Author: Steve

    At our daughter’s.    

  Tells us the upstairs bedroom window provides a fine view of Long’s Peak.   Looking out the window to the northwest though.   I think that view might have grown to be a seasonal event.  

  And am once again struck by how fortunate we are to be at this moment in time in all of human history.  Several situations which would surely have resulted in my death a generation or two ago have recently been resolved with relatively routine medical procedures.   I go beyond that to realize the good fortune of my birth; to be born in this country, to my family circumstance, and my access to education, employment, and health-care.  Just being at this day and age alone wouldn’t be enough.  It makes me wonder what happens to those less-fortunate.  Judy and I have excellent health insurance, but it is expensive.  The cost of a procedure never enters into our medical decisions.  What does a person who needs a heart bypass operation to stay alive, but has no medical insurance or is underinsured, do?  Do they get denied treatment and just die?  Do they get their symptoms treated at an emergency room and sent home with some nitroglycerine tablets?  Do they get fully treated and the cost forgiven, or do they get their lives extended only to be hounded for the rest of their days to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars they can never pay?   Judy and I are part of the fortunate few, so we don’t have to know the answers to these questions, but it feels like we should.  Do we live in our cocoon of security unconcerned about anyone outside that shell, or are we part of a larger community?    

  It only took an hour to punch me in the left kidney stone 2,500 times.  I didn’t have to stay awake for it though.  Another hour in the waiting room for Judy.   I’m still feeling pretty good this afternoon.  They warned me I would be bruised and sore after.  I guess that part comes tomorrow.   Back home at Becky’s.  Glad to be here.    

  Judy has something to take care of besides me!  She has a house and yard she’s familiar with.  The dogs need feeding, emptying, and talking to.  The parakeets chatter all day.  The cats have to be found and fed regularly.  The goldfish in the pond; they’re just there.  The rats are a different issue.  Both Taylor and Teigan have rats.  The rats not only need food and water, they need lots of handling and loving.  The kids were kind enough to arrange for some neighbor friends to come over and totally take care of the rats for us.  (And when I say “us”, I mean Judy.  She does everything.  I take naps.)   This isn’t like a hotel room; not everything here is ours.  We have to find places for our stuff so it will be available for us to use, but not so scattered that we’ll have trouble finding everything again and collecting it when it’s time to move out.   I’m not much to take care of today anyway.  It’s a pre-surgical day and this time they want me totally empty.  No food all day except for some clear broth.  Lucky for me, I still don’t have much of an appetite after the previous procedures, so I’m not missing food all that much.    Tomorrow, one less kidney stone!