December 17, 2012

I couldn't get my shoe on this morning. Investigating I found this small, cloth, catnip-filled mouse in it:

I love these Kitty Kids!

I received some new nose hoses for oxygen delivery today. I was on my last (repaired) hose when they arrived. 

I have been thinking about the murders  at Sandy Hook Elementary School  and have concluded that they are forcing lots of sane folks to reevaluate their views on guns and gun control. I wonder even that will do much good. Guns are a multi-billion-dollar-a-year business and, like the oil industry, it owns a lot of politicians.

Rest in Peace, Congressional Medal of Honor winner and the  Senate's second-longest serving member, Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii. He died at age 88.

I've not been feeling well for the past two weeks or so. One of the problems has been elevated blood sugar. Since the beginning of being diagnosed with sugar diabetes and beginning oral medication five or so years ago, my blood sugar has average between 120 - 130. Since the beginning of December, the readings have been much higher

Date	Time	Method	Blood Sugar Count
12/17/2012	06:20	Sterile Lancet	272
12/16/2012	06:50	Sterile Lancet	179
12/15/2012	07:00	Sterile Lancet	180
12/14/2012	09:00	Sterile Lancet	146
12/13/2012	09:50	Sterile Lancet	141
12/12/2012	10:00	Sterile Lancet	164
12/11/2012	09:10	Sterile Lancet	225
12/10/2012	07:00	Sterile Lancet	178
12/09/2012	09:00	Sterile Lancet	128
12/08/2012	08:00	Sterile Lancet	126
12/07/2012	07:40	Sterile Lancet	168
12/06/2012	07:00	Sterile Lancet	182
12/05/2012	07:00	Sterile Lancet	153
12/04/2012	07:00	Sterile Lancet	202
12/03/2012	07:00	Sterile Lancet	113
12/01/2012	07:00	Sterile Lancet	131

Day Ninety-nine

Today has not begun well! I'll not go into details now. Thus far by 9:30 AM the following has happened:

• I awakened at 6:AM to find Little Girl sitting outside my bedroom door and that the last of my oxygen tubing had been ripped open to the point that duct tape can't repair it. I am using bottled oxygen and the portable oxygen converter with a short hose until the oxygen folks arrive later today with replacements.
• My back hurts to the point that I can't stand or walk without great pain...
• so I'm sitting at my desk because the portable oxygen isn't compatible with my lift chair and it hurts too much to stand and make it compatible.
• For some unknown reason, last night Alex decided to defecate on the rung below his window perch.
• I'm into another fit of sneezing that the saline solution and blowing my nose doesn't stop.
• My agenda includes a couple of must-do items that are urgent, but I must be able to walk/drive to do them.

The good news is:

• the oxygen tubing is promised to be here by noon.
• my MD2U doc is to visit me at 1:00 PM.

Meanwhile, I have been able to feed the kitty kids and myself (a banana and my morning meds). The kids now eat regularly out of each other's food dishes, which make my feeding them much easier. Alex, however, still wants me to go to his dish and point out his food before he'll jump on his table and eat it. (Silly cat!)

After their breakfast, Sugar jumped on top of the printer, which sits beside my desk, and stared at me until I noticed her and placed on kitty treats on the printer top. Before she could eat them, Little Girl showed up and proceeded to eat Sugar's treats:

Sugar requested more treats. I gave her some more after Little Girl went exploring for some more trouble to get into.

Good news! I have ten replacement nose hoses, which is twice what I am allotted each month. Now if I can just keep the cats from chewing and clawing them.

A substitute MD2U PA visited me this afternoon. My regular PA had a baby two weeks ago and will be away another four or so weeks. I went over all of the medical stuff that has been bothering me the past several weeks and he said he'll call in two prescriptions, one antibiotic to deal with the infection in my lower left leg and one muscle relaxant for the pulled muscles in my lower back. 

He also confirmed that the nail on the big toe of my right leg in ingrown and needs attention. He can have someone visit me at my apartment, but it would cost me $35.00, which I don't have. I do have an appointment at the VA hospital in late December to have my toenails trimmed, so I telephoned and requested an earlier appointment. I've yet to receive a response from the VA.

As tomorrow's election draws near, I feel frightened and very anxious. If the GOP gains control of the federal government, I know I shall no longer have VA medical treatment and, in time, no Social Security income. The radical right-wing of the GOP has vowed to do away with both Social Security and the Veterans' Administration plus anything else that aids the poor, the elderly, and the infirm.

I am so sick of the deceit, deception, disinformation, and defamation of the GOP dirty tricks factory that thrown me into a deep depression, so deep that I can't watch TV and may even skip tonight's Monday Night Football. 

Day Thirty-five

At 5:30 this morning my online bank showed that my Social Security check had been deposited, so I left to purchase gasoline and food for the kitty kids and me. Outside the apartment I heard Sugar meowing, so I called her. She came out from behind a bush, would allow me to approach her but not pick her up. I opened the apartment door (through which she had escaped outside  two days ago), but she wouldn't go inside. She meandered onto the patio, I went into the apartment, opened the patio door, and sugar pranced inside. Now, almost 3 hours later, she had had her breakfast, lots of water, a double portion of kitty treats, and is now curled inside a canvas box, napping. Silly cat!

My response to the GOP and it's neofascist, right-wingers:

I purchased a large bag of cat food at the grocery this morning. A clerk helped me load it in my CR-V. Now I must figure out how to unload it and get it into the apartment without falling on my ass. I do have a cart I can use if I can find where my previous caregiver stored it.

I just received ia phone call informing me that a refund check will be mailed to me within the next 6 weeks. Hmmmmm, maybe it will arrive in time for Christmas?

Why can't these selfish right-wing idiots understand that Medicare isn't a give away to us old folks? I pay well over a $1000 a year for it and more considering the high cost of Medicare co-pays. That is a hell of a lot of money on my limited income. Bastard GOP fascists want to kill us elderly folks. Why not just put us in gas chambers the way Hitler and his crew who they seem to emulate did? I am pissed to no end.

Sugar and Little Girl played a bit today...

but most of the day Sugar spent napping.

Meanwhile, Alex ignored both of the female felines.

Day Thirty-four

This morning Alex published 17 photos of Sugar, Little Girl, and himself in his blog: Alexicon. The photograph above is one of them.

Sugar has not come home yet. [SIGH]

I refuse to watch the GOP convention. Although I don't have high blood pressure, the assaults on the poor, elderly, women, and gays, their outright lies, fabrications, deceit and dishonesty of those self-centered lackeys of the One Percent enrage me to the point of near cardiac arrest.

Day Twenty-five

Today I am attempting telephone contacts with government bureaucrats and lackeys of the 1%. I'm have a difficult time not becoming depressed.

Thus far today I've been unable to reach the bureaucrats with whom I've needed to speak at VA. I have spoken with someone at Montgomery Ward and my account has supposed been corrected to show PAID IN FULL. 

I don't know how long I can sit here doing this!

A CODE ORANGE AIR QUALITY ALERT FOR OZONE HAS BEEN ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FOR THE LOUISVILLE METRO AREA. MEMBERS OF SENSITIVE GROUPS MAY EXPERIENCE HEALTH EFFECTS.

Unfortunately, I am a member of two of those Sensitive Groups!

I'm giving up on the phone calls I've been making most of today. Since I'm not getting through to anyone at VA with whom I need to talk and Ma Bell only gets me robots and then people who can't assist me and who transfer me to another damned robot, I'm going to save my sanity, relax, and try again tomorrow.

This seems to come from the same "scientific reasoning" as the one Atkin used concerning rape:

Todd Akin would have made an excellent member of the Inquisition. 

I just prublished this graphic in my primary blog, Nick's Bytes:

With his engineering and managerial experience, Republican U.S. Representative William Todd Akin would have made an excellent witch hunter

This evening I am feeling an anxiety that is pushing me down into depression. It isn't what I can do or can't do that drives me into depression, it's the threats and power of idiot bureaucrats, politicians, religious freaks, and the lackeys of the 1% do that frighten me.