Another three plus day hospital stay
I finally gave in this past Wednesday. I'd been suffering from an increasing shortness of breath, but only when walking, for about 11 days. By the time it was Wednesday evening and I was going back to my car after a frustrating session of trivia, all I did was cross a street and even after I sat down behind the wheel, I was gasping for air. So I drove myself to the ER at the VA. I expected they'd tell me the fluid around my heart had increased.
I was very surprised to find out my heart hadn't changed at all since my last test on it, and what I had was fluid in my lungs, caused by a case of pneumonia. By four a.m. on Thursday I was in a room, hooked up to a monitor and being pumped full of furosemide. That's the generic name for lasix, a medication that will make you spend a lot of time at a urinal.
As a result of lots of lasix, a controlled fluid intake and the hospitals low-sodium, low-fat and yet still delicious diet, when I finally left after roughly 64.5 hours at the VA, I was 13 pounds lighter. Most of that is water and some will undoubtedly come back. But if I follow the low-fat, low-sodium diet (difficult but doable), up my intake of fresh fruits and keep to a reasonable fluid limit per day, I think I can keep off almost all of what I've lost over the next couple of days, and then get back on the weight-loss track. One of the problems I've been having is easily fixed, that being too much sodium. So no more V-8 juice for me, in spite of how much I adore it. Maybe one 11 ounce bottle per week, or maybe bi-weekly. I'd been trying and failing to limit myself to three or four a week. No more. I was very, very tempted to get some on the way home, but I stuck to my resolve and walked right past it in the display case. Maybe I should keep a small bottle in the refrigerator and smell it, since much of taste is smell. Naw, it would go bad too quickly once opened.
I loathe spending the night in a hospital. I am very pleased with the care provided by the VA, really like the doctors, nurses and others who work there. But given my history with hospitals, the idea of spending even one night is one is just repulsive.
One reason I'm home is that I was very lucky yesterday. I thought I'd seen the cardiologist who is following my care in the cardio clinic on the floor where I was, so when it appeared he was there late Friday morning, I stood in the doorway of my room for a few minutes. Sure enough it was him and when he spotted me, he came into my room and examined me for himself. We talked for a few and agreed I'd be seeing him again in July.
Well, I saw him later that afternoon. I'd been scheduled for another echocardiogram in late June, but he pulled strings and got me one on Friday. Not only that, he was there himself to monitor it and evaluate the results. He wrote notes to the doctors treating me up on the 5th floor and speeded up the process of getting me home. We joked that since I'm seeing another cardiologist for a follow-up in June, if I liked that doctor better, he wouldn't be hurt if I switched. To coin an expression from the 1980s, "as if". He's going to be my doctor as long as he's working at the VA. You keep the good ones.
I missed blogging. I missed my TV and its much better selection of cable. I missed having breakfast with my usual tablemate. I had access to Facebook, but avoided Twitter because it just doesn't work well on my older iPhone. But now I'm home and can sit at the laptop while watching (sorta) television. As I write this, "Wolverine" had just killed "Jean Grey" to save her from herself (and of course to save everyone else). Since I am at home, that means I can enjoy an episode of "TOS" (Star Trek - The Original Series for the uninitiated) at 9 p.m. I will probably fall asleep early since I did not sleep well in the hospital.
* * * * *
Once again the death of a young child apparently at the hands of family members has brought unwanted attention to the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services. DCFS wants no spotlights, no scrutiny and to be allowed to continue operations in relative darkness because they are failing.
Those who run that den of incompetence claim they are understaffed and they certainly are. That doesn't explain anything. Even if they were fully funded and fully staffed, the civil service protection afforded their employees means that people not doing their job don't get removed promptly, if at all. There are many who work at DFCS, work hard to do their jobs with case loads that are too large for them to manage, and they are unable to pick up the slack left by their colleagues who are basically "RWWFC" (Retired While Working For County).
Unions are part of the problem. The retirement benefits and other concessions they've used their campaign dollars to wrangle from government is something I've ranted about before. There's just no money for additional staffing. But if they would make changes for incoming employees, eventually they could turn that part of the problem around.
The major part of the problem is accountability. Until they manage to allow a kid to be killed, they operate with little oversight from anyone outside their agency. That needs to change.
* * * * *
I've actually stayed at the New York Hilton Midtown Manhattan. I was there for a conference, back in 1997 I think. I found it to be very nice. Now it's going to be less so, if you prefer room service (which I do on occasion). Come August their room service will be replaced by an ala carte cafeteria. Sounds like fun, craving a snack at midnight and having to get dressed and go downstairs for whatever leftovers are available. It will also put 55 people out of work.
It's a trend. Hotels really can't make money on room service; even with the inflated prices, the labor costs are just too much to make it anything but a loss leader. Sign of the times I guess.
* * * * *
http://screen.yahoo.com/dog-walks-horse-161052903.html
No other words are required to accompany this video.
* * * * *
Life imitating art again, this time in the state of Virginia. I'm sorry, they're a commonwealth, aren't they? I watched an episode of "Batman" recently where Penguin ran to become Mayor of Gotham City. He was allowed to run because a little known section of the city's code allows convicted criminals to run for public office. In our real system, felons are stripped of their voting rights as well as the right to run for a number of offices. Now the Commonwealth of Virginia is going to fix things so that non-violent felons will automatically enter a process to have their voting rights restored.
Seems kind of silly. Let those who want to apply to get their rights back apply and have their requests heard on a case-by-case basis. All this is going to do is establish yet more government employees to process these automatic requests. It's a waste of time and money. If you want to vote and you're a felon it isn't too much to require you to seek the restoration of those rights.
* * * * *
I just read a first-person piece by someone who had weight-loss surgery nearly a decade ago and has kept the weight off. I was surprised to find a bunch of negative comments by people saying that this was an "easy out", and didn't mean that they would escape the complications that such surgery raises risks for.
True. But what these nattering nabobs of negativism (credit to former VP Spiro T. Agnew for the turn of phrase) fail to include in their criticisms is the reduced risks of other health problems associated with being overweight that this person no longer faces. If you're going to play pro/con with something, include all the pros and all the cons. Don't stack the deck to favor your position.
No This Date in History, Famous Folk Born on this Date or Movie Quote of the day today. They will resume tomorrow. I'm a bit tired. Glad to be back though. Very, very glad.
I was very surprised to find out my heart hadn't changed at all since my last test on it, and what I had was fluid in my lungs, caused by a case of pneumonia. By four a.m. on Thursday I was in a room, hooked up to a monitor and being pumped full of furosemide. That's the generic name for lasix, a medication that will make you spend a lot of time at a urinal.
As a result of lots of lasix, a controlled fluid intake and the hospitals low-sodium, low-fat and yet still delicious diet, when I finally left after roughly 64.5 hours at the VA, I was 13 pounds lighter. Most of that is water and some will undoubtedly come back. But if I follow the low-fat, low-sodium diet (difficult but doable), up my intake of fresh fruits and keep to a reasonable fluid limit per day, I think I can keep off almost all of what I've lost over the next couple of days, and then get back on the weight-loss track. One of the problems I've been having is easily fixed, that being too much sodium. So no more V-8 juice for me, in spite of how much I adore it. Maybe one 11 ounce bottle per week, or maybe bi-weekly. I'd been trying and failing to limit myself to three or four a week. No more. I was very, very tempted to get some on the way home, but I stuck to my resolve and walked right past it in the display case. Maybe I should keep a small bottle in the refrigerator and smell it, since much of taste is smell. Naw, it would go bad too quickly once opened.
I loathe spending the night in a hospital. I am very pleased with the care provided by the VA, really like the doctors, nurses and others who work there. But given my history with hospitals, the idea of spending even one night is one is just repulsive.
One reason I'm home is that I was very lucky yesterday. I thought I'd seen the cardiologist who is following my care in the cardio clinic on the floor where I was, so when it appeared he was there late Friday morning, I stood in the doorway of my room for a few minutes. Sure enough it was him and when he spotted me, he came into my room and examined me for himself. We talked for a few and agreed I'd be seeing him again in July.
Well, I saw him later that afternoon. I'd been scheduled for another echocardiogram in late June, but he pulled strings and got me one on Friday. Not only that, he was there himself to monitor it and evaluate the results. He wrote notes to the doctors treating me up on the 5th floor and speeded up the process of getting me home. We joked that since I'm seeing another cardiologist for a follow-up in June, if I liked that doctor better, he wouldn't be hurt if I switched. To coin an expression from the 1980s, "as if". He's going to be my doctor as long as he's working at the VA. You keep the good ones.
I missed blogging. I missed my TV and its much better selection of cable. I missed having breakfast with my usual tablemate. I had access to Facebook, but avoided Twitter because it just doesn't work well on my older iPhone. But now I'm home and can sit at the laptop while watching (sorta) television. As I write this, "Wolverine" had just killed "Jean Grey" to save her from herself (and of course to save everyone else). Since I am at home, that means I can enjoy an episode of "TOS" (Star Trek - The Original Series for the uninitiated) at 9 p.m. I will probably fall asleep early since I did not sleep well in the hospital.
* * * * *
Once again the death of a young child apparently at the hands of family members has brought unwanted attention to the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services. DCFS wants no spotlights, no scrutiny and to be allowed to continue operations in relative darkness because they are failing.
Those who run that den of incompetence claim they are understaffed and they certainly are. That doesn't explain anything. Even if they were fully funded and fully staffed, the civil service protection afforded their employees means that people not doing their job don't get removed promptly, if at all. There are many who work at DFCS, work hard to do their jobs with case loads that are too large for them to manage, and they are unable to pick up the slack left by their colleagues who are basically "RWWFC" (Retired While Working For County).
Unions are part of the problem. The retirement benefits and other concessions they've used their campaign dollars to wrangle from government is something I've ranted about before. There's just no money for additional staffing. But if they would make changes for incoming employees, eventually they could turn that part of the problem around.
The major part of the problem is accountability. Until they manage to allow a kid to be killed, they operate with little oversight from anyone outside their agency. That needs to change.
* * * * *
I've actually stayed at the New York Hilton Midtown Manhattan. I was there for a conference, back in 1997 I think. I found it to be very nice. Now it's going to be less so, if you prefer room service (which I do on occasion). Come August their room service will be replaced by an ala carte cafeteria. Sounds like fun, craving a snack at midnight and having to get dressed and go downstairs for whatever leftovers are available. It will also put 55 people out of work.
It's a trend. Hotels really can't make money on room service; even with the inflated prices, the labor costs are just too much to make it anything but a loss leader. Sign of the times I guess.
* * * * *
http://screen.yahoo.com/dog-walks-horse-161052903.html
No other words are required to accompany this video.
* * * * *
Life imitating art again, this time in the state of Virginia. I'm sorry, they're a commonwealth, aren't they? I watched an episode of "Batman" recently where Penguin ran to become Mayor of Gotham City. He was allowed to run because a little known section of the city's code allows convicted criminals to run for public office. In our real system, felons are stripped of their voting rights as well as the right to run for a number of offices. Now the Commonwealth of Virginia is going to fix things so that non-violent felons will automatically enter a process to have their voting rights restored.
Seems kind of silly. Let those who want to apply to get their rights back apply and have their requests heard on a case-by-case basis. All this is going to do is establish yet more government employees to process these automatic requests. It's a waste of time and money. If you want to vote and you're a felon it isn't too much to require you to seek the restoration of those rights.
* * * * *
I just read a first-person piece by someone who had weight-loss surgery nearly a decade ago and has kept the weight off. I was surprised to find a bunch of negative comments by people saying that this was an "easy out", and didn't mean that they would escape the complications that such surgery raises risks for.
True. But what these nattering nabobs of negativism (credit to former VP Spiro T. Agnew for the turn of phrase) fail to include in their criticisms is the reduced risks of other health problems associated with being overweight that this person no longer faces. If you're going to play pro/con with something, include all the pros and all the cons. Don't stack the deck to favor your position.
No This Date in History, Famous Folk Born on this Date or Movie Quote of the day today. They will resume tomorrow. I'm a bit tired. Glad to be back though. Very, very glad.
posted by me at 8:50 PM
<< Home