Happy 232nd birthday, USA!

This week we got to play golf twice! Calgary is so awesome in the summer -- 70-ish degrees, light breeze, a few clouds ... and the course we played yesterday is on a high bluff overlooking the downtown skyline and the Bow River. Amazing scenery. We also enjoyed the baby ducklings on the lake and the prairie dogs popping out of their holes at random times. I'm sure the groundskeepers are going nuts, but I think the little varmints are cute.

We walked both courses. I am pleased to say I have lost more than 20 pounds, and I am now full of energy. YAY! And The Boy still isn't quite good enough to beat me, though he's getting close!

Of course, the devil is in the details, but I am feeling hopeful. Under Senate health care plan, either way you pay

Some friends of mine have a mom-and-pop furniture business in rural Texas, and I am trying to help their Google ranking. So, if you have any interest in hand-made, unique furniture pieces made from Texas mesquite, cedar, etc., check them out: Texas mesquite furniture. And if you want to add that link somewhere appropriate to help with their tiny Google bomb, it would be much appreciated.

It's snowing here, and it's 90+ degrees back home in Sugar Land. I think I'd rather be here. :-)

One more anti-single-payer story for today:

I stopped by the medical clinic this afternoon because last week, when the doctor copied my test results for me, he only gave me 2 of the 3 pages. I figured I could pop in and ask them to give me a copy of the third page. Common sense, eh?

Sorry, patients can't see their records without a doctor present, even though a doctor had *already* talked with me about the results a few days ago. I had to wait more than an hour to see a *different* doctor just to get a copy of my own cholesterol report.

Amazingly, today's doc was a breath of fresh air. Dr. McD_____ expressed incredulity that somebody wouldn't simply make me a copy of the page I needed, and when I told him it was apparently against the rules, he said (and I quote), "Our system is stupid." We went on to have a five-minute conversation about how FUBAR the medical system in Canada is. He informed me that, contrary to the other doctor's assurances, it's terribly optimistic to think Jeff might actually get a colonoscopy appointment this year. He was also not surprised to learn that the waiting list for a hip replacement is at least 13 months. "I bet you can't wait to get back to the States so you can get decent care," he said. Then he amended hastily, "The standard of care here is world class ... it's just getting access to it that's the problem." I mentioned that I would pay a lot of money to jump the queue if only I were allowed to.

"I don't see why we don't allow private practice," he added, with me nodding fervently. "It's not as if anyone would lose their present coverage. You do realize, the only other countries in the world who have a system like ours are North Korea and Cuba?"

I think I love this guy.

You know, Canada would be a *great* place to live if it weren't for the health care system. Ironic, isn't it?

THIS JUST IN: A Montreal man delivered his own (induced) child at the hospital because the staff were too busy to help him.

ETA: Jeff asked if I had checked to see if the Cuba/North Korea comparison was true. Here are a couple of articles that mention it: Unsocialized Medicine: A landmark ruling exposes Canada's health-care inequity (Wall Street Journal) and Top Ten Myths of American Health Care.

Just a quick note. Make of these stories what you will.

First, from Monday's Calgary Herald: ( Pledges can't save prostate laser. )

Second, if you think that sort of thing can't happen in the USA, you might be surprised to know *it already is*! The Wall Street Journal on How Washington Rations Healthcare.

For the tl;dr crowd:

1) Calgary's only surgery laser for enlarged prostates was taken away despite angry public outcry and private pledges from companies to donate whatever amount is needed to keep it. The laser option is far less invasive and doesn't require hospitalization.

2) Medicare has decided to deny coverage for virtual colonoscopies, even though they are quicker, more comfortable, and significantly cheaper than the standard "optical" procedure.

In both cases, safer, more comfortable procedures are being made unavailable to people by Big Brother because of either a small increase in cost or a *possibility* of an additional cost, with no option given for people to pay the difference. This is what happens when bureaucrats and bean counters, not doctors and patients, are given power to make medical decisions.

All you have to do is look at the VA, Medicare, and Medicaid to get an idea of how wonderfully consumer-oriented and richly responsive a USA government-run healthcare plan would be.

DO NOT WANT.

We've been camping the last two weekends, first in Bow Valley Provincial Park and then with the scouts at Camp Impeesa near Castle Mountain in Alberta. It's so awesome to look out your tent flap in the morning and see the Rocky Mountains looming over you.



It amuses me, however, that I am still terrified of grizzly bears. Night #1 of any campout usually finds me awake, obsessing over whether or not we remembered to put all the food into the van and if the bears are attracted by the smell of mosquito repellent and/or sunscreen. (Luckily, by night #2 I am too exhausted to care, and I sleep like a rock.)

In talking with a few native Canucks, it's interesting to note how we become blase about dangers we're familiar with. To the folks up here, the idea of snakes, alligators, poisonous spiders, fire ants, and even raccoons and armadillos, makes camping in Texas seem fraught with peril. But bears and wolves? "Nah, no biggie. You'll probably never see one. Don't worry about 'em, just keep the food away from your tent. Anyway, you only have to run a tad faster than the slowest person in your group and you'll be fine."

I suppose every environment has its indigenous dangers which become "no biggie" to those who live there. City dwellers have street crime, bums, traffic, etc. Rural people have wildlife and isolation. Suburbians have the PTA moms -- more scary than grizzlies if you don't know how to deal with them.

Beating a dead horse here, but some folks have expressed interest ...

( Click here if you want to hear yet another tale of woe regarding Canadian medicine )

Look what's popping up in my yard ... finally.



( more under the cut )

Poppa Russell was in the hospital over the weekend for pneumonia, but he's home and doing better now. They had to delay his scheduled chemo treatment, though. :-(

I am so frustrated and angry right now!

Background:

1. Alberta, indeed all of Canada, is suffering an extreme shortage of doctors and other medical personnel, equipment, and supplies due to their miserably messed-up, single-payer, socialistic system that stifles innovation and keeps salaries dismally low.

2. Because of this, millions of people in Canada can't find a primary care physician, the gatekeeper for almost all medical services. (Not to mention, good luck getting any sort of surgery or scan if you're not at death's door. You'll be waiting months.)

3. My family are among those who don't have a doctor, which means we have to go to the walk-in clinic and take whoever's working that day. We are not allowed to make appointments. Nor are we allowed to pay our own money to go out of the system to a private doctor, because that is illegal.

4. As you can imagine, the quality of doctors at the clinic varies greatly, and the wait times are atrocious. I have so far seen about five doctors here, never the same one twice. Not once has anybody taken a medical history. Some of them don't even bother with eye contact.

5. I am diabetic. I need periodic blood tests to ensure my hA1c (blood sugar), cholesterol, liver enzymes, etc., are doing okay. I am perfectly able to manage my condition on my own. All I need are the meds and the tests. Seeing as the doctors I've seen here in Canada can't be bothered to do any sort of diagnosis or history on me anyway, I don't see why I should have to go through them to get what I need. But I do. It's the law.

6. Last week I waited for two hours to see a doctor -- who, by the way, also didn't ask me jack-squat about my numbers or history, but at least she could speak English intelligibly, which beats a couple of the others that work there. I told her what tests I wanted, she filled out the form and gave it to me. I drove to the lab and waited another hour to get blood drawn. (All this, by the way, would have been done in my USA doctor's office in about 10 minutes.)

Today:

The clinic has been calling me incessantly for several days wanting me to come get my lab results. I finally went this afternoon, and they said I couldn't have my results until I talked to the doctor. Fine. I sat down to wait. More than an hour later, I had to leave. Because, you know, I have a life. I don't know what I would do if I had a job. I guess I'd just take the entire day off every time I needed to see a doctor.

I asked the receptionist to give me my test results so I could leave. No dice. Legally, they are not allowed to let me see MY OWN BLOOD TEST RESULTS without a doctor's release. And the doctor won't release them unless I see him/her, probably because they want to bill the system for another "visit."

This whole system is unconscionable. I hate it with the fiery hatred of a thousand suns. I can't even PAY MONEY to get my results. Even if I had an extra million bucks laying around, it wouldn't buy me access to a doctor's appointment, a prescription, or a lab test. We're all equal here! Huzzah! Equality, unfortunately, means it sucks for everyone.

So, you people who want this system in the USA? I wish I could take a two-by-four upside your heads. If the USA goes to this sort of system in the future, God help us all.

This past weekend, Jeff and I went along as chaperones to the seventh-grade band camp. It was a lot of fun. The kids are super -- there are 80 of them, which is pretty amazing considering it's a class of about 200. We spent Thursday and Friday at Camp Horizon, which is west of Calgary about halfway to the continental divide, on a hill overlooking the Elbow river. Very pretty scenery.

Too bad it snowed the entire time we were there! As this article puts it, the snowflakes were the size of butterflies. Yes, indeed, Alberta has had one of the worst winters EVER, and it just won't quit. It must be Mother Nature strutting her stuff entirely for the Russells' benefit; despite the idea of snow in May, it was absolutely beautiful.

Here are a couple of pics:

The Boy playing "the animal game" in the snow -- he was a small predator:


The view from the picnic area:

Okay, so we aren't very good. I'm in the Bronze Band, and we're the least among the Westwinds Music Society bands, which are all populated by amateur musicians from the community. But we have fun, which is all that counts for me. This piece is A Childhood Hymn by David Holsinger. It's played by a lot of middle-school bands, so that gives you an idea of our level of ability.



Our "fans" supported us (with perhaps a bit of arm-twisting) despite the looming dark clouds. As Westwinds Artistic Director Kevin Wilms introduced us, he said, "Let's hope it doesn't hail." Of course, it immediately began to do just that! Luckily it stopped fairly quickly, but the show went on, as indeed it must. :-)

You might be able to spot me in front of the drums, playing the bass clarinet. I doubt you can hear me, though. The baritone sax has mostly the same part, and he is louder.

Poppa has his first of four weekly chemo treatments on Wednesday, Lord willing. We're planning to fly to NC on Friday and spend a long weekend with him. From Jeff's experience, the chemo sessions get harder and harder as you go along, so we decided visiting early in the schedule would be best. Thanks for all your prayers and good wishes. We'll keep you posted.

It snowed here Saturday and Sunday, with more expected in the next couple of days. Our high temperature today and tomorrow is supposed to be right around freezing. Blowing snow is creating hazardous driving conditions.

Note to sky: It's almost May. Stop with the white stuff already.

Regarding Poppa Russell ... apparently I misunderstood the prognosis. Nobody has mentioned the "six weeks" number I gave in my last post, which is great news. The cancer supposedly responds well to chemo, so we shall keep praying and trust all will work out for the best.

They are looking into an alternative treatment from the Issels Treatment Center. I am skeptical. Anybody have solid information on these folks?

The good:

The various Westwinds Music Society community bands played in concert last night. We range in ability from pathetic to semi-pro, but we have a lot of fun, and that's what counts. I'm playing bass clarinet, which I played in the U of AL symphonic band. I love the sound of the low notes. :-) One of our pieces was A Childhood Hymn -- a beautiful, melodic arrangement of Jesus Loves Me. Quite nice!

In other news, The Boy had a couple of buddies over to spend the night last weekend for his birthday. They stayed up until 5:00 AM playing Xbox games, then went for a Timmy's run in the morning on Saturday. Afterwards, we kicked the two interlopers out and went to play 4th Edition D&D at the Sentry Box, which is the most amazing gaming store I have ever seen. Wow.

The bad:

Today the temperature dropped below freezing and it DUMPED snow on Calgary -- huge, fluffy, wet flakes. It's already accumulated about four inches, but luckily it's not sticking to the sidewalks and streets ... yet. The low temperature tonight is supposed to be -13C. Yay for springtime!

Here's a couple of pictures. Note that ALL the snow had melted as of yesterday:



The ugly:

The news is not good for Jeff's dad. I still don't have very much information (because it's getting filtered through Jeff who doesn't ask the proper questions!), but I've been told Poppa has "small cell" something -- I'm presuming lung cancer since that's where the major tumors are. The prognosis isn't good. Apparently they say he has about six weeks to live without treatment, and anywhere from six weeks to a year WITH treatment. We don't know what he'll decide to do. The survival rates are pretty dismal, but you know, there's no reason Bill can't be one of the lucky ones who beats it! He's certainly ornery enough. :-) It partly depends on how hard he wants to fight, but no one would blame him for refusing the treatments at this point. We're not sure what he'll decide to do. In any case, thanks for your prayers and good thoughts for Bill and the rest of us. We'll keep you posted on any developments.

Yesterday, we took a walk in the park behind our house after supper. It was a tad chilly; we needed jackets, but still quite pleasant. The snow had mostly melted; only a few pockets remained in the deep shadows. The trees and bushes have at last begun to put out buds and leaves, and the grass was turning from brown to green.

This morning, we woke up to this:

( You know you want to click here. )

The Easter Bunny brought us something VERY strange this morning.



( Click to see Teh Weirdness )

Y'all will most likely recall that Jeff's 81-year-old dad had surgery to biopsy a lump in his lung today. Well, they found he's riddled with cancer. It's spread to his lymph nodes, and quite possibly beyond. We'll know more in a few days once the biopsy results come back, but it doesn't look promising. The old guy is still full of salt and vinegar, though, so I'm not counting him out yet. What really stinks is that I was just about to buy their plane tickets to fly up and see us in July for the Calgary Stampede, which he's always wanted to see. I'm not sure that's going to happen now.

Anyway, say a prayer for Bill and Carol Russell in North Carolina, if you are so inclined.

And send good vibes Jeff's way as well. He's working his tail off every waking moment for the next few weeks because the SAP software project he's been leading has implemented, and everyone all over the country has questions only he can answer. It makes for nice job security, but it's wearing him out.