the Skin of My Teeth

Mmmm Beans - OhhhUhhKkk....

  I went out for a quick dinner with an old friend last night.  This morning, despite an extra 20 minutes of stretching, I can hardly move.   I woke up in bed twice last night with jaw-clenchingly painful charlie horses in my legs.
   Ahh, but the good NEWS is I had a post-breakfast glucose of 182.   I'm very glad about that.  Of course, I've got that every-20-seconds desperate craving for a vege burrito with a beautiful plate of steaming Mexican rice and refried beans, the skin-crawlie tremors, and that lovely low-sugar headache.  Oh, the beans though...
  I'm going to soak in an impossibly hot bath to try stay focused on the pain.  There's no clocks in the bathroom so I can't keep checking to see if it's time to eat yet!
  And, yes I've heard about the recall of the latest coma-inducing gift from China, Aqua Dots/Bindeez, and the ridiculous response of Sylmar's Olive Vista Middle School to an hospitalized student with CA-MRSA, the Super-Staph bacteria.  I just can't get my head to focus enough to write about that just now.
  Thanks for all the beans - I mean emails - asking how I was doing since the insulin drama!

Glucose Joyride

  So, today I finally found out why I've been on a constant glucose roller coaster for the past week or so - a bad bottle of insulin.  My glucose numbers have inexplicably ranged from low 200's to high 400's since the beginning of November and I've been feeling worse and worse as each day passed.
  The last 3-4 days I've been getting practically no sleep - passing out and waking up a couple hours later shaking, nausea with a vengeance, eyesight focus problems all day long - yes, a rich tapestry of fun.  This morning I decided it wasn't adjusting to Actos I was going through and went to the hospital with all my meds in tow.
  The bottle of insulin I started on November 2nd is as clear as insulin can get, so it never occurred to me there was something wrong with it, but that's what the lab said (of course only AFTER I'd been sucked dry of blood for other testing).  I won't name the insulin manufacturer because I still don't know exactly what happened with this bottle - yet...
   We called the manufacturer and verified that it wasn't a counterfeit bottle.  Then the  Dr. asked me to wait outside his office while he continued his conversation with them.  I was only just finding a much needed place to sit when my Dr. waves me back into his office, shushing me as I came in.
  He had put the call with the woman from the manufacturer on speaker phone and she was blaming me for mishandling the insulin and thus causing it to become ineffective.  Lovely.
  Now, I'm sure, there's an incredible amount I don't know about insulin, but I'm pretty sure that insulin should turn cloudy or milky when there's something wrong with it and I always check it to make sure there aren't suspended air bubbles.  She began listing the many, many ways I could be the reason the insulin was ineffective, including not knowing how to properly use a syringe.  I sat there quietly and shook my head to every scenario she proposed.
  Finally, my Dr. asked her to cut to the quick and authorize a replacement bottle for which they would reimburse the hospital pharmacy and, ultimately, there would be no cost to me (other than the damage to my body).  The woman on the phone hesitated, then put the call on hold!
  Okay, at this point, what with the fun of several sleepless nights, I shake my head in frustrated disbelief and a couple of tears roll down my cheek.  My Dr. gives my shoulder a good squeeze and whispers to me not to worry because he's going to take care of it.  He ushers me out the door and asks me if I have enough syringes and test strips.  I mumble a yes.  He tells me the insulin should be ready by the time I get to the pharmacy.  Thanks.  One more squeeze of the shoulder (and that's no easy feat: I'm 6'4" and he's like 5'3") and I'm out the door.
  As I trudge down the hall I hear the echoes of my Dr. screaming into the phone.  Much appreciated, let me tell you, but I'm not convinced it will do any good.
  Passing the vending machines on the way to the elevator I wonder why candy bars & pop-tarts and not a single diet soda are the only thing stocked outside the Diabetes Specialty Care offices.

"A" for Calamities, "F" for Integrity

  Samuel Richardson, the dull and priggish 18th century publisher and popular novelist said that calamity is the test of integrity.  Meaning that when the shit flies, you really see what people are made of.
  In the last few weeks revelations from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) have really told the tale of the Bush administrations reign.  Now, normally this is well afield of where I want and think my focus should go, but I have found that it's the poorest and/or least educated among us that suffer the most when our government, charged with our protections, fails to do their most basic duties.

The government get's an "A" for turning disastrous situations into calamities and an "F" for the integrity of the design, execution, preparation of their response.

  I'm getting regular emails from folks (thanks) and the issue of why am I not blogging on this or that is the subject of a majority of those communiques.  Generally the answer is that I think the subject is outside the focus of this blog OR that I feel the subject is getting adequate thoughtful coverage in the mass media that people can make up their own minds.
  I could write volumes on how I feel the decline of understanding and importance of ethics/integrity and an understanding of our constitution (especially the bill of rights) is both polarizing and putrefying our country, but, again, not the focus and way beyond the level coherence I can bring to anything these days.

  Okay, here's what's gone down:
  The week before last the head of the CPSC, Nancy Nord, an attorney and Bush appointee, wrote the Senate a letter saying she objected to budget increases for the CPSC and instead would like them to cut the CPSC's budget.  That's right, the consumer product protection wing of the federal government - the one overseeing the tidal wave of lead tainted products into the U.S. from China - thinks they're getting too much money in their budget.  Now, the CPSC has only ONE full-time employee that tests toys, testing-to-recall-notice is taking the better part of a year to complete, and the CPSC's online recall database is incomplete and near useless (try doing a search for JA-RU: you should get 2-3 screenfulls of recalled products, but the search only results in three!).  They don't need more money?!?
  Then, this week, a Washington Post investigative reporter (yes, there still are a few), Elizabeth Williamson, found that Nancy Nord and Bush's first CPSC appointee, Hal Stratton, also an attorney, have been taking free "gift trips" to places around the world paid for by companies, industry associations, and attorneys whose clients are appealing CPSC decisions.  The bulk of these gift trips were taken by Stratton - the guy responsible for setting the tone with manufacturers that has produced the flood of lead and supermagnets we're all enjoying right now.  Stratton's most notable trip was an 11-day, $11,000 trip to Hong Kong and China.
  Both Stratton and now Nord both claim the gift trips are necessary for them to get out amongst the people in the industries the CPSC are responsible for regulating.  Ohhhhh, see I stupidly thought that's what all the overly paid lobbyists in Washington, D.C. and every state's capitol were for - - so you need gift trips on top of all the wining, dining and massive amounts of soft- money... 

That's probably why they both took gifted trips, elegant trips, to San Francisco, New Orleans, and Hilton Head, NC - all hubs of design and manufacturing for toys, children's furniture, and household appliances.  The fact that all the trips are in flagrant violation of Federal ethics regulations was like water off a duck to both Stratton and Nord - but that seems right in keeping with the entire Bush administrations approach to laws, ethics, and integrity.
  This is the problem with so many attorneys involved in running our government.  They're only interested in finding a way to interpret a rule to justify what they want to do, not doing only what the rule allows.

  Alright, blah, blah, blah, what does this have to do with poor and under-educated?  A lot of this crap passing, unchallenged, into the U.S. is showing up on 99¢ Store type retailers shelves or in $1.49 rack packages in Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, and Sears stores.  In stores, or areas of stores that should have buyer beware signs on every wall.
  Now, as I've said before, anyone stupid enough to give their kid a pair of painted ugly teeth stamped with made in China deserves everything coming their way, but I say that sarcastically and out of frustration.  The fact is that the Federal government is responsible for creating, monitoring, and enforcing regulations to protect U.S. consumers from harm.  They have the responsibility because most consumers have no facility to evaluate if a pair of fake teeth, a plastic cow, a toaster, or a crib are safely designed or constructed or if a baby's bib has 700 times the allowable level of lead (how is any level of lead allowable on anything that a kid will chew on?).
  And don't get me wrong, there no less wrong at the CPSC than there is in California Attorney General, Jerry Brown's office where non-profit testing labs are submitting lead results on products and the reports are, apparently, being tossed into bottomless in-boxes with no more consideration than if they were a flyer from a take-out restaurant.

  The Senate proposes a boost in the CPSC's budget and raising the cap on fines to $10mil and Nord says, "No."
  The Center for Environmental Health copies a report of alarmingly high lead levels in children's lunch boxes, backpacks, and sleeping bags to California's Attorney General Office which shuffles it, files it, but doesn't read it (much less take action).
  Truly when calamities arise, the integrity and ethics of those charged with prevention and response are made to be crystal clear.  Sadly, if the public has not educated themselves to know better, it's simply another tree falling with no one to hear, or care.

See Related:
OMG, nearly every other post since I started this blog!

I'm in a King-Harbor State o' Mind

Olive View-UCLA Deaths Graduate From "Not My Job" To "I Don't Know How To Do My Job" :  This past Sunday, after waiting three hours after being seen and re-seen by the triage nurse for chest pain, 33 year-old Christopher Jones stepped outside the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center emergency room and died of a heart attack, reports the AP.   Yesterday the unnamed nurse was fired for not following procedures and using a simple test required for anyone reporting chest pains (I would image that to be an EKG, but I haven't been able to verify such).
   Bruce Chernof, the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services director, would not release the nurse's name or confirm or deny that the nurse was a transfer from the recently shut-down King-Harbor Medical Center (for compassionate conservatism).  He did confirm that the simple test was part of the required screening procedures for chest pains.
  This follows the death of a man on October 1st because the security guard manager employed by the hospital refused to drive to a nearby hospital to pick up an antidote to a poisonous plant the dead man had consumed.
  The Olive View-UCLA Medical Center has been cited five times this year for nursing infractions.  As a former Avandia user who thought the pains in my chest were deep tissue muscle spasms, I'm just thrilled (this time) that none of the emergency rooms in the Los Angeles County run hospitals are anywhere near where I live.
  Seriously though, I feel for Chris' family and am holding consoling thoughts for them.

SoCal Hospitals Not Fine, Just Fined :  The now defunct King-Harbor Hospital and Glendale Memorial Hospital were fined (an extraordinary step) for putting patients in imminent risk of injury or death by the California Department of Public Health under new laws that begin to put hospitals under the same regulations that govern standards for nursing homes and health plan facilities.  It's about frickin' time!  When does the Los Angeles County Health Department get in there and start putting up grades for cleanliness?  I'd like to know if I'm going to be getting the deadly MRSA SuperStaph with my emergency appendectomy!
  The Garden Grove Hospital and the Kaiser-Permanente Hospital in Santa Clara also received one fine each, also for putting patients at risk for injury or death.  King-Harbor received two fines of $25,000 each.
  Here's the thing, that's significantly less than the fine would be if it was a nursing home being cited.  $25,000 per citation is clearly not enough.  The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services wastes and misuses millions a year and $25,000 is below what they settle a case on just one patient lawsuit.  CA has to get the fines in line with what will make the cost of putting patients in harm's way prohibitively expensive.  Come on then!

Black Lead (Pb) Parade

You Don't Know Ugly :  Well, it's a... umm...  day of the week, so it must be time for the daily Parade of Lead (Pb)!  As they left for lunch yesterday the Consumer Product Safety Commission released a recall notice on fake Halloween teeth sold over the last year, reports the AP.  Stupefying, isn't it?
  All the tens of thousand of fake teeth sold as Party Favors brand  Ugly Teeth over the last year, made in China (do I even need to say that anymore?), were painted with paint tainted with over 100 times the allowable level of lead.  Okay, it is jaw-dropping that CPSC would wait until Halloween was practically over - and, realistically, the kids have been wearing and playing with these teeth for the last week and were probably in their school's costume parade chomping on the teeth even as the notice was released  -  -  but, seriously, to be fair, who is stupid enough to put anything in their mouth (or their kid's mouths) that has made in China stamped on it?  At this point I have to view anyone who becomes ill as a participant in natural selection part of God's plan.

Geoffrey Spreads the Love Lead :  Also in yesterday's release the CPSC recalled the Toys "R" Us' Elite Operations military toys figures and their severely-overpriced playset accessories.  These toys join the long list of lead tainted enhanced products that contain significant excesses of lead at Toys "R" Us.
  Apparently this is part of Toys "R" Us' Spread the Lead strategy, as now every department in the store has at least one brain and nervous system damaging product available.  I kind of like the lead-erific baby bibs juxtaposed with the literally mind-numbing Elite Operations Barracuda Helicopter Super Rig playset - it creates a store-layout texture that's very exciting.  Thank you China!

Lead Rich Fisher-Price Medical Kit - Irony Delicious! :  Consumer's Union, publisher of Consumer Reports finds hundreds of lead-filled toys not on any recall list, including the Fisher-Price Medical Kit.  The blood pressure cuff in the kit had alarming levels of accessible lead (accessible meaning you don't have to chew on it to be exposed).  They also found huge amounts of lead embedded in the plastic of Elmer's Glue gluesticks marketed to children.  How many of you have seen your kids taking the lids off pens and gluesticks and chew on them while they use the functional part of the item?
  Consumer Reports has also recently evaluated home accessible-lead test kits,  Lead Check's Household Lead Test Kit and Homax's Lead Check being the top rated and giving results on even the smallest amounts of lead within four hours.
  Of course the recalled items were all made in China -- no word on where the testing kits were made.

(BTW, to test a piece of any item you know your child chews on or holds in their mouth and you suspect has embedded lead, in an indoor area free of drafts or breezes and away from your kids, spread out newspapers four by four.  On the paper gently break or cut in half the item.  Gently rough it with sandpaper creating enough fine particles/"dust" to cover the testing swab.  Spray the newspaper with water or even Windex before folding the paper up while wet/damp.  Put it in a zip-lock bag and seal it carefully before putting it in the trash.  Wash your hands and any tools you've used thoroughly before going back into your living space.)

Please excuse my excessive use of the strike-through here - I couldn't contain it!

 

See Related:
National Lead Poisoning Festival Rolls Along
Wal-Mart Recalls Toys, Covers for Maker
Don't Rain on My Lead Parade!
CA Food Pyramid Outsourced
 

 

Read the October Posts >>>

 

National Lead Poisoning Festival Rolls Along

National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week continued with an unabated tide of lead enhanced Chinese products aimed at children onto store shelves. The EPA week of awareness is designed to remind parents and children of the dangers of lead paint.  Is that where the lead is?
  To highlight the event and contribute to the celebration the Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled roughly 665,000 additional Chinese-made children's products due to excessive amounts of lead - that's over 20,000,000 different Chinese products in the last four months - battle on China!  The items involved range from children's jewelry, to enticing cake decorations, with loads of mouth appeal!
  Not to be outdone, in the spirit of the week, Mattel's Fisher-Price happy-go-lucky Go Diego Go Animal Rescue Boats were recalled - what with all the lead, and all.  And in the spirit of their new corporate policy of protecting Chinese concerns, Mattel refused to identify the name of the Chinese manufacturer involved in the lead poisoning.
  In an effort to extend the excitement of Lead Poisoning Week, nearly 150,000 child-size Halloween pumpkin pails sold at Family Dollar stores over the last couple of months were also recalled for including lead-based paint in the design.
  The Chinese government's response: they launched  a moon probe, a fine compliment to their blasting-satellites-into-hazardous-space-garbage program.  No word on the lead content of the probe...
  Billions living in poverty.  An environmental toxic super-site disaster from one corner of the country to the other.  Pretending to be a military and space avionics super-player.  Sound familiar?  Mr. Jintao, tear down that wall...
  Happy Lead Festivus everyone!

NEWS ROUNDUP

Government By Act of God :  President Bush, our de-scientification prez, and his cohorts redacted and rewrote the testimony of the director of the CDC's presentation of the impact of climate change on health,  removing scientific conclusions of potential health risks to Americans, reports the AP.  Bush's Office of Management and Budget (the heart of U.S. scientific research and inquiry) removed the scientific conclusions from Dr. Julie Gerberding's testimony prior to a Senate hearing and inserted instead "is anticipated to have a broad range of impacts on the health of Americans."  Dr. Gerberding's testimony was left with almost no details on what effects climate change is and will have on the spread of disease.  Her written testimony went from 14 pages to 4 pages after White House "review."
  I guess we're returning to the good old days when people died of an act of God.  A mysterious black box of lessons to be learned along life's journey.  Like the 6 boys who died this summer after they contracted the brain-devouring amoeba, naegleria, which has been flourishing in recreational fresh-water lakes across the American south.  From Florida to Arizona the amoeba is thriving in the warmer water temperatures due to global warming act of God.

All Rights Are Equal, With More and Less :  Calling it marriage or not, spousal abuse among gay men occurs at nearly the same rate as abuse of women in straight relationships finds a study by the University of Illinois Chicago Psychology Department.  The New York Academy of Medicine reports in it's Journal of Urban Health that the study by Eric Houston went beyond rates of abuse, but also examined the health consequences to the abused partner.  Higher levels of heart disease, hypertension, depression, and anxiety.  The study also found that abused gay men were much less likely to report the abuse because of perceived stigma with reporting male-on-male violence.
  On the less, surprisingly, gay men earn up to 23% less than straight men in the some work situations reports Reuters.  Despite the constant focus on the gay communities hefty disposal income by gay advertising brokers, researchers from the University of New Hampshire found through the analysis of 2004 wage data of gay and straight couples that gay men working in management and blue-collar jobs consistently make less money than straight men due to discrimination by their employers.  The same gay couples made 9% less than their single, straight male co-workers.  Oddly, lesbians in the workplace fared consistently better than their straight counterparts in financial terms.

God Says No-No to Public Health :  There are a growing number of parents around the country who are skirting vaccination requirements for their children claiming vaccination are against their deep rooted religious beliefs, reports the AP.  The AP investigators found that in 2005 several thousand students entered kindergarten without vaccinations.  From 2003 to 2007 religious exemptions for children entering kindergarten doubled or tripled in 20 of the 28 states that allow the exemption.
  Sabrina Rahim of Boston, MA, who doesn't practice any particular faith, signed a letter declaring that her 4-year-old should be exempt because of Rahim's deeply held religious beliefs.  What is Rahim's real belief?  She believes earlier vaccinations, when her son was younger, are responsible for her son's autism.  And the basis for this belief?  She heard Don Imus talking about it on the radio.  Uhhh... ....  WTF?
  Resistance to vaccines is, "an irrational, fear-based decision," says Dr. Paul Offit of Children's Hospital in Philadelphia.  "When you choose not to get a vaccine, you're not just making a choice for yourself, you're making a choice for the person sitting next to you,"  adds Dr. Lance Rodewalk, director of the CDC's Immunization Services.  Measles, mumps, chickenpox, diphtherea, and whooping cough have all but disappeared for several generations thanks to vaccinations.
  Even though a long series of studies find no link between vaccinations and autism, vaccination exemptors are on the rise.  In 1991 a religious group in Phili, who skirted immunization for their children, sparked an outbreak of measles that cost 8 people their lives and sickened over 700 others, mostly young children.  More recently, in 2005 an unvaccinated girl  contracted measles while in Romania and brought it back to her home in Indiana.  Within a month, 31 people were infected with measles, our nations worst outbreak in more than a decade.
  Luckily, in California the ignorant and selfishly self-involved are celebrated - people like Rahim can simply claim that vaccinations are against their personal philosophy to exempt their kids.  Well, my personal philosophy is that if your kids aren't vaccinated, find your own daycare, pre-school, and K-12 to take your them to.  No one should be exempt from vaccinations and allowed to congregate with others, especially in the public schools.  And in college, or camp I don't want to share a dorm room with some guy who hasn't had vaccinations and necessary boosters.  I like my body chicken pox and meningitis free, thank you very much.

Seniors Gypped on Medical Care :  The elderly on MediCare and MedicAid receive barely acceptable levels of medical care find a team of UCLA researchers.  The study examined 43 specific types of care in 19 California counties between 1999 to 2000 finding that the elderly received only  65% of tests and treatments that non-elderly patients received.  Only 42% of elderly diabetics had their A1C tested or received the necessary annual eye exam to detect diabetes related degenerative eye disease.
  Well, you know, they're old. They're loosing their vision anyway... and that extra blood sugar - the extra alkaline in the veins is good for clearing out the cholesterol, right?
  It makes no nevermind, everything's an act of God.

Living with MRSA & CA-MRSA

The methicillin (antibiotic)-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and community-acquired aka community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) are antibiotic-resistant staph infections that are part of a class of diseases known as acute communicable diseases since they are so easily spread.  They are infectious bacteria.

MRSA is found mostly in medical facilities, including treatment facilities such as dialysis centers and nursing homes.  It can be contracted through skin contact with the bacteria or the bacteria can be introduced into your body while you are undergoing a procedure where surfaces, equipment, or contaminated personnel come into contact with your exposed innards.  MRSA has also been found in facilities similar to nursing homes such as dormitories in a variety of settings (school, military, prison, et al)

CA-MRSA is found on the bodies of carriers (they carry MRSA on their skin and in their nose, but they are not infected or ill from the presence of the bacteria) and in facilities that allow carriers or infected individuals to come in contact with equipment and materials where bodily fluids are left behind (and it can be a droplet, invisible to the casual observer).

If you’re living with MRSA or CA-MRSA you should already know which specific bacteria you’re infected with.  If you don’t, your doctor needs to culture the bacteria infecting you so that it can be fully and specifically identified and the best antibiotic(s) therapy for you can be engaged.  If you haven’t had a culture performed either because you’ve tested positive as a carrier or you have an active infection GET A BETTER DOCTOR -- NOW.  Insist on it.  Ask for an attending or go to another facility.  Skin infections due to MRSA and CA-MRSA are frequently curable and always manageable through treatment and proper procedures.
Read the rest...

See also: MRSA, CA-MRSA Prevention for some great videos and more photos.

news roundup

Wal-Mart Recalls Toys, Covers for Manufacturer :  Wal-Mart, the largest seller of toys in the U.S., recalled animal and dinosaur toys on Friday due to unsafe and excessive levels of lead.  However, Wal-Mart's Linda Blakely refused to identify the manufacturer involved and would say nothing further.  How long have they been on the shelves? "We've had these for a while," said Blakely.
  By now regular readers know that with answers like that, all I hear is a personal challenge to investigate - especially when it comes from a company like Wal-Mart, known for saying one thing while they're doing something else (which is invariably evil-ish).  Okay - here we go:
  Of course, the lead infused, bite-sized toys are manufactured in China (ho-hum).  The importer, the notorious Ja-Ru Inc. of Jacksonville, FL has a long and infamous history of FORCED children's toys recalls - super magnet pairs able to rip through intestines in a flash, choking hazard too-small parts to turn baby blue within seconds, and now lead poisoning.  And I'm still searching for the name of the true manufacturer - the one in China.
  New Yorkers may recall Ja-Ru Inc. as the deep-pocketed company that was sued by, appealed against, and appealed against again, New York City for continuing to sell realistic looking toy guns after the city wisely banned them.  Until the end Ja-Ru fought to protect their right to sell toy guns that had been shown to have been involved in the deaths of as many as 9 children in NYC.
  I'd really like to ask Ms. Blakely, or any of the Wal-Mart mouthpieces, what the hell they're doing carrying products from a company as scummy as Ja-Ru?  Can't you find someone else to make little plastic horseys for you?  A follow up?  When will you be carrying sleeping bags and backpacks full of lead-y goodness from Sassafras and T-A Creations?
  Furthermore, Wal-Mart refuses to reveal the name of the actual manufacturer of these toys, the Chinese manufacturer, just like they refuse to name the importer (again, Ja-Ru Inc.).  A tactic newly employed by almost every company involved in the ever flowing river of lead coming from China into the U.S.  Is the problem that the companies involved are actually Chinese government companies?  Is the evil Chinese government threatening U.S. companies to keep them from revealing who is ultimately responsible for the poisoning of toys, babies bibs, furniture, lunch boxes, sleeping bags, et al?
  Anyone who has been to China can tell you it is one gargantuen toxic super-site, a cesspool of poisons.  It is a billion people living in abject poverty, urban and rural.  Poverty of nutrition, poverty of living standards, poverty of information/education, and far too many with a poverty of ethics.  Is it possible the U.S. importers communicated "zero tolerance for lead" to their Chinese manufacturers and a Curious George doll with 10-15 times the amount of lead that is "safe" is actually the best the Chinese can do?  I can tell you this, the Chinese businesses and the Chinese government demand we think they're doing a great job - highest quality.
  At this point, why can't Wal-Mart exploit the people of Brazil or Chile or Uruguay - somewhere where environmental procedures and production practices are verifiable -  to fill the U.S. consumer's bottomless, insatiable appetite for 3¢ plastic horses, or 59¢ baby bibs, or a $12 pair of Nikes?  China's businesses and government are not working in our best interests.

That Robin Keeps Bobbin' Along : Two more dead birds infested with West Nile Virus have been found in West Hollywood since the first, earlier this month as reported by the Canyon News.  And just in time for the City's homogenized and family-friendly-ized Halloween street bash!

Another LAC Hospital Patient Dead From "Not My Job" :  A man needlessly died of cardiac arrest from ingesting poisonous oleander at Los Angeles County's Olive View-UCLA Medical Center after a hospital police watch commander refused to go to a nearby hospital to pick up the antidote.  This is the same hospital where, last week, due to half-assed prepping of a patient, the Olive View-UCLA staff lit a patient on fire while in surgery.  The patient lived, but with second degree burns covering his face.
  On a promising note, regarding the death of the man earlier this month, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich said of the watch commander, "If the allegations are true, it was an act of insubordination and he needs to be fired and held criminally liable!"
  Now, the ultra conservative, pain in the ass Antonovich has never been a friend to me or mine, but his reaction was what I wanted to hear out of the Board of Supervisors.  His unlike Gloria Molina's response to the ridiculous murder due to negligence of Baby Jasmine - where Molina has done nothing to roust the identity of or speak out against the criminally negligent social worker from Children and Family Services who is as responsible for the death of the child as the mother. 
  [and yes, some of the King-Harbor staff have already been assigned to
   Olive View-UCLA, none of whom were invovled in either incident]

LAPD Forces Whitewash of Downtown's Neighborhood of Fabulocity :  The Los Angeles Police Department through it's Safer Cities Initiative is gentrifying the new upper middle class residential areas of downtown Los Angeles by terrorizing the existing downtown populace of homeless and extremely poor.  Since the summer of 2006, in the area from Pershing Square (Skid Row) to the Convention Center, there have been more than 6,000 arrests in Skid Row on any given night, reports AlterNet.
  Now, keep in mind this is an area with a population of 10,000 to 15,000 people (about 4,000 of whom are homeless).  Is the LAPD busing people in from South Central and East L.A. so they have somebody to arrest, for cryin' out loud?
  "We're not just talking about folks that are homeless," says Pete White, of Los Angeles Community Action Network. "We're talking about any Black resident or any Black visitor in downtown L.A. If they're not looking a certain way that day, they could be stopped, handcuffed and harassed."
  Deborah Burton, who lives in subsidized housing in the neighborhood, said she has been stopped by police while simply walking down the street. "Are you on parole or probation?" the officers demand.
In April, a federal district judge ruled that the LAPD has engaged in a policy of unconstitutional searches of Skid Row residents.  That's been as effective a deterrent with the LAPD as "just say no" was for that other situation.
  Of course, all this is causing un-fabulous (or is that fabulously challenged) residents in the area to move, which is exactly what the developers and the capitulating LAPD want.  How can they get someone to pay $2mil for a flat when black folks can be seen from the rooftop patio?
  God forbid Kobe Bryant or Mayor Villaraigosa should see a homeless person while getting out of his limo before a game at the Staples Center...

Sweetest Hangover

After waiting over a month for LAC+USC General Hospital Medical Records to respond to a written request for the Rheumatology Clinic doctor's notes I finally gave up trying to call and went downtown to try to stare an employee into compliance.  I find that, universally, the LAC+USC Healthcare Network employees are 100% immune.  They are unmoved by their own incompetence.

In the four and a half hours I was there I spoke at length to 7 different employees, none of whom took a single note, each of which got everything wrong.  My request was that the electronic notes, 1 page, the Rheumatology doctor made (yes, that would be Dr. waving-hand-in-face) be printed.

By hour two I realized that no matter what I said, each person's first move was to request my chart.  My warning that "my records from Rheumatology were completely electronic, requesting the chart is a waste of time" fell on deaf, disinterested ears.

Now, what with all the MRSA superStaph hoopla this week, I'm constantly looking around wondering how I'm going to be infected!  Touching the pen, from one of the 20 other people waiting for "help", or am I breathing it in?  Of course, all of that is ridiculous, but at 1PM and no lunch, I'm not at my most intellectual.

At hour three a document shows up.  Of course, it's not the document from the date I repeatedly provided to every person to whom I spoke.  "What date did you want?"  I point at the date written on the request.  "Ohhhh, you should have pointed that out earlier."  I'm told to call back in two weeks to see if the document is ready.

This is when I start dropping Pittman's name (the big honcho for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services).  Suddenly, the Medical Records supervisor, Mr. Johnson is available to personally assist me.

Meanwhile I've had a chance to observe life in 1635's waiting area.  Since I've arrived only one of the three windows has been staffed at any time.  Family of people hospitalized and transferred elsewhere are there to find out why medical records haven't been transfered.  Way too many people, still in casts or braces are there because LAC+USC General Hospital has failed to respond to California Disability with a medical update.

Disability payments have been stopped to people who can least afford it.  Two of these disability people have lost their homes as they were unable to pay their rent without the disability money.  Not even a tone of regret from the employees, much less the word.

Hour four comes and I'm asked to speak with Mr. Johnson again.  He claims that Medical Records is unable to find any record of my visit in my chart.  At this point, still not having eaten, I've not only got the cold sweat thing going, but I'm shaking just a bit and the headache has set in.

Mr. Johnson claims that Medical Records doesn't have access to the electronic charts.  When I explain how ridiculous that is he modifies his claim to they don't know how to print the records.  When I point out that the incorrect document that was supplied an hour ago was part of my electronic chart, he stammers and ends the call quickly.

Half an hour later a Medical Records runner stops at my side and hands me the correct document.  Their solution?  The runner went to the Rheumatology Department and had one of the secretaries print it out.

I've watched six employees, who should be pulling and delivering charts, stand around their carts talking about television for 15 minutes.  I've never seen so many people do so little.  At this point there's only one other person in the waiting area with me.  This is when they open another counter window.

Today, I'm riding the screwed up glucose wave.  Slightly confused, muscles and joints aching, lightheaded buzz, and the headache just to round everything out.  Diabetes is wicked awesome!

MRSA, CA-MRSA Prevention and Protection

This week the CDC released a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association finding that deaths by Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), commonly know as staph, in 2005 had surpassed the number of deaths from complications due to AIDS in that same year.  It also concluded that 75% of the estimated 18,650 deaths were due to exposure to the SuperStaph superbug while in the hospital or medical facility.

The CDC estimates that nearly 95,000 Americans were exposed to MRSA or CA-MRSA (community-acquired or community-associated  MRSA) in 2005.  The study also found that Black Americans of all ages, along with the young and the elderly were disproportionately affected by MRSA's.  They presented no data to support a conclusion behind the higher infection and death rates amongst Black folks in 2005, but my observation is that, in Los Angeles County, Blacks receive substandard care relative to all others.  I don't need to get on my King-Harbor Medical Center soapbox, do I?

Although the release as reported by the Associated Press seemed pretty bleak, just weeks ago the Los Angeles Times covered USC's success in all but wiping out a serious outbreak of CA-MRSA in a two year period.

Both MRSA's are of serious concern in hospitals, medical facilities, veterinary facilities, child care facilities, elder care facilities, fitness clubs, schools, athletics facilities, and movie theaters.

There's More Here Information and preventative steps to protect yourself, your family, and your pets (yes, pets) from both MRSA and CA-MRSA.  Thanks again for your enthusiastic response to the initial NEWS posting...

I sense a great disturbance in the force

The last couple of weeks have been especially difficult with pain, sleep deprivation, and blood sugars dancing to and fro like a seismograph.  It's just been the best time to be testing different antidepressants as part of the non-steroidal assault on the fibromyalgia!

The hardest part of the day for me has been the mornings, when I spend hours laying on the floor on my back in front of the television - don't ask me what was on, I couldn't tell ya.  I have to cheer and jeer myself into moving at all, much less doing anything.  It's too hard knowing that any movement is repaid with pain and the likelihood of an unreachable muscle spasm in my back.

The topper for the whole day, though, is that when my glucose levels vacillate from 160 to 300 or 350, which is what's been happening the past couple of weeks.  I'm tense and aggravated before I even get out of bed in the morning.  It just builds from there.

Perfectly, Safeway's Pavilions supermarket has a current campaign where every employee that rushes by you greets you like a crystal-queen Mouseketeer with, "Hello, how are you today?" or "Are you having a great day today?"  All I can do to suppress the murderous rage that elicits is to clench my jaw and grind my teeth combined with a fair amount of white-knuckle choking of the grocery-cart handle.

I've never considered fire-arm assisted hostage taking, though.  There are sooo many things wrong with me!

Effexor is definitely not working for me.  Coming off it is perilous.  Grotesquely powerful anxiety attacks throughout the day for two days now.  That's really helping with my outlook on life.

How the hell could anyone in their right mind put a teen-ager, depressed or not, on this garbage?  Thanks FDA, considering how well physicians have done following antibiotics overuse warnings I'm sure the black box warning that teens are in greater danger of suicide with the use of Effexor (and most other antidepressants) will make everything A-OK.

news roundup

AIDS Beat By MRSA-SuperStaph As Top Killer :  Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the common staph infection mutated into a superbug by misuse and overuse of antibiotics, was responsible for more deaths than AIDS in the United States in 2005 reports the CDC.  More than half of the deaths involved exposure at a medical facility, most being of the bloodstream infections with near 10% being of the flesh-eating variety.  The CDC estimates that 18,650 deaths out of 94,360 infections can be attributed to SuperStaph nationwide in 2005.  In that same year 17,011 Americans died from AIDS related disease(s).  Just yesterday, an otherwise healthy 17 year-old, Ashton Bonds of Lynch Station, VA, died after the infection spread to vital organs, lungs, and the muscles around his heart.
  The data clearly show that those youngest and oldest suffered most.  There were a disproportionate number of deaths amongst blacks.  The CDC report left it at that, with no word on whether blacks were genetically at a higher risk than whites, or facilities where more blacks were treated offered substandard and unsafe conditions.  My experience in the LAC+USC Healthcare Network definitely leans to the latter.
  The treatments most likely to result in an infection?  Surgery, Dialysis, and more generally, patients with open wounds receiving treatment.
  But, let's be fair, only a couple of weeks ago the Los Angeles Times reported that the USC football team was victorious over MRSA through careful cleaning of practice equipment and facilities along with temperature appropriate (140º F) laundering.  However, daycare facilities, bathrooms, movie theaters - the likely point of exposure for the rest of us - and most of all gyms/fitness centers are not stepping up to the challenge.  They're taking no extraordinary measures.  Why haven't local health regulations been updated to include the very simple and widely used procedures USC employed to overcome their problem so that health inspectors can cite business that aren't being responsible?
  Well, after a muscle bulging workout, at least you'll be the envy of the funeral parlor.
Keep Reading...

The Beat Goes On :  Buried within the SuperStaph release, the CDC also quietly reported that the 19A strain of another bacterium, Pneumoccous, the one responsible for common ear infections in children, "has become impervous to every antibiotic approved for youngsters."  The only treatment available now is a procedure called an ear-tap, where the child’s eardrum is punctured and the fluid drained to relieve pressure and pain, followed by antibiotics unapproved for children (referred to as off-label use).
  How long have we been hearing about the overuse and misuse of antibiotics?  20?  30 years?  This is as much the fault of the doctors as it is the patients.  Can't the AMA control it's membership?!?  WTF?!?

Don't rain on my lead parade! - runnoff's a bitch!

Well, California Lead (Pb) month continues unabated.  I'm beginning to think the Chinese deliberately laced everything it exports to the U.S. in order to distract us from their absolute disregard for intellectual rights of copy protection and their negligent handling of the frighteningly deadly bird flu, H5N1 virus*.

The Oakland, California based nonprofit Center for Environmental Health revealed today that it had filed legal notices against another children's lunch sack and backpack importer for failure to take corrective measures after they were notified of findings of excessive amounts of lead in their Chinese-made products reports Rueters.  Chicago based Sassafras Enterprises claims it tests it's products for lead and it is unaware of the findings. [well, they know it now! yet still no products removed from the website or recall notices]

Just like the repulsive, slippery, and fast talking David Chen and Stan Cipriano of Los Angeles based T-A Creations, the lawsuit HAS NOT STOPPED Sassafras from selling a single piece of their colorfully enticing, eminently chewable, lead-seasoned children's products.  Amongst others, Wal-Mart, Kmart, Sears, Target, and Costco sell the companies bags and packs designed for use by and with infants, toddlers, and young children.

On a more positive note, Marvel Entertainment Group responded quickly to the notice they received from the Center for Environmental Health regarding Marvel's Chinese-made line of Curious George dolls, action figures, and accessories containing 10 times the legally allowed lead levels.  Marvel halted shipments and issued warnings to retailers while it performs emergency testing on it's products. If the lead content is confirmed, Marvel will issue an immediate recall for all tainted products.

Let's hope former California governor and current California Attorney General, Gerry Brown actually takes appropriate action with his copies of the notices this time.  We don't need another fiasco like the T-A Creations/Department of Public Health screw-up.

Maybe we should appeal to the president to de-scientificify lead poisoning.  I'm pretty sure there's no mention of lead levels, for the good or bad, in the bible - just golden calves, right?

 

* H5N1 virus circulating in Africa and Europe has mutated to a human friendly form, reports Rueters. The mutation is especially comfortable in human upper respiratory systems.

Is this a test?

I made the very long, stressful trek to East Los Angeles and the Roybal Diabetes Comprehensive Care Clinic yesterday.  Upping the insulin again.  The diabetes nurse was good enough to speak much more slowly, so I was able to understand about 60% of what she said (not being sarcastic - that's actually good).

At the reception desk and the triage station were baskets of Halloween candy.  Uh, yeah.

The assistant is taking my BP with a mini Sugar Daddy in her mouth.  WTF?

I still haven't figured out if this was some kind of test or, LAC+USC Healthcare workers truly are the stupidest, most incompetent employees working in the industry.  Seriously, after the King-Harbor saga, it's nearly impossible to tell one way or the other.

shoot, shoot, shot

Already I've gotten several emails (all four of them) since this morning's post regarding my comment that people with compromised immune systems should know who they are.  It jogged my memory about my ignorance on the subject - and I'm still relatively ignorant.  The problem, of course, is that most of the people you count on for your healthcare are also ignorant or just don't give enough shit to educate you.

Taking insulin immediately compromises your immune system comparable, as best I can estimate, to someone recovering with mono.  The same is true to anyone taking medications after heart attack or stroke.  Anybody taking antibiotics.  Anybody undergoing radiation or chemo therapy.  Of course, people with HIV, AIDS, mature HPV, Herpes, TB, Mono, and all the others you would suspect.  There is also a very long list of unexpected medications that do the same (antidepressants, cholesterol, blood pressure, pain relief, seizure control) some being worse than others.  Ask your pharmacist and don't let him/her off the hook about giving you an informed disclosure about your specific medications.  Do the same at your Dr.'s office.

The point being???

It's flu shot time.  It is actually very important you get a flu shot.  The medications and medications for the conditions listed above are designed to work against your fully functioning immune system to get their job done.  That makes you much more susceptible to colds, flus, and pneumonia (yes, there is a pneumonia vaccine which you only need once or twice - that you should also get).  Your meds can actually aggravate your condition or cause other damage if you take them while your immune system is already busy with something else.  Get a flu shot.  Get a pneumonia shot.  If you're a active gay man, insist on an HPV shot.  It allows your immune system to ramp up production of anti-bodies so when the real thing comes by you, you're body's much better prepared and the impact on your immune system is much less.

The American Lung Association has created this very cool Find a Flu Shot database that provides a long list of locations near you where you can get the shot if your Dr.'s office is hording their supply.  Don't let them make you wait until November to get a shot, get it now.

If you fancy yourself a homo-superious warrior, go for the full immunity challenge and go to a CVS Infection Emporium to get your shot.  You won't be exposed to chi-chi diseases like malaria, but you'll get a good viral value for your dollar.

Perilous Playtime

Last month it was announced in NYC that HIV rates among gay men 30 years old and younger in NYC leapt 33% over the past 6 years (a frightening 50% increase in boys ages 13-19!).  It's no surprise that the Public Health Institute in Oakland, CA announced yesterday that 1 in every 4.6 young people (in this study ages 15-24) in Los Angeles county had a STD in 2005.

The study, lead by Petra Jerman, was not as quantitatively based as the NYC study, but a projection analysis of data reported by public health agencies throughout the state.  The analysis was conducted using a computer model created and populated by the CDC that estimates occurrences of HIV, HPV, herpes, et al based on actual reported incidence of chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and other diseases that public health offices are required to report.  It's a guess-timate.

OK, here are my problems:

1)  There are so many holes in the way this study was conducted and the conclusions it draws based on the hard data that it will be torn apart when it comes time, at the state and local level,  to fund a public health care response.  The response will inevitably be underfunded and inadequate.

2)  The CDC modeling software still does not properly and adequately represent the needs and concerns of gay men.  The projected infection rates of HPV are for women ONLY.  As I related here previously, gay men are at risk for serious health consequences due to HPV infection and should not only be getting the vaccination, but should be getting anal pap-smears as regularly as women get standard pap-smears.
Also, potential HIV infection based on the CDC's screwy chlamydia/gonorrhea formula are not properly balanced to reflect the enhanced likelihood of gay men contracting the virus.  I can't get anyone at the CDC to speak frankly with me about this issue, but I've become convinced that, despite everything that's happened with HIV/AIDS, they still can't move beyond their suburban, middle class conceptions of gay men and gay sex.  Do they even talk with 13 year old gay boys? Are they honestly and fully taking into account how stupidly unsafe gay boys of nearly any age can be with a hardon and an opportunity for sex (who's saying "no" or "let's slow down" in that moment?).  I seriously doubt it.

3)  The CDC models are based on national profiles.  California has almost never been representative of profiles based on national statistics.  I've never seen a comprehensive, quantitative study of sex habits of California gay boys/men, much less one that provides profiles based on regions of California (don't even think that the profile of a gay man from Eureka is anything like one from Los Angeles, Davis, or Anaheim).

4)  Obviously, the defined age range of "young people" for this study is wrong, inadequate, and misrepresentative for gay boys. For that matter, 13 in the NYC study doesn't adequately represent sexual activity. I'm not saying the study has to have a "patient zero" accuracy, but several direct studies have shown that for early (10-13 year old) sexually active gay boys, sex practices are much more likely to be unsafe.  Especially with HIV, which you can carry and spread for years without symptoms, it's critical to be focusing on communicating with gay men and boys as close to the time of infection as possible.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad something is being done rather than nothing, but this is not responsive to the gay community or any particular gay community in California.  And quite frankly, I'm really tired of it.  Why does everything in California government have to be done on the inappropriately cheap?

 

USE A CONDOM, FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD !

 

news roundup

Diabetes? Forget About It! :  Northwestern University researchers are zeroing in on a type 3 diabetes that involves brain insulin signaling and subsequent resistance as a key source of Alzheimer's.  The researcher's findings will now guide them to identify existing diabetes meds that also protect the brain's neurons.  The fun of diabetes just never ends - until you can't remember it anymore...

A Watched Pot Never Boils? Yes It Does - Then It Boils Over! :  Over a six year period the FDA inspected just one of every 100 pharmaceutical trial sites reports the AP.  The FDA employs only 200 inspectors for the estimated 350,000 study sites says the study by Federal Department of Health and Human Services.  When inspectors turn up serious problems the FDA's response is a warning letter.  Unfortunately, almost none of the problems are followed up on.
But that's not all.  The AP also reports that American laboratories handling the world's deadliest germs and toxins have had more than 100 accidents and lost shipments of same since 2003.
VIDEO HERE
I wonder if the labs got anthrax-free warning letters from the FDA?

Mother Nature, Hot and Pissed:  So far this year 6 boys have died after swimming in unusually warm lakes in FL, TX, and AZ. A killer amoeba, thriving in the warmer than normal  lakes, entered the bodies of the boys through the nose and into their brains where it festered and fed until the boys were dead a week later.  Common complaints are stiff neck and headache.  Once infected there is little chance of survival.  Naegleria, the deadly amoeba, is most likely to infect children and significantly more boys than girls.  "This is definitely something we need to track," said the typically passionate CDC.  The local government responses have been to study the problem.  Not a single one of the lakes have been closed to the public, most haven't even put up warning signs.  But I'm not worried, not with the de-scientification president running the show.

Something Old is New Again:  One of the most impossible decisions for a person with AIDS had involved the skin cancer, Kaposi's sarcoma (KS).  Horrendously painful lesions on the outside of the skin, body damaging lesions on the inside, socially stigmatizing when visible, KS presented the most tormenting choice between fighting the various diseases that AIDS invites and keeping an acceptable appearance to maintain something of a quality of life.  A gut wrenching choice between crippling AIDS drugs or incapacitating radiation therapy to destroy the visible lesions - the body can't handle much of both.
Largely, KS had disappeared with the advent of the cocktail and more recent AIDS/HIV treatments.  It's back.  Doctors in San Francisco report that mild cases of KS are emerging in longtime HIV infected patients.  Patients in whom HIV and AIDS infections have been very well controlled with their medication.
There's no one liner to close this - - AIDS doesn't kill you, one of the many viruses sitting dormant in your body contracted by unsafe sex, like KS and CMV, that's what kills you.  Movies and TV can't give you any idea of the tortuous horror of dieing a painful death stripped of everything that makes you uniquely yourself.  USE A CONDOM.

Since We're Already There: Curiously, research shows that HIV+ people under regular treatment are in large numbers suffering from obesity, not wasting, reports the AP.

CVS Braintrust Innovates One-Stop Disease Shop for the Rest of US:  This week CVS pharmacy announced that throughout the Los Angeles Metro area it would open MinuteClinic health care stops inside selected stores.  Amongst others the clinic will diagnose and provide treatment for communicable diseases such as Strep Throat, various Flues, Colds, various Eye Infections, and Mono [for cryin' out loud!].  Seriously, this is a real problem for people with a condition or taking medication that compromises their immune system (hopefully you know who you are).  I can't think of anything more convenient than contracting and picking up the treatment for a highly contagious ailment all in the same place.  What a time saver for my modern, active lifestyle!

White Gays More Wrecked than Black Gays:  Columbia University's School of Public Health finds that black and latino gays, lesbians, and bisexuals have significantly fewer mental disorders than whites of the same populations reports Science Daily.  Well, that certainly is interesting that gays from what are considered to be much more gay-hostile communities are actually better adjusted than their white counterparts - - but, I - - really...
The Columbia bastards! I've made a career of blaming my crazy ex's for the breakup of our relationships!  What the hell am I supposed to say now?  Everybody hates me.

iPatient 1.0

iPatient v1.0:  This week Microsoft formally announced it's free, web-based medical record service, HealthVault.  I know when I think of free and vault-like security, I think Microsoft.  I could fill several screens with one-liners about Micro$oft and security, but that just detracts from the seriousness of the state of privacy in general, and medical privacy specifically - and it's not exactly what you think...

Microsoft is actually many years late to the playing field on web-based electronic medical records.  Nor are they the first or last to offer these services "free" to consumers.  But you MUST always remember, the unifying theory of the universe is there ain't no such thing as a free lunch.  If you're of the mind that all science is a fraud, just pretend no free lunch is the heretofore missing eleventh commandment.

When Microsoft, and soon Google, come to the table with a "free" service, you know there's money to be made - money in the billions.

But, the behemoths of the iWorld are easy targets, the real offense to your potentially damaging medical files for many years now has been your doctor.  Any time you visit any medical facility in Los Angeles (LAC+USC Network, Cedars-Sinai, UCLA Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente, et al) you're required to sign a document called General Consent.  All the facilities have as a section of the General Consent document a release of information clause.  For the LAC+USC Healthcare Network this reads, in part:

"Upon inquiry, the institution may make available to the public certain basic information about the patient, including name, address, age, sex, general description of the reason for treatment (whether an injury, burn, poisoning, or other condition), general nature of the injury, and general condition.  If the patient or the patient's legal representative does not want such information to be released, s/he must make a written request for such information to be withheld."

I especially like the or other condition trailing the specific conditions, which is a marketing ploy to distract you from the fact that you're signing a blanket release.  Make no mistake, this is your doctor's office/facility using your very personal information as a product for sale  -   a profit center.  Any insurance company, employer, government agency, or even neighborhood busybody has easy access to your most private life.

The real outrage is that just by visiting your doctor, and signing the general consent, you have automatically volunteered to have the details of your visit as part of the public record, just like a criminal.  The consumer must take written action to protect that which should be protected and sealed by default.

LAC+USC HealthCare Network and Cedars-Sinai both refused to provide information about how and when they've "released" information in the past, despite my large number of noisy and argumentative phone calls over the last few weeks.  I doubt that any medical enterprise is any different.

It is no mystery to me now how I suddenly became uninsurable or offered insanely high rates by every health insurance company I checked with because of a pre-existing condition - even though I didn't mention it or sign a medical release.  I am thankful to Microsoft and Google for planting this huge, blinking sign in front of everyone.  I just wish the most trusted people in our lives would have been so forthright.

The Buyers remorse

OK, while I've got this pain and adrenalin thing keeping me focused, here's a response to a comment I'm getting a lot via email.  Seriously, why not use the comment feature on the NEWS items.  It's making me feel somehow inadequate that I don't have any comments...  boo hoo.

I have been following the NEWS on the construction overruns on the new General Hospital.  Largely I think the coverage and the "scandal" itself are much ado about nothing.  The story is deliberately being sensationalized so the media can give the appearance of doing something important - rather than performing real investigative reporting as is their responsibility.

The project when originally conceived, I'm pretty sure, was in the $650mil neighborhood.  Subsequent to that new earthquake data came out of San Francisco and Japan.  Changes were made to the shock absorption system in the main building with the ER/Trauma Center and errors in the execution of required structural engineering were corrected.  Then there were the entirely expected pricing adjustment due to the delay between the bidding process and when the work actually began.  So work is underway and we're looking at a $760mil complex.

Now, all this outrage over what's turning out to be $80mil in overruns due to schedule overruns, change orders, material substitutions, et al.  That's an 11% overage.  The county and the contractors should be getting an award for cryin' out loud!

I think, thus far, the project is going incredible well and the overages are a non-issue.  The real problem in wait is moving into the new facilities and going live.  This is where I believe LAC+USC will fail.  Rather than spending $80,000 to have experts come in and organize a detailed transition, they're leaving it up to management task forces.  What the hell does a nurse supervisor know about optimizing movement, minimizing down time, and shortening learning curves?  About as much as an Assoc Professor of Internal Medicine does!

The net effect, already worn out patients are screwed out of inattentive, substandard care and either spend 14 hours waiting for attention rather than 6 or give up and go home.

The source of all this is what has become the regularly grandstanding L.A. County Supervisor, Zev Yaroslavsky.  It's all about making it seem like he's actually doing something about healthcare and healthcare facilities in his district.  A bunch of hot air and bluster that when cleared still leaves you driving to East Los Angeles to find diabetes care.  And the L.A. media is eating it up.

news roundup

Mother Arrested, Social Worker Still in Hiding: Dead 6 week-old, 4 pound baby Jasmine's mother, Ranetta Marie Maxwell, was arrested and charged with felony child abuse resulting in death yesterday afternoon according to Sandi Gibbons of the L.A. County District Attorney's office.  No action has been taken against a responsible  individual or individuals at the Union Rescue Mission or against the too tired social worker from the Department of Children and Family Services assigned to Jasmine's case who had been directed by her supervisor to take the starving and dehydrated Jasmine immediately for medical assistance.  As of this writing Ms. Gibbons has been unable to confirm to me that her office is even considering charges of the Mission or the social worker for contributory negligence in the infant's murder.
Nearly two months after the miserable, tortuous death of the little girl, the best Children and Family Services can muster?  "We're investigating whether a social worker who was handling the baby's case did enough to keep her safe and get appropriate medical attention," said Patricia Ploehn, the agency's director.  Ms. Ploehn still refused to provide the name of the worker involved (who is now on leave pending the completion of the disciplinary investigation) nor would she offer specifics on how long it could possibly take for the department to complete it's investigation.  The process of  the department waiting out the questions and the questioners has begun...
Silence out of the Union Rescue Mission, who seem to feel there's nothing they could do? (!!!)  In that case, my vote is that the county and the state should discontinue any and all funding for their operations until they figure out which one of the case workers and clinicians in the place should have done something.  So why hasn't the state and county issued a deadline for the suspension of funds?  Clearly the place isn't safe for anyone with medical issues...

Lead (Pb) Group Added to Outsourced Food Pyramid: The California Department of Public Health warns citizens to destroy over 300,000 Chinese-made lunch totes and canvas sacks distributed to the public to promote healthy eating.  Why?  They have lead in the material and some of the liners. [baa-dump bump] That's lead as in the element Pb.
The State of California contracted with Los Angeles based importer T-A Creations, Inc. (a company with no published phone numbers and only six email addresses) to provide the items despite the fact that the Oakland based Center for Environmental Health had come to legal blows with T-A Creations in August 2006 because the company was found to be consistently and repeatedly importing lead-tainted products.  The fast talking David Chen and Stan Cipriano of T-A Creations have managed to evade settling or appearing in court - but continue, even now, to import lunch bags, tote bags, and backpacks aimed at children and tainted with poisonous lead.
State officials queued up with their typically vapid, vacuous bullshit about how concerned and outraged they are. Blah, blah, blah.  The meaningful response from the Attorney General's (who is, truly shockingly, former CA governor Jerry Brown) media rep was, "we do not routinely pass on information about those suits to other state agencies."  Lead tainted lunch boxes don't cause the Attorney General to take internal action or, at the very least, alert appropriate state agencies?!?  WTF?
My questions?  What the hell kind of bid procedures don't include discovering whether there is outstanding consumer protection litigation against the participants? Why the hell, at this date, hasn't the CA Attorney General's office launched a criminal investigation based on the Center for Environmental Health's 2 year-old findings?!!?  Or joined the existing litigation as an interested party.
Finally, if anybody's going to poison the poor and indigent with lead, it damn well better be by the hand of their caring and supportive California brethren (just not in my neighborhood, OK?)  Even the state is screwing California workers by outsourcing to China!  It's unconscionable that we should poison the least of us while they're unemployed!  Clearly, if they were working while their brain damage was progressing, they'd just brush it off to fatigue from long working hours and thus save the taxpayers the inevitable drawn out litigation and huge settlements.
The final kick in the head?  Not a single Los Angeles media outlet is following this story.  Maybe they've been using the lunch totes - - along with the case workers at the Union Rescue Mission.

Naughty L.A. Unified On the Fast Track: Despite a CA state law that prohibits schools from being built within 500 feet of freeways AND multiple peer-reviewed medical studies showing significant health effects, especially in children, to exposure of ultra-fine particles and damaging chemicals on and around freeways, L.A. Unified builds anyway reports the LA Times.  L.A. Unified  is preparing to open 5 more schools that are practically on top of L.A.'s busiest and most polluting freeways in the next year on top of the 9 opened in similar situations since 1997.  That's nearly 70 schools in violation of the 500 foot safety buffer. "Space limitations are so severe that there are no other options," a nameless L.A. Unified official droned.

medical news roundup

Actos, Kickin' Butt and Takin' Names: Study findings from London's University College were presented in Amsterdam demonstrating that Takeda Pharmaceutical's Actos is more effective than GlaxoSmithKline's Avandia in improving blood glucose levels reports Reuters.  Moreover, Actos also significantly decreased triglyceride and LDL cholesterol levels while improving HDL cholesterol.  This is, of course, in addition to Actos' lack of increased heart attacks that appears to be a feature of Avandia.  Tell me Actos comes in sour cherry or strawberry-kiwi and I'll just giggle.

Chronic Fatigue Eats Stomach Acids for Breakfast: Stomach acid resistant viruses (enteroviruses, Epstein-Barr, CMV, and parvovirus)  are the most likely candidate for the cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome reports the Washington Post.   The findings published by father and son team of Dr.'s John and Andew Chia in the 13 September online issue of The Journal of Clinical Pathology. I knew fathers were good for something besides beatings!

Howard Hughes Wants Your Itchy Balls: From the 20 September issue of Nature, word that Howard Hughes Medical Institute has successfully reprogrammed adult stem cells from the testes of male mice [as opposed to the testes of female mice?] into a variety of vital cell types.  Next up: blood vessels, cardiac tissue, and brain cells based on human adult stem cells.  "These specialized spermatogonial cells could be stem cells with a similar capability to form new tissues that we now see in embryonic stem cells," commented study author Shahin Rafii.  Is there anything sperm can't do?  Now you can be that baby 95 year-old daddy with the body parts and stamina of a 30 year-old, absentee or not.

you, my valued customer

Firstly, I'd like to thank the non-solicitous emailers for sending me so many emails.  How the hell did you find theskinofmyteeth.com or .net anyway?!?  I've published the site, but I haven't really promoted it.

My gratitude aside, why are you emailing me instead of leaving comments?  It's got me confounded?  Or, are you just trying to be beguiling?

Secondly, I'd like to announce that unlike most pseudo NEWS source blogs, I promise that I absolutely will not censure comments in any way with the following exceptions:

1. I reserve the right to alter the direct representation of what I consider to be foul language through the use of punctuation substitution.  But, please, don't make me do that.  I share your anger and frustration, just try to keep the expression of your outrage work friendly.
2. I reserve the right to remove in their entirety posts that I deem advertisements or soapbox grandstanding (diatribes that are unrelated to the post or the flow of discussion spawned by the post).  Again, please, don't make me do that, I'm not a conform-control right-wing nutbag and have no experience dictating to others what to think, what to do, how to do it, or how to say it.
3. I reserve the right to block posts from individuals who are not mature enough to disagree with others in a spirit of civil fellowship. Be direct, be brutal, be domineering (if that's your thing, big daddy), but no name calling if others disagree.

[DAMN, I can't get this list to come out in unreadable, 2 pt legalese type!]

Now, make some g*@damn comments so I can exercise my power over my domain. I've been practicing my maniacal laugh for a few weeks and haven't had a single opportunity to use it!

Heavily Weighted Minutia

I haven't been feeling well or sleeping much the last few days, so it's been easy to skip the blog.

Also, on what's to follow I've been unsure if it warrants mention or I'm just nitpicking the county healthcare network unnecessarily.  Well, today anyway, I've ruled that out.  So on to the nits...

After two years of nagging, groveling, threatening, and emergency room visits due to inadequate care, I finally had my first appointment with a county endocrinologist (diabetes specialist) last Tuesday.  She is smart, gentle, understanding, and interested in a dialog with me regarding my treatment - - and to top it all off, she has a English/South African accent.  The whole thing spoke to a childhood fantasy of Mary Poppins coming to rescue me and take me to a better family (woe to all the umbrellas in the neighborhood I flight tested plummeting off brick walls and low slung roofs).  I've got my fingers crossed, because, of course, there's the rest of the story...

Firstly you have to understand the distribution of the LAC+USC Healthcare Network in Los Angeles County. It's nowhere accessible to anyone in the valley, west side, or south bay. The General Hospital is in the Los Angeles flats NW of downtown, Hudson Comprehensive is south of downtown, and Roybal (where the only comprehensive diabetes care in all of L.A. County is located) is in East L.A. And, OF COURSE, the MTA metro subway system goes to none of these facilities. I guess we can all thank Zev Yarosavsky for that, he single handedly crushed the half completed subway system and has done nothing to extend county healthcare anywhere from Downtown Los Angeles through Hollywood to Santa Monica.  Thanks, dude.

On to the Roybal experience. I had to take a dry run drive to Roybal the week before last because it's actually in the middle of nowhere.  I got lost.  Feeble as it made me feel, I'm glad I did it.

It turns out the majority of my contact with the Diabetes Clinic will not be with my Dr./substitute mommy but with the Clinic's nurse.  Her Spanish accent is sooo thick I could only understand half of what she said and I couldn't even make a phonetic attempt at writing down her name - - so I wrote her in my calendar as diabetes nurse.  This fits perfectly with the waiting room which is (typically) plastered with so many sheets of white paper with black print that it all becomes so much noisy wallpaper. Upon closer inspection, much of it is Spanish only, as were the three diabetes educational tapes sitting on the TV/VCR (and no, there was no English closed captioning or SAP on the tapes - I checked).

At this point in time I'm beginning to wonder, am I just in the wrong place?  Are facilities still secretly segregated?  Is there some hidden facility somewhere that nobody told me about?  Is the beautifully dramatic Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints complex in West L.A. actually a facade for a secret underground LAC+USC healthcare facility?

I feel like a total interloper.

OK, so the on-site pharmacy wanted me to wait 3-6 hours for a bottle of metformin and the One-Touch glucose monitor the clinic wants me to use.  I had to come back to east L.A. the next day.

I returned the next day at 12:30PM.  There were more than 40 people waiting in line to pick up their prescriptions.  3-4 hour wait.  Now, that's just a pain in the ass for me (I hate being in situations where I can fall asleep in a public place - I'm afraid I'll wake up without my wallet), but the vast majority of people in line were working people who had been there yesterday for themselves or their kids or their parents and dropped off their prescription only to have to return today, just as I had.  There's nothing worse as an hourly wage employee than having to ask for time off one day for a doctors appointment one day and then being 90 minutes late back from lunch the day after.

But here's the real pisser.  The reason this massive line is here is because the pharmacy is closed, despite the fact that it is supposed to be open without interruption.  Why?  Because the pharmacy manager, James Wong, has taken it upon himself to call an impromptu staff meeting and shut the department down during its busiest time of the day.

Apparently, he has a habit of doing this type of thing at the drop of a hat.  So much so that the director of the whole facility has altered the pharmacy department's hours on Fridays to accommodate a one-hour staff meeting for James Wong and his crew.  My question is why hasn't this jackass been fired if he does it all the time despite instructions to the contrary from his superiors?  Does no one in the county care if hourly laborers are being fired for want of cholesterol medication and cough syrup?

Have you ever seen the handful of people in a Costco Pharmacy at work?  With a quarter of the staff and less than a quarter the space, Costco manages to crank out an equal number of prescriptions per hour with a 40-minute or less wait and no more than 5 people waiting in line for service.  And this is while, BY THE WAY, answering questions about toothpaste, tampons, and hemorrhoid cream (have I missed any orifices?).

What's the straw on that camel's back, you ask?  - -  You guessed it.  - -  All the announcements over the PA of who's prescription is ready and what window they're ready at are in Spanish only!

Let's go fly a kite, up to the highest height...

news roundup

Starting today I'm dividing the NEWS roundups between medical and other. Let's start with other...

Social Worker On Break And Hiding + Union Rescue Too Busy = Baby Jasmine Dead: Baby girl dead of starvation, dehydration, and neglect at the Union Rescue Mission one day after contact with Children and Family Service social worker ruled homicide by the L.A. County coroner reports the LA Times.
Despite weeks of many Children & Family Service social workers and counselors at the Union Rescue Mission watching and noting little Jasmine getting smaller and less active instead of larger and more active, she was allowed to die of starvation.  The social worker assigned to take Jasmine to a 24-hour clinic by her supervisor decided Jasmine could wait until the next day and went home because she was tired from working a long shift without a break.  Jasmine's mother disappeared after the baby's death, the social worker is hiding and the County is refusing to release her name.  How is it the social worker and the counselor at the Mission haven't been arrested and charged?
Once again County management responded  in the most insensitive, inappropriate, and idiotic way possible as Patricia S. Ploehn, director of L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services said, "I think it broke a lot of people's hearts in the department." Another unnamed manager was "perplexed." In response, I said nothing as, clenching my jaw, I laid my glasses on my keyboard and wiped the tears from my eyes.

Seven week old Jasmine died the morning of August 10th in a crowded and fully staffed shelter, a protective custody order in place, weighing just 4 lbs.

FDA Failing: The American Medical Association finds that the number of serious injuries and deaths due to medications doubled between 1998 and 2005.  The recent study finds the rising failure of the FDA to properly monitor drugs before approval and after they're on the market responsible for the dramatic rise in adverse drug events.  The FDA and the health care system (including doctors, hospitals, and other caregivers) lack the skills to properly manage medications.  The top unmanaged medication?  Insulin, of course!  Improperly managed and supervised it causes low blood sugar resulting in equilibrium problems, accidents, and unconsciousness - all of which I've experienced.  I'm so very please to be associated with the "in" crowd once again! Yea, having a broken ankle was definitely worth the price of being popular!!

FDA Still Says Avandia A-OK: The Journal of the American Medical Association has published two separate peer reviewed studies demonstrating that GlaxoSmithKline's Avandia dramatically raises the risk of heart attack or blocked coronary arteries by over 40% reports USA Today. Takeda's Actos, the only other diabetes drug in this class, on the other hand has been shown to reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke by nearly 20% in diabetics. Glaxo, of course, claims the two independently run and reviewed studies are inherently and fundamentally flawed.  The FDA's Susan Cruzen, as is typical, said, "the FDA will continue to monitor the safety profile..." Sadly, I nodded off at that point, overwhelmed by the pungent smell of horse shit.  See the preceding NEWS item for the rest.

Schwarzenegger Termination Order Too Little Too Late: With 13 Californian's dead from and more than 200 discovered infected with West Nile Virus so far this year, Governor Schwarzenegger ordered local agencies empowered to fight back and released $10mil of special funds.  Of course, this is after Schwarzenegger cut Vector Control funding from $12mil in 2005-2006 to $1mil in 2007-2008.  Honestly, are you fooled by this kind of BS?  Have you seen the reports of infections and deaths of West Nile in other states in the past few weeks?  It's too little, too late.  Do you know where the west nile virus is prominent beside the USA?  Africa, Asia, and the Middle East - - we are the new emerging third world!
This is part of the overall long-term neglect and decline of everything our Federal, State, and Local governments are paid to do and ensure.  Rising tuberculous, regular deadly food and product contaminations, collapsing roads and bridges, unprecedented levels of incompetence in our healthcare system at every level - - we are Russia, a country in decline, a superpower only because we say so.

--------------

Yes, I realize I did a half-assed job of separating Medical from other, but everything is just - well, kind of - - life is just a rich, rich tangled tapestry, dammit!

Damn, there's no meaningfully good item to end on this week, what a drag! There's got to be a puppy story in here somewhere...