The Iowa caucuses meant absolutely nothing!

So much was made of the first primary of the season, you would think that it was a predictor of the nomination/presidential win...it isn't. First, this is not a jab at citizens of Iowa or New Hampshire, more of a jab at our politically motivated corporate media.

In the past six presidential primaries, the Iowa vote predicted one out of six winners, those type of odds aren't going to make anyone rich in Vegas...except the bookies. Let's delve a bit deeper into Iowa, and, for that matter, New Hampshire.

First, Iowa. The state of Iowa has 3,062,309 citizens, which is 30th in the nation. Its largest city is Des Moines with a population of 203,433. The racial demographics of the state is that is 96% white, 84% of their welfare recipients are white and 52% consider themselves Protestant(no differential between moderate and evangelical) and the average income is $48,000(24th in the country). The unemployment rate in Iowa is under 7%.

Now, the Republican caucus numbers: approximately 122,000 showed up to participate, that's less than 20% of the registered republicans in the state. The participants were 99% white, 70% consider themselves evangelical christians. The demographics of Iowa vs. the United States is just a bit skewed.

And lets look at those returns with information on 2008 also rans:

Romney: 30,015 24.6% 2008: 30,021

Santorum: 30,007 24.5% ?

Paul: 26,219 21.5% 2008: 11,841

I kept hearing about how "75% of the caucus goers voted AGAINST Romney!" No one mentioned that 80% of Iowa registered republicans didn't even bother to show up! That may have more to do with the caucus procedures than anything else, about the same amount of voters participated in 2008, but it does show that only 122,000 people out of a population of 3 Million decided in this way. In contrast, over 818,000 Iowa citizens voted for Barak Obama in 2008(and 697,000 for McCain).

So, New Hampshire? It has a population of 1,318,194, 42nd in the nation. Their average income? $60,441, sixth in the country and, again, 94% white, although New Hampshire folks don't neccessarily cozy up to evangelical theology...or any theology for that matter. About 32% consider themselves Protestant, but only 54% of the populace believe there is a god. And Santorum has already had problems with 2 republican rallies in the Granite state...

But the media focuses so much on these 2, partially because they are first I assume, that you would think they showed a microcosm of the United States...not so much...

United States Statistics:

We are a diverse nation, all but the religion stats are from the 2010 Census:

White: 72%, Black: 14%, Hispanic: 16%....immensely different than both Iowa and New Hampshire. The mean average in this country? $49,445, much lower than New Hampshire, in line with Iowa. And that evangelical vote? Just by going with the protestant statistics, the country is about 37% protestant, not 54% as is Iowa.

And, after all of these comparisons/contrasts, what's my point? Just to keep these primaries in perspective. There is a movement in the country to have "roving" regional primaries--come on, all those media folks, candidates and their staff bring extra money into the area...who goes out of their way to visit every country in Iowa for anything else???? Or any state for that matter? Having maybe 4 regional primary areas(I don't know....east coast, west coast, south and midwest?) would be a boon to all and give everyone a chance to be first every so often...like it actually matters for political status!

Tea Parties fizzle, Progressives make gains in 2011 election

The “Teabagger” revolution has fizzled out...and we may now see intelligent dialogue.

Last November, the media and Republican strategists were giddy about the Tea Party wins...and Tea Party republicans held the country hostage for the past 11 months due to this “mandate” or swing to the right...as Boehner said, “The American people have spoken!” Too bad he didn't listen.

An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll shows that at least 60% of the people strongly agree with the ideas of the 99% movement while only 33% agree with the Tea Party ideology. So, now comes this Election in November...and a much larger “wave” with a much larger area of concerns of economic, social and political values:

Labor/worker's Rights:

Ohio voters pushed back on their governor's abhorrent power grab on collective bargaining and public employees by a vote of 61 – 39% vote. “Ohio’s working people successfully fought back against lies pushed by shadowy multi-national corporations and their anonymous front groups that attempted to scapegoat public service employees and everyone they serve by assaulting collective bargaining rights.”, said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

Keeping democratic voting rights:

Governor Paul LePage(Maine) and his cronies attacked citizen's voting rights by killing same-day registration in the state. The citizens of Maine began a petition campaign which forced a referendum vote and again, the voters won same day registration by a vote of 61 - 39%.

Protecting Reproductive Rights and Birth Control...AKA not enslaving/imprisoning women, just cuz...

Mississippi politicos were trying for the slogan, “We are the most vile and stupidest people in the United States”...or something like that by putting up an amendment to their state constitution that life includes "every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or functional equivalent thereof.” If this had passed there were ramifications with in-vitro fertilization, birth contraception, not only abortion. The folks in Mississippi decided that they were not in the business of throwing Mississippi women back to the 19^th century and voted against the measure by a 58 – 42 majority. There had been a big push by the anti-abortion side, they thought that Mississippi was the best testing ground for this garbage and then go on to other states. The people of Mississippi put it where it belonged—in the trash.

Democratic party sweep Kentucky state offices, win in Iowa and New Jersey:

Kentucky, which gave us Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell also gave the state government Democrats in 6 of 7 state offices, including Governor. In fact Governor Steve Beshear was reelected by a 21 point margin.

Iowa allowed Democrats to retain control of their state senate. If Republicans won the special election, they vowed to pass numerous measures, including a ban on same-sex marriage, that had been blocked by Democrats.

And New Jersey? The voters snubbed Gov. Christie's attempt to gain republican control of the state senate...in fact, there are now more Democrats in the senate, giving Christie less power.

Even in Virginia, the takeover of the state Senate by Republicans stalled since there will probably be a recount of at least one senate election with the 2 candidates within 100 votes. Even if the republican wins, that gives the senate 20 Democrats and 20 Republicans. Yes the lieutenant governor is republican, but all it takes is one republican to be absent...

Arizona Recall

Russell Pearse, the AZ state senator that pushed the anti-immigrant law SB1070, was defeated by a moderate Republican, Jerry Lewis.

Mr. Pearce was a Republican power and former sheriff's deputy. His personality was well known for being uncompromising and self-righteous. He appeared to be shocked at the outcome of the election, “If being recalled is the price for keeping one’s promises, then so be it,” the now “unemployed” president of the senate declared. Pearce had been a star to the Tea Partiers due to his anit-immigration bills and also several bills to nullify federal laws. He also had been involved in taking “inappropriate” campaign donations . He'd been involved in a scandal surrounding the Fiesta Bowl; Pearce accepted $1,025 in contributions from Fiesta Bowl executives and was accused of illegally accepting gifts in the form of tickets to games and travel(although seen “educational” due to a seminar here and there). He denies the accusations.

Andrei Cherny, Arizona Democratic Party chairman, issued the following statement, “Tonight, mainstream Arizona dealt a bitter blow to extremism. In choosing Greg Stanton as Phoenix’s mayor, in electing Jonathan Rothschild as Tucson’s mayor, and in recalling Senate President Russell Pearce, the voters have launched a new era of responsible leadership.

Progressives and the Democratic Party didn't win everywhere. Virginia got tighter and Tennesse gained some red seats. One of the biggest disappointments was also in Mississippi where a Voter ID law, which has been compared to the old poll tax type legislation and will make it more difficult for seniors, college students, poor and working poor to participate in elections passed by 60 – 40. In Ohio voters approved a referendum on the new health care law, although it was not binding, nor did it mention the health care law by name.

But, all in all, the lesson of this election is clear. The Republican/Tea Party movement went too far, is/was too extreme. It looks like it woke up the citizens and Progressive ideas are winning from Maine to Mississippi. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln may be smiling a bit easier now.

My "Roommates" and other love songs.

Being a patient in the hospital means, at least in some cases, sharing your room with someone you've never met before. And the only criteria I can come up with is that they do try to make sure you are in the room with the same gender...most of my roommates were 20+ years older than me!

And you have to appreciate the constraints that HIPPA has put upon hospitals, with having to ensure medical privacy to patients. So, we have the “curtain” OF SILENCE—put it between the 2 beds and it does nothing to protect the other patient's privacy! I guess we're supposed to feel more private. Actually, “ObamaCare” does more for a patient's privacy by requiring every patient a certain amount of square footage—and this meant at this hospital, some of it is under reconstruction to allow for the requirement—and that many patients will now be in private rooms because of this requirement.

My first roommate was a woman in her 70's. She had suffered 4 strokes in the last couple of years(her sister told me) and I think that's why she was in again. There were many “orders” on her dry erase board so that when staff came in, they could check it, such as, “cannot use straws”...too bad many of the staff didn't actually read the board! I don't mean the nurses or assistants that were on our floor, but the other staff members—physical therapists, occupational therapists, you'd think they'd have those orders in their notes, but I had to tell quite a few that she couldn't do this or that...or I'd just tell them to check the board—the writing was large enough for me to see it from my bed, I'd think they could see it since they were sitting closer! Her daughter would come at night, after work and her sisters would come during the day. She stammered and when she got upset or aggitated, the stammering got worse. On this afternoon, the vampires(aka the labtechs) had come in to either take blood or start a new IV and had really upset the woman. First they were talking above her and not listening to her(they were gossiping about how they were so much better at the job than the nursing staff) and they were hurting her, which in turn made her stammer more, which in turn, made them ignore her more. I finally said, “Can't you understand you're hurting her?” and called the nurse, hoping she would assist or kick them out. She did the latter and found someone else to finish the job. BUT that night, her son came in and was wondering why she was so upset. I told him that it was because of the lab techs aggravting her...he and his girlfriend weren't very happy that I was aware of his mother's health...so he had her moved...with her saying, “nononono”...oh well...

I spent a day or so without anyone else in the room. Then in the evening, another stroke patient was put in with me. She was in her late 80's and a tiny slip of a woman. She was speaking, but would sometimes not be able to recall the word she wanted...although she thought she was saying it right. Her daughter stayed the first night, the next day was Labor Day and she was off work, and she expected one of her relatives to stay the next night...sure. During the day the whole family was there—about 10 of them. The poor woman never got to take a nap or anything. What made it worse was some of these relatives decided she didn't know what they were saying(which she had been answering questions, etc.) or what she was saying...and she got forgotten in the group of people...that night? All of them left, which left her in a very scary spot. She was frightened, crying. The staff finally had one of the assistants sit with her until midnight...the next morning? All she could say was jibberish...I wondered what would have happened if her family had thought about the patient rather than gossiping over her bed.

On that morning, I had my knee surgery—this was where the doctor would find out if I just had a little infection or something really ugly—like MRSA. I was hoping for just a nasty one, rather than ugly. I said good bye to my roommate, because when I got out of surgery, I'd be moving to the ortho ward.

The First Weekend of my hospital stay...

From my ER visit of 6 hours, I'm taken up to the 4^th floor, the “heart patient” unit because of my shortness of breath and lung pain...both of which have disappeared, since I'm in a controlled environment. I have all these sticky “pastie” things stuck to my chest, stomach, and other parts of my anatomy and these are connected to this little box, the size which is a bit larger than a card box. The biggest problem with this stupid thing is that the stickies don't always stay attached so the telemetry department calls the floor and sends someone in to check on the box...this was happening about every 2-3 hours, not much sleep for me!

The nurse in charge of my care when I came in,asked me about my meds and vitamins. Most of it was already in the computer from my last stay, so it was pretty easy, my just saying, “yes” except for vitamins. The last time I was in the hospital was for my knee surgery and the doc didn't want me taking anything that he didn't feel was necessary so I did update the area of vitamins, saying that I took 10,000 I.u. Of Vitamin D3 daily—which is 2 pills at home.

The next morning, the nurse comes in with my meds...and I find out that all they have it 1000 I.u. D3's. Yep, they brought me TEN vitamins! I refused, saying it just wasn't that important. Of course, the orders were never changed and every morning I would refuse those pills and the nurses thought it was pretty funny. The humor on it was lost on me after the third day and I will be checking my bill to see if I was charged for these, I'm sure I will be.

I was lucky enough to get the bed near the window on the 4^th floor and could look out upon the woods that are around Good Sam. The hospital campus backs up into the woods and the view allows me to remember the world outside...and not to jump OUT of the window. But, then, there were the vampires...

The vampires are obviously the blood sucking lab techs who show up in the middle of the night(and are perky! WTF?!?!?!? It's 3:30 a.m. And I haven't been drinking!). On the second night, I had one wake me up at 3:30 a.m. And another wake me up less than an hour later! I tell her that I just had labs. She says, “Oh, yeah, I'm supposed to do your labs at 6 a.m., but I was already on this floor so I checked with the nurse to see if I could get this done.” I asked her, “How about checking with the patient?!?!?!? I'd like to get some sleep—there's a rumour that sleep actually helps in the healing process!” She laughed. I was hooked up to the IV so I couldn't punch her.

I now have at least 3 doctors on my case: the ortho, my GP and infectious diseases maybe looking in, depending on what happens with the knee. He won't be called in unless they have to do surgery which they won't decide until Labor Day. My knee is doing something sort of funny...when I came in, it was swollen and a red around the knee cap and knee...now that redness is spreading to the inside of my leg, but the outside of my knee is now back to its normal color. As the weekend progresses, so does this redness—but as it progresses to the inside of my leg, it does retreat from the knee area...very strange and it does have the doctors and nurses puzzled. The term, “MRSA” was mentioned, but more as an afterthought than the real deal. The cellulitus is not spreading down or up the leg or to any other part of my body. If it was MRSA, it would not be contained to one part of my body. I'm on 500 ML of vancomycin, twice a day—a very strong antibiotic, but after 2 days, it doesn't seem to be having the effect that the doctors wanted. So they order another antibiotic, cy{mumble}cyclin...I just call it kickasscyclin—I'm now getting that for a day or 2 to see how that effects my fevers and swollen knee.

I also meet nicer nurses. The one asked me what I wanted to be my goals and I told her I like to sleep through the night! And, with that, Dawn changed my program....I love Dawn...

I think that some of the antics in the hospital will do better if they are different posts because of the “issues”...the vampires love to talk over the patients, dietary could mess up a wet dream, why am I only paired with patients that are over 70?!?!?!?!?

More to come---------

Mom gets out of hospital...and I go in!

On August 31, I left my mom at hospice about noon, feeling OK, except for my knee being sore. I had a total replacement done on this knee about 9 months ago and it'd been feeling OK, I think I slept on it wrong. The hospice rooms are very nice, but the sleeping arrangements for family members leave a bit to be desired. I'm looking forward to getting home and working on my neglected garden—I'm not going back to my mom's until tomorrow night so I actually get to sleep in my own bed for the first time in weeks!

I get home, get out of the car and now I'm noticeably limping...this is very strange. I decide to take my cane with me to go out to garden and within an hour I'm very glad I did. I can hardly put any weight on my left knee and its swelling! HUH? I decide to take it easy the rest of the day, thinking that maybe I twisted it or something.

The next morning, I'm on crutches and have a fever! I call a friend to first take me to my meeting(its too late to cancel and I'm the presenter) and then he drops me off at the hospital. I call my husband to let him know where I'm at, I tell the staff that my knee is bothering me and that I have a fever. They ask their “normal” questions: Shortness of breath? Some, but that's from my asthma. Chest pain? No, but I did have some lung/bronchial pain this morning—NEVER SAY THESE WORDS!!!

They put me in an examining room—first thing? EKG...why do I need an EKG for my knee? They ask me my name and birth date for each procedure. Temp is 103 degrees! The doc tells me that I will be getting a lung scan and some x-rays, and he thinks I should have a stress test when I get back to my doc. I tell him I had one a couple of years ago-my heart is fine. Well you just complained about chest pain...I said No, I complained about LUNG pain, not chest. “We have to be careful” were the last words....WHAT ABOUT MY KNEE!?!?!?!?!?!??! Oh...yeah...it looks like there's some infection and the tests we're doing will tell us more.

I'm wheeled into the Lung Scan machine—its actually kind of neat in a geeky sort of way. Its a smaller tube than an MRI, you're placed on a table, similar to taking x-rays or an MRI and they take “pictures” of your lungs—like a cat scan, but the lung scanner moves, not you. The staff rotates it around to get pictures of your lungs from front, both sides and back so they can tell if you have any real respiratory issues. Neat, huh? After the lung scan, they wheeled me into the old fashioned x-ray, but they had me stay on the gurney instead of changing to the table under the machine.

So, now I go back to the ER stall(there is room for 3 patients in each room with these nice little curtains between them to simulate privacy). I wait for the tests. I've now been here for oh...about 3 hours. They've decided that I'm able to eat and drink on my own. They've also found out that I DO NOT use a bed pan—I can't, just that simple. Plus, there are 2 male patients in the room with me and I just don't think I want to pee with 2 men right there, call me silly. So, the nurse wheels me down to the bathroom when I have to use it. Since they have a wheelchair, they don't want me using my crutches to assist with my getting on the toilet...they wheel me in as close as they can and then leave me there to sort of defend for myself. I pull the string when I'm done for assistance and  appears a nurse...or not.

They hook me up to the evil IV machine for fluids and some antibiotics and tell me that I'll be going up stairs fairly soon. They've also attached this heart telemetry thing to me which I really don't understand—I Don't Have Heart Problems! Probably one of the worst parts of this is how much the patient is ignored. After 2 normal EKG's, they still won't let it go!

The doc finally comes back in to tell me they think that I have cellulitus in my left knee, an infection of the skin, which I could have picked up in the hospital or nursing home that my mother has been in. Oh Great. They are trying to clear the infection with antibiotics and my normal doctors will see me tomorrow, both have been notified. OK then so 6 hours after I arrived...I'm taken up to the 4^th floor of Good Samaritan Hospital—wait, the 4^th FLOOR?!?!? That's not the right floor, that's the heart patient floor!!!! Yep, ladies and gentlemen, I'm now considered a “heart patient” with no symptoms, but they could show up at any time!!!!! AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH.

Mom's trip to hospice, my trip to family reality

Mom could breathe on her own, although she couldn't talk because of her throat being irritated with the tube and she was weak. We discussed moving directly back to the nursing home, but doctors, staff and family decided that hospice was a better fit at this time. There was to be no more treatment of the cancer, she couldn't handle it. We didn't know how truly weak she was although we knew that the mass had gotten so large that they could not test how far the cancer had spread(due to not being able to get the tube down her throat). The Joliet Hospice Home is a very nice place. The rooms are large and comfortable, beautiful landscaping and usually fairly quiet. My mom still is not happy with the stations(ok, the nursing home, hospital and hospice leave a lot to be desired—I think one of them at least have CNN, but none have MSNBC and they all had at least 2-3 Fox channels, Headline News-another hour of Nancy Grace would make ME say I committed a murder, CNBC and some of the basic cable channels such as Lifetime), but it is comfortable and family orientated. I went back to staying at night, sometimes both my sister and I would stay. I'd go home during the day since I did have some stuff that I had to get done, and I also had a meeting to get together for Thursday, September 1. Mom was feeling a bit better and getting her voice back, but her hair was a loss, so Cindy brought one of her wigs and it did look pretty good. The doctors and staff have decided that the good news is that mom is too well to be in hospice. The bad news? Mom is too well to be in hospice which means she has to go back to the nursing home. On Tuesday, the nurse tells me that she doesn't feel very good about my mother being able to move to Texas...Texas?? HUH? It seems that my mother and sister have plans that I'm not party to...hmm...I decide not to say anything to either one of them, maybe they just haven't included me yet. On Wednesday, I wake up and my knee(the replacement one) hurts a bit, but I just figure I slept on it wrong. The doctor comes in to see my mom and he, again, tells me about the Houston plans...I tell him that I agree with him, but I have not been told any of this from either my mother or sister. When my mom wakes up, I tell her about it, that I don't agree with it, if that's what she wants to do, fine, but I don't understand why sis just can't fly the other grand kids up, since I've had to hear about how many jewels she has to wear now, how many times they go vacationing, how much this and this and this cost...my sister equates money with being the smartest and bestest in the room, I equate it with Paris Hilton—doesn't make you smart, just makes you able to buy the trendiest accessories. So, my sister comes in and I tell her the same..the first thing she says is that this was mom's idea, she was more than willing to fly “her boys” in to see mom...whatever. She then makes the comment that it will be me doing the road trips, I say no. I've been with mom the last couple of years, we've had our good times, I'm fine with that...well, then MS. HOLIERTHANTHOU gives me that attitude about how that surely isn't enough. Me? I don't have guilt and this toxic relationship, with both mom and sister—is never going to change, is very unhealthy and I have different values about life. For the past 3 years, I've made sure my mom was taken care, her bills paid, get her food. I'd be at her house at least once every other week and spend at least 3 hours with her. I have nothing to feel guilty about. Now, why is my knee hurting even more?

Mom, Michael Jackson and ICU

On Wednesday, mom was transferred to ICU because of pneumonia and not being able to breathe. They sedated her, intubated her and the wait began. My sister stays during the day and I stay during the night; that way we know whats going on and how she's doing.

My first night was not good. First, they have her sedated with propofol, the drug that killed Michael Jackson. It is a wonderful drug, used in the correct manner. Within minutes, the patient is sedated and if you need to wake the patient up it only takes, maybe 10 minutes after the drug is stopped. In this manner, you can sedate, do a procedure and awake the patient with little or no after effects quickly. It is a very powerful medicine and is used sparingly, but its great in the process of incubation. It also causes “amnesia” so that the patient doesn't remember much of the ordeal after the sedation is lifted.

So, I sit down for a long evening. Yes, I can sleep, but we're in ICU—its not like the staff just leave you alone to sleep! They check vitals at least every two hours, come in when one of the bells and whistles begins blowing and other times, just to check, I guess. Don't get me wrong, I was happy they were taking good care of my mom. One of the other things they had to do was suction down her throat and clean out her mouth which, even with the sedation, hurt her—her throat and mouth were raw from the sores that were left from thrush. When they cleaned out her mouth, she would thrash about and I would try to get her to hold my hand, which she usually would, very strongly. She always did have a grip like a fighter!

About 9 p.m.,she develops a fever and they fill fabric bags with ice and put them under her arms and in the groin area to bring the fever down. About 10 p.m. This loud siren goes off and people run in. I walked out and went to the bathroom, I figured they didn't need me in there. After about 15-20 minutes, the nurse tells me that my mom's heart developed an unnatural rhythm and if it happens again, they may have to shock her heart! I go back in and tell mom, you need to calm down cuss your heart needs to rest. The rest of the night, luckily, is uneventful.

The next day my sister tells me the doctors did some tests and yes, she did have a heart attack because there's some damage to her heart. They discussed what would happen if she had another episode, they would use paddles which would break bones and did we want that done? So, besides the cancer, pneumonia, thrush and a bladder infection, she'd have to try heal bones. We sign the DNR decree.

Wednesday night is much less dramatic. She is still thrashing when they touch her mouth, but no heart problems, no new infections. The mucous that comes out is not just tinged with blood, its saturated with it...I have to wonder is it good to put her through this? Another thing I have to wonder is where do I draw the line in my own life? Even through the propofol, even though she's not supposed to remember any of this(Propofol's nickname is “milk of amnesia”), she's in some horrific pain. There is good news, the infections are getting better, but they were trying to do a scope of her throat and couldn't the scope down her throat due to the mass in her throat. We make a decision to wake her on Friday, taking her off the respirator and see what happens. The doctors have said she will not tolerate chemo any more and radiation won't annihilate the cancer by itself. And they don't know if she'll be able to breathe on her own once taken off of the respirator.

So on Friday, my brother, sister, granddaughter and I stand around the bed and wait. They wake up mom, take out the respirator and suction her mouth and this one she remembers! She cannot talk because of being on the respirator and its very frustrating for her. My sister tries to explain what's going on, that there will be no more treatments because she can't tolerate them, there will not be a cure, this is the end of her life...she is not happy or accepting about this. She will stay in ICU for 24 hours and then moved to a regular room for a couple of days and then....hospice.