We’ll have some clouds around today but the temperature won’t be too bad. There is a chance of some showers through tonight; but, like just about every forecast says, not everyone will get them. Late this afternoon, another change will take place. The official summer will depart our region and we’ll welcome the arrival of the fall season, or, as we know it, autumn. And just wait for the Wednesday and Thursday temperatures expected into the 80s. Welcome, Autumn.
Another feature of today is my bi-weekly trek to the senior fitness place where a group of fellow retirees who have gone through physical therapy for various reasons get to use the equipment at a reasonable cost for seniors.
Sometimes when we have these fronts passing through, I find the session to be a challenge; but as this day starts, I’m not yet feeling the twinges and twangs weather fronts put on my body. We’ll just have to see how it all goes. My session begins when I get there, usually between 7 and 7:30 AM.
Today begins a somewhat busy week for the old Gator. If you were here a year ago, you already have been told that September begins a series of special medical checkups I have to survive every year. Those checkup are spread way out and don’t end until next February. If President Obama has his way, this could be the last year I’ll have them as his administration doesn’t think we older folk need the advanced care and plans to cut Medicare substantially.
Today is a prelude to tomorrow’s heart checkup with my cardiologist. I had the echo-cardiogram test last Wednesday and today I hold a transmitter over my ICD (combination pacemaker and defibrillator device implanted in my chest) and transmit its stored up three-month readings to the cardiologist. The good doctor will read both results, perform his own little pokes and prods and listen to whatever cardiologists listen to and let me know if I’m still alive or not.
It was this visit just a year ago when he first announced to me, “We’ve got to begin a conversation.” That conversation led in January to the implantation of the ICD. This week I’m kind of hoping he’ll say simply, “Gator, we’ll see you next September.” I like to hear stuff like that. Whenever a doctor says that, it gives hope he thinks we’ll still be around.
A little change of pace Thursday completes the week as I have my monthly blood poke which makes sure it can flow. So, all in all, it doesn’t seem like a full week, but for an old Gator Dude, it is and will be a busy three days.
On the president’s health care reform proposals, although he still doesn’t have his own plan but is relying on what the Democrats put together in Congress, we’re told that Medicare won’t be cut back and we’ll still be able to get care. Yet the president is proposing cutting Medicare funding by several million dollars. If spending is cut then it only stands to reason that care will have to be rationed.
I’d bet there isn’t anyone who rattles around the Internet who hasn’t seen the president himself saying in a YouTube clip that perhaps it’s time for seniors to make a decision and we only give them a pill to ease the pain. That is one mighty scary and ominous clip. If you haven’t seen it, you can do a YouTube search and easily find it.
GiM
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