Happy (NFL) Halloween!

 

For all of you trick or treaters out there, young and old, I wish you a Happy Halloween.  This year it happens to fall on a Sunday night, during the Dallas Cowboys vs. Minnesota Vikings NFL Sunday Night Game.  Now for most of the country this is no big deal, but imagine the tricks or treats you could have during the game.  

Imagine Ezekiel Elliott fumbling the ball on the Minnesota 10 yard line and the Vikings recover just as your doorbell rings and your lifelong Cowboys fan of a husband yells, "GET THE FU.. OUT OF HERE!",  As the children run and scream to their parents that your husband has just threatened them for simply knocking on your door for Halloween.  Or, your wife, who grew up in St. Paul, cheering on the Vikings, watch quarterback Kirk Cousins lob a pass into the Cowboys end zone only to be picked off by a Cowboys cornerback who has the ball hit him right in the stomach, "You son of a bit..!"  Then children running like a stink bomb went off in their school cafeteria.  

Listen, I get it, the NFL would love nothing more than to sell merchandise with "your favorite team" logo inside a jack o lantern for that one day a year they can wrestle even more money away from us but why stop there?  This year there is actually a double header on Christmas Day, just think of all of the "colorful language" to be decorated throughout the house on the most holy of Christian winter events.  Perhaps we could have a game that has half-time Midnight Stroke game where one year turns into another and they drop an NFL logo from the space needle in Seattle while the Seahawks play the Jacksonville Jaguars.     

I do understand the Thanksgiving Day game though, especially when the sideline reporter shows a mynah bird, inside of a chicken, inside of a duck, inside of a turkey, inside of an elk on national TV just as we're all about to get sick from too much of granny's dressing.  It's just a day of pure gluttony and general sickness, why not have some fun watching bodies crush into each other for hours and hours.  Most of the family is either vomiting from Aunt Franny's giblet gravy in your only bathroom or fighting from a batch of too much liquor'd up egg nog that pitted two rivals against each other. 

So remember the Halloween, BE SAFE and wear your brightest team logo, we wouldn't want the NFL to miss out on any money, remember the NFL league office is exempt from taxes...Booo! 

                                                                                -Insensitive Bastard  

Handi-Crapped: Surviving Our Healthcare System: Bastard, Insensitive: 9781737644613: Amazon.com: Books  

Stories from the Brink

In my book, HANDI-CRAPPED I wrote a sometimes satirical, sometimes funny look at the United States healthcare system, in a fictional account, based upon a true story.  The farther I get away from this completed work, the more I am haunted by the fact that this may be a similar story for many of my friends in the disabled community.  

In the book I tried to make light of the doctors that are a combination of doctors that I've known and been a patient of.  Doctors Cutlery, Egotism and Dr. Reaper performed work at Scalpel Depot, assisted  by Nurses Angelica, Sureshot and Smilesalot.  I think I captured a microcosm of our healthcare system in a satirical, fictional way.  Unfortunately, after connecting with so many others on social media, it appears that this story may not be so isolated as depicted in this book.     

Per PolicyAdvice, there are 784,626 companies related to the healthcare industry.  Now I'm sure that all of these organizations were formed for altruistic reasons, but since our healthcare expenditures (per CDC 2018) are 3.6 trillion and represent 17.7% of our GDP, I'll reserve judgement.  The point is, any industry that is this huge, will have a percentage of profiteers that will provide a less than stellar level of care for me and my disabled friends.  

So I'd like to hear about such experiences from people who think that their level of care was crap or "CRAPPED" during their healthcare crisis.  Also, please include any funny stories that may be clean enough to print.  Please drop your comments here.  Thanks and as always>Insensitive Bastard

HANDI-CRAPPED:  Handi-Crapped: Surviving Our Healthcare System: Bastard, Insensitive: 9781737644613: Amazon.com: Books

            

 

Hero's Without Recognition...Again

 ER Nurse Pamela Orlando, 56, died from coronavirus and like all other nurses, she was a HERO!

I'm sorry for the tone of this blog, although it is something that needs to be said and I feel that with the current atmosphere of hate and hurting, I feel that every nurse in this world should be exempt from the pain.  Too many idiots are taking out their hate on nurses due to misinformation and general hypocrisy.  NURSES DO NOT DESERVE THE HATE THEY ARE RECEIVING due to the partisan politics.  They are being verbally abused, assaulted and in some situations, threatened for their lives.  Pamela Orlando (above) dedicated, documented and ultimately gave her life for her dedication and commitment to others.  She is not an anomaly though, she is more the typical nurse who just want to heal her fellow man.  

I have personally benefitted from the selflessness of nurses.  I spent 100 days in the hospital during 19 surgeries and many other procedures.  My nurses were the true healers, not through expensive surgeries that I couldn't pay for in five lifetimes, or the thousand and thousands of dollars that prescription drugs that I needed to save my life.  They were the healers that were there after family left and had a kind word to say or encouragement when I was so down, if affected my healing.  They were the psychiatrists that I needed after an amputation or the two sepsis bouts that almost took me away.  They knew how bad it hurt me and how sometimes you have very dark thoughts.  I would not have not made it without them and I know it.  

See, the thing is, and this is really important, they meet us in one of the most chaotic times in our lives and provide us with the stability that we so desperately need.  They are our sister, or brother, or daughter or mother.  How can you treat such people with disrespect or anger.  They don't make a ton of money, they get treated like crap by the doctors and their dedication just amazes me.   Pamela Orlando didn't have to document her dying days, she did it for us.  She did it for those non-believers in the vaccine, for those who worship parties over sickness and deniers even in the biggest illness to attach our world.  I hope one day there is a national memorial for those nurses who sacrificed so much for so little, for us during this pandemic.  I thank them, will never forget them and owe them my life.  Be well...