Showing posts with label cancer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cancer. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

No Cancer...at least not in me.

As of today, I've spent more time in the tube of an MRI scanner than in my car. The last test I had was a PET scan, which is an interesting experience if you've never traveled that route.

The test begins with the filling out of several forms detailing the assorted dangers of radioactivity. This is because prior to laying down in the scanner, the nurse will approach you with a needle the size of a Desert Eagle handgun. The vial holds, I'm not kidding, a glowing green fluid that belongs on the set of The Incredible Hulk. You see this green fluid through a small window in the vial. The rest of the structure is a lead container nearly identical to a radioactive waste container.

The stuff they inject is radioactive enough that you become the power that runs the scanner. Anything suspicious will show up as a dark spot in the printed scan. Precautions after the test include sitting down when you wee and avoiding standing near children and pregnant women.

The small spot in my lower right lung barely lit up. The area in my cervical spinal cord did not show any activity at all, so whatever is going on there, it isn't cancer. What lit up a lot was the collection of lymph nodes near my bronchial tubes. So, yesterday they went in and took out a few. The surgeon immediately pronounced them to be granulomas. A granulnoma is one of a number of forms of localized nodular inflammation found in tissues. The fact that a granuloma is localized is important. So is its nodularity. Granulomas have a typical pattern when examined under a microscope. The really important bit is that they are not cancer.

On another front, it appears that socialism has metastasized in Washington D.C..
The US House and Senate are about to vote on bill that will outlaw organic farming(bill HR 875).
The main backer and lobbyist is Monsanto. Monsanto makes chemical fertilizers, go figure. The husband of the Congresswoman who dropped the bill just happens to be a Monsanto official. Hmmm.

This bill will require organic farms to use specific fertilizers and insecticides dictated by the newly formed agency to "make sure there is no danger to the public food supply". This will include backyard gardens that grow food only for a family and not for sales. Can anyone remember the text of George Orwell's 1984?

Henry Kissinger put it this way: "Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control people." The Obama Administration is an amalgamation of the Clinton Administration and all the assorted far left radicals that made the 60's and 70's worth forgetting. Obama has never rejected his Weatherman connections nor those who called for the execution of millions of US citizens when they achieved power. He is systematically dismantling our economic system, and it appears that the big news networks are going right along with his plan.

I wonder is any of them remember what Pol Pot, Mao and all the others did to their friends in publishing when the revolution was over?

Monday, March 2, 2009

Last Post...for a while at least.

This is my last post for what could be a very long time; possibly forever. You see, I may have cancer.

In September, I began experiencing a creeping numbness, beginning with my feet and eventually encompassing both legs and hips. As I type this I feel some of it in my right hand. The MRIs show a mass in the spinal cord in my neck that may or may not be malignant. There is every possibility that in order to continue living, I will have to have micro surgery. Unfortunately, my insurance may not allow me to go to the one clinic that knows how to perform the operation, the Mayo Clinic in Arizona.

Good doctors are leaving Nevada en mass. The primary reason is that the legal community, along with gleeful help from the insurance industry, is driving them away. The only growth industry in Nevada right now is that of the ambulance chaser attorney. Because of that, and a tendency of the courts to not want to hold anyone personally responsible for their own idiotic actions, liability coverage for doctors has skyrocketed in Nevada.

One of the first effects of the doctor exodus is a lessening of options for patients seeking medical help. When you are the only provider, customer service isn't a priority.

Health Insurance is another problem. Most coverage offered in Nevada isn't worth the time it takes to fill out the forms. HPN is the largest provider and the worst in providing coverage. The problem is that those running the company see the premiums their policyholders as a path to personal wealth rather than payment for services rendered. Unfortunately, most insurance companies have this attitude. The loser is us.

In my quest for a medical solution to my problem, I have run into incompetence, corruption, self-serving rapaciousness and laziness that, in any truly civilized society, should lead to jail time for the offenders. In this state there will be no movement from those empowered to protect the populace because they are owned by those reaping the financial rewards of corruption. Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie is chairwoman of the Health and Human Services Committee. During the last legislative session she prevented a bill that would have stopped hospitals from charging a patient for non-delivered products and services. Guess who donates large amounts to Assemblywoman Leslie’s campaign.

Sheila Leslie is only one example. As a Nevada State Assemblyman, I saw literally dozens. Hers is actually less hypocritical than most.

Here is a question for you. Why is it that nearly every power that be in Nevada goes out of state for medical care?