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Health report

skzb — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 12:13:40 +0000

About three weeks ago I developed a toothache–lower left canine. Thanks to Will and Emma, I found a really, really good dentist. Good people, good doctors, and there is an especially hot dental assistant. The canine seemed fine, but the four front teeth next to it Had To Go. I got what’s called a “flipper” (I named it Dolphin, of course) to replace them. Unfortunately, the tooth didn’t stop hurting. It’s been getting worse. Usually, it’s fine as long as I’m upright, but when I lie down, it is very very painful. This, of course, means an inability to sleep.

A few days ago it reached the point where the drugs (percoset, motrin) weren’t helping. We finally decided that Something Had To Be Done. We rejected referred pain, sinus problems, heart complications. However healthy that tooth seems, it had to go. So I scheduled an appointment with a dental surgeon. I got up to go in on Thursday, walked down the stairs, and couldn’t catch my breath. I should have known things were going to go wrong when Hot Dental Assistant didn’t want to out with me.

Fuck. The term is, “congestive heart failure,” and you don’t want to fuck around with it. The only sane thing to do is skip the dentist appointment and go into the ER. Right? Yeah, but, the tooth HURT. So I went to the oral surgeon. The oral surgeon, being smarter than me, sent me to an urgent care, where they did an EKG and decided it looked sort of marginal, and sent me to an ER, who checked me in.

I spent Thursday night at Nicolet Park Methodist Hospital. Now, you may say that Mr. Wesley and the other Methodies are over rightous, but they make a fine, fine hospital. The staff was wonderful, taking more than good care of me, and, while they couldn’t make the tooth stop hurting, they never stopped trying, or stopped caring.

So, yeah, there was fluid in my lungs. They got my heart stabilized, and let me go last night. Corwin, Dee, Carolyn, Aliera, Toni, and Martin all showed up, as did my friend Betsy, and Will. Was wonderful to feel so supported. Summer Glau didn’t call, but that was probably because she was busy. Or else because she’s never heard of me.

Last night, for no reason I can think of, my tooth stopped hurting. I got 11 beautiful hours of sleep. Today, the tooth hurts a bit, but nowhere near where it was. I dunno. I guess I’ll talk to the dentist on Monday.

I’m now on more drugs: something to keep my heart beat regular, and a mild diuretic. I’m told I could use an operation to insert something into my chest that will shock my heart if it goes into, uh, I don’t remember. Ventrical a-fib, maybe? But it’s supposed to keep me alive. I can no more afford the operation than I can pay the hospital bills I just incurred, BUT….

I met with a social worker, who seems confident she can get me heath care–enough to help with those bills, and get the operation, and fix my teeth, and even deal with the fucking polyp in my nose that’s been making life interesting for several years. This is very, very good news. I am actually feeling hopeful.

Maybe I’ll ask Hot Dental Assistant out again.

Auction Stuff

skzb — Fri, 14 May 2010 02:33:32 +0000

Bunches of cool stuff are up for auction this week, all proceeds going toward Reesa Brown’s medical expenses. There are even a few things from that Brust guy, in case anyone around here is interested. The auction runs through Saturday night, so those of you who don’t get paid until Friday will still have time to spend your pennies in a good cause!

EDIT: from Brad — “As incentive to everyone to bid higher…I’ll match the auction total. Yup, so everyone’s bid is worth double.” That’s right, any bid you make will double the help we get towards our medical bills, so go visit http://spinathon.reesabrown.com/auction and make your bid, you have until 11:59pm Saturday May 15th!

They’re Spinnin’ & Grinnin’ I’m Screamin’ & Streamin’

skzb — Sun, 02 May 2010 14:34:48 +0000

Yes, friends, today I will be on streaming video, live from the Spinathon, starting at 1pm Central Daylight Time. What will I be doing? Probably standing around looking like an idiot. But I’ve said I’ll do it, so I will, if I’m not in jail.

(Edit: our main website went down, of course while our admin is in transit and therefore away from the ‘net. However, we’ll still be recording the show and will have it embedded on the site this evening. You can also see it while live from the direct UStream link in Round Rock starting at 1pm CDT. Paypal donations can be sent directly to eposia@yahoo.com, we’re less than 7 hours from making our 48-hour fiber-spinning goal!)

Re-Edit: SpinAThon site is back up and you can watch the cams directly here: http://spinathon.reesabrown.com/node/5

Final Edit: SpinAThon finished at 42.8 hours, and much lovely fiber spun by several talented women. The fiber spun during SpinAThon will be available for bidding along with other finely crafted products in next week’s auction! Steve played for 3.5 hours and we will be posting videos from his performance within the next few days on the SpinAThon site. Thanks to everyone who participated, you all rock!

Spinathon!

skzb — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:12:23 +0000

Yes, it’s a Spinathon! What, you ask, is a Spinathon? I have no idea, but we’re having one.

Okay, okay. In order to raise some money for medical expenses (Reesa, if you recall, just had a radical mastectomy, which is major surgery, which they charge money for), volunteers are going to be spinning yarn (or knitting) for as long a time as they can get sponsored, up to at least 48 hours. We have 23.5 hours covered so far. This is going to happen this coming weekend (May 1-2) here in Austin (well, technically Paige,TX and Round Rock). As extra incentive, if we raise enough sponsorships to cover the second day of SpinAThon (that’s Sunday, May 2 in Round Rock TX for you local folk), I’m going to be showing up to the event for several hours and maybe doing some tunes and signing some books and pretending to be a celebrity. Reesa will also be on-site for part of both days if you’d like to meet and chat with the person who inspired the event.

If this sounds like something you want to get involved in, follow the links below:

To skip the rest and go directly to the donate button, click here for the main SpinAThon page and then click the handy donate button, found just above the letters from friends.. (We tried to link to the button directly but the link expires after a certain amount of time.)

A link to the SpinAThon main page, as well as the FAQ page.

Reesa wrote a post compiling several links and information about SpinAThon that might be useful.

Only a few more days available for you to help out with SpinAThon! We also have an auction scheduled for after SpinAThon that will be putting up for bid the yarn and knit things made during the event, as well as other donated unique pieces from artists.

Reesa’s health status

skzb — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:40:28 +0000

For anyone wanting to keep up with my girlfriend’s health situation, the details are here.

On Health Care

skzb — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:33:58 +0000

The Nobel Prize discussion quite reasonably morphed into a health care discussion. So, if anyone wants to continue that, here’s a place to do so. My position is as follows:

For purposes of this discussion, “profit” refers to money that comes from appropriating the labor of others (“exploitation” in the strict economic sense). If a company bills a nurse practioner at $75/hour, and pays the nurse $20/hour, the $20/hour is wages; the portion that goes to the company out of the remaining $55 is profit. Money earned by a doctor is not profit, money earned by an insurance company is.

That said, I do not believe it is possible to solve the health care problem, or even significantly improve it, while profit is still a consideration.

Defending Tobacco

skzb — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:04:51 +0000

I have set out to write in defense of tobacco. I do it for the challenge. There are other things that would be almost equally challenging, but I don’t know enough about them: I’ve never committed pedophilia or sent out spam emails or run for congress, so tobacco seems the only remaining choice.

I know very well the cards are stacked against me. The only people who love the big tobacco companies are those who own the big tobacco companies. In this way tobacco is not unlike oil. A difference between them is that, in the last twenty years at least, no country has been invaded for its tobacco crop. To me, this is a point in favor of tobacco, but no doubt others differ.

Now, I am aware that tobacco is not good for me. I have been assured of this by, not only the medical profession, but by other good-hearted folk who, I am certain, have been earnestly told by their doctors and clergymen that they should seek me out and inform me. I have had kindly people travel a thousand miles merely to tell me that tobacco is bad for me. Sometimes they bring friends and distant relations and remain for weeks to be certain I have this information. Such evidence of good will cannot be ignored, and I do not ignore it. I am convinced that they are right and tobacco is not good for me, that I will live longer if I refrain. And, as has been said before, even if I do not live longer, it will feel longer, which is the same thing.

I am also aware that tobacco is not good for the fellow next to me. There have been studies indicating that spending forty hours a week for twenty years in smoke-filled rooms may be harmful; it seems reasonable, therefore, to conclude that if a chance whiff of my smoke should infiltrate the air of someone next to me he will drop dead on the spot, and therefore I accept this as a fact. I know that if it should happen I would feel bad.

Another thing that makes it hard to defend tobacco is the recent increase in Federal tax on tobacco. The tax on loose (roll-your-own) tobacco just increased by a factor of ten. What makes this especially praiseworthy is that such an increase, like all taxes on goods and services, hits especially hard on the poor. This will encourage the poor to quit smoking, because as we all know raising the price of something at once causes those addicted or habituated to it to quit; anyone pretending that our government cares little for the poor should be convinced by this statistic. And it need hardly be said that this tax has the additional benefit of providing much needed funds for bailing out billionaire bankers and invading countries for their tobacco, or whichever resource that was.

With all of this working against me, how can I even consider defending tobacco?

Suddenly I am at a loss. Let me light a cigarette. Ah, yes, now I remember. My defense is as follows: I like it.

Here’s a “woman’s mystery” for you…

Reesa — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 03:50:20 +0000

Follow-up on health stuff and money stuff

skzb — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 09:36:23 +0000

I’m pretty much okay now, assuming nothing else goes wrong. A bunch of you sent me money, which helped more than I can say. When we posted a while ago asking for a loan, Matthew Fischer said, “I think you are very likely to get 150 fans to donate $100 in exchange for exclusive access to some signature graphic design element, audiobook, podcast or piece of prose.”

Since then, I’ve been thinking over what sort of cool thing to do to say thank you. This post is just to say I’ve got an idea, and it’ll take about a month or so to put together. So hang on, and watch this space for breaking news.

And, really, no shit, thank you all again. Thank you very much.

Any medical types out there?

skzb — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 21:40:22 +0000

The one weakness in the Mexican Healthcare Experience was the aftercare was a bit sketchy. Should I be using ice to reduce the swelling where the stitches are? Copyright 2008 The Dream Cafe.Any medical types out there? ©2012 Words Words Words. All Rights Reserved..