Category Archives: Health

Aging, GeekWorld, Health, Jefferson County, Mountains, Shadow Mountain, The West, Weather +Climate

Knee, Snow, Travel

March 23, 2016 Charles Leave a comment

Spring Maiden Moon

The knee, 20 hours later. Feeling pretty good. Almost normal. A bit creaky, a little twingey, but otherwise, pretty damned good. The cortisone effect can last from weeks to months. I’m hoping months. The big issue with the knee, beyond Asia, is my regular workout. High intensity workouts, which I’ve been doing for a while, require some speedier, more stressful moments on the treadmill. The cortisone will make them easier for now. Worth it.

In other news here on Shadow Mountain we’re getting what may well may be another foot of snow. And this stuff is wet. And therefore heavy. Of course it’s Wednesday, when the trash goes out. Gonna get the yellow Cub Cadet out, but if it plugs up all the time, I’ll wait for the solar snow shovel or find somebody to plow us out.

Up here the forecast can change quickly if a system moves a bit further north or south. Last night the forecasts were for 2-7 inches. But in reality.

Today, and maybe tomorrow, is going to be largely trip related. Finish photographing our stuff. Get necessary information onto a flash drive for portability. Open a dropbox account to put my writing in the cloud. Get our emergency box of important papers put together. Sign up for international cell phone plans. Figure out how folks can contact us when necessary. Fussy stuff.

Asia, Dogs, Family, Health, Travel

Today

March 5, 2016 Charles Leave a comment

Imbolc Valentine Moon

Tai chi finished up today. Just in time, I think I got it. Still plan to use the form I’ve learned as a mid-morning break from work. Gotta get it into my routine though. Not yet.

Vega continues to get better, move around more. She’s not drugged up and that helps a lot, but she’s also determined to get things back to normal. Her spirits are wonderful, tail thumping, her signature move.

Kate and I have sleep deprivation from the last week plus. Long nap this afternoon, more sleep tomorrow, too, I imagine.

Beginning to get an Asia focus, thinking about Korea, Singapore. Mary has found a place for us to stay at the Raffle’s Town Club. This is an offshoot of the larger, historic Raffles Hotel in downtown. The Town Club is close to her home.

Dogs, Health, Politics

Vega, Trump, Knee

March 2, 2016 Charles 1 Comment

Imbolc Valentine Moon

Vega’s culture for the source of an infection in her wound has given her what we hope is the last hurdle in her recovery from the amputation, an antibiotic resistant form of e-coli. It’s only sensitive to two rarely used antibiotics, one $400 for a tiny vial, the other one $40. Guess which one we chose.

She’s feeling much better and once this infection gets resolved and her wound closed, today for the wound, her path goes back to the original one with four weeks or so to stitches out.

The Donald is similar to this e-coli. He’s an establishment Republican resistant organism and the micro-biologists of the GOP strategists have not yet found the antibiotic that will work against him. Like such organisms in medicine he represents a genuine, serious threat to the well-being of the party. Super Tuesday seemed a good breeding ground for the infection as the lab reports came in from states in the south. At some point overwhelming sepsis may result and the host organism may succumb. More to come.

And, in personal organ recital news, my doc yesterday told me I had osteoarthritis in my left knee and “will probably require a new knee at some point.” I’m channeling my buddy Mark Odegard’s path. First prostate cancer, then a bum knee. Sigh. Anyhow a cortisone injection is in my immediate future since my kidney disease means no nsaids. I hope it works because I want to be mobile for the Asia trip next month. Full disclosure: the thought of a needle probing my knee scares me a bit.

Dogs, Health

Vega. More.

February 27, 2016 Charles Leave a comment

Imbolc Valentine Moon

Yesterday Kate and I went into the operational area of the vets to watch Vega’s wound get bandaged. Kate will have to replace the bandage three times over the weekend. The surgical wound had an opening next to it about 3 inches in diameter, revealing muscle underneath.

Kate asked to help and was directed to the drawer with the gloves. She put one on and held the bandage in place with one experienced finger while the vet put in anchoring stitches that would hold tie downs for the bandage. She looked so complete there, familiar with the operating room as she is from years as an operating nurse and nurse anesthetist. It was a pleasure to see.

She and the vet talked medicine while he sewed, putting in six anchoring stitches around the wound. He explained that dogs metabolize anesthetics differently than humans. They have, he said, sticky blood, so the dosage of, say, dilaudid, used in a dog would do serious injury to a comparably sized human. When giving Kate some injectable dilaudid, he also explained there was no need to swab the injection site with alcohol. No way to sterilize fur.

Vega meanwhile was under a blue paper cover, a hole cut in it approximating the area around the site where the vet worked, and on a metal table about chest height. As the vet put in the 5th of the 6 stitches, her tail began to wag. She had begun to come to.

She’s been through a lot since the amputation. Visits to the vet. Probing and debriding of the wound and it’s recent opening. I can tell she’s tired of it and wants a return to normal life. Unfortunately, not for a while.

Asia, GeekWorld, Great Work, Health, Third Phase, Weather +Climate

Saturday

February 20, 2016 Charles Leave a comment

Imbolc Valentine Moon

Not used to being the slow one, but in our tai chi class, now in its 6th week of 8, I am. It’s ok though. I need repetition and once I get it, I’ll have it, so speed of learning is not so important here as quality over time. Physically co-ordinated things have never been my shining moment.

The weather has been warm and in mid-winter on the eastern slopes that means chinooks. Warm = windy at this time of year. Still learning the weather patterns. It has made for outstanding electricity production. Yesterday’s output is below.

Aging, Dogs, Health, Third Phase

Cherish the Time

February 11, 2016 Charles Leave a comment

Imbolc Valentine Moon

An emotional week with Vega’s cancer diagnosis, then her radiography, ultrasound and chest x-ray yesterday. We got the best news we could have. The radiologist found no sign of metastases in her lungs or in her liver. This does not mean they’re not in her body somewhere, but it lowers the likelihood. It also means that amputation of her left front leg, where the tumor has grown near her foot, gives us a reasonable chance at a cure.

We’re still mulling our options, but we’ve scheduled the surgery for next week on Wednesday. She’s 7, so not a young dog, especially for a larger animal, but she probably has another 2-3 years, maybe more. She is, as Palmini, our vet, says, in great shape, not overweight and strong, so she should adapt just fine to three legs. Amputation sounds drastic, and it is of course, but dogs seem to get over the change quickly and get about their life.

There is a great and important lesson about human dying here. While waiting for the diagnosis and radiology results, we’ve been being with Vega as usual, perhaps a little more attentive. The lesson is this: she’s alive now. We can be with her now, love her now, cherish this time with her now. And, if you consider it, now is the only time we have to love each other. Our time ends. We know that. Just as we have confronted with Vega over the last couple of weeks. So, whomever you love, if they’re alive now, cherish the time.

Aging, Health, Politics, US History

OMG

January 31, 2016 Charles 1 Comment

Yule Stock Show Moon

My 2015 summary from SecureHorizons, our AARP medicare advantage plan, shows all you need to know that our healthcare system is broken, badly broken. In 2015 I had prostate cancer and as a result had a surgical procedure to remove my prostate, so it was an expensive year with biopsies, diagnosis, procedure and follow-up. I also had a series of physical therapy sessions for an arthritic neck and its left shoulder, elbow and hand sequelae.

Total billed to Securehorizons for the year: $101,000.

Total paid by Securehorizons for the year: $12,000.

Our share: $850.

First reaction might be, really good news! Look how little you had to pay, Charlie, for such an enormous bill. Uh huh. Look more at how little Securehorizons paid for such an enormous bill, about 1/8 or 12% of the total billed. This vast-$78,000-discrepancy says nobody knows what healthcare costs. Nobody knows what’s fair.

Take my very small piece of the total healthcare expenditures in 2015 and extrapolate these ratios. Say hospitals and physicians and other therapies billed $10,000,000,000 to insurance companies. Following the ratio in my 2015 report insurance companies would pay to those vendors approximately $1,200,000,000. That would leave a discrepancy of $7,800,000,000. What happens to the supposed expenses covered by discrepancy? Do hospitals and physicians and therapists go out of business? No, they live to bill another year when the whole sorry mess repeats.

It takes no analytical subtlety to smell the rot. We need to get out from under all these private insurance companies and their administrative rules, their negotiated deals.

Kate’s hair-dresser, to illustrate another problem with this mess, went to the ER when a partially removed splinter in her hand created swelling that made it impossible for her to use her scissors. No work, no money. She had the self-employed persons typical high deductible policy. An E.R. doc removed the splinter. Bill: doc=$1,500, e.r. admittance=$1,800. She refused to pay $3,300 for a splinter removal, stayed resolute and got an 80% reduction in her bill.

Colorado will have a referendum this year to create the first single-payer health plan in the United States. I’m voting for it.

Health, Jefferson County, Our Land and Home, Shadow Mountain

Pounding, Screeching, Whining

January 21, 2016 Charles Leave a comment

Yule Stock Show Moon

Can you feel the tension creeping out from here? The (we hope) final day of our kitchen remodel is underway. The new countertop is in, the new broom closet (unprimed, however) is in, the microwave and sinks and faucets are in. Various items, punchlist items, are being taken care of. A couple of other custom cabinets are waiting to be installed. Saws whining, drills screeching, hammers pounding.

Todd’s multicultural crew, Michele (French) and Luis (Latino), is here and have been since 8:30 am. Todd’s a good guy, but he’s a big picture schmoozer in a small picture detail oriented business. We hired him and we’re riding the process out to the end, but we could have done better. The price however was right.

Kate left in the middle of the day for more hand/thumb physical therapy. She came back with black kinesiology tape snaking out from the top of her thumb midway up her forearm. Kinesiology tape? Yep. This gave her time away, a spa hour for her opposable digit.

Nextdoor Shadow Mountain, an electronic water cooler, had a woman on yesterday who wrote: “Any recommendations for an electrician?? The company we were using did not show up for a scheduled appointment, and no one has responded to texts, phone messages, or emails.” This is the story here at altitude. Over and over. In all trades and services.

Last week I wrote the heads of three local business schools and suggested there might be a business opportunity up here. No takers yet, but it’s early days.

That’s how we ended up with Todd. He actually showed up.

Aging, Family, Health, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant.

Tai Chi

January 16, 2016 Charles Leave a comment

Yule Stock Show Moon

Over to Conifer Physical Therapy this morning with Kate for an 8 week course, Tai Chi for folks with arthritis. Our mutual infirmity bringing us closer together. How special is aging? Kate did Tai Chi when she was in medical school. I learned about half of a full form maybe 3 years ago, so we’ve both got some muscle memory. It never hurts to have more than way of approaching something. My physical therapy exercises are keeping my back and my shoulder/elbow/neck calmed down. Tai Chi will reinforce that work.

We’ll meet some other folks, too. Should be fun.

Health

Ordinary Time

January 15, 2016 Charles Leave a comment

Yule Stock Show Moon

Amazing how ordinary a post-cancer operation visit can be. Of course, as long as the numbers stay good it will stay ordinary. That is the great gift of successful treatment, the opportunity to return to whatever life you had instead of checking out your will.

Anna Willis, a P.A., talks with ease about matters sexual, urinary. She’s a 30 something, maybe early 40’s, woman who dresses upscale and has a brusque, but not unpleasant professional manner. “Getting up 4 times at night? Oh, that’s too much. We’ll see if we can get that down.”

Mostly we focused on the .015 PSA. As good a number as possible, a royal flush of a lab result. The plan is to continue ultrasensitive tests every 3 months for 2 years, then every 6 months until year 5. “It’s about the same as breast cancer. the more time away from surgery with clean results, the better the odds. If you get past 5 years, the odds of recurrence are very, very low.”

Cancer season closed out as a time of high alertness in September with the first .015. The return to ordinary time will, I imagine, continue and become more solid if the tests keep sending me good news. Like having stood in the path of a fast moving train and having a good samaritan pull you out of the way just in time.