seats, and then only out of morbid curiosity.

 

 

As I was driving back from dropping Betsy off a work I happend to pass a man standing on a corner, waving a flag. My first thought was "advertisement" as we have many street corner ad men here in Cleveland-some for plumbers, some to tell of liquidation sales, etc. But then as I passed I saw a sign saying "Reilly For Congress" Now I was was struck by how basically American this is. Here is a man standing for office, literally. And though I fleetingly thought it could be a campaigner, I quickly realizesd I was wrong. And I was curious. Who is Reilly? What office? So I turned back, at first just to take a photo or two. But my curiosity and my patriotism got me. Yes, folks, I am a patriot. I know the right-wingers think they have a lock on that but they don't. So I parked and crossed the street, thinking to myself I was being foolish. Who am I to ask what he is doing? I'm not a reporter.
But I also hve the right to ask questions- so I crossed Mayfield Rd. and went up to him. I met Dan Reilly, who told me he is running for Congress for the 11th District on May 4th against Marcia Fudge. She happens to be my current Congresswoman. Dan is ex-Air Force, a union carpenter and a paramedic who is running on a reform ticket. He thinks we have had enough and changes need to be made. He plans to be on this corner and others around the east side 11th district for the next few weeks. If I were a reporter I would have gone for more detail, but as I am not I felt I learned enough for this morning. This is a man who loves his country, who cares enough to run for an office, without the fanfare and hoopla of a huge campaign. I didn't ask if he is right or left. I don't much care. He is doing something folks. He is the quintessential American.