So, in the next week or two, I am going to have a colonoscopy, a nuclear stress test, and a renal ultrasound. From what I have heard, the colonoscopy will be a real ordeal. Apparently, you spend the day before the procedure eating a liquid diet while taking medication to “flush out” your colon. The next day, they stick a giant metal camera into your colon and look around for polyps. About the only good thing about all of this is the verset (sleepy medicine) you get before they start. One of my friends at dialysis suggested I get a “virtual colonoscopy” instead, as it is non-obtrusive, is much more accurate, allows the doctors to see around 99% of your colon (compared to about 70% with the traditional method), and only takes between 12 and 15 minutes. However, the transplant hospital is fighting it. Too bad, because the virtual colonoscopy is also cheaper than the traditional method.

So, I am hoping that this turn of events is indeed indicative of an impending call from the hospital. I have been waiting for more than 8 years now for a transplant, and the waiting has really taken a toll on me. In fact, at the transplant hospital’s suggestion, I have started seeing a therapist once a week to deal with all of the feelings and mental pressures. My therapist describes the waiting process I have gone through like sitting on the edge of your seat in the movie theater during a really suspenseful movie, only doing this for many years instead of a couple hours. That sounds about right, as every time the transplant hospital calls me, and I see the caller ID, I about jump out of my skin.

So, for now, I continue to keep calm and go about my daily activities, while still waiting for the call which will transform my life back to as normal as it can get.

Now, after the passage of an entire year of healing, exercising, rehabing, and working I can look back and take measure of what has happened, what has been learned, and what remains to be done. The amputation site itself is fully healed, and from all appearances the surgeon did a beautiful job. One of the first things a nurse will say when they look at the amputation site is how good it looks. Wearing and walking on the prosthetic has been a real challenge, mostly due to my lack of balance. I have no feeling in the prosthetic, and due to neuropathy I have no feeling in my right foot either. This makes standing a lot more work than I remember, but I am getting the hang of it. The broken femur in the right leg is still healing, and the right leg is still pretty weak. I do what I can to make it stronger, but I have to be careful not to re-fracture the bone.

I have learned a lot about humility, and the lessons were probably the most important part of my recovery. My ego has shrunken several sizes and I cannot help but feel that I am a better man for it. I have also learned about patience and hard work, and the rewards to be earned through their exercise. It is do to them that I am able to be independent with my prosthetic and rejoin the daily struggle. Finally, I was once again reminded that I have a wonderful wife and family, who have given their undivided support to me whenever I needed it.

One week after President Obama’s speech to Congress, opposition to his health care reform plan has reached a new high of 55%. The latest Rasmussen Reports daily tracking poll shows that just 42% now support the plan, matching the low first reached in August.

Not only do a majority of ordinary citizens reject Obamacare, but 45% of practicing physicians say they will consider retiring if Obamacare passes:

Two of every three practicing physicians oppose the medical overhaul plan under consideration in Washington, and hundreds of thousands would think about shutting down their practices or retiring early if it were adopted, a new IBD/TIPP Poll has found.

The poll contradicts the claims of not only the White House, but also doctors’ own lobby — the powerful American Medical Association — both of which suggest the medical profession is behind the proposed overhaul.

It also calls into question whether an overhaul is even doable; 72% of the doctors polled disagree with the administration’s claim that the government can cover 47 million more people with better-quality care at lower cost.

This is pretty bad news for the Obama Administration, but you wouldn’t know it by listening to them:

White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod had strong words for Americans who demonstrated at the Capitol in opposition of the president’s health care reform plans.

“My message to them is, they’re wrong,” Axelrod said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“I don’t believe that some of the angriest, most strident voices we saw during the summer were representative of the thousands of town hall meetings that went on around the country that came off peacefully, that were constructive, people voicing their points of view,” Axelrod said.

That is all the Obama Administration will give the millions of Americans who oppose the current reform plans being debated in Congress: dismissal. They don’t agree with The One© so they are simply dismissed like so much refuse. Basically, the Obama Administration is behaving like a three year old child sitting in his highchair, with his fingers in his ears, yelling, “LA! LA! LA! I DON’T HEAR YOU! LA! LA! LA!”

Remember, in this Administration, this is “bipartisanship” and “reaching out” to the other side.

So, what exactly do these millions of Americans object to in these proposals? Here is what I think:

1. They’re tired of being lied to. Obama continues to say that this reform will not raise the deficit by one cent, while the CBO and other organizations say that it will add trillions to the deficit over the next ten years. Obama says that the cost savings realized by his proposals will pay for the proposal entirely, and the economics experts practically die laughing.
2. Obama says that if you like your plan, you don’t have to change. What he doesn’t say is that economic reality will require small and medium size businesses, in order to stay competitive, to stop offering health care benefits once their employees can get it from the government. This will close the majority of insurance companies, reducing the choice available and forcing the majority of Americans into his government-run system.
3. Obama says that he’s not going to pull the plug on granny. Reality says that we have a doctor shortage right now, and if you throw another 40 million people into the system without adding a huge number of new doctors, care will be rationed by default. Reimbursements to health care providers will be reduced to lower costs, and that will prevent a great many people from becoming doctors, especially when it means being overworked for less money.

The present health care system is not perfect, not by a long shot. However, the proposals currently on the table from the Democrats are not serious alternatives to what is presently available. All these proposals do is bloat the health care bureaucracy, screw health care providers, and discourage drug companies from doing research and development on new drugs and treatments. How does any of that help anyone?

Now you understand why this article from the Chicago Tribune has enraged me:

As he pushes his cart around the Southwest Side selling steamed ears of corn, sliced cucumbers and other street food, Omar Castillo embodies a potential life-and-death issue that has become the third rail in the debate over health-care reform.

Peddling snacks — doused with lime and chili powder and priced at $1.50 each — is how Castillo, 19, is trying to pay for expensive medication he needs to stay healthy after receiving a kidney transplant last year.

Because he is in the U.S. illegally, he has no ready access to aid for such long-term medical expenses. To cover such needs for an estimated 6.8 million undocumented and uninsured immigrants in the country, some health-care advocates have proposed broadening the health-care proposals before Congress. But fierce opposition has kept the idea off the table.

Boo freaking who! Cry me a river. While Americans like me, who have been waiting for years, have not received transplants, illegal aliens who can not pay for medical care and who pay little or no taxes are being escorted to the front of the line. There is no excuse for bypassing law-abiding sick Americans to give a donated American kidney to an illegal alien.

None whatsoever.

You know what, let this guy go back to Mexico and get his transplant there. Oh, wait…

Asked about returning to Mexico or other homelands to receive more comprehensive care, the group broke into laughter.

“Over there, it’s a thousand times worse,” said Juan Zavala, a legal immigrant from Mexico and a transplant recipient who started the informal network. “Here, you may get treated poorly by some nurse or doctor. There? They’ll give you a kick and tell you you’re out of luck.”

Of course they laughed! Why should they get their medical care in Mexico when they can get it for free here?

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the liberal bleeding hearts, always ready ready to spend everyone else’s money on charity:

Concerns over the financial burden have led other hospitals to make similar decisions denying treatment, said Julie Contreras, an organizer in Chicago for the League of United Latin American Citizens.

“These people, some of them are going to die,” Contreras said. “When a hospital denies treatment to any human being … this is flat-out immoral.”

Actually, what’s immoral is letting those of us who play by the rules, suffer the pain, uncertainty and financial strain wait for years to even be considered for a transplant, while people who are here illegally are sent to the front of the line and treated at the taxpayers’ expense. It’s not only immoral, it’s disgusting!

“I just want a normal life,” said Cruz, during a recent round of kidney dialysis paid for by the state. “Right now, this machine is my life.”

Gee, what do you think the rest of us want? You’re not special lady, you’re simply one of hundreds of thousands of people with ESRD on dialysis. Hell, you’re not even working when you’re not being dialyzed. Try working a full 40 hour work-week while on dialysis. When you start falling asleep in your chair half an hour after getting home from work each night, and then sleeping until noon on the weekends to catch up, then come and talk to me.

“I just want a normal life.” Call the wahmbulance, will ya?

WASHINGTON — Senator Arlen Specter and the health and human services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, were heckled and booed in Philadelphia on Sunday.

In Austin on Saturday, a throng of protesters enveloped Representative Lloyd Doggett, Democrat of Texas, at a supermarket where he was trying to meet constituents. They carried signs that said “No Socialized Health Care” and chanted “Just say no!”

And in Morrisville, Pa., Representative Patrick J. Murphy, a Democrat, expected 25 people at a “Congressman on Your Corner” event on Saturday. Instead he was met by a boisterous crowd of about 150 and a barrage of questions on health care.

Americans have read the Obamacare proposal, even if the Congress and the President have not, and do not like what they see. Rationed health care for everyone, denial of health care for senior citizens, and the forced closure of the private insurance industry are just a few of the things which are causing the anger.

Democrats are trying to write-off these demonstrations as “extreme” and “fringe,” but the truth is that the people who are complaining are just regular folks who have tired of this Administration’s endless string of broken promises. Now, as top Administration officials say that taxes on the middle class will have to be raised to pay for this proposal, in contradiction of Obama’s campaign promises, Americans are getting angry. And the Democrats have noticed:

Voters are expected to make known their growing doubts about Obama’s push. Among the emotional issues driving those doubts are fears about government-run insurance plans, a growing federal deficit, the impact on small businesses, abortion and end-of-life provisions. Political parties and special interest groups will add to the cacophony by spending millions of dollars on competing ads.

The White House intends to counter those influences aggressively throughout the month. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, for instance, that he believes some groups are “manufacturing that anger.”

This week, before the debate crystallizes outside of Washington, the White House hopes to build as much momentum as possible.

Of course! The only dissent possible to one of the Obamessiah’s ideas is manufactured dissent. It couldn’t possibly be genuine, because only an idiot would stop a government takeover of the health care system, right? In any event, it doesn’t look like the Democrats care whether or not you want this reform or not; they’re going to jam it through using each and every dirty trick they can:

Reid said that a bipartisan bill is the goal, “if there’s any way humanly possible” given the “loud, shrill voices” aiming to derail the process. But he and the other senators gathered around him also said health care reform would happen without bipartisan support if it wasn’t possible.

“The preference is do it together,” Baucus said shortly after the White House meeting. “The American people do not like partisanship. But the American people also don’t like groups of people trying to kill something that should be done, should get passed. … So we’re going to get it done.”

As is usual for Democrats these days, Reid is lying through his teeth. They have no intention of trying to pass a bi-partisan bill; they’re going to use reconciliation to pass the bill with only 51 votes instead of the required 60:

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the third-ranking Senate Democrat, raised the prospect of the leadership crafting a bill to Democratic specifications and using a rare legislative procedure to expedite legislation fulfilling President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority.

“We will have contingencies in place. These plans will likely be considered as a last resort, but they are on the table,” Schumer told reporters on a conference call. He declined to elaborate.

…

Schumer said Democratic leaders continue to look at invoking a procedural maneuver that would allow them to pass the health bill with 51 instead of 60 votes. That route is viewed as a last resort since it limits what legislative measures would be allowed and any broad policy initiatives would probably have to be limited.

Schumer and the rest of the Democrat chain-gang will use this trick at the first opportunity they get. For weeks now, Democrats have been telling the public that the bill has to be passed “right now,” or “quickly.” Hell, they want it passed so fast that no one on the Democrat side of the isle has even read the bill!

So, can anything be done to stop these liberal weasels from railroading the public into socialized health care? Well, the August Recess gives us all a chance to express our opinions to our Congressional Representatives, assuming that they are still representing the people they are supposed to serve. Of course, it looks like they are ignoring any and all dissent and trying to convince everyone that it is all coming from a small group of conservative extremists, so chances are small that your Democrat rep will listen. It appears that they are determined to shove it down your throat.

The question is, are you going to let them?

NOTE: While looking for the two videos linked above, I noticed that the only videos that came up in my search results on Google were pro-reform videos (terms used: health care reform). Gee, you think that’s just a coincidence?

The Democrats have submitted their health care reform proposal, and as expected it contains provisions which will move America closer to socialism and Americans closer to bankruptcy. In order to pay for their proposals, a new surtax will be levied on “the rich,” currently defined as couples who make $350,00.00 per year or more. If a household makes more than $1 million per year, your surtax rate will be 5.4% of your adjusted gross, including your capital gains and dividends.

The surtax on wealthier Americans would be imposed based on adjusted gross income, meaning it would also apply to capital gains and dividends, which are currently taxed at a 15 percent rate. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said lawmakers targeted high earners because it “causes the least amount of pain on the least amount of people.”

Further, if projected cost savings are not achieved, an additional levy will be added. In other words, if Obama’s plan tanks, like the majority of Americans think it will, Obama is going to just keep raising taxes on the nation’s most productive citizens until he’s happy.

The plan drew fire from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s biggest business lobby.

“The intention of this plan is to tax high-income households, but the real victims would be America’s small business owners,” the Washington-based group’s president, Thomas Donohue, said in a statement. “Since when does our great free-market country punish success?”

Next, Obama is attacking your personal freedom of choice.

The House is also proposing a mandate on Americans above a certain income level: People would be penalized as much as 2.5 percent of their income for failure to buy health insurance. Most employers would be required to insure their employees or pay a penalty equal to as much as 8 percent of their payroll.

That’s right — whether you want it or not the Obama Administration is going to force you to purchase health insurance, and penalize you monetarily if you don’t. If you’re a business, and you can’t provide health coverage for your employees the Obama Administration is going to penalize you monetarily.

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Are you getting the picture yet, America? Obama equals less freedom and more taxes. Is that the “hope and change” you were expecting when you put this buffoon and his political cronies in office?

These people are going to ram this plan down the public’s throat regardless of whether or not the public wants it. You don’t have to take my word for this, listen to David Axelrod, the Obamassiah’s chief political strategist:

“Ultimately, this is not about a process,” said David Axelrod, Obama’s senior political strategist, in an interview yesterday. “It’s about results.”

In other words, in their minds, the ends justify the means.

Does anyone else remember when we had a government for and by the people?

Climate Change Bill: Obama worships at the feet of the Global Warming lobby, so his enthusiasm for this bill isn’t surprising.

President Obama pushed urgently Thursday for passage of legislation to confront global warming, billing it as a job-creating machine rather than the costly “job killer” Republicans denounced and telephoning wavering Democrats on the eve of what could be a historic House vote.

Speaking in the Rose Garden of the White House, Obama said Washington must not miss the opportunity to work on cleaning the air and at the same time creating new “green” energy jobs. He called the measure “a jobs bill” and said the country for far too long has been too reliant on energy from fossil fuels.

Speaking in the Rose Garden at the White House, Obama said Washington must not miss the opportunity to work on cleaning the air, creating new “green” energy jobs and moving the nation away from its reliance on fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas.

The White House appeared concerned that momentum for the bill was slipping, though White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said that when it came time for a House showdown, “I’d bet on the president.”

Democratic leaders scurried to line up enough votes to get the bill passed. They enlisted former Vice President Al Gore, the most prominent U.S. voice on the urgency of addressing climate change, to make phone calls to wary lawmakers — including some who believe the House bill was too weak rather than too strong.

House Republicans for weeks have maintained a drumbeat against the legislation, calling it a massive energy tax on every American and a “job killer” because it will force higher prices on electricity, gasoline and other energy sources as the economy shifts from cheaper fossil fuels, or as companies and utilities are forced to buy pollution allowances.

The Republicans are right. Hell, even Obama admits that the cost of electricity, under this plan, will skyrocket:

Cap and Trade, more appropriately called Cap and Tax, will increase the cost of energy for every person in the country, regardless of income. This means, of course, that when Obama says he is going to cut taxes for 95% of the population, he is lying; He’s just replacing the tax increase with a “fee.” The result is the same: Your family will be worse off if this bill passes.

Also, those great new “green” energy jobs Obama keeps talking about? None of them will materialize in a sufficient number until one of these types of alternative energy becomes practical to use. That isn’t solar, that isn’t wind, that isn’t Ethanol, that isn’t anything you can name right now or for the next generation. Oil, gas, coal and nuclear are the proven and safe ways to produce energy in America right now, and to discard them just because you want to use the shiny, new technology is foolish and stupid. Yes, continue to develop the new energy technologies, but for God’s sake don’t tie the country’s economic health to them until they’re developed enough to be practical.

Health Care Bill: With this one piece of legislation, the Obama Administration will not only destroy the number one health care system in the world today, it will also drive the world’s richest economy into bankruptcy.

WASHINGTON (AP) – A bipartisan group of senators at work on health care reported progress Thursday in holding the cost of legislation to their $1 trillion target, but Republicans quickly added there was no agreement on even the outlines of a bill. “We have options that would enable us to write a $1 trillion bill, fully paid for,” Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, told reporters.

His comments came one week after analysts set the cost of earlier proposals at $1.6 trillion over 10 years.

The Montana Democrat provided no details, but others have said the changes made in recent days would lower the cost of government subsidies for those who cannot afford insurance, as well as pare back a planned 10-year series of rate increases for doctors serving Medicare patients.

Only $1 Trillion dollars! Of course, he says this without providing any details on just how they have “fully paid for” the cost. You and I both know that the way they will pay the cost will be to ration health care to the very sick and the elderly, as well as tell doctors what they are allowed to charge and earn. Also, since this new “public option” will not have to generate a profit, the private insurance companies will be forced out of business and every single American will be forced to get their insurance through the government. Oh yeah, don’t forget that this bill contains a specific provision that exempts members of Congress and the President from having to participate in this program. That’s right; they’re saying it is the best plan out there, but it isn’t good enough for them. Not only that, but they also want to tax your health benefits to help pay for this boondoggle — unless you’re a union member.

It could very well be that by the end of the summer the United States of America you find yourself living in will bear little, if any, resemblance to the country you grew up in. Buck up, Comrade! You can do it!

Well, for the second time in recent memory the Democrats are trying to foist government-run healthcare on the American public. When the Clintons tried, it died a horrible death in the press and in the Congress due to its prohibitive costs and attempts to ration healthcare to control costs. Now, the Obama Administration is pushing a similar proposal which promises healthcare rationing to an even greater extent than the Clinton plan, and will cost many trillions of dollars more than they’re telling us.

Hoping to make history, the Senate set off on its major overhaul of the nation’s health care system Wednesday, but its first steps were quickly overtaken by fresh cost concerns and partisan anger.

An ambitious timetable that called for completing committee action in early summer seemed in danger of slipping away.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee began work on a bill encompassing President Barack Obama’s top legislative priority. It marked the first time since President Bill Clinton’s ill-starred attempt in the early 1990s that Congress was tackling such a broad overhaul.

But the more important Senate Finance Committee announced it would delay action, as senators sought to retool their proposals to slash the cost by more than one-third, from an intial $1.6 trillion over 10 years, to less than $1 trillion. Of the five major panels working on health care, Finance has the best odds of coming up with a bipartisan proposal that could overcome gathering opposition.

Lobbyists representing every nook and cranny of the economy were on high alert – even if they were on their best behavior.

Majority Democrats running the Finance Committee have told lobbyists that their views will be taken into account as long as their groups don’t mount public campaigns against the legislation, numerous lobbyists say. So far, health industry groups have not launched aggressive attacks against Democrats’ emerging plans.

The costs of this whole proposal are staggering, but that’s not the worst part:

The measure before Kennedy’s committee would cost about $1 trillion over 10 years, but leave 37 million people uninsured, according to an analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Parts of the draft bill have yet to be finalized, so its true costs and benefits are not fully understood.

So, $1 Trillion dollars will still leave 37 million people without coverage under the current proposal. Obama has promised to cover absolutely everybody, so you can do the math to estimate the costs.

Then, there is this: One cost that the Administration is not factoring into all of this is the cost of insuring all of the people who will lose their healthcare benefits once companies and corporations drop their benefits and the associated costs. Companies and corporations are in business to make a profit, and if the government is going to offer healthcare benefits employers will no longer feel that they will have to offer them. Thus, Obama’s mantra of, “If you want to keep your current healthcare plan, you can” is a false promise. You can’t keep something which is no longer available.

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Also being discussed is whether or not to tax your healthcare benefits as if they were income. Seems like Obama can’t do anything without reaching into the taxpayer’s wallet first.

Finally, let’s look at how the US Government does when it runs something really big and that costs a whole lot of cash; healthcare for our Veterans and military personnel. Veterans have been complaining about almost every facet of the healthcare they receive from the Veteran’s Administration for as long as I can remember. Hospitals in disrepair, massive delays in getting doctor’s appointments and routine diagnostic procedures,and cost overruns have been the norm for years. What makes Obama think that he’s going to be able to do any better when we’re talking about many millions more people and many trillions more dollars? He can’t do any better, and chances are he would do a lot worse.

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Even with all of its flaws, the American healthcare system is the envy of the world. People fly here from around the world to get care that they cannot get anywhere else. People who live in countrys which have government run healthcare come here to get treatment which is either denied them by their government or is not available in a reasonable time frame. Now, Obama wants to scrap the whole thing, spend trillions and trillions of dollars, and set up a government-run system which shows all of the promise of a world-class disaster in the making. All of this, and we have not even touched on what this proposal will do to the doctors and nurses out there. Suffice to say, most of them are not happy with this proposal.

This proposal must fail in order for America to survive and prosper. As proposed, this whole thing is going to destroy what little is left of the economy, while dragging the healthcare and insurance indistries down at the same time. If you do nothing else, please do whatever you can to defeat this.

Words are just not able to convey how great I felt taking these few steps! Its like, in a few minutes’ time, I got my self-reliance and self-confidence back. I was practically giddy while I was walking between the bars so the prosthetisist could watch and make adjustments for better fit and less irritation. I also found that keeping myself balanced was a little easier than I thought it would be (this was probably due to the bars).

Final delivery of my prosthetic is scheduled for next Tuesday afternoon, after which I will have further therapy to learn all of the ins-and-outs of caring for it and my residual limb. At first, I’ll only be wearing the prosthetic a few hours a day until my residual limb gets accustomed to it and toughens-up a bit. Also, during this time the size and shape of my residual limb will change so I’ll need to go back to the shop for adjustments now and again.

This has been a real good day for me today, and I would never have gotten here without the love and support of my family, friends, and co-workers. There really isn’t anything I could say which would adequately thank them for all they have done, so instead I’ll just promise to work as hard as I can to make this work and to make them proud.