What I've Been Eating

<br />Today I'm going to talk about my eating habits since getting pregnant.<br /><br />Now, you might think that since I've expressed so much worry about gaining baby weight, that I must be eating super healthy, remaining conscientious of every single thing I put into my mouth.  Noooooooooooo.<br /><br />It's not that I couldn't continue to follow Weight Watchers.  In fact, my midwive encouraged it - saying I would just need to add a few extra Points to my day.  However, this really has never been a possibility at all.<br /><br />Since the very beginning of this pregnancy, I have had more food aversions than food cravings.  At first, I lost a few pounds simply because I had the hardest time eating.  Absolutely nothing appealed to me, and every. single. day. sucked.  Trying to abide by Weight Watchers Points+ was my last concern.  I knew I had to be eating something each day, and so I just ate whatever I could tolerate.  Most of the time, they were not healthy choices I was typically accustomed to.  Oatmeal? Forget it!  Eggs?  No thank you! Yogurt? Gag. Me. Now!  Still, I felt a tremendous amount of guilt for veering so drastically off my WW course.  WW is practically all I've known for the last several years.  To not be worrying about what food I ate next and how many Points+ it was felt foreign to me.  I finally had to accept that the pregnancy was only going to be for 9 months, and not forever, and then I'd resume as normal. <br /><i><span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></i><i><span style="color: #666666;">I'm going to make a very obvious statement, but I believe sometimes people don't truly realize what they're saying.  Every pregnant lady's journey is different, just like that of weight loss.  So even if you and I both experienced the DREADFUL "morning sickness" throughout our entire pregnancies, what worked for you might not necessarily work for me and vice versa.  When others have told me to simply "Just eat healthy and you'll be fine" I want to scream.  It's not that simple for me.  It's not that I don't want to eat healthy.  I actually want to eat healthy now more than I did when trying to lose weight.  I want to provide my child with the most optimal of nutrition.  However, I am at the mercy of whatever my body can not puke up at this point, and that my friends, does not leave me with many options!  So with that said, I'll continue...</span></i><br /><br />Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I realize how much I detested food in general those first 3 months.  I just did not want to eat but I knew I had to, not only for the benefit of the baby, but because not eating made the sickness even worse.  I think those were the hardest moments of my life thus far.  As I said before, there was so much change, overnight, that trying to adapt to those changes was really getting the best of me.  I did a lot of crying because I felt so physically awful, and I just wanted it all to go away.  I felt like a helpless child.  In terms of food, I could hardly stand to pour myself a bowl of cereal without gagging, much less trying to cook any type of meal.  Joel was unbelievably supportive, as was my workplace and friends and family.  I am tearing up now just reflecting on those first few months.  It was truly horrible for me.       <br /><br />Now, 5.5 months into this pregnancy, not much has really changed in terms of eating habits.  While the intensity of my sickness has died down considerably, there are still many foods that gag me at the mere sight of them, much less smelling them cooking. Overall, the most consistent food group I've enjoyed while pregnant has been pasta.  The pasta and red sauce just really seemed to soak up the sickness in my belly.   My eating patterns have transitioned from force-feeding myself to finding one food that I currently enjoy, and thus eating it over and over and over again.  Daily.  I've done this with pasta, pizza, sauerkraut, and currently, Boston Market.  <br /><br />Having said all of that, I still struggle daily with every meal.  For example, Joel made these delicious lasagna wraps last week that I devoured for dinner one night.  He packed them for my lunch the next day.  Then, everyday thereafter I toted that same container of lasagna wraps back and forth to the office.  I had no desire for them at all after that.  On Joel's days off, he will text me in the morning asking what I'd like for dinner.  Even if I can manage to come up with something, by the time I get home and he's prepared it, I don't want it.  It truly makes me feel terrible when this happens, and it's happened more times than not.  He's just spent his precious time preparing a meal, and I just don't want it at all.  The bottom line is, I've wasted so much food since being pregnant and I feel awful about it.  I've wasted a ton of Joel's time, him spent preparing a meal that I ultimately cannot tolerate eating.   <br /><br />The bottom line is that food is more of a struggle for me than ever before.  Yes, even pre-pregnancy.  I know that God is going to continue to reveal all the reasons why me being a parent is part of His plan.  I truly believe going through the pregnancy process is going to have many lessons learned in regard to my future weight loss journey.  I thought my battle with food before was difficult.  That was nothing by comparison!   <br /><div><br /></div>

Baby Busbee What I've Been Eating

Today I'm going to talk about my eating habits since getting pregnant. Now, you might think that since I've expressed so much worry ...

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Product Marketing Director (Sales | Marketing | Product Life Cycle | Semiconductor Capital Equipment) (# 109145)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="WordSection1"><div class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Position: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Product Marketing Director<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Location: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Milpitas, CA<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Duration: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Full time<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><br /></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Job Description: <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The Film and Scatterometry Technology (FaST) Division provides industry leading metrology solutions for worldwide semiconductor IC manufacturers.  The FaST Division portfolio of metrology products includes hardware and software solutions for optical film thickness, optical critical dimension (CD), composition, and resistivity measurement systems.  These products are essential for the IC manufacturers as they provide critical metrology capabilities for the development and implementation of their advanced IC processes.  The FaST division is committed to support our customers to achieve performance entitlement of our solution and we effectively partner with our customers from their early research and development phase to the high volume in-line manufacturing implementation specific for their process needs. The division consists of a global team located in US, Israel, China, and India.<br /> <br /> <b>Responsibilities:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The successful candidate will be responsible for managing new products within the product lifecycle process including defining requirements, setting priorities for the development team, selecting and working with test partners and managing product launches. Strong leadership across differing functional groups and effective communication with executive management will be key elements to success in this role.<br /> <br /> There will also be significant account management responsibilities working with an international sales team to define penetration strategies, formulate competitive responses and manage tool evaluations and competitive run-offs. Also as a senior member of the marketing team the successful candidate will contribute to the strategic planning process defining the future direction of the division. The successful candidate will have a strong understanding of the semiconductor manufacturing process and the importance of metrology tools and techniques in improving process control and will likely have worked in a wafer fab environment.<br /> <br /> <b>Preferred Qualifications:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Minimum of a Bachelors Degree in a technical discipline.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">10-15 years experience in semiconductor industry, direct wafer fab experience is considered an advantage.<br /> <br /> Experience in scatterometry based metrology would be considered an advantage.<br /> <br /> Direct product marketing experience in a semiconductor or related industry is required.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">MBA is considered an advantage but not essential to the position.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><br /></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Minimum Qualifications:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Master's Level Degree with at least 6 years of experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">OR<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Bachelor's Level Degree with at least 10 years of experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Kindly send your resume to <a href="mailto:sivaram.bose@kla-tencor.com">sivaram.bose@kla-tencor.com</a><span style="color: #1f497d;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div></div></div>

Product Marketing Director (Sales | Marketing | Product Life Cycle | Semiconductor Capital Equipment) (# 109145)

Position: Product Marketing Director Location: Milpitas, CA Duration: Full time Job Description: The Film and Scatterometry Technology (...

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Library Assistant 1 - Guilford Free Library

<strong>Library Assistant 1 - </strong><strong><span style="color: #48286d;">Guilford Free Library</span></strong> has a job opening for a Library Assistant 1, with responsibilities at the Circulation Desk and in the Children’s Department. This is a Part Time, 16 hour per week position, including nights and weekends. Please visit the Town of Guilford website, <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.ci.guilford.ct.us" href="http://www.ci.guilford.ct.us/" target="_blank">www.ci.guilford.ct.us</a>, for more information, and a job application. Applications must be completed and submitted to the Human Resources Office at Town Hall, 55 Park Street, Guilford, CT 06437 no later than 3:00 pm Friday <span style="color: red;">March 8, 2013</span>.

Library Assistant 1 - Guilford Free Library

Library Assistant 1 - Guilford Free Library has a job opening for a Library Assistant 1, with responsibilities at the Circulation Desk and...

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Children's Room Librarian / Assistant Library Director - Plainville Public Library

<b>Children's Room Librarian / Assistant Library Director - </b><b><span style="color: #48286d;">Plainville Public Library</span></b>. Energetic, creative librarian needed for busy suburban Hartford County Public Library. Supervises children's room staff of three. Creates children's programming, school visits, and story hours. Assists Library Director in general management including scheduling, personnel, and budgeting. Requirements: MLS and professional library experience with children. Needs excellent interpersonal, patron, and computer skills. Thirty-five hour work week includes rotating Saturdays and evenings. Medical insurance, sick leave, and vacation benefits. Annual salary range of $53,000 to $55,000. Hiring process will remain open until the position is filled. The Plainville Public Library serves a population of 17,000. Total employees - part-time and full-time (19). Apply to: Human Resources, Town of Plainville, One Central Square, Plainville, CT 06062. More information about the library is available at the Library's website <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.plainvillelibrary.org" href="http://www.plainvillelibrary.org/" target="_blank">www.plainvillelibrary.org</a>. EOE.

Children's Room Librarian / Assistant Library Director - Plainville Public Library

Children's Room Librarian / Assistant Library Director - Plainville Public Library . Energetic, creative librarian needed for busy subu...

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No Country for Old People: ‘Kings Point’ Exposes the Hidden Elder Crisis - The Daily Beast

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><div class="text parbase section" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; "><p>I just finished proctoring the geriatric psychiatry station of the comprehensive examination that second-year students take at the Harvard Medical School. Serendipitously, I also viewed Sari Gilman's <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2013/01/10/oscar-nominations.html#introSlide">Academy Award–nominated<i> Kings Point</i></a>, a 30-minute documentary covering 10 years in the life of an age-restricted community in Florida, that's set to premiere on HBO on March 11. While the doctors-to-be all did well in interviewing and diagnosing a "standardized" geriatric patient, it occurred to me how their interactions could have been enhanced by viewing Gilman's film.</p></div><a name="body_inlineimage" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); visibility: hidden; "></a><figure class="multimedia section" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAO6omuQLxhe5Tw8XHbXRmen2aRpQfRigNUDKiUrd3LmYvE7xKOpvYk_NW9tdYZKLWdO0CkQF1n4pZ5nF5tbqPBf2CTO4opY4M2BafgpLrl7HeYITWg9zEv1D3uzMntyqhrRu-bllE7mA/s1600/1360983586509.cached-706747.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5847433079481210578" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAO6omuQLxhe5Tw8XHbXRmen2aRpQfRigNUDKiUrd3LmYvE7xKOpvYk_NW9tdYZKLWdO0CkQF1n4pZ5nF5tbqPBf2CTO4opY4M2BafgpLrl7HeYITWg9zEv1D3uzMntyqhrRu-bllE7mA/s320/1360983586509.cached-706747.jpg" /></a><figcaption class="figcaption"><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></figcaption></figure><a name="body_text1" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); visibility: hidden; "></a><div class="text parbase section" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><p><i>Kings Point</i> takes the viewer into the lives of five aging-in-place residents who are extremely insightful into their own circumstance. They accept with equanimity the true horror of aging alone, sundered from family and community. They all bought the Florida dream and left New York City for what they believed to be the Promised Land. The promise of home ownership, eternal sunshine, and companionship with like-minded people lured them into a desperate trap. For as they aged and developed infirmities, <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/15/oscar-s-85-year-old-darling-a-talk-with-emmanuelle-riva-of-amour.html">as their spouses died off, they were left alone and frightened</a>. As one of the elders noted, "Nobody gets too close here; they are afraid." And<i> Kings Point </i>elucidates these fears all too clearly and poignantly. They desire connection but are so afraid of loss that they shy away from closeness and commitment, two essential aspects of our human nature.</p></div><a name="body_breakout" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); visibility: hidden; "></a><div class="adBreakout section" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "></div><a name="body_text2" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); visibility: hidden; "></a><div class="text parbase section" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><p>The result is isolation and a focus on simple self-preservation. As Gert, one of the elders, notes, "I'm taking care of myself." The cinematographers—Daniel Gold, Gabriel Miller, and Toby Oppenheimer—manage to capture both the surface beauty of the setting with its pink houses, lush lawns, bubbling brooks, and tall palm trees and contrast it with a glimpse into the residents' sense of living in a prison they cannot escape from. Filming through windows with protective bars on them, down long, empty, and sterile corridors—all reinforce the loneliness and despair of the individuals living there.</p></div><a name="body_text3" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); visibility: hidden; "></a><div class="text parbase section" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><p>And therein lies the importance of this film. As we have long known from Eric Erickson, the last crisis in life is one of ego integrity vs. despair. We see here what most of the aging are up against. And they are up against an environment and society that makes it very difficult to resolve this conflict in any manner other than depression, loneliness, and despair.</p></div><a name="body_text4" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); visibility: hidden; "></a><div class="text parbase section" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><p>Elders in America are the fastest-growing segment of our population and as baby boomers "age out," we approach a very human crisis of significant proportions. In the near past, it was not unusual for three generations of a family to live under one roof (in Boston, this was the reason for the ubiquitous three-decker house). The mobility of the current generation has forced parents to rely on "the kindness of strangers" for what was formerly the care of the family, and they are left with choices labeled independent living, assisted living, or nursing home. It is imperative that the caregivers of the elder population truly grasp the position that elders have defaulted to and the issues they are up against.</p></div><a name="body_pullquote" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); visibility: hidden; "></a><blockquote class="blockquote section" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><p>It is imperative that the caregivers of the elder population truly grasp the position that elders have defaulted to and the issues they are up against.</p></blockquote><a name="body_text5" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); visibility: hidden; "></a><div class="text parbase section" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><p>In training psychiatry residents and postdoctoral psychologists, I am impressed by the breadth and depth of the trainees' technical knowledge. What is lacking in their training is a way for them to develop an emotional understanding of the elders' predicament. It is our challenge as the teachers of this next generation of caregivers to help them identify the needs of the elders for whom they will be caring. It is only through understanding the painful losses and limited choices that this elder generation of Americans must inevitably endure that will help these future caregivers to provide the necessary therapeutic interventions to optimize their quality of life. Ultimately, it must be our goal to help elders resolve that last Ericksonian crisis in favor of ego integrity and satisfaction in the lives they have led. Trainees as well as current health-care professionals must learn (to paraphrase Walt Kelly's<i>Pogo</i>) that they have met the elderly and they are us.</p></div><a name="body_text6" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); visibility: hidden; "></a><div class="text parbase section" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; "><p><i>Kings Point</i> should be required viewing for all medical students, residents, physicians, social workers, psychologists, and nurses. It conveys, as no other film or teaching tool does, the major challenges of aging in our society. As America continues to turn increasingly gray, health professionals need to empathetically understand the needs, the crises, and the losses of our elders. <em>Kings Point</em> is a moving start in the right direction.</p></div></div><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/16/no-country-for-old-people-kings-point-exposes-the-hidden-elder-crisis.html">http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/16/no-country-for-old-people-kings-point-exposes-the-hidden-elder-crisis.html</a><div><br></div><div>Trailer:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://vimeo.com/43636930">http://vimeo.com/43636930</a><br><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></div>

No Country for Old People: ‘Kings Point’ Exposes the Hidden Elder Crisis - The Daily Beast

I just finished proctoring the geriatric psychiatry station of the comprehensive examination that second-year students take at the Harvard M...

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Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us | TIME.com

<base href="data:"><div style="color: black; text-align: left; "><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><strong style="font-weight: bold; ">1. Routine Care, Unforgettable Bills</strong></p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><b><br></b>When Sean Recchi, a 42-year-old from Lancaster, Ohio, was told last March that he had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, his wife Stephanie knew she had to get him to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Stephanie's father had been treated there 10 years earlier, and she and her family credited the doctors and nurses at MD Anderson with extending his life by at least eight years.</p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Because Stephanie and her husband had recently started their own small technology business, they were unable to buy comprehensive health insurance. For $469 a month, or about 20% of their income, they had been able to get only a policy that covered just $2,000 per day of any hospital costs. "We don't take that kind of discount insurance," said the woman at MD Anderson when Stephanie called to make an appointment for Sean.</p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Stephanie was then told by a billing clerk that the estimated cost of Sean's visit — just to be examined for six days so a treatment plan could be devised — would be $48,900, due in advance. Stephanie got her mother to write her a check. "You do anything you can in a situation like that," she says. The Recchis flew to Houston, leaving Stephanie's mother to care for their two teenage children.</p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">About a week later, Stephanie had to ask her mother for $35,000 more so Sean could begin the treatment the doctors had decided was urgent. His condition had worsened rapidly since he had arrived in Houston. He was "sweating and shaking with chills and pains," Stephanie recalls. "He had a large mass in his chest that was … growing. He was panicked."</p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Nonetheless, Sean was held for about 90 minutes in a reception area, she says, because the hospital could not confirm that the check had cleared. Sean was allowed to see the doctor only after he advanced MD Anderson $7,500 from his credit card. The hospital says there was nothing unusual about how Sean was kept waiting. According to MD Anderson communications manager Julie Penne, "Asking for advance payment for services is a common, if unfortunate, situation that confronts hospitals all over the United States."</p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Why? The total cost, in advance, for Sean to get his treatment plan and initial doses of chemotherapy was $83,900.</p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">The first of the 344 lines printed out across eight pages of his hospital bill — filled with indecipherable numerical codes and acronyms — seemed innocuous. But it set the tone for all that followed. It read, "1 ACETAMINOPHE TABS 325 MG." The charge was only $1.50, but it was for a generic version of a Tylenol pill. You can buy 100 of them on Amazon for $1.49 even without a hospital's purchasing power.</p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Dozens of midpriced items were embedded with similarly aggressive markups, like $283.00 for a "CHEST, PA AND LAT 71020." That's a simple chest X-ray, for which MD Anderson is routinely paid $20.44 when it treats a patient on Medicare, the government health care program for the elderly.</p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Every time a nurse drew blood, a "ROUTINE VENIPUNCTURE" charge of $36.00 appeared, accompanied by charges of $23 to $78 for each of a dozen or more lab analyses performed on the blood sample. In all, the charges for blood and other lab tests done on Recchi amounted to more than $15,000. Had Recchi been old enough for Medicare, MD Anderson would have been paid a few hundred dollars for all those tests. By law, Medicare's payments approximate a hospital's cost of providing a service, including overhead, equipment and salaries.</p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">On the second page of the bill, the markups got bolder. Recchi was charged $13,702 for "1 RITUXIMAB INJ 660 MG." That's an injection of 660 mg of a cancer wonder drug called Rituxan. The average price paid by all hospitals for this dose is about $4,000, but MD Anderson probably gets a volume discount that would make its cost $3,000 to $3,500. That means the nonprofit cancer center's paid-in-advance markup on Recchi's lifesaving shot would be about 400%.</p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">When I asked MD Anderson to comment on the charges on Recchi's bill, the cancer center released a written statement that said in part, "The issues related to health care finance are complex for patients, health care providers, payers and government entities alike … MD Anderson's clinical billing and collection practices are similar to those of other major hospitals and academic medical centers."</p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">The hospital's hard-nosed approach pays off. Although it is officially a nonprofit unit of the University of Texas, MD Anderson has revenue that exceeds the cost of the world-class care it provides by so much that its operating profit for the fiscal year 2010, the most recent annual report it filed with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was $531 million. That's a profit margin of 26% on revenue of $2.05 billion, an astounding result for such a service-intensive enterprise.<sup style="line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em; ">1</sup></p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">The president of MD Anderson is paid like someone running a prosperous business. Ronald DePinho's total compensation last year was $1,845,000. That does not count outside earnings derived from a much publicized waiver he received from the university that, according to the Houston <i>Chronicle</i>, allows him to maintain unspecified "financial ties with his three principal pharmaceutical companies."</p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">DePinho's salary is nearly triple the $674,350 paid to William Powers Jr., the president of the entire University of Texas system, of which MD Anderson is a part. This pay structure is emblematic of American medical economics and is reflected on campuses across the U.S., where the president of a hospital or hospital system associated with a university — whether it's Texas, Stanford, Duke or Yale — is invariably paid much more than the person in charge of the university.</p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">I got the idea for this article when I was visiting Rice University last year. As I was leaving the campus, which is just outside the central business district of Houston, I noticed a group of glass skyscrapers about a mile away lighting up the evening sky. The scene looked like Dubai. I was looking at the Texas Medical Center, a nearly 1,300-acre, 280-building complex of hospitals and related medical facilities, of which MD Anderson is the lead brand name. Medicine had obviously become a huge business. In fact, of Houston's top 10 employers, five are hospitals, including MD Anderson with 19,000 employees; three, led by ExxonMobil with 14,000 employees, are energy companies. How did that happen, I wondered. Where's all that money coming from? And where is it going? I have spent the past seven months trying to find out by analyzing a variety of bills from hospitals like MD Anderson, doctors, drug companies and every other player in the American health care ecosystem.</p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">When you look behind the bills that Sean Recchi and other patients receive, you see nothing rational — no rhyme or reason — about the costs they faced in a marketplace they enter through no choice of their own. The only constant is the sticker shock for the patients who are asked to pay.</p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">More ...<br><br></span></div><a href="http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/print/">http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/print/</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us | TIME.com

1. Routine Care, Unforgettable Bills When Sean Recchi, a 42-year-old from Lancaster, Ohio, was told last March that he had non-Hodgkin's...

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Flash Flood

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHMrtc5p_aSWMPOOoEgost7Jl6UVs8fhJPVUwec98YMJuMKb19QNQNAh36HUyKW88ZZUWdEJtLPtUgdMKX-QlQATkJbgRr8Odb6cGlmtnTdqk_tm4SJTU4A34SXCiSWRk9CIisWaTxeajy/s960/Photo%252520Feb%25252021%25252C%2525202013%25252C%2525207%25253A22%252520AM.jpg" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="" height="375" id="blogsy-1361449752820.551" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHMrtc5p_aSWMPOOoEgost7Jl6UVs8fhJPVUwec98YMJuMKb19QNQNAh36HUyKW88ZZUWdEJtLPtUgdMKX-QlQATkJbgRr8Odb6cGlmtnTdqk_tm4SJTU4A34SXCiSWRk9CIisWaTxeajy/s500/Photo%252520Feb%25252021%25252C%2525202013%25252C%2525207%25253A22%252520AM.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>Sitting at the table drinking a tepid cup of coffee watching Shadow-cat attack the dragons in my son's bookbag on top of my son's drafted CHAMPs poster as my husband finishes breakfast while reading his devotional on his iPad, I snapped this picture. The flowers from Valentine's day are wilted but I don't want to take them off the table. <br /><br />I head to school in just a moment after reading devotionals of God's unfailing love and <a href="http://thinkexist.com/quotation/simplify-simplify-/145742.html" target="_blank">stories of simplicity </a>from Thoreau this morning. My digital picture frame forwards in the background of the many memories I have with my children and family as I get a text from my sisters wishing me good morning.<br /><br />But still, as I ponder today, a sense of being overwhelmed comes over me like the flash flood watch my area is under until Saturday morning. My life is a flash flood. Such is the life of a teacher.<br /><br />In the business world, I knew I had to facilitate meetings far ahead of time and they stood on my calendar like bright lights beckoning me to work on them for hours. Whether I was teaching or facilitating, those meetings were important. Now, I facilitate 6 hours a day with but 50 minutes to prepare for all of that. If you proposed such a job to a businesswoman like I used to be, I wouldn't have taken it and told you that you were crazy if you expected me to get all of that done.<br /><br />Such is the life of a teacher. Flash flood. We handle the rivulets of work, crisis, teenage angst, and struggle bound up in the lives of these precious children.<br /><br />May you have a great day. Your work is worthy and and important and so are you, you noble teacher. Be it.<br /><br /><div id="blogsy_footer" style="clear: both; font-size: small; text-align: right;"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Written by Vicki Davis, author - Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds - Posted with Blogsy from my iPad" height="20" src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" style="margin-right: 5px; vertical-align: middle;" width="20" />Written by Vicki Davis, author - Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds - Posted with Blogsy from my iPad</a></div>

Teaching Flash Flood

Sitting at the table drinking a tepid cup of coffee watching Shadow-cat attack the dragons in my son's bookbag on top of my son's dr...

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Is Karl Rove a Nazi?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Hola Comrades! By now you know that what started out as a <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/20/chuck-hagel-friend-of-hamas-how-the-right-wing-press-got-it-way-wrong.html" target="_blank">smart-ass joke by a NY Daily News reporter</a>, turned into a really moronic story on a right-wing website which then turned into a super embarrassing situation for Senator Rand Paul. The guy who ran the bullshit story that SecDef nominee Chuck Hagel had given a speech to the “Friends of Hamas” now claims that he had THREE separate sources for that story, but admits that he doesn’t know if they were being truthful or not. Well, since that’s how journalism is done, here is my report for IWS World Media for Thursday, February 21, 2013…<br /><br /><b>BREAKING NEWS!</b> IWS World Media has learned from sources that the photograph of Karl Rove as a Nazi Officer distributed by the Tea Party, originally assumed to be a photoshop, is in fact REAL!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiki9B6kGMAoNvj3mjsQ7DEVZHJlrDOmtFqqKdSUg8Ks1-_FhnDW5zo02wD1efB8M4XUoY1B9_aeBrvYDoNmECTlGxkUstZPlDua8X_Ge3aaffhI-HePmG5GtqWvSwvCY2ljMRvS8S4Muw/s1600/Karl-Rove-Nazi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiki9B6kGMAoNvj3mjsQ7DEVZHJlrDOmtFqqKdSUg8Ks1-_FhnDW5zo02wD1efB8M4XUoY1B9_aeBrvYDoNmECTlGxkUstZPlDua8X_Ge3aaffhI-HePmG5GtqWvSwvCY2ljMRvS8S4Muw/s1600/Karl-Rove-Nazi.jpg" /></a></div><br />It turns out that Mr. Rove, AKA: Turd Blossom is a big fan of both Adolf Hitler and his Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels! Rove has long admired Goebbels ability to put out all kinds of loony stories about his political enemies and make people believe it. In fact, he used Mr. Goebbels’ techniques when the Bush Administration convinced America to go to war with Iraq.<br /><br />In addition to that, Rove has made many statements to friends and colleagues over the years about how much agrees with Hitler and Goebbels visions for the world. In fact, we have gathered some things that Mr. Rove has said over the years about different groups of people.<br /><br /><b>Blacks:</b> <i>“I just don’t see any use for black folks at all. I mean, I guess maybe some blues and jazz music, but nothing else. They freaking ruined basketball. It used to be a beautiful sport of men passing, screening and running backdoor plays then laying the ball off the backboard as softly as they touched their newborn baby’s cheek. Now? They run up and down the floor so fast and dunk the ball and jump so high and people think that’s exciting? Pathetic! Basically blacks are just lazy criminals who are just sitting around looking for a government handout. Not a single one of them ever worked hard for anything they have, and that includes Obama!” </i><br /><br /><b>Latinos:</b> <i>“They do a good job mowing my lawn and keeping my flowers pretty, I’ll give them that. I’m also a big fan of Chicken Tortilla Soup which they seem to excel at making. And, they definitely can make Tacos and Burritos though. Honestly though? That’s it. If I never have to listen to another GOD-DAMN mariachi tune again it’ll be too soon. Seriously, all I think of them is how I’ll see 12 of them stuffed into a Toyota 4x4 on the highway or 27 of them living in a one bedroom apt. They live like animals!” </i><br /><br /><b>Asians:</b> <i>“They do a good job of cleaning my suits and Asian Women are HAWT! That’s it though. They pretend to not understand what I’m saying when I know they speak better English than I do. They’re scheming, back-stabbing, lying, product-and-intellectual-property-stealing little bastards! They cut in front of you in line at the market too.” </i><br /><br /><b>Jews:</b> <i>“Gass ‘em all! There will finally be jobs available to good Christians in the financial, media and entertainment world. Best of all, I won’t have to hear about that bullshit Holocaust story they made up for sympathy anymore. MY GOD I’m sick of that!” </i><br /><br />As you can see folks, Mr. Rove has a long history of saying very unfortunate and hurtful things about a number of minority groups. I know you are probably having a hard time believing that he actually said those quotes that I found on the internet. I can understand that, but let me assure you I have confirmed each of those statements with at least three separate people whom I interact with on a regular basis online and know for a fact to be quite reliable arbiters of the truth. Most of the time anyway.<br /><br />Jayman<br /><a href="mailto:Jayman3768@gmail.com">Jayman3768@gmail.com</a><br /><a href="http://www.twitter.com/jayman_iws" target="_blank">@Jayman_IWS </a><br /><br />Editor’s Note: The body of this article has 666 words, which we here at IWS World Media consider to be confirmation from God that we believe everything written here that came from our trustworthy sources to be true. God wouldn’t lie to us.<br /><br /><br />In other news you should totally listen to Matt and Jay Uncrossed on Wednesday's <a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/im-with-stupid" target="_blank">I'm With Stupid</a>. We talked about Mindy McCready shooting her dog, Tim Tebow being a raging bigot and Mississippi joining the 19th Century among other hilarious topics. Check it out!<br /><div><br /></div><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.adobe.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0" height="105" id="143577" name="143577" width="210"><param name="movie" value="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/btrplayer.swf?file=http://www.blogtalkradio.com%2Fplaylist.aspx%3Fshow_id%3D4434965&autostart=false&bufferlength=5&volume=80&corner=rounded&callback=http://www.blogtalkradio.com/flashplayercallback.aspx" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="menu" value="false" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/btrplayer.swf" flashvars="file=http://www.blogtalkradio.com%2Fplaylist.aspx%3Fshow_id%3D4434965&autostart=false&shuffle=false&callback=http://www.blogtalkradio.com/FlashPlayerCallback.aspx&width=210&height=105&volume=80&corner=rounded" width="210" height="105" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" wmode="transparent" menu="false" name="143577" id="143577" allowScriptAccess="always"></embed></object><br /><div style="font-size: 10px; text-align: center; width: 220px;">Listen to <a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/">internet radio</a> with <a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/im-with-stupid">Im With Stupid</a> on Blog Talk Radio<br /><br /><br /></div></div>

Is Karl Rove a Nazi?

Hola Comrades! By now you know that what started out as a smart-ass joke by a NY Daily News reporter , turned into a really moronic story on...

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28 in 28 #20: Intensities

<i>February is Book Month on A Daily Dose of Architecture. The "<a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/search/label/28%20in%2028">28 in 28</a>" series features a different book every day of the month.</i><br /><br /><a href="http://www.papress.com/html/book.details.page.tpl?isbn=9781616890667"><b><i>Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis: Intensities</i></b></a> by Paul Lewis, Mark Tsurumaki, David J. Lewis<br />Princeton Architectural Press, 2013<br />Paperback, 192 pages<br /><br /><img alt="28-28_LTL.jpg" src="http://www.archidose.org/Blog/28-28_LTL.jpg" title="Book cover" /><br /><br />LTL Architects is very particular about the names of their monographs. Their first—the 21st in the Pamphlet Architecture series—is called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568981546/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1568981546&linkCode=as2&tag=aweeklydoseof-20"><i>Situation Normal...</i></a>; it is the beginning of the acronym SNAFU (the rest is All F@*!ed Up), which describes a "normal" state where things are a little bit off (their project for a putting green/smoker's lounge on the window-washing armature of the Seagram Building is a good case in point). Ten years later they followed up with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568987102/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1568987102&linkCode=as2&tag=aweeklydoseof-20"><i>Opportunistic Architecture</i></a>, what they describe as "a design philosophy that transforms the typically restrictive conditions of architectural practice—small budgets, awkward spaces, strict zoning—into generators of architectural innovation." Just over four years later comes <i>Intensities</i>, what they describe in the introduction as "a focused form of architectural practice ... [they] engage the pragmatics of a given project, pursuing design invention through nonlinear yet logical sequence of speculations and probes." Further, "the work that materializes is then saturated, multilayered, or otherwise demonstrative of an intensification of architecture itself."<br /><br />The compressed time frame of the newest monograph—half the time between the first two—indicates that LTL is producing and building more at a faster pace (will the next one be in two years?). Twenty projects are in the book, about half of them built. On the cover is the <a href="http://www.world-architects.com/en/projects/project-review-detail/30155_arthouse_at_the_jones_center">Arthouse at the Jones Center</a>, a renovation of a (very) old building in Austin, Texas, for a contemporary arts space; the project also ends the book, perhaps as a way to bookend the contents. The cover's photo/drawing hybrid grounds the project in their early projects that are heavy on perspective drawings, something they have not abandoned, even as they have refined the method to incorporate computers. The project also documents LTL's design and fabrication of mobile lounge furniture, harking back to the small Lower East Side eateries that they used to install themselves. So as projects have expanded in scale and frequency, and moved beyond their Manhattan locale, many things have remained constant.<br /><br />In addition to the Arthouse, the projects given the most pages are <a href="http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/rising-currents/ltl-architects">Water Proving Ground</a> (their contribution to MoMA's 2010 <i>Rising Currents</i> show), the <a href="http://www.archdaily.com/138268/sullivan-family-student-center-ltl-architects/">Sullivan Family Student Center</a> at the University of Wyoming (the project is anchored by a double-height topographic mural of the state, echoed in their office design for The Open Planning Project, which features shelving in the shape of Manhattan), and the <a href="http://www.american-architects.com/en/projects/project-review-detail/35593_claremont_university_consortium_administrative_campus_center">Claremont University Consortium Administrative Campus Center</a> (another renovation, one that illustrates how their skill with small interiors has been successfully carried to larger projects). Yet even projects given only a couple pages are presented with the same attention to detail as these and others. Each project reveals a consistent approach that emphasizes quality of space and detail. The equally consistent presentation that mixes photos, drawings, and words makes the book extremely rich, indicative of their talents.<br /><br /><b>US: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616890665/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1616890665&linkCode=as2&tag=aweeklydoseof-20" target="_blank"><img alt="Buy from Amazon.com" border="0" src="http://www.archidose.org/books/buy-from-tan.gif" /></a> CA: <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1616890665/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1616890665&linkCode=as2&tag=aweeklydoseof-20" target="_blank"><img alt="Buy from Amazon.ca" border="0" height="28" src="http://www.archidose.org/books/buy-from-tan-ca.gif" width="90" /></a> UK: <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1616890665/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1616890665&linkCode=as2&tag=aweeklydoseof-20" target="_blank"><img alt="Buy from Amazon.co.uk" border="0" height="28" src="http://www.archidose.org/books/buy-from-tan-uk.gif" width="90" /></a></b>

28 in 28 #20: Intensities

February is Book Month on A Daily Dose of Architecture. The " 28 in 28 " series features a different book every day of the month. ...

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Food Should Taste Good Review

<div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3QLXFxsgz90/USVSfa9BCWI/AAAAAAAAGg8/-D-oIhNWyCo/s1600/foodshouldtastegood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3QLXFxsgz90/USVSfa9BCWI/AAAAAAAAGg8/-D-oIhNWyCo/s320/foodshouldtastegood.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What is it that you look for when it comes to snacking on chips?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Is it the healthy ingredients, the crunch, the saltiness or a certain kind of flavor?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These chips from <a href="http://www.foodshouldtastegood.com/">Food Should Taste Good</a> have all of that and more!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They are so delicious, crispy, bit salty and the flavor is outrageously good.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Did I mention they are addicting?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They are great dipped in salsa or right out of the bag!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They offer a wide variety of flavors ranging from multi grain to kettle.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They even have crackers!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Facts:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gluten free</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">zero grams trans fat</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">cholesterol free</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">kosher certified</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was sent these amazing chips for review and wow they are tasty.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u><br /></u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Multi Grain:</u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Offers a great crispy nutty flavor.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So delicious.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Love the taste and the crunch you get when you bite into them!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sprinkle some cheese on top and make some nachos!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Add salsa, black beans and sour cream if your feeling a little festive!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Keep in mind I haven't tried all of the flavors yet I was sent to review.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Lime:</u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><u style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Blue Corn:</u><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u><br /></u></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Original Sweet Potato:</u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Their kettle cooked flavors are:</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">salt and pepper sweet potato</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">barbecue sweet potato</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">salt and vinegar sweet potato</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">original sweet potato</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Tortilla Chips:</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u><br /></u></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Blue corn</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">hemp</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">blue corn dipping chips</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">olive</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the works</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">lime</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">white cheddar</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">toasted sesame</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">kettle corn</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">chocolate</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">cantina</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">hatch chile</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">kimchi</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">cheddar</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Want to check them out online!?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.foodshouldtastegood.com/">http://www.foodshouldtastegood.com/</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/FoodShouldTasteGood">https://www.facebook.com/FoodShouldTasteGood</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://twitter.com/FSTG_Chips">https://twitter.com/FSTG_Chips</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://pinterest.com/fstgchips/"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://pinterest.com/fstgchips/</span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>

Food Should Taste Good Review

What is it that you look for when it comes to snacking on chips? Is it the healthy ingredients, the crunch, the saltiness or a certain kind ...

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Health News Articles | News for Physicians & Medical Professionals

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><a href="http://www.physiciansbriefing.com/">http://www.physiciansbriefing.com/</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Health News Articles | News for Physicians & Medical Professionals

http://www.physiciansbriefing.com/

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Current Health News | Health Day

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><a href="http://consumer.healthday.com/">http://consumer.healthday.com/</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Current Health News | Health Day

http://consumer.healthday.com/

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Providing better care for seniors in Ontario - caregiverexchange.ca

<base href="data:"><div style="color: black; text-align: left; "><div style="color: black; text-align: left; "><table class="blogTable" style="width: 428px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 17px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; position: static; z-index: auto; "><tbody><tr><td colspan="2"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Keeping <a target="_blank" href="http://www.thehealthline.ca/listCategories.aspx?id=10019" style="color: rgb(15, 93, 169); text-decoration: underline; ">seniors</a> living healthy and happy at home takes hard work, initiative and support, especially for those who are caregivers. How can we better care and choices for Ontario'aging population, as well as keep them active and engaged in their communities?<br><br>The Ontario government recently addressed these issues with the "<a target="_blank" temp_href="Dr. Sinha's recommendations from Living Longer, Living Well" href="http://www.caregiverexchange.ca/Dr.%20Sinha%E2%80%99s%20recommendations%20from%20Living%20Longer,%20Living%20Well" style="color: rgb(15, 93, 169); text-decoration: underline; ">Living Longer, Living Well</a>" report as part of Ontario's "<a target="_blank" temp_href="Ontario's Action Plan for Seniors" href="http://www.caregiverexchange.ca/Ontario's%20Action%20Plan%20for%20Seniors" style="color: rgb(15, 93, 169); text-decoration: underline; ">Action Plan for Seniors</a>." The report looked at how to provide seniors with better access to health care, resources and safety, including matching them with primary care providers.<br><br><a target="_blank" href="http://www.thehealthline.ca/displayArticle.aspx?id=21331" style="color: rgb(15, 93, 169); text-decoration: underline; ">Dr. Samir Sinha</a>, director of geriatrics at Mount Sinai Hospital and the University Health Network Hospitals, presented the report on January 15, 2013--the result of research in 19 Ontario communities with more than 5,000 seniors and 2,500 care providers.<br><br>Keeping Ontario seniors at home:<br><br>The report recommended providing more home care services by expanding personal support worker services through community support agencies, creating and promoting more information and resources for seniors, enhancing elder abuse prevention training and implementing a wandering prevention program for those living with Alzheimer's and dementia. <br><br>"This report summarizes what I heard from thousands of Ontarians on how we can provide better care for our elders," said Sinha "...and make Ontario the best place to grow up and grow old."<br><br>(Click <a target="_blank" href="http://www.thehealthline.ca/listCategories.aspx?id=10012" style="color: rgb(15, 93, 169); text-decoration: underline; ">here</a> for information about home care and assisted living services available in the South West.) <br><br>Providing support for caregivers:<br><br>According to the report, Ontario residents are living longer and with less chronic illnesses or disabilities, but a lot of in-home care is still provided by unpaid caregivers, which can also take a toll on caregiver's health. Seniors, caregivers and families said they want more access to information and services, as well as support. <br><br>The report states: "All Ontarians stand to benefit when caregivers can be supported with information and access to a range of supports which will allow them to continue assisting those they care about."<br><br>(Click <a target="_blank" href="http://www.thehealthline.ca/listServices.aspx?id=10164" style="color: rgb(15, 93, 169); text-decoration: underline; ">here</a> to learn about Care for the Caregiver resources available in the South West.)<br><br>Facts on Ontario's aging population:<br><br>•    Ontario's 1.9 million seniors make up 14.6 per cent of Ontario's population and account for nearly half of its current health care spending.<br>•    The number of Ontarians age 65 and older is expected to double over the next 20 years.<br>•    In 2011, there were 1,878,325 Ontario residents aged 65 years and older, representing 14.6 per cent of the province's overall population<br>•    By 2017, Ontario will be home to more people over 65 than children under 15.<br><br>More information:<br></font><ul><li><a target="_blank" href="http://news.ontario.ca/oss/en/2013/01/ontarios-action-plan-for-seniors.html" style="color: rgb(15, 93, 169); text-decoration: underline; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Ontario's Action Plan for Seniors</font></a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/ms/ecfa/healthy_change/docs/rep_healthychange.pdf" style="color: rgb(15, 93, 169); text-decoration: underline; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Read Ontario's Action Plan for Health Care</font></a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/common/ministry/publications/reports/seniors_strategy/docs/seniors_strategy.pdf" style="color: rgb(15, 93, 169); text-decoration: underline; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Dr. Sinha's recommendations from Living Longer, Living Well</font></a></li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'"><br></font></div></div><a href="http://www.caregiverexchange.ca/blog_comments.aspx?id=524"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">http://www.caregiverexchange.ca/blog_comments.aspx?id=524</font></a></div><div><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "></div>

Providing better care for seniors in Ontario - caregiverexchange.ca

Keeping  seniors  living healthy and happy at home takes hard work, initiative and support, especially for those who are caregivers. How can...

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Ontario's Senior Strategy - The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Audio) - CastRoller

After extensive consultations with 5,000 Ontario seniors, 2,500 stakeholders and more than 1,000 caregivers, the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care has released its "Living Longer, Living Well" report which looks to redefine care for Ontario's aging population. Expert lead and geriatrician Dr. Samir Sinha and Ontario Minister of Health Deb Matthews join Steve Paikin for an in-depth look at the strategy and which of its 169 recommendations the current provincial government will be acting upon.<br /><br><br /><br><a href="http://castroller.com/podcasts/TheAgendaWith/3373685">http://castroller.com/podcasts/TheAgendaWith/3373685</a>

Ontario's Senior Strategy - The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Audio) - CastRoller

After extensive consultations with 5,000 Ontario seniors, 2,500 stakeholders and more than 1,000 caregivers, the Ministry of Health and Long...

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What Is Life Like After a Cochlear Implant for a Person Born Deaf? - Slate

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; "><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; "><a href="https://www.quora.com/What-is-life-like-after-a-cochlear-implant-bionic-ear-for-a-person-born-deaf/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 153); text-decoration: underline; outline: none; ">This question</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://www.quora.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">Quora</a>.</em><br><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; "><br>Answer by <a href="https://www.quora.com/Cristina-Hartmann" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">Cristina Hartmann</a>, writer:</strong></p></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; ">Well, this is a tough question for me since I've lived far more years with a cochlear implant (CI) than without.</p></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; ">In 1991, I was one of the first 500 children to get a CI after FDA approval of pediatric CIs. I was 6 years old.</p></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; ">A few months prior, my mother had asked me if I wanted to hear. I said yes at once since I wanted to know what the fuss was all about. As my mom explained the operation to me, I got this sense that it'd be magic. (OK, I wasn't a bright 6-year-old.)</p></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; ">Well, the magic consisted of me being wheeled into an overbright operating room, chilly from only wearing a thin gown. A few moments later, someone put a mask up to my face. The sour, musky gas put me to sleep almost immediately.</p></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; ">I woke up a few hours later with a huge bandage around my head. I stayed in a hospital in New York City (my family was in upstate New York) having a great time with other patients. I stayed home for more than a month, since back then, the incisions were rather large and kept bleeding.<br><br>When I turned on the implant about a month and half after surgery, I ran down the hall, screaming. I expected that I would be able to hear instantaneously. That proved not to be the case.<br><br>You see, if you never heard before, any unfamiliar sensation feels like pain. I stood at the end of the hallway, half-aghast, half-sobbing since all I felt was pain, and I didn't hear anything.<br><br>A few hours later, I heard my first sound—at least what I thought was sound—a motorcycle starting on the street outside of the hospital. I was not impressed.<br><br>It took me two years of speech therapy to follow a simple spoken sentence. It took me another two or three years to speak intelligibly. Another few years passed before I was confident enough to speak in public. Altogether, I underwent 10 years of speech therapy (daily sessions for the first few years, and then it petered out to weekly sessions once I was 13). If a child gets an implant quite young, such as at age 1, the process is far easier than it was for me.<br><br>I remember the first thing I ordered just using my voice. It was a soft-serve ice cream cone at Wendy's at a mall near my house. I was so proud of myself, seeing my hard work pay off (an added bonus was that I paid for the ice cream with my own money). I was around 9 and that, to this day, was the best ice cream cone that I've ever had.<br><br>Today, 22 years later, I use spoken English as my primary mode of communication in everyday things. I still use ASL whenever I chance upon a deaf person. I have, however, stayed mostly within the hearing world in the last few years.<br><br>Sometimes, I think back to one of the questions that I asked my mom before I got my CI. I asked her if I would be deaf or hearing. She told me that I'd be both. I don't think that's true. I'm neither deaf nor hearing. I don't sign as often anymore, but I don't speak or hear well enough to be like hearing people.<br><br>Getting a CI changed the course of my life. Before I had the CI, I was well on my way on becoming an integral, perhaps a little isolationist, member of the deaf community. I used only ASL and didn't speak a word. Left to my own devices, I probably would've gone to a deaf college, not a hearing college. Who knows where I would be today?</p></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; ">Not much changed immediately after my CI surgery. I still went to the deaf program in my district. I still used ASL every day. Over the years, things changed. my deaf friends, who were my closest friends, started to make fun of me and my CI, calling me a "robot" and "freak." All of this took place during the height of deaf opposition to CIs in children. Even though today, I get very few comments, I still remember how lonely these taunts made me feel. From the age of 8, I felt very much alone. Fortunately, this doesn't happen as often within the deaf community anymore, but I got some of the worst of the backlash.</p></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; ">Sometimes, despite myself, I miss these silent years. I'll spend a day (a day when I don't really need to interact with anyone hearing) with my CI off and luxuriate in the silence. After a while, the real world intervenes and I turn my CI back on.</p></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; ">So, to answer your question, getting a CI changed my life for the better and for the worse. Worlds of opportunities opened up for me, but I lost an identity.</p></div></div><a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2013/02/19/what_is_life_like_after_a_cochlear_implant_for_a_person_born_deaf.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content">http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2013/02/19/what_is_life_like_after_a_cochlear_implant_for_a_person_born_deaf.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

What Is Life Like After a Cochlear Implant for a Person Born Deaf? - Slate

This question  originally appeared on  Quora . Answer by  Cristina Hartmann , writer: Well, this is a tough question for me since I've l...

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Children’s Librarian - Henry Carter Hull Library, Clinton

<strong>Children’s Librarian -</strong> <strong><span style="color: #48286d;">Henry Carter Hull Library</span></strong>, Clinton. Full Time. Are you ready to take library service to children and their families to its most creative levels? The nationally-ranked Henry Carter Hull Library is seeking you, an innovative, energetic Children’s Librarian to manage its award-winning Children’s Department. Your understanding of child development allows you to engage with children easily and meaningfully. Your warmth makes kids and their caregivers regard the library as their second home. Your knowledge of children’s literature is vast. You can develop and maintain a collection that excites kids of varying abilities and interests. You take pride in your ability to match a child’s needs to exactly the right book and can’t wait for the discussion that follows. You thrive in planning programs and learning opportunities for infants to tweens. As a life-long learner yourself, you actively seek ways to introduce youngsters to unique and valuable knowledge and skills. You adore new technologies, and as a natural teacher, you eagerly share all the new innovations. You are a marketing genius at promoting library programs; your outreach brings in new users daily. You value open communication, collaboration and team-work. You are famous for how clearly you keep everyone “in the loop”, for making the first call to a potential town partner, and the smooth interaction you have with your co-workers. And it won’t take you long to realize that the 6 staff members in the Children’s Room are the most hardworking and delightful people you’ve ever met and the Director supports unequivocally your ideas and willingness to take risks. In fact, the entire staff at HCH Library shares the core values you treasure: a passion for library service, the power of a positive attitude and compassion for our patrons. Qualifications: You have a Master's Degree in Library Science from an accredited college or university plus three years experience in children’s library service, including one year as a supervisor. Compensation: Your salary will be dependent on your qualifications and includes full benefits. Submit a letter of interest, resume, and three professional references with contact information via email attachment to <a _fcksavedurl="mailto:maribeth@hchlibrary.org" href="mailto:maribeth@hchlibrary.org">maribeth@hchlibrary.org</a>. The position has an intended start date of mid-April, 2013.

Children’s Librarian - Henry Carter Hull Library, Clinton

Children’s Librarian - Henry Carter Hull Library , Clinton. Full Time. Are you ready to take library service to children and their familie...

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This Is How You Healthcare: American Death In London - Not Safe For Work Corporation

LONDON, UK: It's just after 9.30pm on a Tuesday in the intensive care unit of a hospital in south-west London. A vast spaceship dashboard of drug delivery systems is silent, monitors displaying the word 'Privacy'. I sit by the foot of the bed while the other four crowd around the top. An empty bottle of scotch is propped in the sheets that cover the stricken, thin form of my father, along with a crucifix on a chain and a Dr Seuss book. I gradually become aware that he has died.<br /><br><br /><br>My father's de facto nephew Charlie, a boisterous Irish lad in his mid-twenties, starts up a Hail Mary over the body of an atheist of Jewish extraction as if it might push life back into him. My aunt weeps. My half-sister in a red woolly hat, herself on six different types of medication, is on the phone to her mother, brightly telling her what she had for dinner. (It was stuffed aubergine.)<br /><br><br /><br>Charlie's younger brother Tommy, a sweet skinny boy of 20 who I last saw when he was an six-year-old potential serial killer, dissolves into my arms, sobbing. Positively radiating serenity, I stroke his head and let his grief wash over me. I have a headache from the scotch we've all been sneaking around the bed. I hate scotch. It was Bill's drink. It was Charlie's idea. I look at my father's body. He looks very dead, but then he has looked dead to me this last week, from the first time I saw him crumpled in the sheets, plastic tendrils curling from his head, one green eye stuck half-open.<br /><br><br /><br>I am quite aware as this is happening that it probably represents the single biggest headfuck and heartfuck of my life, and also that if it were happening in the US, the place of my father's birth, it would probably be considerably worse.<br /><br><br /><br>In the UK, we treat any old fucker for free. This is why that is important.<br /><br><br /><br>* * * *<br /><br><br /><br>The place of Bill's death is a foundation hospital, not directed by the government. It's a beautiful building, with open corridors around a vast central atrium filled with natural light and dotted with sculptures and fish tanks. You can't get lost in it, nor can you feel that antiseptic claustrophobia you get in hospitals.<br /><br><br /><br>The tax-funded UK National Health Service is now 65 years old. Foreign nationals get free treatment when they've been here for a year or otherwise have legal residency. A San Francisco native, Bill rocked up and made a home for himself in London in 1976. Since then he's had three (count 'em) artificial hips and been treated for cancer of the larynx, and is now spending his final week in intensive care. When I saw him last year for the first time in ten years, to interview him about the election for NSFWCORP, he mused on how much this country has shelled out to keep him upright: "Oh man, if you were to add up what the NHS has spent on me, it's phenomenal."<br /><br><br /><br>He was a charming, damaged, charismatic, fiercely intelligent, dissolute individual, who lived entirely on his own terms. As a professional gambler, it is unlikely he paid much if any tax in 37 years. He had no will, no funeral plan. He never did fill out the forms necessary to vote in the last election, or the one before that, as I discovered. He just hated forms. I could sympathise. Had he stayed in the US, it is – how you say – dollars to doughnuts he wouldn't have got it together to fill out the forms, and would have had no health insurance. He considered the US system "absolutely unmanageable".<br /><br><br /><br>* * * *<br /><br><br /><br>Bill goes into hospital on Tuesday complaining of dizziness and disorientation. We talk briefly on the phone and he sounds chipper as a chip. Some little heart arrhythmia thing, chest infection, in overnight for observation, no biggie. By Thursday he has plummeted into the subterranean limbo of the gravely ill, having most likely suffered a heart attack. He is being hauled from acute assessment up to the ICU.<br /><br><br /><br>Thursday afternoon I sit by his bed. Talk to him, say the nurses, he can probably hear you. With this type of sedation, the hearing is the last thing to go and the first to come back. I try. Hi, Bill. An inveterate gasbag, I find I've got nothing. I am accustomed to showers of aphorisms and miles of monologue from him. There's nothing to respond to.<br /><br><br /><br>An hour by a bed in the ICU is long. I bring some Vonnegut to read to him – I figure it's the sort of thing he might go for. I don't even open it. I just sit.<br /><br><br /><br>Late in the evening the doctor comes to talk to me. I'm the only one here so far. The friend who brought him in has yet to return, my aunt is on her way from Washington.<br /><br><br /><br>Bill's heart is fucked, hammering away at 150, 160, and it's fucked everything else. The kidneys are fucked. The liver is fucked. This could go on for days or weeks, the doctor says: "But my feeling is that he will pass away tonight."<br /><br><br /><br>So this is how it ends. I had always figured this fighty bastard – whose own father died two months ago almost to the day, aged 96 – was impervious to the usual quotidian sources of bodily doom. He beat cancer, shrugged off booze, swore that "when they come for me, which they will, I'll get 'em with my stick". When he goes, of course he's going down a manhole, under a Mercedes driven by a coked-up supermodel, into the belly of an escaped jaguar.<br /><br><br /><br>I'm prepared for this. I am sad, but ready. The distance from absence to departure doesn't seem so far, and it sucks, but it's OK. I go to bed in the small, snug visitors' room – the existence of which amazes me – in assurance they will wake me when it's time. Next morning he's still there. He will cling on for five more days. The notices will say 'a short illness', but they don't give any sense of how long and hard that can be.<br /><br><br /><br>* * * *<br /><br><br /><br>So after I thought it would end, it starts. There are many phone calls. There is sitting about. There is eating. There is talking and sleeping and a lot of drinking. There is comfort and joy. There is wartime intimacy with people I have met perhaps twice or haven't seen in 20 years. There is a sudden, completely different way of being.<br /><br><br /><br>Occasionally I sit by Bill's bed. I don't do small talk even when people are awake, and wittering away to an unconscious form seems too much like praying – addressing a presence you can be almost certain is not there. The return signal, the connection which was only ever faint and intermittent, is offline. There are only the formal, idiot bips of the monitors.<br /><br><br /><br>I'm not about to do any big talk either. I'm not going to say things I don't mean. He would not hold with any sentimental bullshit, and nothing remains unresolved. I told him ten years ago that he hadn't been the best parent, and his eyes flashed with momentary outrage, and then he nodded meekly. This tiny gesture represented a huge leap of humility and contrition for him, and I appreciated it as such, and always will.<br /><br><br /><br>This, and the fact that he taught me to catch ice-cream drips when I was four, and that he was a lonely old man who was overjoyed to see me a few months ago, who left a string of witty and sweetly anxious voice messages when I flew back from New York just after November's storm ("I'm a little concerned – how are you where are you when are you? Do I have to send the boy scouts out after you?"): these things have brought me here and kept me here. A sense of duty and basic humanity, some fondness and respect, and the desire not to brutally ditch vulnerable friends and relatives and have to live with the idea of myself as a cold-hearted cunt – I mean, I'm not, and I wouldn't – are what will keep me here after today.<br /><br><br /><br>But it will be hard. Processing what is going on, what has gone on, what could happen, and adopting this role and living up to it – that's going to take everything and possibly more. I can see it.<br /><br><br /><br>There's nothing to say, so I say nothing. I put my hand over his hand for a bit. The skin is cool. It feels like a small lamb joint. I feel ridiculous. I feel ridiculous.<br /><br><br /><br>* * * *<br /><br><br /><br>This is life in hospital. Within 24 hours, it seems like all there is. You detach and float away from yourself. You start to alter. You start drinking coffee for the first time in years. You can't think. Exhaustion makes a moron of you. It is a place where intelligent adults sit around trying to figure out the simplest things – dinner plans, medical minutiae that don't really mean anything and that you can't control anyway, how to use a mobile phone – and if you wait a few minutes, the original unanswered stupid question that kicked off the whole sorry bollocks will carousel around again, grinning like a peeling painted horse.<br /><br><br /><br>You experience periods of blissful calm, explosions of fury and anxiety, tremendous impulses to behave badly in the face of disgusting boredom. You max out, faster than you thought you could. You feel useless to yourself and everyone else, except for when you feel so exactingly in control you could fly a plane. You can't tie your shoes. You can't spell 'shoe'. You can't fill out forms. You can't think. You don't know what money is. You can't.<br /><br><br /><br>* * * *<br /><br><br /><br>One of the registrars presents with a comedic instance of medical nominative determinism. He might as well be called Andrew Bedpan. He is the kind of hearty-cute that makes me want to get to know him under other circumstances. For now, I just grin. I grin helplessly when I try to look at him. He tells me terrible things about Bill's condition – hovering between grievous and hopeless – in a sympathetic tone. I grin. I apologise for grinning. Bedpan is cool. He probably gets it a lot.<br /><br><br /><br>* * * *<br /><br><br /><br>The nurses, all casually wonderful, call him William. Everyone else calls him Billy.<br /><br><br /><br>The doctors are amazing. They are frank, they are kind, they are judicious. They negotiate the treatment of an almost-lost cause deftly and delicately, endlessly tweaking dosages, consulting, tweaking, considering. They operate within uneven medical and ethical restrictions, balancing responsibilities, managing expectations. They respect life and death equally, and they allow death to take over the second they see that inducing life to continue would be abominable.<br /><br><br /><br>He is obviously very tough, says the doctor. At this point Bill's heart is only functioning at 10 percent. They are going to step down the drugs – adrenaline, noradrenaline, and something they rarely use that sounds like 'leaveusaminute', much to my amusement – and see if he responds. See if he rises to the challenge of continuing to exist. If he doesn't, "we're not going to jump up and down on his chest".<br /><br><br /><br>Bill's older daughter is here. She asks the doctor if Bill can dream. A great question. The doctor says most likely yes.<br /><br><br /><br>I dream, myself, about a blue whale in a vast tank. It is the biggest thing there has ever been.<br /><br><br /><br>* * * *<br /><br><br /><br>The main things that keep me sane are the airy beauty and peacefulness of the hospital building, messages from friends and family far away on earth, the mundane magnificence of the staff: and the knowledge that all of this is free and taken care of and I do not have to fill in a single fuckforsaken form or bust one precious braincell worrying about how I might have to find money to pay for the futile care of my dying deadbeat dad.<br /><br><br /><br>I return to this miraculous fact many times a day, in exactly the same way that I return often to the little visitors' bedroom, lock the door and curl up on the bed. The knowledge soothes me like clean sheets and heat.<br /><br><br /><br>Imagine, I think in the middle of the night. Imagine if I had to worry about that stuff. With what, exactly, would I worry about it?<br /><br><br /><br>* * * *<br /><br><br /><br>Day whatever in the ICU. Things change minutely. The position of tubes. Numbers and percentages. The shimmying dots of moisture in the breathing tube. The delicate dance of side-effects and counter-effects.<br /><br><br /><br>Blood swirls precisely around the dialysis machine. Bags of fluid hang like inert jellyfish. The green numbers show 167, 168.<br /><br><br /><br>You look tired, says the nurse. I do. I am. Have some toast. I decline politely. She badgers me. Go on, just one slice.<br /><br><br /><br>Tea appears. Sorry, it's NHS tea, it's awful. Get out from here, it is delicious. Two slices of toast follow. Little airline pods of butter, and jam. AND JAM.<br /><br><br /><br>Bedpan materialises. Hey, Bedpan. Those scrubs really bring out your eyes. He asks me how I am. I am drunk on jam, is how I am. I beam at him over the artificially inflating ribcage of the man who gave me life and then mostly left me to it, and then I swig tea.<br /><br><br /><br>"They ask how I am," said Bill that one time, "and they give me the jam." He was very funny.<br /><br><br /><br>Bill coughs once. His whole torso seems to lurch. For a moment I think he is going to spring off the bed and ask all assembled what the fuck.<br /><br><br /><br>* * * *<br /><br><br /><br>This is how you healthcare. It's care of those clinging to life and care of those spinning and reeling in their orbit, struggling to adapt to life in a new airless atmosphere, a place with its own physics. There's no division. At one end, there is a malfunctioning heart, so you give it the right dose of the right drugs. At the other end is an exhausted relative, so you give her toast.<br /><br><br /><br>By now I am convinced that the NHS – and I hyperbolise, but only slightly – is the greatest achievement of humankind, the nearest we get to a benevolent deity, a goddamn superhero. It is an imperfect manifestation of a beautiful ideal – free care based on need, free care for all, without judgement, without reservation.<br /><br><br /><br>However long this goes on for, they'll continue throwing resources at this individual and never show a single sheet of figures to any of his relatives. Not because they'll get anything back, but because this is what the NHS does. It's free care for throat cancer sufferers who only gave up smoking four years afterwards, for drinkers who were told 35 years ago that if they didn't quit drinking they'd die. Free care for American immigrants, for jerks and gents. Free care for parents whether they showed up or not. Free care for guys who tried to try. Free care for the only father I will ever have.<br /><br><br /><br>* * * *<br /><br><br /><br>With 21 hours of Bill's life left, though as far as we know he might still be here in March, I get home at midnight to find my dog staggering as if drunk, getting up and crashing to the floor again, one eye twitching madly. At first it appears that the dog has swallowed some meds that fell out of Bill's overnight bag, which I'd brought home (no PJs in the ICU). My absentee father's final gift to me is to kill my dog from his own deathbed. I have hardly spent a week without my dog in nearly a decade. I have probably spent no more than a month in the conscious presence of my dad in my entire life (I don't think my first year or this last week count).<br /><br><br /><br>This is when I lose my shit completely.<br /><br><br /><br>It transpires the dog has had a kind of canine stroke, a complete coincidence. The dog has health insurance, making him better off than 15.7 percent of Americans at last count. His own hospital stay is covered. This enables me to recoup just enough of my shit to stay in the game and not just tell everything to go fuck itself because fuck it.<br /><br><br /><br>As soon as the vet rings off, my aunt calls. They are withdrawing the drugs at last because there is nowhere else to go. It is time to say bye bye to Bill.<br /><br><br /><br>* * * *<br /><br><br /><br>Bill's breathing, aided by ventilator, quickens after I arrive. It may be because he wants to say something, says a new nurse. Tell him you're going to be OK. I literally cannot comprehend what she has just said to me. I say nothing.<br /><br><br /><br>Everyone gathers. Paraphernalia accumulates. Drink is taken. For a time it's just me and Bill and the boys. Charlie sighs and I hear hope bolt through his mouth like a greyhound out of a trap. "Come on, wake up, Billy," he says, tearfully. He must be saying this to himself, but if Bill really can hear I don't want him to worry that anything is expected of him.<br /><br><br /><br>I lean towards the bed. "Bill," I say, "don't listen to these boys. You do what you have to do."<br /><br><br /><br>There's a slightly shocked silence, some of it my own, but they defer to me. I'm the next of goddamn kin for chrissakes. I'm kind of a big deal around this bed. Surely the old sod would be proud.<br /><br><br /><br>* * * *<br /><br><br /><br>Bill dies of heart failure, his skin the colour of sand, his mouth open. One of his tear ducts leaks, because none of this is dramatic or absurd or unbelievable enough.<br /><br><br /><br>Tommy cries and cries onto my shoulder. "That's your old man," he bawls. Yes, it is. The nurses start gently removing tubes. Charlie babbles about making him look nice please, starts trying to get Bill's mouth closed. The monitors display 'Standby'. Standby. I feel nothing. I feel something.<br /><br><br /><br>* * * *<br /><br><br /><br>Whatever Bill meant to me as a person – and I still don't quite know how that tune goes – I was overwhelmed with awe and gratitude at the infinite care and gentleness shown him (as well as us) as a human being by the health care system of this country. It is nothing less than life-affirming.<br /><br><br /><br>I cannot imagine how any civilised country could do better. I cannot see how any country can be truly civilised without it. If my family and I had had to deal with the vagaries of insurance, forms, debt, extra disaster or extra anything, I suspect we would have proceeded directly to becoming burdens on the system ourselves.<br /><br><br /><br><a href="https://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/this-is-how-you-healthcare">https://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/this-is-how-you-healthcare</a>

This Is How You Healthcare: American Death In London - Not Safe For Work Corporation

LONDON, UK: It's just after 9.30pm on a Tuesday in the intensive care unit of a hospital in south-west London. A vast spaceship dashboar...

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