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.

Mom's dinner and dance party

So...after the fun and laughs we had trying to get a room on Friday, mom was admitted to the hospital, I left the hospital at midnight, got home about 1/2 hour later and really wanted to just drink out of the bottle of Jamison...who needs a steenkin' glass?!? OK, I didn't but I really thought about it!

I didn't go to bed until about 2 a.m. and slept until 11 a.m.

I was woken by a terrific storm so I decided that I'd wait this out before trekking back to Joliet. It finally calmed down about 1p.m. And I set off to the hospital.

When I get there, the buzz is still about the storm, it seems that there was a power surge/outage that hit St. Joe's and has caused some issues, but no one is sure to what extent.

We had an uneventful afternoon and a great nurse. Mom's coloring is a bit better, but she's still not able to eat anything. The nurse tells me that the dietician saw mom in the morning and said that mom should get a tube feeding by the evening. Again, the wait begins...

About 6, I ask again and Super Julie(the good nurse) starts calling. It seems that the storm knocked out part of the pager system and even tho the hospital knew this, they didn't notify the departments(like doing a network broadcast--”Attention: pager system is trashed, go back to call center system”), staff didn't find out until they started calling around to different departments! Julie hadn't called earlier because the nutritionist had told her that mom probably wouldn't receive a feeding until 5 or 6. So, she calls dietary(which closes at 7) and they have no orders. The 2 nutritionists that had been on duty had left for the day and so she called the duty superintendent. The superintendent gets her the home phone number of the nutritionist and finds out that she had given the orders to the pharmacy at NOON! Sooo...what happened to it after that? Dietary already said they didn't have it and they were leaving in 10 minutes, pharmacy was already closed. The dietician said she would come in and get it herself if need be. She called the superintendent. My mother did get her g-tube feeding at 8 p.m,

Another cluster&*(! Avoided. But wait, there's more!

By Sunday, my mother has developed a lot of phlegm in her throat which is very hard for her to cough up because of all of the pain in her mouth, she is trying to cough it up, but its very painful...but even more painful is suctioning so she keeps at it. I notice a change in her breathing and tell the nurse so she can inform the doctor. The nurse does check and says her lungs seem to be clear. Then my sister shows up and fires me(not serious), since mom ended up back in the hospital under my watch. Hey, sounds good to me!

Monday I don't go in, but Tuesday I notice that mom is beginning to go down. When they suction, the mucous/phlegm is tinged with blood. Part of the reason is because of the sores, but it just keeps getting worse. One time she starts coughing and coughs up enough phlegm to almost fill the spit pan!

On Wednesday, I get a call from my sister. Mom has pneumonia and they are moving her to ICU. This is actually the first time that she had a “bad” nurse who wasn't watching her breathing. Sis called the charge nurse and everything moved very quickly...she was panting and we were told later than 15-30 minutes later, she wouldn't have been alive!

They took her to ICU, sedated her and intubated her...and our next saga begins.

The Second trip to the ER

My mother settled in the nursing home as well as can be expected and started both chemo and radiation for the cancer. Also, since being in the nursing home, she's required to attend PT and she is actually standing and walking a few steps.

Since my sister came in, she basically took over, first because of my trip, but since I've been back, I'm Ms. Assistant. I discussed with her setting up important information in an online doc(i.e., doctor names and numbers, chemo/radiation names, numbers, appointment dates) so that if for some reason she couldn't be reached, it'd be easily accessed. She disagreed, saying that she has all the information on her notebook/calendar and its easy to access...for her...not so much for me. This is not a big problem usually, but my sister went back to Texas last Thursday; mom got sick on Friday.

I got to the nursing home on Friday to find mom still in bed, looking a bit gray and not being very alert. She had only eaten a bit yesterday because her throat was hurting(which was expected with the radiology)and refused to eat today, not even yogurt, in fact she wasn't even drinking and when I looked at her skin, I could tell she was dehydrated. Her nurse told me that she had a temp and that she was going to call her doctor to see if s/he would approve her to be moved to the hospital. Mom's chemo doctor said no, watch for a day, but her nurse was not deterred...and called the next doctor which approved her to be moved. Here we go on another adventure....

The ambulance picked up my mother and I went in my car. I decided to park my car in the parking garage instead of having the ER valet because of how far I would be walking after my mother was placed in a room. I get to the ER, I go to her room...and wait. Before I made it to the room, the staff had set up the tubes, the BP, pulse and heart rate machine, you know, the normal stuff. Tests are ordered – blood and urine cultures, chest and neck x-rays. The diagnoses? A very serious bladder infection, thrush and possible inflammation of the esophagus(one of the side effects of neck radiation). So, we had gotten to the ER at 1:30 or so and by 4, the ER doc gives us the diagnoses and tells us that she will be admitted. I heard the doc tell the desk staff that she will be admitted, but he had to talk to her primary doctor. About an hour later, I heard him on the phone talking about my mom(he had to spell her last name and we were situated directly across from the nurses' station) and then he said something to one of the nurses. At this time he came back in and told us that mom's doctor agreed. It was about 5p.m. So, I text my husband, tell him I'll pick up pizza and I should be home around 7...hahahaha. Her BP had dropped for the second time and I went out to speak to a nurse about it(it had dropped from 160/65 to 150/48, now 116/41). I was told that's probably because she's been laying down. I tell them that my mother is getting a bit stressed and considering she suffers from hypertension, that should make the BP go up, not down and that it was abnormally low. She said she'd be in to check. At this time I noticed mom's file on the desk. She never did show up to check on mom, but her BP didn't go any lower.

At 6:30 p.m., 90 minutes later, I ask what's taking so long? I had heard the doc tell them to admit 2 other people after my mother and at least one of them had been moved(the doc says, “(room) 12 is to be admitted” and then the process begins). The nurse tells me that she doesn't know, she never received the file...I said, “Its sitting in the same place it was when I was up here before—just to your right!” Now, to be fair, it was busy, but it wasn't crazy. There were open rooms, no traumas. The charge nurse came over and then “took care” of me and my mom. Then the transport....

This small woman, probably older than me, was our transport—very loud and brassy. I made a remark about now we could get something to eat and she went off on a tangent on how she never gets time for lunch because she's sooner busy at work, but she loves her job. All of this was said in a very snarky tone and all I wanted to do was to trip and fall on her, squishing her skinny ass under all of my fat, overfed body. But, I didn't, I told her that, by federal law, she is to receive a 30 minute break after 6 hours and if she doesn't take it, she is putting herself as well as her transports at a health/safety risk and her employer should be reported for not allowing it. She shut up after that.

We get to the 5^th floor and its only 8 p.m., 6 1/2 hours after we got to the ER, 3 hours after being admitted and now...the questions...again. I don't understand why I have to answer the same questions that I've(or we have) answered during mom's first stay in this hospital just 5 weeks ago or some of the same questions we answered in ER! The nurse has to spend at least 20 minutes per admit asking redundant questions—that is such a waste of time, both hers and the patient's. It seems pretty stupid that since she was in the hospital, the staff should be able to bring up her old records(which has the information on medical history) and just have to deal with the last 5 weeks! But, no St. Joe's computer system doesn't have that capability.

So, now...we wait...again. See, until all this information is actually input and then the floor doctor(or on call doc) approves these orders, care is at a standstill. The nurse can't request any of the prescriptions to be filled and my mom was in pain and thirsty(no liquids per ER doc) and hadn't had anything to eat in 24 hours or so, not that she could swallow, but these were the problems I saw. Doc calls back after 9, nurse gets scripts to pharmacy and gives mom some ice chips. She still can't swallow, but at least the ice can numb some of the pain. The drugs finally get there at about 10:30p.m. And I stay until mom calms down...and I get to leave at midnight...11 hours after we arrived at the hospital. Nope, no pizza tonight!

Cancer, Senior Care and Nursing Homes

On July 4, I left on my trip to California and left my sister in charge of mom and her health issues. When I left, we knew she would be going to a nursing home, but we didn't know when or which one. So as I'm winding through the mountains in Arizona and California, my sister is winding hr way through the paperwork needed to get my mother placed in a nursing home.

My mom has nothing but her Social Security check, so the paperwork does simplify when “poor”. But that wasn't the hardest part. That was finding a nursing home.

Senior living, assisted living and nursing homes have all sorts of acronyms on who they will take. The best ones are “private pay”--they don't take Medicare or Medicaid patients so they pick and choose who they take and how much work there will be. They are usually better staffed(but not necessarily so) because they charge the insurance companies and patients. This is the type of situations that Long Term Insurance pay and also any and all finances that the senior may have. We didn't bother looking into these nursing homes.

I even knew the nursing homes on the NFW! list(No F*&%!ng Way), there are many of them in Joliet as well as other towns. These are the ones that normally are largely state subsidized and have a minimal level of care. They are usually underfunded and under staffed, we've probably all heard the horror stories of these.

And then there are the ones in the middle, like the nursing home attached to St. Joe's Hospital which my mother was at. Now, this one requires you to make an appointment, 24 hours in advance to check it out, will only allow you at certain hours without an appointment—not when you want to come, not something you want to hear when trying to place your mother! Before my sister actually made an appointment, she found out some other information from people who had family at this nursing home and said not interested.

So....there's Lakewood in Plainfield. Our great uncle had been placed there in the 90's and it seemed to be a decent place. Sister went and interviewed, toured the place, submitted request through there and Medicare/Medicaid and mom was no longer homeless. Due to the constraints on Medicare, she could not keep her apartment and get placed in a nursing home. Also, the nursing home receives all but $30 of her Social Security check to pay for the nursing home which doesn't leave much for her living expenses so if she is released from nursing care, we have to find her another place to live.

Lakewood, is ok. Just ok. Although the staff is good, and attentive, there aren't enough of them. This means that patients might have to wait. It also means that sometimes the midnight staff wake my mom up at 5 or 5:30 a.m. to take a bath cuz they have to get 6 rooms cleaned before the day shift comes in. What do the patients then do? Sit around until breakfast gets there at 7:30 or 8...in other words, not much! This is the nature of the “beast”. That and because my mother is on the “medicare” ward, that means they are only receiving about $1100 a month to care for her(that's about what she received from Social Security—I don't know what type of reimbursement they receive from the state and federal gov't.), there are limited beds and she gets moved around a lot...what's a lot? She was placed there the second week in July and has been moved 4 times.

Because of some of these shortcomings, we try to make sure that one of us is with her during the day, we can make sure she's cared for, she gets her meds on time(which can sometimes be a problem due to the nurses are also responsible for the intake interviews of new patients instead of having other staff handle the paperwork) and that if she's uncomfortable, we can hurry things along.

Then there is also transportation to her chemo and radiation appointments. That is done by an ambulance company in the area and usually she gets the medvan—this can be used with her wheel chair rather than the full blown ambulance. But this costs her about $65 per ride...and she has one appointment for chemo weekly and 5 for radiation...$30 a month for expenses just doesn't go too far, does it? We think we've got it covered now under the Medi-plans, but not certain.

“Growing old ain't for sissies”...or those that have no family or friends to fight the health care system.

Mom's hospital stay

In my last post, The Phone call, I started the story of my mother's hospital stay, the fall she had up to the tests they gave her. We visited over the weekend, while she was still in the hospital and the nurses did quit telling her she was leaving the next day. I was leaving on my trip on the 4th(I'm driving from Illinois to California and back--will take about 2 weeks) and wasn't able to get the results before I left. My sister will be here while I'm gone, so care was not an issue...or so I thought. All the tests have been completed. The doctors have ordered and completed a head cat scan, stomach/intestinal cat scan, a sonogram on her neck and a needle biopsy. I'm pretty sure, before I leave that the prognosis is not good. Mom is looking better, she's rehydrated, not as fearful. The medical team also did a mental alertness evaluation and mom passed with flying colors--Altzheimer's is not an issue. So we wait for the news on the mass on her neck, but she looks better. The nurses kept trying to get her to stand or walk, or do anything, but she kept resisting...if nothing else, my mother is stubborn, just not always in the way that would be best for her. On another front was her placement. The social worker at the hospital kept working on it but we can't afford "private pay" placement(these won't take Medicare or Medicaid) and nursing homes do have a bad reputation. So, between going to see mom and calling me and her home in Texas, my sister began visiting nursing homes. A couple of things made it a bit easier -- she has friends that work in private care and knew some of the skuddlebut, and a couple of people that have either stayed in nursing homes or visit a relative in them. She first threw out the ones that had specific rules about when she could visit to see the facility(like why can't I visit at 8 p.m. without 24 hour advance notice???), the ones that wouldn't accept Medicare/Medicaid and ones that we had bad reports on...the list dwindled rapidly...and still no diagnoses, which means she couldn't go to some of the homes until she had a medical diagnoses. I begin my trip on the 4th, left from Mom's hospital room and journeyed to Kansas City, MO for the first part of my trip. Still no word. On the 5th, my friend and I start on our trip and about 2 p.m., my sister calls me. My mother has Stage 4 head and neck cancer. I think my friend was more upset than I, she put a hand on my arm and I shook it off...I don't do well with talking on the phone, driving and sympathy...but I think, part of me just felt a bit of relief. That may sound mean, but I've spent the last 2 years worrying about finding my mother dead in her apartment. At least now, she's being taken care of and we can either prepare to fight or prepare for hospice. The Oncologist was urging chemo/radiation, but of a less aggressive nature just to make the pain less for my mom. To do this, tho, would require a feeding tube, at least because usually the throat is burned in the process and mom won't be able to eat, even if she felt like it. The other 2 options were do nothing(surgically or within the oncological side) or treat it aggressively. Mom took a day and decided on the first option...for now. This will entail the feeding tube and chemo/radiation. And this diagnoses also took care of the placement...she will be in the nursing home within the week.

The Phone Call

It was very strange...I woke up the night before about 12:30 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep until about 4. I was wide awake, very strange. Obviously, that led to the morning and I didn't get up until late -- around 9:30 a.m.; grabbed a cup of coffee, let the dogs out and sat on the porch, planning my day: get some gardening done, finish my laundry, do some more planning on my trip and start packing since I leave in about 4-5 days. OH! and I have to go to mom's tomorrow to do her bills and see if she needs anything. I go back into the house and check my phone and I see the phone number -- its St. Joe's hospital which means its either my mother or daughter. I call and the message says that my mother was brought in this morning after she fell trying to get into bed. The nurse statet my mother had fallen about midnight, but didn't call for help until this morning! Ahh, well that must be the reason that I couldn't sleep! I'm so glad she has the life alert system...too bad it only works if you activate it! My mother is in her eighties and I knew "the call" would come sooner or later.  She hasn't taken care of herself in the past 15 - 20 years, since she had hip replacement where she found it too "painful" to actually do the physical therapy. She decided that the doctor was just being mean to her. She has lost the ability to walk and needs assistance for basic daily activities doesn't go out of her apartment for the most part, except for doctor's appointments and she's been fighting me for the past month on doing that! I really believe that my mother is the definition of "high maintenance". She receives help from home health care, but is usually aggravated by the women and doesn't want them to help her or clean--the women talk too much or not enough, can't follow directions or argue with her. To put it mildly, my mother is "prickly" and getting or keeping help is an ongoing battle. I call the ER, speak to the nurse. They need to know her meds I tell them I'll stop by her apartment, but that I live about 30 minutes away. I call my daughter, sister, son, niece and nephew and head out for the ER. I get to the ER, they've x-ray'd her hips and pelvis area and there are no breaks--good thing. But there's that mass on her neck...the one that I've been trying to get her to the doctor about(among other things). They did do a cat scan, but want to do a couple of other tests. They are going to keep her at least overnight. This is good since she is dehydrated and a bit woozie. I needed to help the nurse when they tried to take her blood pressure because she tried to take off the cuff, because it was too tight. That's not someone who can handle living on her own at this time, besides it would be much easier to do the tests while she's in the hospital. My sister came in the next day(she lives near Houston, we live near Chicago) and we decided she would stay until I get back from my trip. Mom told me to have a good time(I'd been planning this for months and had another friend who was counting on me to pick her up). Since my sister is staying in Joliet, she is there when the doctor comes in. My mother goes thru her antics: "Do you smoke?" "Well, not much and I don't inhale." I told her Clinton has never lived down that line--just leave it. One doctor finally told her that if she lights up a cigarette and puts it to her lips, she is smoking and needs to answer yes. I had told them about her drinking cuz I knew she wouldn't even come close to telling the truth on that(she goes thru about 2 - 750 mil. bottles a week). They did a cat scan on her stomach and a sonogram on the mass on her neck. The sonogram showed some thyroid nodules and they would do a biopsy soon to get a better idea of what's going on. There's a problem on the time issue since now we are getting into the July 4th weekend, the test may not be done until the 5th, but they will try to schedule it over the weekend. I leave on the 4th. The other thing that's driving my sister and I crazy is that the nurses keep coming in and telling my mother that she's going to be leaving soon which is terrifying my mother. She's decided she doesn't want to go home, she doesn't want to go to a "bad" nursing home and we haven't found a home to take her yet. I finally speak to the floor manager and tell her that yes, we understand that she will have to move, but to quit making it sound like they're going to put her out on the street with a cardboard box and shopping cart! My mother freaks out easily at the best of times...this ain't the best of times. The doctors also tell her that she's not leaving until sometime next week so, lets all get on the same page, ok? She(floor manager) agreed with me and said that she would put on her chart not to aggravate her about this. Thank YOU!

The war on labor and public employee unions

I have been a member of AFSCME for about 30 years, and during that time, I've been one of those evil union "thugs" or activists...you know the type...we protect other workers, we speak to power, we try to get the other side to understand our side...and we figure out what's most important to our members. Yes, our local members. I was elected at my workplace to represent workers' best interests, I served on negotiating committees, steward committees, some committees for parties! We believed that one of the largest tools management used against us was that all the dues were spent on the few bad pennies...so we made sure that our members had an annual picnic, easter egg hunt(done with help from management) and a holiday money order for groceries...or whatever...and we made sure we were there when there was trouble.

See, I worked at Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois--male maximum security prison. During the time I worked, there were 3 employees that were murdered, 1 employee raped and countless others that were hurt. It does take a certain type of person to work corrections, and some of my ramblings would be specific to corrections, but I knew that no matter what, my Union would protect me. And I would support AFSCME. As I said, I was an activist and I knew that I was a "big fish in a little pond" because of that, not that management held that against me, but I never allowed it to go to my head. I had transferred to one of the youth facilities in 2001--wanted a change of pace, but it was still covered by AFSCME. I thought that I could just quietly wait for retirement, but no...again, I became involved in the local union.

We had negotiated early retirement for Corrections, among others due to the higher rate of emotional/health/famial problems that come with that type of career. AFSCME did the surveys, they protected the members, they set up the Personal Support Program and negotiated with the state about an Employee Assistance Program...which was turned over to AFSCME, basically because the State couldn't fund their program...Again AFSCME took care of its members. I retired, at age 50, in 2007 and within a month was involved with AFSCME Retirees.

I worked hard for 28 years. I gave up pay raises, language, etc. for my pension. I paid up to 9% of my salary(along with the 7% or so for social security) for my pension. And now? I'm told that I'M THE PROBLEM. My state senator(that was appointed by republicant party) Ron Sandick has said that he feels the pensions can be broken, his quote was, " When I meet retired police and firefighters, I thank them for their service, but tell them I shouldn't have to pay to keep them on the dole."! This from a man whose salary is the highest salary in the nation for legislatures! Seems pretty ironic that one of the few things that we rank #1 in is legislature's salaries...our pensions are under the mean.

State retirees average pension is $24,000, university retirees make about $28,000--and these figures include those "6 figure pension benefits" that the Chicago Tribune likes to scream about...but they don't worry about my members....I am now the President of the AFSCME Retiree Sub Chapter for DuPage County, where some of my members have a pension of less than $700 to live on--and a couple of them who make under $1000 a month are not coordinated with Social Security which means they not only pay for their bills, they pay for their Medicare. That's it....$12,000 a year or less...for 30+ years of service. And the Chamber of Commerce wants to cut that???? Where do they think 80 year old people are gonna go? Yes, I'm young enough to find another job(if someone will hire me since I'm over 50), but I already have members that live at places like Old Country Buffet from morning to night because that way they can make sure they get at least 2 or 3 meals on their ticket--what a sad way to live...and a shameful way to force people to live.

Stochastic Terrorism and Right Wing Rhetoric

Although I do not believe that this is the only reason people behave in the way they do(our very unbalanced wealth in this country is another aspect of this), I do believe that we do have a very large problem with right wing rhetoric on the media dehumanizing who or what they consider "the Left". I’m not speaking about right wing as in William Buckley, Jr. type, but the lies and hysterics that are seen on TV on a daily basis at this time of our history.

The definition of stochastic terrorism is the use of communication(media) to stir up “lone wolves” to carry out the violent/terrorist acts that are statistically predictable, but individually unpredictable. Two very high profile uses of this type of terrorism would be under Hitler(radio stations which had programs that supported turning in neighbors/relatives/shop keepers for alleged “crimes”) and when Bin Laden releases a video that piques the interest of random people in the world who take up his cause and commit a bombing or other forms of violence because of “the cause”.

Both Hitler and Bin Laden could excuse the behavior of others because they did not personally tell the person to cause this terror, this mayhem, all they did was some talk, for those to take up his cause and change words into action, well….of course that wasn’t the actual idea behind it, is it? At least Bin Laden is “honest” enough to say, yep—that’s what I want.

But this term is actually the same definition for Hannity, O’Reilly, Beck, Coulter, Palin and others. And this act causes the “lone wolf” (I call them batguano crazy) to “see the light” in the lone wolf’s mind. This doesn’t mean that Glenn Beck calls the crazy directly and tells him to do something—it means he(and others) plant the idea with his off the wall hysterics and lies.

So, some definitions:

Stochastic terrorist—this is the person with the pulpit—the ones that talk about “America will turn red with the spilled blood”,  “If ballets don’t work, bullets will”, how about, “Don’t retreat, reload!” or “Second Ammendment remedies”.

All of these phrases are filled with violent rhetoric which, for 90+% of the population is only that – rhetoric. But for those unstable individuals, who already feel at least partially outcast from society, these are true fighting words.

Lone Wolf – “cop jargon” for the mentally/emotionally unstable who is usually not involved in “normal” criminal activity(as in gangs, drugs, etc.) but seems to come out of nowhere and commits a violent act or an act that is considered domestic terrorism(since many of them are citizens of the country they target). Another problem is because these people usually don’t have many, if any friends and keep to themselves and keep their plans to themselves, they don’t talk about their intentions to anyone and are harder to keep tabs on from the law enforcement community—until it’s too late.

So, how can I have the audacity to compare the right wing rhetoric with the right wing rhetoric of Nazi Germany? Or the right wing rhetoric of Father Coughlin in the 1930’s in this country? Very easily with the following acts of domestic terrorism in the last 2-3 years:

7/27/08 - Jim David Adkisson walked into the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and shot nine people, killing two and wounding seven.  He said he was motivated by hatred of "Democrats, liberals, n*****s, and f****ts “. When police searched his home, they found books by Hannity, O’Reilly and Savage. He pled out to guilty(2 cts) murder-natural life sentence.

4/4/09 - Richard Poplawski shot five Pittsburgh PA police officers, leaving three dead and two seriously wounded. People who knew him said he was a birther and white supremacist and was fearful that Obama was going to take away his guns. When the police searched his computer, they found his postings on Stormfront.org  and some links to Glen Beck videos. His trial is scheduled for April 2011.

5/31/09 - another lone wolf, Scott Roeder, shot and killed gynecologist Dr. George Tiller while Tiller was attending church services with his family.  Although he asserts he was acting alone, he does have some ties to one of the anti-abortion terrorist groups, Operation Rescue(and had been arrested in the 90’s for possessing bomb making materials. At that time he claimed membership in the group, the Montana Freemen). He has been found guilty of murder of Dr. Tiller.

For months before the assassination, Bill O’Reilly had been had led a tirade against Dr. Tiller, calling him “Tiller the baby killer” 30 times(and even carried this tirade on AFTER the murder). He also wrote an article that was published on the Operation Rescue website. Of course, BS O’Reilly has denied any type of responsibility for the murder.

1/6/11 - The Tuscon shootings. Although there has not been any"proof" of the killer listening to right wing media or seeing Sarah Palin's target map, but he does have at least some of the extreme right wing's ideology(words mean nothing and living on the gold standard).

My next article will include information on the less than deadly acts of right wing terrorism that has been stoked by the hysterics of the right by the criminals themselves or people who knew them.

So, their god now has a FACEBOOK account to keep the numbers on???????

Last week, I was deluged (and these are people I know in RL!) by a link in FB:

"Ok, lets see how many True Christians there are on Facebook--press like if you believe that Jesus is your personal Savior"...or something like that.

My first reaction to this was, "How shallow", I mean...your god keeps his(and you know these people have the white male supreme being)numbers on FB? I mean, what about people who don't have a FB account? Does that mean your churches have to set up a network of computers just so computer illiterate followers can make they count???? Or are you so insecure in your beliefs that you have to scream it at the top of your lungs...sort of like those cars owned by teens that have more money invested in woofers than in cars?

Now, to be truthful, I am not a 'believer', I'm somewhere between Diest and humanist with a little bit of Pagan thrown in. It would be much easier in my life if I could just succumb to the hypnosis of "Juheeezzzzussssss is my personal savior."  I mean then I can rationalize everything by using the bible-everything is black/white -- no gray areas, I wouldn't have to think, I wouldn't have to wrestle with logic or anomolies....but I do, my makeup is to ask why? not, cuz it says so.

I guess another thing that always worries me is that many of these true believers have no problem with allowing people to die, become homeless, attack people that are different than them or believe differently--so this is what their god approves of???? And if asked about it, they'll yell about the churck is supposed to take care of widows and children(Paul's rantings--which he was speaking about specific cases). When I counter with what Jesus is alleged to say("How you treat the least of my brother is how you treat me" in Matthew while being asked by disciples how they could ever help him so they could get to heaven), they tell you that only applies to TRUE BELIEVERS....or they just walk away. In fact, they will also yell about their "rights" of religious freedom, but stample on everyone else's. Me? I really don't care who or what you believe in, and I'd defend your right to believe that--but I really doubt that most of these true believers would have enough respect to do the same for me.

But....then again....as I pondered these philisophical differences, another thought passed thru me---what if their god actually only has a twitter account and he only counts tweets??? I mean it is the newest way to keep informed and would god want last year's technology? 

Guess they're up the same stream as me.

Knee surgery-Post OP- Day One

So....I wake up while I'm being whisked into a room. The nurses tell me that the operation is over and I did well, no problems. I just can't stay awake! Its about 1:30 p.m. when I get to the room. I'm told I can have a full liquid diet and if that stays down, general diet for lunch. I have a drain in my leg and they put on a "polar cast"--which is a fabric/plastic base(looks like a leg brace) that is hooked up to a flat "hoselike" option that lays in a small ice chest. This keeps swelling and bruising down. I also have "SCD's" on my right leg--this looks sort of like shin guards that massage the leg so I have less of a chance to have problems with blood clots. I'm drifting in and out of consciousness and I also know that they are planning to have me sit up, at least today! Really?

I get the soup and that stays down so I'm cleared for a regular diet. We then try the bedpan....nope, nuthin' coming....OK, so lets try the physical therapy...they make me sit up and I'm in agony! Why torture me?!?!?!?!? So, I do sit some...and almost cry so he lets me lay down. But then! He gets a better way to torture me! Why not try sitting on the commode and then I can be in pain and still not pee! So...we do that for about 10 minutes, but it seems a lot longer! I ended up with the catheter relief that night and being told that if  couldn't go pee tomorrow, it was the Foley.....da dadum dum!