Disappointment

Last week I was supposed to go to Savannah on business but the trip was delayed indefinitely. Savannah is one of my favorite cities. Will have to definitely reschedule the trip.

I am a big fan of BBQ. I have eaten from several Q-joints considered among the best. I make my own sauce and rub. I used to have a smoker, too when I was single. This weekend is the Big Pig Jig down in Vienna, GA. One of the biggest BBQ cookoffs. I have never been and keep saying I am going to go but due to previous committments I am unable to go this weekend. Dang! There is always next year...

Tonight I had some Asian food for dinner. The fortune cookie was "Your mind is like a parachute. It only works when it is open." When did they quit putting fortunes in fortune cookies? I remember years ago I had chinese with a good friend. My fortune said "You will soon travel and come into some money." Two days later, I went to Biloxi for my first time and won some money.

Not all change is good

Sitting here watching some college football. Commercial came on for Burger King. Does anybody else find the new Burger King mascot scary?That large paper mache head. It cant blink. He doesnt talk. Just really creepy.

Somebody told me the other day that the Cookie Monster on Sesame Street no longer eats cookies. Trying to be more politically correct, I guess, Cookie Monster eats fruits and veggies. How can you be the Cookie Monster and not eat cookies? I just dont get it.

From Today's Atlanta Journal

Online campaigns raise funds for transplants

By KAREN HILL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/19/05

Chris Barr of Richmond Hill is an accountant who likes to play poker. He needs $100,000 for a new kidney. Jeffrey Evans, a Duluth chef who likes to hike, hopes to get $75,000 for a heart. Stanley Harris Jr., a 3-year-old from Decatur with large brown eyes and a shy smile, is looking for $55,000 for a kidney.

So it goes, as national charities turn to cyberspace to connect those needing transplants with people willing to help them pay for their surgery and care afterward.

RENEÉ HANNANS HENRY/Staff (ENLARGE)
Nancy Larson, who received a kidney transplant this spring after raising money for it on the Web, lives in Decatur with her daughter Sasha, 7.
MOST POPULAR STORIES Union City man killed trying to save fiance during home invasion Tech QB has viral meningitis Motley Crue's Neil Breaks Leg at Concert Aquarium sinks Chicago's title Falcons' rally falls short
EMAIL THIS PRINT THIS MOST POPULAR

The money they seek is only what they need to get started. After-surgery care alone can sometimes cost more than $100,000 a year, and often, those expenses are not covered — or are only partially covered — by insurance.

It's common among the 247 transplant centers nationwide — including Emory University Hospital and Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta — to keep people off waiting lists for transplants until those people can devise a plan to pay for a lifetime supply of anti-rejection drugs.

The phenomenon sheds light on how medicine is outpacing insurance. Transplant patients are living longer, but it's expensive. Raising money online concerns one of the nation's leading bioethicists, who wonders whether the Web sites redirect resources from those who are sickest.

"Not everybody has a case to tell that's going to be publicly appealing," said Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.

"If I don't have three children, haven't got pets, am I less deserving of a shot at a kidney or a piece of a liver?" Caplan asked.

Transplant hopefuls say the sites, which are run by national charities, are saving their lives.

Nancy Larson, an architectural sales representative from Decatur, used one of the Web sites, operated by the National Transplant Assistance Fund, to help raise $33,000 before she received a new kidney this spring at Emory University Hospital. She also received help from the Georgia Transplant Foundation, which raises money online, but does not post pictures of people needing help.

"I was very uncomfortable to think I had to solicit money," said Larson, who is recovering well. Still, "Who doesn't want to keep living?"

Larson said the donations helped her through a dark period of daily, nearly daylong dialysis.

"It's such an affirmation of the kindness of humanity that people will reach out and help," Larson said.

Providing Web pages for individuals is a relatively new function for three nonprofits, the Memphis-based National Foundation for Transplants, www.transplants.org; the Philadelphia-based National Transplant Assistance Fund, www.transplantfund.org; and the Bloomington, Ind.-based Children's Organ Transplant Association, www.cota.org.

The nonprofits post information only about people whose need is hospital-certified. They pay bills directly to hospitals, doctors and pharmacies. Donations are tax-exempt for donors and recipients.

The National Foundation for Transplants and the National Transplant Assistance Fund keep a fraction — 4 percent or 5 percent — of what each person receives in donations. Charity Navigator, which rates charities for effectiveness, gives them good grades.

Visitors to these Web sites can scroll by state, alphabetical order or type of transplant.

The text accompanying each picture can be matter-of-fact and brief. Sometimes there are personal comments, or links to personal Web pages, that provide heart-wrenching glimpses of a fight for life.

There's this, from Leslie Courtney, a radiology student from McDonough who needs $25,000 for a lung transplant at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital:

"I was her maid of honor, and because of this unexpected hospital trip I was unable to go to the wedding and be there by her side ... I was devastated."

Courtney's best friend and new husband left their wedding reception early to come to the hospital, where a chaplain performed the marriage ceremony again, with Leslie by their side, in her bridesmaid's gown.

Lisa Williams, a stay-at-home mom from Kennesaw, who needs $100,000 for a heart transplant, shared what happened just before she learned how sick she was:

"My attention was drawn away [by] the sudden chill that filled my body ... I had my first cardiac arrest and died. Ken [Williams' husband] vividly recalls how he walked in the room and found me lifeless. He started performing CPR ... turning between breaths to scream for help."

As moving as the stories are, the Web sites raise concerns for Caplan, the bioethicist.

He questions how closely the nonprofits check the biographical data posted and said a donor may be sending much-needed money to someone who has become too sick to survive a transplant.

Caplan saved his harshest criticism for the hospitals — including the one at his university — that start patients on this money marathon.

"The first test you [have to] pass is the 'wallet biopsy,'" Caplan said.

Dr. Tom Pearson, co-director of the kidney/pancreas transplant program at Emory, said patients must be realistic.

"There's no point in putting you through surgery and hospitalization," Pearson said, "if you don't have a plan for the meds."

Anti-rejection medicine can range from $10,000 to $25,000 a year. Adding doctor visits and lab work to those pharmacy bills means someone with a new kidney will pay, on average, $60,000 each year after surgery, said David Bakelman, executive director of the Georgia Transplant Foundation. Someone with a new heart will pay an average $120,000 a year, Bakelman said.

Pearson said no one has died because Emory wouldn't put him or her on an organ waiting list. The point, he said, is for a transplant hopeful to make a plan, not to actually raise cash.

John Monogue of Decatur said he and his wife, Jodi Monogue, a legal case manager, left a meeting with a hospital financial counselor with a different impression.

They were so convinced they needed to raise cash that it took them just one week to do so.

"We went nuts with a large e-mail campaign" that brought in pledges for $3,000 a month for postoperative medicine, John Monogue said. Jodi received a new liver this summer and is recovering at home.

Bakelman, of the Georgia Transplant Foundation, said Emory's policy reflects the hard fact that there aren't enough donated organs for everyone who needs one.

Caplan, the bioethicist, wasn't buying those arguments.

"I think that the [medical] centers want the money," he said, "and there are enough people who can pay that they can get away with policies that require up-front payment."

TO LEARN MORE

... about each charity, go to charitynavigator.org, an independent charity evaluator.

Charity Navigator gives the National Transplant Assistance Fund four stars, its highest rating. The National Foundation for Transplants gets three stars, the median rating for 260 health charities.

Charity Navigator hasn't rated Children's Organ Transplant Association because, until recently, it was too small.

Blog Updating

So I am not the best at keeping my blog up-to-date. I try to update it frequently but sometimes I am super busy and sometimes I have writers block. I can understand other people that dont keep their blogs up-to-date but it still saddens me when I go to one of the blogs I regularly read and see that it still has the same message from early August. No names mentioned, of course... But surely something has happened blogworthy in the last 6-7 weeks.

One blog I read gets updated several times a day. That is a little bit crazy if you ask me.

So with that said, here is my update for the day. We planted some vegetables in the spring. Tomato, squash and jalapenos. The tomato plants died back and were replaced. Ditto for the peppers. The squash started out strong, had some blooms and then died without producing the first baby squash. The tomatoes are doing well; too well. I dont like raw tomatoes so that makes it even more fun. I like to make and eat salsa and tomato sauce. We planted herbs but they are looking pitiful due to neglect. Soon we will have more peppers than we will know what to do with them. The plant has blooms and babies all over the place for the first time this year.

My parents raise a lot of fruits, berries, and vegetables. Dad grew up on a farm and likes to do that kind of thing. I like getting the fresh stuff when we go to visit or they stop by. You cant beat fresh fruits and vegetables.

Speaking of farms, I have a friend that has chickens. Not in a big chicken house or anything like that. His chickens are in the back yard of his urban house, clucking along and playing with his dogs. I find it hard to believe that his dogs and chickens get along but they do. He had talked about getting rid of the chicks. Maybe I should call him up and go see if they are still there.

Traveling?

I love to travel. Next week I am planning a trip to Savannah for business. The only problem is that it is a pain to take all of my dialysis supplies with me even for one night (as this trip will be). It is worse when traveling for longer periods of time. If I am staying somewhere for a longer period of time, then the company that delivers my supplies delivers them to where ever I am staying. Then you worry about did it get there, did the people at the hotel sign for it, and a hundred other things that pop into your mind that could go wrong. My main regret is that the wife cant go with me next week.

More on the Movie Premiere

Yesterday was the fourth anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon. A friend of mine had a relative on Flight 93. You may remember that was the flight that was also hijacked but the passengers fought the terrorists and instead of the plane crashing through the Capitol in DC, it hit the ground in a field in Pennsylvania. Last week, the wife and I went to a premiere of a movie called "The Flight that Fought Back" with the friend with the relative on the plane. The movie was made for the Discovery channel and was aired there last night. At the premiere, it was only family and friends of the passengers and crew. I should have blogged about this earlier but have been kinda busy this week. I hope many of you were able to see the movie last night. I liked it a lot.

Idiot of the Day

Last week, the wife and I were coming home from a movie premiere. We were stopped at a light. When the light changed green an SUV heading in the opposite direction decided to swerve across two lanes, directly in front of a police car that had been stopped at the light, too. I guess the driver of the SUV wasnt paying attention but I am when those blue lights came on that got his attention.

Disappointed in Humanity

I have been upbeat about the human race when I see things like people donating organs to people they dont know but yesterday I witnessed something that really disgusts me.

It all began with a story in the local paper yesterday talking about damage done to the pipelines that bring gas into this area. The story, if you read it, said that if the pipelines were to be completely destroyed that we would still have enough gas for at least two weeks of normal use, but this wasnt the case and everything is fine. By the end of the day, people were emailing each other, in a modern adaptation of the old telephone game, that we were out of gas and rationing was coming and stations would be closing early.

So consumers flocked to gas stations and gas station owners greedily decided to stick it to their customers and started raising the prices. I personally saw gas over $4 a gallon. The national news showed stations in the area pushing $6. One station owner on the news said it was his station and he would charge whatever he felt like charging. The sad part to all of this is that it was perfectly legal for them to do this. Luckily the Governor FINALLY acted and made it illegal to do this.

Meanwhile, hotels in Texas where hurricane refugees have fled to are suddenly learning that their hotel rates have doubled and tripled. I thought as Americans that we are supposed to be better than this but I guess I am wrong.

The following story ran in today's Macon Telegraph.

Gas price complaints investigated

By Liz Fabian TELEGRAPH STAFF WRITER

After paying more than $4 a gallon for gasoline Wednesday afternoon, irate customers returned to the Express Food Mart at 701 Eisenhower Parkway asking for some of their money back.

The lighted sign read $2.98 when one man demanded a partial refund with two receipts showing he paid $4.29 a gallon earlier in the day.

The customer, who declined to give his name, walked out with a refund of $44.54 and got into his Volvo station wagon that was loaded down with five new 5-gallon gas containers.

Macon police Lt. Marquette King said officers investigated reports the price was more than $4 a gallon, but the responding officer said that wasn't true when he arrived.

Even if officers had found the higher price, they could not have issued a citation because Georgia's price-gouging statute was not enacted until later in the day.

Kent, the co-owner of the convenience store, who would only give The Telegraph his first name, said his staff had a problem changing the computerized sign during the day.

"It was an accident and it won't happen again," he said.

But before the owner arrived, store worker Calvin Denmark blamed the high price on the Citgo gas company, which he said independently sets the price for the store.

"It's been as high as $4.69," Denmark said.

But the owner later said the price never rose above $4.29.

Customers told a different story.

Regina Montgomery of Thomaston said she was in line for gas when the price jumped from $3.59 to $4.99.

"I was like, 'Did you see that?' to the people in line and they said, 'How can they get away with it?' " Montgomery said.

It cost Montgomery more than $50 to fill up her Toyota Camry. A check of her receipt showed the price at $4.29, she said.

At the Eisenhower Parkway Dialysis Center next door, employees said they watched out the window as the price on the sign continued to rise.

Rosalind Hodges, who works at the center, said she saw the sign reach $4.99.

Jerome Villarreal, who said he was the gas station owner's nephew, said his uncle wasn't trying to cheat anyone.

"My uncle's a good, going-to-church man. He's not fixing to take anybody's money," Villarreal said. "It was an honest mistake and he's given people their money back."

Editors note... "Honest mistake"? You call ripping people off an honest mistake? Not "fixing to take anybody's money?" Isnt that exactly what he did? My advice is to remember which stations did this to people and dont go back there ever again.