Wake Up Call

So I'm sitting on the couch late one night in early February, watching TV, when all of a sudden, my left arm drops. I mean a dead drop. I couldn't lift it, I couldn't move it, it was dead. I thought "uh oh, this isn't good"... Three minutes or so later, it's back. Cool! Wonder what that was.. Early the next week I told my Dr what happened & he took a listen to my right carotid artery. "Sounds good", he said. That Friday, Valentines Day, my daughter, grandkids & my grandson's girlfriend came out for dinner. I was sitting in the kitchen w/Patrick & his girlfriend Amber & my left hand fell asleep while I was eating. (I am left-handed) I told Patrick not to say anything to my daughter Erin about it because she would freak out..think I was having a stroke or something. (She had a stroke about 7 1/2yrs ago & still has problems)Mike knew my hand was numb & asleep, & I had convinced him & myself it was carpal or cubital tunnel. The next day, it hadn't gone away, in fact, it was worse & that's when I decided it was time to go to the ER to see what was going on.

When I was finally seen by a Doc & he did some neurological tests.."smile, stick out your tongue, touch each finger w/your thumb, etc", he concluded that I had had an "event" & he wanted to admit me for tests. SHIT! Diagnosis was TIA. I was there for 3 days and had every test known to man..CT, TEE, MRI which showed multiple small strokes, & finally and angiography which showed an 80% occlusion of my right carotid artery which was the reason for the stroke. They consulted a vascular surgeon & he said I needed to get that artery unclogged.

Dr Franz told me he'd have to wait 8 weeks after the stroke to do surgery. In the mean time, no salt, take my meds & try to stop smoking... About 3 weeks later I went to my Dr & when he saw me, he shook my hand & said "Congratulations on being here!" I was very lucky, it seems, VERY lucky. He was mortified that he missed the sound that a blocked carotid artery would make & wanted to listen again. Still, no abnormal sound. "This is a teachable moment for me," he said. "The next time I hear a story like yours & don't hear any abnormal sounds, that person is getting a Doppler! But, in your case, it wouldn't have been in time, you were in the hospital before one would have been done. Lucky, you were very lucky."

Dr Franz scheduled a stress test for me to make sure my heart would take the surgery. When that was deemed "normal", they then scheduled surgery. I was supposed to have it April 28. But, 3 days after they scheduled it, they called me back and said that Franz had a cancellation on Monday, the following Monday & would I want to have it then... I asked it this was an April Fools joke, & she said, nah, that's Tuesday. I talked w/Mike & we decided to just get it over with and do it. So, on March 31st, I had a carotid endarterectomy on my right carotid artery.

I went home the next day on 2 weeks rest w/no lifting or driving.

Two days later, I took off the gauze to take a shower and ten days after that, the steri-strips came off and all that was left was a big ass scar and tape goo that seemed to be destined to be there forever.

It's now the end of May, and after 2 follow ups, I'm doing well. Unlike before, I take my medicine everyday. I haven't quit smoking, but, I have cut it down from 2 packs a day to less than a pack. My first goal is a half pack a day. If I can do that..I can quit. I think the noncompliance w/my meds was my undoing. I was sporadic taking my blood pressure meds, & hadn't taken any high cholesterol medication for 2 years because every kind of medicine they prescribed, gave me cramps. Muscle cramps..curling toes, Charlie horses, stuck fingers, back cramps, you name it, I'd get them. Well, now I take my Lipitor religiously and just suck it up w/the cramping..Better cramps than becoming a veg.

I do have residuals. My left middle finger tip down to the top knuckle is dead, no feeling at all & my left thumb is tingly. Surgery residual is just numbness at the top of my neck and bottom of my chin on the right. I'll take it.

Petunia

Petunia is a flower

She also is my dog

She's every bit as pretty

But she eats like a hog

Since I've retired.......

It's been almost 9 months since I've retired.. Getting up before 8 ( and sometimes before 7) is the norm. I was never ever a morning person, but, damned if I'm not now! We make our morning run to TC Market (about 5 miles away) to see what's in the deli. If it's something good, it's our "brunch". After "brunch" settles in, a daily nap ensues. Maybe some cleaning or laundry happens after the nap....maybe. I've become a slug. If I'm not on the iPad or iPhone, I'm catching up on DVRd television. I'm just too busy to clean, let alone do laundry!

But, spring has sprung & summer is nearly upon us, and I woke up! We've given the front of the house some curb appeal! A clematis is the centerpiece of our little garden with succulents and dianthus scattered around. My beautiful dogwood croaked this past winter, so it had to come down.:-( And in its place, in order to continue to feed the hummingbirds that came every year to that tree, this is what we came up with! Finally, the part of the house under the bedroom window was pitiful, just plain pitiful..With the rest of the front of the house looking very cool, we had to fix that, too. This was harder to do. I had to actually paint!! I had several versions up, until I decided this was it! The Browns flamingos made it perfect!!

I forgot! Right after I got my retirement money, the first thing I wanted to do is have a deck built. My back yard is weird. You go UP into it! Then there's a gulley between the house & yard. So, we had the deck built to cover the gulley. In addition, we put a back door in to go from the kitchen onto the deck. I must admit, this is one of the best ideas I've ever had! I can let the dogs out from the house now and not have to go outside, open the gate, let them in the yard and wait for them to do their bidness, then back into the house. This back door is a Godsend!

Brunch has settled in...time for a nap.

We Are No Longer Free

What has happened to our country? Aside from the lies about Benghazi, we are now faced with first amendment rights being blatantly violated by this administration. First it's AP having records & phone calls seized by the DOJ, then we find Fox News' James Rosen was targeted. Look a little deeper and no, not just James Rosen, ALL of Fox News has had their lines tapped, e-mails read, & family members targeted. Oh yeah, then there's the IRS targeting and singling out groups filing for tax exempt status, because they have words like "Tea Party", "Patriot" or "Constitution" in their name. And they targeted GOP big money donors.

And the great thing about all of this is, nobody knows a thing. Eric Holder, Attorney General of the United States & head of the DOJ, recused himself from the AP/Fox/journalist mess, his Deputy did that investigation...Holder, he knows nothing. And the guy that was asked to step down from the IRS, the Acting head of the IRS, the guy whose term is up June,1, Steven Miller & the former head of the IRS, Douglas Shulman...Oh that was a couple of zealots in Cincinnati that did that.....Miller & Shulman, they know nothing. Just like Hillary didn't see anything come across her desk for more security for Benghazi...Hillary, she knew nothing. And of course, our President....He didn't hear about the IRS thing till he saw it on cable news...And the AP thing..he heard about that a couple of weeks ago. And Benghazi...he went to bed..

Aside from the fact that NO one seems to know ANYTHING, what this all boils down to is Chicago style, intimidation politics! We have a bunch of thugs running the government! You disagree with this bunch, your lines get tapped, your e-mails are read, your Tea Party organization is targeted & you and your business is audited. It's happening, it's already happened! All done to put the fear of Obama in you.

Would you want to donate money to a cause knowing you and/or your business might get audited because of that donation? It would seem that this is a real fear of some big money donors to conservative causes. A GOP bundler has reported that business people are afraid to write checks after they hear of fellow business people they know, being audited and/or having hit pieces published about them after they've donated. Besides targeting conservative groups/people, the IRS gave personal info on these people being targeted to a progressive political group, Pro-politica. They, in turn, released this info to newspapers, tv, progressive blogs, etc, where hit pieces were published about them. One big donor was audited, his business was audited x2, the ATF anti-terrorism unit visited his home and the mainstream media called him a "shady Romney, millionaire donor". Would you want to donate?

And the idea of journalists phone calls, emails & personal lives being scrutinized by the DOJ......No matter what your politics, this is just plain wrong. What happened to our First Amendment? Supposedly 20+ AP lines were monitored because they broke a story of a terrorist plot broken up, before Obama could go out there and claim another victory on terrorism, himself! James Rosen of Fox News is being named a co-conspirator because he spoke to a State Department whistleblower.. And Fox News was scrutinized because, well, they're Fox News. We all know how much the Obama administration loves Fox News.. Fox News & Rush, Obama's favorite whipping boy. Oh yeah, and Bush...

Intimidation, fear, bullying and don't get me started on voter fraud....All are the tools of Chicago style politics, and all are being utilized to the max, in the Obama (a Chicago guy himself, ya know) Administration.

Our Constitution is being ripped to shreds. Our freedoms, as Americans, are being taken away, one by one. With every new law, comes more infringement of the freedom that made this country the backbone of the world, and that "shining castle on the hill" that so many look to. We better wake up before it's too late. It may be, already.

Benghazi - A National Disgrace

It all started with a video, at least that's what the administration said. A bunch of Muslims pissed off at a video came to protest at our embassy in Libya. It just got out of control. Nothing to see here, sorry about those 4 Americans killed. That protest turned into a mob. That's what Susan Rice, Ambassador to the United Nations for the United States of America said 5 days later on all the Sunday morning news shows.

It had NOTHING to do with the fact that it was the eleventh anniversary of 9/11, it was "spontaneous". A "spontaneous" mob with RPG's. Ok, nothing to see here.

How long would it take for the administration to admit it was a terrorist attack? How long would it take for the administration to say that it was Al Queda? Both Clinton and Obama disgraced those dead men and their families in front of their coffins, by blaming the attack on that video. Two weeks later when President Obama addressed the United Nations, he was still apologizing for the video and never called the attack a terrorist attack!

It turns out that the administration knew all along that it was a terrorist attack, and why they never admitted it until just this last week, watch Obama's campaign commercials.."Bin Laden is dead and Al Queda is on it's heels". That's all he can run on is killing Bin Laden and killing Al Queda terrorists with his drones.(He sure can't run on how awesome the economy is).

Now, they're saying it was a terrorist attack, and tossing blame everywhere but in their own hands. First, the video, then the Libyans for letting it happen, then insiders inside the embassy that let the terrorists in.

Hillary Clinton has blood on her hands. Our embassies are under the umbrella of The Department of State and Hillary Clinton. All ambassadors report to her. The State Department had been sent 13 requests for more security for the Benghazi embassy, and they turned them down. One democrat blamed the republicans for denying funding for the State Department, trying to deflect blame away from the Secretary of State.

I don't know how high up this goes, I do know that Secretary Clinton is in charge and that puts the onus on her. I do know that there was a concerted effort to cover this whole mess up by the White House. Why else would press secretary Jay Carney say over and over again that a video was to blame and terrorism was not involved. Yesterday, he swore he never said that. Why else would Obama apologize for the video two weeks later, when they knew from day one that it was Al Queda. They watched the whole damn thing in real time!!

Today Stephanie Cutter a spokesperson for the Obama campaign, said that "Benghazi wouldn't be an issue if it weren't for Romney & Ryan". REALLY???? 4 men dead, our embassy destroyed, (embassies are considered AMERICAN SOIL)cover-up after cover-up with countless lies and it wouldn't be an issue except for Romney and Ryan??????????

This country has been attacked once again on our own soil by Al Queda and this administration has done everything it can to cover it up with the help of main stream media, until it just couldn't be hidden any longer just because it is a month away from the election.

This is my humble opinion: ANY one who would vote for this administration to stay in power is asking for the complete downfall of this country. The constant lies that come from this administration and broken promises will continue if President Obama is reelected. This reminds me so much of the Carter years. We were constantly attacked by foreign entities, and threatened by others. From hostages taken in Iran by Muslim extremists to Ambassadors being assassinated by Muslim terrorists, it's the late 70s all over again! (Including the lousy economy!)

They Think They Know What's Going On

I was having a conversation w/a voter tonight, and he told me that social media, blogs & you tube will eventually make "mainstream media" news obsolete. That may come some day, but, it's not there yet. There are still people that don't have a computer.

There are still people that don't have cable. Seniors, mostly. Seniors that live in the same farm house they've lived in for 40 yrs out in here in the boonies. They watch the noon news right after The Price Is Right, watch the local news and then the network news ABC, CBS or NBC in the evening and think they know what's going on.

They hear the news about Romney wanting to take their Medicare, and they believe it. Brian Williams said so.

They hear that the recession was Bushes fault because of the unfunded wars, the unfunded tax cuts and out of control spending and they believe it. Scott Pelley said so.

They don't know a thing about Solyndra. They never heard of Fast and Furious, they think the Tea Party is racist and Occupy Wallstreet is full of patriots. They heard that Rush Limbaugh said a poor college student afraid of not being able to pay for her contraception is a slut. But, no one told them she was a 30 yr old professional student and is a women's rights organizer w/ties to the Democrat Party. Diane Sawyer never said anything about that.

I've seen these people. I've seen them at the local market. They drive in once a week to get groceries in their 15 year old car w/their lined bifocals, walkers and hearing aids the size of cell phones. If they're here in rural Ohio, they're all over this country. That's a lot of misinformed people. And that scares the hell out of me. It scared me last election and it scares me even more, this election.

How do we get to these people? How do we tell them that their Medicare is safe if Romney is elected and The Affordable Healthcare Act is repealed? How do we tell them that when they need a pacemaker or a new hip, it will now be taxed, if they're allowed to even get that pacemaker or hip. How do we tell them that Obamacare will take over 700 billion dollars from Medicare to help pay for itself. Not from them directly, but from the hospitals that they go to. They will cut the reimbursements to hospitals for Medicare patients. That will affect their care, they'll go home sooner, because if they stay longer, Medicare won't pay. Some tests may not be done, because Medicare won't pay for them or pay at a reduced rate (more reduced than before) And that a lot of those hospitals and their doctors are considering not taking Medicare patients anymore because of this. I am a retired healthcare worker, I know of what I speak.

How do we get to these people? If you know someone like this, talk to them. Ask your friends if they know anyone like this and ask them to talk to them. These poor people think they know what's going on and they don't. Inform them, let them know.

Text for Matteo

This is for my grandson, Matteo. He just turned 4. He has severe Autism and has unlimited energy. And he's a runner. The Delaware County Sheriff's office has placed a gps monitor on his ankle so he can be found if he takes off. He's gotten out of the house several times because someone/anyone forgot to lock the 4 locks on the door to keep him in, and has covered 200 yards in the matter of minutes. He's nearly caused auto accidents from cars trying to avoid him running across a busy street near his home. There are bars on the windows of his home.

In the past year, he has improved by leaps and bounds. He talks now, and will actually look at someone and kind of engage in a conversation w/them. He still spins, has meltdowns, stays up all night, wrecks the house, and does anything he can to get out of the house to escape. The boy has no fear of anything. The county did provide a 6 ft privacy fence, so he can now go out in the back yard and play. He scanned that entire fence, trying to find a way out, and had such a look of frustration when he couldn't find any place. But, he enjoys the back yard, where he plays w/his brothers & sisters.

The above organization is helping Kelly raise the money to get Matteo a service dog. The service dog will help him interact more but what is more important, a service dog will protect him. If he takes off, the dog will stop him. The dog would be at his side 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Service dogs are expensive because they are being trained to do something specific for a specific individual. 13k is the cost. The organization that trains and gives the dogs homes has decided to match any funds Kelly raises to get him his dog. If Kelly can raise 8k, the organization Autism Service Dogs Of America will match it, and Matteo will begin the process of getting his own service dog. The extra money will provide the transportation cost for Kelly and Matteo to fly to Oregon for the training.

I'm asking that anyone who reads this, text the above number tomorrow August 22 and ask your friends to do the same. Times are hard for everyone these days, but, $5 isn't much if it helps the cutest kid on the planet!! (No bias here!) We're hoping that if we can get enough people to do this, Kelly can get the money needed a lot quicker.

Thank you.