It was a good weekend. On Saturday, I spent most of the day riding bikes around with my oldest son. We cruised all over the place. We're fortunate to live by a beautiful lake so when we weren't pedaling, we were hiking. I didn't realize how out of shape I was until I got back. I was exhausted. I believe I was in bed by 8:30. I had a blast though.
Then on Sunday, I wiped the dust off the road bike and went for an hour ride. I loved it. I looked like a little kid on a new schwinn. I was smiling the whole time. On the first climb out of town my heart rate hit 185bpm. I can't even hit that high when I'm in shape but it felt good. My back is far from better but I'm just going to focus on the rehab and ride a few days a week.
I think the biggest factor will be not sitting at my desk so much. We'll see how that works. I'm excited to hopefully be on the mend.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Frustrated
Well I'm 72 hours post my second cortisone injection and not feeling any better at all. In fact, parts of the day I feel worse. It's a little frustrating but I'm holding on to the idea that the cortisone is still trying to work. My doctor and physical therapist think I'm dealing with two different problems. First, and primarily is the disc problem that is causing my back muscles to spasm and the sciatic pain to worsen. Second, is the rotational tilt of my pelvis. They believe my pelvis is rotated posteriorly which is causing my impingement on the nerves of my back. The fix for this is going to take a little more time, but it was going to be almost impossible to fix if I didn't relieve the disc pressure first. So now I'm believing it's going to take a lot of ab and hamstring work. I ordered the book "treat your own back" by a Dr. McKenzie. I've heard great things about it so I'm hoping the ideas presented in the book will help as well.
My legs are getting so scrawny from being off the bike. I'm going to start riding a few days a week with light spinning only while incorporating all the other exercises. It's getting cold outside so I may just be stuck riding the trainer. Right now I'll take anything.
My legs are getting so scrawny from being off the bike. I'm going to start riding a few days a week with light spinning only while incorporating all the other exercises. It's getting cold outside so I may just be stuck riding the trainer. Right now I'll take anything.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Medicare Cuts
Why is it when the government needs money, Medicare is the first program they steal from? A law was passed last year regarding capping oxygen payments. Parts of this program I understand, it's foolish to continue paying for a machine that is easily paid for in its first year of service. The problem lies in service and portable oxygen. Once a patient has had oxygen service for 3 years we can no longer bill for those services, even if the patient continues with the service. This isn't bad if the patient is home bound and only using an oxygen concentrator at night. But if a patient is active and they are using several portable tanks a month, how are we to pay for that? Currently medicare has no answer. Another problem is what if a patient has been with a company for 2 1/2 years and has about 6 months left before their services cap, the patient is receiving horrible service from their current company and wants to switch to a better company. They can't. They are stuck with the poor service for as long as they are receiving oxygen services.
I'm not sure of a cure for this problem, but surely there's got to be a better plan.
Another problem, we want to stay the small locally owned company. Medicare has forced us into having to compete for future business. You figure a company needs to turn over their patient load every 3 years if they want to stay competitive. It's here that I just have to have faith in God and that he will provide for both us and our patients and just guide us on our way. Do I believe we offer the best service, I honestly do. Our referral sources have become something more, they have became friends that we are blessed to know. I believe the patient gets even better service when everyone is on the same page and everyone is helping out in their care. A lot of our doctor referrals now come from the doctors themselves instead of going through some of their staff members.
Another really cool thing, we have new front office help. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for our referral sources to get an order through. The young lady we just hired is going to be a blessing. We've known her for a few years and she has medical knowledge. We had to let our previous girl go. I won't go into reasons why but I think were blessed with the new addition to our team.
That's all for now.
Thanks for reading
I'm not sure of a cure for this problem, but surely there's got to be a better plan.
Another problem, we want to stay the small locally owned company. Medicare has forced us into having to compete for future business. You figure a company needs to turn over their patient load every 3 years if they want to stay competitive. It's here that I just have to have faith in God and that he will provide for both us and our patients and just guide us on our way. Do I believe we offer the best service, I honestly do. Our referral sources have become something more, they have became friends that we are blessed to know. I believe the patient gets even better service when everyone is on the same page and everyone is helping out in their care. A lot of our doctor referrals now come from the doctors themselves instead of going through some of their staff members.
Another really cool thing, we have new front office help. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for our referral sources to get an order through. The young lady we just hired is going to be a blessing. We've known her for a few years and she has medical knowledge. We had to let our previous girl go. I won't go into reasons why but I think were blessed with the new addition to our team.
That's all for now.
Thanks for reading
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Winter is coming.
First I have to say that its great to see SoreLegs getting back to normalcy. He's been through hell and back while going through the treacherous chemo treatments. Again, all you who think you have problems, it could always be worse.
My second cortisone injection which was scheduled for last Thursday was cancelled. I guess the fluoroscopy machine they use to see your spinal cord was broken. I'm rescheduled for this Thursday so I hope and pray that more healing is on the way. I rode the trainer last night for about half hour and I'm still getting the pain down my left leg. It's better then it was but by far not great. I moved my seat just a little forward and tipped the front down which seemed to help a little as well.
It's snowing outside right now so I guess winter is well on its way. It's a welcome site as we really need the moisture. I love this time of year. The holiday music, the cooler weather, Thanksgiving and Christmas, I just love it.
My wife is getting chubbier everyday :) She is due December 20th but we all agree she'll likely deliver sooner. Both of our other boys came early so there is no reason to believe the 3rd little guy will hold out to term. It will make for even a greater Christmas.
I guess that's about it for now. A lot going on at work but I'll post that later.
Have a Great Night!!!
My second cortisone injection which was scheduled for last Thursday was cancelled. I guess the fluoroscopy machine they use to see your spinal cord was broken. I'm rescheduled for this Thursday so I hope and pray that more healing is on the way. I rode the trainer last night for about half hour and I'm still getting the pain down my left leg. It's better then it was but by far not great. I moved my seat just a little forward and tipped the front down which seemed to help a little as well.
It's snowing outside right now so I guess winter is well on its way. It's a welcome site as we really need the moisture. I love this time of year. The holiday music, the cooler weather, Thanksgiving and Christmas, I just love it.
My wife is getting chubbier everyday :) She is due December 20th but we all agree she'll likely deliver sooner. Both of our other boys came early so there is no reason to believe the 3rd little guy will hold out to term. It will make for even a greater Christmas.
I guess that's about it for now. A lot going on at work but I'll post that later.
Have a Great Night!!!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Time to Vote
This is definitely not a blog on politics and I'm not going to say who I voted for but I heard this explanation the other day and got a big kick out of it.
A fourth grade little girl works super hard on her bookreport while two boys in the same class don't work hard at all. The little girl works effortlessly to get all the puncuation and spelling correct. The two boys however just write a bunch of gobbly gook just to be able to hand in a paper.
As the three children hand in their papers, they wait patiently for their grades. The little girl gets her paper back and finds that her "A" has been crossed out and replaced with a "C". The two boys are happy to see that their "D"s have been crossed out and replaced with a "C" as well. The little girl raises her hand and asks why she received a C.
The teacher told her that he had taken her A, spread it out among the others so that everyone averaged a C.
Does this sound familiar???
Don't get me wrong. I can see both sides of the aisle, but this is one area I have issues with. Another problem I have is instead of cutting all the pork out of these bills in order to balance the budget, their only answer is to raise taxes.
Even better, to pay for some outrageous health care plan, what do they cut???? Medicare!!!! How in the world does that make sense?
I won't babble on, but I'm not sure the country will be better no matter who wins today. I guess we should be happy to live in the country that we do.
What's amazing is we know most of our politicians are out for themselves and most are already fairly rich. What's pathetic is that it's us that vote them into this position of power.
It's crazy.
A fourth grade little girl works super hard on her bookreport while two boys in the same class don't work hard at all. The little girl works effortlessly to get all the puncuation and spelling correct. The two boys however just write a bunch of gobbly gook just to be able to hand in a paper.
As the three children hand in their papers, they wait patiently for their grades. The little girl gets her paper back and finds that her "A" has been crossed out and replaced with a "C". The two boys are happy to see that their "D"s have been crossed out and replaced with a "C" as well. The little girl raises her hand and asks why she received a C.
The teacher told her that he had taken her A, spread it out among the others so that everyone averaged a C.
Does this sound familiar???
Don't get me wrong. I can see both sides of the aisle, but this is one area I have issues with. Another problem I have is instead of cutting all the pork out of these bills in order to balance the budget, their only answer is to raise taxes.
Even better, to pay for some outrageous health care plan, what do they cut???? Medicare!!!! How in the world does that make sense?
I won't babble on, but I'm not sure the country will be better no matter who wins today. I guess we should be happy to live in the country that we do.
What's amazing is we know most of our politicians are out for themselves and most are already fairly rich. What's pathetic is that it's us that vote them into this position of power.
It's crazy.
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