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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Another Open Thread

Another Open Thread

by John Cole|  February 1, 20105:08 pm| 91 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Not too interested in anything atm, so I am going back to the chair and the ice pump to let my mind rot in front of the tv. Despite all the bitching I am doing, I feel super lucky. Can you imagine what an injury like this would be like without insurance? Or in the 1800’s?

And all the little things that make this recovery so much easier. The baby wipes, the pain meds, the ice therapy, etc. Hell, I’m even paying a maid service to come in and clean the kitchen and bathroom because I can not sweep or mop. So fortunate I have the means to do this.

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Reader Interactions

91Comments

  1. 1.

    MikeJ

    February 1, 2010 at 5:12 pm

    Thread overload!

  2. 2.

    smiley

    February 1, 2010 at 5:12 pm

    So fortunate I have the means to do this.

    This. It’s why we buy/have insurance. It’s not for what’s happening today, but for what might happen tomorrow.

    ETA: And there are still plenty of reasons to hate insurance companies. Some/most do everything in their power to not pay for what the policy holder thought s/he has paid for.

  3. 3.

    Gozer

    February 1, 2010 at 5:12 pm

    But no Mass Effect 2…

  4. 4.

    gogol's wife

    February 1, 2010 at 5:14 pm

    You’re not bitching too much, given what you’re dealing with.

  5. 5.

    General Winfield Stuck

    February 1, 2010 at 5:18 pm

    Or in the 1800’s?

    They probly would have just shot you and said a few words.

  6. 6.

    General Winfield Stuck

    February 1, 2010 at 5:20 pm

    @gogol’s wife:

    You’re not bitching too much, given what you’re dealing with.

    I notice no difference, except for the Project Runway threads.

  7. 7.

    PurpleGirl

    February 1, 2010 at 5:21 pm

    After my surgery for the herniated disk I continued to have food purchases delivered and I found a laundry that would pick-up and deliver in the evening. It would have been very hard for me to pull and/or push a shopping cart down from my third floor walk-up. When I moved to an elevator building ten years ago, it made a big difference for me. I was grateful that I was able to afford the laundry service.

    John, it sounds like you’re adapting to your constraints. Rest and keep using that ice pump. In the 1800s and before X-rays, they would felt for an injury and there probably wasn’t much that could be done. You’d be truly disabled and in constant pain.

  8. 8.

    AhabTRuler

    February 1, 2010 at 5:24 pm

    Hey, anyone can “not sweep or mop.”
    I do it all the time.

  9. 9.

    freelancer

    February 1, 2010 at 5:26 pm

    Despite all the bitching I am doing, I feel super lucky. Can you imagine what an injury like this would be like without insurance? Or in the 1800’s?

    This is exactly what went through my head after my surgery. I broke my leg 9 days after my Insurance kicked in, and I would have been royally screwed otherwise. ( and I say that having spent $2300 out of pocket for the whole ordeal.) Then I thought about what if this had happened in Medieval times.

    “holy crap!, I’m living in the future. We can fix this?! That’s amazing!”

    Hell, I’m even paying a maid service to come in and clean the kitchen and bathroom because I can not sweep or mop.

    Maybe for a decent gratuity, you can get her to mop nekkid.

  10. 10.

    R-Jud

    February 1, 2010 at 5:26 pm

    Or in the 1800’s?

    Yep, I thought about that after I had the kid last year. We’d probably both be dead had she been born in 1909 and not 2009. Best case scenario: she would be profoundly brain-damaged, and I’d have had a hysterectomy.

    And you’d be ruined for the rest of your life, Cole– if not dead from septicemia or something.

    Yay for modern medicine! Keep healing.

  11. 11.

    Barry

    February 1, 2010 at 5:26 pm

    Yeah, it’d have sucked even a few decades ago, let alone the 1800’s.

  12. 12.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    February 1, 2010 at 5:29 pm

    Can you imagine what an injury like this would be like without insurance? Or in the 1800’s?

    Sucky.
    Sucky + Amputation – Anesthesia – Antiseptic.

    SA2SQ.

    Hell, I’m even paying a maid service to come in and clean the kitchen and bathroom because I can not sweep or mop.

    As a Caucasian male you wouldn’t have had to pay for that in the first part of the 1800’s. Aside from the initial purchase price at least.

    And I don’t think you should mop again, ever.

  13. 13.

    Mike E

    February 1, 2010 at 5:30 pm

    Anybody catch the long wet kiss Neal Conan gave to the Teabaggers on TOTN? And I thought commercials were verboten on NPR…
    ETA That wasn’t intended as a response to anybody–me sorry

  14. 14.

    AhabTRuler

    February 1, 2010 at 5:30 pm

    Yeah, Docs are nice, but I still prefer garbagemen and sanitation engineers.

  15. 15.

    Midnight Marauder

    February 1, 2010 at 5:30 pm

    Can you imagine what an injury like this would be like without insurance? Or in the 1800’s?

    I often think about a lot of scenarios in those terms. Not as fun when all of them end with you being a slave. Not too much fun at all. It reminds me of that Chris Rock joke about slaves who could read:

    “Nigga, what is wrong with you? Nigga, what the fuck is wrong with you? You could have killed somebody, nigga. Didn’t see that stop sign?”
    “Oh, I don’t know what you talking about.”
    “You didn’t see that stop sign, that stop sign back there?”
    “Oh, you mean that octagon thing?”
    “Nigga, who taught you octagon?“

  16. 16.

    General Winfield Stuck

    February 1, 2010 at 5:32 pm

    @AhabTRuler:

    , but I still prefer garbagemen

    People trash them till they need one.

  17. 17.

    jeffreyw

    February 1, 2010 at 5:36 pm

    Starvin…hmm…what makes a good snack?

  18. 18.

    Keith

    February 1, 2010 at 5:36 pm

    Not too interested in anything atm

    What an unfortunate acronym…

  19. 19.

    matt

    February 1, 2010 at 5:38 pm

    Bootstraps, John Cole, Bootstraps

  20. 20.

    jeffreyw

    February 1, 2010 at 5:40 pm

    A little of this…a little of that..

  21. 21.

    jeffreyw

    February 1, 2010 at 5:41 pm

    This’ll take the edge off…

  22. 22.

    Annie

    February 1, 2010 at 5:41 pm

    Oh………the baby wipes. Just too darn cute.

  23. 23.

    jeffreyw

    February 1, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    Until dinner is ready.

  24. 24.

    Bob (Not B.o.B.)

    February 1, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    New topic –

    I am thinking that the Mass. Senate race loss might be a good thing. Its better to have a wake up call from one race in January 2010 than in November 2010. Maybe now that Obama is back on message we will have a shot at keeping a few more seats.

  25. 25.

    freelancer

    February 1, 2010 at 5:45 pm

    @Keith:

    maybe he’s aware of that usage as well, and just as not interested in that.

  26. 26.

    blackwaterdog

    February 1, 2010 at 5:45 pm

    Some Obama’s smartness:

    So the budget is out. But where’s the roughly $150 million needed for the Obama administration to buy the Thomson Correction Center from Illinois? That’s the necessary step for closing Guantanamo Bay this year, as the administration desires: Without the money to buy Thomson, the government has nowhere to transfer the remaining Guantanamo detainees, so the prison stays open and everyone’s unhappy except for conservatives who want to keep the place running. But for the first time in this very flawed process, the Obama administration is showing signs of playing hardball. The money to close the facility is in next year’s Afghanistan war supplemental.
    Robert Hale, the Pentagon comptroller, just made that announcement in a budget briefing that’s still going on. Basically, the fiscal 2011 budget request for the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars — that’s $159.3 billion, by the way, total — contains a $350 million “transfer” fund that would allow the administration all aspects of shuttering the detention facility in Cuba, Hale said, including the purchase of Thomson. And, repeating a call made by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Hale called on Congress to pass the supplemental “by spring — so we can meet all the needs of our troops.”

    That amounts to a dare to congressional Republicans. If you try to filibuster money for closing Guantanamo, you’ll be denying the troops in the field with the money they need to succeed in Afghanistan. The Bush administration repeatedly denounced budgetary obstructionism on the war by congressional Democrats — especially during the summer of 2007 when they tried to stop the Iraq surge — as a slight to the troops. Gates was in his same chair for some of that, and now he’s basically saying he’s not afraid to say the same thing to the GOP. Their move.

    http://washingtonindependent.com/75421/obama-puts-money-to-close-gtmo-in-the-afghanistan-war-supplemental

  27. 27.

    Tax Analyst

    February 1, 2010 at 5:46 pm

    AhabTRuler said:

    Hey, anyone can “not sweep or mop.”
    I do it all the time.

    Cool, but John wants to know what time you will be over to do it.

  28. 28.

    Mark S.

    February 1, 2010 at 5:50 pm

    At the end of 2010, the unemployment rate, according to the administration’s forecast, will be 9.8%. At the end of 2011, the rate will be at 8.9%. And at the end of 2012, after the next presidential election, the unemployment rate will be 7.9%.

    I hope they’re being overly pessimistic, because if the unemployment rate is still 8% in 2012, Obama’s gonna get his ass kicked.

    Via

  29. 29.

    trollhattan

    February 1, 2010 at 5:51 pm

    Here on the left coast it’s a billionaire-vs-billionaire (or perhaps the latter is merely a several-hundred-millionaire) in a battle of whose is biggestest.

    http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/capitolalertlatest/2010/02/gop-gubernatori.html

    Also too, Whitman has just snagged the oh-so-critical Pete Wilson endorsement. She’s a real sweetie, our Meg. Perhaps the preznet can offer her an ambassadorship somewhere warm and far away to get her off this idiotic campaign?

    I wish they’d just send every California voter the twenty bucks they’ll end up spending on this already tiresome campaign.

  30. 30.

    Tax Analyst

    February 1, 2010 at 5:52 pm

    who taught you octagon?

    Ummm…That’s either someone who is 1/8 black or a bad Science Fiction movie, right?

  31. 31.

    BDeevDad

    February 1, 2010 at 5:53 pm

    Can you imagine what an injury like this would be like without insurance?

    Amen! I actually wrote a quick post from the opposite extreme on Saturday.

  32. 32.

    Mike E

    February 1, 2010 at 5:54 pm

    @jeffreyw:
    Damn, now I’m hungry–my daughter (and this snowstorm) just cleaned out my icebox. She’s turned me into a short-order cook!

  33. 33.

    Martin

    February 1, 2010 at 5:54 pm

    Can you imagine what an injury like this would be like without insurance? Or in the 1800’s?

    It would have been better in the 1800s. With unfettered free markets and none of this regulation, how couldn’t it have been better? You’d probably even have your own in-home 13 year-old nurse to bring you sarsaparilla and swap out the leeches. And no death panels giving their thumbs up or down (I think you got lucky on that one, pal – don’t push your luck next time)

  34. 34.

    Tax Analyst

    February 1, 2010 at 5:55 pm

    AhabTRuler said:

    Hey, anyone can “not sweep or mop.”
    I do it all the time.

    Cool, but John wants to know what time you will be over to NOT do it.

    LATE EDIT

  35. 35.

    Martin

    February 1, 2010 at 5:55 pm

    Hell, I’m even paying a maid service to come in and clean the kitchen and bathroom because I can not sweep or mop.

    You’ve let the cute, perky maid know that naked mopping is a Cole household policy, right?

  36. 36.

    Darkmoth

    February 1, 2010 at 6:00 pm

    Can you imagine what an injury like this would be like without insurance? Or in the 1800’s?

    Hey, I wear glasses, I have something like 20/400 vision. Anything beyond 4 feet is a big blur. I’m assuming that I wouldn’t have survived in any pre vision-enhancement era…the first time I confused a sleeping grizzly with a NICE JUICY blackberry bush, game over.

    What will our descendants be able to survive, in 50-100 years?

  37. 37.

    AhabTRuler

    February 1, 2010 at 6:01 pm

    Tax Analyst@27: Well then, Good News, everybody! I am not in ur base, not sweeping or mopping ur doodz right now.

  38. 38.

    Dreggas

    February 1, 2010 at 6:01 pm

    @trollhattan:

    I keep hearing commercial’s for that twit (Whitman) on the radio. She talks about “new solutions” to old problems, those solutions….cutting spending and reducing taxes. She goes on to talk about how our taxes keep going up.

    All I could think was “who’s we?” my taxes have been steady here in CA. In fact they’re relatively low compared to some other states. As for cutting spending? Heh, good luck with that.

    I swear it’s like being in Night of the living dead, you keep killing zombie lie bs but they keep coming at you.

  39. 39.

    AhabTRuler

    February 1, 2010 at 6:02 pm

    Tax Analyst@27: Well then, Good News, everybody! I am not in ur base, not sweeping or mopping ur doodz right now!

  40. 40.

    D-Chance.

    February 1, 2010 at 6:02 pm

    Maybe for a decent gratuity, you can get her to mop nekkid.

    Hanaukyo Maid Tai? They ARE specialists, after all…

  41. 41.

    Annie

    February 1, 2010 at 6:04 pm

    He can’t mop or mope?

    Must have something to do with that cute perky therapist whose name he forgot from this morning…

  42. 42.

    srv

    February 1, 2010 at 6:05 pm

    I’m mesmerized by this apparently deliberate parking strategy.

  43. 43.

    demkat620

    February 1, 2010 at 6:06 pm

    Or in the 1800’s?

    My son was a forceps delivery. I had a broken tailbone and I don’t even want to tell you how many stitches.

    My OB told me I would have died from the blood loss alone.

    Kinda sobering.

  44. 44.

    Midnight Marauder

    February 1, 2010 at 6:06 pm

    @Tax Analyst:

    Ummm…That’s either someone who is 1/8 black or a bad Science Fiction movie, right?

    @Midnight Marauder:

    It reminds me of that Chris Rock joke about slaves who could read:

  45. 45.

    freelancer

    February 1, 2010 at 6:08 pm

    @AhabTRuler:

    And there was Ahab Two Times: “Imma go post dis comment, post dis comment”.

  46. 46.

    Martin

    February 1, 2010 at 6:12 pm

    @srv: Probably done here.

  47. 47.

    Kyle

    February 1, 2010 at 6:14 pm

    You know who else had an arm injury?

    HITLER!

  48. 48.

    Martin

    February 1, 2010 at 6:14 pm

    @Darkmoth:

    What will our descendants be able to survive, in 50-100 years?

    If you ask around, they won’t be able to survive a guy with a beard in a cave, neighbors that can’t speak english, gheys, taxation, and pretty much any entitlement program.

    Health care gets stronger, yet somehow we get weaker.

  49. 49.

    Tax Analyst

    February 1, 2010 at 6:17 pm

    AhabTRuler

    Tax Analyst@27: Well then, Good News, everybody! I am not in ur base, not sweeping or mopping ur doodz right now.

    Cool, I’m putting your non-check in mail right now. Thanks for nothing – nobody has ever done it better for me.

  50. 50.

    KG

    February 1, 2010 at 6:19 pm

    Funny story that I’m sure a few of you would appreciate. Last night I’m having dinner with my folks (my mom is a pretty dyed in the wool Republican, donating to the party and whatnot; my dad is fairly libertarian in his leanings – both are fairly liberal on social issues: pro-choice, pro-gay rights, etc; but economic issues take precedent) and the CBS evening news is on. It’s probably the first time in a decade that I’d seen a broadcast news show and they’re talking about Obama’s budget proposal. A couple of comments were made about the size, and I pointed out that with 50% of the budget going to military and homeland security spending, you can’t balance the budget without seriously looking at that.

    Then they showed Bohener (or whatever the fuck his name is) and he made some comment about how “it’s a good start” but that he thought they should go “item by item, line by line through the budget”.

    My immediate reaction was, “well, turns out that being in Congress you get to do that. It’s part of your job, asshole.”

    My dad’s immediate response was, “I don’t trust that guy at all.”

  51. 51.

    valdivia

    February 1, 2010 at 6:27 pm

    Rest up as much as you can John, given everything you have gone through you deserve the TV brain rot.

  52. 52.

    Mike E

    February 1, 2010 at 6:27 pm

    @KG: In quieter moments, I find repubs to be decent people. When things heat up, the lizard brain starts to take over and you can kiss reason goodbye.

  53. 53.

    Eric U.

    February 1, 2010 at 6:28 pm

    @srv: @Martin: yeah, the ship next to it was clearly cut in half. That’s what happens when a ship is worth more as scrap than it is as a ship.

  54. 54.

    jeffreyw

    February 1, 2010 at 6:30 pm

    @Mike E: Click on my name, I partnered up with Bad Horse’s Filly at her blog.

  55. 55.

    Bender

    February 1, 2010 at 6:32 pm

    DOJ to Clear Torture-Memo Authors Yoo, Bybee of Wrongdoing

    Jon Stewart hardest hit (and St. Andi of ASissy).

  56. 56.

    MattR

    February 1, 2010 at 6:32 pm

    I think I saw this posted in comments here a while ago, but I have not been around recently. So…. Puppeh Cam , guaranteed to lower your blood pressure or your money back. (They are five 16 day old Shiba Inu pups)

  57. 57.

    jeffreyw

    February 1, 2010 at 6:32 pm

    @freelancer: I hear he was a pretty GoodFella.

  58. 58.

    geg6

    February 1, 2010 at 6:35 pm

    Some GOP rep (I think from TX) was just on Hardball talking about the highly anticipated Not Contract With America, which is just like the CWA but not the same at all. And he said he thought it was about…now just wait…cut all SS for anyone under 55 and privatize it. I know. Amazingly innovative, don’t you think?

  59. 59.

    Mark Gisleson

    February 1, 2010 at 6:36 pm

    Otoh, maybe you’re not so lucky. Poor people are forced to help each other through rough times. Necessity is at the heart of community, and our lousy communities are a byproduct of our insular self-sufficiency.

  60. 60.

    Svensker

    February 1, 2010 at 6:37 pm

    @Bender:

    Bender as usual misses the point entirely.

  61. 61.

    Mary G

    February 1, 2010 at 6:38 pm

    @trollhattan: I’d pay THEM each $20 to not subject me to all the campaign crap we’re going to have to hear for the next 10 months. Meg Whitman is all over my computer ads already, right next to “Capistrano Beach mom loses 75 pounds in 12 days” and “Capistrano Beach woman makes $100/hour working at home!”

    If anyone knows how to figure out how they know I live in CA (but not Capistrano Beach?) and how I could find and delete that cookie or whatever it is, I’d appreciate it.

    John, glad to hear you are resting and getting help. Now you know why so many of us urged you to take the pain meds before going to PT. Keep getting better.

  62. 62.

    Darkmoth

    February 1, 2010 at 6:41 pm

    @Martin:
    Well, they kind of have a point:

    Fall of Rome->Dark Ages->@Martin:

    Yeah, it’s amazing how, at any point in history, the prevailing sentiment seems to be “all is lost, we’re doomed”. Now, I can think of times when that may have been a legitimate POV (“Lookit all the fleas on that rat…cough cough hemorrhage”), but by and large we’re a species of Cassandras.

  63. 63.

    Bad Horse's Filly

    February 1, 2010 at 6:41 pm

    @jeffreyw: I am glad I’m not the only one who makes my own croutons. Loaf of stale bread, some olive oil, some spices and yummy. So much better than the grease laden ones at the store.

  64. 64.

    freelancer

    February 1, 2010 at 6:42 pm

    @Mark Gisleson:

    Otoh, maybe you’re not so lucky. Poor people are forced to help each other through rough times. Necessity is at the heart of community, and our lousy communities are a byproduct of our insular self-sufficiency.

    I have no clue what you intended this to mean.

  65. 65.

    MattR

    February 1, 2010 at 6:44 pm

    @geg6: That is pretty amazing and means that one or more of the following need to happen.
    (a) I need John to send me some of his pills to stop the pain
    (b) John needs to apply for disability and put that money away for retirement. He needs to play the system before it plays him.

  66. 66.

    Elie

    February 1, 2010 at 6:45 pm

    Of course a lot of people had complications of all kinds but many were tougher than nails (and we are tougher than we think).

    When you read the results of forensic examination of ancient bones of Roman gladiators, and slaves from ancient eras going back 4,000 years or more, its amazing how many lived with chronic injuries of all kinds. Many slaves had marks of extreme stress from bearing huge burdens as children. Many also had evidence of extreme food deprivation, but still, they survived. People get by, which is not to say they should, or that their benefits to society wouldnt have been incredibly greater, but history bears out our endurance and persistence in the face of incredible adversity. Another interesting fact, for example is that many starving pregnant women give birth to normal weight infants. Again, not desirable by any means, but well documented in medicine…

    Yes, you are lucky. I’m saying that besides the excellent care, the love and caring of your friends and relatives also do a lot to improve your healing.

  67. 67.

    Mike E

    February 1, 2010 at 6:47 pm

    @jeffreyw:
    Cool. I’ll relay any culinary successes, if I survive the initial blasts.

  68. 68.

    cs

    February 1, 2010 at 6:49 pm

    My GF is going through a medical crisis right now without benefit of insurance, though oddly enough, she was lucky enough to pick the right kind of ailment to guarantee the government would pick up the bill.

    Kidney patients, once dialysis becomes necessary, automatically get Medicare coverage, regardless of age, for just about everything, including a future transplant. I have no idea why kidney conditions get the special treatment while other conditions don’t. I had no idea special coverage for kidney problems even existed at all until we found ourselves in this position.

    I suppose it’s too late now, but the Democrats really should have pulled this data point out during all the teabagger noise about “death panels”. Obviously they already had the point about Medicare for the older population, but here you have people of all ages, with a dire condition, receiving the necessary care from the doctors of their choice, and the government pays for expensive things like transplants and home dialysis machines without the slightest bit of pushback.

  69. 69.

    jeffreyw

    February 1, 2010 at 6:54 pm

    @Bad Horse’s Filly: And they double as doggie treats!

  70. 70.

    Dreggas

    February 1, 2010 at 7:00 pm

    @Mary G:

    It’s not even a cookie per-se anymore. They can do a trace of where your IP is coming from and get the general vacinity of where you are, even if they can’t penetrate to your home IP.

  71. 71.

    Bad Horse's Filly

    February 1, 2010 at 7:02 pm

    @jeffreyw: I should really read my own blog, didn’t realize you posted all that great stuff over there! I was all engrossed in catching up with BJ after work. Looks yummy.

  72. 72.

    freelancer

    February 1, 2010 at 7:05 pm

    @cs:

    Sorry to hear about your gf. Thank heavens for the Medicare/Medicaid benefits she is able to get. She’ll be in our thoughts. Kidney disease is a fickle, cruel bitch.

  73. 73.

    Elie

    February 1, 2010 at 7:15 pm

    @cs:

    Agree with Freelancer. My best to her and you and hope that whatever the cause, that one day she can be recovered….

  74. 74.

    demkat620

    February 1, 2010 at 7:20 pm

    @geg6: Jeb Hensarling fresh from his schooling by Obama on Friday.

  75. 75.

    MattR

    February 1, 2010 at 7:22 pm

    @cs: I am very sorry to hear about your gf, but you bring up a good point. According to AAKP, we spend $18 billion a year on Medicare kidney services. There is no way that “death panel” Democrats would allow that to continue. Especially since it could probably be justified based on its rather unique status. Of course if we are willing to spend as much money as it takes to keep you on dialysis, but we won’t pay anything to keep you from having to go onto dialysis.

    Best of luck to both of you. The AAKP should have (or be able to point you to) support groups for kidney patients in general, those on dialysis or even specific kidney ailments.

  76. 76.

    Nellcote

    February 1, 2010 at 7:25 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Here on the left coast it’s a billionaire-vs-billionaire

    I think it’s hilarious that HP came out in support of Boxer over ex-ceo Carlyfornia.

  77. 77.

    Mark S.

    February 1, 2010 at 7:26 pm

    @MattR:

    There is no way that “death panel” Democrats would allow that to continue. Especially since it could probably be justified based on its rather unique status. Of course if we are willing to spend as much money as it takes to keep you on dialysis, but we won’t pay anything to keep you from having to go onto dialysis.

    What the fuck are you talking about?

  78. 78.

    Dreggas

    February 1, 2010 at 7:34 pm

    @Nellcote:

    Not surprising though. IIRC no one at HP like Carly and there’s a lot of bad blood between the company and her.

  79. 79.

    MattR

    February 1, 2010 at 7:35 pm

    @Mark S.: Meaning that if Democrats actually supported death panels as Palinites allege to prevent people from getting expensive treatments, then there is no way they would have allowed this provision to exist for as long as it has.

    The second part was a bit of a non sequiotr, but I am talking about the fact that if you don’t have insurance then you don’t get preventive treatment (or treatments that can slow the progression of a disease) while you are still relatively healthy and while that treatment is cheaper. But once you are really, really sick then we will take care of you at a much higher price tag.

  80. 80.

    Lurker

    February 1, 2010 at 7:38 pm

    @Mark S.: It looks like snark to me — Medicare will help people in dire need of kidney care, but Medicare will not step in for preventative care and screenings for early detection.

    I don’t know if early detection can save kidney patients from dialysis machines, though.

  81. 81.

    MattR

    February 1, 2010 at 7:48 pm

    @Lurker:

    I don’t know if early detection can save kidney patients from dialysis machines, though.

    It depends on the exact kidney problem, but treatments can definitely help. Changing your diet will put less of the toxins your kidneys cant process into your body which means that you feel better and you can delay how long you need dialysis. I am not sure if the research shows that diet can actually slow the progression of disease or if it is just a matter that less toxins to process means fewer unprocessed toxins left over in the bloodstream.

    There are also other conditions that go hand in hand with kidney diesase, particularly high blood pressure, that should be treated. These are bad enough on their own but I also believe that they can make it more difficult for the kidneys to function making it more likely you will end up on dialysis.

  82. 82.

    Nellcote

    February 1, 2010 at 7:53 pm

    @Dreggas:

    IIRC no one at HP like Carly and there’s a lot of bad blood between the company and her.

    I know but they came out early enough that it blunts her talking point of being an ex-ceo since that’s pretty much her only claim to fame.

  83. 83.

    BDeevDad

    February 1, 2010 at 7:56 pm

    @Nellcote: Did you see her response to the SOTU. It was about how she knew better how to create jobs. It’s ironic because she was the first HP CEO to oversee large scale layoffs.

  84. 84.

    Mark S.

    February 1, 2010 at 8:05 pm

    @MattR:

    OK, sorry, my irony detector is in the shop.

  85. 85.

    Shell

    February 1, 2010 at 8:07 pm

    Can you imagine what an injury like this would be like without insurance? Or in the 1800’s?

    Hmmm. Amputation? With or without ether, depending on your locale.

    Branch of my mother’s family went out to Nebraska in the second big land rush of the 1800’s. They suffered thru droughts, locusts, not to mention brutal winters.
    A few times, during particularly deep cold snaps here, she’s mused “I wonder how they survived it?” Answer: Not for very long.

  86. 86.

    asiangrrlMN

    February 1, 2010 at 8:30 pm

    @cs: So sorry to hear this. Sending good vibes to you and your GF. Yeah, she was ‘lucky’ with that ailment all right. Damn. Keep us updated, ok?

    Cole, I like it when you wax poetic. Now, a picture of Tunch, and I would be a happy woman.

    @jeffreyw: You, my good sir, suck eggs. Every time, I tell myself not to click because I’ll be ravenous with jealousy and hunger. Every time, I click, and I am, indeed, filled with jealousy and hunger. Sigh. I wish I knew how to quit you (r food pr0n stream).

  87. 87.

    Fitzwili

    February 1, 2010 at 9:03 pm

    I got an email from Move-On tonite -anyone in nyc?

    If you work in midtown-this might be a good quick event to go to tomorrow:

    Come to MoveOn’s Press Conference Outside Senator Schumer’s Office tomorrow at 8:30 am.
    Stop by on your way to work as MoveOn deliver’s a Wake Up Call for Health Reform. I’m one of the speakers for the event, so I’ll see you there. Bring signs, bring friends, and bring your Metro Card so you can get back to the office in time.

    Where: Senator Schumer’s Manhattan office, 757 3rd Ave. between E 47 and 48 Streets
    When: Tuesday, February 2nd, 8:30 AM

  88. 88.

    cs

    February 1, 2010 at 10:23 pm

    Thanks for the words of support. I passed them on to the girlfriend, who sometimes lurks here, and she also sends thanks. Just wanted to issue a follow up with the idea of preventive medicine and the ironies of insurance in mind.

    The direct cause of her kidney failure was from the bladder not properly emptying and a birth defect in one of the little valves around the kidneys caused the backflow to do major damage cumulatively over the years. Her nephrologist mentioned that the ultimate failure was probably unavoidable but the kidneys could have been kept in working order for much longer had my girlfriend seen a urologist early enough and gotten the proper treatment / surgery then.

    But I’m not sure how proper preventive care would have helped. She felt no problems regarding the bladder or even the kidneys and wouldn’t have ever mentioned it if she had seen a physician regularly and I would imagine the doctor wouldn’t have ever ordered tests without the suspicion of a problem. Though I guess the routine blood work would have shown indicators of the growing problem, at least with the kidneys if not with the bladder. So maybe the preventive care being available would have ameliorated the problem somewhat. I think I’m indecisive on this point.

    And we could have had the care, if we had realized it was necessary, for most of the years we’ve been together, since for most of the time we had insurance. Which is one of the ironies I think of most in the current situation. We left our corporate jobs a few years ago to start a business and didn’t think health insurance was a pressing issue yet, because of our age and seemingly good health. But we still had around 12 years prior with full coverage and only used the insurance once for something minor. Between the employers and ourselves, it was thousands or tens of thousands paid into the health insurance industry without seeing any return for us when we really needed it.

    Thinking on this unspent (by us) money does drive me a bit crazy. If the insurance companies won’t let us have a public option, then couldn’t we at least have a portion of the unused money we paid kept in some sort of escrow account that would follow us as we changed insurance or find ourselves in a situation without insurance. It wouldn’t pay for her entire treatment but it would have covered the initial ER visit and subsequent care that took place before Medicare took over.

  89. 89.

    Wile E. Quixote

    February 1, 2010 at 11:41 pm

    @Nellcote:

    I think it’s hilarious that HP came out in support of Boxer over ex-ceo Carlyfornia.

    I wish that I were running the campaign against Carly Fiorina. It would be so easy, and so much fun. Just get any current or former employee of HP on camera talking about how Carly fucked the company up. Or you could have an advertisement with a graph of the HP stock price over her tenure showing how HP lost 60 percent of its value a voiceover saying

    When Carly Fiorina took over at HP the company’s stock was worth 52 dollars a share, when she was fired for incompetence in 2005 it was worth 21 dollars a share, and she walked away with a 20 million dollar golden parachute after destroying several thousand jobs and almost wiping out one of America’s leading tech companies. Carly Fiorina is incompetent. Carly Fiorina destroyed jobs. Carly Fiorina nearly destroyed Hewlett Packard, don’t let her destroy California.

    I’d be working my ass off to organize HP employees into an anti-Fiorina cadre and to shut down any support she might get in Silicon Valley, because if you can kill her campaign there she’s weak in the rest of the state outside of Wingnut County.

    As far as running a campaign against Meg Whitman goes you could just have an ad asking anyone if they’d ever been fucked over by a seller on eBay or PayPal and then say “Meg Whitman was CEO of eBay. Meg Whitman resisted every attempt to prevent fraud because it would have cut into her salary.” Meg Whitman screwed you once, if she becomes governor she’ll start screwing you again.”

  90. 90.

    Tax Analyst

    February 2, 2010 at 12:09 am

    @Wile E. Quixote @ #89

    I like the cut of your jib, sailor.

    And what you said in that comment too. Even though Fiorina should be easy prey, I hope Boxer doesn’t do a Coakley (or should I say “Choakley”?). I think she’s too savvy for that.

  91. 91.

    mere mortal

    February 2, 2010 at 11:08 pm

    “So fortunate I have the means to do this.”

    How were you ever a Republican? I’ve seen so much “I’ve got mine, everyone else FOAD” from Republicans lately I’m almost physically ill. It almost seems as if it is a party that would adhere to “There, but for the grace of God, go I,” except they know so surely that they have God’s grace they need not show any to others.

    Glad to hear you are healing. Be well.

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