New Eyes

You're probably wondering why this guy is  smiling.

It's because after wearing vision-correcting eyeglasses since the fifth grade he's driving his Mustang while wearing a pair of uncorrected sunglasses that set him back a $1.50. 

Since I retired my annual visit to the eye doc has included monitoring the progression of cataracts that have conspired to degrade my vision.  Cataracts are a clouding of the natural lens of the eye, leading to blurred vision, glare, and eventual vision loss. This spring's routine visit resulted in sufficient advancement of the condition to do something about it.

I finally got my chance to get my eyes fixed.  Two visits, one week apart, to the Eye Clinic in Green Bay.   

Cataract surgery removes the cloudy lens and replaces it with a clear artificial intraocular lens (IOL).  And for me it opened up a world where everything is clearer, brighter and more colorful.  I didn't know what I was missing.

This is an outpatient procedure performed under local anesthesia with sedation (you’re awake but relaxed).  Most commonly it is performed with phacoemulsification (ultrasound to break up the lens), followed by IOL insertion.  Truthfully, the prep and recovery took up most of the time.  The procedure itself took all of ten minutes and required no eye drops in the follow-up care. 

By all outward appearances things were busy at the clinic.  Inquiring of the surgical staff I learned that there were four operating rooms and two surgeons performing, respectively, approximately 20 procedures each day of my visits.

Cataract surgery is the most commonly-performed procedure on the planet with over 3.7 million surgeries performed annually in the United States.  Over 20 million are performed globally each year and the number continues to rise due to aging populations.

Over 98% of surgeries result in improved vision and complications are rare and usually treatable. 95% of patients achieve 20/40 vision or better (good enough to drive without corrective lenses) and many achieve 20/20 with or without glasses depending on lens choice.

Best of all the procedure is covered by Medicare and my supplemental insurance policy.  Between you and me this is good government policy; trust me, you don't want millions of vision-impaired baby boomers on the road. 

At the present time both my eyes have been corrected to 20/20 vision so I went to the Dollar Store and splurged less than ten bucks for four pair of +1.75 reading glasses and a couple of plain sunglasses - one for each automobile.   My doc sez that I need to allow a month (give or take) before a final correction in vision can be confirmed. 

We are blessed to live in a Golden Age of replacement parts.

Pup Update

A couple of days ago I shared that our pup had suffered the ill-effects of being a shit-eating dog.

Her gastrointestinal system experience a complete reset with everything coming out both ends.

We didn't go to the vet as it was pretty clear about the source of the problem.  Furthermore, the pup wasn't running a temperature and didn't appear to be in any other distress.  As per usual with these sorts of things plenty of water and a couple of days of the Universal Bland Diet should set things straight.

And it did.  

The dog's routine (with the exception of the change in grub) returned to normal the following day and after Wednesday's breakfast her diet of 3/4 cup of puppy kibble three times a day was restored.  It's now been 24 hours of regular diet without any extraneous events.

She didn't take a dump for almost 36 hours; but this pause has passed.

Pun intended....

 

The Cure

Last evening presented us with a puking puppy and diarrhea.  Blech!

She obviously ate some scat (shit) as it was in her vomitus and it clearly upset her digestive tract.

We skipped dinner and after the worst of it was behind we made sure Ruby had plenty of water to drink.  She seemed better having cleared-out her system and rested in a crate and with me on the couch.  I stayed-up late with her to keep an eye on any further developments

Meanwhile, I whipped-up a batch of the Universal Bland Diet.  Boiled, skinless chicken breast (diced small) and Uncle Ben's parboiled white rice.  No seasoning, butter or anything else. It is really bland.  Possibly like jail food.  But I digress.  Remarkably, I've never met a dog who didn't like a stint of universal bland diet.  Go figure.

This morning's breakfast starts with 1/2 cup of this; followed by five additional small meals spaced throughout the day.

I have enough for about two days.  Generally, this is the cure.

Fingers-crossed.....

Hygiene

 

To reduce the spread of disease in song birds clean and sanitize your bird feeders at periodic intervals.

Disassemble, hot water, dish detergent, splash of bleach, bottle brush, rinse, dry in the sun.

Presto! 

Under The Knife

 Combined Blepharoplasty and Internal Levator Resection

AKA - Reconstructive surgery to correct the impact of a lifetime of sun, wind and gravity on the eyelids.  It has progressed to the point of vision impairment.

Before

Immediately following surgery

Day Two

Day Three

Day Five

 

Day Twelve

Wild Flower Walk

Plants and flowers have long held an important role in both folk and modern medicine.  Smooth penstemon (Penstemon digitalis) has been used to treat fever and the chills.  And if you chewed the root you might find relief from a toothache.

Meet Prunella vulgaris - a plant called Heal-All. A non-native member of the mint family this plant routinely makes its home in and along the edges of the trails at The Platz. 

As an herb it plays a role in folk-medicine and alternative healing.  If the internet is to be believed a weak infusion of the plant can be used as a medicinal eye wash for sties and pinkeye.  If you ingest a tea made from the plant it can treat fevers, diarrhea, sore mouth and throat, internal bleeding, and weaknesses of the liver and heart.  There is purported (questionable) clinical evidence of antibacterial properties that inhibit the growth of pseudomonas, Bacillus typhi, E. coli, and Mycobacterium tuberculi supporting ts use as an alternative medicine internally and externally as an antibiotic and for hard to heal wounds and diseases.  Some suggest it can also cure herpes, cancer, AIDS, diabetes, and many other maladies.  Apparently I have a regular pharmacopeia of cures growing around here. 

For kicks I crushed a bit between my gloved hands and it did smell remotely like skunky mint.  But I'm not eating any of it.

All Hail the Queen

I awoke Monday to snow.  Two inches to be exact - followed later in the evening by another two inches.

Welcome to false spring in northeast Wisconsin.

Monday also found us visiting the vet for a Labrador retriever that had the shits over the weekend.  Application of the universal bland diet (boiled rice and chicken) wasn't making a difference.  An exam along with lab work followed and we returned home with a broad-spectrum antibiotic and a probiotic to stabilize the dog's digestive tract.

She's better.

And something that hasn't changed throughout - she simply likes to lie in the snow.

Sie ist ein Schneehund....

Weight Loss Program

If you see this skinny guy around the neighborhood that would be me.

When I retired from the day job two and a half years ago I tipped the scales at a robust 210+ pounds. When I saw my doc for my annual physical in October I weighed-in at 188 pounds – the lightest I’ve been in likely 20 years. And the doc told me that if reduce a wee bit more or hold my place, by the time I visit him next fall he’d consider taking me off my BP and cholesterol meds.

Thinking long term a couple of weeks ago I went to my favorite menswear store (Fleet Farm) and invested in two new pair of Lee trousers in a 36 waist.

I want to raise a toast to near daily walks with the dog and no access to an office kitchen and all of the inherent temptations that lurk within.

Woot! Woot!

 

Hitch In the Giddy-up

Many of you know that I mostly stopped wearing socks after I retired. 

In the summer months I also generally stop wearing shoes (LL Bean moccasins when needed)

Earlier this week I ‘stubbed’ my toe on a roll of carpet pad stashed in the garage. 

The second toe from the left is cocked at an unnatural angle  and is turning blue and swelling.

 

Trust me when I tell you practically nothing puts a hitch in your giddy-up faster than a busted toe.   This has happened before so I know how to fix it. 

 

 

 

After a shower you tape the busted toe to the good middle toe with J&J First Aid adhesive tape, elevate, apply ice and drink Merlot. 

 

I'll likely miss the Peninsula Spring Classic Bide Ride today - but I'm on the mend.

Wear your mocs people…..

Getting Better

Blonde Dog had a surgical procedure yesterday morning to remover a growth, mass, tumor from hear ear.

From last evening there was this.

Improved today and on the mend.  This dog is the epitome of the stoicism of the Labrador retriever race.  A real trooper.

Herd Immunity

After a slow initial rollout, as of yesterday, it is estimated that 75% of the eligible population of the peninsula has now been vaccinated.  Presently children less than 16 years of age are not eligible.  Once the kiddos are vaxxed we'll have likely attained herd immunity.

Kudos to our county health department, first responders and front line healthcare workers.  Obtaining a vaccine driving thru a fire department bay is brilliant!

I have said all along that conquering the virus is the ticket to economic recovery.

This blogger is tickled to be counted among those who have been micro-chipped.  Just kidding

Yes, there are individuals who believe Bill Gates is using COVID vaccines to insert tracking micro-chips in the general population.  For what reason there is nary a clue as I believe Bill Gates has better things to do in his spare time.  Nevertheless, these unvaccinated believers walk amongst us.

Everybody is entitled to their own belief system.

That is what makes America great. 

Always.....

 

COVID Facts

I recently had the opportunity to watch a brief video of a doc from Door County Medical center explain the spread of Covid.  The interesting thing about Covid is that the amount (dose) of the virus you are exposed-can determine whether or not you become critically ill, mildly sick or are asymptomatic.  

This makes sense – because a healthy individual can fight-off a slight exposure without developing any outward symptoms of disease (and also trigger an immune response).  Exposure to a very high dose of the virus might result in a dangerously serious outcome. Of course there is a range of responses in between. 

Because the spread of Covid is dose-dependent this is the argument for social distancing, avoiding crowds, washing your hands and wearing a mask. 

Masking is not government overreach and it is shameful to have been politicized.  The use of a mask reduces the dose an infected person might spread and an uninfected person might receive. While it is not 100% guaranteed effective – it does reduce the odds of higher dose exposure. 

Of course, individual differences have to be accounted-for. Outcomes may vary for individuals that are elderly, are medically fragile or have a compromised immune system. For some individuals even a small dose can result in a seriously bad outcome. 

Until a sufficiently large-enough number of the population is vaccinated and we attain herd immunity - do the right thing – wear a mask when you cannot appropriately distance.

Suck it up people. 

Who Is To Blame?

The guts of this post were originally written a couple of months ago and it has gotten close to release several times since - yet for any number of reasons I postponed publication.  With the recent whirlwind of ever-changing circumstances I figured now is as good as any time.  

Besides, it is easily adapted to the circumstances of this present moment in time.
_________________________________________________________________________

By now you have likely heard that the toll as a consequence of Covid has exceeded 210,000 dead.  

That is a really big number.   

How big you ask?  

It is three times the number of service member deaths in Vietnam.  

It is the equivalent of the entire population of Salt Lake City Utah being snuffed-out.  

It is the highest per-capita death toll in all but twelve other countries.  

It is the largest death count in the entire world. 

The fact that it all happened in the space of only nine months makes it a big deal.

The most protected man on the planet - our President - has been hospitalized after contracting the virus.  That makes this an even bigger deal.  

The fact that President Trump was so recklessly cavalier about the severity of the pandemic makes this cluster of health crisis and economic train wreck a huge deal.  

Anything that could go wrong has gone wrong.

I want to be perfectly clear - Donald Trump is not to blame for causing Covid.  Moreover, I wish the president a speedy and uncomplicated recovery.  

That said, Donald Trump is responsible for having so fragile an ego that he refused to level with me and everyone else about the severity of this pandemic all the way back to January, February and March of this year.  Feel free to read my trail of documentation of his insipid dismissals of the growing crisis. 

He lied.  

He is incapable of telling the truth even when it is in his own best interests to do so. Sure, he and his apologists will insists he did not want to cause a panic.  Guess what?  Americans don't panic.  To suggest otherwise is silly.  And as a consequence of his willful blindness Donald Trump has the blood of my countrymen on his hands.  It didn't have to get this bad.  Yet those unsettling facts are not the purpose of this post. 

An acquaintance of mine ascribes to the notion that Covid is not at all as deadly as it appears to be. He will blithely suggest it is like seasonal influenza (which can be deadly) or the common cold. He will tell you (without the benefit of a medical degree) that when people die as a consequence of contracting Covid it is the result of comorbidity or an underlying medical condition. And that it is exceedingly rare for Covid to be the sole cause of death.  

His implication is that the dead are somehow to blame for having cancer, heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease or some other pre-existing condition resulting from heredity, advanced- age or whatever.  It is their own damn fault - not that of Covid.
  

He will insist they would have died anyway.  

He is correct in that regard - it is a fact that we're all going to die.  It is also factual that virtually all disease impacts are compounded by comorbidity factors.  And to the extent you can make any medical issue less deadly you can extend life-expectancy.  Which is good for those of us with families, grandchildren, plans for a righteously-rewarding retirement, a wish to travel, extending a working career or volunteerism. 

It is also good policy to not be youthfully smug, recklessly invincible and mockingly prideful.  When you choose to dance with the Schadenfreude Devil you do so at your own peril.  Just ask the President.  But I digress. 

Getting back to the Covid thing is the reality that some exposed to the virus do not become infected. Some people who become infected get very sick while others get only a brief fever and cough – or no symptoms at all.  Some people die.

We have learned that middle-aged and older individuals are more likely to become infected,  are far more likely to suffer symptoms, to be hospitalized and to die. Nevertheless, the therapeutics have improved as we learn more about this virus and fewer deaths result from contracting the contagion today than did as few as nine months ago.  This is major medical progress in a short period of time.  Yet this only addresses fatality statistics.

Severe Covid-19 is driven not just by viral damage to cells but occasionally a whirlwind of inflammation that harms the cardio-pulmonary system, along with other organs and the immune system. It would appear that middle-aged and older individuals are more vulnerable to this storm of complications than younger people. You don’t necessarily have to die from Covid – you can simply be seriously compromised as a consequence of exposure.  

What we do not yet know is if these non-fatal complications to an otherwise healthy individual are a temporary or permanent disability.  Of course death is permanent - my point is that it isn't solely about mortality - plenty more additional bad medical stuff can result.  That is called morbidity.  Not to mention the high cost of immediate and ongoing future care.  Stuff like that drives-up healthcare costs for everyone.

So here we are. Donald Trump is in the hospital as a consequence of his known comorbidity factors - namely age and obesity.  He's receiving first rate care and I hope he emerges from this experience healthy and maybe inclined to show some empathy for the millions of unemployed (and consequently uninsured) individuals of our nation.  If I were a White House advisor I would suggest a healthy display of civility and humility.  Decorum and decency could win the election for Trump.  Alas, this is a low probability event.  Besides, nobody listens to me.

And even though we continue to learn more about the new (novel) virus we do not yet know what we do not know.  Speaking for myself the last thing I’m going to do is eschew my primary care doc’s advice for that of some smartass.

The Missus and I have no known serious, underlying chronic medical issues; nevertheless, we do share a common comorbidity over-which we have no control – namely age. We are in our sixties and seventies.

We're OK with our agedness and fully accept and embrace the blame for making it to this point in our lives.  And just like wearing a seat belt and using sunblock we'll continue to conduct ourselves responsibly.   

Taking responsibility for stuff still counts for something.  

Pass it along....

Be a Patriot - Not A Spreader

For all of the ruckus about wearing a mask in public – it is about as close to a cure as it comes. Sure, it’s not 100% effective – but it’s smart to maintain social distancing, wash your hands, don’t touch your eyes and if you cannot maintain a safe social distance wear a mask in public. 

There is another reason; if you are a capitalist like me it is simple economics.  This is one of the fastest ways to flatten the curve and get the economy back up and running.  The Trump Administration's own CDC Director suggests we can do this in four to eight weeks.

None of this is political - it is a teeny, weensy inconvenience.

So, be a patriot - don’t be a spreader. 

From today’s Wall Street Journal: Face Masks Really Do Matter – The Scientific Evidence is Growing.

Facts About COVID-19

Chicken pox is a virus. Lots of people have had it, and probably don't think about it much once the initial illness has passed. But it stays in your body and lives there forever; and maybe when you're older, you have devastatingly painful outbreaks of shingles. You don't just get over this virus in a few weeks, never to have another health effect. We know this because it's been around for years, and has been studied medically for years.

Herpes is also a virus. And once someone has it, it stays in your body and lives there forever, and anytime they get a little run down or stressed-out they're going to have an outbreak. Maybe every time you have a big event coming up (school pictures, job interview, big date) you're going to get a cold sore. For the rest of your life. You don't just get over it in a few weeks. We know this because it's been around for years, and been studied medically for years.

HIV is a virus. It attacks the immune system, and makes the carrier far more vulnerable to other illnesses. It has a list of symptoms and negative health impacts that goes on and on. It was decades before viable treatments were developed that allowed people to live with a reasonable quality of life. Once you have it, it lives in your body forever and there is no cure. Over time, that takes a toll on the body, putting people living with HIV at greater risk for health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, diabetes, bone disease, liver disease, cognitive disorders, and some types of cancer. We know this because it has been around for years, and had been studied medically for years.

Now with COVID-19, we have a novel virus that spreads rapidly and easily. The full spectrum of symptoms and health effects is only just beginning to be cataloged, much less understood.

So far the symptoms may include:

Fever

Fatigue

Coughing

Pneumonia

Chills/Trembling

Acute respiratory distress

Lung damage (potentially permanent)

Loss of taste (a neurological symptom)

Sore throat

Headaches

Difficulty breathing

Mental confusion

Diarrhea

Nausea or vomiting

Loss of appetite

Strokes have also been reported in some people who have COVID-19 (even in the relatively young)

Swollen eyes

Blood clots

Seizures

Liver damage

Kidney damage

Rash

COVID toes (weird, right?)

People testing positive for COVID-19 have been documented to be sick even after 60 days. Many people are sick for weeks, get better, and then experience a rapid and sudden flare up and get sick all over again. A man in Seattle was hospitalized for 62 days, and while well enough to be released, still has a long road of recovery ahead of him. Not to mention a $1.1 million medical bill.

Then there is MIS-C. Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children is a condition where different body parts can become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs. Children with MIS-C may have a fever and various symptoms, including abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, neck pain, rash, bloodshot eyes, or feeling extra tired. While rare, it has caused deaths.

This disease has not been around for years. It has basically been 6 months. No one knows yet the long-term health effects, or how it may present itself years down the road for people who have been exposed. We literally *do not know* what we do not know.

For those in our society who suggest that people being cautious are cowards, for people who refuse to take even the simplest of precautions to protect themselves and those around them, I want to ask, without hyperbole and in all sincerity:

How dare you?

How dare you risk the lives of others so cavalierly. How dare you decide for others that they should welcome exposure as "getting it over with", when literally no one knows who will be the lucky "mild symptoms" case, and who may fall ill and die. Because while we know that some people are more susceptible to suffering a more serious case, we also know that 20 and 30 year olds have died, marathon runners and fitness nuts have died, children and infants have died.

How dare you behave as though you know more than medical experts, when those same experts acknowledge that there is so much we don't yet know, but with what we DO know, are smart enough to be scared of how easily this is spread, and recommend baseline precautions such as:

Frequent hand-washing

Physical distancing

Reduced social/public contact or interaction

Mask wearing

Covering your cough or sneeze

Avoiding touching your face

Sanitizing frequently touched surfaces

The more things we can all do to mitigate our risk of exposure, the better off we all are, in my opinion. Not only does it flatten the curve and allow health care providers to maintain levels of service that aren't immediately and catastrophically overwhelmed; it also reduces unnecessary suffering and deaths, and buys time for the scientific community to study the virus in order to come to a more full understanding of the breadth of its impacts in both the short and long term.

I reject the notion that it's "just a virus" and we'll all get it eventually. What a careless, lazy, heartless stance.

Protect yourself, protect your family and friends, be a good person and protect those you don’t know. We all have a right to feel safe. Put on a mask and stay at least 6 ft away!

Copied and shared — please do likewise (Thanks nurse Jill Jaeger)

Cult

In further news, Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee called on the president to set a better example by occasionally covering his face.  The Republican senator lamented that wearing a mask has become part of the political debate.  

Wearing a mask - while not 100% - does contribute to slowing the spread of contagion. And it is in our economic self interests to bend the curve.
   

Wash your hands    

Don’t touch your face     

Don’t be a spreader      

If you’re indoors and cannot practice social distancing - help everyone and wear a mask     

Don’t be a Branch Covidian

Nonsmoker

Doctor:  Do you smoke?      

Me:  Yup    

Doctor: Cigarettes?  Cigars?  Marijuana?
   
Me:  Mostly baby back ribs

My Kingdom for a Leader

Nearly 3 million of my countrymen filed for jobless benefits last week.  Counting those claims there are now 36.5 million total applications submitted over two months.   

Welcome to the feast of the Trump economy.  

Ask yourself this:  

Are you better-off today than you were four years ago?  

How about your balance sheet - better or something else?  

Has your retirement plan been altered?

Oh, you say you're not retired.  Is your job secure?  Is your employer on solid ground? 

If you have a job maybe you're working from home with school age children.  How's that working out for you?

Are you coping under the weight of all this winning?  

You're not going to like reading this - but in the near term it could get worse, folks.  Possibly ugly worse.  

Nevertheless, I am reasonably sure my Trump-supporting friends remain firm in their beliefs. As the COVID-19 death toll mounts and the economy continues to roller-coaster in the coming months I expect their devotion to Trump will remain unshaken.  It’s a curious phenomenon for sure and continues to be a puzzlement to me.

Nevertheless, it did not have to come to this level of badness denial. The head of the Chinese CDC was on the phone to Robert Redfield of our CDC on January 1^st.  By January 13 the Chinese had a coronavirus test.  Three days later the Germans had a test to detect coronavirus ready to deploy..   

Meanwhile, Donald Trump shrugged-off the notion of testing in favor of prioritizing short-term management of the stock market.  

Depending-upon your point of reference that was either a calculated risk or a reckless gamble - either way Trump ran with it.  Keeping-up appearances with an optimistic tone on the markets was clearly a reelection strategy and priority.   Because Trump had embraced the stock market as the yardstick of the success for his presidency he had painted himself into a corner.  And, naturally, this strategy was at cross-purposes with public health priorities and all the things that needed to be accomplished to minimize the damage from a pandemic.      

As with testing (both then and continuing today) Trump gave short shrift to the lethality of the coronavirus and ignored the alarms being sounded.  We witnessed 70 days of denial, dysfunction and delay that allowed the virus to spread.  Trump had time to golf, hold rallies and tweet - all the while he did no advance planning or preparation.  His willful blindness magnified the severity of the economic carnage and the resulting death toll.  The breathtaking number of my countrymen who have died and the severity of the economic tragedy is Trump’s fault.  

He failed to manage the crisis.  

I understand that Trump supporters will deny all of this.  Which is fine - everyone is entitled to an opinion.  Yet there is no denying the fact that after distributing defective testing kits the administration made the decision to decline the offer of perfectly reliable kits from the World Health Organization.  The administration also blocked local governments from outsourcing testing to private labs. 

This nation did not reach the minuscule number of 10,000 people tested until the middle of March.    

As I have said all along - it's all about a robust testing program.  Including contact tracing and quarantine of the sick and exposed. This is the path to economic recovery and eventually something close to normalcy.   

I read of a good analogy to this shit show some time ago and it goes something along these lines:   

Imagine you are the CEO of a manufacturer blindsided by a safety recall of a product. This crisis has caused the price of the company’s stock to drop precipitously.  

Executive management have two choices to make with regard to mastering the situation at hand. 

The first option is to concentrate on fixing the problem and demonstrating to the public that the product is safe and reliable.  By doing this the company's stock may eventually recover.  It may take a while - yet this choice sets the table for corporate stability and a resurgence. This is what wise and prudent fiduciaries do on behalf of both employees and shareholders. 

Alternatively, management could elect to piss and moan, blame-shift and tweet about the falling stock price only. That the company might simply go out of business this option is done at great peril.        

Ponder that.