Always Ready For Some Good News & Gov’nt Rant…

I went to the Cardiologist today, the office, nix that, the Hospital was jam packed. I had to fill out paper work that was overly redundant which took about an hour but when I finally got in he checked the pulse in my left leg and within 2 seconds said I had one of the strongest leg pulses he has felt in a while, I love good news!

He then ran through the ABI tests I had taken last week, 133% above the norm in the right and 125% above normal in the left leg. He reported there was no sign of PAD but there was clear indication that I played a contact sport for a long time and there was damage to the capillaries on the inner sides of both ankles and that explains the copper color (iron residue) my veins have in that area. The ligaments in both right and left legs under the calf including the muscle that runs through them (damned if I can remember the names) are damaged which explains the discomfort I have when walking long distances. This will affect the hiking I want to do this year but I will do it!

I explained to him how long I played hockey and that both inside ankles and both calf’s were hit by slap shots, checks and hockey sticks for better than 20 years. Plus football, soccer and baseball so yeah my legs are a bit banged up and the knees are junk, blah blah. It’s amazing what these guys can tell just by feeling you up.

Long story short, I won’t ever be running again, no big shocker there but he did explain things so much clearer to me than previous doctors had and did several tests including the EKG which still showed an abnormal T Wave but only in the third instance and he said the blip was so small and in the third instance is typically the result of the computer algorithm not reading the third instance properly, he said he wished they would consult with an actual cardiologist when they write them. He ended with saying I don’t need a cardiologist for probably a long time to come and to get more exercise. Whew.

My last 2 doctor visits are March 1^st with my primary doctor and March 9^th for the eye doctor to check for damage from diabetes to the cornea. After that I should be done for 3 months until the next A1C.

Now for the negative, thanks to the new Health Care bill that nobody in Government read and many bragged about that fact but still signed it into law anyway…. deep breath… I received a notice in the mail today that coverage costs are going up, the number of drugs being covered are going down due to the new legislation. I try to keep my blog politically transparent but I HAVE READ this new law and the fact that it could be passed into law AND SO MANY OTHERS are passed into law everyday WITHOUT being read, to me shows the utter state of incompetence that our Government has gotten too, be it the left or the right part of it.

Does our Healthcare system need to have some things fixed, hell yes but the very geniuses who don’t read the law refuse to allow competition (this would take a whole new post to explain) and then complain they need this law because there isn’t enough competition, the stupidity amazes me. Does it need to be replaced and administered by the same Government that does things so poorly a toilet seat costs $250.00 and it takes a committee to replace a light bulb? NO, but we get the Government we deserve folks and my family insurance has gone up 30% already. On top of that Illinois officials now have 66% higher income taxes to spend at their whim, isn’t that just dandy? I digress…

Guess what, if the new Healthcare bill gets repealed, all the new costs and higher rates the insurance companies are taking in now stay as they are, there is no legislation being put together to give us our money back or to lower the rates and that too says something about the incompetence of our Government.   Anybody remember the promises made when they instituted Social Security, look how well that has turned out, now they want to run our Healthcare, no thank you.

End of political rant, I bet my BP right now is up there…