干姐的乳汁_最强赘婿

Spending to Death

As I was doing some looking around about medical insurance vs. hospital expenses, I found this interesting article on end of life medical spending. Did you know that Medicare pays out 30% of annual benefits on the 5% of covered people experiencing medical issues during the last few months of their life?

“Very few people, when told of a potential life-saving intervention, will not be willing to listen. So the question is now not whether it will help or not, but who pays?” says Dr. A. Mark Fendrick, at the University of Michigan.

I thought about this a lot a few years ago when my mother-in-law’s husband lay dying in the hospital after a head-on collision. He was taking Plavix (a blood thinner), so any internal bleeding was generally not good. Even with this problem and the fact that he was in a coma and, in his case, likely suffering from brain damage, my mother-in-law had a feeding tube installed. Three days later, he died.

I think with someone you love, you’d be inclined to do everything you could to sustain life, in the absense of a DNR order.

But what if it was you making your own decisions? Would I spend $18,000 a treatment for an experimental drug that my insurance didn’t cover? No. I might ask the drug company for help, if I really believed it might help for a few months or years. But there’s no way I would take $18k out of my family’s hands to possibly sustain my life… I mean… what would they live on after I passed away.

I know it sounds mean, but I feel that if it came to sustaining my life at the great expense of others, I would say “no”. Of course, no one knows for sure till they get there, how desperate they’ll be in that circumstance. But my own mind, rationally thinking, would definitely refuse.

Also, I wonder about quality of life. What would be more energy depleting or depressing… treating, or allowing nature to take it’s course?

As for being in a coma where someone even considers life support/feeding tube… how likely is it that I would be me, if I ever came out of a coma? Doesn’t look good? Don’t put the feeding tube in.

Sorry to be so depressing, but it makes you think, doesn’t it?

Cancergiggles

Cass of Cancergiggles passed away on January 6th of this year. Cass wrote about his 5 year ordeal with colon cancer, which spread to his lungs and other organs. Cass was a brave man who didn’t feel sorry for himself, when he had every right to be. He leaves behind a wife and daughter.

I believe his writing will inspire or help others dealing with cancer or taking care of someone with cancer.

I’ve pulled this important message from Cass’ blog, which seems to sum up the way he looked at getting through this illness, and life:

You get just one crack at this. You can’t die happy if what you leave is a world of shit and grief. If at some stage in the future my name comes up and it elicits a wry smile from someone that’s good. If it makes somebody laugh, you’ll hear me jumping on the clouds.

Joint Replacement. It’s Not As Easy As it Sounds

Today, a physical therapist who saw my husband said, “I don’t understand people who say, after knee replacement surgery, that it hurts so bad. They should know what to expect. They got themselves into this. ” Meaning, of course, that knee replacement really is elective… especially if you don’t mind riding in a cart instead of walking for the rest of your life.

So I explained to her that you can say, “This is really going to hurt for awhile” as much as you want, but some things you never know till you experience them. You can imagine a gun shot wound hurts, but you don’t know the pain until it happens. And getting the artificial joints to work like original joints (or close to it) takes some work.

Her response was that they should explain it better in pre-op.

I thought… yeah, this would be a bad time to tell someone surgery is going to hurt. Good thing this woman is not a nurse.

As painful as knee replacement seems to be, things do get better. Even though it may not be obvious for at least a month, that walker does go away.

The Man in the Walker Learns a New Trick

I dropped my husband off at physical therapy yesterday morning. If you haven’t been around for awhile, let me just say that he had a double knee replacement on 野结衣+影音先锋 12. He is 47 years old. Football is responsible. Football is not worth this sort of thing. Trust me. Several times, I felt like sending the hospital bill to his parents. 🙂

Anyway, while my daughter and I went to finally exchange Christmas gifts, he was learning a new trick. The trick is to stand up with the walker, steady himself, then start walking. Within a few steps, he picked the walker off the floor and walked with his LEGS!

This may not sound so surprising if you weren’t in this from the get-go…. the pain of surgery, the disheartenment when walking even with a walker was tough, the prompt taking of major pain pills every 4 hours, and the question, “What have I done?”

Well, it’s all working out. Yesterday, we even sat in the lower-level living room, where we haven’t been for over a month and rented a movie on the digital cable, whilst watching the big screen tv (graciously donated by my brother last year).

Yay!

Your Purse, It Has Germs

I received a note from the Safety Committee at work about purses… Who would have thought purses would carry around germs, along with all your belongings? I bet this would apply to guys carrying around backpacks, too.

Read on…

THINK TWICE ABOUT WHERE YOU PUT YOUR PURSE!

Have you ever noticed gals who sit their purses on public restroom floors – that go directly to their dining tables? Happens a lot! It’s not always the ‘restaurant food’ that causes stomach distress. Sometimes “what you don’t know ‘will’ hurt you”! Read on.

Mom got so upset when a guest came in the door and plopped their purses down on the counter where she was cooking or setting up the buffet. She always said that purses are really dirty, because of where they have been. Smart Momma!!! It’s something just about every woman carries with them. Shauna Lake put purses to the test – for bacteria – with surprising results. You may think twice about where you put your purse. Women carry purses everywhere; from the office to public restrooms to the floor of the car. Most women won’t be caught without their purses, but did you ever stop to think about where your purse goes during the day?

“I drive a school bus, so my purse has been on the floor of the bus a lot,” says one woman. “On the floor of my car, probably in restrooms.” “I put my purse in grocery shopping carts, on the floor of bathroom stalls while changing a diaper,” says another woman and of course in my home which should be clean.”

We decided to find out if purses harbor a lot of bacteria. We learned how to test them at Nelson Laboratories in Salt Lake, then we set out to test the average woman’s purse. Most women told us they didn’t stop to think about what was on the bottom of their purse. Most said they usually set their purses on top of kitchen tables and counters where food is prepared. Most of the ladies we talked to told us they wouldn’t be surprised if their purses were at least a little bit dirty. It turns out purses are so surprisingly dirty, even the microbiologist who tested them was shocked. Microbiologist Amy Karren of Nelson Labs says nearly all of the purses tested were not only high in bacteria, but high in harmful kinds of bacteria.

In one sampling, four of five purses tested positive for salmonella, and that’s not the worst of it. “There is fecal contamination on the purses,” says Amy. Leather or vinyl purses tended to be cleaner than cloth purses, and lifestyle seemed to play a role. People with kids tended to have dirtier purses than those without, with one exception. The purse of one single woman who frequented nightclubs had one of the worst contaminations of all. “Some type of feces, or even possibly vomit or something like that.”

So the moral of this story – your purse won’t kill you, but it does has the potential to make you very sick if you keep it on places where you eat. Use hooks to hang your purse at home and in restrooms, and don’t put it on your desk, a restaurant table, or on your kitchen countertop.

Experts say you should think of your purse the same way you would a pair of shoes. “If you think about putting a pair of shoes onto your countertops, that’s the same thing you’re doing when you put your purse on the countertops” – your purse has gone where every individual before you has spat, coughed, urinated, emptied bowels, etc! Do you really want to bring that home with you?

The microbiologists at Nelson also said cleaning a purse will help. Wash cloth purses and use leather cleaner to clean the bottom of leather purses.

New Knees

Two new knees, in case you’re wondering, are upwards of $64,000. Thank goodness for insurance. Of course, you can’t put a price on good health or the ability to walk.

Day 3, New Knees

Today, my husband walked 60 feet with a walker, 4 times. He was pretty tired the first time, but after that, he seemed reasonably ok. A lot of his weight is resting on the walker still, but the physical therapists seem really pleased with his progress.

Tomorrow, he’s going to try a few stairs. Sounds like a serious fall risk to me, but I’m sure he’ll manage. Heck, he may even come home Friday or Saturday.

My husband’s nurse is the wife of one of my former coworkers. She’s super nice, as are all the nurses on the orthopedic floor.

Yesterday, my husband kept apologizing for wasting my vacation. I don’t call this a waste at all. I know he would do the same for me. I sit with him all day long, except for when I have to get our daughter from school. It’s not a big deal to me, although today I did successfully campaign for soap operas. Hey, I gave him my laptop to watch movies on.

It was a fair trade. 🙂

I bought this wonderful chair at Nebraska Furniture Mart yesterday, and picked it up today. I bought it specifically for rehab purposes at home. It’s got arms the right height and some cushion that the dining room chair we WERE going to use, didn’t have. Love the chair’s style. We normally go for the modern stuff, or the “this is what we have on hand” stuff, but this is a beautiful chair.

When stressed, one must shop. I think that is one of those rules of life, or something. 🙂

New Knees

It wasn’t as bad as I expected.

The doctor said that the knee my husband thought was the worse, actually wasn’t. The knee that felt the worse had actually been compensating for the one that WAS the worse. The worst one had practically no cartilage. According to Wikipedia, cartilage “is responsible for much of the compressive resistance and load bearing qualities of the knee joint and, without it, walking is painful to impossible.”

Last night, he was doped up, but very alert and talking. We left around 6pm to let him get some sleep. Drain tubes from both knees drained blood into a container at the end of the bed, then the blood was suctioned into bags and fed back into his body. One of the knees hurt quite a bit, but turns out it’s because he’s tall and his feet were hitting the edge of the bed, thereby putting pressure on the incision. Once he repositioned himself, things were a little better.

This morning, he said the drain tubes were taken out. He called to say that he sat up on the edge of the bed, then they were doping him up so he could sleep for awhile.

If I remember right, he’s supposed to get an automated machine on his knees today to start bending them. Maybe that’s the reason for upping the dopage. [sic]

Anyway, that is my “new knees update” for this morning.

Tooth Filling 101

I took the day off to take The Little Kid to the dentist. She was having a tooth filled. We got there at 8:40. She was done at 9.

When the nurse came to get me, I thought there was some sort of problem. Mass hysteria? But no. They were just done with the procedure already.

For about an hour, she wasn’t supposed to eat. After that, she felt fine, so I took her to school. It gave me a chance to do some Christmas shopping without having to fend off the pleas to get more stuff than I bargained for, if you know what I mean.

I spent 2 hours in Kohl’s trying to figure out what the heck to buy some people.

After awhile, I just say “screw it”, get what’s in the basket and get the heck out of the store. No need shopping till your head spins, right? 🙂

Severe Colds are not Fun

I’ve been dealing with a severe cold for about 3 days, plus, now. I’m thinking about buying stock in Hall’s Cough Drop division. I could certainly make money, just from my own purchases.

TLK and I are sharing this one, as usual, but kids don’t seem to be as miserable with colds as adults are. She is still giggling and playing, where I am taking naps at 1:30 in the afternoon.

Back to work today. Aren’t Mondays lovely? 🙂