Random Ramblings

Item:  Getting a state ID card is just as hard, and in this case more so, than getting a driver's license.  The state of Texas is a little confused that you'd give up a license in favor of getting an ID card instead, so they made it super complex.  At least, I think that is the reason. Next...

Item:  I am now the sole driver in the family.  Insurance rates have gone down appreciably, though not as much as you might think. Next...

Item: It's Joan's birthday.  Happy birthday, Joan!!  Next...

Item: This means it will soon be my birthday too.  Joan and I have birthdays exactly one month, one day and one decade apart.  Next...

Item:  We settled the Big Case at my office, finally.  So no Big Trial and there will be some money.  So I asked for a raise and was told "not sure where our cash flow is at this point...want to do something for my people but I don't know what...I'll think about it."  Which was more or less exactly what I thought they'd say.  At least they didn't say, "No, because we don't like you," which is what I always think they're going to say.  Next...

Item: Having more or less successfully painted this here iris, I'm now painting a pic of our kitten, Artemis, looking out the back door.  Wish me luck, this painting involves actual geometry and, you know, math.  Next...

Item:  You can look up how to contact your senator here.  Since the Senate will be debating a bill that will be stripping affordable health insurance away from anyone who has ever sneezed and can't get insurance from an employer, you might want to say a word or two to that person.  Next...

Item:  I have once again figured out that it is a mistake to keep ice cream in the house.  I don't know why I have to find this out over and over again, but I do.  Next...

Item:  I fired our process server, or rather, I'm not sending our process server any more work, which is the same thing as firing him.  Getting permission to fire him, on the other hand, took four months of screw-ups and noncommunication, as well as several meetings and court hearings, and it was like pulling teeth the whole time.  He still owes me two affidavits that I'm probably never going to see. Cautionary advice: DO NOT HIRE FRIENDS TO DO THINGS FOR YOUR BUSINESS.  It makes it hard to fire them if they do a bad job and it drives. your. paralegal. crazy. Next...

Item:  The Alarm is on tour this summer and will be coming to Dallas, Austin and Houston.  I'm very, very tempted to repeat the Epic Big Country Road Trip of 2013 but I probably won't, that was pretty exhausting and I'm driving to Kansas City to see the eclipse a few weeks after that anyway.  Still, it was a lot of fun, and you can check the Alarm tour dates here.  Next...

Item: By the way, there's a total eclipse of the sun on August 21.  If you've never seen such a thing, I suggest you get yourself into the path of totality forthwith.  I have never seen such a thing, but I understand it's pretty awesome and you kind of get why more primitive men thought the moon might be devouring the sun.

And that's how things are going, for the most part.  Updates to follow. Cheers!

Medicapalooza

I realize this is getting old, but Joan and I are in the middle of another fine encounter with the world's greatest healthcare system.  In case you missed it, Joan had a tumor removed from her leg, which turned out thankfully not to be cancerous, but the surgical wound got infected, she ended up in the hospital for a week and, you know, it was not fun.  Well, she is on the mend from the infection.  After three weeks they took her off the IV antibiotics. (Thank God. I kept thinking one of those days I was gonna accidentally put an air bubble in that thing, kill Joan and spend the rest of my life on Death Row.) Anyway, she was planning to go to work today for the first time in almost five weeks, but that's been forestalled by the arrival of a kidney stone.

Joan isn't supposed to have kidney stones.  The last time she had one, they went in surgically through her back, vaccuumed out all the other unindicted co-conspirators and declared her stone-free.  Yet, here one is, 8 mm and full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.  It's not going to leave the building on its own; it is too big for that.  So guess what? It's time for another surgery!  Monday, 7 am.  Or whenever they get to her.  Meanwhile, she's high as a kite on Norco, still at home and I worry she's gonna call up QVC and order $3,000 worth of miscellaneous plastic crap, or worse, unset gemstones.

And moi? Oh, I'm just FINE, thank you very large.

Excuse me, but it was supposed to be my turn to have a complete meltdown.  I'm the one in all that trouble at work, possibly about to lose my job, having a very entertaining switch from Antidepressant A to Antidepressant B, trying to cope with my out-of-control sugar fixation and having trouble even hauling myself to the pool.  But no.  Sorry, meltdown canceled.  Instead  I have to pull everything together, assume the persona of a mature, responsible adult and Handle This.  Tonight when I get home I gotta lay out all the medical bills, figure out how much we don't have to pay for them and decide who gets paid first, last, and how much.  Not to mention poring through the hospital bill to make sure we didn't get charged $92.50 for plastic light handle covers in the OR and a pacemaker, or something.  I do this at work and I gotta tell you, hospital billing offices are staffed with hundreds of chimpanzees that hammer out random stuff on typewriters in an attempt to recreate the works of Shakespeare. I mean, I could tell you stories but you probably saw the $92.50 light handle covers on your last bill, too.

Anyway.  Joan will be okay.  The kidney stone will be evicted and things will go back to normal, somewhat. Hey, we're past the out of pocket maximum, so we get one surgery for free when paying full price for an adult.  But still.  I feel cheated.  Just once I'd like to be the one that gets fussed over.  If nobody minds.

Talk Thursday: The Sweet Spot

Okay, I have a topic for Talk Thursday, but I dunno how I'm going to talk about it.  I mean, something momentous happened today, and ever since then it's like talk on all other subjects has been banned.  News commentators were going crazy.  Sean Hannity was foaming at the mouth.  Everybody at work is buzzing about it.  Opinions have grown heated.  My boss's boss, who generally keeps his opinions to himself, actually raised his voice.

I'm talking, of course, about Afrah's appearance on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

This is a Big Deal in the life span of my favorite restaurant.  The owner had to triple his wait staff.  Rumor has it there's a major remodel in the works (though I only know that because I saw the owner peering over something that looked suspiciously like blueprints with a couple of guys that looked suspiciously like architects.  Architects.  You can spot 'em a mile away.)  I'm here on an ordinary Thursday and almost every table is full, even the ones outside.  I was lucky to squeeze in near the door.  Which is scary.  I mean, I need a table for this laptop.  It's not like I exactly have a lap.  But it's all good.  It's great to see something you love get recognized for its, uh, inherent loveability.  And its chicken shwawarma, which is the best in the world.  And its pita bread, which is the best in the world. And its gelato, which--okay, okay, you get the idea.  Anyway, come up to Richardson (Greenville and Belt Line) and frick'n eat something, already.  You won't regret it.  And security is excellent (the police station's right across the street).

I suppose I should say something about that other thing that happened, that Supreme Court Affordable Care Act thing. As a Legal Person I am sometimes asked to comment about things I know nothing about, like, say, the Supreme Court.  Really, I don't know anybody who knows anything about the Supreme Court.  They're very mysterious.  The only thing I can say for certain is this:  They're harder to predict than a jury, and juries are--well, hard to predict.  It's been an interesting week, watching lots of people on both sides of the debate talking about the decision like it had already happened, and in their favor.  Alito on the side of throwing out the whole thing?  John Roberts (George W. Bush's John Roberts) on the side of keeping the whole thing?  Never would have seen that coming.  But then, it's hard to see anything coming with these guys.  And despite one of my wacky representatives allegedly saying something about the Supreme Court not being the final word on the constitutionality of something (if I could find the original quote, I'd link to it, folks), uh, yes, it is.  A wiser law professor than I said it best; the Supreme Court isn't last because it's right, it's right because it's last.

Which brings us to the sweet spot, how?  I'm not entirely sure.  When the topic first came up, I thought immediately of the G-spot, which is just the way my brain works.  If I can get something X-rated out of it, I'll go there first.  But this being a religious type establishment, I'd better not talk about that.  I'd better talk instead about my process server friend.  His wife had breast cancer eight years ago.  She's been cancer free all this time, but they don't have health insurance because it would cost them $3800 a month.  Yes, that's $3800 a month.  Note that the insurance company didn't deny them outright; it just made it impossible for them to afford coverage.  If by some chance they both live until 2014 (and I think they will; they're both pretty stubborn), they will be able to get coverage at the same rate the rest of us pay.  (Which is what?  I dunno.  It comes right out of my pay check, so I never think about it.  I think mine's about $600, which is far more reasonable.  You will note, however, that it's not cheap.)  Today has to be a pretty sweet spot for them.  And doubly so for the 50 million people who will at least have a chance to get some health coverage.  And the 26 million of those, who are young people aging off of their parents' health insurance.

And for moi?  Well, I have a table, and I have shwawarma, and in 45 minutes the Law Dogs will be taking on Parkland Hospital. So today's pretty sweet for me too.

I Feel Better Already. Sort Of.

Playing in the background: "Top Chef." Tom Colliccio looks like a vulture (still).

Well, kids, I'm sure that my 100 million closest friends and I are writing blog posts about the President's Big Speech just about now. The only thing worse than being an unappreciated blogger is being not-even-unique. But hey, it's my bandwidth and I'll yack about health care reform if I want. Besides, just wait. I'm about to clear up one of the Big Mysteries of the Buddhist Bible Belt. That should be worth stickin' around for.

In case there's any doubt about where I stand on this issue, uh, there should not be. I'm completely in favor of scrapping the entire system and bringing in something like NHS in the UK, but being as that's too radical for most of my fellow Americans, I'm fine with the plan the President first proposed. Reasons: one of my best friends, Tammy, hasn't been able to afford health insurance for about the last seven years. Nother reason: I've also been on COBRA three times in the last ten years, and it's like totally shocking how much it's gone up in price in that time. Most recent quote: $502 a month, of which the government's paying most. First time: A mere $192. Hands up who thinks that's a pretty darn outrageous price increase for roughly the same care (in fact I think it's gotten worse) in that short a time period. Yep. Third reason: Joan, who works for the City and should have Really Good Insurance (that's what they say about government employees, overpaid lazy bureaucrats that they are - they're supposed to have great benefits) needs two sleep studies, and our out of pocket cost for each one is $400. That's almost like not having insurance at all, at least in the effect it's having (she's had one and the next one is, hopefully, going to happen at the end of the month).

Having said all that, I need to convey to y'all (including Sen. John Cornyn, who keeps sending me emails - dude, I read yours, read mine, okay?) how completely serious I am about some bill getting passed. Pres. Obama said that leaving things the way they are, is not acceptable. How not acceptable is it? Well, to me it's so unacceptable that I'm gonna leak one of the longstanding secrets of this blog (told you I'd get back to that eventually.)

Back in, oh, September of last year (!) I wrote a post called, "I Suck At Taking My Own Advice." I alluded to a Big Relationship Issue where Joan and I did not see eye to eye, momentous along the lines of whether or not to have a kid (though it wasn't about that, thank goodness.) Here's what that was all about: Joan has talked on and off about wanting to leave the country. Not just on vacation, mind you, but packing up the cats and the - well, not much else, really - and Going To Live Elsewhere. Yeah, she has a destination in mind, but we don't want to alert that country's immigration department just yet, so I can't say where.

The problem? Well, I like it here. Not here in Texas per se (though I do like it here in Texas, probably more than anywhere else I've lived) but the States generally. I know this statement gets overused to the point of ridiculous, and for all the wrong reasons, but I'm a patriot. A flag-wavin' freedom-lovin' Fourth of July fireworks-watchin' loyal American. Yes, this country has been through its times of being particularly messed up, and yes, we've done some Really Stupid Things. But hey. I'm an American. Americans are my people. I love them. And it's hard to imagine bailing on them, especially when things are tough and they need me the most.

Let's face it, there are only two possible outcomes to this discussion, and somebody's gonna be unhappy no matter what happens. As a Buddhist, I try not to be too attached to anything, including ideologies, countries and concepts. So I should be able to Let Go of my point of view a little easier. Hah! One's religious preference may or may not have any effect on one's general stubbornness. And as I believe I mentioned in September 2008, I suck at taking my own advice.

The conversation flared up from time to time, most notably during particularly stupid moves by the Bush Administration, and reached a fever pitch just before Wall Street imploded. Then Obama became President and we started thinking Maybe It Would All Be Okay. Then through most of August, people (including mah fellow Texans) started yackin' about death panels and care rationing and how much it would suck for the urban poor to be able to, I dunno, take their kids to the doctor. Yep, we were back to the same discussion again. And, as I believe I mentioned in September 2008 - oh wait, I mentioned that already.

So I'm gonna come out of the closet here, so to speak, and say that much to my amazement, I'm on the boat now. If we, the Americans, tear ourselves to shreds to the point where we can't pass some kind of health care reform, I will flop over to the side of unattachment and go with my sweetie elsewhere. Not because I don't love this country -- I do; I'm crazy about it, in fact. Because I can't support it with my tax dollars anymore if an issue this basic, already postponed for the last 60-odd years by companies, individuals and politicians who are more interested in what's in it for them, gets skewered on a partisan stake when there's so much to lose. Like, you know, people's lives. And before y'all start emailing me about don't-let-the-door-hit-you-in-the-ass-on-the-way-out, let me just say, that's exactly what I'm talking about.

Another List Of Stuff That's Blatantly Obvious To Me But That No One Else Seems To Get

(National Health Care Edition, c. 2009, all rights reserved)

• We already have health care rationing. It's called "what your health insurance company decides it will and won't pay for." If you don't have health insurance at all, you're "rationed" right out of the market.
  
• There are no death panels. Nobody's going to kill your grandmother. If you believed that nonsense for half a second, you need to work on your gullibility factor. Hey, they're going to take away drivers licenses from everybody over 70! Oh God, don't tell me you believed that too. What is wrong with you?
  
• Nobody's going to take away Medicare from senior citizens. Are you kidding? People over 65 are rapidly becoming the major demographic. Not even senators and congresspersons are stupid enough to piss off the AARP.
• It doesn't matter if there are 18 million, 26 million, or 47 million uninsured Americans. If even one person is sick or dying because he or she can't see a doctor, it's too many.
  
• WE NEED TO FIX THIS. NOW. We had a chance in 1994 and we blew it. Now the problem is much worse. Want to wait until 2014 when the out of pocket expense for health care is $36,000 per family? Me, neither.
  
• National health care does not mean free health care. Nothing's ever free. In the UK they have much higher tax rates than here and national health is one of the things the taxes pay for. They made that choice. If we're going to make a different one, we will still need to find a way to pay for it.
• Shutting large numbers of people out of any access to a doctor is not "finding a way to pay for it."
  
• Even if it can't be free, is there really anything wrong with making basic care available to all Americans at an affordable price?
  
• "Affordable" varies with the individual, which is why we need CHOICES, including a public option.
• Here's a concept: Diseases, plagues and viruses spread much faster in communities that don't have ready access to medical care.
  
• A hospital on every corner is not "ready access" if you can't afford care there.
• Four people who come into the same emergency room with the same broken arm will be charged four different rates depending on whether they have A. Medicare, B. worker's compensation, C. private insurance or D. no insurance at all. Guess who's charged the most? D. Guess who's the least likely to pay at all? Yep, you're right again. Guess who picks up the slack? A, B and most of all, C. Yep, you're ALREADY paying for care for the uninsured, and the bill hasn't even been passed yet.
  
• No mom should ever be put in the position of not being able to pay for prenatal care and therefore giving birth to a kid with serious problems--which will end up costing more to treat, if the kid even lives.
  
• No kid should ever be put in the position of getting rheumatic fever, and the resultant heart damage, because Mom couldn't afford the antibiotics for his strep throat--which will end up costing more to treat, if the kid even lives.

Okay, that's enough from me. Here's some words from a Brit, who lives here now, and was recently back home on a visit:

When I was there it hadn't really ramped up to the rhetoric we are seeing now, so I really only began to take notice when I got back. From what my Mum was telling me people are really upset about it in that they don't think the US has the right to be critical like this as its all completely based on zero facts. The UK system is by no means perfect and most people will say that, however it is nowhere near as bad as it is being made out to be. Rather the people back home want the problems fixed, not the system disbanded.

Given that health care here fails a lot more people than in the UK I really don't think the argument stands up at all. All those doing the complaining either have great insurance or are loaded so it's in their favour to be like this. Also you will notice that there really is no alternative being offered by them, just the status quo. Seeing as the last 5-6 administrations have done nothing but put their heads in buckets of sand, the US now has a major problem. I don't necessarily think that that PBO plan is the best plan. However I do believe that the debate (notice the word debate, not "slagging match") needs to be had and I do think serious reform is in order.

[Family Member] went to the Dr the other day and was there 15 mins tops for some blood work. As she had not meet her deductible it cost her 112 dollars or roughly 10 bucks a minute. I don't think even Bill Gates earns 10 bucks a minute so how is this better? Yes it will probably mean paying taxes to help fund it, but is there a difference if you pay 40 bucks a month in taxes or 40 bucks a month in insurance and then anything from 20 percent upwards? To get to 100% you have to spend something crazy like $12,000. (Jen interjects: One emergency room visit.) Private is not better. It may be a little faster in the current climate but I am sure with work these issues could be resolved.

I hate health care here. I hate the fact that I pay all this money in insurance and then they find a way not to pay for it but pass the bill on to you. I hate the way they argue about stuff forever then send you a bill 11 months after the fact. I think the law needs to be reformed so that if you have not been billed in 2 months they have to bear the cost. The so called free market is not free, there is very little choice because you are not going to opt to watch a loved one suffer or die. Where is the choice in that? Huge premiums you can't afford or out of pocket expenses. How many people have had homes foreclosed or are in serious debt as a result of health care cost incurred for whatever reason? (Jen interjects: Don't know about foreclosures, but 51% of all personal bankruptcies are caused by medical bills.) Truth is, change is needed and I also include a lot better preventative care and better lifestyles and healthy eating exercise etc. Also I think of drug companies like oil companies. You never hear of a poor one do you?

The newspapers in the UK have been fighting back with various articles and even the Prime Minister weighed in, in defence of the NHS. (That guy is a serious loser or will be come next May). However, it was one article headline that really summed it all up for me and distilled it down to four words as far as health care in the US is concerned. "Land of the Fee."

To close out, Jen sez: Joan was in the hospital in Ireland in 2000 when she became seriously ill while traveling. This was a tiny town in the middle of nowhere with a small hospital, and it was like totally 1950s. Big open wards. Very little privacy. No computers, no beepy monitors. BEST. CARE. EVER. The nurses helped you get dressed and fluffed your pillows for you if you looked uncomfortable. They could do that because they weren't on the phone arguing with insurance companies all day. I guess if they had to yell at NHS they did it while the nun came around and gave Communion. Total cost? About $1,200 U.S. for an entire week, including all meds and treatments. And Communion. Yeah. That's what I said.

Knee update, straight from the horse's um, patella

Hi. Joan here. I thought I'd butt in to give an update on my knee.

To quote my favorite singer/songwriter (who I hope actually wrote this lyric), "Some days are diamond, some days are stone." In other words, some days are not so bad, some days my best friend's name is Vicodin, and some days are kind of in between. The lovely and talented Stephani at Texstar Physical Therapy has me on a regimen of some truly evil exercises that will really help my knee. Some day. If they don't kill me first.

Except for one other exercise ("Heel raise, unilateral (standing)"), my least favorite time is the four minutes - the four very long minutes - I spend lying on my stomach on one of the beds, with my legs hanging over the end, supported by the bed just above my knees.

"Lying around? What kind of exercise is that? And it hurts? You some kinda wimp, or something?"

Taking your questions in order:
1) Yes.
2) Knee extension mobilization hang (prone).
3) Like a mofo. Especially with a one-pound weight around my ankle.
4) Yes.

But once I've finished with the Quadriceps set, the exercise bike, the walking-sideways-with-a-stretchy-band-around-both-legs-just-below-the-knee, and all of the other goodies Stephani has dreamed up for my torture, I get dessert: electrical stimulation with a TENS unit and a circulating cold wrap. AAAHHhhhhhhhh.............. I bound up from the chair, skip merrily out to the car, and drive home, arriving just in time for the zapping and chilling to wear off so I can drag myself into the house, gulp down a Vicodin, and collapse on my bed. Fun, fun, fun. And I pay $45, twice a week for this privilege.

Mind you, that $45 is just the co-pay. (And the fine folks at TexStar tell me it's the highest they've ever seen.) I don't know how much my tight-fisted health insurer is forking out, but it must be considerable bucks, or I wouldn't have gotten a missive from "Unonymous Subrogation Services" in Wisconsin trying to pin the blame for my injury on somebody else so they could sue them. Let me get this straight: I'm a clumsy person. I strain the living bejeezus out of my knee trying not to fall over stepping up on a curb, I tear my meniscus, need surgery, and somebody, somebody by God!! must be sued?? What the heck am I paying premiums for?

I could understand if I were the injured party in a car accident that was not my fault, or I got squashed by a falling Oxford English Dictionary at work, or had my eye poked out by an exploding soda bottle cap, but c'mon! Clumsy happens. Get over it. Pony up, Untied Health Care. Pry open the ol' corporate wallet and let some of those extortionate premiums fly and be free.

Jen reminds me that if it weren't for insurance companies running around suing everybody else (or trying to) that she'd be out of a job. Okay. Fine. I don't have to like it when I'm the one under scrutiny for subrogation, though.

So, that's the news from Knee Central. Keep those cards and letters coming in. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled all-blogging, all-swimming paralegal goddess, Jen. Take it away, Jen!