This afternoon Bob and I will go out to Leslie's and she will walk me through doing our taxes on tax act.gov. She did them there last year and that worked out well. This year, I want to learn to do them so I won't have to bother her again.
This morning I will do some cleaning.
Slinky finally got to come back in last night and he was real good. He woke me up at 12:30 to go out and then again at 3:30, but he laid right back down afterward and went to sleep. It is supposed to be a nice day today so while we are gone, he will go back outside on the chaise lounge.
Bob's hand and arm were bigger then ever this morning. He has only had one of his new antibiotics though. Before we call this a failure, he will give it three or four days to begin to work. This med also drove his glucose up to 137.
More later:
Well, Leslie's computer was offline. Her ISP was down so we came back home and I did the taxes myself. Of course, I called her six or seven times to ask questions. I finally wore her down and just finished up myself.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Another Doctor's Appointment
Bob has another doctor's appointment this afternoon. I guess we're going to have to try a more expensive antibiotic. The cheap ones are not working to get his infection under control. His arm and hand are just as badly swollen as ever.
First though, we will go take Leslie, our daughter,to lunch.
Slinky has been a bad dog this morning. For one thing, he woke me up to go out three times last night and I am bushed. Then this morning, he got into my flowerbed to eat dirt. I drove him our of that. I am not going to tolerate having my flower beds destroyed by this old dog. Worse yet, when I let him back in, he decided to eat the cat's litter. I told him "No!" quite forcefully but he completely ignored me. Then I lightly swatted him on the backsides and he growled at me. So I put him out. He has been out there barking periodically to get back in but I am ignoring him. I will not tolerate a dog that will not mind. This old dog is going to be thirteen years old this year. He is deaf and partly blind. We love him but if he gets crotchety with me, I will have to make some tough decisions.
More later after the doctor's appointment at 2:00/3:00. Bob cannot remember which it was so I will have to call the doctor's office later on to check.
It was 2:00PM
Melissa got him right in and looked him over carefully. Nothing had changed. What she really wanted to do was put him in the hospital and do the IV but he convinced her to first try the more powerful antibiotic.
She said it would probably cost about $150. Then she came back and said the Prescription Shop had brought her some free prescription trials last week and one of them was a cousin to the drug she wanted to use. So she gave us one of their "free trial" scripts and we had it filled. That saved us about $150. She did say though, that if this one did not work, she would put him in the hospital and do the IV.
He has been reading the literature. It is full of side effects and contraindications. But I will see that he takes it anyhow...leery as he is.
First though, we will go take Leslie, our daughter,to lunch.
Slinky has been a bad dog this morning. For one thing, he woke me up to go out three times last night and I am bushed. Then this morning, he got into my flowerbed to eat dirt. I drove him our of that. I am not going to tolerate having my flower beds destroyed by this old dog. Worse yet, when I let him back in, he decided to eat the cat's litter. I told him "No!" quite forcefully but he completely ignored me. Then I lightly swatted him on the backsides and he growled at me. So I put him out. He has been out there barking periodically to get back in but I am ignoring him. I will not tolerate a dog that will not mind. This old dog is going to be thirteen years old this year. He is deaf and partly blind. We love him but if he gets crotchety with me, I will have to make some tough decisions.
More later after the doctor's appointment at 2:00/3:00. Bob cannot remember which it was so I will have to call the doctor's office later on to check.
It was 2:00PM
Melissa got him right in and looked him over carefully. Nothing had changed. What she really wanted to do was put him in the hospital and do the IV but he convinced her to first try the more powerful antibiotic.
She said it would probably cost about $150. Then she came back and said the Prescription Shop had brought her some free prescription trials last week and one of them was a cousin to the drug she wanted to use. So she gave us one of their "free trial" scripts and we had it filled. That saved us about $150. She did say though, that if this one did not work, she would put him in the hospital and do the IV.
He has been reading the literature. It is full of side effects and contraindications. But I will see that he takes it anyhow...leery as he is.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Letter to Two Editors
Dear Editor,
There’s a lesson to be learned by the Massachusetts failure of the Democrats to elect their senatorial candidate. The lesson is that many of us in the lower and middle class feel that President Obama has not fulfilled the promises he made to the American people.
His health care reform bill has been decimated. The common folk don’t understand it and it constantly changes in favor of the drug companies and the insurance companies that are a major part of the health care problem.
He has worked hard to bail out auto companies and the banks and the financial institutions that got us into this “recession” mess but and he hasn’t done enough for the people who got him elected in the first place. Bank CEOs are still receiving huge bonuses and we are still at war in the Middle East. The “free trade” policies of his predecessor have led us down the road to unemployment and he has done very little to quell that flow of jobs overseas. Regulation needed to control the takeover of the country by the very rich is still lacking, much as he has talked about reinstating it.
People are still losing their homes and credit card companies are still raising their rates to astronomical highs.
At this point, he tends to look like just another politician making promises he doesn’t intend to keep. He needs to realize that the polarization of the parties is beyond his ability to control.
The American people have made it plain that they want this budget breaking war in the Middle East to be finished and they want their young men and women back home. We cannot fight an enemy we cannot distinguish from the general population. One would have thought the lessons of Vietnam would have shown that. And if he would listen to his Middle East experts, he would learn the reason for the antagonism of the Moslem world. The oil companies are another part of the problem.
If he doesn’t wake up and smell the coffee, he will not only lose Congress to the Republicans in the mid term elections but he will be a one term president. That would be a tragedy because the Republicans have no viable candidate and they are firmly backed by the extremist of the religious right.
There’s a lesson to be learned by the Massachusetts failure of the Democrats to elect their senatorial candidate. The lesson is that many of us in the lower and middle class feel that President Obama has not fulfilled the promises he made to the American people.
His health care reform bill has been decimated. The common folk don’t understand it and it constantly changes in favor of the drug companies and the insurance companies that are a major part of the health care problem.
He has worked hard to bail out auto companies and the banks and the financial institutions that got us into this “recession” mess but and he hasn’t done enough for the people who got him elected in the first place. Bank CEOs are still receiving huge bonuses and we are still at war in the Middle East. The “free trade” policies of his predecessor have led us down the road to unemployment and he has done very little to quell that flow of jobs overseas. Regulation needed to control the takeover of the country by the very rich is still lacking, much as he has talked about reinstating it.
People are still losing their homes and credit card companies are still raising their rates to astronomical highs.
At this point, he tends to look like just another politician making promises he doesn’t intend to keep. He needs to realize that the polarization of the parties is beyond his ability to control.
The American people have made it plain that they want this budget breaking war in the Middle East to be finished and they want their young men and women back home. We cannot fight an enemy we cannot distinguish from the general population. One would have thought the lessons of Vietnam would have shown that. And if he would listen to his Middle East experts, he would learn the reason for the antagonism of the Moslem world. The oil companies are another part of the problem.
If he doesn’t wake up and smell the coffee, he will not only lose Congress to the Republicans in the mid term elections but he will be a one term president. That would be a tragedy because the Republicans have no viable candidate and they are firmly backed by the extremist of the religious right.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
The Dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup
This has been a rather quiet day. I had my hair done this morning and afterward went to pick up Juanita for breakfast. We had a nice visit. The first in three weeks. This afternoon, I have read my book. It is very interesting. I have learned a lot about the last presidential campaign. This book tells things that never cam out in the campaign.
This evening, I believe we will have leftover roast from last night.
Tomorrow we will go back to Independence for the Senior Day at First United Methodist Church. The topic is on diabetes. I felt Bob could use some reinforcement.
I was listening to the local doctor's show this morning on my way to Independence and he was talking about all the terrible side effects of using high fructose corn syrup in everything in America and it's impact on our obesity. I have fought that battle for three years ever since I read the Rudgers University study and report on it's effects on the pancreas. It's a losing battle in America where we subsidize the farmers for growing corn.
The doctor said the corn syrup is so thick that it impacts our arteries. Since our pancreas cannot assimilate it, it causes diabetes. He says NutraSweet is not good for us either and neither is Splenda. I intend to ask this nutritionist tomorrow about that and see what she says.
Americans are being poisoned by a common additive present in a wide array of processed foods like soft drinks and salad dressings, commercially made cakes and cookies, and breakfast cereals and brand-name breads.
This commonplace additive silently increases our risk of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and atherosclerosis.
High-fructose corn syrup is so ubiquitous in processed foods and so over-consumed by the average American that many experts believe our nation faces the prospect of an epidemic of metabolic disease in the future, related in significant degree to excess consumption of high-fructose corn syrup.
The food industry has long known that “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down in the most delightful way.” And cane sugar had been America’s most delightful sweetener of choice, that is, until the 1970s, when the much less expensive corn-derived sweeteners like maltodextrin and high-fructose corn syrup were developed. While regular table sugar (sucrose) is 50% fructose and 50% glucose, high-fructose corn syrup can contain up to 80% fructose and 20% glucose, almost twice the fructose of common table sugar. Both table sugar and high-fructose sweetener contain four calories per gram, so calories alone are not the key problem with high-fructose corn syrup. Rather, metabolism of excess amounts of fructose is the major concern.
Read more about this toxic material here:
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2008/dec2008_Metabolic-Dangers-of-High-Fructose-Corn-Syrup_01.htm
This evening, I believe we will have leftover roast from last night.
Tomorrow we will go back to Independence for the Senior Day at First United Methodist Church. The topic is on diabetes. I felt Bob could use some reinforcement.
I was listening to the local doctor's show this morning on my way to Independence and he was talking about all the terrible side effects of using high fructose corn syrup in everything in America and it's impact on our obesity. I have fought that battle for three years ever since I read the Rudgers University study and report on it's effects on the pancreas. It's a losing battle in America where we subsidize the farmers for growing corn.
The doctor said the corn syrup is so thick that it impacts our arteries. Since our pancreas cannot assimilate it, it causes diabetes. He says NutraSweet is not good for us either and neither is Splenda. I intend to ask this nutritionist tomorrow about that and see what she says.
Americans are being poisoned by a common additive present in a wide array of processed foods like soft drinks and salad dressings, commercially made cakes and cookies, and breakfast cereals and brand-name breads.
This commonplace additive silently increases our risk of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and atherosclerosis.
High-fructose corn syrup is so ubiquitous in processed foods and so over-consumed by the average American that many experts believe our nation faces the prospect of an epidemic of metabolic disease in the future, related in significant degree to excess consumption of high-fructose corn syrup.
The food industry has long known that “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down in the most delightful way.” And cane sugar had been America’s most delightful sweetener of choice, that is, until the 1970s, when the much less expensive corn-derived sweeteners like maltodextrin and high-fructose corn syrup were developed. While regular table sugar (sucrose) is 50% fructose and 50% glucose, high-fructose corn syrup can contain up to 80% fructose and 20% glucose, almost twice the fructose of common table sugar. Both table sugar and high-fructose sweetener contain four calories per gram, so calories alone are not the key problem with high-fructose corn syrup. Rather, metabolism of excess amounts of fructose is the major concern.
Read more about this toxic material here:
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2008/dec2008_Metabolic-Dangers-of-High-Fructose-Corn-Syrup_01.htm
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Quiet Tuesday
Today should be another quiet day...good, I need a few. I will go to my sister's in about 45 minutes to stay with her while my brother-in-law goes to have breakfast with his friends.
Other then that, I don't have a plan today. I may make cookies.
I am also working on a new book I bought last week called "Game Change..Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palen, and the Race of a Lifetime". I am almost halfway through it and it has many revelations about the election and the events leading up to it. It's by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, a couple of reporters who followed the race closely. Verrry interesting!
We watched PBS last night and The American Experience, my favorite program, was on the 1918 flu epidemic. That was particularly interesting to me because my grandmother's little sister died of flu in 1918. She was two years old.
Tonight another of my favorite PBS programs is on. It's Frontline. I have forgotten the topic but it's usually very informative. We seldom watch anything but PBS. TV is absolutely worthless anymore. It has horrible programming and is filled with commercials for various medicines. Before I retired from the advertising field, it was not allowed to advertise prescription medicine. Another regulation gone by the wayside. They have also increased the amount of allowable commercials so much that it seems half the program is commercial.
I saw on PBS news last night that the Israelis have done the best job of responding to the Haitian earthquake crisis. They came the next day and set up portable hospitals with specialists and began treating folks without waiting for directions from the Haitian government which is still trying to decide what to do.
Other then that, I don't have a plan today. I may make cookies.
I am also working on a new book I bought last week called "Game Change..Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palen, and the Race of a Lifetime". I am almost halfway through it and it has many revelations about the election and the events leading up to it. It's by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, a couple of reporters who followed the race closely. Verrry interesting!
We watched PBS last night and The American Experience, my favorite program, was on the 1918 flu epidemic. That was particularly interesting to me because my grandmother's little sister died of flu in 1918. She was two years old.
Tonight another of my favorite PBS programs is on. It's Frontline. I have forgotten the topic but it's usually very informative. We seldom watch anything but PBS. TV is absolutely worthless anymore. It has horrible programming and is filled with commercials for various medicines. Before I retired from the advertising field, it was not allowed to advertise prescription medicine. Another regulation gone by the wayside. They have also increased the amount of allowable commercials so much that it seems half the program is commercial.
I saw on PBS news last night that the Israelis have done the best job of responding to the Haitian earthquake crisis. They came the next day and set up portable hospitals with specialists and began treating folks without waiting for directions from the Haitian government which is still trying to decide what to do.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Martin Luther King Day Celebration
Today at 10:30, we will go up to the Methodist Church and prepare for the Martin Luther King Day celebration to be held there. I am not involved (miracle of miracles) but Bob is through his PINCH association. So he is fixing dip and chips and the others on his committee are fixing chili and soup for a lunch after the service.
On another subject, our World Church church president spoke to the church yesterday and said we would begin accepting other church's baptisms and just confirm them members of our church. So they will be allowed to just transfer their membership to our church.
On one more subject, there doesn't seem to be any improvement in Bob's hand and arm. He's only been taking the new medication since Thursday but I would have thought we would have seen some change in the infection. He goes back to the doctor in two weeks from last Thursday. I don't know what the next step will be.
At "Living the Questions" last night, all 14 of our friends there laid hands on him for God's blessing and healing. That was good of them and he really appreciated it.
On another subject, our World Church church president spoke to the church yesterday and said we would begin accepting other church's baptisms and just confirm them members of our church. So they will be allowed to just transfer their membership to our church.
On one more subject, there doesn't seem to be any improvement in Bob's hand and arm. He's only been taking the new medication since Thursday but I would have thought we would have seen some change in the infection. He goes back to the doctor in two weeks from last Thursday. I don't know what the next step will be.
At "Living the Questions" last night, all 14 of our friends there laid hands on him for God's blessing and healing. That was good of them and he really appreciated it.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Busy Sunday
I preside today at church and Leslie speaks. The theme today is "God Has Called and Gifted Each One". That should be an easy theme to address because I do believe God calls each of us to some task...perhaps more than one task.
Then this afternoon at 3:00 we will watch the webcast of the president of our church as he delivers a pre-Conference message. The Conference is in April so this gives us awhile to contemplate what he is interested in having us do in preparation.
This afternoon I will also do my letters to the members of the congregation that do not attend today. I try to keep them informed of what is going on in the congregation.
This evening we have "Living the Questions" group at Wanzer's home. We will watch "The Power of Myth" and discuss what we have watched. It should be interesting. Wanzer's have moved into their second house in order for Keith to completely redo the house they really live in. Their second house is actually for sale.
As far as Bob's arm and hand are concerned, so far there is not much difference. It may be too soon as he has only been taking the new med since Thursday. We were hoping to see a vast improvement. Not yet anyhow.
Then this afternoon at 3:00 we will watch the webcast of the president of our church as he delivers a pre-Conference message. The Conference is in April so this gives us awhile to contemplate what he is interested in having us do in preparation.
This afternoon I will also do my letters to the members of the congregation that do not attend today. I try to keep them informed of what is going on in the congregation.
This evening we have "Living the Questions" group at Wanzer's home. We will watch "The Power of Myth" and discuss what we have watched. It should be interesting. Wanzer's have moved into their second house in order for Keith to completely redo the house they really live in. Their second house is actually for sale.
As far as Bob's arm and hand are concerned, so far there is not much difference. It may be too soon as he has only been taking the new med since Thursday. We were hoping to see a vast improvement. Not yet anyhow.
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