The conclusion the doctors reached was that I lifted too much and put strain on my sternum. Funny, I could have told them that when I went in. I did, actually. So I have painkillers, which didn’t do much.
I still think there’s something more wrong than that, but they didn’t, so I’m home.
I’m on my way to the emergency room because I think whatever I did this weekend was pretty serious and now I can’t really lie down or even sit without pain shooting through my chest and back, when I breathe, it hurts like hell. I think I must have hurt my sternum.
Stephanie’s coming to pick me up now…
Which you find out when you have your sternum cut up for surgery. It’s been five months since my surgery, and my sternum still bothers me regularly, and hurts like hell, especially when I lift heavy stuff, like I did this weekend. I always browse through https://www.stealthbelt.com/ to find any product that would help. Today it’s been particularly bad, to the point where when I breathe out and my chest moves, I feel a sharp pain that makes me gasp.
On top of that, the incision scar hurts too, although in an entirely different way; it’s more of a dull ache. So I have these two different types of pain going on, pretty much constantly, which sometimes I can tune out, and sometimes not.
And the whole bra thing doesn’t help. One of the things that was kind of crappy about all the documentation they gave us for the surgery was that most of it was written with men in mind, and didn’t cover the unique problems that women have with the surgery due to having breasts, which pull on the sternum, necessitating wearing a bra, which irritates the incision. They could have done something to address those issues and offer advice on dealing with them, but they didn’t.
The inquiry into the leaking of a CIA agent’s identity is set to wrap up this week, so the President was quick to nominate a supreme court justice to distract the press from the coming scandal when White House officials will be indicted. Especially since there is new information that Bush and Cheney were actively involved in the Plame outing.
As someone in the blogosphere anticipated… “Hello, President Hastert!” Hee hee.
Quote from CBSNews.com, with internal links to wikipedia for more information on the players in the wide-scale GOP corruption:
The indictment sent a shock wave through the GOP establishment, which is already reeling from a swath of criminal and ethics investigations. Three individuals, eight corporations and two political action committees connected to DeLay have been indicted as a result of the probe. In addition, the government’s top procurement official, David Safavian, was arrested in September for obstructing a criminal investigation into uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a close DeLay ally. Abramoff himself is under criminal investigation for defrauding Indian tribes and was indicted for wire fraud in Florida in a separate case. Top White House aides, including Karl Rove and Scooter Libby, have been targeted by a special prosecutor investigating the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Representative Duke Cunningham announced he would not run for re-election after overselling his house for $700,000 to a military industry lobbyist; he too has been indicted. FDA chief Lester Crawford resigned unexpectedly after just two months on the job, possibly because of failure to report his wife’s sizable pharmaceutical-industry holdings. And DeLay’s Senate counterpart, Bill Frist, is battling possible insider-trading charges for dumping millions in HCA stock, a company founded by his father and run by his brother, weeks before it plunged in value. The U.S. Attorney in Manhattan and the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into Frist and HCA in September.
“The fact that Tom DeLay is under criminal indictment and Senate majority leader Bill Frist is under criminal investigation is a historic first,” says Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). “This demonstrates the culture of corruption among the Congressional leadership that has become a cancer on our country.”
Fleshing out that tidbit about David Safavian a bit more: he was the White House’s top federal procurement official, and was in the midst of the lucrative Gulf Coast rebuilding plans when he had to resign to be arrested for the obstruction of justice charge. He’s responsible for giving some of the no-bid contracts to Halliburton and other companies with a track record of corruption. So you know about how the government money for Katrina relief is going to be spent.
Also, Abramoff has links to organized crime, and a mob murder investigation: “3 Arrested in Killing of Businessman With Whom Abramoff Feuded.”
All of these guys have sleazy scandals, and all of them are interconnected, with Delay at the top greasing the wheels with dirty money… for a complete picture of how wide the corruption spreads, read “Beyond Delay: the 13 Most Corrupt Members of Congress” by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
From Reuters: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would allow gay marriage in the state of California.
Now, I’m confused. First the right-wing tells us that the “activist judges” aren’t allowed to rule on gay marriage laws, saying the laws have to be written by congress, the body elected to represent the will of the people. But when congress listens to the will of the people and approves a law allowing gay marriage, Arnold vetos it.
So basically gay people aren’t allowed to be represented by either the court system that is supposed to protect us from injustices, or by the congress that we elected into office. Gay people have no voice in government, in other words.
I keep wondering when I’m going to be herded onto a train.
This scandal has never been resolved, even though the GOP would try to lead you to believe it was: troops are still have to buy their own body armor to ensure their protection in Iraq, and the military is refusing to reimburse them for necessary, life-saving equipment.
Supporting our soldiers, indeed.
On November 5th, 2005, Nuvolab XII will announce the top two Journalism Award winners. The best independent blogs will be awarded for promotion of equality, political insight, creativity, and presentation. Award winners will receive custom award images to display on their site, as well as permanent recognition here on Nuvolab. Third, fourth, and fifth place winners will receive honorable mention awards, and will be automatically nominated for the 2006 Journalism Awards. The following have already been nominated for an award:
A Commonplace Book – https://commonplacebook.com/
Ann Telnaes – http://www.anntelnaes.com/
Bilerico – http://www.bilerico.com/
Campus Progress – http://www.campusprogress.org/
Democracy Arsenal – http://www.democracyarsenal.org/
Salon Magazine writes a very readable, informative article on how wide-spread the corruption scandal really is.
It’s pretty amazing to read, because you start to understand how many GOPers and how much money is involved, and how much campaign finance laws have been flattened by the government machine; enough that had it not been for the corruption and illegality, the Republican’s wouldn’t have taken control of the Congress. Truly scary.
Not only did Tom Delay get indicted for criminal conspiracy and had to step down as Majority Leader, but Bill Frist is officially under investigation by the SEC for insider trading.
And you’ll feel something akin to the electric thrill I once enjoyed when Gilmore, Pat Conway, The Great Creatore, W.C. Handy and John Philip Sousa all came to town on the very same historic day!