On My Mind…
Posted by Michelle Moquin on November 16th, 2008
I usually wake up with an agenda of some sort..something to write about. But this morning, there is not one topic that is in the forefront of my mind so I thought I would just chat about whatever is on my mind as it enters my mind.
However, ‘patience’ might be something to keep in mind while reading my write today since in normal everyday conversation, it is a well-known family characteristic that the chit chat tends to go in many different directions at once. That may happen here as I write contemporaneously with my thoughts.
I grew up in a family where a mish mash of thoughts, ideas, suggestions etc., gets thrown around the room, and up against the wall creating overflowing laughter and multi dialogue as we passionately talk over each other until one topic grabs our attentions…if only for a few moments. I have to say, that I love it. And really, that I appreciate the openness and warmth. One can only truly appreciate the free-for-all bantering when one finds themselves in a situation where silence is the pink elephant in the room.
Not that I can’t be silent…but why? Especially when I am surrounded by people…even if it is someone I don’t even know. What better way to get to know them than by striking up a conversation. The more silent a person is the more challenged I am. Or maybe I’m just feeling uncomfortable in my own silence that I need to break it. Okay, we’re talking around a dinner table or at a party, not at a funeral. :)
So this actually happened to me the other night when I went to a party at a restaurant in celebration of Prop 2. I walked up to the table and realized that not only did I not know one person at the table but that I also felt that I could be the mother of at least 2/3′s of them. The first realization bothered me for a second only because I was looking forward to seeing some of the people that I phone banked with, and the latter not at all. The majority of them I found out were students at UC Berkeley.
I sat down at the corner seat and introduced myself. There were a few minutes of silence and then the conversation started to flow. I discovered that the young man next to me was married to the woman across from him. Both of them at the young age of 18 enrolled in the Marine Corps with high hopes of travel and making a good living. They met around their second year in their 5-year commitment while they were both studying ‘Arab linguistics.’ ’Oh now this is getting good’, I thought to myself. They fell in love and right after they got married….yep, he was shipped of to his first term in Iraq. Evidently this young man had mastered the language very quickly and his services were needed to translate in Iraq.
Boy, did I have a lot of questions then. First he informed me that when he got to Iraq the language was so different from what he had learned that he needed to re-learn it from the locals for another 4 months before he could begin his work.
My mind was so curious….And what about the weapons of mass destruction? Oh there were many conversations between him and his comrades – they knew there were none.
How long were you there? What experience impacted you the most out there? What did you learn about yourself? About the Iraqi people? Did I feel like I was prying? A bit. But he never once said that he didn’t want to talk about it so I didn’t let up. People interest me. I didn’t want to hear the gory details; I was more interested in his thoughts and how it may have changed his life or his perspective on life.
Everything he told me seemed pretty matter of fact until he started talking about the Iraqi people. Then his face lit up. He said that the people were so kind and helpful to him. That he worked with many of the locals and they were more than happy to assist him in any way they could.
On another note…his wife informed me that her brother had also served in Iraq and every member of his platoon were killed except him and a handful of other men. And when he got home and was in dire need of support – his mind couldn’t handle all that he saw and he started to have seizures – the VA thanked him for his duties and graciously paid 20% of his health bills. Gee thanks, that is so kind of you. After going to court he was able to get them to pay 60%. But now she says that in his present mental condition he does not have the wherewith all to fight for more. So he lives…
How unfair it is that all of these young men and women fight for our country, which they have chosen to do, only to come home to feeling abandoned by their country that they dedicated and risked their lives for. I understand that someone signs up for duty. They are aware of the risks and the atrocities that happen during war time. But…and this is a big but…is it too much to ask for that they be given 100% paid for health care? Is it too much that they be given what ever emotional or physical support is needed to help get them back to a state or normalcy, if even possible?
My time is over.
Madaline: I will contact you through our channels.
Readers: Thoughts on anything? Blog me. I’ll address the commentators tomorrow. Peace out….
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: Your Bad Ass Bitch Editor
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November 16th, 2008 at 10:01 am
DOES YOUR SURGEON HAVE ENOUGH EXPERIENCE?
Experience matters. Whether in the boardroom, classroom or operating room, you’re in better hands when those hands have done the job many times before. When it comes to surgery, in particular, where mistakes can cost lives, recent studies show that outcomes are far better when the procedure is performed by a skilled, experienced surgeon in a hospital or ambulatory surgical center that performs a significant volume of a particular operation. Yet vital as this information is, it can be hard to come by unless you know where to look and what questions to ask.
For advice on how to evaluate a particular surgeon and institution so you can make the best decision about where to have a procedure performed and by whom, I turned to Thomas R. Russell, MD, executive director of the American College of Surgeons and author of the book, I Need an Operation… Now What? He had helpful advice on where consumers can look to learn more about surgeons and surgical procedures, as well as a useful list of questions to ask a surgeon before you schedule the operation.
EVIDENCE SHOWS IMPORTANCE OF EXPERIENCE
There is truth to the old adage that practice makes perfect, Dr. Russell observes. The more times a surgeon performs an operation, the more adept he/she becomes at doing it. He also points out that nowadays surgery is very much a team effort that relies on the contributions of many skilled professionals, from anesthesiologists to assistant surgeons to nurses, all of whom should be experienced. Your goal should be to have your operation done in an institution that performs it regularly, not just once or twice a year — and with good outcomes no matter how complicated or “simple” your procedure is.
If you are going to an academic hospital, remember that teaching hospitals operate differently. Be aware that each July, a new group of first-year physicians-in-training arrive at teaching hospitals. These young doctors are guided by senior surgeons, so they are not flying solo — but it’s fair to express concern about being in inexperienced hands, by saying something along these lines to the more experienced doctor: “I have some concerns about being treated by the surgical resident, and I want to make sure that if one is involved, you will have oversight and will supervise closely.”
FINDING THE DATA
The problem is, there is no single authoritative database where you can look up a particular procedure to find a formula of how many operations a surgeon has to have done, in a hospital that has how many of them each year, in order to predict a successful outcome. In this new age of transparency, however, a number of government agencies, academic institutions and medical facilities are working to fill this gap with evidence-based studies and numbers that help consumers figure out this information.
Not surprisingly, research overwhelmingly shows the importance of experience on the parts of both the surgeon and the institution. For example…
• Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City found that a prostate cancer patient’s chance of recurrence depends on his surgeon’s level of experience. Surgeons who have performed 250 radical prostatectomies have a higher cure rate.
• To increase the odds your colonoscopy will be performed with technical competency, seek a doctor who has done more than 150 of them, according to researchers at Soon Chun Hyang University in South Korea.
• At hospitals where a high volume of a particularly complicated pancreatic surgery, called a Whipple procedure, is performed by only a small number of experienced surgeons, the mortality rate from the operation is less than 4%, according to the University of Southern California. Elsewhere, death rates may be as high as 15% to 20%.
• The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality provides the following list specifying the number of particular procedures you’d want to know are done in a hospital each year before deciding to have one of these operations done there…
• Esophageal cancer surgery: 7
• Pancreatic cancer surgery: 7
• Abdominal aortic aneurysm repair: 32
• Carotid endarterectomy: 101
• Coronary artery bypass graft surgery: 500
• Percutaneous coronary angioplasty: 400
ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
When meeting with a surgeon, remember that it’s all about what’s best for you. Frame the appointment in your mind as an interview, taking the opportunity to sit with your potential surgeon and speak openly and frankly about all your treatment options, and how much experience he/she has had with each of them. Dr. Russell recommends that you ask the following questions:
• How many of these procedures have you performed in your career?
• How many of these operations have you done in the last year?
• What range of outcomes have you experienced with this procedure, with approximately what frequencies?
• How many of these procedures are done at this hospital each year?
• What is the history of complications from this surgery at this institution? What is the death rate? What is the rate of resulting impairment? Have you been involved in litigation around this procedure?
If a doctor is unwilling or unable to discuss these questions, provides unsatisfactory answers or is impatient with you for asking them, it’s not unreasonable to seek another opinion.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK
Patients today need to educate themselves about their health-care choices, stresses Dr. Russell. In addition to asking doctors questions, there are many reputable internet Web sites where you can learn a great deal about treatment options and the surgeons and hospitals offering them. These include sites associated with the government, such as MedlinePlus, and the National Cancer Institute, organizations like the American Cancer Society, and the Arthritis Foundation, and academic institutions including Mayo Clinic, and Cleveland Clinic.
Useful Web sites for comparing the records of doctors and hospitals in their performance of various procedures include Hospital Compare and The Leapfrog Group. Castle Connolly Medical publishes America’s Top Doctors directory and of course, that’s a good place to find your surgeon’s name listed. You can confirm the specialty certification of your doctor at the American Board of Medical Specialties at, and check to see if a health care organization is accredited by The Joint Commission at. The American Medical Association’s doctor finder at will help you find licensed physicians and their credentials, education, etc.
Admittedly, getting all these answers before a surgical procedure requires some effort. But it behooves you to choose your surgeon with care, since your life is, quite literally, in his/her hands — and therefore it’s worth the extra time it takes to ensure that those hands are as experienced as they need to be.
Source(s): ?
Thomas R. Russell, MD, executive director, American College of Surgeons. Dr. Russell is author of I Need an Operation… Now What? (Thomson Healthcare).
November 16th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I talk a lot too. I find that it opens up people if you allow them to speak once you get the conversation going.
Greg
November 16th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Mischa, sorry, been busy training in the art of not talking and the even more important: detachment. So, in answer to the first q in your e-mail: no. I will respond to the rest of the content soon.
Sweet pea, I wasn’t expecting to hear from you anytime soon, so glad you’re well and still on safe ground. It’s best to be prepared if you’re going to do this Sudan thing, lean and fit are good attributes to possess no matter what is going on in life. My hope is that the cease fire called two days ago makes your quest to avenge/achieve revenge a moot point, though I know they haven’t worked in the past. I’m sorry to say that, it’s not meant to offend you. I know you’ll do what you wish/need anyway. Just bc we differ on how this whole Nia affair could be handled, it doesn’t mean I think you’re crazy. I do not think that at all. I do think you may be slaying one dragon only to create another…and then that one will need to be slain also. I’ll say no more now, have to keep with my practice for now, the not talking and detachment (especially when it comes to concerning myself with your welfare).
- Zen Lill
November 16th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Zen my sweetness
I always welcome your input. Your thoughtfulness and warm heart brings a wisdom that is precious in its honesty to any issue. I hope you will continue to voice your opinion.
You are correct about my opinion of the “cease fire.” I have a quest for justice. It must be carried out. I am working as diligently as I can to bring this old body to a reasonable facsimile of its old self.
Should I not make it let me tell the plans of the new revised RNC. They are going to launch many attempts to legitimize the cult based on polygamy and wealth amassment by on giving breaks and special deals and consideration to fellow mormons.
On its premise it is the most ridiculous concept for the formulation of a religion. Like Islam it was based on giving the men total control over their females. Free sex is a power lure to sexually inadequate men and socially arrested men.
The silly part of the book of mormon is that it is simply a collection of revised biblical chapters where white men convert the jewish experience into one by white men. They even make god jesus and his angels white. Sought of nazis with religion. These are people who rape, murder, rob, steal, threaten with death any who opposed their beliefs. Today they justify their history by trying to weave these criminals from their founder Joseph Smith to the present day characters who control their followers with threats of exile for the rest with the subsequent loss of financial benefits gained by giving each other special benefits.
It is a primary goal of the RNC to legitimize the Mormon faith so that their Mormon candidates will be accepted by the rest of America. This cult murdered whites so they had no qualms about murdering OTWs. The mormon cult justifies their crimes by saying that the murders were themselves victims because they were ordered to murder and they believed they were doing the work of god.
In the last decade the cult felt forced to accept OTWs into the religion. The core await the days when the ovens can be opened to punish these beasts that have presumed to walk among white men as equals. Likewise they have sworn off polygamy to the public. Yet it is still condoned secretly. The women are told that it is god’s will and if they are to be saved by god they have to comply. They claim that they as men are directed by god to practice polygamy.
If I may be more clear. As in most schemes designed to enrich a few via the deluding the many into a belief, those at the top only profess the belief to profit from the ignorance of the mass followers.
In the end the book of mormon is about treasure hunting and satisfying a man’s sex drive to the followers, but to the leaders it is about power and money.
Americans would be surprised to know how many of the top echelon in the State Department, Military, all The Secret Security departments of government are totally controlled by these mormons.
Theocracy is the goal of the leaders of the mormon cult. No difference from islamic governments or other cults. Minus Cool-Aid, there is no difference between Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and Jim Jones of the peoples temple. Their leaders have certainly murdered more people.
I have and continue to work with some of the most fanatic members of this cult. Excommunication is their greatest fear. Patriotism means nothing to the mormons. They obey their leader’s orders because they believe that he is a living god. Most of their women are as educationally abused as any in those other cults like islam.
Over the next few years polygamy, mormonism and the benefits from being a part of a group that rewards its members financially and sexually will be constantly put before americans for acceptance.
Anonz
November 17th, 2008 at 5:43 am
Q: My friend has gout. What causes this, and how can he get relief?
A: Gout is a type of arthritis that causes intense aching, usually in the feet and especially the big toe. It develops when uric acid (a normal waste product of protein metabolism) crystallizes and builds up in the joints. Risk factors include hypertension, high cholesterol and/or high triglycerides (blood fats), obesity, diabetes and a family history of gout. Many people with gout have insulin resistance, a prediabetic condition in which the body’s cells don’t properly use the glucose-transporting hormone insulin. This raises levels of insulin and glucose, impairing the kidneys’ ability to remove uric acid from the body. Alcohol, organ meats and shellfish (especially shrimp) may increase uric acid levels, provoking a gout attack within 24 hours. A gradual buildup of uric acid can occur from long-term use of aspirin or various diuretics.
To minimize uric acid formation and crystallization, your friend should eat lots of fiber and limit less healthful carbohydrates, such as cookies and soda… drink 64 ounces of water daily… eat one to two dozen fresh, frozen or dried Bing cherries daily, or take 1,000 mg three times daily of cherry extract… and take celery seed extract at a dose of 500 mg three times daily.