Beware of the new ,"modern", changed ,MORE PAINFUL home preparations for a colonoscopy!!

I had my first colonoscopy at  age 50,in 1998.
The guidelines from my doctor at the time were to have one every 5 or 10 years, at the maximum.


Then i got Kaiser Medical insurance from work with a sizable co-pay. You heard their commercial about "thrive". Well, after 10 years, Kaiser said "yes it is our policy to have colonoscopies every 10 years, but we only authorized a mailed fecal sample bag for you."  That went on for 4 years of 'no colonoscopy authorized by Kaiser' and sending me another mailed fecal sample bag, which is not the same thing as a colonoscopy visual exam of your shorter large intestine and i did not use.  Kaiser trying to get off cheap, again !!


I am a Vietnam veteran and signed up for V.A. medical insurance.  The V.A. knew i had served in the Navy, but did not know my discharge status, was it Honorable or Dishonorable !!  Yikes, even the V.A. can not keep its records of veterans straight !!  It took months of paperwork, but i finally got my V.A. card and the appointment for a colonoscopy, after 14 years.


The non-V.A. colonoscopy clinic in Menlo Park said "You know that this is going to be a painful procedure, so we recommend someone drive you and you accept the general anesthesia."  But i told them my first and only colonoscopy treatment in 1998 at 50 years of age was only mildly discomforting. What was so painful about the procedure?  They would not tell me but kept insisting on me taking the general anesthesia, but i wanted to be awake, especially if it was that painful and obviously done improperly.  The Menlo Park clinic surprised me and said "we don't want you as an awake patient. appointment cancelled."


So i got an appointment at the V.A. itself in Palo Alto.  My home preparation directions were to abstain from solid food for 2 days before the colonoscopy procedure, not even clam chowder or turkey noodle soup.  No aspirin or vitamins for a week before the exam. OK.  I had been taking lots of Costco generic metamucil to clean out my small and large intestines.


Then the day before i was to drink this plastic gallon jug of special salts with warm water, "at 2pm", a glass every 10 minutes, to suck the water out of my body and flush my long small intestines and short large intestines.  I started drinking and started to get gut cramps.  SEVERE GUT CRAMPS, very Very painful !! No one warned me about these very painful , 7/10 level, bloated abdomen, gut cramps!


Then the massive water flush of diarrhea started!  Cramps and a quart of watery each time diarrhea, mostly clear and with little or no feces. The pain of the cramps got so bad i was almost crying for 6 LONG HOURS! Why had no nurse or doctor warned me about these 'home preparation', long painful cramps as i lay on the couch or sat on the toilet !?  I wasn't even at the hospital yet, and the pain was killing me.


I had finished the "GoLYTELY Peg-3350 and electrolytes, 4 liters" and was next to drink a glass bottle of 10 fluid ounces of Magnesium Citrate, and drink more water. But i was in so much pain i called  the V.A. advice nurse,so patient and helpful, and asked "Why did the Metamucil  home prep. at 50 and procedure then not hurt, and now i can barely get thru half the home preparation because it is so very painful with 6 hours of very painful  gut cramping and diarrhea?" She assured me that this was the 'gold standard of care, nowadays' and that everybody did it this way. Maybe i should consider going under/asleep with general anesthesia once i got to the hospital the next day?  I told her to cancel my appointment, as i could not do Another different bottle of medical salts and More water, as the pain of the at 'home preparation' was just way too much. Then she said maybe they could just do an enema before the colonoscopy  and avoid any more at home preparation pain. What a great idea!; An enema at the V.A. hospital in Palo Alto and none of this gut cramps for 6 hours, a guy almost in tears!!  Maybe next time,,,


BEWARE: modern medicine does not care about the patient's pain, obviously!!.  Especially if they continue to insist on this long and very painful at home preparation that includes 2 very long days without any solid food, ("drink sodas"!!), no aspirin or pain meds!!(right,,,), drinking 2 medical salt solutions and gallons of water, and at least 6+ LONG HOURS OF VERY PAINFUL GUT CRAMPS THEY DO NOT TELL YOU ABOUT, oh and explosive diarrhea for 3 days, so they night before the examination don't expect to get much sleep. You might feel dizzy and weak from the lack of nutrients and dehydration the morning of the exam.

I hope Blacklisting , after what they did to the LA actors decades back in the McCarthy hysteria, is outlawed , nationwide, but i doubt it

Have you looked at all the job postings on Craigslist and how many (transport:SF limos and tour buses is my training) job postings ask for a resume and a DMV printout, but do not mention the company hiring by name?


Nor the pay and benefits?


Sometimes there is this long list of 'what we expect'.  And then a code number to reply to. Nothing else. No company name so you can check on their reputation and website. No pay and benefits to see if it is average or below average.  Just 'don't call us'.


Now is that any way to treat unemployed workers?


It is not only workers having a hard time now with layoffs still in the 1000s and factories closing to move overseas. But the unemployed , many are told up front , to not apply for job openings !!


We have so much to thank the 'too big to fail' bankers for.

Newsweek has an article recently about "Vaccine cure for breast cancer",,, and there is not any other major media discussion about it !??!

Not the Today Show on Comcast's NBC.


Not GMA/ Good Morning America on ABC.


Not on CBS...Not  the 60minutes show. 


Why all the silence?


Isn't this a major, i repeat, MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH DISCOVERY !?


I do not understand all this local and national media silence,,,


Hello ! ,,, "breast cancer!"


hello,,, Susan G. Komen,,,?

Why oh WHY!? ,,, Do banks and stores , like Walgreens, use hooked 6s that look, after 30, like hooked 9s ,,,or 3s or 8s !? Why, why why,,,? What a waste of time and all the errors , for what !?

Someone , please, tell me there is a logical common sense reason for all this eye strain, and misread numbers mistakes.


OK,,, silence.  So who is running this show?  


Won't talk , eh?


Is this "business as usual"? Cuz i don't like it !!

T-Mobile customers with 4G MY TOUCH cellphones, you can either wait for your battery to die in a year or so, and pay T-Mobile store $80 to next day air it to you,,, OR YOU CAN BUY ONE IN ADVANCE at Fry's Electronic's/frys.com for $20.

And,,, if you call frys.com customer service 800#, they will look up and! also call the store you chose to make sure they have the item in hand and put it in your name for pickup! ,,, not just a ghost quantity on the computer !!


The replacement battery for the 4G MY TOUCH touchscreen model is a LENMAR-brand, model-CLZ427HT, for $19.99.


Sweet !! Good hunting,,,

Costo gasoline, members only, STAYS OPEN 1 HR AFTER STORE CLOSES AT 830PM,,,SO 930PM !!

i did not know that,,,
all these years,,,
no big sign,,,
just tiny signs,,,

11 Feb. 2011,Seems like the national media attention has been at the 'Circus' for weeks. Lots of "clowns" and "freaks" and sword-swallowers(why?) and "Magicians" who do tricks like 'Taxes are bad and the Nation's debt does not matter' when we know it is a trick. How long do we as a Nation have to watch this 'Circus' , bored tired with reality, to want to say, 'ok, that was weird, strange, bizarre, radical, extreme,,, now i am ready for Reality again?

What a 'Circus' it was tho!!
The beautiful people,,, that were sooo dumb! Wow.
A doctor and a leader who both showed so little compassion and understanding that America is for all of us, sink or swim, that we will not stop this free-fall unless all can afford to go shopping again and buy new cars and movie tickets and other made in the USA products.  Another 10 or 40 years of just the rich getting pay increases and doing well will not be enough to save the free-falling USA.  It's a nice fantasy, but like watching a Magician , we do know it is misdirection and tricks, not a real special power.  


Just tricks.  Amusing, maybe entertaining until you sense the hate undercurrent and the con.  If we all are fooled just a little bit longer, the rich will be the very few sooo much richer.  Boy, have we wasted a lot of time at this Circus!


And right after one of the biggest public thefts in American history of the bankers forging mortgages to make hybrid investment vehicles,CDS and such, so risky they crashed the Nation's economy.  No banker has gone to jail yet, as we have just bailed them out from pulling us all under.  The question of the law and who broke it and how long the media and the public will ignore the massive size of this gigantic theft in broad daylight, waits.  


Who really cares if bankers can continue to lie cheat steal forge fabricate falsify and foreclose on millions of Americans, under mortgage contracts that lets them take all the years and decades of mortgage payments in the $Trillions and also the houses-homes away from so many, with forged fake fraudulent documents? They are laughing at our public weakness  'all the way to the bank'.   The bait of the American Dream and the nightmare of business-as-usual foreclosure. With a lot of extra fraud thrown in ,,, for extra profit.  Yikes.


Who is big enough to go against the bankers that are still 'too big to fail' , still running Congress with the Clinton killing of the Glass-Steagall Act, and making huge,solar system size profits, illegally?  The public?  The State Attorney Generals? The President and vice-President? The public. Maybe, if it all weren't such an awful mess.

CLOROX Automatic Toilet Bowl Cleaner Tablets ,,, do not use,,, as if you read the label on the inside of your toilet tank "using chlorine tablets my void your toilet warranty and damage the tank valve"

oops,,,
be careful out there,,,

PCH ? Publisher's Clearing House is posting conflicting rules for their current $3M contest !! Does PCH need to be publicly spanked, again!, for bad behavior ?

I get several email entries to the current PCH $3m contest a day,,, and another current contest for "A Million Dollars per year for Life".   This morning i got one that said "Search now to get  triple entries!"  Yesterday i got 5 email entries ,,, before 1030am !  That is a lot of time rejecting the junk they are pushing, pages and pages of it, not just magazines.


Last week i got an email entry that took not a minute or two on-line, but over 5 minutes !  It just kept going on and on , page after page of 'stuff' i probably did not want, and in this terrible economy do not need to be in debt for.  So i decided to actually read the rules from PCH,,, and i was shocked.


8 jan 2012 entry says "OFFICIAL RULES A limit of one online entry per day is allowed per individual and per email address from this online promotion unless otherwise specified. Subsequent entries determined to be submitted from the same email address or from the same individual using multiple email addresses in violation of this rule WILL BE DECLARED INELIGIBLE. 
All entries received by 11:59 P.M., ET, 3/31/12 from this Bulletin will be eligible for our $3 Million SuperPrize (r) (Giveaway No. 1830)."




Then scroll down and under "SWEEPSTAKES FACTS" it says "Winner may be determined earlier." !!!


and ,,, "Enter As Often As You Like. You don't have to wait for us to e-mail you an entry opportunity." !!


SO BY THEIR OWN RULES, IN DIRECT CONFLICT ABOUT ONE EMAIL ENTRY PER DAY PER PERSON AND "Enter As Often As You Like", the winner might have already been chosen, and i have already been "DECLARED INELIGIBLE" because i accepted PCH's 5 email entry offers and urgings, before 1030am,,, so why waste my time !?  You, PCH, have already disqualified me, so stop sending me entries with are worthless by your own contrary rules !!


So i called , twice, and yes , both the male and female who eventually answered the phone for PCH said "yes, you can only enter once per day per person."


I believe most Americans are under the PCH pushed false impression and statement that you can "Enter As Often As You Like".  And this is why i hate De-Regulation and the Republicans pushing it; it results in widespread DISHONESTY! People and society needs rules!, just like capitalism needs rules!, not some unfettered fantasy unproven and pushed by some extreme right-wing politicians trying to bankrupt Social Security and Medicare. 


President Bush would not recognize "global warming" as a scientific fact, so the glaciers in Glacier National Park and Alaska are melting much faster that if we had put the best stack cleaning technology on all our coal plants and factories.  President Bush, we now know, lied to us about "links to al queda" and "weapons of mass destruction" and the "threat of the Iranian leader staying in power" to get us into a costly war we still can not afford in blood and not just $Billions, but $Trillions of wasted tax dollars ,,, that could have been SPENT BETTER ON REPAIRING THE U.S. INFRASTRUCTURE. 


We need blogs, because the American media is now ENTHRALLED with the circus of the Republican races, without a hint of reality honesty about what this will mean in just 4 more years or 8 more years, to all of us, not just the super rich individuals sick with greed and the super profitable corporations sick with unjustified massive tax breaks when OUR NATION is sooo in debt.  Many voters seem to be as irresponsible to our nation and this national debt as to think more tax cuts are the answer, just like children would. 


The American media should be doing a much better job. We lost the "Newsroom" PBS9 tv show in the sfbayarea, and reports talking honestly about politicians has never been the same since.

Always ALWAYS bring a SLEEP MASK to your DENTIST to reduce the STRESS of the too bright lights

It is so much more comfortable, also with earplugs or full ears coverage music headphones !!
And a soft pile or polarfleece cheap blanket so you can stay warmer,,, and can wash it when you get home with Woolite.
Eyes, ears, warm body blanket,,, much more comfortable dentist office cleaning, 4xs/yr, visit.
Also recommend dental tape over dental floss, much less bleeding and more comfortable on fingers with wider dental 'tape'.

S.F.'s Golden Gate Park needs lots more pathway park benches, like Paris, the green curvy one ,,, LOTS MORE!

Republicans are STILL!! succeeding in BLAMING OBAMA FOR OUR ECONOMY,,, WHEN EVERYBODY KNOWS IT WAS 2 TERMS, 8 YEARS OF BUSH43 THAT GOT US HERE, THE "great recession".

Amazing how only 3 years since the Republican Party fall from power in 2008, that the Republicans are so successful in re-writing history,,, another lie,,,and not taking any responsibility(typical!)

The State of California has stopped its 511 PROGRAM, where you could CALL 511 and find out the traffic ahead, kind of a good idea it was. GONE.

9jan2012 update: "511" did not work last week when i called. And it did not work this Monday morning when i called about traffic over 17N, with a woman in a grey van who ran out of gas!, in the fast lane!,natch, and no one stopped for 20 minutes to help her get to the wide dirt shoulder or call "911".  20 minutes!! What the he-ll !! Finally 2 good Samaritans stopped traffic and got her to roll down the hill onto the right shoulder. 20 minutes, dames.  Wish women would remember to fill up their gas tanks,, and put air in their tires,,, once in a week or so. "This service is no longer available."  But now, "511", Traffic Status, it works,again. 


(old part-rant)It only shows how politically and morally and financially bankrupt California is(dvd 'Enron' if you have been sleeping in class or too busy to know what happened to Ca. and is now happening to the USA).


We have a good honest hard working Governor, but even a minority of Republicans in the State Legislature are stopping progress, just like in Congress on the national level.


It must be one party rule in this next election, 2012.  That is our only hope,,, for Progressives, and Liberals, and the Financially Responsible, and for any that are not Rich.  If the voting public elects more Republicans out of more frustration like they did in 2008, it will only mean more gridlock and problem avoidance, with the USA slipping further and further into poverty for most, less factories and jobs for most, and less affordable housing for most. 

December 2011 and the BIG WHITE CHRISTMAS LIE ,,, EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT DISHONESTLY IS,,, "tax cut" when for the Republicans this is DE-FUNDING SOCIAL SECURITY !!

All the media is doing it,,,mostly white people.
All the Republican(the more dishonest party, the one that got us into this Great Recession with Bush43, remember?!, the political party with their primary and shameful goal of reducing taxes mainly for the super rich corporations and super rich people,those that can more easily afford tax increases, back when we had sensical progressive taxation,pre-Reagan) white people are saying this BIG  WHITE CHRISTMAS LIE "tax reduction for most Americans", when what we need most for SSN is the removal of the tax cap on salaries over , what ,$200,000.


Even the President, Obama, as fallen for this PIG in Christmas sheep woolly covering, instead of calling a 'spade a spade', honestly, and calling this what it is 'the Dumb Second Tax Break, After i Dumb Extended the Bush Tax Cuts for the Rich.'  


Take the fool's phony lie wrapping off this Congress charade and all you have is ,,, another tax cut we can not afford.


And at Christmas!!
All these white people, and black people, and brown people elected Representatives and Senators are on this continuing train wreck of irresponsible denial at the national level ,,, instead of being responsible and honest.


Oh, yes!
It is a 'white Christmas' for all of us,,, if we don't grow up!, act mature!, stop lying to ourselves!, and face our problems! Serious financial problems in the USA.  


This will go down in history as the Christmas of 2011, the Christmas of the 'white lie' that the media spread from Congress and the White House, all over the country.

How does the V.A. hospitals get away, like Kaiser, with a 3 piece catheter-leg tube-leg bag urine system ,,, instead of a 2 part system with may less failures of urine spills in beds, on carpets, at dinner tables ??

My 93 yr old Dad is a multiple decorated WW2 Navy officer veteran registered with the V.A. and Kaiser insurance-hospital policy member.  A real live, not dead, hero of the Pacific War.


Yet the V.A. , and Kaiser, use Hollister-brand slip on and slip off connectors for the leg bag and leg hose, instead of a Coloplast-brand combined unit with less failures and urine spills and a permanent, secure fitting between the leg bag and leg tube.


Why do both the V.A. and Kaiser get away with using high failure rate stuff instead of better stuff !!?


Let's sick "60minutes" on them both.
Ha.

Kaiser medical insurance-hospitals are still advertising "thrive". My ass! In over 10 years of ER/employer mostly paid policy there, i have not had one gloved hand, finger prostate check !

Curious to hear the percentage of men at Kaiser who get gloved finger, prostate checks every year.  Let's hear you brag about that !!


And not one colonoscopy in over 10 years.  Lots of fecal sample bags in the mail.  As if !! But not one colonoscopy, even tho they say their standard is "a colonoscopy every 10 years over 50."


Medical care in the USA mostly is too expensive and of widely varying quality.
My sis just had a broken cheek bone badly repaired by a cosmetic surgeon who calls himself "Superman".  What a joke, on us Americans for accepting such  a low sub-standard of care medicine and insurance !

Costco's "Tri-Tip Chili", item?#493772,,, is TOO SPICY HOT, COVERING UP HIDEN FLAVORS. Not recommended.

Sound good.  And there are lots of pieces of steak.  But taste is one-dimensional of too much spicy heat instead of a concert of flavors.

Costco item #222461, Petite Cuisine's "spinach and jalapeno" pastry hors d'oeuvres,,, taste lousy, more pastry than spinach !! Recommend you do not buy and try.

i ate through the whole box in a couple weeks, as pre-dinner appetizers or light breakfast microwave snacks.


Ugh.  Not tasty or delicious !!

Everyone,like the media, is "taking" about "taking care of recent Veterans", but does anybody LOOK AT THE V.A. WEBSITE,,, AND SEE THERE IS NO "SIGN-IN" BOX ON THE HEADER !!

Hello !!
Bla bla bla "we care about Veterans",,,
V.A. hospitals are second or third rate and anybody who says different is a politician or liar!


But look and see how difficult it is for Veterans to log onto the V.A. website!!
Not interested ?  Yeah, i thought it was just p.r.-b.s. empty, only to impress, "talk".

Had a T-Mobile 4G smart phone for under one year, and the "rechargeable HTC battery" DIES,,,

Called 800# and T-Mobile Customer Service and was told to go into any T-Mobile store and buy a new one for "$35-40", as my Extended Warranty costly plan does not cover batteries, expensive rechargeable batteries.


Called the 8 T-Mobile stores in Silicon Valley, and none had any spare rechargeable batteries, just new phones that come with batteries.  In Silicon Valley!!


I call 800# T-Mobile Customer Service back, and they still insisted that the T-Mobile Stores had replacement batteries.  Yikes!!  Then told to go to the T-Mobile Website and buy it there, listed for $50+shipping+tax!!, not "$35-40".  It cost me $80 to next day air it from Texas!!  My phone was massive malfunctioning on a power cord in the wall outlet ,,, and a quickly dying original battery.


Newegg recommended Accessory One, but they don't list "replacement batteries" on the left margin lists and don't have a search box,,,and "don't call us" customer service when you do call !!  Web sales reviews on Amazon and Google say many 'replacement HTC batteries' DO NOT FIT OR WORK OR LAST VERY LONG !!


Yikes!!  What a Nightmare to get a replacement battery for a T-Mobile 4G smart phone.  Oh, and i have tried 4 different plans , from $120/mo. to $50 to $80, and from 4G to 2G and to much touted 5G,,, and found little or no difference in speed of page loading on the web, outdoors.  So here i am PAYING FOR 4G OR 5G AND MY T-MOBILE PHONE KEEPS SAYING, IN SILICON VALLEY, "2G" !!