Petunia rambles on and on….

Notes to self:

1. Do not ever again agree to go in for a test or procedure used as a screening, just because it’s available, or because you’ve reached a certain age.
2. Do not cough while under anesthesia, this being MUCH more hazardous than it sounds.
3. Coming out of anesthesia unable to breath or speak is a whole lot of “no fun” – and also rather terrifying surprising to the patient, who thought they were checking out, uh, another end.
4. While riding, a person should always be looking where they are going, not where they’ve been.  Looking at where you’ve been is the position you are in when you are in an ambulance being taken very quickly from a free-standing surgical clinic to the main hospital in town.
5. When you are discharged from a hospital, you finally get to put your underwear on again.  That may have been the “shining moment” of the last 4 days.

Here’s another fat-related problem I had to deal with over the weekend.   Skinny me, all my life.  I quit smoking almost 2 years ago, and gained weight.  I can see lots of places the fat now resides, and if I was behind myself, I’d probably see one more.   But here’s one place I just never thought would become a problem.

Look at the weirdly shaped index finger.  The great indentation, with the big lump of FAT above it.

For lack of anything better to do with my life right now, I’ll be going under anesthetic twice in the next 6 weeks or so.  Both instances require that all jewelry be removed.  No glasses, no watch or bracelets, no rings.  I wear an emerald/diamond ring on my right hand, and was able to get that off with a liberal amount of mayonnaise – that’s the method that’s used in many hospital emergency rooms.  I’ve had that birthstone ring on for many years, a gift from my first husband, but I guess not so much fat settled on the ring finger!!

On this index finger, I wore a Mother’s Ring, given to me when my youngest was very small, so it’s been on well over 25 years.  And it was on tightly.  There was no way that ring was going to slide over and off.  I wore another ring over 10 years, with purple stones.  Bought in a panic, when one I loved appeared to be lost to me.  Still is, I think. 

I’ve worn that Mother’s Ring through a lot.  Many diapers and dinners and rough days.  That ring touched my babies and their babies.  Weddings and graduations and funerals and parties and good days.  The back of the band was little more than a thread of gold.

I had both rings cut off.  I don’t know if I’ll put them back on.

(and by the way, my hand is pictured on the most expensive placemat I ever bought)

OK, along with several other local businesses in the area, and a Circuit City, I just found out that the grocery store where I usually shop will also be closing its doors in mid-February.  It’s not a chain store, not a great store, but it was convenient for me, near to the pharmacy I use, the big-box craft store I go into, JoAnn’s fabrics for notions, the liquor store, and a branch of the bank I use.  Damn!  It’s certainly not the only grocery in town, and I can think of two others that I pass by on my way home from work that would be equally convenient.   It is, however, the one where I can find what I need.  I’ve been going there for 10 years or more, know where just about everything is, and if I go in for just a few items, I can go get those few and I’m out of there fairly quickly.   (if I want to do that, but sometimes, I just like to browse – and sometimes I go up and down all the aisles because I honestly can’t remember what we need and I’m hoping that seeing all the stuff on the shelves will activate some memory in my brain, some statement I’ve made recently like, “Oh, shit, we’re out of  XXXX!!”)   (Sadly, I seem to regurgitate the same memory over and over, and we have 8 bottles of vinegar at home now)     If you see me wandering around a grocery store, mumbling, swearing, pushing an almost-empty cart, crumpling a shopping list in my hand, just go on by me, please.

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My next concern over all these businesses closing and lay-offs that are occurring is the effect it’s going to have on health care in this country.  (I see this side of things because I spent 13 years working in a hospital, in a non-clinical position)  A large percentage of people receive their health care coverage through their employer, as we do.  As more and more people are let go, laid off from their jobs, they aren’t only increasing the number of unemployed people here.  They are dramatically increasing the number of uninsured people.  This is not a one-to-one thing, either, because for many that lose a job, there’s also a spouse and a couple of kids at home that lose their coverage, too.     

When folks don’t have insurance, they usually handle it in one of two ways.  They stop getting needed medical care, postponing everything that can possibly be put off, because they know they can’t afford it, and they avoid running up bills they can’t pay.  They ignore things that should be checked and let problems escalate until minor issues have grown into medical emergencies.  This also translates into letting relatively minor costs escalate into financial catastrophes.  The health care system must, by law, treat the patients when their medical situation forces them into the local public hospital’s Emergency Room.  If the patient can’t pay, the cost has to be written off by the hospital.  The other way patients handle a lack of health coverage is to go directly to the Emergency Room every time they fart twice in the same day, and they bring the kids in every time their little noses are running.  This, too, must be written off.

As these two methods of handling the “What do I do without medical insurance?” problem will be used, they will first overwhelm, and then they will bankrupt public hospital facilities.  Those who remain employed, those folks still with health care who are currently griping piteously about the premiums they have to pay ain’t seen nothing yet!   Doctors, too, will face problems.  Most of them may continue to see and treat their long-standing patients, and charge little to nothing.  But there’s a limit to how much pro bono work they can do and still remain solvent themselves.

These businesses that close and jobs that are lost have far-reaching tentacles, and most folks don’t have a clue how much will be affected.

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Damn, let’s get past that!

Here’s a picture of some friends I recently met.

Salt, on the left, and Pepper on the right.  They’re new to me, but have known each other for a while, I think.  Son Briley introduced us, and they now live on my table.  Also living with us is Napkin Holder, who declined to be photographed.  (There’s one in every family like that)   Thanks, Bri.

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I love this.

It’s meant to be an ornament to hang on our Christmas tree, and it would be great for that except for two reasons:

1. I would be a neurotic wreck worrying about it falling to the floor and shattering every time anyone (or that damn dog) got near the tree.  I wouldn’t live to Epiphany.
2. It’s just too darn pretty to display only through the short holiday period and then pack away for another year.

I’ve got to find a good way of displaying it year round, as it deserves.    Thank you, Miss Minnow.

(I think it may have come from the same village as that O’Shaughnessy fellow.)