Where have I been for the past eight months?
Part 2
When I went into the hospital, my main concern was the issues with my blood pressure and, increasingly, weakness in my hands. Apparently I had gone years with my old pump slowly leaking, to point that it required 1200mc/ml of baclofen to keep my legs under control. That’s a lot of baclofen. When they fixed the leak they had no real idea of how much baclofen I should be getting. Eventually I would learn I only need around 600mc/ml to keep my legs under control. At the time, I think that they left it at 1200mc/ml. This excess amount made me increasingly weak and my blood pressure dangerously low. I struggled to sleep at night. I could barely sit upright and began losing the limited function I have in my hands. I remember thinking as I left for the hospital that this might be it, the last time I see my home or my dog. They didn’t know how dire my thoughts were, but my parents tried to comfort me as I broke into tears.
While I was concerned with my blood pressure and my weakness, my doctors became increasingly concerned with something else – infection. During my first week in the hospital they would tinker with my pump settings, adjusting the level of baclofen. I pretty much dismissed any talk of infection. They had me on antibiotics and I figured that would take care of it. I was wrong. The infection was MRSA - a highly resistant strain. My new pump would need to come out.
Removing it would be no small task, given the amount of baclofen it fed directly to my spine. Removing it without preparation could put me in a coma from withdrawal. So the doctors spent a week slowly turning down my pump dosage while increasing oral methadone, baclofen, dilaudid and Valium. By the time the pump came out, I was spaced out on drugs. The nurses were amazed that I was still conscious given the quantity of drugs I was getting. I was conscious, but I had trouble holding thoughts in my mind and absolutely no attention span. Writing an e-mail to someone could easily take me three hours, two and a half of it spent staring vacantly at the wall or out the window. Days just seem to pass. I was, however, in a great deal of pain as well. Despite the drug cocktail my legs would seize up like never before - muscles would fight against one another spontaneously. For the first time, I could fully appreciate what my baclofen pump does for me.
It would be three weeks before the hospital’s infectious disease doctor gave the ok to put a new pump back in - this time on the left side of my abdomen rather than the right. Fortunately the surgery was successful and I healed up without it getting infected.
By now I had spent about two months in hospitals.
To be continued…
If the choice is to be politically aware or ignorant, I’ve decided to choose ignorance
My New Year’s resolution: to spend the year as politically ignorant as I possibly can.
I’m fed up with politics. Healthcare, terrorism, the economy, employment, etc. I’m tired of it. I spent hours volunteering for Obama, I tried to rally people behind the public option, and I called several representatives. I’ve been let down by all three.
Our president has taken on too much, and produced very little. People behind the public option have been shouted down by the ignorant right, so much so that it is significantly influencing policy. Calls to my representatives were pointless, because I ended up speaking to office staff who already had their talking points memorized.
I’ve been thinking lately that politics should not be interesting. It should really be quite boring. Anyone attempting to make it interesting, specifically the 24-hour news networks, is just personality peddling. To go on the air and actually, faithfully cover policy and the goings-on in government would be a ratings killer. It would be C-SPAN. It would be Congressional Quarterly. But it’s not. It’s four hours every evening full of commentary and spin and guests who are on five minutes to talk about a complex topic, usually concluding when the host says something like, “I’m sorry, we need to cut to break. We’ll have you on again sometime and discuss this further.”
They never do.
Someone once said that Washington was Hollywood for ugly people. It couldn’t be truer. The Washington Post and the Washington Times are our People Magazine and Entertainment Weekly. USA Today is USA Today.
In the end, what is accomplished? The average person, average person, has no role in legitimate political discourse anymore. You’re often a foot soldier to special interest groups on the right or the left, spewing the outrage that they tell you to, under the guise of being a “grassroots movement”.
I don’t need it anymore. At one point several years ago, around the time we were ramping up for war against Iraq, my father, a lifelong conservative, and I got into a heated debate over politics. That year I didn’t come home to visit for Christmas, the only time in my life I hadn’t done so. My sister passed away suddenly three days later. I never got to see her that last time. Since then, my father and I have reconciled and pretty much have discussed politics rather civilly. But I’ll never forget what toll it took on our relationship and how we could’ve been spending so much time talking about much more interesting things.
And now we do. It’s been a long time coming, and it’s the beginning of a new decade. I expect many great things to happen for me and the people around me over the next 10 years. I don’t plan on wasting any more of it on the sport of politics. That’s my New Year’s resolution.
If you voted for Obama and believe in better healthcare and affordable healthcare, please call your local Democratic representative and reblog this/pass it along.
This appeal is not just some BS request. I literally mean it. The Democrats are losing the health care debate right now. The Republicans and the insurance companies have stirred up lies and fear and are succeeding.
The main issue centers around the idea of a “public option”, which would be a government owned and operated health insurance company. The reason for this is to create a company that will compete with existing insurance companies, forcing them to provide better care and lower their costs. Such an entity already exists for seniors, Medicare, and it works really well.
Republicans are claiming that this entity will put private insurance companies out of business and will put the government in charge of health decisions - for example deciding whether someone gets a treatment or not. Currently, that happens to be how it is with all insurance companies, including Medicare.
As for putting insurance companies out of business, the US government and state governments currently have organizations that compete with private industry. State universities have not put private universities out of business and have allowed many more people the opportunity to get an education. The U.S. Postal Service competes with FedEx and UPS.
Right now, Republicans are trying to kill the public option. They claim that that is their only objective, that they would be open to health care reform if only the public option was removed. The truth is that their goal is to reject as much health care reform as possible because they want to hobble the president and win back seats in the Congress.
You are not going to change the mind of any Republican representatives, which is okay, because health care reform can be passed without most of them onboard. Unfortunately, there are fiscally conservative Democrats and weak kneed Democrats who are resisting the public option. Many of these people are up for reelection next year.
So, I’m begging all of you to please call your local representatives or state senator’s offices, and tell them not to back down and that you support the public option and believe that it is the only way that health care costs will be brought down, as there is currently no mechanism in the health care system to incentivize it to do so.
Find your congressman using this website:
Please take a few minutes to call and briefly tell whoever answers that the public option is essential.
And please, reblog this, don’t just “like” it. Thanks.
