We now have curtains and inside trim.

And that’s going to be it until the weekend at the earliest. It’s raining today. It’s supposed rain tomorrow. In fact, it’s supposed to rain the rest of the week. So perhaps this weekend we will take care of the outside stuff.

Or perhaps not.

We came home last night to the following message on our answering machine:

“Hey, I got the wrong number, sorry, but what a great message!”

I had to listen to the message, because I had no idea what message I’d done. Oddly enough, I thought the message on the cell phone voice mail was more amusing, but as long as I’m making people happy…

One of the reasons I have not been writing a great deal recently, is because I have been working on the paper due in my health policy class. It is a group paper, and the subject is, unsurprisingly, End-of-Life Care Policy, with my portion of the paper/project focused upon hospice.

What I find so disturbing about all this is not that the US lacks a cohesive end of life care policy, because that isn’t it. Yes, there are issues such as euthanasia that have yet to be resolved, but that is only a minor issue in the grand scheme of end-of-life care. What surprise me is that despite the existence of relatively strong policy, so very little has been achieved.

In the United States, hospice is covered by most private insurance companies, as well as by Medicare Part A. The Medicare Hospice Benefit is quite generous, and one assume (perhaps incorrectly I admit) that private insurance coverage would be similar. For instance, Medicare covers: doctor services, nursing care, medical equipment and supplies, drugs for symptom control and pain relief, short-term hospital care including respite care, home health aides and homemaker services, and grief and loss counseling for both the patient and the family. The Medicare hospice benefit was created to make things as easy for patients and their families as possible. Patients pay no more than $5 for their prescription drugs, and 5% of the cost of any respite care they receive.

So, you’re thinking, the benefit is too generous and costly, and that’s why it is under-used! You would be wrong.

Palliative care (emphasized by hospice) can can improve patient quality of life, and decrease costs. In one study palliative care decreased the number of days in intensive care by 75%. Nationally, in 1998 hospital inpatient charges were an average of $2177 per day, while hospice cost only and average of $113 per day. This means that Medicare not only improves the quality of life for dying patients, but reduces the cost of medical treatment. A win-win situation.

Despite this, hospice utilization remains low. Nationally, the average for the year 2000 was 48 days of hospice use per patient; the average in West Virginia was 52 days of hospice use per patient. Although patients are best served by a longer time in hospice, 79.6% of those who enroll in hospice used only one benefit period.

Hospice and palliative care increase patient quality of life, as well as decrease medical costs, yet it is under-utilized. Why is this?

The prime reason, in my opinion, comes down to how people feel about, and deal with, death.

In my personal experience, when a family member was diagnosed with cancer several years ago, despite urging, they did not want to discuss end-of-life care options, or what they wanted to happen to their body if they were to die. Luckily this turned out not to be an issue, as the treatment went well, but I think it does illustrate a common problem in the US, which is a seeming inability to deal rationally with death and age.

We in the US, as a society, glorify youth, health, and beauty, and try our best to ignore or hide signs of aging, illness, and death. Glance through magazines and catalogs. The models are nearly universally young, thin, and attractive. (However two exceptions to this rule are Land’s End and Gardener’s Supply. Both catalogs use older models.) Look at ads–it seems as if every pharmaceutical company out there is advertising products to make you act and feel younger. Not that I blame the companies really, I mean, if beautiful blondes sell product, then so be it, but have we as a society fallen for it hook, line, and sinker?

This is an issue, and one that is going to become increasingly more important as the baby boom generation retires and starts to realize that no, they will not be young forever.

The other realization, and one that deals with the topic at hand, is that few want to admit they are going to die, and hospice is a tacit statement that death will come, and it will come faster than we want. Yet denying that truth does not make it go away, it only makes the end and the passing harder to bear.

WV Center for End-of-Life Care
Hospice Association of America
Hospice Foundation of America
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
AgingStats.gov

Went to check my horoscope today, and read this:

Cancer (June 21 - July 22)
You might consider picking up some holy water and a few stout wooden stakes. They’ll come in handy soon, although I’m not sure how.

I laughed, and then read this to Gina, who sits right next to me.

Gina also laughed, and then asked, “Hey! What’s mine?”

Gemini (May 21 - June 20)

Your incisors will seem to be getting longer today, and you will find sunlight hurts your eyes. Probably just a cold, and nothing to worry about.

Oh. I see.

Photos of replacing the kitchen doors. Plus comments.

Pictures of our travels.

Pictures of the work we did to be guest bedroom.

Pictures of replacing the hood over the stove.

We took three bags of books to The Bookshelf last night. Came home with half a bag that he didn’t need, so if anyone is interested, the following books are available, free to a good home. Sorry there is not any Fantasy/Science Fiction, but Jim always takes anything in that category, as well as any mysteries.

Andrew M. Greely:
Ascent into Hell
Virgin and Martyr
Lord of the Dance
They Brother’s Wife
The Cardinal Sins
(these were all purchased used, so their condition isn’t terrific, but they are still readable)

John Grisham:
The Firm
The Client
The Pelican Brief

Ken Follet:
A Dangerous Fortune
Lie Down with Lions

Frederick Forsyth:
The Devil’s Alternative

WVU’s Riflery team will, as of July 2004, be reinstated as an athletic team.

It took a $100,000 grant from the state legislature, but Hardesty finally got the point.

It never made any sense to me why the programs that were chosen were cut. Riflery is for men and women, which makes it a good Title IX sport, and it’s also a sport that has much to do with the history of the state. I mean, our school mascot even carries a rifle!

But, what was done can be undone, and so riflery, much to the consternation of Hardesty, has been reinstated.

May more national championships ensue!

Read what the DA says.

Read what the DP says.

To celebrate/mourn the fact that Michael and I finally finished watching Deep Space Nine, here is a list of some of my favorite Garak quotes, starting with:

“I believe in coincidence. Coincidences happen every day. But I don’t trust coincidences.”

Once I left the windowless room where I work, I realized that it was absolutely beautiful outside. Days like this make the lab a blessing and a curse, I don’t know how beautiful the weather is to enjoy it, but I also know how beautiful the weather is, so I don’t feel trapped inside.

Came home and opened the windows on the storm doors, and then grabbed my pruners and went to look at my plant life. Cut off a bunch of dead wood on a variety of plants, and closely inspected everything else.

It looks as if neither of the roses we planted at the end of the summer made it through the winter, and I’m not sure about the Wiegalia at the bottom of the hill, but almost everything else had buds. How exciting! Things are growing! There will soon be leaves!

Bulbs are coming up all over the place. I saw, besides the crocuses that are already blooming, daffodils that look as if they may flower soon, and the start of tulips and hyacinths. I also saw green growth where the bleeding heart comes up, as well as under the dead leaves of the mums, day lilies, and the hydrangea.

The only damper on the green ecstasy was that when I raked the last of the leaves from the front, it looks as if, despite the fact that we’ve seeded it for the past two years, anything other than spotty patches of grass are not going to happen.

It’s not that I care that much about grass, it’s just that I don’t know what else to attempt to grow there. It’s deep shade, and even deep shade grass didn’t seem to take, nor have any of the shade flowers and plants done well.

Ah well, I have another spring and summer to try and find something to grow there, so it’s not all bad.

Happy spring!

… is the best.

Dr. Minger’s office sent us flowers in momory of Slate.

That’s really above and beyond the call of duty.

Well, not really, but it amused me to squoosh together the titles of the two books I’ve finished recently (assuming that by recently you accept “in the past month or so”)

Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English by Patricia T. O’Conner

I picked this book up several years ago, but had not gotten very far in it, for as much as I wanted to improve my writing, I was not necessarily interested in reading about improving my writing, but since I am taking a course on editing, I decided that this would be a good book to read.

Continue Reading…

The Sandman Book of Dreams Neil Gaiman and Ed Kramer, editors

It took me several months to read this book, not because it was boring, but because I was carrying it back and forth to work to read at lunch, or if I had to go somewhere for an appointment. This means that as I finished the last story in the book, I could barely remember the first story in the book.

Continue Reading…

And while I’m thinking about it, when we were in DC, we made (of course) a bookstore stop, and I found a collection of Gypsy folktales. I haven’t had a chance to really look into it yet, but it sounded great.

Friday is the last day to vote for the WV state quarter!

If we don’t do our civic duty to vote, we as a state may be stuck with the horrible “Appalachian Warmth” quarter.

Remember, this is for posterity, so be honest.

It was Tiddly POM! Thanks Epacris!

This was Piglet’s song

(Tiddly Pom)
The more it goes
(Tiddly Pom)
The more it goes
(Tiddly Pom)
On snowing.

And nobody knows
(Tiddly Pom)
How cold my toes
(Tiddly Pom)
How cold my toes
(Tiddly Pom)
Are growing.

The more it snows
(Tiddly Pom)
The more it goes
(Tiddly Pom)
The more it goes
(Tiddly Pom)
On snowing.

And nobody knows
(Tiddly Pom)
How gold my toes
(Tiddly Pom)
How cold my toes
(Tiddly Pom)
Are growing.

–A.A. Milne

I have a vague memory of Tiddly Tiddly being something from Winnie the Pooh, but it is entirely possible that this is something my brain made up entirely.

Regardless, I think it’s a Tiddly Tuesday.

I almost forgot to post today, as I spent a great deal of time writing and editing other stuff (work stuff, school stuff, some of it fun stuff, but most of it not.)

I saw the cover of today’s DA and realized that I completely missed last night’s Festival of Ideas speaker. It was Leon Wynter, who spoke on race. I’d wanted to see that one, so I’m rather irked I totally forgot. Except for the fact that this cold is still bothering me, so it’s probably for the best that I stayed home.

All day I’ve been on the verge of losing my voice, which means that when I talk I’ve got that lower, raspy voice that men like oh so well. It’s actually slightly deeper than the phone voice that makes Gina’s husband happy when I answer the phone at work. I actually don’t mind the way my voice sounds in my head, but then I am easily amused.

I have, however, NOT lost my voice, despite the fact that I refuse to keep quiet. This should not really come as a big surprise to anyone who knows me well–the inability to shut-up is one of my better known traits. We’ll see how things are tomorrow.

Other than that, I’ve been paying attention to the news with only half an ear. The whole situation in Israel is completely depressing, the upheaval over elections in Taiwan is insane, and the only good news seems to be that the death toll from the train bombings in Spain is going to be lower than first estimated. Although this is a good thing, the idea that hundreds of people lost their loved ones is still extremely depressing.

The other good news on the horizon is that West Virginia is supposed to be a battle ground state in the upcoming election. So perhaps we will have some attention paid to the state of things here. Plus if all those politicos and their associated reporters want to come here and spend money, that’s a good thing.

Just make sure we make ‘em spend the money.

And that’s enough for now. I’m off to bed to see if I can sleep this cold into submission.

It would be perhaps a bit of a understatement to say that I was not ready to go back to work. Despite that, vacation is over, so back to work and back to school.

As far as house projects, the bedroom is done, and I think it looks quite nice, even if I do say so myself. Pictures to come. Michael also changed the switch and several of the outlets in that room, and then did the big electrical project in the basement–adding extra switches for the basement lights. Essentially, most of the lights in the basement can now be controlled from a group of switches at the bottom of the stairs. This is a huge improvement over things when we moved in. At that point there were few lights, and those lights were all on pull strings (you know what I mean) so now we have plenty of light, all those lights are on switches, and most of those lights have two switches, so they can be turned on and off from multiple places.

Pretty neat.

One of my other projects was to de-junk the house. Three bags of junk and a huge pile of books will all be leaving. I was thinking about listing the books I’m getting rid of to see if anyone wanted them. I already have almost $200 in credit for used books at the Bookshelf, so it’s not as if I’ll use that up any time soon to need even MORE credit for used books. Which reminds me, I also have pictures of the pile of books that were taken out of the bedroom I redid. Even I was somewhat stunned by the number of books we had just in that room.

My only other exciting project was that I planted flower seeds. I now have many containers of dirt, sitting in the basement, waiting for life to start. Not a huge variety this year: sweet pea, pansy, carnations, Chinese lantern (which I have NEVER been able to grow), catnip, purple cone flower, million bells, and several other things I can’t remember. I also wanted to plant silver dollars, but couldn’t find any seeds–I’ll keep looking.

We looked at the plants outside, and it looks like the Jasmine is dead. I’m not sure about the lavender, though I am hoping it made it through the winter. The heather, despite its brown spots, has some flowers already, so hopefully that will come back fully as well.

Crocuses are blooming, and daffodils shouldn’t be too far behind. The irises and day lilies are starting to come up, although slowly. It looks as if most everything made it through the winter, although for some of the shrubs I won’t know for certain until it gets warmer.

I didn’t even look at the roses, but I am hoping that all the plants, even the now ones, made it through the winter. Right now what I want is the weather to warm up and to stay warm, so that I can move my plants outside. The plants that were relegated to the basement (No room! No room!) are starting to look a little worse for wear, and I’ll be glad when I can get them outside and into the sun.

But mostly it’s nice to see flowers coming up, and to think about what I’m going to plant this summer, for after the death of winter comes the new life of spring.

Slate died this morning. I’d been expecting it, as she’d barely been eating all week, and last night she wasn’t even interested in eating treats.

When we got up this morning she was barely moving and was having trouble breathing. We took her to the vet, because I was worried that the breathing was causing her to suffer, but she died before the vet even looked at her, so at least her death was quick.

When we brought her home last fall, I knew that it wouldn’t be for very long, since she was very old, but it was still hard. But she spent the last months of her life very happy as an inside cat, getting all kinds of attention, so her life was good.

I’ll just miss her.

THIS is the big winter storm that drove us home early?

Sheesh.

On other fronts, the cats definitely want my dad to feed them on a regular basis.

Guess my mom has fed them previous times we’ve been gone, because my dad was apparently unable to find the bins of cat food, and instead fed them the entire jar of cat treats.

It’s Monday night and we’re heading back from Baltimore. We had planned on staying until Tuesday, but the weathermen have been calling for gloom, doom, and snowstorms.

I should have expected it. This is, after all, WVU’s spring break.
(more…)

It’s vacation time. That means that even if we don’t visit tropical hot spots or any place any otherhuman would find to be a nice vacation spot, we will go out of our way to get good food.
(more…)

I could write in detail about the panel discussion of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” but what struck me more was a folktale that kept running through my head as I thought about the movie and the impact it is having upon society. One speaker did say something that I think can’t be emphasized enough. He said (and I’m paraphrasing) that if one act of anti-Semitism—if one synagogue is burned because of this movie, then it should never have been made. The story of gospels is not one of murder and vengeance, but of love and compassion and caring for those who can not care for themselves. If that message is missed, then the point of the whole story has been ignored.

But to the story that kept running through my mind….
(more…)

Blogging will be erratic, until it is no longer so.

It’s spring break, and we’re doing work on the house and travelling.

(Be jealous, our time away will involve going to Baltimore, which means we’ll be eating seafood! Yippee!)

Here’s hoping that we get plenty of rest and relaxation.

I was thinking about fears, and how each person’s fears are unique—not necessarily the fear itself, but how they developed that fear, assuming they even know why.

I was thinking tonight of my quirk, my strange fear, when I started to think about the details of that fear, and whether others remember it the same way I do.
(more…)

And y’all said it was worthless information…

Two new pictures of Slate for your amusement (or not).