Tag Archives: health

Walk-in

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I broke down and went to the walk-in. The UI symptoms are just driving me nuts. I have an appointment with a new doctor on Monday – Yes Monday with a brand new doctor, but my regular doctor couldn’t see me for more than a month.

The test was negative for the UI and positive for the pregnancy test. For some reason I didn’t really get excited about a positive pregnancy result from a walk-in clinic even though I’m sure it’s the same as from any other doctor. I have to go in again in the morning for another UI test.

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Parents magazine and baby names

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I had subscribed to Parents magazine a couple years ago. For some reason I am still getting issues and I don’t know why. After the first two or three, I stopped reading them and they merely made a trip from the mailbox to the recycle bin. That is just how impressed I am with their hard-hitting news and information regarding babies. I mean, in their article about Natural Fertility Boosters the first thing listed was acupuncture. I’m sorry, but that’s just preying on those desperate to conceive. You may as well tell me about the salad that can help me produce the male baby I so desire. This month (the December 2006 issue) I kept it only for the front page print that read, “home remedies doctors swear by” of course they never give you page numbers to the article titles that actually catch your attention and they don’t even give it the same name in the table of contents. It took me a while to figure out that the article I was looking for was on page 82, “Pediatricians’ Best Cold and Flu Remedies – What your doctor does when his child has a nasty cold, fever, or the flu.” I refrain from picking on the pronoun used for doctor, but I will obviously take note of it, so moving on. The first part covers cough and sore throat. It says, “Bring on the liquids” DUH! There were other little tips but nothing earth shattering – same for the nasal congestion section. The section about fever was ok – dispelling the myth of “sweat it out” being ok. I have noticed all sections insist the child should have plenty of fluids – I just cannot believe I paid for this. Really, the only thing I did not know was in the stomach flu section. It talked about the “BRAT” diet, which is apparently bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast for when they are ready for solid foods again.

Since I was reading this issue, I figured I would turn to page 128 to read, “185 cool baby names”, or as listed in the table of contents, “Name Game”. The story of one persons journey to the right baby name was just cheesy and all the little boxes and blurbs thorough out the pages with lists of names was not just retarded but horrifying! I am ok with their list of “Gender Benders” Aiden, Aubrey, Avery, Bailey, Brady, Cameron, Chase, Emery, Morgan, and Taylor. Although I do not think I would give my child any of these names, I would defiantly not name my boy Aubrey. They had another box with the “Surname Swap”. The boys names were ok except for Fisher – reminds me of Fisher Price – it’s a toy company not a child’s name! The girl’s list had two hits from me, Mackenzie, the name of the Budweiser mascot and Miller, another cheap beer reference. Nothing against beer, but both of those are shit beers!

Another list that got to me was, “Cross-Guessing these hip girls’ names used to belong to the boys” Devon, Dylan, Jordan, Tyler – These are ok but Blake is just to harsh a name for a little girl and Cullen? Sounds like Culling puppies to me. Brennan is ok, but Kirby? That’s a vacuum cleaner!

On the next page they list fruit for names. I’m never naming my girl Cherry and I shouldn’t have to explain why. Boys names are listed as, Hawthorn, Rowan, Fig, Huckleberry and Mulberry. Hawthorn is not bad. I will not choose it, but I can see it as a valid boy’s name. Fig is not a name it’s the type of leaf Adam wore to cover his genitals, but Huckleberry would be funny. Kurt’s friend from Wisconsin told us he wants to name his son Spartacus, so that when the teacher calls roll call the boy will stand up and say, “I am Spartacus”. With Huckleberry, I am thinking of the movie Tombstone with Val Kilmer playing Doc Holliday, “I’m your Huckleberry”.

Another retarded list of names was the “Put it in reverse” Heart = Traeh and Leader = Redael. One of their examples didn’t even follow suit – Wonder = Redwon? That ain’t backwards you imbeciles!

Now for the worst of the worst… In this article, they had the balls to suggest that names typically reserved for dogs are just too cute to remain canine only. These people need to be shot! I’m going to start with the “boys” names: Riley, Duke, Tiger, Buddy, Milo. If you are going to have a boy please read the following very closely… Your son will never get a job if his name is TIGER! And Buddy is a only a nickname – always has been always will be. Now for the “girls” names: Sierra, Shiloh, Sadie, Benji, and Lola. I can tolerate all those except Benji. Yes, the movie was great, touching and all that, but that was an ugly mongrel mutt DOG.

On the humorous side – A few months ago, the admin person at work asked me an odd question out of the blue, “Do women usually, you know, drop a load when giving birth?” Why she chose me to ask I don’t know, but I had heard of that in the past. I figured it was common enough and that’s what I told her, so when I read the bottom of page 152 I cracked up.

Poop on the delivery-room table. As unpleasant as it might sound, it’s not uncommon to defecate, pass gas, or urinate while giving birth. “This is a positive sign that the mother is pushing correctly,” says Dr. Miriam Greene. “She shouldn’t be embarrassed.” Easier said than done! But rest assured that your nurses and doctor have seen it all before. And don’t worry about what your husband thinks either.

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The Cat Traveling Northwest Airlines

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The very first time Kurt and I took the cat with us to Michigan for Christmas we asked the type and dimensions of acceptable cat carriers and if there were ANY other things with needed to do or bring in order to fly with the cat. Nope. We flew there and back without incident (none dealing with the cat anyway). It was our second or maybe third trip out to Michigan with the cat that nearly caused me to go to jail. We had flown to Michigan without incident, even while switching planes. The way back home was quite a different story all together.

We arrived at the airport, got our tickets, waited to board, gave my ticket to the boarding person, and I had walked halfway down the gangway when the ticket person stopped me. “Do you have a health certificate for the cat?”

“A what?”

“A health certificate – You need one to get on the plane with the cat.” I still didn’t understand what he meant. I had never heard of such a thing. I showed him on the ticket where it specified cat in cabin. “No” he said, “You need a health certificate from your vet for the cat to fly.”

“But I’m on my way home! – I got the cat here without one.”

“Well Seattle must have dropped the ball, because it’s required on all flights.”

“I’ve flown several times with the cat and have never heard of this.” At this time he’s lead in me back out of the plane and Kurt who was held up behind me was on his was to the plane.

Kurt saw me heading the opposite direction and turned, “What’s going on?”

“They won’t let the cat on.” Kurt and I were upset. We had a long vacation and were ready to just go home. They informed us that we had been informed of the rules regarding pets. I love it when people who weren’t there tell me what was told to us. I asked them why on earth I would have taken my cat to the vet a month before the flight and not obtained a health certificate at the time if I knew about it. Police were summoned as we were quite visibly irritated, and the attendants started to try and come up with a solution. Our flight had left but there was hope that we may catch the next one. We used our out of area cell phone to get my vet’s number and then call the vet, so that we could have a health certificate faxed to the airport. The vet sent the cat’s shot record but no health certificate. This wasn’t accepted. We had to call again. The vet informed us that it had just been over thirty days since the last visit and therefore she couldn’t issue a health certificate. Kurt and I were enraged that they wouldn’t just accept the record of shots, and we began cursing.

The cops at this point became a little more interactive. I was doing the bulk of the cursing, but they warned KURT to stop, hence Kurt’s favorite phrase from Officer spunky in-your-face midget, “You do realize that you’re in the Dane County Airport?”

“What the Fuck does that have to do with anything! – What are you going to do Arrest ME!?” I yelled for the entire terminal to hear.

“Yes” Officer spunky midget said.

“Fine, GO AHEAD!” I had nothing to loose, I was unemployed at the time. It would be fun to ague about freedom of speech with him.

We finally had to call our friends to come pick us up and then find a vet in the area. Even the vet couldn’t believe that we were only there for a health certificate. I took Bailey out of the carrier and she didn’t even touch him. She just filled out the form and handed it to me to sign, and I had to pay her for this.

I wrote a letter to the airline and had a battle for a while about it and all they gave us was a $200 voucher that would expire after one year. Kurt and I haven’t flown Northwest since.

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Smoking, it’s not a crime…just don’t do it

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My dad is a smoker to this day and of course smoked around me when I was a kid. The worst is when we went on long car rides in Alaska in the winter, which was every weekend. No it wasn’t my choice. I hated it, and it did have an affect on me. When I joined the military I had to do a respirator test to paint the planes and part of the test is one on lung capacity. My lung capacity was at 80% of what a female my size/weight should have been. The doctor actually said, “Are you sure you don’t smoke?” But that’s part of life. Parents make a lot of decisions that affect their kids like whether or not to spank and how late they can stay out. People that tell their kids that they’re stupid or that they can’t do certain things with their lives – psychological affects, there is no way to police them.

As of midnight last night Washington State’s latest and biggest set of laws to protect people from themselves went into effect. I admit as a non-smoker it’s would be nice to go to a bar and not have to shower afterwards, but I don’t go that often. It’s not just because of the smoke it’s because I don’t drink much and I’ve never used bars as a place to meet people.

Around here bars are really the last public places for smokers, so really the only time I run into smoky air is when I pass by a group of smokers loitering outside a restaurant. And now they will have to stand 25 feet from any entrance, window or other ventilation, which in downtown Seattle would mean they just can’t smoke – unless they keep walking back and forth in font of the entrance.

Proponents of this say that it’s to save the workers from being exposed, and I understand that second-hand smoke affects people not choosing to participate, but for the most part its children of smokers. How on earth do you police that without just making smoking a crime? In California they tried to pass a law that would allow the police to pull people over who are smoking with a child in the car. It’s just insanity to me because the law doesn’t extend to the home – and how is it supposed to help anything by making parents criminals?

Workers choose where they will work and patrons choose to go to bars and other smoking establishments. The whole single mom, no jobs around stuff is just crap. As if retail jobs or other areas of customer service in non-smoking places just don’t exist, besides at the end of the day she’ll walk outside and take a deep breath of fresh car exhaust air, get into her new SUV with the new formaldehyde car smell, go home to sit on her formaldehyde treated furniture, and dig her feet into her plush formaldehyde treated carpet. Don’t get me started on what she might be using to “freshen” the air or clean her own house on a regular basis. And you can’t tell me that it’s healthy to be inhaling all the kitchen grease from the truck stop diner. It doesn’t cause cancer (that we know of) and it doesn’t raise her cholesterol just by breathing it, but I’m sure it still coats the lungs. And who ever said none of these single moms that we’re trying to save don’t smoke?

This should be a decision for the business not the government. If it’s a smoking place it’ll be up to the non-smoker if they wish be exposed to it. It’s the property of the business owner and people aren’t required to go. It’s not like we’re debating on whether or not smokers can light up in the operating room of a hospital. And Non-smokers have had the whole airplane to themselves for about 20 years now. It’s great, but do we now have to walk into bars and tell them that their infringing on our right to clean air? It’s ridiculous; just go somewhere else if you’re really that sensitive! – taking years off your life, you stupid twit, so are car fumes, perfumes and colognes (neurotoxins, carcinogens and air pollutants).

I just don’t like extra laws that redirect police attention. Telling adults that they can’t smoke in public buildings might stop some people from smoking, which is the desired result of all this smoke policing, but people are still going to smoke, and non-smokers will still catch a whiff of it from time to time. Really this is just another thing that police will use, like speeding tickets, to randomly exercise their authority over other people when they’re having a bad day. If they banned smoking altogether I wouldn’t care at all except that it would add to the “war on drugs” which is useless (except for adding so many people into the prison system that murderers and rapists are released for lack of room), but they’re pretending that these laws aren’t ultimately leading to that.

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Stupid Doctors

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I went for a follow up appointment on my blood tests. They’re all normal. One was for my thyroid, one for anemia, and two covered other stuff regarding pregnancy. I had finally told a doctor about my fears of not being able to conceive, but because all four of those tests came out fine he decided in his tiny little mind that I’m just a hypochondriac. On my first visit I handed him a sheet listing all the symptoms of hypothyroid that I’m experiencing, and he humored me with blood tests, but when the test came out normal he just focused on one of the symptoms…DEPRESSION.

I told him on the first visit that the depression was not actual clinical depression like I’ve had in the past. It was more of a, I’m sick and therefore frustrated and depressed because I don’t have the energy to do anything. It’s not, my life sucks and I might as well not get out of bed because there is nothing I feel like doing anyway. His answer was simply to offer me antidepressants and suggest that the rest of my symptoms were due to stress. “Perhaps it’s the stress of trying to have a baby.” My head nearly exploded. Maybe it is stress, but I had already told him once that I’ve had these symptoms longer than six months, which is how long we’ve been trying to concieve. Not that I wanted to hide it but I’m sure my famous, “you’re a fucking idiot” sneer was showing. I really don’t have patients for stupidity. He has assumed that all these symptoms appeared AFTER I started trying to conceive and that’s just not the case. I even told him that at least one of the symptoms has been on going for TWO years and others for about nine months.

I’m not stressed about having a baby. I feel that I have a legitimate concern about not being able to conceive. When I was 22 I finally became pregnant after three years of not doing anything to prevent it and it ended in miscarriage. This retarded doctor didn’t ask any questions about it. He merely said that infertility usually isn’t suspected until we’ve been trying for a year and it’s only been six months, then he proceeded to tell me how to use the basil temperature method. He completely ignored my other attempt at pregnancy. I’m not at all impressed.

Ten years of education is completely useless if you don’t have the capacity to process information and reach alternative methods of solving a given problem without ignoring the key aspects.

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Motherhood as I currently know it

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I was soooo tired this morning that I set the alarm so that I could sleep a little more after Kurt left, but before the alarm goes off I hear Aaack hhck aack blah… Bailey had puked up clumpy bright brown food on both blankets and the sheets, and nearly fell off the bed trying to back away from the puke in his cone. For those that don’t know Bailey had to have surgery to remove a kidney stone and is now a funnel headed kitty. I had opted for the surgery after he had twice peed outside the litter box, which Petie later marked as his territory and subsequently resulted in my banishing the dogs outside forever. $1,200 later and I don’t even get to keep the stone as it has to be sent to Minnesota to be analyzed. Apparently in Minnesota they don’t have the capability to mail things back out. Who says I don’t know what it’s like to have kids!

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Dying with dignity

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I think everyone should be able to choose when they die using a method that is the least painful including people that aren’t physically able to do it themselves. I really don’t see a big difference between being allowed to forgo certain treatments that would extend your life and allowing a doctor to deliver a lethal dose.

But for those that support this why refer to it as dieing with dignity? What wrong with calling it assisted suicide? That’s what it is! If people could really die with dignity then I’m all for it, but really how much dignity can there be when no matter what, you’re going to crap your pants?

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Smoking is still legal – really I promise

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A California bill has been proposed by Marco Firebaugh to prohibit smoking in a car with passengers under 18. I’m a non-smoker and hate the smell as much as the next non-smoker. I grew up with a father that smoked like a chimney. I hated the smell in the car and couldn’t get fresh air in the house. When I was twelve we were living in Juneau AK, where at times there were fire bans because cloud cover would trap the smoke, so even outside I couldn’t get fresh air. Durring that time there were two occasions when I woke up and felt like I couldn’t breathe in at all.

After graduating high school I joined the military. I was sent to in to get a fit test for a respirator to wear for my corrosion job. As part of the physical I had to blow into a tube as hard as possible to measure lung capacity. The doctor asked me, “Are you sure you’re not a smoker?” My lungs were at 80% of what they should have been, and I still think this is a stupid law. If this bill passes it’ll just be another form of random tax collection, like speeding tickets, seatbelt, car seat laws.

All we need are parents fighting a nic-fit with three screaming in the back adding to the pressure while they navigate through gridlock. This is bound to bring down the road rage!

Seriously though Smokers don’t just smoke in the car with their kids. They smoke at home too. What about all the other noxious fumes in the world like car exhaust and the “new car smell”, which by the way is created using formaldehyde.

Over the years it’s just slowly gotten stricter and stricter. First in the mid eighties airplanes became smoke free. Then there were designated areas at work places, now it’s banned in restaurants. Bars are starting to get pinched too. Bars!! Of all places – the place you go to get drunk off your ass. Why not just make smoking illegal, you know, like the other drugs? The war on drugs has worked so well for the rest of them. (Did you notice the sarcasm?)

Where kids are concern I think we should just stick to the basics: physical abuse, molestation, rape, and murder – things that are done intentionally to harm. What is the obsession with making everything safe for people we don’t even give a shit about? There are so many things that can kill us. We can’t control it all! We should have an agency that collects data, offers the information so people are aware of the risks, and the rest should be buyer beware!

Proposed bill would prohibit smoking in car with child passengers
By Alexa H. Bluth — Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 4:53 pm PDT Monday, April 26, 2004
California lawmakers are considering a bill that would make California the first state in the nation to prohibit smokers from lighting up in a private car when children are present.
The proposal by Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh, D-South Gate, has drawn the ire of Republican lawmakers who say it goes too far in attempting to police personal behavior.
Supporters, however, call it a crucial stride toward protecting the state’s children from the damaging effects of second-hand smoke.
“It just seemed to me that it was one effective, intelligent way to reduce the risk to kids,” said Firebaugh, who said that asthma is common among children in his home district in southeast Los Angeles.
Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy, R-Monrovia, called the measure “big brother government.”
“Government is going to raise our kids for us because parents don’t know what’s best? That’s a very scary thought,” Mountjoy said.
The measure would allow officers to ticket drivers found smoking a pipe, cigar or cigarette in a car with children 18 or under present.
For more details, see Tuesday’s Bee.

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