I Haven't Got the Stomach for this Heart Stuff

My stomach is all nerves. As of right now, it looks like I am going to see Richard Josephson (with all sorts of John Hopkins credentials) this Wednesday for the first of what sounds like many tests.

More Blackouts - Could be Terrorists?

Here is a bunch of gobblygook that talks about what "may" be wrong with me, but I have also read about Pulmonary Hypertension presenting itself with similar symptoms.

(Of course, I like Syncope because it almost sounds like a poetry term: Metonymy, Synecdoche, Syncope.)


Syncope is the temporary loss of consciousness or, in plain English, fainting. The situations that trigger this reaction are diverse and include coughing. Situational syncope is caused by a reflex of the involuntary nervous system called the vasovagal reaction. The vasovagal reaction leads the heart to slow down and, at the same time, it leads the nerves to the blood vessels in the legs to permit those vessels to dilate. The result is that the heart puts out less blood, the blood pressure drops, and the blood that is circulating tends to go into the legs rather than to the head. The brain is then deprived of oxygen, and the fainting episode occurs.

Sounds involved.

Here is an additional link I found with a few helpful tips. Reading this and everything else, it is beginning to feel like I am circling the heart disease drain.

Last time it happened, which would have been just this past Sunday on the porch during dinner, I was told my eyes kind of rolled back and I nodded into the table top. Bad Dinner Theater indeed.

Common Dreams Bookmark

Depending on which way you lean, I encourage you to share this site with anyone who you think would benefit. Currently at Commondreams.org you will find an important reminder (think Orwell's Polictics and the English Language) about that words matter from Ralph Nader. Or, for more on the myth of healthcare reform and the phony debate going on, this piece from Rolling Stone.

"Then again, some of the blame has to go to all of us. It's more than a little conspicuous that the same electorate that poured its heart out last year for the Hallmark-card story line of the Obama campaign has not been seen much in this health care debate. The handful of legislators - the Weiners, Kuciniches, Wydens and Sanderses - who are fighting for something real should be doing so with armies at their back. Instead, all the noise is being made on the other side. Not so stupid after all - they, at least, understand that politics is a fight that does not end with the wearing of a T-shirt in November."

Pass it on.

Pfizer is Pfined, Pf----ing A!

This is wonderful! Good news for a change. If I were drinking, tonight I'd drink to John Kopchinski.

"In the Army I was expected to protect people at all costs," Kopchinski said in a statement. "At Pfizer I was expected to increase profits at all costs, even when sales meant endangering lives. "I couldn't do that," added Kopchinski.

Laughter is the Best Medicine, Unless it Kills You

I am officially worried.

Last night, I shared the Poo Trap video with my son Whit (see below) and when I saw him laughing I started laughing, hard really hard, and then I kind of just went away ....

I came to with my head on the edge of the desk where I was sitting. I had blacked out.

This is the second time this has happened to me now.

Always the same circumstances, laughing so hard I black out.

The first time was also with Whit -- sharing a little bit of humor with someone else, and seeing them laugh just makes it funnier I guess. But what if I am driving and someone makes me laugh.

I just saw the doctor for an upper respiratory infection, now I need turn around and go back about the laughing disease.

PooTrap - As Seen on TV!

Christ, this is subtle. Here's what I miss by not watching television .... I can't breathe and am laughing so hard. How tasteful the way they blurred out the steamer caught in the bag on the home page image.

I think we will pass and stick to grocery bags ... showed the video to Otty and Indy and they both gave "the weird ass apparatus" thumbs down.

Colossus Dog - B-Movie Victims

Unspeakable terror. Skin crawling ickiness!
Behold! It started out as fun-filled hike in the Purple Range Mountains with four friends, and turned into a gore-bespattered trip from hell when the Amazing Colossus Dog of Hades fell upon them! There was nowhere to run! But straight down her throat.

Movie slogan, Sometimes, the dog days of summer really bite!

Laundry Basket Blues

Maybe we never outgrow the pleasure of sitting in laundry baskets, we just outgrow the baskets. Whit, busting blue at age 9.

Shawn McNulty or McNUTly.

Shawn McNulty signs are everywhere in Southside Akron front lawns which is/was good for his campaign, but is even better for a laugh.

As we drove through the area on our way to the Reptile Show, Whit asked (doing his best young Seinfeld voice), "Why would you vote for some guy named McNutly." Of course, it's McNulty with an L but driving by you can't really tell that. So we had a good laugh thinking that out there somewhere is a guy who's last name is looks like McNutly.

Must. Kill. Bun. Bun.

with the help of our dog trainer friend, we have determined that one way to minimize (not completely stop) Indy's incessant barking during her walks, is to use her crazed passion for stuffed furry things.

Neighbors do double takes when they see her walking along with some brown, furry, lifeless remains hanging from her mouth, but do you know how hard it is to find purple rabbits? Affectionately, we call these stuffed toys her "comfort corpses".

She yikes them so much, and to see her trot along, so proud of the fake dead thing in her mouth, it almost makes me weepy.

Healthcare on Democracy Now

This will take you to a page on Democracy Now's web site that is loaded with fantastic excerpts on the healthcare debate from the past few months.

I think one of the best is "Watchdog Group Sues for Disclosure of White House Meetings with Healthcare Execs" -- which relates to the Nader piece below.

Campaign promises of "more transparency" are, it seems, officially broken.

Healthcare Fix

"Never much of a fighter against abusive corporate power, Barack Obama is making it increasingly clear that right from his start as President, he wanted health insurance reform that received the approval of the giant drug and health insurance industries.

Earlier this year he started inviting top bosses of these companies for intimate confabs in the White House. Business Week magazine, which proclaimed recently that “The Health Insurers Have Already Won” reported that the CEO of UnitedHealth, Stephen J. Hemsley, met with the President half a dozen times."

Where is some of that change I can believe. Say it isn't so O! Here is a small piece by Nader that lines up with much of what I have read elsewhere. "Last night, the so-called "gang of six" -- three Republican and three Democratic senators on the Senate Finance Committee -- met by conference call and, according to Senator Max Baucus, the committee's chair, reaffirmed their commitment "toward a bipartisan health-care reform bill" (read: less coverage and no public insurance option)."