Gloriously warm, wonderfully springlike day! It must have been in the sixties, with blue skies and brilliant sun--what a treat after the clouds and cold. Hope it lasts.
The podiatrist came and actually performed surgery in the living room on Pat's right big toe. He injected Novocaine, then cut out half the toenail down the middle. I have to dress it every day for several weeks with saline solution, peroxide, and an antibiotic cream, then a gauze bandage. Never studied health care--the last thing in the world I'd ever want to do--but guess I signed up for it with those fateful words, "I do."
Wider: From an article in Harper's, "Sick In The Head; Why Americans Will Not Get The Healthcare They Need," some startling statistics:
"In 2006, Americans spent $2.1 trillion on health care—at $7,026 per person, more than any other nation—and yet we lag far behind other nations in such measures as infant mortality, life expectancy, and early detection of life-threatening illnesses."
Yet single payer healthcare is generally ignored both by the criminals in Washington and most of the mainstream media. Why? Gee, I don't want to get all cynical, but could it be because the insurance companies are against it? The present archaic and outrageously unfair "system" supports their bottom lines so nicely and anything more equitable would be "socialized medicine." So we'll continue to have one of the least efficient and poorest functioning healthcare in the developed world, aided and abetted by the criminals in Washington.
But 'twas ever thus, I suppose. Came across this gem on governments, from Sir Thomas More:
"They are a conspiracy of the rich, who, on pretence of managing the public, only pursue their private ends, and devise all the ways and arts they find out, first, that they may, without danger, preserve all that they have so aquired, and then that they may engage the poor to toil and labour for them, at as low rates as possible and oppress them as they please."
That was written 500 years ago. Hey, anybody want to argue we've been treated to "hope and change?"
Later: At WW, lost the teeny-weeny .2 (two-tenths of a pound or, I think, about 3 ounces) I had gained last week, so am back at 128.8 with 70 pounds off. I've been within my desired range of 125-130 for more than two months and although I'd prefer the lower number, I consider this perfectly okay.