Health Archive

5 days after my own cat sunk his fangs into my left hand, it's is still all jacked up. No surprise there. But it's getting better. I'm on the mend.

It's no longer infected, which is the most important thing. A course of antibiotics, hydrogen peroxide, rubbing alcohol and neosporin has seen to that. The punctures are healing up nicely. No longer septic, but still haloed with reddish inflammation. Seems no amount of Ibuprofen is going to fix that quickly.

The only real problem is the swelling. I don't know exactly what damage Makkie did to the soft tissue of my hand. Ligaments. Tendons. Blood Vessels. All fragile stuff living just under the skin. After the incident, my hand was severely swollen and puffy. The swelling has come down, but it's still causing me pain and restricting my motion.

Eventually it will be fine and I'll make a full recovery. But I'm supposed to ride centuries tomorrow and Sunday. I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with it. Squeezing my hand is painful and I'm going to need it to shift gears and brake. I could just leave my bike in the low chain ring for the whole ride and then I wouldn't have to shift with my left hand. Then I only have to deal with braking. If I'm careful, I won't have to brake much.

I'll still have another 14 hours to heal before rubber hits the road, so I could be totally fine. Or the pressure on my hand during the ride could impede or reverse the healing process. We'll just have to see.

I'm supposed to have a follow up appointment at Kaiser on Monday to check on my progress, but for 85 bucks, I think I'll pass.

I'm happy that the Health Care Reform (HCR) bill has finally passed and will be signed into law by President Obama tomorrow. I'm happy even though I'm unlikely to be a beneficiary myself and I don't really like the bill. I've gone for long periods of with no insurance or heavily underinsured (like now), so I have a healthy amount of empathy for those who need care and can't get it. And no one should ever go bankrupt because their health insurance won't cover the care they need, which is all too often the case these days.

First, I think we should have universal, not-for-profit health care in the US. The current scheme, with insurance companies reaping billions in profits by denying coverage and claims to people who need care, is hideous. Insurance companies provide little or no benefit to system. They just graft money out of it. They all need to die a slow death. With any luck, this bill will the first step along the path to eliminating them. This is a decent first step in that it eliminates (or is supposed to eliminate) some of most egregious offenses of the insurance industry.

Second, this bill is going to help millions of people, including many of those who have been railing against it. If you look at the individual aspects of bill, people are widely in favor of them. It's when taken as whole, that the bill has been perceived with some antipathy. And can almost all be attributed to politicking and the media.

People were just simply scared to death by the absurd calls of "Death Panels" Sarah Palin, Fox News and others. And the whole government takeover of healthcare is such a red herring. It's just not happening. However, people were frightened to death by hearing doomsday speeches from right-wing pols and pundits. The fact that the Democrats were able to pass this bill despite this type of fear-mongering is a great thing. I'm under no illusion that beating voters over the head with the fear club is going to stop, since it really is so effective. This bill really is very centrist, bust many Americans don't think that because the Republicans and their cohorts at Fox decided to treat it as the second coming of fascism.

But now the law is passed. It will be signed and we'll see what, if any, outcome this has on the 2010 mid-term elections. Republicans will run on repealing it. I think they might have a hard slog once Americans understand the ramifications and benefits of the bill. We'll see.

Meanwhile, I used my health insurance today for the first time since I became insured again, in December of 09. I went to Kaiser to have my eyes checked, not because I really need to, but because my Rx is out of date and I couldn't order new contacts.

I had Kaiser before when I worked at CNN, but I had to visit the doctor once—I returned from a trip to Venezuela with flu-like symptoms that the doc thought might be pleurisy, but turned out to be nothing—so I don't have much experience with HMOs.

I made the appointment through the automated system on the phone. Annoying, but it worked. I got a confirmation call over the weekend. Nice. I found the hospital, parked and made my way to the Optometry wing. It was empty. I arrived a few minutes late and the doc saw me within a few minutes. They have a new computerized machine which the doc explained is new that can tell your prescription. These machines are new technology and still in their infancy, but it's not hard to imagine seeing these things in pharmacies and getting your Rx for a few bucks in the not too distant future. The doc did a standard eye exam and the results were not quite, but almost identical.

Except for that, the appointment wasn't notably different from any optometrist that I've ever been to, and I've been in and out of eye doc's office since I was six. The only notably exception is that, even with insurance, the eye exam cost me $110. Seemed expensive so I went online when I got back and found this. Hard to believe. What's the point of this insurance anyway? To me, it seems, if you have insurance, the basic eye exam should be free. It's preventative.

My Rx barely changed, which is good. But I need new lenses in my current frames because they're chipped. So I went into the Kaiser optician and found out that my insurance gets me a whopping 20% off the cost of news lenses. If want Kaiser to put them in, it will cost me around 225 bucks, plus a 15 dollar charge for bringing in my own frames, which makes no sense to me. I'll be going somewhere else.

When I disembarked from the flight yesterday, we were given to orders over the PA to report to health authorities if we had a fever over 100 degrees. Then as we hit the jetway, we were handed a slick pamphlet about the H1N1 virus with instructions about what to if you've come or are headed to an infected area (is California included? Don't think so). At immigration there were people walking around with surgical masks. I laughed the whole thing off. I'm strong, right? I don't get sick. Hardly ever.

This morning I woke up feeling not so great. A little headache and a minor chest cough. I don't think it's anything. I don't feel warm and Raquel took my temp and I don't have a fever. I chalk it up to a combination of jet lag and wearing myself out on wednesday's long ride.

I drank some OJ, some coconut water, ate some toast and took a couple Ibuprofens and feel better, just a little fatigued.

The sun is shining here. Time to make some hay.

Tchau.

Gus and Gels that athletes use to have been around for almost a decade now, but I have mostly been spared them because, well, there's no reason for me to have used them. They are consumed by athletes looking for quick energy when the are competing or training. But since I've started cycling in earnest this year, goos and gels have been an increasing part of my training nutrition diet. I almost always bring one with me on a ride and when I do a supported ride, like Waves to Wine or any of the Century rides, they are usually available at the rest stops. Since they are easy and quick to consume and provide a well needed energy boost, goos are very welcome.

However not all goos are created equal. They come in a rainbow of "flavors" and brands. For me, there's little difference between the brands. At their core, they are all a same—a viscous jelly-like substance similar in texture (and often taste) to tree sap. I tend to stay away from any of the fruit flavors which taste like Elmer's glue and stick to the chocolate, mocha, espresso spectrum, which are far more palatable.

On the first day of the Waves to Wine ride, I made a huge mistake and, at the last rest stop, ate several goos with a fistful of pretzels. Big mistake. The combination of the viscous goo and the flour from the pretzels creates a mortar like substance that could have been used to build the pyramids. It sat like a brick in my stomach for the last 15 miles of the ride. It was terribly uncomfortable. On the plus side, I probably won't have to shit for a week.

Here are some sample goo varieties:

The Corn Refiners Association must be shaking in their collective boots that the dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup are finally getting some attention. They put together some laughable propaganda videos to convince the hoi polloi that their product is safe and "natural", when it is anything but.

Their propaganda sites are here and here.

"Made from corn, has the same calories as sugar and is fine in moderation." Not exactly a ringing endorsement from the people who make it. I was stunned when I first saw these ads on TV. The truth, of course, is a little different. I avoid this stuff like the plague.

The Corn growers like to claim that "it's natural", but looking at the production process, you can see that it's anything but. There's a hilarious scene in King Corn where the film makers try to make HFCS in their kitchen after not being allowed to film the process at the manufacturing plant. It's simply disgusting how it's made.

Americans are already fat enough because of over-comsumption, but HFCS isn't helping at all. Since it's ubiquitous, it's very difficult to avoid. It's not only in soft drinks and other beverages, it's in ketchup, used in bread to assist in browning, used a preservative in hundreds if not thousands of other products. It's dangers. It should be avoided at all costs.

The interesting fact about fructose is that it is metabolized in a totally different way than other carbohydrates. It does not stimulate or require insulin for transportation to the cells. Since there is no need for insulin release, there is also no secretion of leptin. Therefore the feeling of satiety is altered—you continue to eat and possible overeat.

--Becky Hand, Diet Danger: High Fructose Corn Syrup

There are plenty of places online to read about the dangers of diet with high amounts of HFCS. And if you want to learn more about the dangers of corn in general in our diet (corn grown to feed cows, chicken, fish, etc.) check the documentary King Corn. Here are some more articles:

• The Dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup
• The Double Danger of High Fructose Corn Syrup
• Diet Danger: High Fructose Corn Syrup
• Stop HFCS
• Corn is Making Us Fat
• The Google

There's a great spoof video (from where I draw the title of this post) on YouTube.

These days, I don't just ride outside, I joined the gym downstairs and have been taking spin classes for about a month.

The Spin trainer Rachel (who also owns the gym), is incredibly hard core. She's in great shape (so much so that's it no big deal for her to teach the spin class and then turn around immediately and teach the core class. She's done Ironmans and ultra-marathons. Basically she's nuts, but in a good way. Don't beleive me? Check out her bio.

Rachel also runs a serious state of the art fitness program for cyclists. It helps that there are so many Schwab employees who are into cycling and training for various rides. In class, we ride CycleOps Pro 300PT bikes. I know that doesn't mean much, but just know that they are top of the line. The basic difference between these bikes and other spin bikes is that they tell you what your output is in watts so you can tune your training not to your heartbeat which is variable but to wattage which is testable. Each class is geared to your personal threshold. There's a chart on the wall where you can find your 100% threshold and then see what output you should be at during various parts of the class.

Just heard about this story of fat fine being imposed on Japanese companies who have obese office workers over 40.

Under a national law that came into effect two months ago, companies and local governments must now measure the waistlines of Japanese people between the ages of 40 and 74 as part of their annual checkups. That represents more than 56 million waistlines, or about 44 percent of the entire population.

Those exceeding government limits — 33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women, which are identical to thresholds established in 2005 for Japan by the International Diabetes Federation as an easy guideline for identifying health risks — and having a weight-related ailment will be given dieting guidance if after three months they do not lose weight. If necessary, those people will be steered toward further re-education after six more months.

Sounds a bit authoritarian for a democracy (re-education?). All in the name of health though, so it's hard to really complain (re-education? really?). Of course, being Japanese, they have a cute propaganda cartoon to promote the policy. Presumably Sumo wrestlers are exempt.

What's scary is that we Americans are so fat. 39 inches is the average waist line for American men? I bet that's an underestimate. It might be a problem in Japan if they eat shit like this. If Americans ate the same healthy diet that the Japanese eat (fresh fish, seaweed, fresh veggies, not much deep fried and very little packaged food), we'd be much better off.

This is the advice from Michael Pollan in his new book, In Defense of Food. The basic idea is that most of what Americans buy at the supermarket and consume is not food, but food-like substances created in the labs of places like General Mills. Most of this crap is sold in the middle aisles of the market, so if you want to eat healthy, stick to the perimeter where you'll find dairy, meat, fruit and veggies. Sound advice.

Comedian Lewis Black, on the other hand, thinks it's all bullshit. You can't believe what the experts tell you because they don't fucking know anything. Instead he offers his wisdom on health:

• The good die young, but pricks live forever
• If you masterbate 20 times a day, you'll never make it out your front door.

Hard to argue with either of those.

So, I managed to get through a week of flinging myself around Vail and Beaver Creek with nary a scratch. I skied hard and i skied fast and I had tons of fun. I almost got away unscathed, but on get away day (a day we didn't even ski), I almost managed to destroy myself.

We were playing around and taking photos on the pirate ship that sits at the base of Vail Village. The deck of the ship is covered with snow and it's super slick, but I got it in my head anyway that I was going to take the slide that escapes from the bow and I managed to slip off the side of the ship where the webbing leads up to the deck. Fuck that hurt. I jammed my left thumb trying to keep myself from going ass over tea-kettle, which I did, but I scraped the shit out of my left calf along the gunwhale, or what there was of one.

I felt like a fool. It's a good thing very few people were around to see it.

My feet are killing me. They have been since the first day in Bangkok where I walked all over the place with sandals that I hadn't worn in a long time. I didn't think there was a problem with them, but clearly I should have. At the end of the day I had two massive blisters on my right foot and some mystery ailment in my left--maybe a strained tendon--I don't know, but it's killing me when I walk. This is a huge problem because I just can't help myself. I need to walk and get out an see.

Then I have a massive patch of redness on my inner left thigh where bed bugs from Thailand(?) feasted on my blood. It's doesn't hurt. It's just irritating.

And finally, no surprise here, I've been savaged by mosquitoes despite nets and repellent and long clothing. I don't know what I did wrong, but clearly nothing worked.

These are the sorts of things that make me, despite myself and my ever present need to get out and explore, just want to stay home. It's tragic.

I finally broke down and bought myself a skiing helmet. I'd been wanting to get one for a long time, at least since I got back into skiing in 2004, and I've tried on dozens of them. But each one made me feel like Great Gazoo from the Flinstones, that my head was now some kind of enormous unwieldy appendage. It wasn't pleasant.

Then someone in my house recommended the Giro 9.9. I checked it out. It fit. It didn't make me feel like a mutant. i bought it. And a funny thing happened when I bought it. I couldn't wait to get on the slopes in the morning.

When I left LA on Tuesday morning, Alex was sick and felt like he had to throw up. I actually saw my dad's wife barfing the downstairs toilet. Not very pleasant. Mateo, my nephew, had been sick the previous week. The theory went that Mateo had some sort of flu and was spreading it around the family. I felt bad for everyone, but especially for Alex who was going to miss the first day of school after the break. Missing school is one of the great joys of growing up, but you never want to miss the first day after vacation. That's when you catch up with your friends. You can't miss that.

Anyway, I don't get sick, so I wasn't too worried, just felt bad for everyone else. Throwing is no treat. I arrived in Oakland around 8:30 and went straight to work. By the early afternoon, I wasn't feeling too hot. I just chalked it up to lack of sleep. I was exhausted. I didn't sleep much on New Year's Eve and I got even less sleep (about 3 hours) on New Year's Day since I had to wrestle with my dad's computer.

I left work around 3 in the afternoon to go home to sleep. But I couldn't sleep. I just laid there on the couch watching TV feeling worse and worse. By the time the sun went down it was pretty clear that the contents of my stomach were planning on an emergency wrong way exit. I hadn't eaten anything all day. Just hadn't felt hungry. I started to drink soda water to settle my stomach and that sort of worked, but only temporarily. By about 8 o'clock I was on my knees in the bathroom. After a few false alrams, it happened in quick succession. One dry heave followed by 5 rounds of wretched bilious liquid. Very unpleasant. But then it was down. I gargled some mouth wash, wiped my face clean and promptly went to sleep.

I didn't have any flu like symptoms so I don't think I was sick. My theory is that I got food poisoning somewhere. Dinner at Buca di Beppo maybe? I don't know. My dad's wife and Alex still think they were sick, but I think, at least it makes sense to me, that they were also poisoned. Why everyone didn't spew their guts is a mystery.

I don't know what's going on. I can't sleep again. Same thing as two nights ago. I feel asleep earlier on the couch watching a Flash training video (if anything will put you to sleep..), but then when I went up to bed, nothing. And I was exhausted. Could barely drag my sorry ass up the stairs. At least it's been raining all night which means desparetely needed snow.

My buddy Russell is down in the Bay Area this week. (check it out, Russ, another mention). As always, good to see him. It sucks when your friends move away and great when you get a chance to see them.

When I met Russell back in January of last year he was a rather stout 5'9", 280 (or so). When he moved up to Seattle at beginning of this year, he started taking fitness seriously. I'm not joking here. Russell is still 5'9", but now he weighs less than me -- I'm still around 185. It you don't think that's remarkable, you're smoking crack. He's lost a hundred pounds in less than a year and didn't mainline heroin once (allegedly).

I used to drag Russell around the slopes. That'll never happen again. I can't keep up with him. This morning we went to the gym and Russ introduced me to his workout style called Cross Fit, the goal of which is to achieve elite fitness. It is the realm of Delta Force and Navy SEALs, not lazy jews, but I went along because I wanted to see this miracle of fitness, my old rolly-polly friend who used to down IPAs by the fistful and was a master of the barbeque who now counts calories, eats no bread or really nothing refined and is just in sick shape.

The basic idea of Cross Fit is that you do excises that you work muscles you'd use in the real world. The goal is not to build massive muscles, rather it is build all your functional muscles. And they do this by coming multiple movements in an interval, with little or no breaks and timed. Always timed so you can track your progress and compete.

With that in mind, we hit my gym this morning. We did some warm ups basic stuff, pull ups, push lups and some work with the medicine ball. Then came the real action. Russell set up a simple program. Rowing for 25 calories (the machines measure), 10 squat thrusters (like Olympic-style weight lifting) and 25 sit-ups. No stopping. No whinning. No barfing. Sounded easy enough. Boy, was I mistaken.

It took about 2 rounds for Russell to lap me. He finished in 13 minutes and change, even pushing up more weight on the thrusters and didn't seem to be breathing hard. I was dying after 3 intervals. I felt light-headed, dizzy, nauseous. Russell was pushing me and pushing me hard. He was freaking the people out on the elipticals next to us in my normally low key gym. I pressed on, fighting it every bit of the way, wanting to quit, wanting Russell to fucking shut up and go away, but he wouldn't. Some friend.

I finally finished the 5th round, pushing meekly through the final rowing, thrusters and sit ups. I was spent like I haven't been in years: sucking air, oozing sweat while I stared up at the ceiling and tried to recover. It took me more than 26 minutes.

I spent most of the rest of the day on the couch watching football and I don't feel bad about it for a second.

Rusell, you are a freak of nature. Way to go, amigo.

I have a bet going with a colleague at work who weighs about 10 pounds less than me that when I come home from this trip, 4 weeks long, eating out all the time and not working out regularly, I will outweigh him by 20 pounds. He's probably right. So far, I haven't even smelled a gym and I've been eating some rather rich foods that I would never eat at home. Hopefully I can make up for it by doing a lot of walking, which is my normal MO when in new places.

There's nothing like a Pilates class to expose just how weak you are. Just when you think you're getting into a decent shape try working on your core and you'll be hurting. This Pilates class that I've been trying to take every Thusday morning just kills me. I can't beleive how little I actually move and how much I sweat just trying to keep my core stabilized. I know if I can keep it up it will be great for my body, but right now it is abusing me so hard.

Instead of going home and hanging with the cats, which is my usual lunchtime M.O., I went to the gym and took a mid-day yoga class. It was the first yoga class I've had in ages. My muscles are in bad shape yogawise and I need to get started again and this was a perfect start. It was not Astanga, which I normally prefer becuase it's aerobic and challenging. This is was Hatha. It was relaxing. The instructor, Baxter Bell, wasn't a yoga nazi, like so many of the teachers in Astanga. I felt great afterwards.

My gym offers about a dozen or so classes a week. On average this year, I've been taking, well, about zero classes a week. I need to crank that up to 3-4 and see how I feel. I'm going to guess, more relaxed, less stressed and much, much stronger.

Today is not just Valentine's Day. It's National Donor Day. So find a blood drive near your and give some of that extra blood you have lying around doing nothing in your body. Clearly you're not doing much with it if you're spending time reading this blog. Someone out there will really appreciate it. It doesn't take that long, maybe an hour (most of which is answering questions). It's not painful. They give you free juice and cookies. And you'll feel great about yourself.

You can't take this without a grain of salt because it comes from Durex, but the 2005 Global Sex Survey results are online. Here are some of the more interesting facts:

More than 317,000 people from 41 countries took part in the world's largest ever survey on sexual attitudes and behaviour. The research confirmed that Greece is officially the sexiest country with the Greeks having sex 138 times a year - well above the global average of 103. Croatia (134) and Serbia and Montenegro (128) come a close second and third.

There's all sorts of interesting info in the report, so I'm not going to spoil it, but here's some of the more intriguing stuff: Japan was dead last with the average person having sex only 45 times, but that only counts sex with another person. Around the globe, people are losing their virginity on average at a little more than 17 years old, but in Iceland the average age (average?) is a mere 15.6. Not surprisingly, the most common place for adults to have sex outside their bedroom is in the car. More than 80% pf Italians have had sex in a car. While more than half of Australians (54%) have had a sex in a park, something I can personally atest to.

I'm almost embarrassed by this, but I've just gone through a period for the first time in my life when I was paying for a gym membership and not using it. I used to laugh at people like that, and for a time, however brief, I was one of them, and it didn't feel good. But that's over now.

I have no idea what was going with me, but I think it might have had something to do with the ski season. I was away all weekend. I was usually tired on Monday and didn't want to workout. Friday was a no go because I hit the road to Tahoe. It was hard to get into the sort of groove I need to workout regularly. That could be it. It could be something else. I don't know.

Ski season is over and it's easier to have a regular schedule. So I started going to the little gym at my apartment complex just about every morning and swimming right afterward (I'm a horrible swimmer and limited to breast stroke with my bum rotator cuff, but it's something). I've been doing it for about three weeks now. It's so good to get up early and get the workout done in the morning. I feel great.

World Blood Donor Day is here. No excuses. I have an appointment in 16 minutes. Go find a donation center and give up a pint for the cause.

Why should you donate?

The need for blood is great--on any given day, approximately 34,000 units of Red Blood Cells are needed. Accident victims, people undergoing surgery, and patients receiving treatment for leukemia, cancer, or other diseases, such as sickle cell disease and thalassemia, all utilize blood. More than 23 million units of blood components are transfused every year.

Typically, each donated unit of blood, referred to as Whole Blood, is separated into multiple components, such as Red Blood Cells, Plasma, and Platelets. Each component is generally transfused to a different individual, each with different needs

About 12.6 million units (including approximately 643,000 autologous donations) of Whole Blood are donated in the United States each year by approximately eight million volunteer blood donors. These units are transfused to about four million patients per year.

World Blood Donor Day is just around the corner, and while you shouldn't need an excuse to donate blood, here's a built in for you.

Our blood banking system relies on volunteers like you to keep the supply of blood in this country plentiful and safe. In the past, the American Red Cross paid for donors and sought blood units from inmates which led to a tainted blood supply. So it's vitally important that people who can give blood, who have untainted blood, to give blood. That means you.

It's simple. It's takes very little time. It saves lives. And it will make you feel good about yourself.

To find out where to donate, go here. To find out if you're eligible go here

Why should you donate?

There is a multitude of reasons to donate, including the fact that nearly all of the nation's blood supply depends upon volunteers like you. Sixty percent of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood, however, only five percent do. If all blood donors gave at least twice a year, it would greatly strengthen the nation's blood supply. There is no substitute for human blood.

Donating blood saves lives. It may not be your neighbor or co-worker or best friend who needs your blood today. But someone does. Every three seconds, someone needs blood in the United States. Your blood donation could save as many as three patients who need you to be a hero.

While blood donors are needed throughout the year, they are most needed during holidays and in the summer. It is during these times that the number of donations declines while the demand continues or even increases. While a given individual may be unable to donate, he or she may be able to recruit a suitable donor. Relatives and friends of a patient requiring a blood transfusion may wish to help their loved one. Donating blood to replenish the units that were needed is one of the best gifts one can give.

I don't get sick and it's a good thing too because I don't have any sick days. I'm heathy as an ox. Always have been. Always will be. Can't remember the last time I was sick. Sure, I've had some allergies here and there and the occaional sneeze, but I don't get sick, because, you know, getting sick sucks. Fuck getting sick. But I don't get sick, so, like, I wouldn't really know. I don't know what this cough is all about or the sneeze that threatens to dislocate my verterbrae, but it isn't a cold and I'm not sick. I may not be 100 percent, I'm probably running in the low 80s, but I'm not sick. Uh-unh. No. Not me. Not sick. Not sick.

Ok, so they don't really ask questions that specific when you donate blood, but they get pretty close and pretty damn personal. I understand the need to be thorough to ensure a safe blood supply. That I get. What I don't get is after you have answered the questions, the ARC volunteer tech gives you a sheet of paper with two barcode stickers, one if you want them to use your blood, one if you don't. You're supposed to place the sticker of your choice on the answer sheet after the tech walks away.

It just seems strange to me that someone would go through the process of answering all these questions, lie about the answers, put the "don't use my blood sticker on the form" and then have their blood drawn, wasting valuable time and resources of the blood bank. The need for confidentiality is great, but this seems like taking it a little too far. And obviously it's being used, or the Red Cross would stop giving people the option.

Back in November, I wrote about the benefits my consulting company was offering. They were really expensive, at least for the top tier, but the basic coverage, including dental was reasonable, so I went ahead and signed up.

The company has online registration and I tried to sign up, but the first time, it didn't work. I selected all my options, reviewed my selections, and everything seemed fine. But when I went back in to check, the system was telling me that I hadn't signed up for anything. So I did it again, went through the laborious process of their labyrinthine site, and this time it seemed to work. However, later in January, when I was talking to a benefits consultant on the phone about another problem, he said that I wasn't signed up for dental.

I was shocked. I knew I had signed up and I told him this. He said there was nothing I could do. The open enrollment period was over. I would not have coverage. I said that was totally unacceptable and asked to speak to his supervisor. The supervisor was trying to console me and said that he would start an investigation to find out what happened and they would get back to me.

A week later, he had not gotten back to me. I called in again and found out that, in fact, they had made a mistake, I had signed up, and I would be eligible for dental benefits, which was good, since I had already gone to the dentist.

However, the news was all not good. I had two choices. I could have my benefits start on January 1 and be covered, but have to pay for the 2+ weeks where the company said I wasn't covered, which I didn't think was right considering they had made the mistake, or I could start my coverage on February 1st, not pay for time not covered, but then my past visits to the dentist would not be covered. What I wanted was for my benefits to start Jan 1, but for the company to reimburse me for the lost time. It was a small amount of money, but there's some principle involved here. They said I could write a letter of appeal to that affect. I did. My appeal was turned down unceremoniously. They said I could be covered from Jan 1, but would have to pay 60 dollars or so in back premiums which would be deducted from my paycheck. Fine. Whatever.

Then I went to dentist again to get my first filling. I was told by the receptionist that they contacted Met Life and I wasn't covered. Meanwhile, I received a bill from my dentist for close to 300 bucks. I was fucking pissed off. I called my company. They said, I should be covered. There must be some mistake. They would handle it. And they would expedite it so that I could get my group number within 24 hours. Fine. Whatever.

A few days later, I got my group number from Met Life, called my dentist and gave it to them. They said they would resubmit. I thought this was over. Everything should be covered, right? No.

Today I got an email from Met Life:

Dear Andrew,

This message is to inform you that a dental claim is now available for viewing online. You will be able to see dental claim and payment
details for:

Andrew Hecht

You can review this Explanation of Benefits online at any time, and print it out if you'd like!

Ok. Cool. I'm in the system. Everything is groovy. Then I looked more closely at the statement. It said:

Total $284.00
Total Covered $0.00

Then under "Additional Notes", it says:

1: EXPENSE INCURRED PRIOR TO EFFECTIVE DATE OF COVERAGE.

I tried to stay calm. I wanted to call my company, reach through the phone and strangle the shit out someone. Whatever benefit to my health I was receiving by signing up for "benefits" from my company was being far outweighed by the level of stress this was causing me.

I called the company again and they said they would take care of it after initially telling me that my benefits didn't start until May 1st. I think they're trying to give me a cardiac arrest.

My wrist has been giving me fits lately. It's the start of what could be become a serious repetitive strain injury. So I called the occupational therapy office. They sent someone down to my cube to do an ergonomic evaluation. She came around 10 in the morning and watched me work for about 15 minutes. I felt a litter self-conscious since I didn't really have anything to work on. I just screwed around in Photoshop. After 15 minutes, she decided that my monitor was too high and lowered it, that my keyboard was too high and lowered and that my chair didn't have enough lumbar support and she changed it. She also recommended a natural keyboard, you know one with the keyboard split down the middle and angled out so your hands don't lay flat. She also said I needed a larger mouse, one that supported my hand and required my whole arm to move.

Then in afternoon, I went into the occupational therapy clinic and had an examination. No carpal tunnel, which is good. Just minor tendonitis. The nurse gave me an ace bandage, an ice pack that I need to use three times a day and instructed me to take a break every for 2-4 minutes and stretch, which is going to be hard to do. I get into these zones where I'm working and I become so focused on the project at hand that I lose track of time. I'll try though.

I've had very bad RSI before, so it's all a little worrisome. Just after I finished my year abroad in Australia, I went to work for a teleresearch firm in South Melbourne doing hard core data entry. I worked 9-10 hours a day without much of a break for 5 months to save money for my trip to Southeast Asia. I was young and not too bright and didn't really consider my health at all. My desk and chair were not all that comfortable and I spent endless hours hunched over a keyboard constantly looking back and forth between the documents I was entering and my monitor. When I was done, I had these shooting pains in my left shoulder that persist to this day, but only when I do really heavy lifting. That was about 10 years ago.

So I need to nip this little health problem while it's still minor. I already feel better with the ice and the ace bandage. Hopefully when the new keyboard and mouse come, it will all become a thing of the past and I go on like it never happened.

On the way up to Tahoe last Friday, I got a craving for a milkshake. I stopped first at KFC in Placerville, hadn't been there in years. They don't have shakes, it turns out. So on I went to McDonald's where I haven't been since I saw Super Size Me last November.

The difference in price between a small (or regular) and a large is only 50 cents, so I ordered a large chocolate shake. In my youth, I ate at McDonald's all the time. I ordered shakes all the time. There was one size. It was the same as a medium soft drink, pretty small in comparison to what shot out of the drive through window.

I was handed a shake that weighed more than my female cat. It was at least 44 ounces of solid milk and "ice cream", and I'm guessing here, but it had to weigh around 8 pounds. It was absurd. I couldn't even finish a quarter of it. I don't know anyone who could, but there are probably many who try. Please, please, please tell me why does anyone need that much dairy and sugar?

I had my first real cavity filled today and it was a piece of cake, really. It actually took longer to deal with my benefits than it did to fill the cavity.

It only takes about 5 minutes to walk to the On-Site Dental Winnebago, but it's started to rain here (think Tahoe snow) so I hoofed it. Inside the RV, Dr. Oghabian settled me into the dental chair, explained that this was going to be easy, the cavity was tiny and she wasn't even going to shoot me up with Novacaine.

She drilled for about 10 seconds. The whinny, high pitched sound is annoying, but I can deal with it for ten seconds. It took far longer to dry the tooth to prep it for the composite. She stuck some kind of heater on my tooth to dry up the saliva, then patted down the composite. It took her a couple of shots to polish the filling so I couldn't feel it when I bit down, but I can't feel it at all. The whole thing took less than 10 minutes. It's almost like it didn't happen at all.

Back in the waiting room, which is a bench behind the passenger seat in the Winnebago, I chatted with Bryce while she tried unsuccessfully to get any information about me from my insurance company, MetLife. I didn't care because it started to rain buckets (think lots of snow in Tahoe) and I wasn't exactly in a hurry to get back to my desk. Bryce finally gave up and I ran back through the rain to Building Z.

Late in the afternoon on Sunday, I was going up single on Canyon Lift. The two guys to my right were talking about cholesterol drugs. Guy #1 was doing most of the talking. He was saying to Guy #2 that he was worried about his cholesterol drugs because his doctor told him that one of the side effects was liver failure. Guy #1 said he'd been taking these drugs of one kind or another for 8 years. Guy #1 said that he'd much rather not take the drugs and get arteriosclerosis, which can be "cured" with bypass surgery than have liver failure and. Guy #2 nodded in agreement.

This conversation went on for the entire 5 minute ride. Not once during that entire time did either Guy #1 or Guy #2 mention anything about watching what Guy #1 eats, such as reducing or eliminating fried food, red meat, or saturated fat. Not once. Mind boggling. These guys probably left the mountain and went right to a fucking steak house for scotch and prime rib because Guy #1 thinks his Lipitor is some kind of miracle drug. Where does this mentality come from?

I get the same exact feeling from watching heartburn medication commercials which continually pop off on the idea that it don't matter what you eat, you big, fat lard ass (implied), because if you feel like shit after eating that bucket of fried chicken, just take one of these little purple pills, and all is good. And you wonder why we have a health care crisis in this country.

I know a lot of people freak out about it, but I've always been sort ambivalent about going to the dentist. I love to have my teeth cleaned and polished. It feels great. You don't realize how much crap builds up on your teeth until it's blessedly picked away by the dentist.

I've been lucky in my life. I've never had any major dental problems. Yes, I had braces, but that wasn't a huge deal. Up to this point I've never had a cavity. My wisdom teeth came in without incident. My gums are slightly receded from brushing like a maniac, but are in decent condition.

On the other hand, there's nothing I look forward to less than suffering through the dental x-ray business, which I'm sure is against Article II of the Geneva Convention. Forget waterboarding, if the CIA really wants good information out of the Gitmo prisoners, they should threaten them with a series of bite-wings.

This new dentist, who travels around the Bay Area and operates out of a Winnebago by the way, doesn't use the traditional paper x-rays. She's got a digital system, so instead of forcing little pieces of rigid paper as far into your mouth without making you gag as possible, they've got what looks like a heath bar sheathed in condom and they shove this thing in your mouth instead. It's very unpleasant and I would gladly reveal national secrets to avoid it.

I went into this appointment with a few serious concerns. I hadn't been to the dentist since October 2003 when my insurance with the Peace Corps ran out. Since then, I've had trouble with my bite which seems to be shifting alarmingly towards an underbite. And I've had some pain in my lower right wisdom tooth. It was probably just some food stuck back there, but I wanted it checked out.

It turned out that, at least according to this dentist, that there was nothing wrong with my bite. She said I had a perfect bite. She also said there was nothing wrong with my wisdom tooth. However she did find a small cavity on one of the upper left molars which we're going to fill in three weeks.

This is not what I wanted to hear at all. I'm bummed about the cavity, but I can't do much about that. It's minor and will take 10 minutes to fix. What really concerns me is that the dentist denied what I am certain is a serious problem with my bite. I don't really know how to take this. I'm sure I'm right. I mean, it's my fucking mouth I have to live with everyday. So what do I do? Go see another dentist. I honestly don't know.

I'm going to see the dentist today for the first time in over a year. I'm psyched, because I really want my teeth cleaned and have someone take a look at my wisdom teeth, which have been giving me some trouble as of late. I probably should have flossed more in the last year, but there's nothing I can do about that now.

There was also this issue about whether or not I was going to have coverage which got cleared up last week. The consulting company I work for offers benefits. They're not great, but they offer them. I signed up for basic coverage, just to have it, but somehow there was a technical snafu, and I was told that I didn't have dental and there wasn't anything I or they could do about it until the next open enrollment period, this time next year. I was pissed because I know I signed up for dental, so I requested they do an investigation. They did and, although they didn't call me when they discovered the truth, I had to call them, the end result is that I now have coverage and will get my teeth taken care of for 10 bucks or so.

Even better, there's a traveling dental group that comes to my workplace, so I just need to hunt down the right office on our massive campus, and I don't have to drive to some dental office in Oakland or Berkeley. Such convenience.

I've gotten a few letters recently from my consulting company asking me to sign up for the "benefits" that the company offers. Since I left the Peace Corps around this time last, I'm one of the 40 million of so Americans with no health coverage, so I was curious.

I wanted to get a better understanding of the coverage, but there's no description or brochure that outlines the various options, just a list of choices with the accompanying prices. M'Kay.

Right at the top under Medical Options is UHC Choice Plus Platinum. The cost is $129.74. Sounds like a good deal, right? Then you realize that the cost is per week, not per month. How is that a benefit again?

SCHIEFFER: New question, Mr. President, to you.

We are talking about protecting ourselves from the unexpected, but the flu season is suddenly upon us. Flu kills thousands of people every year.

Suddenly we find ourselves with a severe shortage of flu vaccine. How did that happen?

BUSH: Bob, we relied upon a company out of England to provide about half of the flu vaccines for the United States citizen, and it turned out that the vaccine they were producing was contaminated. And so we took the right action and didn't allow contaminated medicine into our country.

We're working with Canada to hopefully -- that they'll produce a -- help us realize the vaccine necessary to make sure our citizens have got flu vaccinations during this upcoming season.

My call to our fellow Americans is if you're healthy, if you're younger, don't get a flu shot this year. Help us prioritize those who need to get the flu shot, the elderly and the young.

The CDC, responsible for health in the United States, is setting those priorities and is allocating the flu vaccine accordingly.

I haven't gotten a flu shot, and I don't intend to because I want to make sure those who are most vulnerable get treated.

We have a problem with litigation in the United States of America. Vaccine manufacturers are worried about getting sued, and therefore they have backed off from providing this kind of vaccine.

One of the reasons I'm such a strong believer in legal reform is so that people aren't afraid of producing a product that is necessary for the health of our citizens and then end up getting sued in a court of law.

But the best thing we can do now, Bob, given the circumstances with the company in England is for those of us who are younger and healthy, don't get a flu shot.

First, Since I work for Chiron, the company in question, which, as I know since I'm currently sitting here in our corporate offices, is not an English company, but one based in Emeryville, CA, that the President is wrong when he says this is a an English company. It's an American company with a manufacturing plant in the U.K.

Second, if we're working with Canada to help produce more flu vaccine and that is obviously "safe", then importing prescription drugs from Canada should also be deemed safe.

Third, Bush said "'We took the right action and didn't allow contaminated medicine into our country", which is not true, since it was English regulators who shut down the plant.

Finally the reason that companies like Chiron don't want to produce the flu vaccine has nothing to do with "manufacturers .... worried about getting sued", but has everything to do with an unstable market from year to year. Companies are reluctant to produce the vaccine because they have no idea whether or not it will sell. If it doesn't they have to throw away millions of vials because the vaccine doesn't keep from year to year. It has nothing to do with litigation, frivolous or otherwise.

I just got back from giving blood here at the Chiron Blood Drive. It felt good to do it. It's been a long time. I haven't been able to donate since 9/11 because of all the traveling I've done. I also was central to this effort because I designed the poster for the drive, so I felt more than my normal obligation to give.

I always get a kick out of the screening process, which asks some absurd questions like have you been to Africa since 1977?, have you had sex with someone who had a blood transfusion since 1977, have you had sex with someone from Africa, have you been to Europe in the last 3 years (Mad Cow), and on and on. 1977 is relevant because it's the year AIDS reared it's ugly head, but since I was 7 in 1977, all the questions about sex are ridiculous.

When I got into the donating room, I said, "I forgot to mention that I had just unprotected sex with an African HIV+ intravenous drug user. Is that important?" Everyone but the nurses laughed, but they don't have much of a sense of humor.

Almost everyday (including today) when I come home from a hard day of skiing, I have to suck down two Ibuprofen to ease the pain in my knees. Either I'm doing something wrong (I don't think so) or I'm just beginning to suffer the humbling effects of the aging process.

Skiing and healthy knees are really mutually exclusive. The human body just wasn't made to move this way for such an extended period of time which is why there are so many ACL tears in my sport. I suppose I've been lucky up to this point, but it is disconcerting to have to quit early because it feels like someone is trying to drive a drywall nail through my kneecaps.

Today, I was on my way to work, taking a different route that usual near the house of Malietoa, the Head of State, when I felt a searing pain in my right foot. I looked and there was some mutt clamped onto my foot. I shook him off and managed to get in a solid kick to the snout before I sped off in agony.

Fortunately, the bite, albeit painful, wasn't as nasty as the first time. Only one canine broke the skin, but it still hurt like a mutherfucker. It's never fun to get bitten by a dog.

I went into the Peace Corps office to tell the Medical Officer and get it cleaned up. Now I'm just another Peace Corps statistic: Unintential Injury. The government cerainly has a way with words, don't it?

Today, I was on my way to work, taking a different route that usual near the house of Malietoa, the Head of State, when I felt a searing pain in my right foot.

I looked and there was some mutt clamped onto my foot. I shook him off and managed to get in a solid kick to the snout before I sped off in agony.

Fortunately, the bite, albeit painful, wasn't as nasty as the first time. Only one canine broke the skin, but it still hurt like a mutherfucker. It's never fun to get bitten by a dog.

I went into the Peace Corps office to tell the Medical Officer and get it cleaned up. Now I'm just another Peace Corps statistic: Unintentional Injury. The government certainly has a way with words, don't it?

Update from the Peace Corps Office of Medical Services, Washington D.C.

SARS is caused by a mutated virus related to the corona virus (the corona viruses cause the common cold).
The virus originated from animals.

Statistics
From May 1, 2003, 5865 probable cases of SARS reported worldwide since November 2002. (Cases need confirmation by laboratory detection of the virus)
391 infected people have died. Fatality rate of 6.6%.

WHO Travel recommendations
Avoid non-essential travel to Hong Kong, China and Singapore.

My body is betraying me at the moment. Here's a rundown:

--The last two fingers on my right hand are still numb. Dr. Atherton says it's nerve damage and nothing to worry about. I should get feeling back soon.

--I stubbed my toe about an hour ago worse than I ever have in my life. This guy started talking to me as I walking down the street. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, and, BAM!, I hit my big toe on the "sidewalk" and a streak of pain shot up my right leg. I was wearing these crappy Samoan flip-flops that people around here call jandles, so I had no protection whatsoever. The front of the toe spilt open like a ripe melon, blood started ooozing out onto the sandals and by the time I made it back to the Peace Corps office, the flap of skin hanging in front of the wound turned a solid shade of purple.

--A splinter that lodged itself in the index finger of my left hand as I sat down on the ferry back from Savai'i last sunday finally fell out when I did my laundry yesterday, leaving behind a an inch long gash in the pad of my finger.

--Makelani, my male kitten, in his eagerness to escape from me when the vet showed up to snip his balls off, scratched the shit out of my palm just below the pinky of my left hand. It's in such an awkward place that's it going to take some time to heal.

--I'm still suffering from a nasty case of jock itch. Details best left unsaid.

I was walking down to Ah Liki Wholesale on Vaea Street. It was a hot day, but I was enjoying the walk through town. I thought this would be good time to go down to Pasi's Three Corner and take a picture of the "Don't Speed, You Idiot" sign, which I've seen a few times, but never had my camera with me to shoot it.

On the way down there, just past the Mid-City Cinema, this guy starts falling in step with me and he wants to chat. All the usual questions. Where are you going? Where are from? How long you been here? Do you have a girlfriend? Do you like Samoan girls? While I'm trying to answer this guy's questions, I'm not paying much attention to where I'm stepping and I stub my toe worse than I ever have in my life. It doesn't help that I'm wearing crappy, worn-down jandals. The front of my right toe takes the brunt of the impact. I look down and see the blood spreading before I feel the pain. The pain is intense, but for some reason, comes slowly. I start limping towards the sign. I feel like an idiot and I'm not even speeding.

Two days after returning from the bike trip around Savai'i, the fingers on my right hand are still numb. I'm not sure what the deal is here. I did put a lot of pressure on them during the ride, leaning on the handle bars, and all, but I would have thought they would return to normal by now.

I had my fifth episode of Sinus Tachycardia on Saturday. ST is when your heart starts racing (the sinus node fires too rapidly see "read more" for more info).

This time it was Saturday afternoon and I was eating a plate of chips outside the new Auto Supacentre in Matautu-Tai. My heart was just speeding along at probably twice the normal rate. When I took a deep breath, my chest felt constricted and my heart started beating faster.

I was with another volunteer, Vic, and I had him put his hand on my chest to check it out. His eyes went wide and he said something along the lines of, "Wow".

I paid a visit to Mental Health Symposium today at the Kitano Tusitala Hotel to check out the lecture on suicide in Samoa. Some of the information was pretty alarming. I took copious notes and will write up something later.

There's this fungal thing going on in my crotch. I don't know what it is, but it's driving me nuts, so to speak. I'm just constantly itching and no amount of anti-bacterial soap seems to do the trick. Time to check in with the PCMO.

I had an ECG today at the Manuia Soifua Clinic with Dr. Atherton to check on my Sinus Tachycardia problem -- that's the racing heart beat.

Dr. Atherton strapped me with electrode like suction cups all over my body. These were linked to a machine that read all my vital signs. When he was done strapping me in I had a bunch of black wires coming out my body and I must have looked like something out of an H.H. Giger picture.

It turns out that he couldn't find anything abnormal, which is certainly a relief.

I was walking home tonight from dinner at Mina's. Mele had cooked some veggie stir fry with garlic and ginger that I had picked up for her at the new market. When I reached the top of the little where my three unit fale sits, my neighbors two huge dogs were barking at me furiously.

I picked up a couple of rocks and walked cautiously towards the house. I didn't really want to use them and make a bad impression on my first night. The dogs didn't calm down, but instead increased their intensity as I edged forward. I could hear my neighbors laughing at me.

As I neared the step up to the porch, the dogs split and I thought I had a free and clear path to my door, but one of the dogs rushed me and bit fiercely into my right calf. I let out a little yelp of pain (probably more like "sonofabitch!).