Friday January 12, 2018

By on January 12th, 2018 in personal

It was 54 degrees, raining, and breezy when Colin went out at 7:45.

Bob is now at the rehab facility. I did the paperwork yesterday afternoon. He was not to be transfered until 4pm. From the rehab place I went by Frances and Al’s to see if Al would meet Bob at the facility to prevent me from having to wait so late to drive back up the mountain. As it turns out it was 6:15pm before transport finally showed up to move him. Good thing I came home as we had rain and pea soup fog from Winston to Sparta.

I stopped by the hospital briefly before I headed home. From this past Monday to yesterday he has made small but remarkable improvement in his speech. He still has confusion and memory issues but seems to be starting to put things together a little.

58 Comments and discussion on "Friday January 12, 2018"

  1. nick flandrey says:

    Barbara that is great news. Others have mentioned it, but once improvement starts, it should accelerate. General anesthesia is hell on the brain, so I’d expect confusion and diminished capacity for some time, your Drs can be more specific. Bob started from a high peak, so he might have a longer climb ahead than some.

    One thing I noticed from my many rehabs and recoveries is that the Drs never really want to give you a big picture timeline. They go from short term goal to short term goal. This can set you up for disappointment when you get there and find the goalposts have moved. Don’t let it bother you. They have long experience with what works. On the other hand, Bob isn’t your average patient and probably would benefit from an honest and intellectual evaluation and treatment plan, instead of the short term ‘just let’s get to this next milestone and then I’ll tell you the next’ that they usually do.

    WRT to cost and payment… It’s very hard to care about bills when a loved one is hurting. Just keep everything, don’t be in a hurry to pay anything until you are sure the insurance won’t cover it (because you’ll almost never get an overpayment back), and try to organize what does come in and go out. They are all used to slow payments, so take the time to focus on Bob, but put the bills and statements away in a way that makes it (slightly) easier on you when you do get time to focus on them. I don’t think there are two people in the world who really truly understand how the reimbursement/payments/billing all work together, and how to read an EOB and keep track of everything. Whoever sold you your insurance should be able to help you wade thru it when the time comes.

    Once again, that is great news, I’m glad to hear it!

    Now if only OFD would check in…

    nick

  2. Ray Thompson says:

    don’t be in a hurry to pay anything until you are sure the insurance won’t cover it

    That be true. And don’t be afraid to fight with insurance when the time comes. Threaten arbitration if you disagree with their assessment. Ask to talk with the HIPPA compliance officer so you can get the names and titles of everyone who reviewed the claim. You are entitled to do so by law. Most insurance companies will pay questioned amounts rather than give you that information.

    They are all used to slow payments

    For some things. For stuff that is not an emergency, such as my wife’s kidney stones, payment was demanded up front. Emergency is different. I got the final bill from the hospital in April 2017 for my auto accident in April 2014.

    so take the time to focus on Bob

    Top priority. If the medical providers start getting annoying just pay them $5.00 each month. They cannot send you to collections or report you as late as long as you are making an attempt to pay.

    Afterwards, when you are ready to pay, call them and ask for a discount, 10% is easy to get. Negotiate for 20% by paying the balance in full using a credit card. I got the hospital to agree to such a settlement on a $3500.00 bill from the auto accident.

    I don’t think there are two people in the world who really truly understand how the reimbursement/payments/billing all work together, and how to read an EOB and keep track of everything

    That is probably true. It is purposely made confusing so that people cannot understand the EOB. When aunt was in nursing I would get EOBs from Medicare, private insurance, and Medicaid. Never could figure any of them out so just threw them away.

    And as a side note it is interesting that this site is blocked by the Roane County School’s network as containing unsafe content. I had to connect to a different WAP to be able read and post (I am subbing today).

  3. nick flandrey says:

    ” this site is blocked by the Roane County School’s network”

    This is why I usually obfuscate my obscenity. Not that I’m squeamish, but I don’t want to contribute to RBT ending up on the Nanny Filter list. It’s been a long time since we talked about it, and I remember Bob saying he didn’t particularly care, but I don’t see a need to increase the likelihood. There is too much good content here.

    n

  4. H. Combs says:

    Great news Barbara. We are all rooting for Bob and you.
    —–
    Woke up to ice on the roads here in Memphis. It looks like snow outside but the white is sleet and it’s falling pretty heavily just now. I am working from home today to avoid the idiots who try and drive in this stuff. High winds and temps in the low 20s ensure that roads and especially bridges will be dangerous.
    Everyone keep safe out there.

  5. Ray Thompson says:

    but I don’t want to contribute to RBT ending up on the Nanny Filter list

    I don’t think that is the reason in this situation. I think it is set up to only allow certain sites that the students can access. There are two networks, one for the students and one for the teachers. Freshmen all have Chromebooks they use for their work using Google classroom. They would use the student network and I suspect that only approved sites can be accessed and probably very limited.

    The teachers network is more open and I can access this site through that network using some credentials that I have. The teachers network blocks Facebook and any URL that keywords. The scandal in Hollywood had many links with on CNN that were blocked because the link contained blocked words. A simple text scan looking for a match anywhere in the URL.

    This is why I usually obfuscate my obscenity

    It surprising that for the most part there is very little profanity on this board. I am guilty of some mostly because I was really ticked off and was trying to make a point. Yes, I should find another way to make such a point and not resort to four letter words. It just made me feel better.

  6. Denis says:

    Very glad to hear that Bob is coming along – all steps in the right direction. Barbara, please heed the good advice above, and deal first and foremost with Bob’s and your own well-being. Insurance and settling bills can wait.

  7. dkreck says:

    Watch out for those obscenities. Who do you think you are? The President?

  8. nick flandrey says:

    Meanwhile in the socialist paradise of Venezuela:

    Starving mob beat cattle to death with rocks in desperate search for food and four people are killed during looting in Venezuela as country’s economic collapse continues

    Dozens of men shout ‘we are hungry’ and ‘people are suffering’ as they beat cow
    Opposition congressman Carlos Paparoni said as many as 300 cattle were killed
    Four people died in recent protests against President Maduro’s socialist regime

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5262257/Starving-mob-beat-cattle-death-rocks-Venezuela.html

    Some things to note about the situation…

    TWO YEARS. That’s all it took. (started earlier but two years ago you could still deny that this would be the result.) Oil rich country.

    Note the accusation of “hoarding food” and keep your local OPSEC in mind.

    No one cares, no one will help- read the comments. People are more concerned about the death of the cow than the protestors or the people starving. He!!, the people here are more aware than most, and do any of us really care? If it happened here the world would dance in the streets.

    n

  9. nick flandrey says:

    Watch out for those obscenities. Who do you think you are? The President?

    The only thing I can fault him for on this is that it looks like he might be walking it back instead of doubling down. Which suggests he’s listening to the ‘political advisors’, which is bad.

    nick

  10. nick flandrey says:

    really, is there anyone ANYWHERE that DOESN”T think of Haiti as a sh!thole?

    I’d love to see this on the news:

    Haitian Somebody: Wadda ya mean Haiti is a sh!thole?
    Trump Rep: Look around you and deny it.
    Haitian Somebody: It wouldn’t be this way if it weren’t for the Clinton’s stealing all the money.
    Trump Rep: Got any proof of that I can use in court? {rubs hands gleefully}
    Haitian Somebody: Of course not, do you think I want to wake up dead?
    Trump Rep: Well, there you have it.

    n

  11. nick flandrey says:

    Meanwhile in CALI, from my FEMA daily report:

    “California – Flooding/Mudslides
    Situation
    Rescue and cleanup efforts continue in Southern California. No rain forecast for the next
    several days limiting risk of additional damage from mudslides in burn scar areas.
    Impacts
    • Fatalities: 17 confirmed
    • Evacuations (Mandatory): 34K (+5K)
    • Transportation:
    o Road closures: Major highways (U.S. Highway 101) & state routes closed in Santa
    Barbara & Los Angeles counties
    o Union Pacific Rail Subdivision between Santa Barbara and Carpinteria suspended
    • In Montecito, a natural gas and water shut-off is affecting 13,500 people
    State and Local Response
    • CA EOC at Full Activation (24/7), Southern REOC at Partial Activation
    • Santa Barbara County declared Local Emergency; County EOC at Full Activation (24/7)
    • Search & Rescue: Elements of CA TF-2, TF-5, TF-6, and TF-8 supporting response; two
    Canine Search Mission Ready Packages; additional regional US&R & Swift Water teams
    deployed in support
    • Shelters: Two (-1) open with 37 (+11) occupants (ARC Midnight Shelter Count)
    • Boil Water Notice continues for Montecito
    FEMA Response
    • FEMA-4353-DR-CA (wildfires), expanded to include flooding, mudflow & debris flow
    • Region IX RWC is monitoring; LNOs deployed to Santa Barbara & Ventura County EOCs”

    note that they just expanded the existing declaration from the fires to include the mudslides. while this makes a certain amount of sense, it obfuscates the truth

    note also the natural gas and water shutoff. if your plans involve nat gas gennie (as mine do) you better have backup to your backup.

    water is your ‘first need’ get some stored, get filters

    n

  12. nick flandrey says:

    And here in the swamp it is currently 32F (water freezes for our metric readers) up from 31 this am. COLD. Damp too.

    Really no interest in tearing the garage apart to work on my rat issue, but I gotta do it or have NO food left. Little fukers are going to learn to open cans next.

    n

  13. nick flandrey says:

    One of my other sources has some interesting links I need some time to go thru.

    “1. Fire in the United States 2006-2015

    https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/fius19th.pdf

    2. NFPA seeking comments on standard for active shooter/hostile events
    [link is broken]

    3. Training and resources from the Office of Bombing Prevention”
    [requires log in, I’ll check it out and report back]

    The fire report breaks down the who, what, where, why on fires in the US.

    “There are huge indirect costs of fire as well, including temporary lodging, lost business revenues, medical expenses, psychological damage, and others. To put this into context, the annual losses from floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and other natural disasters combined in the U.S. average just a fraction of those from fires.2 The public, the media and local governments are generally unaware of the magnitude and seriousness of the fire problem and how it affects individuals and their families, communities and the nation.”

    We also rank poorly against other industrial nations.

    The active shooter response is a DRAFT proposal. I need to read it to see if doctrine is going to change in any significant way. The biggest change would be getting EMS on scene and helping immediately instead of waiting up to FOUR HOURS for the ‘scene to be secured’ before helping.

    The bomb stuff should make for very interesting reading. The materials linked include online classes in precursor chemicals, how to recognize IEDs, and some other very useful stuff. It requires a FEMA educational ID, which I think you can get just by signing up, but I’ll need to poke at it a bit later this week when I have time. I’ll post some links if they are accessible.

    nick

  14. dkreck says:

    Here is a relevant local story this week.
    Government workers fail to respond to to overtime calculation change.

    http://www.bakersfield.com/news/county-workers-ignored-call-out-to-help-with-black-ice/article_46685bbc-f672-11e7-bfe6-f7a1b52e7b62.html

    so much wrong (you live in the mountains but leave your coat at home because you’ll only be gone an hour)

  15. Dave says:

    Glad to hear that Bob is in a rehab facility. Also glad to hear his speech is improving. He is making progress on the long road to recovery. I’m sure that now that he is in the rehab facility the speed of his recovery will pick up a bit.

  16. nick flandrey says:

    SEIU- no more needs saying if you are at all familiar with that bunch of clocksuckers.

    n

  17. CowboySlim says:

    @dkreck: We’ll be going up to Kernville in the near future. I’ve been advised, thanks.

  18. dkreck says:

    @CowboySlim

    Take a coat.

  19. MrAtoz says:

    SEIU- no more needs saying if you are at all familiar with that bunch of clocksuckers.

    If only they were glock-suckers.

    Good news on Bob!

  20. Greg Norton says:

    TWO YEARS. That’s all it took. (started earlier but two years ago you could still deny that this would be the result.) Oil rich country.

    When I worked for GTE in the late 90s, the company knew internally what was really going on in Venezuela. The group I worked for directly had people in Caracas the morning of the revolution, and the team was nearly shot by twitchy Chavez loyalists when their hotel was nationalized/evacuated for use by the new government.

  21. Greg Norton says:

    SEIU- no more needs saying if you are at all familiar with that bunch of clocksuckers.

    Ever seen a private SEIU clinic for use by the union members only?

    I used to drive by one on a regular basis, outside Seattle in Federal Way, WA.

  22. Greg Norton says:

    Thoughts and prayers are still with your household.

    And may Xenu be merciful in the case of OFD. 🙂

  23. dkreck says:

    @Nick -SEIU
    Your giving a blackeye to hardworking p3nis workers.

  24. DadCooks says:

    Ever seen a private SEIU clinic for use by the union members only?

    We have one here. Actually dual purpose clinic and union HQ. There are black panther looking types hanging outside the door and sitting in vehicles in the parking lot. A lot of “security”, checking IDs as you approach. Windows are deep tint, both the office and vehicles.

    I’m keeping my mouth shut about what goes on in there, direct intel from a reluctant “member”. Take everything bad that you know or have imagined about a union and multiply it to the extreme. This is the group to watch in upcoming elections.

  25. dkreck says:

    They already have a huge influence in California and Nevada.

  26. Greg Norton says:

    I’m keeping my mouth shut about what goes on in there, direct intel from a reluctant “member”. Take everything bad that you know or have imagined about a union and multiply it to the extreme. This is the group to watch in upcoming elections.

    Hmm. I can guess. Before we escaped, WA State switched to conducting elections by mail.

    “Bring your ballots down to the hall Monday night and we will … mail them for you.”

  27. lynn says:

    Dilbert, “Coworkers Who Are Special ”
    http://dilbert.com/strip/2018-01-12

    I love Dogbert.

  28. ech says:

    They cannot send you to collections or report you as late as long as you are making an attempt to pay.

    Not true, per my wife’s former billing service and their attorneys.

  29. Ray Thompson says:

    Not true, per my wife’s former billing service and their attorneys.

    Interesting. I stand corrected.

  30. MrAtoz says:

    Another glorious day for tRump! The entire Libturdian loser-sphere is virtue signalling how horrible the President is for saying sh*thole. I think every MSM outlet is calling tRump a rayciss. Celibutards and Blacks think they now run the country because of raycissism, slavery, sh*thole country immigration. It is GLORIOUS! Little Dick Durbin is trying to call tRump a rayciss because he said “what’s with this chain immigration…” Since Blacks were brought to the FUSA in chains way back when, you can’t use “chain immigration” because it is rayyyyyciiiisssss! It gets even better since said losers aren’t taking the high road, just using f*ck, j*rkoff, and other nasty words to describe our GLORIOUS PRESIDENT.

    Oh yeah, HILLARY KLINTON WILL NEVER BE PRESIDENT!!!!

  31. MrAtoz says:

    From Twitchy.com:

    Prediction FAIL: Watch a parade of media tax bill self-beclowning in 120 hilarious seconds

    What a great Redumblican campaign commercial for 2018!

  32. lynn says:

    Hmm. I can guess. Before we escaped, WA State switched to conducting elections by mail.

    I did not know how bad it is in Washington State until I read the first five books in the “299 Days” series. I verified a few claims in the series and was amazed. Washington State is overdue for a civil rebellion.
    https://www.amazon.com/299-Days-Preparation-Glen-Tate/dp/0615680682/

  33. MrAtoz says:

    Is it me, or is it only Dumbocrat Durbin the one saying tRump said sh*thole countries. I’m not finding anybody else at the meeting confirming it. Durbin is a big liar anyway, oh wait, politician ’nuff said.

  34. lynn says:

    Is it me, or is it only Dumbocrat Durbin the one saying tRump said sh*thole countries. I’m not finding anybody else at the meeting confirming it. Durbin is a big liar anyway, oh wait, politician ’nuff said.

    Rush said that Lindsey Grahamnesty confirmed it. Here is some fake news about it:
    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tim-scott-lindsey-graham-confirmed-trumps-shithole-comment/article/2645781

  35. RickH says:

    Whenever I had mice problems at prior houses, I used D-Con bait traps. Worked well for me.

  36. DadCooks says:

    D-Con for me too. Causes the mice (there is a size for rats too) to have extreme thirst and leave the building. Also, when they die dogs and cats will not touch them.

  37. MrAtoz says:

    Rush said that Lindsey Grahamnesty confirmed it. Here is some fake news about it:

    Even that was second hand. And Dumbo-Durbin is doubling down on the raycissssss take.

  38. lynn says:

    Even that was second hand. And Dumbo-Durbin is doubling down on the raycissssss take.

    It does not matter. You and I approve of just about anything Trump says. And Dirty Dick’s constituency will believe anything that he says. That is, in between shooting at each other.

  39. nick flandrey says:

    since I was driving around today I had talk radio on. all the right wing shows are slamming him too. you should have heard weepy going on about what wonderful hardworking beautiful people the haitians are. frikking embarrassing.

    IIRc, he didn’t say the people were sh!tholes, only that their countries were. And that is just the freaking truth, which nobody can deny.

    n

  40. lynn says:

    IIRc, he didn’t say the people were sh!tholes, only that their countries were. And that is just the freaking truth, which nobody can deny.

    Yup. They have overpopulated their countries and now they want to overpopulate the USA.

    The lady who cleans our house one afternoon a week and cleans our office on Saturday is from El Salvador. She has been here since 1990 on a refugee visa. She has five kids with her husband (also a refugee from El Salvador), all born here. She works hard and cleans 20+ homes per week. Her daughters help her out if they have the time. She also has grandkids here.

    Her husband’s boss sponsored him for a green card. But her husband cannot sponsor her without her going back to El Salvador and joining the immigration line. So, her 25 year old son has sponsored her for a green card. It is not going well but they have forestalled the deportation order.

    In general, I want to severely shutdown immigration for a few decades. But if they are already here, work hard, and have ties to the community, I am ok with them staying. But no voting.

    BTW, I have met most of her kids. Really nice people and fluent in English and Spanish both. None of this nonsense where even the third generation cannot speak English fluently.

  41. DadCooks says:

    It is time to shut the doors, for everyone not already a full citizen. And those naturalized “citizens” who cannot speak, read, and understand English need to have their citizenship revoked. No more accommodations.

    And I’ll go a step further, I had to pass a test on the Illinois Constitution, The U.S. Constitution, and The Bill of Rights (the first 10 Amendments for those of you in Rio Linda) in order to graduate. So since this is no longer done it must be reinstated and those who have not passed the test in the past must pass it now or be sent to the manure-hole of random choice.

    Part of why I like Trump is he talks like a sailor, he calls a spade a humping shovel.

    I do not believe a word out of any progressive’s mouth or the MSM. They are truly manure heads.

  42. paul says:

    I’ve had a few mice in this house. First was a house mouse that decided living in the insulation batts covered with Celotex (foam board covered with foil) (because I was out of sheetrock) was a good idea. We moved the back door and there was a week or so of “tar-paper” and not “siding”. A snap trap got it.

    Next was a field mouse. We had him for a couple of months. It was a lot of “did you see that?”. We also had the cloth bags of Spanish peanuts on the kitchen counter. He stashed half a cup of peanuts in my stereo’s center channel speaker. Got him with a glue trap and dropped him into a bucket of water. Warm water. He was really cute. Plus at the far end of the house, a couple of years later, I found about a beer can full of peanuts on a shelf behind a row of DVDs.

    The latest field mouse was wily. And I just didn’t want him around. Glue traps? Got loose. I finally thought to use two wood snap traps, baited, in the gap between the fridge and the cupboard…. yeah, eat the bait and jump into the next trap.

    Two traps in a row… four inches apart. Eat the peanut butter, jump over, and then jump onto the next trap.

  43. paul says:

    My steam humidifier was not making much steam last week. Ok, it’s old.

    I bought a new one at Wally World today. $16. Read the directions. Oh, hey, ya gotta put a pinch or few of salt in the water?

    Yes, you do. And with 5 pinches of table salt from the palm of my hand, the old humidifier is working like new. I guess that having a water softener de-limed the electrodes enough that I need to use salt again. (grin)

  44. Ed says:

    An interesting review of a new paper on how general anesthesia works. I can recall being told in college, decades ago, that no one knew how it worked then.

    http://www.sciencealert.com/how-general-anaesthetic-works-new-discovery-propofol-syntaxin1a-neuron-disruption

  45. ech says:

    Anesthesia isn’t well understood. (My wife is a retired anesthesiologist.) There are a few theories, but no general model. In fact, there might be several mechanisms depending on the method – inhaled vs injected, etc.

  46. nick flandrey says:

    I think this was from another site, but it is a freaking awesome explanation of why immigration to the US won’t solve world poverty.

    ~6 minutes long.

    n

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE

  47. DadCooks says:

    Too simple, too logical, and it doesn’t swell the ranks of dumbocrat voters.

  48. lynn says:

    Man, the office LAN backup that I started on Monday on the new reformatted external WD USB 8 TB just finished. 3.1 TB out of the 8 TB was used. Slow, slow, slow to backup a dozen PCs. But automated, all I did was open a command window, type F:, and type backup. And then had it running all week.

  49. lynn says:

    “Greens Demand Renewable Capacity to Replace the 2.3GW Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant”
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/01/12/greens-demand-renewable-capacity-to-replace-23gw-diablo-canyon-nuclear-plant/

    What a bunch of loons ! Shutting down a perfectly good nuclear power plant because it is putting hot water into the bay. And then expecting to replace it with solar and wind turbines that operate on a non continuous basis.

  50. JimL says:

    People are too easily outraged and reports are too easily slanted.

    Is Haiti a S#!7#0l3? Maybe. But apparently our President didn’t call Haiti that. He called central Africa a S#!t#0l3. Many Americans have never been to central Africa, so that’s not what was reported.

    Another meme I spotted yesterday – we bomb the crap out of these countries and kill thousands. Nobody bats an eye. Call one of these places a S#!7#0l3? They lose their minds.

  51. nick flandrey says:

    Partly at least, the religious right piously famous object to the language and not the idea communicated. That was def part of it for the radio guys yesterday.

    They are sh!tholes, literally, see … anyone who has been there but see also…https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2018/01/about-those-third-world-sholes.html

    WRT power plants. “Greens DEMAND…” Flockers never OFFER. “Greens offer to fund subsidy for construction of new clean energy plant.” Is a sentence you will see — never.

    nick

  52. dkreck says:

    WRT Diablo Canyon is the last nuke in California. Meanwhile Brown and the dems continue to attack all fossil fuels with a slew of new laws taking effect. Already PG&E has some of the highest rates in the country and more taxes to top it off.
    Of course we will stop climate change.

  53. lynn says:

    WRT Diablo Canyon is the last nuke in California. Meanwhile Brown and the dems continue to attack all fossil fuels with a slew of new laws taking effect. Already PG&E has some of the highest rates in the country and more taxes to top it off.
    Of course we will stop climate change.

    The crazies are shutting down nukes all over the USA where they can. Main Yankee, Vermont Yankee, San Onofre, and others that I do not remember. Note that the sites will be radioactive for many centuries. Shutting them down is just stupid.

  54. lynn says:

    Of course we will stop climate change.

    It is a sign of insanity that one expects the same thing over and over again even when external factors change randomly.

  55. JimL says:

    Not to mention the fact that the costs will remain – they have to maintain the sites, whether they produce power or not. Expense with no reward. Taxpayers will wind up picking up the bill when the owners go bankrupt & are sold off. Nobody will buy the retired plants.

  56. lynn says:

    Not to mention the fact that the costs will remain – they have to maintain the sites, whether they produce power or not. Expense with no reward. Taxpayers will wind up picking up the bill when the owners go bankrupt & are sold off. Nobody will buy the retired plants.

    One wonders if nuclear power plants will end up becoming EPA Superfund sites as the crazies shut them down. Then ALL taxpayers get to pay for them with no resulting benefits whatsoever.

  57. SteveF says:

    Then ALL taxpayers get to pay for them with no resulting benefits whatsoever.

    Like Aid to Families with Dependent Children, public schools, and other forms of welfare?

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