Hi Blog,
It's been a while, I know. But I have to rant about something, so here it goes.
I work in an HIV Clinic. Patients with HIV have elevated calorie and protein needs compared to healthy adults without HIV. Many times the virus and/or meds cause the patients to lose their appetite and lose weight. When this happens, I usually recommend an oral nutritional supplement such as Ensure or Boost to help them gain some weight back and get their appetite to return.
I have no problem giving Ensure and Boost to these types of patients. It's the entitled, greedy mofo's I don't like to give it to. People who are 50# over their ideal body weight, haven't lost a pound in years and eat everything in sight are always the ones that think they need Ensure the most because *GASP* they lost 1# over the past month and they think it's the end of the world. Even though, in reality, they could stand to lose at least 30#.
The issue that inspired this post was that I just saw a patient a couple of minutes ago. The patient tells me she is swollen and retaining water, so my first goal is to educate her about a low salt diet. Meanwhile, she is eating a bag of Goldfish crackers while nodding mindlessly at what I'm saying about not eating those kind of things. Is she interested in relieving the swelling at all?? Noooooo!!! All she is concerned about is getting more "Ensure milk". I swear to God, my head almost exploded there in my office. I told her my lie about "I'll see what I can do about it, but Medicaid probably won't pay for it" and sent her on her way with some low sodium diet info she is probably going to throw out the minute she gets home.
Ugh, I need to find a new profession. One where I don't talk to brick walls every day.
Friday, October 03, 2008
Thursday, May 01, 2008
It Hurts to Pray to God, When God is Dying Too
Last night, the little woman and I visited downtown Albany to see Jason Webley and Reverend Peyton and The Big Damn Band play at Red Square. I have seen Jason a couple times already and absolutely love him and I knew of Reverend Peyton from a song they do together called "Two Bottles of Wine"...but more on that later.
Turns out, the email I got about the show was a little misinformed. I thought the show was starting around 8pm, so we got there a little after 7pm. Turns out the show didn't start until around 9:30 or 10pm! Oh well, we just sat at the bar, had a couple beers and got to chat up Jason a little bit.
Jason went on first and it was kinda sad because not a lot of people knew who he was. Most people were there for Rev. Peyton as he had played there before. Jason's set was completely unplugged because he couldn't see the audience from the stage. I think at the end of the night, there were a couple Webley converts in the audience. At the end of his set he appropriately played his "May Day" song and we all learned how to do the "Gnome-y" dance (pulling your shirt over your heard and kicking your legs out). Fun stuff!
Click on the pics to see the whole thing, Blogger is being funny today.
After that, Reverend Peyton took the stage with his Big Damn Band and played a great set of Delta Blues and old gospels and traditionals. He was really great and shared the stage with his brother on drums and pickle barrel and his wife, Breezy, on washboard. At the end of the set, Jason came back up to sing a couple songs with them. The last being "Two Bottles of Wine". They really kicked up the tempo of this and we all danced like crazy people. After the last song, they came back up for an encore but stated that nothing could top "Two Bottles of Wine"....except maybe doing it again, only this time a hell of a lot faster and louder! It was crazy and my voice is hoarse today from yelling out "two bottles of wine" in the chorus.
I hope these guys make it back up to this area sometime again soon. They are really the best!!
Turns out, the email I got about the show was a little misinformed. I thought the show was starting around 8pm, so we got there a little after 7pm. Turns out the show didn't start until around 9:30 or 10pm! Oh well, we just sat at the bar, had a couple beers and got to chat up Jason a little bit.
Jason went on first and it was kinda sad because not a lot of people knew who he was. Most people were there for Rev. Peyton as he had played there before. Jason's set was completely unplugged because he couldn't see the audience from the stage. I think at the end of the night, there were a couple Webley converts in the audience. At the end of his set he appropriately played his "May Day" song and we all learned how to do the "Gnome-y" dance (pulling your shirt over your heard and kicking your legs out). Fun stuff!
Click on the pics to see the whole thing, Blogger is being funny today.
After that, Reverend Peyton took the stage with his Big Damn Band and played a great set of Delta Blues and old gospels and traditionals. He was really great and shared the stage with his brother on drums and pickle barrel and his wife, Breezy, on washboard. At the end of the set, Jason came back up to sing a couple songs with them. The last being "Two Bottles of Wine". They really kicked up the tempo of this and we all danced like crazy people. After the last song, they came back up for an encore but stated that nothing could top "Two Bottles of Wine"....except maybe doing it again, only this time a hell of a lot faster and louder! It was crazy and my voice is hoarse today from yelling out "two bottles of wine" in the chorus.
I hope these guys make it back up to this area sometime again soon. They are really the best!!
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Been A While....and Recent Watchings
After a long hiatus, I return to purge my thoughts on a couple things.
We watched "Grizzly Man" last night after having it on our DVR forever. It was an interesting documentary about a troubled man who, in an attempt to fight and conquer his demons, went to live with the grizzly bears of Alaska for over 13 summers. The last summer he was there, he and his girlfriend, Amie, were mauled to death by a bear. After watching the film I can't decide if Timothy Treadwell was a good guy or a bad guy.
He was good in the sense that he was bringing these bears to the forefront and letting people see a side of them that they probably wouldn't get to see otherwise. He went to schools and did presentations for free, just to get the word out there.
On the bad side, I think he was desensitizing the bears...and foxes...to humans. Some of these bears would approach him and allow him to touch them. The fox dens he camped by became part of his extended family. They would eat out of his hand and allow him to pet them frequently. This has the possibility of being very damaging to these animals by making them not as fearful of humans as they should be.
The part of the movie that really bothered me was when he re-routed the river so that the bears could access the fish more easily in a time of little rain fall. Tampering with nature and the natural order of things is totally out of bounds in my opinion. Yes, the bears were starving and forced to eat their own young because of this. Yes, this is sad, but this is the way nature works sometimes. I am not naive enough to think that some of these problems with the "natural order" of things is not due to humans, but still, it's wrong to change it.
At the end of the day, I am not going to be one of those people that say that Tim and his girlfriend "got what they deserved" or that "they were asking for it". As the post film discussion mentioned, no one deserved to get pulled apart by a bear and eaten. But, these are wild animals and I think Tim Treadwell forgot that after a while. He truly thought that he was a bear and was somewhat invincible against them.
_____________________________________________________________
Another film I finally got around to watching was "Earthlings". You can find it by a simple search on videos.google. This is definitely a must watch for everyone. A lot of the information I already knew, being a tree-hugging hippie and all. But it was still eye-opening to watch.
It brings to light how we exploit and use animals in almost all aspects of our lives. For food, for clothing, for entertainment, etc. It is a very hard film to watch at certain points. In fact, Dana couldn't even watch the whole thing, but I forced myself to, even with tears in my eyes.
One phrase uttered towards the end of the film really stuck with me and it was this: Humans are the only animal that inflict pain on other animals, knowing full well that it is causing pain and suffering. This may not be the exact quote, but it was basically the point. And it's true. Humans inflict pain fully knowing that the animal is feeling pain, yet we do it anyway. We also inflict this pain for our own amusement. Just look at any circuses, rodeos or the bull fighting in Spain. No other animal on Earth behaves this way. And we are the so called "higher intelligence" right??
I'm not trying to convert people to vegetarianism/veganism but after watching this film please tell me how you can look at that Thanksgiving turkey the same way again.
We watched "Grizzly Man" last night after having it on our DVR forever. It was an interesting documentary about a troubled man who, in an attempt to fight and conquer his demons, went to live with the grizzly bears of Alaska for over 13 summers. The last summer he was there, he and his girlfriend, Amie, were mauled to death by a bear. After watching the film I can't decide if Timothy Treadwell was a good guy or a bad guy.
He was good in the sense that he was bringing these bears to the forefront and letting people see a side of them that they probably wouldn't get to see otherwise. He went to schools and did presentations for free, just to get the word out there.
On the bad side, I think he was desensitizing the bears...and foxes...to humans. Some of these bears would approach him and allow him to touch them. The fox dens he camped by became part of his extended family. They would eat out of his hand and allow him to pet them frequently. This has the possibility of being very damaging to these animals by making them not as fearful of humans as they should be.
The part of the movie that really bothered me was when he re-routed the river so that the bears could access the fish more easily in a time of little rain fall. Tampering with nature and the natural order of things is totally out of bounds in my opinion. Yes, the bears were starving and forced to eat their own young because of this. Yes, this is sad, but this is the way nature works sometimes. I am not naive enough to think that some of these problems with the "natural order" of things is not due to humans, but still, it's wrong to change it.
At the end of the day, I am not going to be one of those people that say that Tim and his girlfriend "got what they deserved" or that "they were asking for it". As the post film discussion mentioned, no one deserved to get pulled apart by a bear and eaten. But, these are wild animals and I think Tim Treadwell forgot that after a while. He truly thought that he was a bear and was somewhat invincible against them.
_____________________________________________________________
Another film I finally got around to watching was "Earthlings". You can find it by a simple search on videos.google. This is definitely a must watch for everyone. A lot of the information I already knew, being a tree-hugging hippie and all. But it was still eye-opening to watch.
It brings to light how we exploit and use animals in almost all aspects of our lives. For food, for clothing, for entertainment, etc. It is a very hard film to watch at certain points. In fact, Dana couldn't even watch the whole thing, but I forced myself to, even with tears in my eyes.
One phrase uttered towards the end of the film really stuck with me and it was this: Humans are the only animal that inflict pain on other animals, knowing full well that it is causing pain and suffering. This may not be the exact quote, but it was basically the point. And it's true. Humans inflict pain fully knowing that the animal is feeling pain, yet we do it anyway. We also inflict this pain for our own amusement. Just look at any circuses, rodeos or the bull fighting in Spain. No other animal on Earth behaves this way. And we are the so called "higher intelligence" right??
I'm not trying to convert people to vegetarianism/veganism but after watching this film please tell me how you can look at that Thanksgiving turkey the same way again.
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