The $64,000 Question!

I had my chance at the money but blew it!

Oh, Halloween is Soon Gone and Oh, Christmas Will Be Next in Line!

Over the last few months my Christmas tree has grown rather top heavy! I need suggestions on types of decorations. (Cheap ones because I might not even trim it since I won't be around!) We'll let the Norfolk Island Pine grow for an other year and see where its at a year from now. I might have to call an arborist to keep it somewhat shaped. Or as I said before maybe I'll take her to Cost Cutters!

HIPPA News for Saturday

Looks redundant? These 3 came today. One yesterday. Its getting sickening! We wonder why our healthcare system is going to the dogs with excessive waste!

New AAT Drug Therapy Trials Underway

Life will get much easier for me and others with this new devlopment in AAT therapy

This from Pharmaceutical Online http://www.pharmaceuticalonline.com

Kamada Is Pursuing U.S. Market With Its Aerosolized AAT
-->10/23/2007
Kamada a bio-pharmaceutical company, has submitted its clinical development program to the FDA for its flagship drug, Alpha-1 Antitrypsin (AAT) with its aerosolized (inhaled) form for the treatment of Congenital Emphysema caused by Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (AATD). The company plans to commence clinical development in the US concurrently with the trials already underway towards registration in Europe.
“The potential number of AATD subjects worldwide is estimated by the US Alpha -1 patients' organization at approximately 200,000. According to an independent survey, only 5,000 of these are currently treated. We therefore see a significant potential in the treatment of AATD with the aerosolized AAT drug. The cost of treatment with the aerosolized version is expected to be lower than with intravenously administered AAT. Furthermore, there is continuously growing clinical evidence from all over the world indicating that the rationale in treating Congenital Emphysema with AAT is also valid for treating other respiratory diseases, such as: Cystic Fibrosis, and possibly others. Therefore, development of the product for additional indications is underway. We are collaborating with the leading worldwide physicians in this field,” said Kamada's CEO, David Tsur.
According to John Walsh, President of US Alpha One Foundation, “the US Alpha-1 community is extremely excited about this submission and the progress made in Kamada’s European trials for aerosolized delivery of augmentation therapy. The Alpha-1 Foundation has prioritized the development of aerosolized AAT and is committed to supporting this application.”
The AAT drug, also known as API (Alpha-1 Proteinase Inhibitor), is currently indicated for treating Congenital Emphysema. This disease, caused by an inborn deficiency in the Alpha-1 Antitrypsin protein and manifested by a gradual destruction of the lung tissue, may lead to severe deterioration of lung function and eventually to death. To date, the only available treatment for the disease is intravenous administration of AAT. This treatment, performed by means of intravenous infusion on a weekly basis, is time consuming. Kamada's development of the aerosolized version is expected to make a significant difference in patient's quality of life by allowing a simple and non-invasive route of administration.
According to Tsur, “the AAT product of Kamada holds numerous advantages over competitive products, among them its being liquid and its ready to use formulation allowing easier drug handling. These features, together with the product's exceptional purity level and exclusive rights for the use of an inhalation device by PARI (a Germany-based world leader in inhalation solutions), formed the route of a strong and sound basis for the development of an aerosolized AAT drug by Kamada.”
Kamada's aerosolized AAT drug was designated by both the US-FDA and the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EMEA) as an Orphan Drug for two indications - Congenital Emphysema and CF. This important attribute has granted the company research funds benefits, waiver of user fees and free scientific advise by the regulatory authorities. Furthermore, if Kamada is the first company to successfully complete clinical trials and receive marketing approval in the US or the EU, the company shall gain exclusive marketing rights for the duration of seven years in the US, and for 10 or 12 years in Europe.
At present, Kamada manufactures and markets its intravenous AAT drug in several countries around the world. A Phase III clinical trial in the US is currently underway.
Kamada is a public company traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange The company was founded in 1990 and specializes in the development, manufacturing and marketing of specialty bio therapeutics indicated for medical emergencies.
SOURCE: Kamada

Deer With Nowhere To Hide Being Slaughtered

This from the Ironwood Daily Globe

City deer hunt already doubles last year's effortPublished Wednesday, October 24, 2007 4:31:08 PM Central Time
IRONWOOD -- The second year of Ironwood's inter-city deer hunt is going a long way to reduce the high population of whitetails.
As of Monday, city officials reported 44 antlerless deer had been shot. City manager Scott Erickson noted that compares to a total harvest of only 16 deer last year.
While last year's hunt was in the "Caves" area near McLeod Avenue, this year the bow hunters are pursuing deer in four sites in the city.
New to the hunt this year is the fact that three hunters will be allowed to shoot bucks.
At Monday evening's city commission meeting, the names of hunters Chad Cricks, Justin Lehto and Dave Marten Jr. were drawn out of a hat. They'll be eligible to each shoot a buck.
Hunters attending the meeting said they've been seeing some bucks.
Hunters were required to pass shooting efficiency tests before the hunt and were required to register with the city for permits.
On Monday, an illegal deer hunting tree stand not connected with the city hunt was confiscated from the Bonnie Street area, according to a public safety department report.
The stand is being held in the public safety department garage.

Back to Normal!

Well, Tuesday was back to routine here in the north woods for this invalid! My scheduled infusion went off as clockwork as the dope pump worked its way though the bag of diluted Aralast for two hours. As soon as I got home and had lunch the phone rang and it was Dr.B's people soliciting a new time for a visit. "Can you come in at 3 today?" she asked! I agreed so we got two HIPPA jobs done on Tuesday. By the way he did find a new "stuff" that I should be taking. Its Omega3 pills. More on that some other time because we can't get off the topic of HIPPA appointments! We are going for a record this month remember! Anyway I woke up Wednesday morning and promptly journeyed over to DCH again to Dr Smoot's office where he listened and prodded and asked questions. He then decided that a chest xray is in order and a sleep study is in order and a pulmonary function battery is in order so we came up with four new HIPPA events for October! The girl from Smoot's offfice then led me to the sleep clinic where I was briefed on what to expect Halloween night when I am invited to "sleep" at the sleep clinic! I then had the x-ray right away so that was done. Now its lunch time and I hurry home to get ready for my appointment at Dentist Santini's where he had me try "in" the prototype new chompers! I get them soon but we can't stray from the subject at hand. Today I counselled a friend who is a fellow invalid about life as a disabled former truck driver. He needs to get SSDI and AFLAC stuff coming in as he is no longer fit to work due to a cancer problem. I am counting that session with him as a HIPPA event. All in all, then, this week totals how many? I count 2 Tuesday, 4 on Wednesday, and 1 today which totals to 7. Additional October events will be the sleep in, the pulmonary tests, and an additional dentist stop in for a final fitting. I also need to pick up some drugs at Walmart this week so that is one more. Dr. B's visit in Tuesday was a wash because we had already talked about an appointment which we now cancelled. I can now tell you that this is going to be a record HIPPA month. Wow, it will be an interesting total when we get it all added up! Only a few more days till we total it up!

Yes, I Was There!

A truck driver with manure a fork! It was a bad combination but necessary since Mrs. G wasn't there!
Ross poses for the camera after his 2nd place showing in the men's cart.
Grand Champion Belgian Gelding! His name is Cash!
This is our horse wagon! Done up in Mr. G's shop from a used furniture type trailer. The front third is the trainers/drivers quarters and is complete with hot and cold water, bathroom facilities, fridge, stove, bed, storage, heat or AC powered by an on-board Honda generator. The center area has stalls for 6 horses and it too is air conditioned. The rear area has room for the big show wagon and other show supplies. Its suspension is completely air so the horses have a very smooth ride! They do complain once in a while with comments like "Are we there yet?"

It was quite an experience for one who has not been to the "big time" as far as horse shows are concerned. Its too big to put into words but you can imagine what 1100 horses could do for 4 days in an arena which easily held 92 two thousand pound horses hooked by 6's to 16 wagons. Absolutely incredible! The Wilderness Ridge Farms horses did their tricks some of which we can brag about and some which will need more work over the next months. Mr G can be proud of his gelding named Cash who was named the Grand Champion Belgian Gelding. We can be proud of Ross and his 2nd placing in the men's cart class! I think we can be proud that we were there and survived the week without any major "hitches". I did, however, give Mr. G a black eye when I smacked him with a chunk of harness I was cleaning! I guess one should not get too close to a dumb truck driver demoted to harness cleaner!

Help! Too Many Horses!

Here a horse,
There a horse,
Everywhere are dozens of horses!
One cannot escape the horses!
Hear a horse banging on the wall
There a horse clomping down the aisle,
Everywhere is a horse click'n n clack'n
One cannot escape the horses!
The sights and sounds
The smells and textures
Everywhere are horses of every breed
One cannot excape the horses!
Not at this horse place!

By Monday morning when we leave this horse mania I will have seen more horses for more days than I ever thought could congregate in one place for so long!

HIPPA News for Sunday October 14

Ordinarily there would be no HIPPA news on a Sunday except for emergencies of some kind but I did find something non-emergensical while digging into a big box of literature that was in yesterdays mail. The box came from my friends at Aralast, the drug I get duly infused with. Whoops I gave you the link to the wrong Aralast! Here's a better one. Above is pictured what they sent! Now I can keep a personal "diary" of my HIPPA events each day! I can put out down my pressure like 96/56 or 180/139, my glucose like 198 , my aches and pains and infections like swollen left knee or not breathing today, my excercise like walked 5 miles to and back from the mall , my food intake like 3 pork chops and potatoes with pork chop fry pan drippings for gravy, color of my pee like yellow , the number of times i had to go like hardly ever at night like the TV ads say I should , consistency of my stool, how purple my feet are today like light or dark , whether the $2850 dentures were really worth it, how I can now eat cobbed corn, and so on and on and on and on like some sort of hypocrondiac!

Today was a Real Nice Fall Day

It was so nice in fact that I took two long walks in the neighborhood. The sun was out and the northwind wasn't howling too much. A few folks were out mowing lawns and there was even a painting crew outside at the local pub. Some late fall flowers were displaying their final colors as our first big frost hit this week. Maybe next spring I will have the ambition to put in a little flower bed downstairs. All in all, how many more such days will be coming! I hope quite a few. I really hate the thought of freezing cold and blowing snow! But, it too will come and I'll watch from my window....if I'm here!

With over 1,000 draft horses from around the U.S. and Canada, the MGLI is unarguably the most significant annual draft horse show in North America.

And we are on our way Tuesday morning to high step around the arena at MSU's Pavilion for Agriculture and Livestock Education! They hitch 8 horses there! Hopefully just for fun! Take a look at this U-tube tape of some of the 2006 events! Will Wilderness Farms six horse hitch take a top placing again? The video is of our hitch in Ohio.

HIPPA News for Friday October 12

Today's mail! Four of them. Need I say any more?

What was Under the City!

At one time there were more than 50 miles of railroad tracks under the city of Ishpeming! Thats according to TV6 News!

Dont need Danon Activa!

I had my first full dish of my home brew viili today. Yum. The picture is not the most picturesque though. Hope you can properly imagine it shaking like a bowl full of jello! YUM. I have to hire someone to babysit my viili when I go to Lansing next week~! A new batch needs to be made each day to keep the viili fresh. Maybe I'll try to freeze some and see if it works when I get back! Otherwise I'll have to beg the nurse at the hospital from whom I got the starter to bring in another start for me.

More Problems for Downstate Hunters in Ontonagon County!

He was killed by a what! Here's the story as I found in the Marquette Mining Journal! Can we blame this on wild life?

By JOHN PEPIN
Journal Munising BureauWAKEFIELD — A downstate New Baltimore man was killed in Ontonagon County when a tree apparently fell on his tent, according to Michigan State Police troopers from the Wakefield post.Lawrence Moore, 44, had traveled to the area to bow hunt a week ago. His family reported him missing Monday night, after not hearing from him for several days.Troopers said they were given global position satellite coordinates that Moore had kept, showing the area where he often hunted.A state police K-9 unit from the Wakefield post and a conservation officer from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources found Moore’s body at about 8 p.m. Tuesday.Moore’s body was found within Porcupine Mountains State Park, near South Boundary Road in Carp Lake Township.Troopers said the past few days have seen high winds in the area, which may have brought down the tree that killed Moore.Agencies assisting the state police included Michigan Department of Natural Resources personnel from Porcupine Mountains State Park and Beacon Ambulance.

Explain This!`

I could get my mail delivered to my place into the boxes downstairs and if I had a house right to the front door and into the mail slot. All this I could get for free! But I have a post office box and have to pay $80 a year for it! I save the USPS hundreds of dollars a year in delivery costs and they charge me $80 bucks! Doesn't make any sense to me!

Oh My!

What is happening here?

UPDATED STORY! George Gipp’s body exhumed for DNA testing
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
By Gazette staffLAURIUM — The body of Notre Dame football hero and Laurium legend George Gipp was exhumed from his gravesite at Lake View Cemetery Thursday

Hippa News for Tuesday Oct 9, 2007

Dickinson County Hospital is pictured below. Old fashioned "bloodletting".

Today, as I was being duly infused with my bags of proteinase inhibitor and salt water at the local hospital I, being such an observer of things happening around me, was witness to a real honest to goodness "bloodletting". As pictured above in the olden day the sick guy stood in a tub and the "doctor" poked him a few times and let out a bunch of blood. I had heard of "bloodletting" being done in the early times to treat diseases but would never have believed it still goes on. This old timer came in and sat next to me and grunted a few words and the staff proceeded to take a pint of blood right out of him and throw it away. At least I hope they threw it away. My curiosity was such that I had to ask what the heck was going on! The nurse told me about the client having a high iron level and that by taking a pint out and replacing the blood with salt water the iron level will be closer to normal. Sort of like if you have too much sugar in your coffee and you dump some out and add more coffee the sugar level is reduced. The nurse listed a number of problems that are treated this way. He had hemochromatosis ...HUH what a treatment. I never thought this happens. I learn something new every day! That's Hippa news for today! Happy Wednesday!

Need to Put Up Signs for These Guys

Sign will say. DO NOT FEED THE BEARs and will be posted at the bridge to warn the trolls about the bears in da UP being sort of wild! Here's the story as I found in the Ironwood Daily Globe!
Hunter attacked by bear
MARQUETTE -- A lower Michigan man was in stable condition Monday in a Marquette hospital after being bitten by a bear in Ontonagon County on Sunday.
Steve Remsing, 53, of Sterling Heights, was being treated at Marquette General Hospital after being transferred from Ontonagon Memorial Hospital.
Michigan State Police from the L'Anse post responded to the report of Remsing being bitten by the bear near Courtney Lake in Bohemia Township.

Amazing Temperatures

Its all of 83 degrees in the northland today! That's hot for here! Looks like the top of a real hot area is just reaching the Michigan-Wisconsin border! I wonder if it has to do with global warming!

This cute little moose is said to have roamed the streets on the south side of the cave area in Iron Mountain not too far from where I live! Guess he got a lot of attention from cops and DNR and onlookers! He finally wandered off into the "wilderness"! Well actually not because I just happened to be standing on my balcony yesterday and saw this car hauler flatbed go roaring north with a police/sherrif escort on the highway with that moose in forced sleep and about 10 guys sitting around him to be sure he stayed asleep. I wondered what the heck was going on but now two and two came together! Photo appeared in the Daily News

One More to Add to the Score~

Well I was feeling so rotten in the breathers (the link is somewhat graphic to if you have a weak tummy be careful) today so I decided to call my favorite heath care provider and see if I could get some meds or an office visit. I guess the good receptionist knows me and my invalidism and got me in to see Dr. Judy. He (yah its a him) dosed me with some Biaxin for a few days and I sure hope whatever this is clears up. The Biaxin is the same stuff the doctor in Zetten prescribed except is is called clarithromycin over there! And by the way it was the same stuff Dr B gave me to kill off the excess H pylori in my stomach 9 years ago. I think the current symptoms feel very similar to the symtoms I had when trucking which would go on forever. Anyway that's the score for today in the HIPPA news journal. That is 6 appointments in 4 days! Now for a break till Tuesday!

Hippa News for Wed Oct 3

Well I sat around all morning waiting for the FEDEX man to make the drug drop at my house. He finally got here at a quarter to noon. That we decided counts as one Hippa appointment. Now I have to load the box into the car and drive clandestinely to the DCH to drop it off at the pharmacy there for safe keeping. That was Hippa appointment number two. So here it is October 3 and I have had 5 hippa appointments!

Day to Day Log

Well we made it through the day. Lets recap Octobers HIPPA facts. Yesterday was the dentist. This morning was the infusion or was it confusion. Napped and watched TV there and glanced at all the old people in wheelchairs coming in for maybe a colonoscopy or some other old folks test. I got home in time for lunch and then went back to see Dr Carlson at the Occupational Clinic. He pounds my knees and prods my belly and makes me touch my toes and then signs me good for a year's worth of medical card to show the DOT if I get stopped for something while pulling the horses around. He did wonder why I came back for renewal after I told him I cleaned out the truck in December. I told him about the horses and my new career with them. Now I get home in time for the news and supper and that's all for today! So to recap its October 3rd and I've already had 3 medical appointments! Tomorrow, Wednesday, I have more HIPPA news. Check back for that!

So You Think I Do Nothing?`

I just counted! I have 11 medicallly related appointments in October! One is already done at the dentist's place where he is making me some new chompers! Also in October is the 6 day trip to Lansing for the GLI Horse Show! Such is the life of the retired horse pulling invalid!