Happy Bill of Rights Day

I’ll bet you didn’t know that today, December 15, back in 1791, the Bill of Rights was finally ratified.

“So what,” you say. It’s like this. You probably haven’t heard of this before but there is a preamble to the Bill of Rights that explains why there is a Bill of Rights.

The Preamble to The Bill of Rights

Congress of the United States begun and held at the City of New-York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine.

THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.

RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all, or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz.

ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.

Without the promise of a Bill of Rights, “a number of states” wouldn’t have signed the Constitution. Without the Constitution, we wouldn’t have had a basis for government in these here United States. So, they’re kinda important. At least as important as the Declaration of Independence vote on July 2, 1776.

So please forgive me if I get just a little political on the second most important day in American History.

Now, one of my favorite authors, L. Neil Smith, wrote a piece that describes what the Bill of Rights ought to be, instead of what it is considered to be by TPTB (the powers that be). It’s called A Glimmer of Hope. I hope that you follow the link, read it, and reflect on it.

One of the interesting habits the lead character in the book the quotes from the article were taken was to inform people about a right that dates back to the common law of the Magna Carta that’s not found in the Bill of Rights that the Supreme Court decided that you didn't need to know about in 1895. I’m going to post it at the end of every post from now on.

Feliz Navidad!

"As a juror, I will exercise my 1000-year-old duty to arrive at a verdict, not just on the basis of the facts of a particular case, or instructions I am given, but through my power to reason, my knowledge of the Bill of Rights, and my individual conscience. When needful, I will judge the law itself." -L. Neil Smith

It Is As I Suspected.

I finally took matters into my own hands. Since I was at the ABMC Hospital for my latest PET scan, I decided to talk to the Medical Records Department. I approached the Front Desk and asked for directions to their office. I was informed that they had no “reception area” and that they would call them for me. So, I talked to a young lady who was very helpful. She told me there was no record of my requests for records. I explained that that was the problem; I had requested my records two months ago.

She got me to start filling out Authorization For Disclosure Of Health Information reports provided by the Front Desk and she came down to help me. Since I was looking for records from three different areas—Hospital, VLCC, and Clinic—I would have to fill out three different forms!

We discussed what it was that I wanted—all my records including CD copies of CT. PET, and X-ray scans—and she stated that she would have the paper copies ready for me after my PET scan today. In all honesty, she did state that the CD records might take a little longer.

I did pick up my records after my PET scan, but there were no CDs included in the package. I’m hoping that they will be forthcoming. But I’m pessimistic about that. A pessimist is someone who is right more often that not, and when he is wrong, it’s usually a pleasant surprise.

I checked my previous posts and I did tell you that I was told that the girl who “takes care of those types of things” would correct my name on Wednesday. Today is Friday. Although my records all have my name correct in the body of the reports, the headers all have me listed as Benjamin H! Even my wrist tag for the procedure today has me listed as Benjamin H. WTF! How hard do I have to hit them to get my name right? Maybe I do need a lawyer. Amy, let’s talk about that when you get here.

*********

Remember when I said I took a break and my DVD player stopped playing sound? I found out what happened. Describing the situation to Ben when he got home and responding to his questions, I was checking my equipment. Apparently, what happened was while I was out of the room, one of the cats decided to “mark” my receiver/amplifier by rubbing his cheek/jaw on the side of the case. Unfortunately, he happened to hit the knob controlling the input, so the equipment was looking for input from my Auxiliary input channel instead of my Video 1 channel. Duh!

*********

Going through my records I’m amazed at the difference between what I remember happened and what the doctor reports had happened. Apparently, I have had problems that I never could have reported to the doctor because I have absolutely NO recollection of ever having that particular problem. Ayyyy!

**********

There was a bright spot today. I had the opportunity to stop by the home of una amiga from my days at the Sweatshop. We had lost contact after I left that account and she left that job, so it was nice to talk with her and meet her Significant Other and their beautiful 3-month-old daughter!! She was so cute! The baby, Daniela (I believe that’s how it is spelled.) ‘Course, mom was looking pretty good, too. But I had a good talk with the happy family. The SO seemed like a pretty nice guy, too. We had a great talk.

Did I mention that baby Daniela was so cute! I want one!! Can you believe they wouldn’t let me take her home with me? But, at least I did get a chance to make her laugh. Mom and Dad might have thought me nuts, but I had Daniela laughing! I still got it! :-D And, like any set of proud parents, I got to see a bunch of baby pictures.

I had picked up a little Santa outfit to fit a 3 – 6-month-old baby for Daniela. She is 3 months but a little on the small side, 6 pounds, 6 ounces and 19” at birth. I’m hoping it will fit. But it matched the Santa hat I was wearing. I’m looking forward to seeing pictures of Daniela in her outfit.

They mentioned stopping by before Christmas. I’ll see if they will let me post a picture of Daniela, then.

Feliz Navidad!

Not Much To Tell Today

I’ve been pretty tired today. My muscles are just sore; maybe I’m overdoing it.

But I have been doing paperwork most of the day. But I know I’m better ‘cause I want to get out and do other things as well. So I have rearranged a few things, got the guest bedroom set up, and am going through boxes of old paperwork, and throwing trash away.

I moved a set of shelves back into my office where I have boxes of “stuff” piled so I can sort through them easier. How can one person collect so much junk? Oh, yeah, just don’t throw anything away.

But a lot of it has sentimental value! I still have pictures drawn by my kids when they were little! I don’t want to throw those away!

I guess I take after my grandparents. One of the things I remember about both sets was that they kept everything, even if it was broken. It was possible that a part of the broken item could be used to fix something else, thereby preventing having to spend more money. I guess I feel the same way.

As I said, I’m kinda sore. I should start doing some stretching exercises here at home.

Taking a break this afternoon while consuming a meal, I turned on the DVD player to watch an episode of Dark Angel. Not able to sit still, I paused it while I ran off to DO SOMETHING. When I finally came back I pressed play only no sound came out! Nothing I did seemed to work. I’ll take a look at it when I can think a little better. It’s probably something simple.

But, I have had lots to think about today. Unfortunately, that can be tiring!

There Are NO Small Mistakes…

…there’s only mistakes. The consequences of the mistake may be small or large as the case may be, but a mistake is just a mistake.

As a former Quality Assurance Manager I was interested in the Biblical concept of “sin.” You see, according to folks who know more than I about such things, the word that is used most frequently for sin in the Bible is hamartia, meaning “missing the mark.” So, when Paul wrote in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned…” what he meant was “For all have missed the mark…” or in the vernacular, “Everybody makes mistakes…” Or another way to say it is not everyone meets the standard.

The way I was raised, everything it seemed was a sin: smoking, drinking alcohol (I know, Jesus drank alcohol in His wine, but we were told He drank grape juice!), playing cards, swimming in the same pool with the opposite sex, and even dancing. (That’s why I never learned to dance. Although I did have offers to teach me, we never seemed to get round to actually teaching me. And if you don’t learn it while you’re young, you never really can get good at it.)

Because of the extreme nature of my upbringing, eventually I had to come to some understanding of the nature of 'missing the mark' for myself. And that’s another topic for another time. But it left me predisposed to pursuing a career where missing the mark was part of the whole raison d’être.

So I hope that you can understand the level of my concern with almost every contact I have with my healthcare support system:

I begged for an appointment due to my severe “gastritis” and was sent home to take Prilosec OTC, delaying the diagnosis of cancer by a month.

I had an EGD with biopsies, only to have the six biopsies disappear, requiring another EGD.

I had a port implanted without consulting me on placement. This is Wisconsin. They must have patients who hunt. And I still consider myself a hunter. The port was placed almost directly under the spot where I would mount a rifle or shotgun, however.

I have appointments scheduled in advance for pump placement but not for pump removal. And appointment times vary from what I am told to what they document.

I had trouble getting my name corrected. I use my first initial and middle name. Their computer system is not set up to use middle names, only middle initials. So when I ask that they change me from Benjamin H. to H. Benjamin I was changed to H. H.! I’ve been going to Aurora since August and I was told today that the girl who takes care of those things will correct it tomorrow. Finally!

In an X-ray report, I was referred to as a 56-year-old FEMALE!

I ordered my records two months ago from both the hospital and the clinic so I could hopefully find out what is going to happen to me. I received a response from a record storage company asking for payment for copying my OLD records from the clinic. Sent a check last month, which was cashed a week later. Still haven’t seen the records. Called them today, and their response was that the records were “linked up wrong.” I should receive them soon. But I still haven’t heard about my records from the clinic.

I called the hospital to see why I hadn’t received my records from them. They have no record of me asking, although I have communicated several times with them about my request.

Is it any wonder that the July 30, 2000 edition of the Journal of American Medical Association ranked doctors as the number three killer of Americans, right behind cancer and heart disease?

Can you see why I’m concerned considering the track record of this facility? These are all ‘mistakes.’ They have either “missed the mark” or their standards are very, very low. It irritates the heck out of me.

Round 4, Day 15

It’s been two weeks since I started Round 4 and so far it’s been the worst round of chemotherapy, yet

Talking with the young lady from my doctor’s office she had mentioned not wanting to live in the recliner. Since I spent from Day 4 to Day 9 in the recliner, I could understand the feeling. Talking yesterday with someone who expressed similar sentiments, I decided to coin a phrase, Riding the Recliner (RTR), to describe that action, or lack thereof.

I don’t know if you noticed but Round 5 is back on. Friday I go in for another PET scan, and the following Wednesday starts Round 5. Yippee. I’m expecting to be RTR over the holidays. Sorry.

I am feeling better, though. The muscles still tire very easily. But all that means is that I am now trying to catch up on all the things that I had to let slide when I was RTR! I mentioned clearing the snow on Friday. Never got around to finishing the job on Saturday, but it wasn’t important.

I did run out to a couple of stores on Saturday. I’m not going to do that again. People in cars usually have trouble driving during the rest of the year. Around Christmas, however, I swear someone piths them and then lets them get into their vehicles and drive. I’ve heard stories—I always thought them Urban Myths—about over-the-road truck drivers who come home from a run and refuse to drive their personal vehicles around town, making the wife do the driving. I’m starting to wish I were married so I can join them.

I didn’t find what I wanted although I did get the opportunity to walk around the mall. If you know how I walk, you’ll know that I was tired when I got done. I spent more time waiting to get around people than I did walking.

OK, I’ll explain, just this once. Back during my college days, I remember walking with a young lady named Anita one evening when she said that she liked walking with me “in the evening.” I asked why she had qualified her statement. She said that by evening I had slowed down enough that she could finally keep up with me with enough effort. I slowed down a bit when out walking with girls after that.

So, like I said, I’ve been trying to catch up on everything that I wasn’t able to get to during my recliner time. I had to get the spare bedroom, Amy’s room, ready. I had stored some stuff in there since she was last here. And I had to try and monster-proof the bed. It’s one of those inflatable beds. Imagine dog toenails on a balloon! We’ll see how it works.

And I’ve been trying to get my office cleaned up. I’ve had papers all over being sorted and the like. And then I always seem to find more paper. It’s hard to sort paperwork when you can’t remember where you are putting that particular type of document. Now I have papers and boxes of stuff.

To top everything else off, I can’t find my brand of tea!!!!! My store, Woodman’s, has a big empty spot on the shelf for a month now where my AriZona Rx Stress tea usually sits in the big gallon bottles. Wal Mart only had the quart bottles. I stopped at Cubs, Festival, and Copps and they don’t even carry it. Anybody sees it on the shelf, let me know, OK?