10:06 – Barbara’s dad was released from the hospital yesterday afternoon. Barbara picked him up and took him home, where they met the guy who was delivering and installing the oxygen concentrator. Meanwhile, Barbara’s sister, Frances, was taking their mom to a doctor’s appointment. Fortunately, it turned out there’s nothing seriously wrong with their mom, other than just age.
Dutch, on the other hand, isn’t in good shape. He’s still too weak to walk more than a few steps or to use the bathroom. So Barbara and Frances are covering it in shifts for now. Frances covered last night and this morning. Barbara is heading over there after lunch to relieve Frances. Barbara will probably stay overnight tonight and then through lunch time tomorrow.
The oxygen concentrator is pretty cool. In addition to providing oxygen directly, it can also fill two small oxygen cylinders that are used on a portable oxygen mask for when Dutch needs to leave the apartment. Finally, as backup in case of power failure, Dutch has a large oxygen tank.
Dutch won’t be on oxygen all the time, just most of the time. And I suggested to Barbara that when Dutch isn’t using the oxygen concentrator, they should have their mom use it. She’s had lung/breathing issues since Barbara was a baby and is currently borderline COPD, so a bit of supplemental oxygen won’t hurt her a bit and may help a lot.
Work on building a new batch of science kits continues, now with some urgency. We’re down to two or three CK01A chemistry kits and maybe four biology kits. Today, we’re assembling batches of small parts bags for both of those so that we can build another batch of each. Forensic kit inventory is now critical. As of now, we actually have four FK01 forensic kits ready to ship, but all four of those are spoken for. I got email yesterday saying that the check was in the mail for those four kits, and this morning we got another order for a forensic kit.
Chemistry kits outsell biology kits maybe 2:1 and forensic kits maybe 6:1. Other than small parts bags, we have everything needed to build another 15 each of the kits. So this weekend I’ll build 15 each of the chemistry kits and maybe half a dozen forensics kits. Once that’s done, I’ll get started on bottling chemicals for another 60 each of the chemistry and biology kits.
11:59 – Barbara just headed over to her parents’ place, where she’ll spend the next 24 hours or so. She ran a few errands this morning, including buying groceries. She picked up a box of powdered and cinnamon doughnuts for me, 1.5 pounds (two-thirds of a kilo). I plan to have them for dinner and an evening snack. Looking at the nutrition label, it appears that they provide a fully-balanced meal.
Colin has no idea what’s going on, except that Barbara isn’t home as much as he thinks she should be. I’ll try to take him on more walks, play more ball with him, and give him more treats to make up for that, but it’ll go only so far in soothing his offended Border Collie sensibilities. BC’s have a strong sense of order, and they don’t like it when things change. This evening, I’ll just read and watch Heartland reruns. Right now, I need to get to work on kit stuff.
Can using supplemental oxygen make one oxygen dependent? I have no idea, just seems like one of those things that might getcha. Of course, giving vital organ a rest once in a while does sound like a good idea.
I got a 30 on the Asperger Quotient ( http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html ) test. Thanks for letting me know. Thanks again.
And another example of geekdom sliding into the mainstream. I was watching episode 1 of the 4th season of “Justified” this morning and the Boyd Crowder character was talking about Isaac Asimov. Even quoted him. Of course, I am assuming that the Hillbilly Whisperer show is mainstream.
Colin will be glad to help you with those donuts. 1.5 lbs, really?
And looks like the South is gonna rise again:
http://dailycaller.com/2013/01/11/hannity-foresees-states-leaving-union-if-federal-government-continues-radicalized-abusive-pattern-video/
I’m trying to decide what to do when they drive down our street yelling “Bring out your guns”. Other than duck and run. Of course on my street, I’m wondering if people will open with a 30-06 or just spray with a 5.56. One wonders if the collectors will be driving Bradleys. Of course, I lost my unregistered guns while canoeing on the Brazos last year so I don’t have to worry about this. I do see that all semi-automatic weapons will probably need a new $200 federal license (each) and cannot be passed to your kids or whoever. Sounds unconstitutional to me but I do not play a lawyer on the tv.
Yeah, really. I fondly remember the days when a 1.5-pound box of doughnuts would have been a single-serving for me. Of course, back then I’d open a 3-liter bottle of Coke and finish it in one serving as well.
I’ve lost not only all of my unregistered guns, but most of the registered ones as well. Either that, or sold them years ago to people at gun shows who paid cash and whose names I can’t remember. Seriously. I think I’m down to one or two now.
And since prices are so high, I may just take the remaining ones to a gun show and sell them for cash.
We had a real bad flood at our last house and all my firearms were totally ruined beyond repair. I was wicked bummed. Had to cart the mess of rusted stuck-together metal to the dump and the recycling bozos gave me a hard time, but I think that dump is closed now anyway and it’s all been buried under a new interstate ramp or something. Really sad. And the way my taxes keep going up, I just can’t afford to buy any more guns. Just as well; probably only the police and armed forces should have them anyway.
“…a box of powdered and cinnamon doughnuts for me, 1.5 pounds (two-thirds of a kilo). I plan to have them for dinner and an evening snack. Looking at the nutrition label, it appears that they provide a fully-balanced meal.”
It’s only well-balanced if you have a green vegetable on the side; up here we do our famous tourista attraction in the wintuh, sugar-on-snow, where by some of our fantastic maple syrup is dumped on new snow in wacky patterns (the kidz love this!) and we eat it. We serve powdered sugar and cinnamon doughnuts on the side with a pickle. (that’s the green vegetable, Bob.)
http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/04/sugar-on-snow-maple-syrup-on-real-snow-vermont-harlows-sugar-house.html
And when I sit down to nice dinner of 1.5 pounds of sugar and cinnamon doughnuts, I watch my weight and calories by washing it down with a half-gallon of lowfat chocolate milk.
As a Canadian, I never did have any weapons. If I had, they would probably have been lost in a tragic snow storm by now.
Yeah, I would guess most of the world knows by now that Canadians have no rights anyway and weapons would be confiscated immediately upon discovery. On top of that, they have wicked terrible snowstorms there and lots of stuff always gets lost. Snow up there, floods and rivers down here….who can stand against Mother Nature when she is riled?
Man, just thinking about all the nice firearms that have been lost by the nice folks on this board alone makes me feel sad.
I bet a nice powdered doughnut would make me feel better right now…
We have rights!
We have the right to line up. Be polite. Pay taxes. Why they just roll right off the tongue!
That would be “Why, they…” What we don’t have is the Right to Edit.
I cringe, but I’ve reinstalled the comment editor, which now claims compatibility with the latest release of WP.
I didn’t have the doughnut yet but did put together a nice pot roast with spuds and carrots and onions and mushrooms in our big-ass slow-cooker, which I will turn on in the AM. Dumped beef broth over it all, too, plus pepper, salt, cumin and garlic. After Mrs. OFD gets back from SF tomorrow morning and then sleeps most of the day, we will have ourselves a fine Sunday dinner, with hot buttermilk biscuits and peach pie.
I still feel sad, though, about all those lost firearms. Maybe some pretzels and Moxie on ice…watch a movie or something… yeah, that’s the ticket!
Meanwhile next-younger brother, a UNIX professional for thirty years and out of work for the past eighteen months after being fired by a manager who hated him, has landed a part-time gig at a gun range/training school down in Maffachufetts, of all places. He tells me the six classrooms are jam-packed all week and they plan to triple the size of the place to meet the demand. The owner has told him that ammo is getting harder to find and more expensive and the factories are all working three shifts with mandatory OT and still can’t keep up. Thanks, Barry Sotero!
Man, I’m glad I left all that behind, too much hassle. I’ll stick with my tomato gardening and medieval Anglo-Celtic epic poetry from now on.
Lynn wrote:
“Can using supplemental oxygen make one oxygen dependent? I have no idea, just seems like one of those things that might getcha. Of course, giving vital organ a rest once in a while does sound like a good idea.”
I don’t use oxygen, but a former boyfriend of my sister had it once said it’s marvelously sweet and relaxing, when administered properly.
I have sleep apnoea and use an APAP device to increase the pressure of air entering my throat when I’m sleeping. It is very addictive, but it’s just normal air, not oxygen. I think the addiction comes in because I’m getting more and better sleep. Not as good as I’d been told and hoped for, but a whole lot better than nothing.
“She picked up a box of powdered and cinnamon doughnuts for me, 1.5 pounds (two-thirds of a kilo). I plan to have them for dinner and an evening snack.”
I feel less guilty if I think of them as 0.75 kg of cinnamon doughnuts. Why were they powdered? Powdered like eggs and milk? I prefer mine whole.
Bill wrote:
“That would be “Why, they…” What we don’t have is the Right to Edit.”
You also have the right to get things right the first time, without your constant goof-ups. I mean, we take into account that you’re a Cannuk and cut you some slack, but you can’t hide forever behind that.
Powdered with fine white sugar.
http://www.yourcupofcake.com/2012/07/powdered-sugar-doughnuts.html
What would we do without Charlie Daniels? Great music and a great orator.
http://cnsnews.com/blog/charlie-daniels/precedent-teaches-us-left-really-wants-all-our-guns
I am afraid that all of his stats are correct. We may get a chance to check them out here in the USA. I remember being totally surprised when they picked up the guns in Australia. I mean, Australia? I would think that if you go in the outback in Australia, you needs weapons, just like the county areas here in Texas.
“Hitler disarmed Germany, Stalin disarmed Russia, and Mao disarmed China.” I’ve been telling the wife that Mr. OBama is marching down Hitler’s path and she tells me I am a bigot and a idiot.
“Powdered with fine white sugar.
http://www.yourcupofcake.com/2012/07/powdered-sugar-doughnuts.html”
Pass. I hate having to wash my hands after eating food, or have to clean the table or floor.
We’ve never had that much of a gun culture in Australia. Some of my friends in the Sixties had air rifles, one may even have had a .22 rifle, but they just seemed to disappear in the Seventies. With that whackjob Martin Bryant killing all those people at Port Arthur in 1996 there was overwhelming support from non-gun owners to disarm gun owners, which is what happened, largely. Some genuine antiques were destroyed after a gun buyback, and, of course, the cops sold some of the handed in gear on the black market.
I don’t feel more or less safe now than I did in 1995. I haven’t handled a gun in over 40 years and don’t particularly care to. But if I decided to accept Sandra Bullock’s recent marriage proposal and moved to Texas I’d get a slabsides, rifle and/or shotgun and learn how to use them. Mainly for show, of course.
Yes, there’s dangerous stuff in the outback but it’s too dry out there for much more than spiders and snakes.
I didn’t have the doughnut yet but did put together a nice pot roast with spuds and carrots and onions and mushrooms in our big-ass slow-cooker
I am showing up at your place tomorrow for lunch. Have a place set.
I have sleep apnoea and use an APAP device to increase the pressure of air entering my throat when I’m sleeping.
Same here. The biggest improvement in my sleep was to get a memory foam bed, the kind infused with the gel to keep it cool, plus a memory foam pillow, along with losing of 70 pounds over the last year. I also use the humidifier and heated hose with temperature and humidity sensing at the mask. Plus it has exhaust pressure release to make exhaling easier.
I also was able to acquire the software to read the data from card. My events per hour are now running about 0.5 and I no longer snore.
Sort of annoying that the insurance company wanted me to go through a supplier for the machine, cost $1700.00 spread over 11 months (two deductible periods so the insurance pays nothing). I found the machine online for $900.00 but the insurance would not accept that and would not apply the amount to my deductible as the place I found was not an approved provider. Same exact machine, same specifications, 100% identical.
The insurance company keeps wanting to reduce medical costs but are willing to have me spend $800 more for the same product. I think that “preferred medical provider” is more like “kickback medical provider”. I spend $800 more and the insurance company gets paid $400 by the medical provider while the insurance company pays nothing. I should be allowed to purchase a medical device anywhere I want and the insurance should accept it. If I can beat their price that should be a good thing.
Same thing with my recent flu shot. Through the provider allowed by the insurance company the cost was $35.00. Of course I had to pay the entire price. Cost through a local unit was $5.00 yet the insurance company refused to apply to my deductible because the company was not approved.
You KNOW there is some kind of collusion when saving that kind of money does not count. Same here on the PAP machine, but mine is CPAP, whatever difference that makes. Does absolutely nothing to improve my sleep. I use it, except on nights before I have to work. Actually I normally sleep 8 to 9 hours if no alarm goes off (I have always needed more sleep than most people). Cannot sleep more than 6 hours with the machine. Then I start nodding off in the video sessions, and that is not acceptable, so I don’t use it on nights before work and I get through the day just fine.
Meanwhile, we had a high of 62 today and are now in the middle of 2 inches of rain that is causing minor flooding. Tomorrow morning, the temps plunge to well below freezing and snow follows. I forgot how much of this heavy rain followed by a freeze happens around here. This is the second time in the last month.
PS–thanks Bob, for upping the amount of time for editing. I am famous for leaving for a good 20 to 30 minutes after posting, then coming back and re-reading what I wrote and finding mistakes with about 2 minutes of editing time left.
I’ve got a leg of lamb that I should put in the crock pot for tomorrow, but I don’t have any veggies to mix in with it. Not going out in the current downpour to fix that. Probably won’t be tomorrow, either, unless I want to go skating in the car.
“I am showing up at your place tomorrow for lunch. Have a place set.”
No problemo, senor. Plenty to go around. Mrs. OFD is now boarding the red-eye flight from SF and her ETA here in northern Vermont is around 10 AM. You have time to make it to your local airport at some point tonight or in the wee hours and we will pick you up at our local airport and drive you right here. I don’t drink but wife or I will pick up the beverage of your choice. Slide on over…but be advised the nights here may be a tad chillier than you are used to in the tropics. I will try to locate a nice young poo-ying to keep you warm, sir….
“I’ve got a leg of lamb that I should put in the crock pot for tomorrow, but I don’t have any veggies to mix in with it.”
A little salt and pepper, some mint jelly if you have it, and maybe a loaf of decent bread for sandwiches.
Ray and I will be by for supper; have two places set. Thanks.
Well, Cool Older Brother, this afternoon (after putting in most of a day OT at work, but I don’t mind because I’m paid by the hour) I made a big pot of turkey a la king (8 cups of diced meat, about 6 cups of milk, and a pound of frozen vegetables, to suggest the amount) and a couple gallons of turkey soup. I also set ten pounds of pork loin a-brining, to be baked or roasted or whatever you call it tomorrow. This’ll be most of what I eat for the next week. Sure, my family will have some, but not a sizable fraction.
Miles_Teg’s whinging about meat amounts in the US always make me laugh. (And I’m laughing at you, Miles_Teg, not with you.) A pound of meat at a sitting? Unbelievable! Yah, we both think it’s unbelievable, but I think it’s too little.
The key here, as SteveF may be implying, is that we get ourselves big hunks of stuff and larger quantities of stuff, cook it up, and then make it last for days or a week; cheaper that way, and you can buy what you want and know everyone or most everyone will eat. Turkey and big roast of whatever work nice for that. We also keep big bags of rice around, and many bags of spuds, carrots, onions, beets, etc.
I sometimes wondered about greg-in-Oz’s caviling about how much meat we eat at a sitting here in the most wonderful country in the history of the human race, etc., etc.; I thought Aussies threw a big-ass steak on the barbie every morning for breakfast and washed it down those giant cans of Foster’s. And then grilled up some ‘roo for lunch and wombat or platypus stew for din-din.
We don’t eat a lotta meat here, but by Jeezum, we wanna sit down to a manly portion when we do have it on the table. I laugh at the so-called quarter-pounder Big Macs and other similar fast-food burgers; when I grill ’em here they’re easily a pound each. With bacon, tomato, onions, mushrooms and a lettuce leaf with a pickle on the side to make sure we get our nice healthy green veggies.
Lynn McGuire says:
“Hitler disarmed Germany, Stalin disarmed Russia, and Mao disarmed China.” I’ve been telling the wife that Mr. OBama is marching down Hitler’s path and she tells me I am a bigot and a idiot.
Heck, I said that about GW Shrub, and got the same response. Anybody who actually reads the Patriot Act and says it is not Hitleresque, has some marbles missing, IMO.
Spent movie night watching
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCtbgmiD3pU
Story of the Chinese building a railway over the highest terrain in the world in Tibet. They ain’t no dummies, and are doing it with our money, of course—thanks to Mitt Romney and his ilk. Of course, we don’t need no damned railways in America. We gots CARS!
Yikes! Wind kicking up here terrifically. The house to the west of me makes a perfect airfoil, and all kinds of crud flies over it and hits the side of Tiny House at the wall I look at from my desk. It is taking a pounding right now. In addition to rain hitting the window at about 32mph. This is why I want to live in an earth sheltered house.
In (very limited) defense of Bush43, the atrociously-named PATRIOT Act was just a smooshing together of the same police-state wet dreams that several federal agencies had been requesting for years. All Bush43 did was sign the dog’s breakfast that was set in front of him. He shouldn’t have done it and arguably he violated his oath of office by doing it, but it wasn’t his original idea.
OFD, my normal diet is about the opposite of the “best advice of the best experts” American diet. I don’t particularly track what I eat, but I think that normally most of my calories come from animal products. I eat hardly any wheat, hardly any refined sugar, not much processed vegetable fat (ie, Crisco), not much grains or potato, and not much sugars of any type. Lots of meat with plenty of fat, lots of vegetables, a fair amount of coconut milk and cream, a fair amount of mixed beans for the vitamins. Almost everything I eat is cooked by me from basic ingredients. (The only major exceptions are chocolate and corn chips, which are pretty much my only indulgences. And even those I restrict, like a ten-ounce bag of chips once or twice a month.) So far as I know I’m not dying. I look a lot younger than I am (despite my family, haha) and feel better than I did two and a half years ago, when I made the switch.
I do see that all semi-automatic weapons will probably need a new $200 federal license (each) and cannot be passed to your kids or whoever.
Probably not for two reasons:
– the Supremes would likely strike that down as contrary to the Heller decision.
– the red state Democrats in the Senate that are up for election next cycle are running away from gun control as fast as they can.
I like this suggestion: Pretend Gun Control
(From http://pjmedia.com/blog/pretend-gun-control/ )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCtbgmiD3pU
Wow, that is very impressive! With the highest point at 4,900 meters (16,000 ft), I do not think that I would do well. I went to Pikes Peak ten years ago and was very uncomfortable at 14,100 ft (4,300 m). Totally awesome engineering as here in the Great State of Texas, we would just get on a Southwest Airlines jet. Trains are so much efficient though.
Ray wrote:
“Same here. The biggest improvement in my sleep was to get a memory foam bed, the kind infused with the gel to keep it cool, plus a memory foam pillow, along with losing of 70 pounds over the last year. I also use the humidifier and heated hose with temperature and humidity sensing at the mask. Plus it has exhaust pressure release to make exhaling easier.
I also was able to acquire the software to read the data from card. My events per hour are now running about 0.5 and I no longer snore.”
I was diagnosed in 2003 and got my machine in 2005. It helps, but not as much as I hoped. I went back to the physician who prescribed it, they changed my machine from an APAP to CPAP (it just pumped out a constant pressure rather that monitoring back-pressure and making a judgement as to what I needed. That didn’t help, so they switched it back to APAP. I’m seeing the guy in March, to see if there are any other problems.
I’m moving to Adelaide soon so I’m not inclined to get another bed, yet. My current bed is 28 years old, and really showing it’s age. I’ll ask the sleep specialist about your suggestions. I was planning to take the old bed to the dump before I left anyway.
I find I don’t need the tube heater. At first some condensed breath would accumulate in my mask, but that no longer seems to happen. I’ve been told that weight is a factor, but correlation isn’t perfect by any means. Even babies can have SA. Also, snoring and SA are correlated but some people with SA don’t snore and vice versa.
I’ve got the software too but haven’t used it lately. The woman who sold me my gear threw in a copy as a freebie, although she was supposed to charge about $80. When I had my first test my oxygen desaturations got down to 69%, which I was told was very bad. I was being partially awakened once a minute, which is why I was so sleepy at work. After I got my machine a test showed desats only to about 95%, with one short one to about 90%, so it was working.
Chuck wrote:
“Same here on the PAP machine, but mine is CPAP, whatever difference that makes.”
CPAP knocks out a constant amount of pressure, which is generally a settable option. What I call APAP gets feedback from the user’s breathing and makes pressure adjustments accordingly. I think PEEP is the official acronym, but I use APAP (Automatic PAP.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_positive_airway_pressure
Chuck wrote:
“I’ve got a leg of lamb that I should put in the crock pot for tomorrow, but I don’t have any veggies to mix in with it. ”
Oh yum. My parents did the best roast lamb, potatoes and veg in the world. Seriously.
When I was at my sister’s place over Christmas she did roast leg of lamb. Not bad but not up to my parent’s standards. And I was strictly forbidden to use the kitchen except for making sandwiches so I couldn’t show her how it was done. She has a l-o-n-g memory.
OFD wrote:
“I will try to locate a nice young poo-ying to keep you warm, sir….”
You can set a place for me too. I could use a change from the oppressive heat and humidity here. Just so as I don’t make it too complicated for you I’ll just have a six pack of Grolsch, Carlsberg or Heineken.
If you really insist on procuring a bed warmer for me make sure you have her bundled in a sack so that she can’t try to have her wicked way with me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundling_%28tradition%29
SteveF wrote:
“Miles_Teg’s whinging about meat amounts in the US always make me laugh. (And I’m laughing at you, Miles_Teg, not with you.) A pound of meat at a sitting? Unbelievable! Yah, we both think it’s unbelievable, but I think it’s too little.”
Okay, laugh away. In my dotage I find that I just can’t put away food like I used to. I went to one of my favourite steakhouses for lunch on Thursday, ordered the14 oz porterhouse + chips and veggies. It was about 12 oz after I’d cut away the inedible fat. I only just barely managed to get through it (along with about 450 ml of Carlton Draught.) It didn’t help that this place consistently overcooks meat. I always ask the steak to be cooked medium-rare. The inside might possibly have been but the outside was medium-well done or worse. I’m thinking of abandoning that place for steak meals.
That place has what they call the Sumo Challenge. Eat 1 kg of steak, veggies and about 1 litre of beer in 40 minutes. Eat ALL OF IT. I couldn’t possibly do that. But on the winners/losers board was a picture of a young woman who’d got through it. I just rolled my eyes.
OFD wrote:
“I sometimes wondered about greg-in-Oz’s caviling about how much meat we eat at a sitting here in the most wonderful country in the history of the human race, etc., etc.; I thought Aussies threw a big-ass steak on the barbie every morning for breakfast and washed it down those giant cans of Foster’s. And then grilled up some ‘roo for lunch and wombat or platypus stew for din-din. ”
We throw prawns on the barbie for breakfast. In my case about 2 kg worth. No point doing things by halves. Wombats are too tough (and protected) and platypus are protected. Nobody in Australia drinks Fosters. We export it to the UK as retribution for them sending so many convicts out here, and beating us in the cricket occasionally. They haven’t yet realised that it’s a sulfuric acid substitute not fit for human consumption. We send a bit over to the US too because they’re too dumb to know better, and anyway it’s better than Coors.
I was diagnosed in 2003 and got my machine in 2005. It helps, but not as much as I hoped. I went back to the physician who prescribed it, they changed my machine from an APAP to CPAP (it just pumped out a constant pressure rather that monitoring back-pressure and making a judgement as to what I needed.
My machine is considered CPAP. It analyzes your breathing and will reduce the pressure for the exhaust phase of your breathing. The pressure is set to a minimum and a maximum. The machine adjusts the pressure between the two settings as necessary attempting to keep the pressure as low as needed.
I had problems with “rain out” on my other machine as the hose would acccumulate moisture. That problem was mostly solved by getting a hose cover. That accessory alone is probably the best accessory that you can purchase as you no longer feel the plastic hose.
I find the maintenance schedule of these machines to be a little too aggresive. I use RESMED with a nose mask. You are supposed to replace the hose every six months. Bullshit. My last hose was two years old before I got a new machine and a heated hose. Masks the same way. No reason a mask will not last twice as long as they say.
But, insurance would refuse to add anything to my deductible that I got from the DME provider unless it was done according to the schedule. In other words I had to pay $150.00 (insurance pays nothing) for a mask every six months otherwise insurance would not consider it as valid. Wait seven months and insurance would not cover the product on my deductible. I instead get the mask from CPAP.COM (an excellent provider) and pay less than $100.00. Still out of my pocket but not applied to the deductible. Why my insurance will not allow CPAP.COM to be considered is beyond me. Their selection is better, the product is the same and the customer service is certainly better than the local, approved, DME provider.
When my wife had hip replacement surgery her assisted walker that she used for about a month was effectively free because I met my deductible from the surgery. The cost of that thing was several hundred dollars. A cane was over $100.
I suspect those prices are a tax ripoff. A company sells something for $500.00 and insurance says that only $250.00 (which is still too high) is allowed. The DME provider then considers the $250.00 adjustment a loss and probably reports it on their taxes. The effective price then becomes zero and the DME made no profit and pays no taxes.
I suspect that this holds true for most of the medical profession. Congress and that gonzo we have for a president should realize this. The problem is there is no consistent billing and what it is billed is horribly overpriced, even at the adjusted rate. But he and congress do not because their medical care is top notch with no out of pocket expenses. They have no idea what medical treatment costs.
The bitch queen Hillary gets a blood clot and gets round the clock care in a luxury room with a 24 hour nurse for 4 days. The rest of us get a note to take aspirin, a prescription for a blood thinner, and are sent home. The head gonzo travels with at least three physicians at all times. To them health care is excellent so why are people complaining.
Hell, WATER is better than Coors.
@ech: I won’t buy the “pretend gun control” legislation, either, on the give-’em-an-inch-they-take-a-mile theory, which they have proved many times over the years. Or, if one prefers, the camel’s-nose-under-the-tent theory. They never bargain or enact laws in good faith; it’s always with an eye to further encroachment and destruction of the Second Amendment, the rights of states, and the rights of free citizens in a republic. My strategy remains: no compromise, no surrender, no quarter.
@SteveF; Your diet sounds a lot like a modified “paleo” one, such as advocated by the great Karen DeCoster:
http://karendecoster.com/tag/paleo
and Mark Sisson:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/decoster/decoster174.html
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/#axzz2HrNjcToq
But I am a lazy sod and basically just try to do everything in moderation; meat a couple of times a week, ditto fish. Probably should cut down on all the bread, cheese, butter, etc., that I put away, and go for more fruit and veggies. As it is I don’t drink, smoke, or have coffee or tea and have also managed to look a bit younger than my actual years on the planet, probably genetic.
I also need to get off my ass and spend a lot more time outdoors this year.
I was gonna comment on Ray’s story of medical “care” and insurance hassles but the bile began to rise in my throat and I could feel my BP going up, up, up. Plus it’s Sunday morning and I gotta go get Mrs. OFD at the airport now.
One brief burst of bile; yes, the sons of bitches that pretend to run our country and meanwhile rob us blind and send us and our kids to their endless goddamned clusterfuck wars get the very best of medical care, and I suspect that not so much are they oblivious to what it actually costs and the effects on us Mundanes, but they know full well and revel in it and laugh at us. That is what it has come down to; the fuckers laugh at us now.
I gotta go get some fresh air and calm down…Pax vobiscum!
Ray, I can’t believe the everything-by-the-book attitude of your insurer. My first mask lasted about five years. I replaced it see if it would make my sleep better – the old one was getting a bit flabby. Didn’t help. The other stuff, including the APAP, has never been serviced. It Just Works ™.
2 kg of shrimp for one man? Wow. I think something like 1.5 kg of food is my limit for one sitting — and I’ve done a few competitive eating competitions. Train me in your secrets, Miles Teg!
If any spiceheads want something to drool over…
Wow, a coronary on a plate, as Jerry Coyne would say… 🙂
Back about 35 years ago, one of my friends drove out to Texas for some reason. Fred was (and is) a huge guy, only about 6 feet (1.83 meters) tall but probably 375 pounds (162 kilos). Not much fat, either, which more than one guy in a bar found out to his regret. Fred was, I think, the strongest guy I’ve ever actually known. He’s a really nice guy, too, which is fortunate. Appearance-wise, he’d fit right in as a biker on Sons of Anarchy.
One of our friends heated with wood, and someone gave him a heads-up that they planned to clear-cut a couple acres of trees (~ 1 hectare) that were about the size of telephone poles. They didn’t want the wood, so we showed up in Al’s 1-ton pickup, cut the trees down to 10-foot (3 meter) lengths, and started loading the logs into Al’s truck. It took Al and me working together to lift each log up and winkle it into the bed of the truck. Fred was picking the logs up by himself and *throwing* them into the bed.
And I’ll never forget the time that Fred and his brother had a flat tire on the front (engine end) of their car. They had a good spare, but there was no jack to be found. So Fred picked up the front end of the car and held it while his brother changed the tire. Geez.
So, at any rate, Fred’s in Texas (IIRC) and hears about this restaurant that serves huge steak dinners. They were something like $40, which was a lot of money back then. The deal was that if you finished the entire meal, it was on the house. So Fred sits down, plows through this gigantic steak, the potatoes, and the vegetables. He had a good-size audience watching him do it. When he finished, the owner came over to the table and had someone shoot a picture to go up on the wall with the few others that had actually finished the meal. Fred asked for the dessert menu and asked the guy if the free meal included dessert or if he’d have to pay for it.
If I can beat their price that should be a good thing.
This is possibly the biggest reason for crazy health-care costs. If the individual consumer has no incentive (or even a negative incentive) to shop for good prices, then market forces cannot come into play. There must be something really, really sick with US health insurance market if the companies act this way.
On my last trip to the US, one of our kids was sick and needed to go to the doctor. When we said we were paying cash, the prices were *very* reasonable. When we got home, we just sent the receipt to the insurance, no problem…
The APAP and CPAP machines – what kind of symptoms are you guys battling with these? It must take a heck of an adjustment to learn to sleep with one of those!
Except for the lack of fruit, bread, and potatoes, SteveF’s diet borders on being German. They abhor greasy food, but have no fear about fat–either from meat or dairy. One big difference is that their animals are not fattened up for market, like American meat is. Pig there is as lean as any lean cut of beef you ever saw—and there is only one grade of ground beef there: super lean. Visiting Americans were shocked when we skillet-fried their version of bacon. There was not even a half teaspoon of fat in the skillet. Far cry from American bacon, which could yield a half cup of grease from just a few strips of bacon.
They use lard to cook with (Schmalz), and even season lard and put it on bread, like jelly.
My problem is stopping at reasonable quantities. Not much problem over in Germany, as portions are not all that big compared to American quantities. But nothing in my system tells me to stop. Germans eat very small quantities throughout the day. You may see someone eat half a sandwich in the middle of the morning, saving the rest for lunch. And often people will eat fruit—bananas or apples—on the transit in the middle of the morning or afternoon. Beer, of course, is a favorite with lunch, but I don’t think I ever saw anyone actually finish a bottle. They would drink a third to a half with the meal, afterwards have a tiny espresso and talk for 20 minutes, leaving the remaining beer in the bottle. Have never seen an American leave even a drop of beer in a glass when ordered with a meal—ever. Letting food “settle” is very big in Germany, while Americans literally jump up from the table the instant the last bite is in their mouth—a very unsettling and unhealthful habit IMO. I have never seen the urgency to pay and get the hell out of a restaurant anywhere else in my travels—and the US is the only place I have been where the wait staff brings the bill with the meal; that would be the height of rudeness anywhere else. Even the British spend some time appreciating the meal after it is over, before expending the energy to leave.
Big meal in Germany was at noon; supper was late (7:30pm at earliest) and very light—bread, cheese, and fruit, mostly. That was not quite enough for us, so Jeri usually made a light soup of some sort. I still do that for my supper here.
The PAP machines are for ‘sleep apnea’. Personally, I think it is a racket. You are diagnosed with the problem, it then takes a $1200 machine (at cheapest), plus paid training to learn to use it, and mandatory parts replacement at fabulous sums. Sleep apnea is supposed to be caused by fatty tissue developing around that flap of muscle at the back of your mouth that allows you to hold your breath. When you lay horizontal, that excess fat blocks the air passage when all muscles relax while you are asleep.
Supposedly (according to my doctor), Michael Clarke Duncan, who played the John Coffey role in “The Green Mile”, died from a heart attack caused by sleep apnea, which lowers oxygen levels to the whole body.
Both my family doctor and cardiologist strongly recommend against surgery to correct the problem (liposuction for the flap). THAT is the beginning of strangeness to me. The fact that the best “cure” is a very expensive machine that keeps on costing completes my skepticism.
All I can say is that I have never had any troubles sleeping before it was ‘discovered’ I had sleep apnea. I never exhibited any of the multiple symptoms they say goes with sleep apnea. But using the machine, I *get* all those symptoms, because I do not sleep well; it actually keeps me from sleeping.
Now here’s the Catch 22: if I do not follow my doctor’s prescribed therapy, take my pills, use the machine, etc., then my insurance will not cover me.
Right now, I am in a battle over the drugs. I have told everyone in the process that I am not going to go to the pharmacy every 2 weeks to get some drug or other. Because prescriptions were made at different times, and it apparently is impossible in this country to get more than 30 days supply of any drug that is not over-the-counter, in order to keep taking the drugs, I have to repeatedly go to the pharmacy, because they say I am not at the 30 day point yet. After repeatedly trying to get more than 30 days (which my doctor claims should be no problem), I finally said, “Enough!” I will go to the pharmacy once a month. If I am not eligible there for some refill or other, I won’t take it until the next month when I go.
When I was in Germany, I got 4 to 6 months of my prescriptions at once. I never had a problem with drugs AT ALL. Now, I am getting notices from the insurance company that I am not buying my medications in a timely manner, so therefore they assume I am not taking them (not true actually, as I came to the US with 2 years supply of the drug in question, so I still have some reserves). But this means they are in cahoots with Walmart and tracking my purchases.
So now it’s a crime to not do what your doctor prescribes, and they are tracking you and will make you pay through the nose financially if you don’t.
What a country!
Ray, I can’t believe the everything-by-the-book attitude of your insurer.
Yep, believe it. They annoying to the max. Increased my deductible during the calendar year because of a new contract. My medical expenses had already exceeded the new deductible. But the insurer said it did not matter as I had to meet the new increased deductible. After I met the first deductible anything else did not get applied to the deductible so the new deductible had not been met.
Even though their contract clearly stated allowable medical expenses applied. Nothing about amounts being paid no longer allowed to apply to the deductible once the deductible had been met. I wrote to the state and that clod was basically worthless. The insurance company said if I did not like their decision I could go to arbritration, in Ohio, at my expense. The amount I was arguing over was less than the cost of a full day trip to Ohio and the loss of time at work. Bastards knew it.
what kind of symptoms are you guys battling with these? It must take a heck of an adjustment to learn to sleep with one of those!
Sleep apnea according to a sleep study. Stopping breathing multiple times a night and oxygen level being too low. Yes, it does take some getting used to. But after the adjustment period you actually learn to sleep with it and sleeping without it becomes difficult. I fall asleep in less than 10 minutes most nights and stay asleep for at least six hours. Before the machine I would sleep less than an hour before I would wake up. This was repeated multiple times each night.
There was also the heavy snoring that has now basically dissappeared.
You do what you have to do.
Now here’s the Catch 22: if I do not follow my doctor’s prescribed therapy, take my pills, use the machine, etc., then my insurance will not cover me.
I found out how to change all the settings in my machine. The doctor was not happy with me changing the settings. I told him it was my machine, my body. If I wanted to change the settings until I was comfortable that was my choice and my right. He said I could cause severe problems if I changed the settings. I asked what kind of problems, too much airflow? He did not answer and just reiterated his displeasure.
It took several tries but I finally have found settings that work for me. The right maximum pressure, the right minimum pressure, the right humidity level, the right temperature level.
I suspect the doctor did not like me changing the settings was because he wanted to change the settings, charging a fee each time.
The insurance company was apparently informed that I was changing the settings and got a little snippy about it. I told them it was my machine, they did not pay a dime, did not even allow it on my deductible so they had zero say in the matter.
I can’t believe how much insurance companies meddle in this stuff.
The salesperson who sold me my machine in 2005 set it up for me based on the specialist’s recommendations and that was that. The doco said I should replace the mask every 18 months. I waited five years. The machine wasn’t doing me as much good (from a subjective point of view) as I’d hoped, so I got a new mask – the old one was still serviceable but a bit flabby. It didn’t help.
I get a rebate from my power company for using the machine as it is considered “life support”, probably just 50 cents or a dollar a day.
I’m looking forward to getting a new mattress and pillows later this year, the current mattress is 28 years old and showing its age.
Chuck, Google Sleep Apnoea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_apnea
It isn’t a racket, that’s just hillbilly talk. And I agree with your medicos: avoid surgery. I’ve never heard of that as a solution. The extra pressure from the machine should be enough to keep the airway open.
Brad, you get used to it. Just like you get used to using contact lenses. I took 30 minutes per eye at first, I eventually got it down to one minute per eye. A work colleague just couldn’t get used to putting her finger in her eyes and had to give up. But I managed to get used to it. A thing you have to get used to with a mask is remembering to blow your nose before putting on the mask. And it *does* stop snoring.
I said that from a subjective point of view the machine wasn’t helping as much as I hoped it would. But objectively it was. I went to the specialist’s clinic and slept there overnight without a CPAP machine, but wired up with 10-20 contacts to measure stuff, including whether I was sleeping on my left, right, back or front. The results showed that I was partially awakening over 60 times per hour, because air wasn’t getting through, I didn’t consciously wake, but came close enough to get the airway partially open and also to not get the sort of sleep I needed. The partial pressure of oxygen went as low as 69%, which the specialist said was very bad.
I got my machine and did a simplified test at home with it. A small device went on my finger and the amount of oxygen in the blood in that finger was measured. The results were excellent. Oxygen partial pressure stayed in the range 95-100% all the time, apart from one very brief period when it want to about 86%.
I don’t currently download the information from the machine to my PC, but when did and showed the relevant people the results they said they were quite good. I still don’t always feel rested but usually am a lot better than before. I slept well last night because the weather was much cooler, not the heatwave we’ve been having.
The husband of a former boss of mine got one of these machines. It was a night and day change for him, his adult daughter said that her father had become again like he was when she was a child, because he was getting good sleep he was less irritable and more energetic.
“They use lard to cook with (Schmalz), and even season lard and put it on bread, like jelly.”
Thanks Chuck, you just put me off lunch! 🙁
Yeah, I have read everything imaginable about sleep apnea. They made my diagnosis after less than 40 minutes of sleep study duration. Then they spent the rest of the night playing around with masks that leaked (they never had a mask that fit without leaking on me) and various pressure levels. They came up with a pressure level of 16, which I am sure is based on the fact that air was leaking like a fart from my mask and waking me up all night long during the sleep study. Every doctor involved was incredulous at the 16 level, and I finally got them to reduce it to 12, because it was giving me terrible chest pains at 16. Like Ray, I learned the secret entry to the setup and have reduced it to 10.5, which eliminates the chest pains entirely.
I was on a trip with a cousin a few months ago. I do not take the machine with me on road trips. We slept in separate beds in the same room. He stays up later than I, and said that I snored for about 30 to 40 minutes, then slept silently for the rest of the night. My guess is that I am actually just borderline sleep apnea, and that once I am fully relaxed, there is no problem. But they did not go that far with my study. How else is it possible to justify that I have NO symptoms of sleep apnea whatever, but actually get them when using the machine? Something is wrong there.
Now if you google that actor mentioned above, nowhere does it say he actually died from an event brought on by sleep apnea. That is a rumor, at best, circulated among the medical profession to justify themselves. It’s a racket, IMO, regardless of that Wikipedia entry. Yeah, I suspect extremely obese people are susceptible and need to be watched. But there is something wrong when I have no symptoms whatever of sleep apnea WITHOUT the machine, but have all of them WITH the machine.
Recently, I have been getting morning sneezing fits if I use the machine; none without.
eristicist said:
“2 kg of shrimp for one man? Wow. I think something like 1.5 kg of food is my limit for one sitting — and I’ve done a few competitive eating competitions. Train me in your secrets, Miles Teg!”
I was just making fun of myself. I couldn’t eat that much of anything in one sitting, especially if it was all meat.
I used to eat far too much potato crisps and chocolate, now I just don’t enjoy it. I have it in small amounts, which is fine, but the days of ploughing through 200g of crisps and 200g of chocolate in 30 minutes are far behind me. I just no longer enjoy it. It makes me feel a bit nauseated.
Same goes for food and alcohol. Enough food is enough. I don’t like the bloated feeling that comes from too much food. I also limit myself to about three alcoholic drinks in a session. I’ve been drunk, I suppose, twice and I don’t like the feeling. Once I could barely walk straight back to work, where I was a write-off for the rest of the afternoon. I don’t like that feeling so I go easy on the booze.
Chuck wrote:
“I was on a trip with a cousin a few months ago. I do not take the machine with me on road trips. We slept in separate beds in the same room. He stays up later than I, and said that I snored for about 30 to 40 minutes, then slept silently for the rest of the night.”
My brother and I went to Sydney for a night in 2000 and we shared a room, before I got my APAP machine. He woke me during the night because I was snoring and he couldn’t get back to sleep.
Sometimes when I was visiting Adelaide and dossing down at my mum’s place I’d have an afternoon nap in a room adjoining the kitchen. I asked mum several times if I snored. She said I didn’t, that I just breathed heavily at times. My father was a heavy snorer, apparently. I think he set up a bed in a separate room or went to bed after mum so that she could get to sleep in peace.
One thing that stops many sleep apnoea sufferers from getting a CPAP machine is that they worry about the noise of the machine disturbing their partner (or even themselves) at night. The fact is, it’s a quite quiet “white noise” – constant and no pattern. Many people hear much more noise from an air conditioner or fan, wind or waves on the shore, and it doesn’t disturb them. In particular, the sound from a CPAP machine is MUCH less obtrusive than the snoring, and less worrying than the spouse stopping breathing altogether for extended periods. Many a wife (and some husbands) have blessed the day (or night) when their spouse went onto CPAP. There’s probably a research paper in there for someone – secondary sleep apnea in the same sense as secondary smoking.
One of my pals at work had some sort of CPAP machine 20 years ago, but he and/or his partner hated the racket it made. When I got mine, and was surprised at how quiet it was, I suggested he try again. He adamantly refused, because he thought they were too noisy.
Well, his partner got one and loves it, and my friend admits it’s very quiet. Not sure if he’s got his own yet. I really think he needs it as he drops off at work a bit.