Just a request

Hey all my Provo blog readers!

Here's the deal: my little sister just moved to Provo. We really would like her to like Provo, but she's off to a rough start because her roommates aren't very nice and she doesn't have any other friends out there and school doesn't start for a while.

If anyone wants to hang out with an 18-yr-old, she can be pretty cool at times. She's also a stellar babysitter, so if you're looking for one for a hot date one night, she's available. Or... if you know of anyone that's hiring for a part-time job, she's looking for one of those as well. Let me know things and I'll pass on the messages to her.

To the Hospital We Go

Ever since I went to a ward picnic on Saturday and got really hot and dehydrated, I've had less fetal movement than usual. And Theodore is an ACTIVE fetus, especially at night. So having little/no movement Saturday and Sunday and Monday nights was pretty unusual and noticeable. I called the doctor last night, and she told me to just come to labor and delivery last night to check it out. I didn't really want to, but I knew it would give me peace of mind at least even if nothing was wrong (I figured I was just being paranoid anyways).

Of course, as soon as we hooked up the EFM he started kicking up a storm. Well, three hours later after sitting in a boring room by myself and one painful vaginal exam later, the conclusion was my fluids are great and the baby's heart rate is steady and normal. I was having contractions every 8-10 minutes but they aren't dilating my cervix. I was told to "take it easy", whatever that means and to come back if I have "more" contractions.

Conclusions:

1. I REALLY, REALLY hope that this baby waits a few more weeks so we can have a home birth. That hospital room and those nurses/doctors were remarkably inhospitable.

2. Having multiple vaginal exams in a row in front of med students feels incredibly violating. Luckily they were all women. I let them stay because I realize they have to learn somehow, and once upon a time I used to shadow OB/GYNs and it was always cool when the moms let me watch stuff. So now I'll be the patient that lets people watch. I probably will feel differently once I'm actually in labor. I don't want an audience for that.

3. First-year residents should not be allowed to perform speculum exams on 34-week pregnant women having pre-term labor. IT HURT. When I finally realized what they were doing (not checking my cervix like I thought), they told me they were testing me for chlamydia and gonorrhea. How many freakin' times are they going to test me for STDs (without my permission at that)?! I DON'T HAVE AN STD PEOPLE. MY HUSBAND AND I ONLY HAVE SEX WITH EACH OTHER. (I do realize though that many women don't realize their husbands are cheating on them, so I usually let this slide, but it's so annoying that our culture is like that!)

4. Babies are manipulative.

5. If you have to pee, it's incredibly difficult to take off that fetal monitor. But it can be done. Then the nurse will get mad at you and put it back on. If I end up going into labor in the next weeks, I think that will be the story of my birth. Me doing stuff they don't want me to do. But I HAD TO PEE PEOPLE!

My case for healthcare reform

I've been reading a bunch about this topic a lot lately. I've tried to get both sides of the issue, reading some conservatives writings and liberal. But there are just a lot more liberals talking about it and I probably tend to read more liberal biased stuff overall (I try not to, I promise), so I can't say my research was completely even handed, but I can say that I've thought about it a lot and tried to form my own opinions, which I have a convenient outlet for here. I'll try to be concise. And if you have ANYTHING to say, please comment. Health care reform = the more voices of citizens, the better.

Single payer, in my opinion, is the way to go. We've got a chance at getting everyone covered going other ways. Massachusetts did it well. Thanks Mitt. But in order to control costs, which is the big thing everyone is talking about, the government has to step in in a big way. The cost of health care in Massachusetts is going up faster than the rest of the country. The reason boils down to incentives. There is absolutely no incentive for insurance companies to keep costs down. It is how they make money. The higher the costs the better, as long as people continue to pay them. The hospitals also have little incentive to keep the costs down, especially when they are full to the brim with patients, as most hospitals are. The only people they don't like are the uninsured. Medicaid and medicare patients pay just fine. The government forces hospitals to treat the uninsured, but only enough to keep them alive, sometimes. And patients have little incentive to keep health care costs down, while they have it. Especially when a condition is expensive and maxes out the deductible, the average patient is going to spend any amount of the insurers money to get well.

What we definitely need is a disinterested party to make the tough decisions that no one else in the system is willing to make. That means, for example, forcing hospitals to use less expensive and technologically advanced treatments that work as well or nearly as well and not allowing patients to sue the doctors for not going with the expensive treatment. Yes, rationing would be a reality, but it already is. Health care providers already tell us what kind of treatments we can and can't have. But all they take into consideration is cost, not cost vs. quality and length of life, which should be the real considerations in rashioning. I think allowing people to pay for expensive surgeries out of pocket if the system deems it too expensive would also be a fair addition to a single payer system, and it seems to work in places like France. If we can find some group to do this that is not the government, than great, but I don't see anyone stepping forward. To keep it from being political, a health board, like the federal reserve, made up of industry experts independent from, but appointed by, at some level, the government. President Obama is already setting up something like this for Medicare.

We are currently paying 17% of our GDP for a healthcare system that is not providing us a higher quality of life as measured by most health statistics as countries like Germany, France and Switzerland who are paying around 10% of GDP for their single payer systems. The amount we're spending on health care now ($2.4 trillion) will nealry double to $4.3 trillion (which will be around 20% of GDP by then) by 2017 if current trends continue, while all these other countries are projected to hold steady. Reforming our legal system or adding a few government incentives will not be enough to hold down costs.

I understand that these changes can't come all at once. That's the nature of our system of government that I love so much. But a lot of the experts within the healthcare industry that I have heard in interviews and whatenot have expressed their personal opinion that single payer is the way to go, but that there is not political will enough for a change. The only way to change that is by normal citizens speaking to one another and talking about what they want out of healthcare. And I think things are starting to change. I've heard two different republican Senators (Bennett and McConnell) talk about the Safeway system of controlling costs with major incentives and an active regulation of spending talked about as a system to model ours after. What they don't say is that this is a single payer system, just with a corporation as a single payer, and not the government. The current dead-in-the-water health care bill shows that this time around, the American people aren't going to be satisfied with half-measures and platitudes. And that makes me very optimistic.

If you'd like to comment on this post, which I more than welcome, I only want to set out two ground rules. Well three. First, be nice, because this is a hotly charged topic nowadays. Second, calling single payer system "socialist" doesn't count as a legitimate argument. Taxes, public school and anti-trust laws are all socialist. Does anyone really want trusts back? I didn't think so. Third, anecdotal evidence from your friend who lives in Canada doesn't count as an argument either. For everyone that comes down to pay for a surgery here they can't get there, there are ten people going up there to get medications they can't afford here because our system drives the prices up super high. Anecdotal arguments aren't arguments at all. Those are my rules, because it's my blog.

A lot of my information and stats from here and the links they provide, but from other places as well. Let me know if you at all care about that.

And if anyone can talk to how home-births would save the country billions of dollars, extra bonus points.

Once when I was little...

I was in school when we had an assembly. They sat us down on the floor of the gym next to a guy who was next table. Apparently his job was to entertain us. He told some jokes and did some magic tricks and then moved onto his main act, which consisted of calling kids up and using them as ventriloquist (spelled it right on my first try) dummy, by his hand on their neck and and pressing their thumb on their neck when he wanted them to open their mouth. Seriously? A guy who's main act is manipulating small children? No warning bells going off in the minds of our teachers? Anyway, he had a girl come up first and he made her make some stupid jokes about how much she liked boys. But the key moment was when he stepped away to grab a prop, asking the girl to stay there. And the girl, instead of following his instructions, went back and sat down. Hilarious. It got the biggest laughs of the whole act.

I got called up after the girl and, being astute, remembered what the girl did to take laughs. So what did I do? What I always do: take something quaint and take it WAY to far. Actually I don't do that terribly often, but sometimes, and this was one of those times. Every time he pushed his thumb on the back of my neck, I stuck out my tongue and every time he gave me a chance, I walked away. He probably hated my guts, but all my friends were cracking up, so I kept it up. I was a pretty shy kid and was not used to such attention, so I was cracking up too. I was laughing super hard, so hard in fact, that I peed my pants. That is the only occurrence I remember of peeing my pants. Couldn't have come at a better time. Luckily not too many people seemed to notice. My mom even showed up for some reason in a crazy coincidence. That almost pushes this to seem like some weird fever dream, but it is not. I promise.

When it was over, we had recess, and all my 2nd grade friends were talking about how funny it was that I was completely uncooperative. And I was feeling good about myself. Wet underpants and all. However, there was one guy who came up to me, a 4th grader, probably, who asked me why I'd been so dumb and not just played along with the joke.

Every time you refresh the page, a different dinosaur quote appears. Find the comic here.

I network and ramble

Today at a fancy shmancy luncheon for my internship organization, I sat next to Harriet Fulbright. Like the grant. We chatted about my college success, my impending future as a mother, and my ultimate future as a PhD candidate. I told her I had met with my campus coordinator about applying for a Fulbright grant. Hopefully Ms. Fulbright will put in a good word when I apply. I learned her grandson goes to College of Charleston and she has three daughters. She was so nice, incredibly interesting to discuss world peace with, and I was so glad I was seated with her.

The speaker at the luncheon was Helen Clark, the head of UNDP and the former prime minister of New Zealand. She spoke about development (obviously) and how we need to increase ODA funding.

Last week, I met and chatted with Harriet Harman, British MP and leader of the House of Commons. Um, she is hilarious. She's a huge feminist, and apparently there are quite a few male's rights organizations that despise her because once she said that fathers weren't necessary to a family (she was speaking specifically about fathers that abuse their wives and children). She also tried to pass a law that abusive partners are not required to be listed on a birth certificate for their children. She is in fact though, happily married with three children. Awesome enough, the first time she ran for Parliament and won, she was 7 months pregnant. She's big on women being mothers and leaders and combining the two. She said she loves it when female MPs bring their babies to Parliament (I don't imagine it happens too often though...) How awesome would it be if our own female politicians brought their kids to work? One day... I will do it.

I've also been reading Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney's book about women's progress and how we are kidded into thinking that men and women are actually and truly equal in our country. She makes compelling arguments for changing the nature of the workplace, improving health care for women, and encouraging more women to run for public office. I first read up on Maloney for a breastfeeding paper I did; she's big on encouraging working mothers to breastfeed and has introduced loads of legislation on requiring workplaces to have spaces and give breaks for moms to pump, tax incentives for breastfeeding and tax breaks for buying breastfeeding equipment, etc. Did you know that businessmen can write off strip club visits on their taxes as "business expenses" but families can't count childcare the same way? Ridiculous.

Did you know also that if you're married to a man for nine years, raise his children while he works, then he decides to divorce... you aren't entitled to a dime of his social security? Yeah, think about that one for a while.

There are hundreds of thousands of unprocessed rape kits chilling in police stations around our nation. Why, you may ask? No funding to process them. 20/20 did a special on this, and gave the funding the process 50 of these kits in Boston; of the 34 with still-viable DNA samples, 9 returned matches of convicted felons who could then be tried on rape charges. 9 out of 34!! Imagine how many rapists we could get off the streets if we have the funding the process all of the rape kits. Sheesh, and then there is that nonsense that rape victims have to pay for their own rape kits. Can you imagine any other crime where the victim has to pay for the police to investigate? And this does happen, I witnessed it first hand at good old UVRMC when I was a victim advocate.

And if you want to know more about the ridiculous laws in our country that marginalize women... check out Maloney's book: Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated.

We need more women in politics. Because seriously guys on Capitol Hill... what the heck?!

Food

Last night, we ate this pizza for dinner. It was SO easy and SO yummy. Make it.

I've been reading quite a bit lately. I just finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It examines our food culture in the US, and how detached we are from where our food actually comes from. Before you stuff that bite of Lean Cuisine in your mouth, ask yourself: "Where HAVE you been?"

After reading this book, I've become obsessed with calculating food mileage of my meals. Sure, bananas are yummy and cheap, but how many gallons of petroleum did it take to bring that banana to your bowl of Cheerios? Pomegranate? Good for heart and soul, maybe not so much for the environment. I wish I could grow my own food. And I should. I have the excuse that I don't really live anywhere long enough to have a garden, but I totally could have planted some tomatoes in my window sill or something like that instead of buying my tomatoes at Trader Joe's where they come from Timbuktu. I have visited the Farmer's Market here this summer, but not often enough.

I just started reading The Omnivore's Dilemma. I'm never going to be able to eat anything without feeling guilty ever again.

You know what's stupid? We import 1.1 billion pounds of wheat a year, but we export 1.4 billion. Does that make sense to you? Also, the government pays $80 billion a year in subsidies to big companies for corn. The subsidies were originally Depression-era legislation designed to help small farmers but have been perverted by the big business lobbyists since then and now 90% go to the largest few corporations that produce and sell corn.

The take-home message: Buy local. Not only is it good for the environment, it's good for your community. Don't live in Arizona, it doesn't rain there and you can't eat local.

I think I'll go make dinner now with my Argentine tomatoes and my California lettuce.

Running isn't just for fat people and anorexics

I haven't been running with an astounding amount of consistency this summer, but even though I haven't been running as much, I've started noticing a trend. People out here in DC are a lot more willing to quiz me about why I run. Some examples:

"Running? Why? You're so skinny."
"Don't you know that if you keep running like that you'll blow away?"

These statements show an astounding amount of what I like to call "Motivation Based Bias" or MoBeB. The lower case letters aren't actually part of the acronym, but just help to round it out. I do realize that I'm skinny and that losing weight is not a reasonable nor safe goal for me. That's not the reason I run though. I run because it makes me feel good, gives me time to think, and keeps my life balanced. I have no problem with fat people running and I don't want to add to the problems of anorexics, I just want everyone (because everyone who's anyone reads this blog) to know: Running is for everybody. Except for people without legs. Sorry guys. Unless they still have upper legs and can get a prosthetic, which I'm all for.

And....my wife is one good looking pregnant lady. And inspiring in her labors. That's the end.

Here's a cute squirell video, because, come on. This post was lame.

Self confidence vs. complacency

I was recently listening to an NPR Planet Money podcast talking about performance pay and why it doesn't happen more in our economy. One of the reasons they gave was that in general, people have a better perception of their performance than is actual reality. The guest cited a study (sorry I'm too lazy to look it up, but it is podcast #68 "How we get paid" 94% of college professors think they are a better professor than their average colleague, and over 90% of drivers think they are better than average drivers. And when drivers who are in the hospital for accidents they caused are asked how they compare to other drivers, 85% say that they are better than average drivers. And another study that I saw on The Daily Dish talked about how confidence isn't necesarily tied to achievement.

So, my question to the readers is: How do I teach my kids (and myself) to believe in themselves without them getting over confident or thinking they're better than everyone else? It seems like a delicate balance to strike.

A question for the readers

We got into a discussion in institute class about the good vs. evil nature of our actions. What it broke down to was: Are there things that we do in our lives that God really doesn't care about either way? Or is God concerned about everything we do, from what we eat for breakfast to what blogs we read. I favor the latter but I was interested in getting some opinions from our readers. I think most of the people that read this blog are religious, but if you're not, answer the question in accord with whatever moral beliefs you have, if you feel like it.

I'm also using this question to judge the feeling of our readers about discussing spiritual matters on the blog. Show me how interested you are in such things by responding or not!

That's all.

My Visit to the Doctor

I was excited to visit the doctor today. Due to complicated insurance issues and the fact that it took me TWO MONTHS to get an appointment with a doctor that was close by and covered by Medicaid, I haven't really received prenatal care all summer (oops). I knew how I felt though and was careful to monitor myself and any weird issues that came up I simply googled and realized they were all normal. This morning, I had an appointment with a nice female OB/GYN over at our favorite teaching hospital. I was actually looking forward to it, I like hearing the baby's heart beat and I had no idea how much I weighed or anything, so I was interested to find out.

And geez, I don't know about your doctors, but I AM SO glad I don't usually see one of those. She treated me like I was a CHILD. A silly, capricious child at that. She tried to make me take the glucose tolerance test but I had decided after careful research that it was unnecessary and I did not want to do it. She said something to the effect of "I know it tastes yucky, but it's not that bad..." Yeah, that's it, I don't want to do it because it's "yucky." I don't want to do it because our health care system is in shambles and I'm actually deliberately deciding what I want done to my body. I have no predisposition for diabetes, and even if I did have it, I wouldn't even need to change my diet very much (I'm over the multiple bowls of ice cream a day... I'm only craving veggies nowadays. And spaghetti). And I seriously doubt my baby is going to be over-large. I've gained ten pounds in 32 weeks of pregnancy.

Then, she noticed on my chart that I brought from Utah that the silly CNMs didn't test me for HIV at my first appointment! How could they! I figure I was OK with doing that test though, I mean I did work in close contact with HIV patients and cleaned up more than one bodily fluid spill, so there's a teen-tiny chance (like 1 in 1,000,000,000,000) I may have HIV and I've never actually been tested for it so why not. I consented to that test. I think when she thought I might not she started on a rant about how dangerous HIV can be to an unborn baby, etc. I wanted to look at her and say something to the effect of "yes, I know, my sophomore year of college I actually did a research project on MTCT in South Africa. I can give you charts, research, anything you could possibly ever want to know about MTCT and preventing it." She also said something about my not being sure whether or not my husband had more sexual partners than just me. I told her I fully trusted he did not. She looked at me like I was crazy.

She listened to my heart and then told the med student to do the same. They then stood over me having a little lesson on heart murmurs without once looking down at me to tell me what they were talking about in lay terms. Fortunately, I already knew about this murmur having discovered it myself and asking my midwife about it months ago. And I understand medical terms so I understood what they were talking about but how rude. Like I'm just some stupid person I couldn't possibly understand what they were talking about.

And she was a nice doctor. Maybe too nice. But I didn't like the feeling that I was incompetent. And I just re-read this and I kind of sound snotty in it. My mom turned me into a medical snob.


.... and because I like all of the comments about how tiny I am and how great I look....