Monthly Archives: August 2009

Campin’

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On the 13th of this month, Dr. Don, his three boys, and myself went on a camping trip up to the mountains.  I had promised them a camping trip several months back and the start of school was near.  So, we headed up the winding roads with camping gear and food.

I made the campsite arrangements over the phone.  I asked the kind lady to give us a riverside site close to the trail entrance.  I knew we’d be carrying a lot of gear up the rocky trail and wanted to make it as easy as possible on the lads. 

We arrived and geared up.  I carried 80lbs. worth of supplies in my backpack along with the tent and a lantern.  After going about a mile up the trail, we collapsed at the first bivouac.  It was number eight, so I left the kids and headed further up by myself to see what the next number was.  The next one was number nine.  I surmised that the lady put me at the other end of the trail which was another seven miles up a craggy path.

After talking to a few hikers, we decided to take number eight since no one was using it.  After all, I paid for a full size site, so it was not like I would be cheating the park service out of any money. 

The kids went fishing while I put up the tent.  Dr. Don’s only duty was to bring dry wood.  He brought WET wood.  It took us about half an hour to get the fire roaring.  He crashed in the tent, and I started unpacking supplies.  The boys returned with a bucket full of wee trout for eating.

I decided to return to the truck to get some fuel for the lantern.  I discovered the ranger looking at my truck, when I got to the parking lot.  He asked what site we were on and I explained our wee dilemma.  We went to the rangers station to see if anyone would be staying on #8 that night.  Unfortunately, someone was supposed to be on that site that evening, so he checked to see if anything close was available. 

Luckily, #9 was available, so I headed back up the trail with the bad news that we’d have to move.  I told the lads that there was a much better site on the other side of the ridge and proceeded to pack up the tent and supplies. 

campfire

Again, we headed up the rocky path to our new destination.  We arrived and unpacked yet again.  The youngsters played in the river, as I worked on yet another fire.  Dr. Don took another nap!  You would truly be amazed how quickly a fire can boost moral.

Dr. Don’s oldest son and myself worked on the fire for almost an hour before we got it roaring.  The lads wanted to cook their fish over the fire.  I laughed and told them how good they were going to taste when the guts exploded.  So, I taught the boys how to clean fish.  We cooked steaks, trout, and beans over the open flame.  Protein is a must when out in the wilderness. 

As darkness fell over the pine laden mountain range, the lads roasted marshmallows and told scary stories.  I sat back and inhaled the crisp mountain air.  There’s nothing better for what ails you than a bit of time with nature.  It helps us appreciate what we have. 

We all turned in quite early, exhausted from the trip.  But, about midnight nature called and I had to oblige its beckoning.  When I returned from the woodlands illuminated by a lantern, I discovered a figure sitting by the fire.  Dr. Don’s eldest was up as well.  He couldn’t sleep, so we decided to make a late night trip back to the truck to get more water for the morning. 

Only illumined by the wee lantern, we found the trail brimming with life.  We encountered field rats, eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, and king snakes.  We were very wary of the diamondbacks!  It would be unwise to leave one’s tent open at night.  They like warm places.

The next morning we got up and made a unanimous decision to hike up to Rainbow Falls which is only about three more miles up the trail.  However, it is one of the hardest trails to hike around due to the 2,000 foot ascent.

The boys were so excited and in such a hurry that we missed the turn off.  We continued on Jone’s Gap Trail ‘til we reached Jone’s Gap Falls.  We were content with that, so we settled down and let the boys play on the slippery rocks for about an hour.  They climbed the rocks and slid down to the collecting poll at the bottom of the falls.  I had a blast just watching them have so much fun.

Jones Gap Falls

We arrived back to our tent without any water.  I have excellent water purification skills but did not want to take a chance on the lads getting sick.  So, we packed up and headed home.  The lot of us went home exhausted yet happy.  The lads are still telling stories of our escapades in the woods, and I have a new appreciation for the loo!   :)

P.S.:  Like a true eejit, I left me camera at the door on my way out.  All photos were taken with my phone.  A bit crappy, but eh? 

HealthCare in America

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Grannymar wrote an outstanding post Thursday on the healthcare debate going on in the states.  I found her story to be refreshingly honest, a quality so rare in people these days.  I am sick to death of reading articles where within two paragraphs I know which side the author is pulling for.  Journalist need to go back to school and learn about a wee thing called independent news reporting.

In order to properly ascertain my perspective of the American Healthcare system, I’ll give you all a little background about myself.

In early 1972, I was born a healthy screaming baby boy in a maternity ward at Saint Francis hospital.  Twenty-four hours after I was brought onto this earth, I contracted spinal meningitis from someone on the same floor as the maternity ward.  Common sense would tell you not to put sick people in the same ventilated area as babies.  Sigh…

For several weeks I teetered back and forth between life and death.  In fact, nurses told my mother on several occasions to go ahead and start making funeral arrangements because I would not make it.  My mother refused to give up on me.  I spent three months in the hospital gaining my strength, while my mother worked two jobs and father worked three just to pay for my hospitalisation.

The constant high fevers did irrefutable damage to my young anatomy.  My parents were told that I was deaf and blind and should be sent to a home for disabled children where I could be properly cared for.  They took me home and dealt with nightly seizures along with a myriad of other complications.  But, the doctors were wrong about me being deaf.  I could hear just fine!

The bills kept climbing as I grew older.  The sometimes nightly visits to the emergency room grew tiring on an already weary couple, but friends and family stepped in and helped all that they could. 

In 1977 a fresh out of med school doctor saw me in the ER and subsequently diagnosed me as having hypoglycaemia which caused the horrific seizures.  I was very small for my age, so he sent me to a specialist that specialised in all sorts of childrens growth disorders. 

That doctor diagnosed me with having hypopituitarism and hypothyroidism in 1979.  To put it into laymens terms, your pituitary gland controls almost every aspect of the body, from growth to how much food your body can turn into energy.  Studies have shown that it is our internal clock.  Mine was severely damaged and was barely secreting the hormones needed for life, much less growth. 

By this time my parents had health insurance.  I started taking HGH in the backside with a one and a quarter inch needle every other day that year.  The folks had to pay additional fees for the injections but were doing financially very well.  I started growing like a weed but always failed to catch up with my classmates. 

I saw my doctors regularly and grew into a short yet vibrant lad.  In 1990, I was kicked off my families business healthcare group policy due to a cost risk assessment.  We tried to get healthcare elsewhere but was rejected at every turn.  I didn’t worry about it at the time and went off my costly medications.  It was a dreadful mistake, but I won’t go into that at this juncture.

In 1998, I found myself in the hospital due to an asthma attack that almost killed me.  I had been sick with the flue trying to wait it out, when my asthma kicked in and sent me to the hospital in the middle of the night.  At this point, I had no insurance due to pre existing conditions, not stupidity or desire.  I spent two weeks in the hospital.  The bill was in the tens of thousands of dollars.  Mother had full power of attorney over me, so she told the financial consultant of my plight in life.  My bill was paid in full by an anonymous person.  For that I am eternally grateful! 

About seven years ago, I was finally approved in a group policy.  I am a very large liability for the insurance company.  They come up with new and inventive ways every so often to drop me, but to no avail thus far.  I have signed enough papers and read enough laws to not be an easy target.  I now know the ins, outs, and backdoors of the system. 

With insurance, I pay around $500 US a month in healthcare cost, without insurance, I’d pay around $2,000 US.  A stark difference, if you ask me.  One medication is $1,400 a month without insurance.  That’s effing ridiculous!  If they are ever able to drop me, I’ll be screwed!  But, there are programmes and help already provided by the government.  By nature, Americans don’t like handouts.  We tend to think that we’re going to have to give up something, if we’re going to take something.  For the most part this is very true. 

I am very nervous about this entire fiasco going on in Washington D.C. and all over the states.  There is no doubt that there needs to be oversight over the insurance companies.  They should not be able to drop someone because he or she may be susceptible to cancer because of family history or declined because of pre existing conditions.  You have to take the good with the bad.

However, let me also state that I don’t trust the government to implement a new and extremely large national healthcare service.  They can’t fiscally run the mail service.  Do you really think they can properly watch over 307 million people?  Besides, we already owe China more money than this generation can ever repay!

There are good and bad points to having a NHS.  I won’t go into that today.  I need to study on it some more. 

P.S.:  All remarks will be appreciated but try to keep the left and right wing rhetoric to a minimum.  I could give a fuck what the left and right wing nuts on TV and radio are saying!  I make informed decisions on raw data.  I’m not easily influenced by smooth talking politicians!