It really is interesting to examine how one’s mind works, when trying to end something you have been doing for decades, like smoking.

Yesterday’s box score ended up with Habit winning over Stubborn.

BOX SCORE January 4 2010

Stubborn 5   Habit 7

Today got off to a not bad start, least its encouraging.  However I do notice that I think about it more, than I did when I was smoking. I guess that is part of the withdrawal from the nicotine or something.

I know some suggest patches, and other stuff, but isn’t that sort of like trading one addiction for another? A friend used cinnimon sticks, to have in his mouth, rather than a cigarette. Worked too, as he’s quit, but he’s up to 100 grams of sticks each day, and well, chewed stick pieces are everywhere.

Box Score:   Stubborn 2  Habit 0

Not really the 2 Billionth attempt, but it sure feels like it.   To Quit smoking that is.

Another go at it, and who knows, this time one Hopes it will succeed.

I think the hardest part is the realization, that one isn’t as strong as they think, or that they are in as control as they would like to be. I know, that stress is one issue, that can play easily into the hands of an addiction.   And truth is, smoking is that.

Nearly 55 years old, and have been smoking since I was 14.  Yeah I know, pathetic isn’t it?

So, once more we shall attempt to break the cycle, and hey, everyday without is a plus.

Who are they? 

I haven’t a clue really, but they are the firm contracted by the Government of British Columbia, to provide in home support for elderly people. You know, the workers who come in to help a person get a bath, get dressed if they can’t do it.  Depending on your income level, the services are paid for by the Government.

This is the case with my 92 year old mother, Annice.

For some time now, we have had them send someone to help her wash up, twice a week. Every Tuesday & Friday. The permanent worker on Friday, was super, and Mom looked forward to her arrival. She was good, knew her job and did it well. The one’s showing up Tuesday were a bit less than ideal, but on July 14th, things got more complicated.

Mother broke her wrist in a fall in the home.

At the Royal Jubilee Hospital, the community laison worker suggested we get home support in for the mornings and night, to help mom dress & get ready for bed. It was a helpful suggestion, because frankly, a woman of 92 with a cast, isn’t going to do all that on her own. She is frail as it is.

And that worked out good. Each morning, someone has shown up and helped, at night the same thing. Today was bath day, and Mom was once again looking forward to Wanda coming, to help her afternoon bath.  Eager is the word I’d use, because as a son, I can only do so much. A woman’s touch, voice, all helps.

1:30pm and NO Wanda.

In contacting the people at Beacon, they claim the service was cancelled. Like isn’t that nice to suddenly find out. A phone call would have hurt?  But hey, it gets worse, because they say it was cancelled by the Hospital Laison worker.  In reading me the notes of the call, there is NO MENTION of such cancellation. Nor did I instruct the laison officer to make any such cancellation.

In the meantime, I also find out that each worker is supposed to be here for an hour, and that it is for 2 weeks only. So that is interesting, given that I would expect a 92 year old to heal in 2 weeks from a displaced fracture of her wrist.  After all, don’t us younger folks heal faster? Bet if you broke your wrist, you’d be able to use it in what, a few days, week tops?  NOT!

There is a community case worker as well, who I was in touch with on Wednesday, the day after the experience at the hospital. Strange, but no return call from her either, as she was going to check with the hospital laison worker, and get back to me. And yes, I know they are busy, but this is now Friday.  Enough time to call to say she is working on it, or something.

But then again, maybe not, given that her voice message today, said she’d be out of the office July 10 to July 13.  Funny, today is July 17th. You would think, that any service being cancelled would be made known to the client. And that too, irks me. Why are they calling them clients, when they are patients? So it is easier to disassociate one’s self from the fact that these are elderly people, who need compassion, as well as care?

Elderly people have trouble enough maintaining their dignity. Now here comes the B.C. Government and foists its care of elders, onto a private firm, whose bottom line is, to make money. That is so wrong, in so many ways, that I won’t even begin to detail it, yet.

Fact is, that Beacon Community Services made an assumption, or if they didn’t, then the Laison worker did, who doesnt have her case history. I rather doubt that a Laison Officer in the hospital even has the authority to cancel existing services, unless the patient is being admitted to hospital. So to my warped mind and some common sense, the problem is at Beacon.  Naturally they won’t admit to that.

Reality is, that our society today doesn’t seem to give a damn about the older generation, and the real problem is, WE ARE ALL GOING TO BE OLDER, THINK ABOUT IT.

So we now require VISA’s for Mexican & Czech visitors coming to Canada. The idiots in charge ( Kenney & Harper ) claim it is due to too many claiming refugee status, once they get here. Uh huh, like I buy into that BS? 

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said the government introduced the requirement to stem a surge in refugee claims by visitors from those countries. Kenney said “economic immigrants” are clogging up the country’s immigration process for people who have genuine refugee claims. ( CBC News )

So let me see, they will allow in Mexican farm workers, to take our Jobs, and they will let in unskilled Mexian workers to the Oil Patch, to take our jobs, but the people who come into Canada, to spend money in our stores, they want a VISA from? Oh and let’s not forget, we even let these workers in, when they were in the middle of a swine flu outbreak.

I think they got it ass backwards. We want the tourists, the visitors, to spend time here, and spend their money. I guess that some get here, and figure, hey its not bad, despite Harper, so let’s stay, but when you look at the numbers, it seems rather small, compared to the benefits of unrestricted entry.

Plus, with the Czech’s, there is an accord in place with the EU. So now we jeopardize that, because what, Harper had a bad experience with some Czech?

It is really stupid. I mean you have so many American Government Officials bleating about our border, while a million or so cross their southern border without worry, but hey, our immigration policy sucks, so we are the bad people. Now we see how Harper answers the Americans, he slaps VISA requirements on people coming into Canada to spend money.

Nice move Stevie Boy, that’ll help the tourist industry just nicely.

It amazes me how Politicians cannot see the trees, because of the forests. To them, balanced books, seems to mean that each department has to be balanced. And yet, that is really an impossibility, given that any budget, is a forecast of expenses & revenues.

No budget can truly take into account the future, or we’d all be millionaires, by playing the stock market. Oh wait, isn’t that what caused all this crapola in the first place? Greedy stock brokers, pushing corporate interests ahead of real facts, & figures? Or maybe it was just, well, the poor slob who didn’t read his mortgage document carefully, or realize that the price of gas would climb by 300% in a blink of an eye?

Up here in Lotus Land, the VIHA ( Vancouver Island Health Authority ) announced that we can expect higher user fees, greater wait for elective surgeries like gall bladder, and the selling off of selected assets. ( see Times Colonist for details ) Course, they say it won’t affect patient wait times, like at emergency waiting rooms.

I suppose that is because the chairs are already filled, & they simply don’t want to buy more dumb ass metal benches for patients to wait on, until treated.

The longer this ‘downturn‘ continues, the greater the demand will be for health care. It is a simple fact, & yet our elected leaders believe that cutting costs, selling off assets, is how to solve our fiscal crisis. It makes NO SENSE to sell off lands, adjacent to hospitals, that WILL be needed for expansion, as the population increases.

It is this so called ‘Conservative Fiscal Policy’ that leads to long term debt, and increased operating expenses. If we OWN the land now, selling it off to meet current shortfalls means, that when it comes time to expand, WE WILL PAY MUCH MORE.

True fiscal responsibility means in protecting our current investment, and in insuring we get value for every single dollar spent. Now I don’t know about you folks, but I want physicians & support staff to GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THE PATIENT.

It is nice to socialize on the job, nice to be busy too, but not at the price of the patient. Too much is being spent on fancy new gizmos, new forms and paperwork, while the patient is left out in the cold.

Cut the remodel of cabinet ministers offices, cut the paint job for buildings, but to sell off land, is just plain stupid. It is reckless, and frankly, smacks more of a political payoff, than of prudent fiscal policy.