I Have No Hooray For HIPA!

I am eternally grateful the young Doctor I'm going to for pain has a good sense of humor. Through this five year process of trying to find the cause of and eventually cure the pain in my hip and buttocks has found me with a very short fuse.

Three more shots yesterday in specific spots marked by pen where it really hurts when pressed. That was more uncomfortable then the shots themselves! However the shots weren't a picnic either.

I told the Doctor I was very tired of being a pin cushion. This is a total of seven; the first four had no effect what-so-ever. Let's see. A brief recap. GP puts me on an Ibuprofen regime. Nothing. Physical therapy. Nothing. Acupuncture. Medicare doesn't pay, but basically nothing. Muscle relaxants. Nothing. Back to Physical therapy morphing to heavy duty massage therapy. Nothing.

I ask about a pain specialist and was told they don't treat cases like me. Live with it. As a consolation and at the urging of the PT I went to an orthopedic surgeon. Hadn't seen anything like it before and there was nothing to do surgery on so pop some pain pills and if I wanted try, a different PT. I did.

PT sent me to chiropractic who sent me for more message therapy of a different sort. Nothing. A back specialist. The first two shots. Nothing.

I changed GPs. "You need a pain specialist after all this." I'd have kissed him if his wife hadn't been in the room! All this has taken five years! Now we're trying to find where exactly the pain is coming from by process of elimination. Then treat it.

Here's part of the problem. HIPA! Because of that confounded privacy act doctors who you've been referred to have to have a release from you to share it with your GP. If you're then sent to another specialist the GP can't forward the records from the previous specialist. You have to request it. They expect seniors to be aware of all this what's more remember, over five years, who did what, when and where? Isn't it in the records? In a word, no.

Fortunately, I've learned to have test results, be it lab work, MRIs or x-rays sent to me. I had a copy of the MRI of my hip and when I realized my doctor hadn't access to it, gave it to him. "It says right here where the inflammation is," says he. We had a rather terse conversation about why the attending specialist didn't suggest it was out of his area but was in someone elses!

"This is where I tried to start five years ago!" Okay, this has gotten long enough. You certainly get the gist of it. I'm just tired. Tired from the onslaught of different medications they keep trying; very tired of hurting.

So yesterday's shots? I know enough to not even be cautiously optimistic. However, as I rose from bed very tentively this morning I felt different. I felt like someone had whacked that hip with a hammer, but it was a different sort of discomfort. When the lidocaine completely wears off who knows. Been there before.

I do know that Hub and I walked with more vigor this morning. I did my stretches and treadmill without the usual discomfort. And could rejoice that at least one of the Killdeer hatchlings made it through yesterday's horrific wind storm because it was out with it's parents when we returned from our walk. Hopefully there are more. I checked and there is an unhatched egg so who knows. Miracles can happen so I'm told.

Perhaps one day it will be my turn.

Mother's Day A Week Early

With spring forcing itself out of oblivion, I am energized when I can get out in the yard. One of the rites of spring I most enjoy is watching the Killdeer go through their mating ritual and hatch their first batch of eggs.

When they protect their nest they can be ferocious! They stare you straight in the eye, screaming their heads off, and seem 20,000 feet tall. Such happened to me this afternoon. I immediately stopped the tractor to search for the nest. They are tremendously well camoflaged and difficult to find but I was lucky. Those hatchlings couldn't be more than a few hours old.

It's enough to make you forget, for one brief shining moment, all the ugliness in the world!

When The Media Gets It Wrong

If I were a Tea Party member and saw these guys coming down the street toward me, I too would be a tad bit unnerved. The headlines, shortly after, blared that Obama and the secret service called out the swat team to keep the Partiers under control.

Nothing could be further from the truth though I must say the riot gear is a bit of over kill. The secret service did indeed ask for police, not the SWAT team, to clear the roadway for the Pressident's motorcade. No one was there to threaten the Tea Partiers into submission.

The same type of hyperbole is accompanying the new Arizona law to weed out illegals. It's just like the Gestapo they scream. What is more like the Gestapo than asking for ones "papers"? Please. When you go to Europe you are advised to keep your passport with you at all times and it is perfectly legal to be asked to produce it. Me. A white, anglo saxon atheist! What should I make of that?

Then there is the cry that the law is unconstitutional. I've heard it over and over! Pundits, letters to the editor, you'd think the sky was falling. I have yet, however, to hear just exactly what in the law is unconstitutional! Spelled out by those who claim it as an absolute truth!

All this over reaction is exhausting. When listening to the talking heads, and our august Senators, talk about finance reform, it's easy to see how many people don't understand how the system works. Just listen to the questions coming from the Senators if you can get past the profanity!

People are confused, anxious or down right angry because the media isn't doing it's job. The papers are disappearing. NBC news is a joke. Ann Curry visiting a submarine is not news!

It seems to matter little, however. More don't care than do. I'm willing to wager people spend more time on Facebook and Twitter then they do following the news. That, my friends, is for the birds. Tweet!

Is It Only A Matter Of Time?

The grumbling has been going on for some time now though you only hear it if you're listening closely. There has yet to be an all out rebellion. The press is not happy with Obama!

Wow. Who would know? Unless you listen to FOX on a regular basis it seems the love affair is still hot. Especially on MSNBC. But no, it seems the White House press corp is getting frustrated with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs giving them the run around. They're getting frustrated with the President's tone the few times he deems it absolutely necessary to speak with them. He sounds like what he is. A parent taking his kids to task. As an adult I'd resent that tone too!

It has always fascinated me. The strained relationship between the press and the administration. Any administration. This one is, however, taking it to new heights.

Though it seems they sometimes forget their job, the press is supposed to ask the tough questions to keep we folks informed. Too often softball questions are asked in order not to offend. That's no way to inform the public and it gives the administration ample opportunity to stick with their talking points. What would happen if the designated speakers were no longer available for the week end talk fests because they didn't like what they were asked? I know what I'd do. I'd make it perfectly clear who declined and make a huge point of the reason why.

Even stranger is the timing of this animosity. Mid-term elections are on the horizon. Immediately after them the campaign for 2012 will begin. Why would the administration be alienating the press?

I can see no good coming from it other than the entire roster of talking heads on MSNBC might find themselves without jobs. Even if they stay faithful, their ratings are so low they'll not be able to win the election for Obama on their own.

It's just curious. The press made Obama President. They fell all over themselves building his image into something the man isn't. Some gratitude. Dismissing them.

One wonders who they'll choose next to elevate upon their pedestal of unlikely credentials, accomplishments and expectations. If this rift isn't soon mended it's a wide open field. Fickle bunch, that pesky press corp!

They Will Always Slip Through

You have your ticket. You arrive at the airport. You pay what you need to for your luggage to get lost. Security comes next. All your body parts are where they're supposed to be and there is nothing untoward to set off sirens. So far so good. You get to board. As long as you don't have to use the lavatory for a half hour you figure you're good to go.

Oops. Not so fast. It would seem a nut case got through after all! According to the AP, just that happened on a Delta flight going from Atlanta to Paris earlier today.

An American passenger, after having boarded and the plane in the air, claimed to have a fake passport and explosives in his luggage. What? Explosives in his luggage after all the screening? Security couldn't tell a fake passport? Oh well, you didn't want to get to Paris in a timely manner anyway.

The plane was diverted to Maine and the TSA and other officials took over. Last heard there is doubt the passport is fake. There will probably be no explosives found in man's luggage either!

This just goes to show that no matter how stringent they make security measures, how invasive they may be to our person and luggage, they can do nothing about what may be in someone's head!

So we're being subjected to all of this why? To keep us safe, to dissuade those who would do us harm? Whether or not this particular person proves to be a real threat or not, you can be sure someone, somewhere will be and there's not a darn thing that can be done to stop it.