I continue today with old A&J Sunday strips you won’t see anywhere but here, although I think maybe this particular strip has been shown before at arloandjanis.com. I’m not sure. This one is from 1993 and was drawn shortly after the first meeting at the seashore between son Gene and Mary Lou. No one suspected, least of all myself, how momentous that little storyline would prove.
Arlo and Janis has a lot of followers in the upper Midwest. I want to remind you that the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning gets underway today in Wisconsin. You might want to check it out if you do, indeed, live in the area. In the past, I would have posted a link for you, but unless there is something specific I want to show you it’s so much easier for everyone if I simply encourage you to “Google it.” You know what to do. If you do make it to the festival, tell ’em Arlo and Janis sent you.
211 responses to “Variations on a Theme”
Apropos of nothing in particular is the observation that, ultimately, we all have to deal with our personal demons in our own individual ways.
First, the bad news…the left side of the distal third of my left index finger looks like an overly ripe eggplant that was allowed to dry out in the sun for about a week. The good news…that’s actually an improvement!
Must have been a bad one, Ghost. I’ll put you on my prayer list
Ghost, my docs keep telling me if I keep insisting on gardening and playing in dirt cum composted stuff I am going to end up with that too! Because I never wear gloves and use my hands to root around and dig.
We also have a lot of stuff endemic in soil up here that can kill you if inhaled and entered into your blood stream via breaks in skin. Oh, and in water too!
I am glad you are better and hope you recover fully. Over on the boating forums mostly they are cutting off finger tips right now on power tools, so we are having lots of interesting wound stories.
I cannot tell some of the most interesting ones I know because they violate forum rules I think and I am supposed to moderate, not lead down road to perdition. Fingers are not only things people lose to electrical tools!
Love, Jackie
Ghost, The Boss Of My Life and I did a skin graft to a guy’s fingertip. He came in for a dressing change and it was blacky-purple. I asked him what he thought it looked like and he said, “Fishbait”. Two weeks later the eschar fell off and the finger had remodeled and looked perfect, nice and pink. Pink should be the surgeon’s national color!
Quote of the day: “Research shows that standing in the Wonder Woman position, for as little as two minutes, not only makes you feel more confident, but also changes your hormonal levels. Testosterone goes up, while cortisol goes down. You feel powerful and free of stress! ” I tried it and it works.
OF to erupt at 1306 ± 10 minutes CDT . Peace, emb.
http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/webcam/oldFaithfulStreaming.html
I once heard, second-hand, in pre-HIPAA days, of a circular saw accident that required a urologist to be called to the local ER. I did not want, nor seek, any further details.
Thanks, Munchkin. I’m sure my finger is busy growing some healthy pink skin beneath the “eggplant rind”. I’ll be happy when the rind starts to slough off.
I once had to (unwillingly actually) explain to more than one claimant what constituted loss of a “scheduled” member. Then I would have to go into definition of what constituted an injury with restricted loss of motion.
And finally I would get down to the part where an injury prevented the performance of a job or curtailed employment, as in partial disability. This usually took several letters of explanation and discretion in your wording.
Frankly, I would have just rather paid them money. I paid all their medical expenses and lost time from work but I was actually on their side and not the government’s on this one.
It just “wasn’t covered.”
Love, Jackie Monies
The Boss Of My Life has told us not to accept Worker’s Comp for non-established patients. There is too much paperwork and fuss. The only Worker’s Comp injuries that we get around here in our office are finger-sticks. One time, The Boss Of My Life came in and a new hire was standing on a wheeled, rotating chair to get something in a high cabinet. She grabbed the girl around the waist, lowered her to the ground, and chewed her out for being silly and lazy. There was a step-stool in the next room.
Most physicians want what pays off fastest and easiest with no fuss or trouble. They also don’t want to dictate or send reports or explanations of what they did/want to do.
Once a Federal case is approved which is really not hard, no litigation or testimony or court cases, it is easy money for doctors.
Sort of like the prison system cases, especially the private prisons of which you may have some around?
And fee schedules are not reduced, like in Medicare. But your boss may not take Medicare or Medicaid patients nor Texas state welfare recipients
Love, Jackie
I thought my reference to “wasn’t covered” was pretty good!
Love, Jackie
OF to erupt at 1608 ± 10 minutes CDT. Peace, emb
http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/webcam/oldFaithfulStreaming.html
No, we take Medicare and Medicaid. Some of my favorite patients. Never heard of “Texas State Welfare” so I guess we don’t.
Easy money? The key phrase there is “once a Federal case is approved,” which is a long,involved process which often results in a rejection. We have been burned often that way, The Billing Clerk In My Life informs me.
“. . . looked perfect, nice and pink.” + later posts. Reminds me of the story, possibly true or maybe from a TV routine, of the black man at the pharmacist’s asking for some flesh-colored b**d a*ds [I don’t want to mess with a trademark]. Maybe there’s some choice now, at least some places. I’ve not noticed any.
Several decades ago, my favorite surgeon was also a bridge partner and good friend. In the course of events, I asked him to remove (cryogenically) a noxious wart from my son’s finger. He did so.
As it happened, said surgeon was due for a social/bridge event at my place the next evening. Upon arrival, he asked to see my son’s finger and involuntarily exclaimed something I cannot write herein, but which looks a bit like “Oh, $#i7”! This isn’t something most folks want to hear from their surgeon after the surgery.
Turned out that the finger was just fine; it healed in due time. The cause of consternation was simple: the surgeon, as with most docs doing similar work, had never seen what the digit looked like only one day later. Typically, the patient was seen a week or so later, after much of the coloration and/or swelling had disappeared.
Son is still fine and turned 45 today.
Brrrrr, skipping VERY FAST over injury descriptions. But I actually have been wondering, Dear Ghost, how your finger-like-an-eggplant is feeling. Please tell us about it.
cep, Black people have a pink undercast to their skin which is quite apparent when they have lost circulation and when it is restored, to say nothing of their nailbeds and the nice, pink coloration of theri surgical incisions.
Dearest Ghost, you mentioned how your finger is looking, today, but now I want to know if it’s hurting, and how much, and if you can use it.
My finger is stiff, partially numb, partially sensitive, and ugly as a mud fence, Charlotte, but continuing to slowly improve. Today, I was able to downgrade from gauze and tape to one of those adhesive bandages emb didn’t want to reference.
Based on current “Gobermint” trends, I can probably look forward to tripled Medicare premiums, a $10,000 annual deductible, and a 50% co-pay for services, with no Medicare Advantage plans available to back me up.
And anyone who thinks medical care will never be rationed should get their heads out of the sand. Or I should say, more rationed than it already is.
Sure, why not?
http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/2348/192297.jpg
And for zombies, although I’m not sure why a zombie needs a bandage.
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/00/7a/6a/007a6a5cdc7a35c77d147a4a75001e75.jpg
Lilyb, I don’t see the connection between your 3:42 comment and my earlier anecdote. Did you confuse me with another poster?
Sorry, cep, conflated it with emb’s post. Mea cupa
Avast, me hearties!
Holy Shivers! Apparently everyone (including me) overlooked the fact that September 19th was Talk Like A Pirate Day. My only explanation is that the blog broke down the day before, and that by the time it went live again, the event was too far back in the rearview mirror to register.
Well, it’s not like we missed something important, like Elephant Appreciation Day. Oh, wait; we did.
Hey, Ghost, do not feel bad about the Pirate Speak Day, I think all my boaty guys did too, I don’t recall a one doing their usual jokes or speaking like Long John anything.
Can we see a photo of your finger like those REALLY bad ones they use on wiki for diseases?
I thought Zombies were all wrapped up in bandages that sloughed off as they lurched your way?
Mama picked and snapped a big mess of green beans out of garden (well, purple and yellow and green ones too) and I need to go cook some dinner, along with some fresh greens and turnips and yellow squash. All out of our fall garden. I could have bought gold dipped produce for the cost of it but it is making her and me happy a little.
Love, Jackie Monies