Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

Sherri

If you don't have free speech, what do you have?

Boys oh boys, I have a hard enough time reading my own language, then throw in some well thought up make believes and some french and I'm, well I'm, I can't say that here, pretty sure I can't, but you can probably figure it out on your own.

Snowshoveler is scared of the camera, so there is no snow dance pictures.  You'll have to ask the Chief Ungabuna what it was like to see a snow dance in Nova Scotia. 

Boy he really gets around doesn't he???  Maybe he's a spy, maybe he's really an alien here to collect human specimans to take back to his home world???  You just never know these days.  Snowshoveler told some of his history - ODD!

Sherri

If you don't have free speech, what do you have?

Oh windy, windy one....you wax so..well...windy....

Ze maks fun of di acczent, I sinks....and ze generalz no likee datz.....zhe getz ze speciale toolz ouz for ze sveetalkies likz zu....snipz, snapz...no more zveetie talkzies....changes vu to meekz as lambchopz...'yes dearz' and "no dearz' all we hear from ze winzy one....no more azkzies for nakie piztorez....generalz just need whisperz "snip" in ze winzy ear...

Sherri

Sorry to hear about your grandmother.  How is she doing?  Have they been able to stabilize her blood sugars? 

Paula

Paula

Thanks for your concern.  She's better in the hospital now then at home.  My grandfather can't look after her easily and Mom and Dad can't be in their part of the house all the time.  They can get her blood sugars up but they fall rapidly, she still isn't able to keep much down, but she said her supper stayed with her longer last night then any meal in the last two days.  So I guess that's good.

Honestly I have to shake my head laughing at the health care system here.  She was in the emergency dept. over night the first night, they said they had no rooms, but amazingly when that got full of people to be admitted - they had beds.  Makes me wonder why I'm paying taxes in Nova Scotia.

But I will try and do snow dances as often as possible, we need the snow, it's calling for flurries and rain next week.  With any luck my snow dance will make the flurries prevail.

Sherri

If you don't have free speech, what do you have?

Sherri

How old is your grandmother, if you don't mind me asking?  Do you have any idea what they have her on for her diabetes?  I know they can do a combo of oral medications and insulin shots depending on the severity of her diabetes to try and control/stabilize it.  Also, if she is taking any kind of steroids (prednisone, cortisone, etc.) for anything like arthritis, etc. that can really wreak havoc with her sugars. 

I always find it interesting to hear about Canada's heatlh system because it has been such a hot topic of debate here in the U.S.  I have read articles stating that people are dying while waiting to see doctors for what should be routine procedures because there is such a shortage of doctors, heard that the quality of care is not good and that people are coming to the U.S. to see doctors, willing to pay just to be seen by doctors, etc.  Then, on the other end of the spectrum, I have heard that the healthcare is very good there, the costs very minimal/free (not counting your other taxes), medications are free and there are more types of medications because there is an easier and/or better process of approving medications. 

Then, there is the U.S. system where everything is privatized except for Medicare.  Insurance keeps rising at an astronomical rate (when I was married we paid $240/month as our 30% of the monthly premium, the X's company paid the other 70% of a family plan, for health insurance for an HMO which limits which doctors you can see, limits which drugs it will pay for, limits what hospitals you can go to and has whole list of exclusions and/or pre-existing medical condition clauses, usually impacting on quality of care (i.e. not having the best doctors in the plan because they are willing to accept lesser fees) versus the HSA I now have which is turning out to be an absolute joke (Bush was toutng these as the healthcare plan of the future...gees, I hope not!) which stands for a Health Savings Account.  This is where supposedly pretax dollars (except that Wisconsin forgot to pass legislature to that effect and we DO get taxed on it...OOPS! ) are put into a 'savings account' and you pay for your deductible out of there (usually with a high deductible - ours is 2600/year for a single plan, 5000/year for a family!).  It is up to your employer how much they kick in but there is a maxiumum to what they are allowed (2000/year).  After the deductible is met, then supposedly everything is paid for.  Ok in theory but the reality is much different.  Our HSA turns out to be similar to an HMO as there is a limit to what docs you can see (and the ones you can see mostly are of lesser quality, with a healthcare group who I won't name but really stink!), the HSA company takes their sweet time about when they actually deposit the money in your account (its not regulated yet) so you have to wait on them (two weeks since money was sent from employer, still not deposited by HSA company), etc.  And if you don't have the money to pay for insurance (or your employer doesn't offer it or can't afford to offer it), then you can go to doctors but pay out of pocket and if you can't afford to pay, then you pretty much can only go for emergency care,  unless you can get government funded insurance (Title 19). 

Then there is the malpractice insurance....the doctors are paying a ridiculous amount but they cannot afford to be without it.  One doc I know (and he is an excellent surgeon with incredible credentials) pays $60,000/year for his premium!  That is more than a lot of families make on a combined income!

I don't have any answers as to what is the right system or how to fix it, however, I think, at least here in the U.S. healthcare is approaching a crisis  point....and something needs to be done.  I think also that Canada is having some major problems with their healthcare system and is also reaching a crisis point in terms of doctors leaving because their salaries are so regulated, etc.  It will be interesting (and a little/lot scary) to see what happens to the healthcare system in both our countries over the next 10 to 20 years. 

Anyway....didn't mean to write a novel about healthcare....

I hope your grandmother does well and that they can get her on a regimen that stabilizes her blood sugars. 

Paula

Forgive me for not quoting that into this one.  My grandmother is 74 or 75 and has a bunch of pills she takes for her many ailments.  She has had stints put in her arteries twice, and they discovered in the middle of last year that her kidneys were starting to fail, fibermalga(sorry - I probably slaughtered that one),arthritis, and the list unbelievably goes on.  She takes insulin twice a day (as do my mother and grandfather - I'm lucky so far), and I made a updated list of her meds for the nurses in the hospital.  It took almost a whole page typed with 1/2 spaces in between.  Everything from arthiritis pills to nerve pills to sleeping pills.  Way too many if you ask me.  If you have a health plan her the drugs are free.  Me, I don't have one, so I pay for any meds I need - don't go to doctor very often.  She is on the DVA (dept of veternans affairs) plan with my grandfather, they have an allowance of so much a year and then they have to pay.  Which is usually only a months worth of meds.  But that costs a small fortune.

But Wednesday when she almost went into a diabetic coma...she was so close it wasn't funny.  The First Responders told me I was in the wrong profession - I just laughed a little and said no, hate the health care system.

Around here the waiting times are horrible.  For instance, the doctor thinks my father may be diabetic.  Found this out last October, he's waiting for tests that are scheduled for next month.  Most specialists are in Halifax, we are just starting to see some branching off and spreading into towns.  But they don't stay long.  Doctors come and they can't wait to get back to the city.  At my doctors office, it's unreal.  Say your appointment is for 10:30, you can be sure of an hours or more wait.  Dad had an appointment with a surgeon, he waited in that office for 2 hours and finally told the receptionist to go pound salt, he wasn't getting paid to stand there, there was only standing room left in this office that housed 3 surgeons.  He said there was at the most 8 chairs.  It's a little crazy.

But if you manage to get into see the doctor, sugeon or what have you, the care is most generally awesome.  Nanny had to spend a night in emergency in Halifax 5-6 years ago.  She had fallen and hit her head on the corner of her night stand.  Dad and myself took to the hospital in Bridgewater, they sent us on to Halifax where we sat in the waiting room for 5 hours and then they called her into the back room and we sat there for an additional 4 hours.  Mind you Dad and I had to get up to go to work in the morning.  She had a "blood bubble" between her skull and some kind of membrane.  I thought it was called a bruise - but what do I know?

Grampy had a stroke 5-6 years ago (the second set of stints, the stroke for grampy and her falling into the night stand all happened in 2 months).  We took him to the hospital and they sent him home.  He couldn't walk, Nanny had just gotten out of Halifax from surgery and they sent him home.  The next morning he went back in and the doctor tried to refuse to see him.  She didn't last long around here.  Anyway off to the city for tests and supposedly back home.  He stayed in the QEII for 3 weeks and then onto rehab for a month.  His care was good, could have been better, but we all survived.

But anyway I will be going to see her again today so I'll keep you posted.

Sherri

If you don't have free speech, what do you have?

So I'm back off to do some more dancing.  It's a little chilly out and that damn pole looks a little frosty, but I'll be brave.

Sherri

If you don't have free speech, what do you have?

I wouldn't touch that one with a ten foot....ummm...never mind....

Sherri

I will never understand why a few docs feel it is necessary to put patients on so many medications.  There is NO way they know how all of those medications interact together....heck, half the time they don't know if two medications interact with each other, much less how the combination of 25 or 30 do!!  I have seen a few patients come through our office with a list like what you are talking about for your grandmother....I take note of the name of their primary care physician and make a mental note to NEVER go to them and to warn my friends and family away from him/her!  Basically, their philosophy seems to be treat every symptom with a medication, the heck with WHY the symptom is occurring!  (Could you tell this is a pet peeve of mine?!)

Are the waiting times because of lack of physicians willing to work in the area where you are (are you in a remote area?),. just a lack of physicians in general or a healthcare system that is just maxed out, period? 

Why would you have to pay for your healthcare?  I thought all of Canada was basically free healthcare (not counting taxes of course!)

I am in the healthcare field and I do have to defend some aspects of it......nurses, aides, medical records, etc. people are, as a rule, understaffed, underpaid (McDonald's pays more than many healthcare positions!) and overworked.  And, believe it or not, while I will not claim that docs are underpaid, I will say that, as a general rule of thumb, the docs I have worked with have been a very hardworking bunch.  One of our surgeons easily spends 12 hours in an operating room, sometimes on one surgery, sometimes on back to back surgeries and will work these kinds of hours for several days in a row, not to mention being on call.  They have to deal with a lot of beauracracy in terms of insurance companies and Medicare....having to justify everything they do to companies who are looking for any and every reason not to pay.  And our docs always give people who have no insurance major discounts....50% or more off their medical bills. 

Personally, I think insurance, lawyers (sorry Mad dog!) and govt. are at the root of most of the problems....anytime you allow insurance companies to determine what is and isn't considered medically necessary, you know your medical system is ass-backwards....

(And that is my rant for the day....going to go meditate or something now ....)

Paula

MrMom

Brrrr....wouldn't the grease be just as cold or am I supposed to warm it up???  What would you suggest for a pole warmer?  It is snowing here this morning.  The ground is trying to turn white.  Nice fine flakes though.  I'd like to see some huse monster flakes.

Paula,

That's my thought on medications and doctors.  They don't want to find the root problem, just perscribe a pill to make those symptoms go away and when another pops up - do the same.  The doctor she was with in Lunenburg was ral bad for that.  The doctor she's with now isn't quite so bad, but the damage is done.  Can you imagine - cardic, diabetic and renal diets.  Her previous doctor is the root cause of the renal diet - he pushed too many pills and now her kidneys can't function well.  Her new doctor has cut her meds in half, but still that's not enough.

We aren't that rural.  Bridgewater is a pretty big town with a lot of out lying areas.  A relatively new hospital that has lots of space, but no doctors.  There's a entire wing not open.  Just supplies waiting to be used.

I think new doctors don't come and stay is because of the over load they seem to get right off the bat.  There are a lot of people here on waiting lists.  There's just no new blood around to help ease the other doctors loads and when they do come they go holy crap and run for the hills.

When anybody goes to a doctor they don't have to pay for a regular visit.  But at my doctors office you have to pay for stupid stuff like having forms filled out, having moles removed - cancerious or not, ingrown toe nails and the list goes on.  The doctors claim that these things the health care system won't pay for.  I have some wierd looking moles and should have them looked at, but for the price of $40 - 50 (that's canadian) I don't think so.

The people in the healthcare system here are greatly over worked.  Most of the people going to medical school can't find jobs and are going to the US.  There they get more money and a job, with the debt they are in from schooling - who can blame them?  So that isn't going to help ease the load on anyone.  When I was in visiting my grandmother yesterday, I saw 2 trainees.  The rest of the nurses sitting sedately behind the nurses station were batting middle age.  There should be positions for younger people, but there aren't and that's disappointing.  When someone rings the buzzer they just sit there until it goes off for the second or third time and then they go and investigate.  Nanny said that happened to her in the middle of the night.  She woke up and felt funny.  She thought her sugars were going low and the nurse didn't come until the third buzzer and then didn't know she was diabetic.  It makes me wonder, it really does.  All the charts are there, pull it when you hear the buzzer, do a quick check and then go.  But that's not what they do.  They seem to think it's a horrible thing to have to go to someone in the middle of the night.  The nurse by the way told her she looked fine and to go back to sleep.  I was not terribly impressed when I heard that one.  Butthat's enough ranting on the hospital, I know that she is feeling better and able to keep that stuff they call food down.  Remember diabetic, cardic and renal diets - what does that leave you to eat?????  Last night it was a pound of turkey, a cup of rice, apple juice (watered down), and applesauce.  She mixed her applesauce in the rice so she could eat it, but she just could swallow the turkey without it getting stuck in her throat.  Nice meal.

But anyway it's still snowing YEAH!!!!!!!!!  I should go check the weather and find out how little we are really supposed to get, I thought this was actually supposed to be rain, but I'm not going to complain.  I LOVE THE SNOW!!!!!

Sherri

PS - Sorry that these posts are so long.

If you don't have free speech, what do you have?

You must have been doing something right (bet Snowshoveler thinks you have too...) because we're under a winter snow advisory here in Wisconsin!  Wahoo!!  Trees are covered and gorgeous....snow is coming down in great big flakes! 

We've already been out to play....sledding down the big hill onto the lake although the sledding isn't that great because snow is packy.....makes for great snow fights though! .  We did have fun slip-sliding on the ice.  Took the dog out and let her play too....likes to bury her face up to the eyes in the snow and then lift her muzzle (10% dog, 90% ham)  so all you can see is eyeballs, doing her rabid dog routine...

Keep dancing Sherri (and I'm sure SnowShoveler will take care of providing the pole....). 

Paula