In preparation for our impending move out of California, I have been scanning many of my old files. I am making them digital so I can toss the papers I have been storing since the 1980’s. Today I scanned a front-page article from the Sacramento Union on the death of Bishop Gallegos. On the back was another article featuring the first American media report of a reactor fire in Chernobyl.
Also, in the stack I have a few assorted magazines that I saved because of featured articles on various facets of abortion and the life issue. After scanning one series of articles, I noticed another in the magazine on the subject of acid rain.
The context was this: Ten years into the acid rain scare, the US Government paid for a study on its affects. $500 million dollars and 28 volumes later, the study was promptly ignored. Surprise!
Why? The study disproved the pop culture narrative and as a result, it was ignored by both Democrats and Republicans.
The study’s conclusion: from 1850 to the present day, there was no change in pH of the lakes that they studied.
Last summer, the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) re-aired an interesting NOVA program on the natural recovery of the at Yellowstone National Park following the enormous 1988 fire.
NOVA pointed out that one of the benefits of this fire would be “to improve the aquatic habitat in lakes and streams for 100 years or more,” because it would decrease their acidity by anywhere from 20 percent to as much as 100 percent.
Within that scientifically correct statement is the key to one of the worst environmental boondoggles ever perpetrated, President Bush’s $140 billion acid rain program.
Summed up quickly: Forest fires raise alkalinity (reduce acidity) of soil, lakes, and streams by replacing acidic forest floor organic buildup with ash. That also releases the base cations (aluminum and calcium) from the soil so they can better neutralize naturally acidic rain (5.0 pH). Soil analyses show that clear-cutting of fir forests raises soil pH from 5 to 7 (lowering acidity), and slash-and-burn fires raise it from 4.95 to 7.60.
Conversely, unfettered forestation promotes the acidity of lakes and streams precisely because it builds up highly acid organic forest floors which tie down acid-neutralizing cations.
The study found that forest cycles change the pH of nearby bodies of water by creating temporary changes in pH but eventually the waterways return to a steady state level. In its entirety, this article debunks the whole idea of another mythical environmental catastrophe (acid rain).
Yep, I’m really going after the Orange Man. I don’t care that he says, or rather said, mean things on Twitter or called Senator Karen, “Pocahontas” during the 2016 campaign. But when he doubles down on stupid, then I must strongly dissent.
In a recent interview with Candace Owens, Trump spewed some zingers that deserve response; even if its just to call a spade, a spade. Oh, sorry is that racist? Anyway, here’s the Orange Man shooting himself in the foot (or slightly higher) with his base.
However, he quickly turned his attention to the shots themselves, defending their rapid development and deployment as “one of the greatest achievements of mankind.” He said the country would have suffered a similar fate to what was seen during the 1917 Spanish Flu epidemic, which he said killed approximately 100 million people and “ended the First World War.”
“There were no vaccines, there were no anything,” he added.
The president continued to boast about the timeframe in which the shots were developed, saying he “came up with three vaccines [Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Pfizer], all are very, very good. I came up with three of them in less than nine months; it was supposed to take 5–12 years.”
“No,” replied Trump, “the vaccines work but some people aren’t taking them.The ones that get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don’t take the vaccine, but it’s still their choice.”
Although recognizing that “the mandates are killing our economy” and that “people can’t go to work … because of the mandate,” Trump refused to criticize the shots, instead opting to encourage uptake.
“I’m a big fan of the vaccine. I’m not going to give that up. Millions and millions of lives I’ve saved.”
Folks, Trump got scammed by the Swamp Monsters (Fauci, et al.). He would be better served to saying that he got scammed by trusting “the experts” but his pride is too great.
Comparing Covid to the Spanish Flu is like some drunk idiot claiming equivalence between John Kerry’s war injuries in Vietnam and Truman dropping “The Bomb” on Japan in 1945. Clearly there is no equivalence and just the thought that there could be is stupendously dumb.
Fact is that the ones with the jab are just as likely or more to be infected with Covid variants. Per an article that I saw earlier this week, those with the Covid booster are more likely to get Omicron.
In Israel, where most of the population has received a booster shot, 54 of 67 omicron cases, 80%, were people who had received three COVID-19 shots.
If the vaccine is so great, why have more people died of Covid under Biden than Trump? (This is despite Biden changing the definition of a Covid death to a more restrictive standard.)
The federal government considers more than 202 million Americans (almost 61% of the eligible) to be “fully vaccinated” (a moving target given the vaccines’ temporary nature), yet data from Johns Hopkins University reported in October shows that more Americans died of COVID-19 by that point in 2021 (353,000) than in all of 2020 (352,000).
The main difference between the two is that Trump did allow more treatment options than Biden; that much we know is true because Biden stopped any treatments for Covid that weren’t approved by Big Pharma and/or Beltway bureaucrats even when they were found to be effective against Covid. Trump does say that he would not make the shot mandatory. A position Biden once agreed with … until he took over the White House and ownership of the Warp Speed cure developed by his predecessor.
Trump is a better guy on a bad day than Biden ever was, even in the 1980’s when Biden ran for President the first time. Back in the 1980’s, Trump spent his time perfecting the art of the deal while Biden was stumbling to figure out the art of the steal. Even without the Internet, Biden couldn’t get away with theft. It took him over 30 years to figure out how to get away with it. The irony is that he was showing signs of dementia before he was finally successful.
I think Trump should not lead with anything Covid related except fully opening the economy and freedom to skip the vax. Meanwhile he needs to see to it that candidates that are loyal to him are elected so instead of Executive Orders, he can put his ideas into law like they should have done when Paul Ryan—Mr. Fox News Network Board—was Speaker of the House.
My advice to Trump is simple, Biden owns Covid now. Do yourself a favor and let him keep it.
California is changing the bargain it made on solar power. Yep, if you want to be cynical, you might believe that the Public Utilities Commission has decided to hit Elon Musk in the pocketbook but they’re really coming for you Barbara.
Ok, so let’s get the chronology correct. California has shutdown every sort of electrical generating capability in the state except wind and solar.
Nuclear gone
Natural gas gone
Coal gone
Hydroelectric gone—at least until we either get much more rainfall or ration water to LA.
Meanwhile we have outlawed internal combustion engines, forcing everyone into battery powered cars while outlawing fire fighting pumps and electric generators. Genius move!
California has also mandated that all new construction beginning in 2024 must include solar power.
Now, like Nevada did a few years ago, California has significantly altered the bargain.
At a recent PUC meeting, a taxpayer dared to complain, “I thought we had a bargain.”
To which the PUC chair replied, “I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.”
PUC Chair with victimized citizen
So, what changed? California now has a new revenue stream. Remember that imaginary budget surplus Gavin says we have for the second year? Apparently, he doesn’t either.
Yep, gullible people that think they are saving the planet are about to learn that Communism and fixing imaginary global warming has a cost, one that you get to pay, not Mr. Musk.
Enter the California Public Utilities Commission which has apparently decided it’s time to alter the deal. This new plan called Net Metering 3.0 hasn’t been passed yet but is expected to be voted on next month. If it does pass, the state will start charging new solar installations a fee based on the size of their system. The fee is $8 per month for every kW of generating equipment you have installed on the roof. So if you have an 8kW system, you’ll owe SCE an additional $64 per month or over $700 per year. You don’t get anything for that money, it’s basically just a tax on everyone who installs solar equipment.
In addition, the new plan will reduce the amount the power company pays you for your excess energy from about 25 cents per kilowatt hour (still less than what the power company charges you for a kilowatt hour of power) down to about 6 cents per kWh. And that means there’s no way to break even on your bill anymore unless you also install an expensive battery system to save the excess energy for your own use. Of course the batter costs almost as much as the entire system.
If this article makes you angry, you ain’t seem nothin’ yet. Wait until they come after your electric vehicles, complete with the mileage tax; then everyone will get to pay.
With Texas, Mississippi, and other states enacting Pro-Life legislation and the US Supreme Court seeming to signal the reversal of Roe v Wade—or at least its limitation—many on our side are rejoicing that Roe may soon go; however, I have a bad feeling about such a move. I wish to expand this idea. What follows is in no particular order and I reserve the right to add to my list of reasons later but here goes …
At our nation’s founding, law was based on a Christian understanding of law and morality. Yes, it was not perfect, but faith in Christ and the Bible was in large part the basis of the Western Worldview or Western Civilization. Now however, people have rejected the Bible as authoritative. Without biblical authority, men no longer ask themselves How Should We then Live?
People in our culture have set themselves up as their own gods and decide what’s right or wrong based on their own whims and relativistic thinking. There are no absolutes. How many times have you heard the lie, “You have your truth and I have mine”? Sorry folks but Truth is not negotiable, it is absolute and remains true whether I acknowledge it as so or not.
Facts are a similar type of Truth claim. The “fake news” mantra is not really accurate. Facts—in context—are not negotiable in and of themselves, but their meaning can be interpreted in different ways. Facts are a type of evidence that can be cited as building blocks of a larger truth claim. The causality of various facts is a large part of the “fake news” phenomenon. Ignoring context, relationships (especially cause and effect), and logical conclusions all contribute to the divide in public discourse in our nation and beyond. Without the ability to agree on a set of facts, we have no basis to communicate ideas with each other, thus we talk past each other and not to each other. This inability to communicate is polarizing and prevents dialogue. In part, this a result of not having a shared worldview.
A corollary of the above discussion is what is called the “law of unintended consequences”. We can deliberate whether a particular instance of the law of unintended consequences is actually known or can be reasoned—although that is usually the case—but such can be seen, especially in the areas of government and law. A change is not really the end point but the beginning of a new series of steps that have a logical conclusion that is almost always denied by those implementing the change.
This leads me to the US Supreme Court and abortion. I would like them to end abortion but how they do it is the most important question that nobody seems to be asking. Folks, please hear me on this, how they do it is either going to be a boon to freedom for people in our country or a device to further enslave us.
Roe was written by Associate Justice Harry Blackmun.
Associate Justice Harry Blackmun
This was Blackmun’s first majority opinion for the US Supreme Court. Much of Roe is steeped in quasi-scientific and medical language. Concepts like “trimester” were never a part of arguments for or against the cases that became Roe. Instead, Blackmun inserted the idea of a trimester into the Court’s reasoning. Likewise, “the health of the mother”. Blackmun did not define “health of the mother” but the court did in Doe v Bolton which was released the same day. The practical result of both cases legalized unlimited abortion thru all nine months of pregnancy in all 50 states.
I know that science has advanced much since 1973 but making science the arbiter of law or morality is an insufficient basis to overturn Roe. It sets the precedent that Dr. Fauci or his ilk can decide what is right now or at any time in the future. If science changes then law or morality can change—bad idea.
If Roe is overturned, then in theory, each state has its own abortion law. While this might be a strictly Constitutional arrangement, morally, it is an untenable place for the law. This would put us back into an arrangement where one state was slave owning and another was not. Either human beings have value and deserve legal protection, or they do not. To have both positions and treat them as equally valid is wrong. Such a view is morally and legally untenable.
This brings us to a finding that the Constitution actually has a place for finding a right to life. While I think this is ultimately where the Court should end-up, this view has its own pitfalls as well. If the Constitution contains a right to life, then doesn’t government have a mandate to ensure that life is protected at all costs? Thus, if government decides that we all need Covid shots, universal healthcare, or must prevent global warming then we must do it because the Constitution demands it. Please note that this sets government above the Constitution but at the cost of individual liberty.
If the Court leaves this up to individuals, then aren’t we just codifying the idea that everyone does what is right in their own minds? Isn’t this largely the status quo now, just phrased a different way?
How do you craft a Constitutional interpretation that protects life, ensures individual liberty, and is morally right? In the relativistic times that we live in, how do you do it in a way that cannot be corrupted later?
Dismantling Roe is not enough but what will we put in its place? Simply chipping away at it or undoing it is a wholly insufficient solution. Life is not the ultimate value, God’s Law is. In a culture that refuses to honor God what will people do if the Court finds a way to affirm His teaching?
At the beginning of last week, my wife had THE Surgery. The cancer was located about an inch above her stomach. Due to the chemo and radiation, the tumor shrank from 6 cm to 3 cm in height. The surgeon went 8 cm above this point to cut the esophagus. The bottom cut removed the top part of her stomach. The remaining tissue was the sewn together. Thus about 5 ½ inches of her esophagus was removed.
If you’re a fan of Forged in Fire and like the part when Doug Marcaida whacks on ballistic dummies with large swords and then states, “It will kill.” Then you might have some idea of how the incisions on my wife looked when the bandages came off. She had a vertical cut from the middle of her chest to the top of her belly button sealed by 25 fairly evenly placed staples. Not to be out done, under her right armpit she had a diagonal incision sealed by another 20 staples. Total staple count was 45.
Doug Marcaida from Forged in Fire
Prior to beginning the surgery, my wife had an epidural inserted in her back, about even with her shoulder blades. She kept this anesthesia for most of her stay in the hospital. At the conclusion of surgery, she had two drain lines in her chest. One was about ½ inch in diameter and the other was about a 1/8 diameter line. She also was given a catheter. A myriad of IV solutions were given to her thru the tops of her hands. She had a handy dandy port installed about two months ago in hopes that it would be used in the surgery. Sadly, it was ignored for her entire stay in the hospital, and she came home with the bruises on her arms to prove it. She also had a drain tube entering her nose and going into her stomach to keep her stomach empty. Simultaneous with that, oxygen was being given to her via her nose.
Her vitals were monitored via various instruments as well. My wife referred to the whole group of tubes, hoses, wires, and the like as “her spaghetti”.
We arrived at the hospital at 4:45 AM on the day of the surgery. She was prepped and on her way to surgery about 7:30 AM. The surgery was completed about 1 PM. Around 3:30 PM, I caught up with her in the Intensive Care Unit. I got there just in time to hear the following questions asked of my wife:
Do you know your name?
What is your date of birth?
Do you know what has happened to you?
Do you know where you are?
After three days in ICU, my wife was moved to a regular room on the floor for surgical recovery. Two days later, the doctor authorized a leak check of her stomach. The following day, she began a liquid diet. This was the first food or water that she had had since the day prior to the surgery. The seventh day of her stay, the large drain tube and her epidural were removed (in that order).
On her eighth day in the hospital, she was authorized to be discharged. About three hours before discharge, the small drain tube was removed. I got to witness this bit of torture as about 10 inches of medical grade aquarium tubing was pulled out of her side.
Mama now has a walker to help her navigate around the house and a special pillow to hug when she coughs–which is often. When properly medicated, she does ok, and the pain is manageable. After walking for a bit, she needs to stop and catch her breath. Her lungs and stomach are still coming to terms learning to share her chest cavity.
If everything goes as scheduled, the next steps are going to happen next week, the pathology report and several doctor visits.
As always, thanks for your prayers and we’ll check in as events unfold.
Omicron—allegedly the 15th letter in the Greek alphabet—is the latest Covid variant being used to oppress the masses. Folks, as Shakespeare once said, this is, “Much ado about nothin’.”
First, there are more documented Covid variants than there are letters in the Greek alphabet. Many (30 +) were known within the first few months of 2020. At the time the question was whether more mutations would occur “in the wild” or just under laboratory conditions. We documented this a year and a half ago on this blog.
A new study in China has found that the novel coronavirus has mutated into at least 30 different variations.
The results showed that medical officials have vastly underestimated the overall ability of the virus to mutate, in findings that different strains have affected different parts of the world, leading to potential difficulties in finding an overall cure.
Second, although some media outlets can’t seem to use spell check—example to follow shortly—two letters of the Greek alphabet were skipped Nu and Xi. Nu because everything about Covid is Nu—especially when it’s intended to scare the hell out of a willingly ignorant public and Xi because he’s the guy in charge of China and claiming this is the China virus—which it is—is somehow racist or some such insult even if it’s the F***ing truth.
The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed it skipped the Greek letters “nu” and “xi” in naming its new COVID-19 variant, which it dubbed the “omicron” variant.
The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, indicated that the B.1.351 variant of the virus was found eight times more in individuals who were vaccinated—or 5.4 percent against 0.7 percent—against those who were not vaccinated. Clalit Health Services, a top Israeli health-care provider, also helped in the study.
“We found a disproportionately higher rate of the South African variant among people vaccinated with a second dose, compared to the unvaccinated group,” said Adi Stern of Tel Aviv University. “This means that the South African variant is able, to some extent, to break through the vaccine’s protection.”
“Based on patterns in the general population, we would have expected just one case of the South African variant, but we saw eight,” Stern told the Times of Israel. “Obviously, this result didn’t make me happy.” He added, “Even if the South African variant does break through the vaccine’s protection, it has not spread widely through the population.”
Fourth, the media—which can’t spell—is lying to you.
Wait for it…
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — As of Sunday, the new COVID-19 variant, Omnicron, has still not made its way to California. In fact, there are currently no cases in the United States.
Wait for it…
Nevertheless, based on previous varieties, Omicron’s detection in the United States is simply a matter of time.
And the lie…
As long as there are huge populations of unvaccinated people, new varieties will emerge.
And the spelling error is in the title of the news story.
Truth is that unnecessary vaccination is the biggest cause of more Covid mutations. I will repeat the quote above, “…variant of the virus was found eight times more in individuals who were vaccinated.” That is settled science and has always been a fact in the study of virology until Covid when real science was trumped with politics.
Further note that only 6 percent of Africa is vaccinated—allegedly—so if half the infected got their shots then once again, those conforming to big pharma are at more risk of infection by actual Covid than those that were not.
So, what are the evil symptoms of this Covid variant?
Three days after petty tyrants all over the world instituted a travel ban on South Africa, we get this single news story echoed again and again in the media:
The South African doctor who first sounded the alarm on the Omicron variant of the coronavirus said that its symptoms are “unusual but mild” in healthy patients — but she’s worried the strain could cause complications in the elderly and unvaccinated.
Dr. Angelique Coetzee, a practicing doctor for 30 years who chairs the South African Medical Association (SAMA), said she believed she had found a new strain of the virus after COVID-19 patients at her private practice in Pretoria exhibited strange symptoms.
“Their symptoms were so different and so mild from those I had treated before,” Coetzee told The Telegraph.
She called South Africa’s vaccine advisory committee on Nov. 18 after a family of four all tested positive for the virus with symptoms that included extreme fatigue.
So far, she’s had two dozen patients who tested positive and showed symptoms of the new variant, mostly young men. About half of the patients were unvaccinated, she said. None of those infected lost their sense of smell or taste.
“It presents mild disease with symptoms being sore muscles and tiredness for a day or two not feeling well,” Coetzee told the paper. “So far, we have detected that those infected do not suffer the loss of taste or smell. They might have a slight cough. There are no prominent symptoms. Of those infected some are currently being treated at home.”
Please note that the symptoms of Omicron are very mild and last for only a day or two.
Give these mild symptoms, why is everybody hitting the panic button? What in this news story justifies a lockdown of travel to or from Africa?
After much contemplation, I could only come up with this, because half the patients are vaccinated.
Translation, the shot doesn’t work. No big revelation, we’ve been maintaining that all along. The shot is not a vaccine and never was. Vaccines cause permanent immunity, the shots from big pharma don’t.
So, we’ve known about this variant for almost nine months and just as Newsom, Merkel, and other likeminded tyrants might be forced to open society, we get this burst of panic because one doctor is South Africa is able to sound the alarm? No way. The WHO caused the whole world to panic again by a non-story. Folks this is a coordinated and orchestrated event not a random outbreak of a deadly Covid mutation. In fact, as of my writing, no one is claiming that a single person anywhere in the world has died from Omicron; but they might someday so obviously more tyranny is needed to protect the masses.
If you want an exercise on virology for the lay person, spend a few dollars at the Google Play Store and buy Plague Inc. if it’s still available.
This game predated Covid and shows you how difficult it is to create any kind of pathogen that can kill masses of people. This is because there is an inverse relationship between how lethal a disease is and its ability to transfer to enough people to keep it going. Ebola kills hundreds while Covid kills tens of thousands.
Oops, sorry, it’s the Covid “vaccine” that has killed tens of thousands and the actual disease has killed more—although you can’t get an accurate number because Covid deaths are defined differently for Republican and Democrat Presidents. Ironically, this hasn’t really helped Biden since more Covid deaths have occurred in his first ten months in office than Trump’s last ten months even though the threshold of what defines a Covid death was much lower for Trump. But then again, Trump allowed more medical treatments to fight Covid than Biden, whose only answer to their proven effectiveness was to outlaw them and demand everyone get the shot whether already immune or not. Why is it that swamp rats like Biden and Fauci have one size fits all answers for us and a different set of rules for themselves?
Anyway, Covid -19-Omicron, is not even a new variant, it just has a shiny new name now that the governing elites have called it to service to promote more lockdowns and further loss of our liberty. Lockdowns are about controlling people not disease prevention.
The past few weeks have seen a gradual but steady improvement of my wife’s health. We were able to make another road trip to Idaho to attend to our property and see some old friends.
The hair loss that my wife has experienced after chemo and radiation has slowed. It’s thin but uniform. Sometimes it gets covered with a wrap/scarf sort of thing.
Eating food is better but she avoids spicy things and some types of menu items.
The second PET/CT scan was done about a week ago. The tumor is about 1/3 as bright as it was initially. Her SUV rating went from 18 to 6. (SUV is not a tiny Humvee driving around your innards blasting cancer cells with a microscopic .50 Cal machine gun; instead, it’s a measure of how much radioactive material accumulated in the tumor and its intensity on the scan.) This is good and the expected result of the treatment thus far. In addition, no cancer was detected elsewhere in her body during the scan.
Many days later, we did have a meeting with her oncologist. At the meeting, the oncologist said that a pathology report would be done on the tissue removed during her upcoming surgery. This is the first mention of a pathology report that I have hear from her medical team. The report would follow within two weeks of the procedure. The oncologist said that if the pathology report detects cancer cells—which is likely—then a follow-up treatment of immunotherapy would likely start in January. This also is the first admission that cancer will remain in my wife after the surgery.
It was at this point that the words of the oncologist got very close to using the “cure” word. The little yellow flags went up in my mind as I heard her say this. Such a promise is not what I have found in my reading of the literature on esophageal cancer. I can only reconcile the two opposing views as meaning that we can buy you a few years more if everything goes your way.
I have written elsewhere in this series about the surgery, so I won’t rehash that now; but I did need to get into the latest with Covid restrictions. The most important thing is that nobody with the initials M.D. after their name can tell you what the Covid testing rules are. We ended up being told to talk with the security guards at the hospital and find out.
What we learned is that there is no formal way required to prove that you had a recent Covid test. My two upcoming appointments at CVS or wherever it is, won’t get me very far. The security guys at the hospital will accept a home test if you bring it to them in the hospital.Please note this is a medical determination made by people that just might have a Red Cross First Aid certificate if you’re lucky and are probably the lowest paid folks in the hospital not changing bedpans. Also, they kept saying something about 72 hours but whether the test must be within that interval, or they only let you use it for that long; both or neither, I guess I will find out next week. Oh, I plan to have the home version of the Covid test in my car or on my person. I guess once they document my quickie test, I can trash it until I need another.
This brings up my next question which is why are face masks and Covid quickie tests just common garbage? If Covid is really so bad, then shouldn’t anything Covid related be biohazardous? Yeah, I know it’s not but if Dr. Fauci and the rest were serious then wouldn’t disposal be an important issue to prevent the spread? (Sorry I assumed for a minute that they might follow at least the easy science related to virology and contamination.)
Oh, lastly, when in the hospital, my wife is allowed one visitor per day. We are having sign-ups at our Thanksgiving celebration to let our relatives get in line. However, and isn’t there always one of those somewhere, the security folks will allow more people to visit if the nurses on her floor say that its ok. How this is communicated to the security guys was not explained. Also, minors are not allowed to see their moms in the hospital. Wanna bet it’s a Covid rule too?
Anyway, I’m thankful to have my wife and I’m glad see her doing better, even if it’s all about to be undone by the forthcoming medical procedure. Have a good Thanksgiving and expect to hear from me again after the surgery.
When we last left my wife, she was getting her potassium back into the normal band. Since then, about two more weeks have passed. She is still dealing with nausea and occasional vomiting. She is eating three small meals a day; think mashed potatoes, ice cream, oatmeal, and other fairly soft foods. In addition, she is getting saline added to her via the port about twice a week.
She says that it hurts to swallow many types of food but that it no longer is getting “stuck” on the way down. Speaking of down, she said that she is down 40 lbs. from the time of her first chemo treatment until now. Another symptom that she is now experiencing is that much of her hair has fallen out. Its not all gone but is very thin compared to what it was back in July. Ironically, the hair loss didn’t start until chemo and radiation were concluded.
In other developments, my wife wants to make a short road trip before her next PET/CT scan scheduled in mid-November. Yep, cancer patients get cabin fever too. Surgery is scheduled following Thanksgiving.
As I have previously mentioned, this procedure is not one I enjoy contemplating. It will forever change her lifestyle and maim her for the rest of her days. As a refresher, let me briefly explain the surgery.
The esophagus is about 9-10 inches (25 centimeters) long and less than an inch (2 centimeters) in diameter when relaxed. It is located just posterior to the trachea in the neck and thoracic regions of the body and passes through the esophageal hiatus of the diaphragm on its way to the stomach.
As previously blogged, the “height” of her tumor is 6 cm or about 2.4 inches. Per what I have read on medical websites, the upper incision of an esophagectomy is 3 inches above the top of the cancer.
If the cancer is in the lower part of the esophagus (near the stomach) or at the place where the esophagus and stomach meet (the gastroesophageal or GE junction), the surgeon will remove part of the stomach, the part of the esophagus containing the cancer, and about 3 to 4 inches (about 7.6 to 10 cm) of normal esophagus above this. Then the stomach is connected to what is left of the esophagus either high in the chest or in the neck.
Ok taking the above quotations, let’s do some simple math.
We know that my wife’s cancer is in the lower third of her esophagus. Let’s say that the tumor is one inch above her stomach’s sphincter. (This is a guess and the only part of my math that is an estimate.)
Length of Esophagus (10.0”) minus distance above stomach (1.0”) minus height of tumor (2.4”) minus additional three inches (3.0”) leaves 3.6” of esophagus.
Thus, the likely outcome of the surgery is that my wife will get to keep about 1/3 of her esophagus (3.6 inches) plus, the top of her stomach will be removed. The remaining parts will then be sewn together. This surgery takes about seven hours.
Folks, the above scenario and a “successful” surgery involve many things going right and none going sideways.
I’m not sure that my wife has the stamina to take a road trip in mid-November but I’m willing to let her try. I don’t think you will hear from me again on this subject until we get the scan results. Until next time…
Yep, I bet you missed that headline last week, but it was there if you could connect the dots. I mean what else could you conclude when you read that beginning in 2024 California will outlaw electrical generators.
California became the first state in the nation to outlaw the sale of gas-powered leaf blowers and lawnmowers in an attempt to curb emissions, a move met with both positive feedback and frustration.
Signed Saturday, the new law orders regulators to ban the sale of small off-road engines (SORE). While this is a broad category that includes generators, lawn equipment and pressure washers, it comprises a type of small engine on pace to produce more pollution each year than passenger vehicles.
Try this article for a more comprehensive understanding of the law.
California just banned the sale of gasoline powered backup generators, lawn mowers, small gas powered fire fighting pumps, and other small stationary engines, as part of their drive to reduce CO2 emissions.
The text requires regulators to consider “… (E) Expected availability of zero-emission generators and emergency response equipment. …”, so there is no doubt they plan to cover backup generators and emergency fire fighting equipment if they can.
This is beyond serious. Imagine trying to fight the fire approaching your house, only to have a low battery light start flashing on your fire fighting water pump. Or someone who requires powered medical equipment, like oxygen generators or sleep apnea devices, struggling through an extended power outage without proper treatment for their health condition.
Gasoline powered equipment, barring a mechanical failure, works as long as you can keep it supplied with gasoline. But battery equipment needs power to recharge it. Where do you get more power, if the sky is covered with smoke or clouds, or the solar panels are covered in dust, snow or ash, and the power lines are down?
Yet, with startling shortsightedness, the state assembly has sent Governor Gavin Newsom a bill that will effectively eliminate a go-to backup: gas-powered generators. The bill (AB-1346) lumps gas-powered generators in with the offending landscaping equipment and all other “small off-road engines,” referring to them as SOREs. It “encourages” the California Air Resources Board (the state’s own sort of EPA) to “adopt cost-effective and technologically feasible regulations to prohibit engine exhaust and evaporative emissions from new small off-road engines” and to consider “expected availability of zero-emission generators.”
When the power went out last August, says Collin Blackwell of Eldorado Hills, California, “We went out and bought an $800 generator, so that way we could have the fridge powered up in the garage at least and be able to have food and everything in the house.” Mark Galloway of Cameron Park said he lives in a mountain community where losing power is fairly common. “You should have something, so having the backup generator and things like that—I think it’s on you to really take care of that,” he said. “It’s not like it’s something that you can’t plan for.”
Californians who have been seen power supplies become more unreliable in recent years have increasingly turned to gas-powered electric generators to keep the lights on during “public safety power shutoffs.”
According to the industry trade group, there are 1.5 million portable generators in use in California today. The average gas-powered generator can provide 10-12 hours of power to run lights, phone chargers, refrigerators, microwaves and more, with a simple refueling keeping them powered another half-day.
Ok, given the above, can you start to see why Newsom must think he has or will soon fix PG&E?
I mean, what utility has the most voluntary power disruptions?
What utility starts half the major conflagrations that California experiences in their service area?
What utility is driving the sale of portable generators in their service area?
What utility is responsible for the homeowner’s insurance crisis in rural areas?
What utility is even less popular than our state legislature?
So, if Newsom and his brothers under the dome have the stones to ban private sector electrical generation and portable fire pumps, then a reasonable person can only conclude that he will fix PG&E, solve fires in our mismanaged forests, and replace the current system with a more reliable and redundant electrical grid.
If Newsom has failed to fix at least these problems, then Newsom and his fellow big city Democrats have said that they are willing to forfeit the lives of everyone in rural areas. Folks this law prevents you from protecting your life and property. It hits the elderly and poor the hardest. People that need to refrigerate insulin or keep the 02 flowing or the AC on when it’s 115 outside, will have to do without. Generators are about more than preserving the stuff you bought at Costco, but shouldn’t you have the right to keep it cold when PG&E’s lawyers tell them to pull the plug on your neighborhood?
San Francisco Waterfront homes burning 1989
Can you imagine the fire department showing up and letting your place burn to the ground with grandma inside because they can’t use their portable fire pump? Or the emergency workers can’t cut you out of the car with their portable equipment because their equipment relies on gasoline?
Portable equipment in use by rescue workers
Does Gavin really not remember all the gasoline powered fire pumps used to keep San Francisco from burning to the ground after the 1989 earthquake during the World Series? Or the emergency equipment used when the elevated portion of the MacArthur freeway collapsed? Why is Gavin the only one that doesn’t have vivid memories of where he was on that day?
Portable equipment used to free trapped folks and recover the dead
So, either Gavin Newsom and his fellow Democrats have fixed all the problems mentioned in this blog or they are willing to kill a lot of people to save us from the myth of global warming. Also, this policy has the effect of preventing poor and middle-class folks from leaving the big cities that Democrats control. Guess rural living is only for the very wealthy—kind of like dining at the French Laundry.
This week started out where the last ended and much on the same downward trajectory. Even though chemotherapy is over, we spent several hours at the infusion center on Sunday trying to get hydration and potassium into my wife. After about 3 bags of potassium solution and some saline, we headed for home; however, we did schedule a return trip the next day for more hydration. While this sounded like a good plan, Monday found a way to go off the rails.
My wife started hydration at 8 AM at the infusion center. While there, she also had a blood draw for lab work. Then shortly after 10 AM hydration was stopped, and she got her usual radiation treatment. Having completed her business at the hospital, my wife got in her car to head home only to get a call from her oncologist instructing her to check herself into the emergency room and get her potassium levels up.
At the ER, they did another blood draw for lab work. Her potassium level was in the basement. They hooked her up to an EKG machine and started pumping more potassium into her. The doctor also decided to add magnesium to the mix as well. After many hours they did another blood sample for lab work. Finally, my wife was .01 below the normal band for potassium. The doctor made her promise to fill a prescription for a potassium supplement at a local 24-hour pharmacy and take it immediately and then sent her home. She got home sometime after 7 PM. After a few minutes to refresh, we jumped into the car and set off to get the prescription filled.
The potassium supplement “tastes like the strongest orange whiskey that you can imagine. It is very salty and burns all the way down.” My wife vomited this stuff up several times over the course of the week.
Nevertheless, the remainder of the week was better for my wife. She had another IV bag of fluid on Tuesday and was feeling even better on Wednesday. She was able to eat mashed potatoes and ice cream in addition to “smoothies”. Her favorite treat this week was a concoction of ice cream and lemonade from Chick-fil-A. On Wednesday, she even broke out the Cricut Maker to craft t-shirts for the radiation crew since the next day was her last radiology treatment. This week, the radiological oncologist warned her that the full effects of the radiation treatment will not be felt for another two weeks. My wife has to take several medicines to ease the pain enough so that she can swallow anything. It hurts from the throat to her stomach and without the medicine, eating and drinking would be almost impossible.
My wife has been in good spirits this week and tried to eat several new things; however, it was not unusual for her to be unable to keep them down. The sores in her mouth have gone away.
Saturday, we had a family gathering at the house to belatedly celebrate her birthday. It was a fun time, and she did very well. For much of the gathering, it was hard to tell that she was even ill.
While this week started badly, it finished in a happy Norman Rockwell sort of way. Sunday (tomorrow) is the next blood draw and I expect that it will show improvement in her lab results.
