Damsel is quick to remind me that there is no M.D behind my name when I complain about a pain or something and try to self-diagnose it. “See a professional,” she will insist.

Fair enough. I see the doc and get a real diagnosis. The president should take Damsel’s advice and get some professional help as well (psychiatric perhaps?).

As Obama desperately pushes his health care reform agenda, he doesn’t care whose toes he steps on along the way. Witness this statement from the American College of Surgeons (emphasis mine):

Statement from the American College of Surgeons Regarding
Recent Comments from President Obama

CHICAGO—The American College of Surgeons is deeply disturbed over the uninformed public comments President Obama continues to make about the high-quality care provided by surgeons in the United States. When the President makes statements that are incorrect or not based in fact, we think he does a disservice to the American people at a time when they want clear, understandable facts about health care reform. We want to set the record straight.

Yesterday during a town hall meeting, President Obama got his facts completely wrong. He stated that a surgeon gets paid $50,000 for a leg amputation when, in fact, Medicare pays a surgeon between $740 and $1,140 for a leg amputation. This payment also includes the evaluation of the patient on the day of the operation plus patient follow-up care that is provided for 90 days after the operation. Private insurers pay some variation of the Medicare reimbursement for this service.

Three weeks ago, the President suggested that a surgeon’s decision to remove a child’s tonsils is based on the desire to make a lot of money. That remark was ill-informed and dangerous, and we were dismayed by this characterization of the work surgeons do. Surgeons make decisions about recommending operations based on what’s right for the patient.

We agree with the President that the best thing for patients with diabetes is to manage the disease proactively to avoid the bad consequences that can occur, including blindness, stroke, and amputation. But as is the case for a person who has been treated for cancer and still needs to have a tumor removed, or a person who is in a terrible car crash and needs access to a trauma surgeon, there are times when even a perfectly managed diabetic patient needs a surgeon. The President’s remarks are truly alarming and run the risk of damaging the all-important trust between surgeons and their patients.

We assume that the President made these mistakes unintentionally, but we would urge him to have his facts correct before making another inflammatory and incorrect statement about surgeons and surgical care.

Hat Tip Jonah Goldberg

As we departed from our visit to the Canyon de Chelly National Park on the Navajo Nation near Chinle, Arizona, we got behind this EMS vehicle in traffic. We followed them down the road for a way when they turned down the road leading to the local medical center.

While I was looking at some of the pictures I took while on vacation last month, I got curious about them and found this on their website:

The Department of Emergency Medical Services is one of eight departments within the Navajo Division of Public Safety.

Navajo EMS is a Dedicated, Progressive Service Focused on Quality Care. Expanded Advanced Life Support Capabilities and Transport Services are Preeminent. We Consist of a Well Organized Structure of Dedicated Personnel Determined to Provide Elite Services.

The Goal of the Department is to Provide for the continued development of the comprehensive Public Safety and Emergency Medical Services System to advance the quality of care and transportation of the sick and/or Injured.

They go to say that their Department is affiliated with the University of New Mexico Emergency Medical Services Academy and the New Mexico Emergency Medical Services Bureau. Parts of the reservation overlap into Utah, New Mexico and Colorado, although most of it is within Arizona.

Certain pediatricians now employ the practice of asking kids if “Daddy has a gun,” and, if the answer is “yes,” they follow-up with questions about weapons in the home - legitimate or not. I infer from this that they must think children with gun-owning parents have some sort of health risk.

Let’s consider some numbers:

In the U.S. in 2003, there were 28 accidental gunshot deaths among 10 year old or younger children. There were an estimated 90 million gun owners and about 277 million guns nationwide at that time. There also were 40 million (or so) kids under the age of 10 in 2003. So actually a small percentage of children were killed or about 0.00007 percent (1 child for every 1.4 million) - still way too many, but a small percentage. This also translates that only one gun out of every 100 million guns was involved in the death of a child that year.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1400 kids are killed yearly by automobile accidents, either as passengers or as pedestrians. Why not ask if Daddy owns a car? 90 kids are drowned in bathtubs annually - should we put locks on tubs? Space heaters, swimming pools, bicycles, toxic cleaning agents, skateboards and a host of other common articles are factors in child fatalities. When you add all these “health” risks together, the health risk of a gun in the household is not only dwarfed, but practically eliminated. Why not ask about other known-to-be-dangerous items?

Kids are not so much at risk from guns as they are from parents with habitual substance abuse, violent criminal records, domestic violence and such. Pediatricians should zero in on whether children have parents who are people who would use guns violently, not if “Daddy has a gun.”

Of course anti-gun fanatics and leftists are arithmetically challenged, preferring hyperbole to statistics. Crusading for children, it seems, is a favorite ploy by the left, except when it comes to crusading for abortion wherein children are intentionally killed for the sake of “health” or “convenience.”

Interview your health professionals (after all, they work for you) and see if they have an anti-gun agenda - if they do, FIRE THEM!

And OBTW (oh, by the way) if the country goes to a national health care system, certain anti-gun politicians (Hillary!) will assign a health professional(?) to you - you will have NO choice in the matter, since free trade and competition are the enemies of socialism.

We received an email from Coconut Commando who is currently enjoying an extended, (extended again) all inclusive vacation package to Iraq. CC responded to the article Damsel’s Boo Boo with this advice for gardening apparel when working around thorny vegetation:

I’ve had the same experience with the same palm type as well as Sagal Palms and Elephant Grass. If you’re dealing with these, a denim jacket plus a BDU top seems to work enough to stop the ripping of flesh but you still get the puncture. Do they know Damsel by her first name at the ER?

Actually, Damsel and another woman needed sutures that day. The nurses didn’t refer to them by their names but as “palm tree” and “dog bite,” respectively. That made us laugh.

The stitches come out tomorrow.

Update: Latest healing progress (don’t look if stitches creep you out).
Update: Stitches are out!

Continue reading » Damsel’s Boo Boo — Update

Damsel wanted to make sure that people are warned about the potential danger of the Mexican fan palm tree’s thorns. Last Saturday, she brushed past a pruned frond stem and ripped her forearm. There was obviously not going to be a home-remedy first-aid resolution to the injury, so we went to the emergency room to get some help. They stitched it up and sent us home several hours later.

A larger-sized view of the offending palm frond stub and photographs of all the gory details appear below when you click on “Continue reading . . .” — Please don’t look if blood and stitches are going to creep you out.

Continue reading » Damsel’s Boo Boo

From Science Blog:

Confronting the possibility of a potentially devastating human bird flu pandemic, the United Nations system — from Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to the UN health and agricultural agencies — today laid out a blueprint for immediate preventive and mitigating action.

What are they going to do? Pass a resolution, write the virus a nasty letter and hope it goes away? This seems to be their plan on everything else.

Maybe the dickweeds at the UN ought to address the AIDS problem in Africa instead of going for the headlines by hyping their “galant” efforts to thwart avian flu. And, by the way, move their headquarters closer to Africa and get the hell out of the US.

And, while we’re at it, get the US the hell out of the UN.

Damsel and I signed up to get our flu shots next week. We missed getting them last season due to the shortage of vaccine. Luckily, we didn’t get the flu, but since Damsel had it the previous season, perhaps her immunity was up.

And, speaking of vaccine shortages, did you know that it is the insanity of the liberal left and endless frivolous lawsuits that have caused American pharmaceutical companies to shun vaccines?

Read GOP Bloggers: How Liberals Left America Prone to Deadly Flu for more on the subject

Yet another high-value scientific study:

Study confirms ancient myth: Dark chocolate helps diarrhea

Pardon the pun, but why is this crap Federally funded?

Ted Kennedy, Babs Boxer, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, The Clintons, Al Franken and many other Democrats’ habitual lying can be biologically explained: their brains are short of gray matter! The article “Liars’ brains make fibbing come naturally” from NewScientist.com discloses abnormalities within the brains of liars:

[T]he combination of extra white matter and less gray matter could be giving people exactly the right mix of traits to make them into good liars. These are the first biological differences to be discovered between pathological liars (ed. certain Democrats) and the general population (ed. the rest of us).

[P]athological liars are a distinct group who systematically manipulate others, lie or use aliases for financial gain or personal pleasure (ed. or political gain).

People who know that their fabricated stories may be challenged will sometimes practice telling their false tales. After a while, the made-up story may come to mind more readily than the true one.

Thus, we may now know why lying comes so easily to some Democrats and why they actually believe their own fabrications.