gag.judyanddan.com

A fellow in Germany has attached a camera to his cat’s collar. If you have ever wanted to see life from the a pet’s eye view check this out. Mr. Lee

I’m removing the comments options as in the past two days I’ve recieved over 908 “comments” advertising things that will help my penis grow (I don’t have one), drugs for hair loss (I have lots of hair–in the right places) and software I don’t need.

Ever go into work on a Monday, thinking you left everything in place, all was well and SURPRISE! Fires everywhere.

I think this visually sums up that sort of day MONDAY.

I recently watched a movie called What the bleep? that merged quantum physics and new discoveries such as the teleportation of molecules (Nature vol.443, 557″ Quantum teleportation between light and matter. ) with new age beliefs of consciousness. Eventually I bought a book which I am reading by Dean Radin called Entangled Minds.

I can’t make up my mind if quantum physics has unlocked door to new levels of existance and consciousness and explains the rare events of pre-cognition and other things we see or if it is all borderline cult hookum. But none-the-less through the book I found a site called got psi

I’ve been having lots of fun on it. Give it a try. Perhaps you’ll discover a hidden talent.

I am now going to engage in egobation. It is the opposite of what you do to yourself alone which is of course, the opposite of sex. You may have noticed a period of time where I seemed to stop writing.

Actually, I didn’t stop writing, I just stopped writing here. I was working on a chapter for a book. My chapter is on sterilization, disinfection and antisepsis. It now resides with my editor. I keep reading it over and over. At times saying, hmmm this is good and engaging in egobation and at other times berating myself that it could be more scholarly. But my aim was that the information was simply put and was easily read and hopefully applied.

I don’t think I can post the chapter here, as I think my publisher will hold the copyright, but here are a couple of gems I came across in my research. One of the things we know about the prevention of disease is proper handwashing. Widmer compiled statistics from various sources and looked at compliance rates in handwashing. Below are the rates of compliance for various venues.

• ICU (intensive care unit): 9-41%;
• Ward/ICU: 32-48%;
• Pediatric 37%;
• Surgical ICU 38%
• All ICUs 32%.

Scary, less than half the people in serious places like intensive care units properly wash their hands.

Widmer, A. F. Replace Hand washing with the use of a Waterless Alcohol Rub? Clin. Infect. Dis. 31:136-43. 2000.

The other thing to get back on my rant with nosiocomial infections in hospitals, some computer models were run. The found two simple things could decrease the rate nosiocomial infection. Not surprisingly they were (drum roll please): 1) Increase in handwashing (particularly among visitors) and 2) decrease in the number of patients each nurse had to care for. One also advocated for pre-screening all patients for MRSA.

Raboud, J. Saskin, R. Sior, A. Loeb, M. Green, K., Low, D. E. and McGeer, A. Modeling transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus among patients admitted to a hospital. 2005. Infect. Control Hosp. Epidemiol. 26(7):607-615

Cooper, B.S., Medlye, G. F. and Scott, G. M. Preliminary analysis of the transmission dynamics of nosocomial infections: stochastic and management effects. 1999. J. Hosp. Infect. 43(2):131-147. 1999.

Food for thought, none-the-less. Some of our biggest problems may have some very simple answers.

There are many different ways to analyze the coming presidential race. We have currently used the fish method.

We added to our fish tank three goldfish, one velvety black energetic one which we named Obama, a shiny hopeful gold one, which we named McCain and a lovely white one with a red dot, perhaps stain, on her forehead, who we christened Hillary. Also a bottom feeder that blends in well and is hard to see, but with politics there is always a lot of dirt to collect. Since he cleans messes up well, we named him Rudy Giuliani.

At first they made merry with all the other fish. Rubbed against them and shared political dinners. Hillary quickly convinced a small school of tiger barbs that she was one of them. Grrrrrrrrrr she roared and shook her tail. I’ll admit the school is quite integrated with two of a blue varietal, two of a pink varietal and two of a slightly aggressive black and white striped with flaming tips on their fins. But integration is good. She has them convinced that she is merely a different varietal, and not a different species all together. After all, perhaps not all presidents need to be tiger barbs. They only need to seem to be tiger barbs.

McCain went to skulk about the base of the castle and Obama, quickly went to spy on the Bushes…of algae.

Shortly thereafter, I came down to find McCain had quit the race. Belly up on the top of the bowl. Politics- a tough life. Not everyone can make it.

Obama, shortly thereafter got an eyeful with the Bushes and ended up with a parasite in his eye. Hillary also bloomed a red flower on her side and looked ill. Could the Bushes be up to no good? The tank was fine before I allowed these politicians in. Obviously they brought the parasites with them..but don’t they always.

Alas, Obama succumbed to the evil parasite.

Soon, other tank mates, living happy and quiet congress began to join them. A large spotted scat, named spot, known for his banishment to “the angry tank” after his attempted assassination of two brother scats. They didn’t recover from his attentions so he returned to rule the docks and other unsavory areas of the tank. But now that evil element has perished. Another, a Boseman’s rainbow fish, a member of the green party, usually flaunting a quiet blue color, soon became covered with a small pox of ick. Was this bioterrorism? Hillary proposed new funding to prevent further attacks. I poured in a parasitic general cure.

Now left in the tank (aside from the fawning school of tiger barbs) are Rudy G. and Hillary.

Does this predict the final race?

Who knows…only time and primaries will tell

We have X-10 sensors in the house that turn on lights for us when we walk into a room and use a computerized lighting controlling to control our holiday lighting shows. So I’m always on the lookout for the next thing that I can use to continue to turn our house into a responsive entity rather than just boring four walls that keep out the wind.

In my searches I found a product that deserves to be on You-Tube. The video is a must see. I won’t be getting one, but I could only imagine the social dynamics, the thought, the obsession that drove the inventor. Not only to think of this as one dark night once again he stubbed his toe, but to design, patent and market the device.

It is a light that lights up your toliet when the seat is up. Not when the seat is down, as women have the eyes of a cat and the ears of a bat and can see and hear in pitch darkness. Make sure you watch the video …Johnny Light.

Cars 71 and 2071 A Tale of Joy and Woe

While looking for my Daytona Top Banana Charger, I had the pleasure to drive two cars-cars 71 and 2071. When I found Car 2071, it was hidden behind the dealership as a small piece of plastic had been dislodged upon its arrival. No one had yet taken it for a test drive. It only had a mile or two on it. It was shining and rumbled happily at me as I drove it, hugging the curves, sparkling in the sunlight. The salesman who loved cars, carefully advised me of the 2000 mile break-in period as I merrily did 85 on a local interstate so I didn’t quite bring it up to its highest gear. I was in love..this was my car. My husband insisted (quite reasonably) that we visit a couple of dealerships with Daytona Top Bananas.

We called another dealership in Westchester County, NY an hour or so before our arrival and made arrangements to drive their car. Car 71. Alas…poor car 71. As this dealership didn’t have much space, car 71 languished on the rooftop in the hot sun for months and was brought down for me to drive covered in birdshit and the end of summer kamikaze suicides of every species of mosquito and moth known to man. But beauty is only skin deep and I know many good deals have been made with the eye on the carwash in the very near future. I gingerly let myself into the car not allowing my clothing to touch any part of its exterior. The dealer tossed me the keys and said, ” Have fun!” I turned out onto the road and noticed, not that the car was near empty, but the gas tank red light was on with an estimated gas mileage of under a mile. The engine sounded labored. And the car handled oddly, as if it had quite a few very adventurous test drives. I brought the car back and one of the people working at the dealership managed to reach its highest gear and chirp the tires while driving three feet into a parking space. Poor car 71!

So today I happily picked up car 2071. It is a delight and a joy. Picture below! I only hope car 71 has as happy a fate!

Today we finished larvciding and return to our regular posts. Here is a picture of one of my team-mates, taking a load off his feet, having a well deserved rest.

Public health services do not discriminate. They provide services to all members of the public regardless of socioeconomic status or position. This open air car-parts emporium in a slightly less well-heeled section of town was blissfully treated for the prevention of the West Nile Virus by our team today.

The New York Post published the cartoon below on June 15th. The New Yorker had a magazine cover of new graduates all running around chairs with too few chairs for them to sit in once the music stops. In my mind I hear the tune of “pop goes the weasel” that was used for that game as a child. The question who is the weasel today, industry with too few jobs for Americans because of outsourcing and crowd sourcing, the for-profit college education system that encourages years spent in study for jobs in areas that do not exist, or are the students themselves blind and lazy taking a 4 year or more vacation without facing up to what the world actually holds. Who knows? But continuing to breed such discontent will no doubt bring momentum for change. The only problem is if change is undirected it will no doubt be destructive.

Yes, its true. They break the happiness area of your brain. In a recent article by Daniel Gilbert of
Time (June 19, 2006) he states:

“Studies reveal that most married couples start out happy and then become progressively less satisfied over the course of their lives, becoming especially disconsolate when their children are in adolescence and returning to their initial levels of happiness only after their children have had the decency to gorw up and go away.”

That is just a teaser. For the rest of the article see TIME.

Some people think working in the civil service is a pretty cushy job. Perhaps it is … sometimes. A few of our English cousins may have taken things a bit too far, forgetting their office was being watched by official web cam. The one that catches my fancy is the naked civil servants playing superman by leaping off cabinets. < –hint click here.

The BBC adds breakdancing to the list of offenses.

Some of us in the culture of work today thought having our E-Mail read through by IT and websites visited catalogued was bad. Granted the English civil servants took things a bit too far, but I still find the idea of cameras watching your every move a bummer.

Just what did this agency do?

“The RPA was set up in 2001 and is responsible for paying subsidies to farmers under the European Union’s common agricultural policy. ”

What was the final disciplinary action taken with theses civil servants? One was fired. I am trying to figure out which one was the worst offender, the one that fought, the one that did break dancing, the ones that had sex , the naked ones or the ones that vomited in cups?

I happen to have information from an inside source that they have an excellent union. Hmmmmmmmm perhaps I ought to live it up a bit more, I am a union member.

My hubby the computer wiz can get this program to do all sorts of fun things. One of the things he has been showing me is the fact I have been spreading American popular culture throughout the world. Here are my top 14 readers by country for the month of June (a low volume and diversity month so its easy to fit the chart in a short post)! Greetings to you all!

One part of my job as a sanitarian, is to check walk in boxes. These are large, sometimes room-sized refrigeration units. This year while in Ireland I was touring a small garden outside Castle Lismore in County Waterford . There was the stone structure pictured below. It was the castle’s pre-electrical walk-in box. It had an igloo like opening on the other side, where you walked through a short tunnel. Then there was a large barred surface that sat over a pit. The pit was about 30 feet deep. During the winter the castle serfs and slaves would fill the pit with ice and snow. It would stay cool throughout the summer allowing fresh game and other goods to be stored above it. Oh for the good old days when there were serfs!

Have you ever swerved around one of those yellow trucks and cursed those people slowing you down? Well stop it please! Today I was out driving for my local health department and someone was putting larvicide in catch basins for our ungrateful public. People cut by the truck, almost ran us down and called us “cunt” and “bitch” in the process. I think the picture below taking at the DOT before we left says it all. The car was nearly sideswiped and the person on the street working nearly run down. I reported this to my supervisor who just sort of grins as if we are not macho enough.

In the past, so much of what I have planted has been beautiful, deer-proof, but lacking in scent. Now that we put up our fence, I have just planted 12 Mr. Lincoln red rose bushes and 6 Double Delight rose bushes. The Double Delight are red and white together and have won awards for their scent. Once I add a little lavender and a few miniture rose bushes the bed will be done. For the arbor I planted a coral colored climbing rose combined with a vividly deep pink clematis. I love spring! I’ll post some pictures when I have a garden of blooms, instead of the bare canes and sprouts I have now. But the end result should produce a lovely fragrant bed.

Last weekend I went to Macy’s with a friend of mine. As there are pictures of me on the site, its no secret I went down the woman’s aisle but I’ll add she found the petite aisle. I happyily found a great pair of Tommy Hilfiger jeans with fabulous hand beading down the sides. I immediately fell in love with them and bought them for far too much money. I know I’ll probably loose some sleep wondering if a child in a 4th world country went blind making them. I was only in Macy’s because I had a refund to use, for merchandise only, from something my husband returned for Christmas. So much of what they usually have is well crafted fabric boxes, overlaid with another layer of a long jacket in a bright color. Yeah, that will make me look fashionable and thin! I’ll shop Torrid, over Macy’s any day.

So, I happily joined my friend in “thin-land”. She had performed the miracle I have seen many times over, buying something in ultra-tiny for a miniscule amount. In this case, a lovely evening dress marked down to $20.00. Back at the fat-land isle, the sale evening dresses started at a mere $99.00. Come on, there isn’t that much more material in them. So as gracious thin one was checking out, the clerk urged her to spend another ten dollars so she could get a large free Tommy Hilfiger tote. But it had to be more Tommy Hilfiger. She declined. But..

I whipped out my receipt and pointed to the rack of totes…”Hey, I qualify”, and the clerk tried to get me a free tote. So she can’t ring it up, so she calls her manager, another of the thin. Her manager looks at me and goes, “Well, you have to spend over $3o.oo” at her co-worker. Her co-worker assures her I did. The manager then peers over her glasses and says in a condenscending voice “It has to be Tommy Hilfiger” and looks at me doubtfully. At this point I was tempted to point out her attitude. The other clerk, a nice well rounded women, assured her that it was. So she peered over her thick glasses again and I got my tote.

However, this offer was not made to me over at “fat-land” counter. This is a clear example of both economic and social bias driven by the images that we are taught by advertisers to be “cool” and “acceptable”. I protest. I now have another big fat reason to stay out of Macy’s.

As I was driving about town today, between my exhilarating inspections of food service establishments and asking “Have you had your hood cleaned today or is it a haven for a city-state of cockroaches?” in a slightly more tactful manner, I felt a need to amuse myself. No matter what you have seen on TV, being a health inspector can be a mundane job at times. So I started to take note of bumper stickers as I waited for lights to change from red to green.

There seemed to be more God related bumper stickers floating about. A van in front of me, proudly displaying union membership stickers, also sported “Keep using my name in vain and I’ll double the length of your rush hour-God.”

Others I saw stating that Jesus is coming or Will the road you are on get you to me?-God And the writers of these think they are getting into heaven…

These stickers are used to show that the car is being driven by a God-fearing individual who is so righteous they may actually speak for God. I decided to check the net for availablity of bumper stickers, so I too, can speak for God. And lo and behold, like the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, they are fruitful and hath mutiplied exponentially. However, the ones I like are not the ones I’ve been seeing a little too scarily often.

The listing of my favorites are:

If God speaks to you, consider medication!

Annoy a Christian, Think for
Yourself

Jesus Loves you, everyone else thinks you are an asshole

Jesus is coming, look busy

And my number one favorite is:

God protect me from your followers!

A rather scary website is America Bless God. They will provide you with bumper stickers, brochures, and more to inflict on your co-workers, people who were once your friends and teach you how to be totally intolerant of any other religion. And its FREE, all for FREE!

But you have to admit it has good intentions! First Afganistan, then Iraq and right after Syria and Korea…….the world police will provide a democratic afterlife. Who is God anyhow, setting himself up as sole totalitarian ruler like Saddam Hussein! Let America show the way. America will bless God. In a truely democratic afterlife, could people in hell vote? I mean if you let all the rif-raft vote you end up with them electing groups like Hamas. We need to have a real democratic afterlife here! Maybe only those appropriately blessed by America can then vote. One thing for sure, first thing is we’d turn off those hot and cold running virgins…yessirree bubba that would solve us some problems!

But there is one bumper sticker that doesn’t seem to be designed to annoy, exclude, condem or incite to riot. God bless the whole world, No Exceptions.

Where did we (Christian America) or other countries get the idea that their way was the only way and the right way? Well from their holy books. Well that is another enlightening post that is on its way.

Until then, God bless the whole world, no exceptions!

I came across a blog by Sandmonkey. He pointed out the the terribly offensive cartoons of Mohammad were also published by an Egyptian Newspaper. Click here to see-Cartoons of Mohammad in a Muslim Newspaper.
The current protests are about showing the image of Mohammad. Period. So to show the image in an Egyptian newspaper should be just as sacreligious as to show in in an American or French one. But apparently, images of Mohammad become invisible in Muslim newspapers.

One of the acts that seemed to enrage the muslim activists even further was the fact that the cartoons were reprinted by a French newspaper. This was just in support of free speech..or was it?

Another blogger, The Arabist, reveals this interesting fact:
“I would have dropped the issue altogether were it not from this BBC report which reveals an amusing fact about France Soir, the French daily that republished the cartoons: it is owned by Rami Lakah, French-Egyptian runaway businessman and politician extraordinaire”

Other bloggers also report that many muslims are being incited by text and phone messages recieved over mobile phones.

Eccentric Star writes:

“It is also worth mentioning that mobile phone text messages (SMS) played an important part in inflaming public opinion throughout the Arab world and circulating rumors, such as the one claiming groups intended to burn the Quran in the center of Copenhagen.:”

More than one source among middle Eastern bloggers are now viewing this as a directed campaign rather than sporadic and spontaneous outbursts from the truely offended faithful. The salient question here is who is behind trying to accelarate the level of this madness. The phone service often mentioned is Vodaphone. I imagine that the source of such messages are quite traceable. I wonder if anyone has asked them?

I also recently discovered a cartoon called Jesus and Mo.

Now if we could only get the two of them together to draft a message to the faithful on both sides!

But speaking of cartoons, in response to this Iran is hosting its own cartoon contest to mock the holocast. But not to be outdone, the Israelis are holding their own cartoon contest, because they think they can do a better job. Probably.
The results of this creative genius will be shown on Boomka.

I think this has been just about a perfect weekend. When my husband wanted to get a hot tub, I thought we’d get it and it would be one of those things that would make him happy, but not do much for me. I did change my mind quickly. Sunday morning, it was a brisk 45 degrees, the temperature of the inside of a properly chilled refrigerator. We dashed out onto the deck and jumped into the hot tub. The contrast of the chill of the air and the silken heated bubbles of the hot tub was simply delicious.

Our delightful doggie decided to snooze on the deck when hark an evil cat crept into the yard. The cat was intent on catching one of the birds munching on the food from one of the two bird feeders and two suet holders. Naturally there were quite a number of them and the cat licked his whiskers.

Pssssst doggie, pssssssssst doggie my husband prompted. The dog opened one eye and looked up at the crazy humans in all that WET STUFF. Finally I prompted, hey Vee -Cat! And he was off the deck in a flash! The cat forgot how he found his way into the yard and raced a circuit about the yard. Vee, in his gentlemanly fashion, loped just quickly enough to keep the cat moving quickly but not too fast. The cat found his way out and Vee loped proudly back around the yard, having protected his fine feathered friends.

Hot tubs are fine places to watch the world from.

It seems that the state of medical errors in this country has not changed much and in fact the US is leading the entire world in death by medical errors.

USA leads world in medical errors

The article states: ” Based on a comparison of health care systems in six nations, the 2005 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey found that America led the rest in inefficient care and medical errors.”

And continued with ” Based on a comparison of health care systems in six nations, the 2005 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey found that America led the rest in inefficient care and medical errors.

Improper Treatment 34 Percent of the Time

Researchers interviewed patients who had a serious condition that required intense medical treatment or had been admitted to a hospital for a condition other than a routine pregnancy.

Patients in this country received the wrong medication, inaccurate or delayed test results, and improper treatment 34 percent of the time.
A third of the patients polled reported higher rates of disorganized care in their physician’s offices.
Americans also spent more on medical expenses than those in the other countries, with more than half unable to see a doctor or take prescribed medicines.

The spread between the United States and countries with lower error rates was fairly wide, with a 12 percent difference between Britain, which had the lowest rate of errors, and the United States. The American rate was driven up by fairly frequent test and medication errors”

The above paragraphs are excepts of a subject treated more thorougly on those sites. In previous years our rate of death by medical error has exceeded the number of people killed by car accidents as I mentioned in a previous post.

Scarily, when doctors have gone on strike the death rate has actually
decreased. http://www.mercola.com/2004/may/26/doctors_death.htm

You would think that errors must occur when medical professionals are hard at work by themselves without an extra pair of hands or eyes to notice things are not as they should be. But even when someone is there and sees the wrong, they seldom say anything.

The following link demonstrates that when co-workers have observed medical errors in their co-workers they are reluctant to talk about them.
http://www.mercola.com/2005/feb/9/health_care_mistakes.htm

The article mentions:

“Some actions observed in the above study that co-workers and
supervisors did not address were:
Some instances health workers were reluctant to talk to their
colleagues about included matters concerning:

Competence
Broken rules
Mistakes
Teamwork
Lack of support
Disrespect and micromanagement from doctors or supervisors”

May states have put caps on malpractice awards that may be given and
those states see an influx of medical doctors.
http://www.ahrq.gov/research/tortcaps/tortcaps.htm

In some cases the only way to effect change is to legally slap the entity with a fine. But we are not going to be able to do that as often or as hard no matter how bad the situtation.

Medical errors cost the country 37 billion a year
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/errback.htm

Complete with the rise in medical errors, this current administration
is proposing caps and cutting lawsuits against doctors for their
errors.

“The President is also proposing medical liability reforms. The costs
of medical liability insurance are driving doctors out of practice, or
are being passed on to patients and their employers in higher
insurance rates. In addition, the pressure of medical liability
lawsuits is causing more doctors to practice medicine defensively and
order more lab tests or exams than is necessary, which is driving up
health care costs even further. By enacting national medical liability
reform we will be able to address the problem of junk lawsuits against
doctors, clear our court system of unnecessary litigation, and help to
control health care inflation.”

So unless your problem is neat and observable, expect a less
compreshensive diagnosis and no recourse should your doctor kill or
maime you during his practice.

You might think that this really doesn’t matter. But let me interject with my story. Here is a list of over about the past ten years things that happend to my mother in hospitals and the various hospitals they happened in.

1995ish Westchester Medical Center Valhalla, New York. The roof is leaking. I walk in to find my mother’s bed in a pool of water, the controls for the bed and TV clipped to her nightgown, and lying in the pool of water, the power cords, plugged into the wall.

1995ish Westchester Medical Center Valhalla, New York
Nurse takes my diabetic mother’s blood sugar and tells her she does not need to take any insulin. Diabetics need insulin before a meal to keep their blood level stable.

November 2004 Westchester Medical Center
My mother entered the Westchester Medical Center in New York State for a simple test. One that used an iodine dye. She had previously known dye sensitivities. My mother had the angiogram at Westchester Medical Center and soon developed a fever and rashes on her skin. The rashes turned to blisters and daily her doctor, Dr. Cohen of the cardiac cath lab, would come in, look at the worsening skin and go “OH that looks better”. She asked for a dermatologist and the nurse told her she didn’t need one. Let’s remember she had previously known iodine dye sensitivities. Finally one came and took a skin sample which was never processed. She had an IV by this point and a friend who was also an RN noticed it was compromised and it took 24 hours to get it changed. She ended up crashing, painfully, the blisters on her legs breaking open, her kidney’s failing and was put in the burn unit where she then from the compromised IV developed septicemia.

2004 Westchester Medical Center Burn Center
They are amazed my mother is alive, so much of her skin has peeled off her body. In fact they have to take her to a shower table and peel the dead skin off her raw flesh. The table is shower table is motorized and the motor is broken so it is higher than my mother’s gurney. Two nurses cannot lift her that high and in trying slam her raw open skinnless flesh onto the higher table multiple times. I go to her room and find her bruised and crying in great pain.

2004 Westchester Medical Center Valhalla, New York
It’s Christmas Eve. Everyone is snuggled in their beds. Except my mother. This is post the peeling of the skin, multiple drug-resistant bacterial infections, etc detailed earlier. They sat her up in a chair. She cannot walk by herself and is a heavy woman with back problems and in a few hours is groaning in pain. She cannot get back to bed. Finally one nurse tries to get her into bed by herself and drops her on the floor. She can’t lift her up by herself so my mother lies on the floor for about an hour while she finds an orderly to help her.

2005 Westchester Medical Center-yes she is still here. Screaming in pain as she now has Clostridium dificile in her gut. I fight daily to get the pain management team to come in and address her pain or sedate her so she does not know she has it. They are afraid it will affect her breathing, do a minimal amount, and daily my mother begs me to kill her so she won’t feel anymore pain.

2005 Columbia Preysbaterian Post Quadrple bypass. My mother is told to get out of bed by the X ray tech and stand against the wall. She says she can’t. He gets her out of bed, pushes her against the wall for a standing X-ray, and as she told him she would, falls on the fall, on top of her surgical wound (which was reopend and re-sewn shut after the initial surgery. This causes great pain for a long period of time. The wound is disturbed during the pulling of her up from the floor. The bones no longer meet properly. The hospital files this under..shit happens. Later in her attempts at recovery, she develops a major infection of the wound and chest. This requires a second surgery. It is after this surgery that she developes chronic care myopathy and never comes off the venilator, is on dialysis and has a feeding tube permantly installed in her stomach surgically. I wonder if her wound had initally not been disturbed with this fall if she might not have gotten this infection.

Later in the year, back again at St. Luke’s Hospital, in Newburgh, New York, mother is transported from her nursing home, still on a ventilator, with a fever and infection. She is given an antibiotic to which she has an allergy. On her wrist she wears a medic alert bracelet that lists it as an allergy. She was also in that hospital two weeks previously and her charts also listed this as something that she is allergic to and that when she has an allergic reaction, it is extremely severe. I really think she might have had a chance at survival if they hadn’t made error after error after error to further insult her already weak body.

And I simply do not have the energy to list all the other little things that happend. For instance she was in a nursing home in August, it was over 85 degrees in her room. They took away her fan because they claimed it was a safety issue. In order to recieve medicare and medicaid coverage the highest temperature a room can be in the summer is 80 degrees.

Go to the others posts on Death, and Death and Dying and you will see more gory details.

But the undercurrent behind this, is, if this is what happened to one person, all of this, what is happening overall? I wanted to prevent someone else from goign through this.

So I complained to the New York State Department of Health. I gave them all the details. Even though the hospital investigation bureau is only one floor beneath me, and I work for a county health department, they would not meet with me face to face but only talk via the telephone or fax. I had faith that they would do something to prevent this from happening again. SIX MONTHS after filing my initial complaint they wrote to me to say they could find nothing was done wrong at all and that they could not even tell me the details of the investigations because of HIPPA rulings. I was my mother’s health care proxy and had her power of attorney and yet they would tell me nothing.

OK so I decide to go to a lawyer. I need my mothers medical records. It takes me three months to get them calling the hospital every single day. Here is the catch. A municipal hospital, such as Westchester Medical Center must be sued within three months of the patients release. It took me three months alone to get my records! And I do wonder about the political ramifications of Westchester Medical Center being government affiliated and the New York Department of State’s failure to find any wrong doing here, and the length of time it took them to get back to me.

But OK I get to a lawyer. The first lawyer Greg Bagen, who thought I had a case against Westchester Medical Center, if the filing date had not past, declined to take the case for that reason. I could still sue the medical doctor involved, The slimy sarcastic Dr. Cohen of the Cardiac Cath lab, who by the way, joked the entire way though my mother’s procedure making sarcastic comments on to his staff on how they would be doing twice the work and twice the patients with half the staff due to Medical Center Budget cuts…

So I go to the second lawyer. First I go back to Greg Bagen’s office to get my mother’s records. They give me a box that seems light and assure me it is everything I gave them. It turns out in the several months they were reviewing the records a second important filing date had passed and if we filed we might be able to make some sort of appeal to still get a case in…but I really had a better case against the first lawyer for letting these dates past. The second lawyer also thought the records were incomplete. OK…so I decide I can’t sue. I don’t want to sue because I want money, I want the hospital to straighten up and fly right.

Last week (this is months and months after I went to the second lawyer who partially based on the medical records didn’t take the case) I get a letter from Greg Bagen that is he declining the case but he still has my mother’s medical records. I call them up and told them of my previous visit and that they told me I had all the records then…..
The secretary refused to deal with it and said she would take a message and yes there was a big box of my mother’s medical records there….

I never got a call back or an explaination.

One of the reasons the second lawyer didn’t take the case was explained to me by the fact that it cost him $30,000 to prepare and file for a case. If the case could not promise a $300,000 return, because of the tight regulation on medical malpractice lawyers, he could not take the case. In fact it pretty much had to be an almost guarenteed case for him, otherwise he couldn’t stay in practice. And additionally to that many states are putting caps on the amount of awards that can be given.

So am I mad? Yes I am. Very. And I haven’t quit yet. I want to know who regulates the regulators, who let’s Westchester Medical Center take 3 months to get medical records to you when that is your filing deadline, I want to know why the New York State Department of Health takes 6 months to find NOTHING. I want to know if the reason they found nothing was because Westchester Medical Center was a government enterprise and they are a government entity. Can a regulator regulate itself? I want to know why hospital administrators only try to make things go away and not try to effect change. I want to know why St. Luke’s Hospital, when my mother was recieving medical treatment and her medical doctor stated it was necessary that she remain in a hospital was able to cancel her medicare payments and put her on private pay at three times the rate when I would not let her go to a subactute ventilator/dialysis facility so far away the family could not be with her and one that would also be detrimental to her health and treatment. All of these things seem to be at best unethical and I cannot imagine do not violate laws of fraud and more.

Hospitals are money making enterprises. The almightly dollar is first and avoiding liability is second. They love boutique enterprizes like joint surgery clinics that are cash cows and hate having do things that actually serve the community and are dependent on medicare payments.

The lowest degree of error and death by medical malpractice is in Great Britain at the moment. A country with socialized medicine. Perhaps its time to kill the medical cash cow.

My link on MSN expired regarding workplace behavior so I’ve decide to update that post as a public service. Workplace harrassment has resulted in fines in the millions of dollars. So when you are just “having a little fun” no matter how many friends you have or how long you have been there, when that fun comes with million dollar price tags, it is likely you will be asked to seek employment elsewhere. I found a nice defination on wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_harassment

Sexual harassment is harassment of a sexual nature, typically in the workplace or other setting where raising objections or refusing may have negative consequences. In American employment law, it is defined as any unwelcome sexual advance or conduct on the job, having the effect of making the workplace intimidating or hostile.

Most individuals are saavy enough today to know that they shouldn’t make catcalls at co-workers, try to cop a feel or other such blatent activities. What many do not realize is that if you attempt in an organized fashion to make that person uncomfortable in the work place, try to intimidate them, it falls under this law. This can be a bit tricky.

I found an interesting test online and the link is below. As these links tend to expire, I cut and pasted two of the example questions below.

http://www.workrelationships.com/site/quiz/

1. Yuri Anders and Elsa Engle are new employees who have just come to the United States from Sweden. Already, Yuri is famous for his “Swedish” jokes, some of which are slightly off-color. Elsa tries to be a good sport, but she quickly tires of Yuri making fun of her native country. When she hints around for Yuri to knock it off, he tells her, “Hey, lighten up. I’m making fun of myself. If I’m a Swede and don’t mind Swedish jokes, neither should you.” Yuri’s behavior is:

a. illegal

b. inappropriate

c. okay, since he making fun of his own cultural background

d. effective, since he is showing his new colleagues that he has a sense of humor

1. B. Inappropriate workplace behavior. More than one person has gotten into trouble thinking he or she could tell a racial or gender-based joke as long as it was targeted toward his or her own race or gender. The fact that homesick Elsa is also sick of Yuri’s jokes should be a strong incentive for Yuri to reconsider his humor strategy; if he doesn’t, his behavior could cross the line from inappropriate to illegal.

10. Andrea works on the factory line at company X. Andrea considers herself to be pretty tough; she’s been around the block a few times and is confident that she can speak up and take care of herself. However, several of her coworkers are from a country that values respecting authority. It bothers her that her line manager often takes advantage of their quiet demeanor, teases them in a sexual manner, and says things to intentionally embarrass them when he is stressed. She doesn’t know what to do, though, since he doesn’t do those things to her. What is happening to Andrea could be considered:

a. none if her business

b. third party sexual harassment

c. a stressful work situation that impacts Andrea’s work performance

d. the inevitable consequences of a tough boss

e. b and c

10. E. Third party sexual harassment and a stressful work situation for Andrea. The courts have clearly found that, if the sexual behavior directed towards other employees begins to adversely impact someone else’s work, then this could be an example of third party sexual harassment. At the very least, this situation is inappropriate, stressful for Andrea, and likely to lower all of the employees’ job motivation.

At this point you shrug and say sexual harassment doesn’t happen that much. Its only whiney….b___tchs. Well most college students today report that they have been sexually harassed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11005342/

“Common types of physical harassment include being touched, grabbed or
pinched in a sexual way, or intentionally brushing up against someone
in a sexual way, the study found.

Flashes of frontal or rear nudity, calling someone gay, lesbian or a
homophobic name or spreading sexual rumors about someone also were
reported as sexual harassment in the survey.”

You still shrug and go, at the end of the day where is the harm?

A British study reported on workplace stress and health.
“A previous study using the same dataset by co-authors Michael Marmot,
M.D., and Eric Brunner, M.D., found that workers who feel that they
are treated justly on the job have a significantly lower risk for
coronary artery disease than their fellow employees who feel they
can’t get a break.”

But enough is enough..can’t I say anything anymore? http://www.unoriginal.co.uk/cartoons34.html

Above is a link to a cartoon where a woman is standing in front of a desk of a male supervisor stating, “All the other women are suing you for sexual harassment. As you haven’t harassed me, I’m suing you for discrimination.”

My thoughts on the matter is a lot has to do with intent. If you comment to a man or a woman once in a while, “Gee you really look nice in those pants or dress”, and you mean it as a sincere complement I think it will be taken a lot differently than if you smack your lips daily, leer and say, wowie, you just look good enough to eat or spread rumors on a person’s sexual orientation. There is a difference and most people know where the line is.

I’ve been thinking quite a bit recently about evolution. Especially about de-evolution, what happens when you don’t use something like eyes and you lose them. The starfish is an example of that. But lately I have been observing a rise in the number of people who fail to use their brains and thus they have been losing them. This is giving rise to an entire new species. The Homo iman assholeous. Not only have I noticed the rise of the species Homo iman assholeous, but it has apparently been around enough to diversify into various subspecies. My… the assholes among us. Just from casual day to day observation, one of the most common subspecies of Homo iman assholeous is subsp. imgonnarunthisplacesomedaysoyoubetternotpissmeoff variant godcomplex. Now if your face is turning red, your blood pressure is rising, and you think I’m calling YOU an asshole then you probably are and example of Homo iman assholeous subsp. imgonnarunthisplacesomedaysoyoubetternotpissmeoff variant godcomplex you need to click here XXX.

Ah, dear readers, back with you again. That last link usually makes subspeciesimgonnarunthisplacesomedaysoyoubetternotpissmeoff variant godcomplex head explode as they can’t bear anyone who might not worship them. Usually swimming a few feet behind imgonnarunthisplacesomedaysoyoubetternotpissmeoff variant godcomplex is subspecies imgonnaeatyourshitsowhenyourunthisplaceyoullpromoteme. They are a very sad and hopeless species so we will not spend anytime on them here at all.

The loudest subspecies of Homo iman assholeous is subspecies ifartwithmymouth. They can be found bouncing loudly farting foul odors from their mouths. As they haven’t really used their brains in years, they think they are making cutting-edge observations, but sadly, its only farts.

The next two groups travel together in schools and have a mutualistic relationship feeding off each other. The two are Homo iman assholeous subspecies stalkeritis and subspecies gossipitis. Subspecies stalkeritis can be seen oogling (and occasionally going through papers on a co-workers desk) peering over shoulders to try and figure out e-mail passwords and trolling any sites that might mention their co-workers. They quickly carry this information to Homo iman assholeous subspecies gossipitis. There have been some hybrids created between subspecies gossipitis and subspecies ifartwithmymouth. This has resulted in subspecies imreallyabigshitus. This subspecies is really a mystery as no one has ever seen Homo iman assholeous subspecies imreallyabigshitus do or say anything at all. Someone coined the term “parade species” as they go heither and yon and yon and hither but again, never do anything at all. I have observed this species at several different organizations.

I could go on and on about this new species Homo iman assholeous and all of its subspecies and variants, such as subspecies princessyougottalikeme, welcomesmackolous who has to give out a smack for every nice comment they make, unfunnyjokarious variant offensivitis and more. But I am not alone in noticing the assholes among us.

For instance there is the ever popular http://www.peopleareassholes.com/ On this site assholes are listed by name. I’m thinking of listing them by picture.

The next site is even more angry at the assholes among us and actually wish them death http://www.gettingit.com/static/internetforassholes_death.html

Wikipedia has and extensive listing describing what an asshole is. Some of you should read this carefully and if you fit- seek redemption http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asshole

There may even have been a dangerous shift out of the Species Homo iman assholeous to squirrels. It may be the squirrels attraction to nuts. http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/bos/71409270.html

And the number of assholes just seems to keep multiplying http://www.thehumorarchives.com/humor/0001233.html

There are those who think most of our current politicians in America and abroard are assholes. For a slideshow with music click here http://filmstripinternational.com/ Warning this site will be better appreciated by socialists, liberals, communists and democrats than republicans.

And sometimes it takes quite a bit of skill to be an asshole. Try this on if you are feeling like a playful asshole http://www.pagat.com/climbing/asshole.html

So are you an asshole? Are you going to continue to be an asshole or are you going to evolve and join the human race? There is hope for all, after all I do believe in evolution.

Yesterday I had more training from the wonderful New York State Department of Health. You know, remember the folks that handled my complaints about my mother being slammed into washing tables when she had no skin, being dropped on the floor and all sorts of other terrible things. The ones who hid their heads in the sand and said they could find no wrong?

Yeah those guys.

Well we were having training that mentioned some aspects of restaurant and food security and defense, the topic being terrorism defense. I raised my hand and said why not ask the restaurants to check the I-9s? After all, every time I have been hired, I had to supply my social security number and proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate or a passport.

In the past I have found food service workers who didn’t speak the language living marginally in restaurant basements. Once I even found one living in a walk-in refrigeration unit that was not functional. I know many of these workers are not legal residents of the US. They send their children to our schools, they use our medical facilities, and pay no taxes.

The instructor from the intelligent New York State Department of Health sputtered at my question and said he wouldn’t want to step on anyone’s civil rights. Ummmm hasn’t it been established in the courts that residents vs citizens of the USA have fewer rights than citizens? And if you are here illegally….constitutional civil rights?

So it is OK for the restaurant owner to pay these workers less than the legal established minimum wage and fire them if they don’t show up if they are sick. After all, it lines his pockets.

It is OK for me to pay additional taxes as their children add to the school rolls and to pay indirectly for their medical care.

Recently it has been demonstrated that when a greater number of children are vaccinated against influenza, there is a lower incidence of influenza in the elderly. When I mentioned immigrants living in cramped conditions without proper medical care and probably in nutritionally poor and vulnerable states are more subject to infection and disease our instructor pooh-pooh’d this idea. God forbid we might appear racist. We are to look for sick workers and send them home.

Yep, that solves the whole problem. Why are people in this country so afraid to take a stand on the real issues? Not addressing the problem of illegal workers in this country is a security threat and allows that population to be exploited. Exploitation leads to discontent. Discontent leads to unrest, riots, and terrorism. Why can’t we just give them the choice of becoming citizens or leaving and enforcing those laws? These are the laws I must obey. Why the double standard?

Kid Break Your Brain was not recieved neutrally. It was loved. It was hated. People laughed belly laughs and people rolled their eyes.

So as a public service www.kidsbreakyourbrain.com was launched.

Visit us soon for an important public service announcement and items to help spread the word that KIDS BREAK YOUR BRAIN!!!!

More frequently than in the past decade I feel I see articles and books on the toxic workplace, dysfunctional management, and even articles claiming that the entire fault is that of the corporation, becoming more money hungry and ruthless with their budget. There was an interesting article on MSN today on different office types worthy of a Dilbert cartoon. The sad thing is that many people do not know how to act at work. Perhaps it is the fault of fast food and TV dinners as we no longer learn the behavioral skills we once did with the family around the dinner table. For what it is worth, here is the link on MSN.

Today, I was brought back to thinking about several episodes in my life where I have encountered someone who achieved a difficult goal and now owns a magical bean. Their magical bean is now the cure-all for all situations. In fact they will tell you about their magical bean, gloat, preach and practically try to force that bean down your throat.

Once, years ago I was doing weight-watchers. I followed their program to a “t”. I measured EVERYTHING, exercised and….nothing happened. I cut back. And NOTHING happened. So I went to the group leader to ask what should I do next, as what I was doing now wasn’t working. This paragon of intelligence held up her palms and said, “Look, my palms are yellow!” “Yellow?” I inquired. “Yes, I eat carrots, I eat carrots all the time, that is what you should do!!!!” She crowed presenting her vitamin A toxic yellow palms at me again. Of course, being intelligent, I quit.

Later I approached my MD du jour. I told her about how I was having difficulty loosing weight. She also had a magical bean. She went to a drawer and pulled out a mini baggie with A carrot stick and A celery stick. “Eat less,” she crowed. “I only eat this and it keeps me going all day.” She isn’t my MD anymore.

Then there are the bad food police magical beans. I was out to dinner with some of my husband’s friends. We were at a lovely restaurant. They conferred over the menu and decided on a caviar plate that came with fresh vegetables. A lovely little appetizer. They tip-toed through the menu trying to avoid the mine field of carbs. Carbs that could explode onto their thighs at any moment! As they carefully divided up their paltry fish eggs betwixt them they regaled us with how much they enjoyed their diet.

Life is for living. If you have a magical bean go grow a beanstalk!

I find I’ve tried this diet and that diet and they never seem to work for me. So I decided to dive into the hard core scientific literature and find out what science says works.

The sad thing is that we are basically clueless on how to manage the obesity problem in just about any county. There is a high correlation between economic success and obesity. But sadly, encouraging poverty is not a feasible cure.

There are many studies out there that say exercise and diet works. But not the same for all age groups due to differences in metabolism. The other result is that many individuals as they age are not able to keep up the level of activity required to maintain their weight loss once achieved, and study after study reports back sliding.

One of the key facts that does arise time after time, is the reduction in caloric use with age. Also there is a reduction in muscle mass. If muscle mass is increased, caloric use increases. So rather starving, perhaps encouraging muscle development exercise is the way to go.

Currently, I’m upping my aerobic exercise and seeing if I can’t develop a bit of muscle mass as well, to fight that metabolic slide downhill.

Sadly, many studies also reported the medical doctors were reluctant to address the obesity problem when it was at manageable level in their patients. It would seem that we need a three pronged approach to manage this problem at the nation and world-wide level as well as help us personally. One would be to encourage food manufacturers and food purveyors to develop healthier foods. Work places should be required to have an exercise room as well as a lunch room. Medical doctors should be required to give workable programs to their patients that are obese and to follow up on their progress. As we work longer and longer hours, eat more fast food to manage our time, and by the time we actually get home, are too tired to hop on that elliptical.

Well, I’m going to crank up the exercise and cut back more on the food. Updates to follow!

A week or so I remember reading and hearing about mice infected with plague getting loose from a research laboratory. A few days later I read of some army trained dolphins that were accidentally released into the Gulf during the recent hurricane. The one catch is that the dolphins were surgically implanted with darts they could fire and were trained to fire these darts at enemy scuba divers. And they were lost while loaded. Well, they don’t have a handler now. I haven’t heard anything more about these animals after the initial hype. I really believe we are overlooking the next terrorist problem. If you think there are a lot of Muslims on the planet start counting the fish and rodents…..