Back to ANMC - Margie's first time out of the house in over two weeks

I had been a bit worried about how we would get Margie out the door, down the two steps and then up into the Escape, which sits pretty high off the ground and is averaging 23.1 miles to the gallon, but the process went fairly easy. She pretty much did it all herself. 

Then we took off for Anchorage. As I drove, I noticed a young man pass by on the left. He looked at us and then started laughing. I figure this was because Margie was in the back seat and me in the front. The young man probably thought that he understood the situation - that my wife was mad at me, and refused to sit in the front seat with me, or perhaps he thought that I had picked up a hitchhiker and had made her sit in the back seat.

Or maybe he thought that my name was James, that I was the hired driver and that it was mighty strange for a chauffer to wear a t-shirt and drive a red Ford Escape.

We pulled off the freeway in Eagle River to get something to eat. We went through the Taco Bell drive-through and then parked next to a police car. It is the first one that I have seen with this picture of Anchorage stenciled into the word, "Police."

Yesterday, Margie got a call from someone at ANMC who asked her to come half-an-hour before her appointment so that she could get new x-rays shot first. So we did, and then we waited an hour before the x-rays were shot.

"It's so good to finally be out of the house," Margie said.

Margie getting her x-rays shot. I had to stand in this room for my own protection.

Margie's knee. The Physicians Assistant, a camera shy woman, who would attend to her would tell us that her bone structure is not good; she has osteoporosis, which means she can more easily fracture her bones.

When she was a child, Margie's family was poor and there were many times when they had little more than flour from which to make tortillas and tennis racket bread (cooked over an open fire on a homemade grilling device that looks like a tennis racket - very tasty). She seldom had milk or other dairy products, although her grandfather had a wagon and a donkey and on occasion would take her up the hill to the trading post and buy her an ice cream cone.

She greatly enjoyed that, but it just wasn't enough calcium for a growing girl.

Her bones have been a bit weak ever since. One time, right after we were married, we were playing in a park when I wrapped my arms around her and twirled her in a circle. We were both laughing, but then a rib cracked. She suffered pain for weeks.

That was when we first found out what the childhood lack of milk had done to her. We haven't thought about that for awhile. Now we have to think about it, because she's getting older and its getting worse, so we must do what we can to arrest it.

Damnit! This should not have happened to my Margie! She should be able to hike through the mountains with me, and run down the downhills, but she can't.

As we wait for the PA, I examine a fake knee. We didn't learn much, because, despite all her improvement, Margie was still too sore and tender and could not bend her knee far enough for the PA to make a good exam. The PA scheduled her for an MRI Friday, so that they can take a good look at her ligaments.

If this had happened to me, and I needed an MRI, notwithstanding the $100 thousand plus dollars that I have spent on my insurance, I can tell you from experience that the insurance company would find the way to get out of paying most, perhaps all of the cost, and I would be set back several thousand dollars more.

This fear of further financial setback is keeping me from going to the doctor for things I ought to go to the doctor for, from taking medications that I am supposed to be taking, and from getting checkups that I am supposed to be getting.

American Indians and Alaska Natives paid a terrible price for the health care that the government is now obligated to give them, but the good thing is, unlike my private insurer, her federal insurer will make good on all expenses involved. Furthermore, if something is bothering her, she need not fear what a trip to the doctor will do to us financially, the way I, who have paid a modest fortune for my health insurance, must.

You see, Sarah Palin, screamers, et al, these panels that you try to whip up so much fear about are already active and are denying many Americans the care they need right now, even as they drive them into a financial pit - but they don't work for Obama or the federal government. They work for the insurance companies. 

And so do you.

Can you feel my rage?

I hop from a fishing boat in Prince William Sound to Family Restaurant; Sarah Palin finally pushes me over the edge (this is not a test, this is real)

This morning, at 5:38 AM, I sat inside inside the cabin of a fishing boat, a seiner, as it pulled out away from the dock and headed into the waters of Prince William Sound. Suddenly, a big truck came roaring into our path, so I pushed the button that would blast the horn and at the exact moment that I did the phone rang in our bedroom. It jarred me full awake.

At first, I thought that I would not answer it, because what kind of idiot calls you at 5:38 in the morning? But then, of course, there are all those calls that can come at any hour of the night, when someone that you love has been injured or died. As much as you never want to hear them, such calls need to be answered. 

Or it could be someone on the east coast who wanted a photograph from me and did not check to see what the time difference between there and here. I have had this happen a number of times.

But the phone did not ring again. And so I wondered if it had really rang at all, or if I had dreamed it. Margie never heard it. But then she sleeps more lightly than I do and was drugged up on pain killers.

I am quite certain that it rang.

I was now desperately tired and wide awake at the same time. I lay awake for a while, then rolled from my right to my left side. This was observed by Jimmy, the black cat. He rose then from the mattress, climbed atop me and settled down in the crook between my hip and shoulder.

He made my blanket feel wonderfully warm and so I thought that I could drift back to sleep. Just when I was about to, I heard Margie stirring and I knew she needed help, so I made poor Jimmy get down and I got up and helped her.

I then went back to bed. The windows were open just a enough that it had become very cool in the room. When I crawled back under the covers, I could not get warm.

"Jimmy!" I pled, "come back." He thought about it for about ten minutes and then he did.

Soon, I was once again wonderfully warm. I was getting close to drifting back to sleep when Jimmy heard a certain bird sing outside. He suddenly leaped off me and hopped onto the window sill to see if by chance he might get that bird.

Now, I was wide awake again. I got to thinking about Family Restaurant. I knew that I should not go there. I can't afford to go there every time I get the whim. And there is my acid reflux to think about. I need to eat oatmeal.

Yet, I did not want to lie in bed awake all morning and then get up and cook oatmeal. It was after seven now and it seemed foolish to lie in bed awake any longer. But the only way that getting up seemed tolerable was if I went to Family and ordered an omelette and had somebody wait on me. 

So that is what I did.

I bought Margie a burrito from Carl's Jr. brought it back to her and then headed out the door to take my morning walk. This dog was in the driveway and was very surprised to see me. It is the same dog that nearly killed the rabbit and that lives on the corner where the chicken crossed the road. 

We stared at each other for about one minute, as I waited, curious, to see what he would do. 

He got the hell out of there.

Somebody had moved the helmet from accident site up to just off the edge of the road. It seemed odd that nobody had picked it up yet, which made me wonder if whoever had been wearing it had been hurt badly enough that he had no need for a helmet and so no one had even thought about it.

I still wondered if it was a child or an adult. I picked up the helmet and put it on my head. It was tight, but I could push it on.

Could have been a kid with a big head, or an adult with a small one.

There were towering cumulus in the sky. 

Later, I found Margie in the process of paying our bills, playing with crossword puzzles. You can see how much better she looks. It has been almost two weeks now. They said she would be laid up for six - if she does not require surgery, which we won't know until Tuesday at the earliest.

Late in the afternoon, I took a coffee break. I passed by the Wasilla skateboard park - the best in the state.

Now... concerning Sarah Palin... I think she has finally pushed me over the edge with her Facebook statement against health care reform. She may not be aware of it, but in this distortion she has made a personal attack against my health care - as I tried to take responsibility and so bought a health insurance policy in good faith, only to discover, when my time of need came, that my health insurance, which I pay dearly for, is run by an organization that views my health care as an obstacle to their profits. 

I have spent considerable time in off-the-highway Alaska, where medical facilities are limited. Quite often, while I was out there, someone who had suffered an accident or had fallen critically ill had needed to be medivaced to Anchorage or Fairbanks by air ambulance. I knew that such an event could break me, so, about 15 years ago, when I spoke with the sales representative for the insurance that I hoped to get through the National Association of the Self Employed, the first question that I asked was, should I need it, will this policy cover the cost of an air ambulance?

The sales representative assured me that it would. I went for it. No other member of my Apache family was covered under the plan, as all were covered under treaty obligation by the US Indian Health Service.

At first, I thought that I had purchased a pretty good plan - until the time came that I actually needed it. Then I realized that the over $8000 I spend annually was not doing me much good. Very little was ever covered - and that includes medication, which was not covered at all.

I could have received much better care, and not postponed or ignored so much that needed to be done, had I have put that $8000 toward it, rather than to someone else's profit.

Still, I held onto the plan just in case I should ever experience the catastrophic event.

That came in June of last year, when I took my fall in Barrow and suffered my shattered shoulder. There is a good hospital in Barrow, but it was not equipped to deal with the injury that I had. So I was medivaced by air ambulance to Anchorage.

The bill for that air ambulance alone came to over $37,000. My insurance company turned it over to one of those sharp individuals to whom they pay high salaries just to find any clause that might enable them to get out of paying a claim. That person did his job well. They refused to pay. And that was only the beginning of the many ways my insurance company failed me after I took my fall.

So, yes - if a national health insurance option were to be established with client health rather than profit being the highest priority, I would drop my company in an instant and switch. And if enough of their clients did so that they went out of business... good. That would be exactly what they deserve.

No, Sarah Palin - Barack Obama's health care plan is not "absolutely evil" as you state on your Facebook page. And when you write, "The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care," you are making that all up.

Your language is not only inflammatory, but dishonest. There will be no "death panel" and I challenge you to show us the language that a rational, intelligent reading of could be interpreted to imply such a thing. Your baby will be treated with respect, compassion, and care under the Obama plan - and not only that, but so will the babies of many parents not so fortunate as you and Todd, parents who cannot afford the kind of health insurance that you enjoy.

Why do you, of all people, stand against such parents and their Down Syndrome babies?

I also believe that you know this, but have chosen your words to pander to paranoia and fear in order to put yourself alongside the Rush Limbaugh's of the world.

Sarah Palin - I used to love you. I really did. I did not vote for you, because I feared where you might come down on certain issues dear to me, such as Native self-governance and subsistence hunting and fishing rights. Yet, after you took office, got rid of that jet and did a few other good and showy things, I had a change of heart. I thought you might truly be that "breath of fresh air," the cliche that even more Democrats than Republicans were using to describe you. But then came John McCain - who I also once loved - and you showed us who you really are. 

When I started this blog, I vowed to keep myself out of the fray, to not join the media and blog circus that whipped up around you, because I had other purposes and did not want to be diverted from them. I have often found it a struggle to keep that vow, but when I read the cynical words that you wrote Friday on Facebook, I could not keep it any longer.

You must be spoken against and so I speak against you.

Sarah Palin experiment - a berrylicious walk with Kalib and his dad

The experiment:

Typically, the number of visitors to this site drops off come Saturday and Sunday, but this weekend something curious happened: for no reason that I could think of, the number of visitors actually rose. It did not reach the stupendous levels (for me) that it did for two days running when I posted the Barrow baby contest, but, none-the-less, it showed a healthy increase over what it had been and certainly over the typical weekend.

I was curious as to why, and so did some back-tracking and discovered that some blogs that link to me (most notably the Immoral Minority) had stories that Sarah Palin and husband Todd are about to divorce (denied by Palin's spokeswoman). 

And then, last night, the word "Palin" was in my headline.

I figured that these two factors led to the increase.

So, other than what I have stated above, this blog post has nothing to do with Sarah Palin. It is merely an experiment to see what kind of numbers I will get by including her name in the post headline. This is a one-time experiment. I will not do it again. Nor is Sarah Palin about to become a regular topic of this blog, even though it is obvious to me that my really-pretty-small audience could be significantly larger if I were to run a few Sarah Palin stories every week, perhaps every day.

If she stays in Wasilla, or even Alaska, it is almost inevitable that our paths will cross somewhere and then I will probably get a picture and post it with a few words, but, otherwise, this blog has other concerns and I will leave her to the other bloggers.

The walk.

It began in our front yard, where Kalib observed as his parents engaged in a lovey-dovey wrestling match. Shortly thereafter, Kalib found a mushroom.

He did not try to eat it and if he would have, I would not have let him.

Lavina stayed home, just in case Margie would need some help. Jacob took off walking. Fearing that he was about to be left behind, Kalib came running after. I followed with my camera.

Eventually, Kalib wound up on his father's shoulders.

By and by, he was transferred to Muzzy's back. It was sweet.

Muzzy galloped up the embankment, bucking Kalib from his back. Tenaciously, Kalib kept hold of the reins.

There were berries to eat - raspberries, blueberries and currants. There were cranberries, too, but they were not yet ready to be picked.

By the time we reached a hill that we had to descend, Kalib was walking again. Two trails went down that hill - one off at an angle with a more gentle slope, the other straight down, at a steep slope. Jacob tried to lead Kalib down the gentle slope, but he refused to go that way. He insisted upon going down the steep slope, so Jacob got in front of him and gave him his hands.

Fireweed grew in abundance at the bottom, so Jacob and Kalib plunged in. There were many honey bees flying about in those flowers, plus bumble bees and yellow jackets. When a yellow jacket alit on a blossom right in front of Kalib, Jacob warned him to leave it alone.

But, as you can see, Kalib reached out with both hands. Fortunately, he did not get stung.

And then we found more berries.

Now we are on the last stretch, coming through the marsh towards home.

Even though we are now within three hundred yards of the house, it will take Kalib and Jacob more than an hour to reach it. I grew worried about Margie and so, right after I took the following picture, hurried back to our bedroom, leaving the father and son to enjoy the delights of so beautiful a day alone together.

Jacob and Kalib, picking berries. "It was a berrylicious walk," Jacob said.

Margie chuckles when Melanie and Lisa show her Palin on Comedy Central

Melanie and Lisa came out today, did some grocery shopping and then cooked dinner for their mom (I ate it, too!). Afterwards, because there is no TV in this room and in the summer time I just don't watch TV or even think about it, they decided it was up to them to catch Margie up on some of the news that has happened since she fell.

So they borrowed my laptop, pulled up The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report. They all watched the coverage on the speech our fellow Wasillan and former governor made last Sunday, when she quit and turned the governorship over to Sean Parnell.

Margie actually chuckled. It was the closest thing to a laugh that I have heard come from her since she injured herself. It was good to hear. Thank you, ex-Governor Palin, for bringing a little humor to my wife at this trying moment in her life.

Oh yes - and they also brought her a real sunflower, which went into a vase alongside a bouquet of artificial ones.

As soon as I closed the last entry, Melanie called to tell me Governor Palin has quit

What can I say...?

Crazy....

She's your's now, America.

My little town's gift to you.

Enjoy her.

Fun times ahead, I'm sure.