I'm a bit better today, but the last few weeks have seen my hemoglobin number fall drastically. One needs hemoglobin to carry oxygen to the tissues, and carry away carbon dioxide.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
In my particular case, the deficiency has been explained by side-effects of chemotherapy. I spent much of yesterday in slight delirium; what to say of those who have not yet undergone their treatment?
And, by the way, I am very grateful for a bit of extra oxygen today. The Procrit injections or the iron supplements seems to have helped.
I've been watching the Republicans beating each other up, today. It's the battle of "stupid" versus "ignorant", and "vicious" is winning.
It's really inconvenient when the hemoglobin number falls. Speaking from recent experience, I can testify that a certain dementia can result: the oxygen-deprived brain dims into a twilight state, in which short-term memory and the ability to concentrate on a task are just things of the past. One is aware of the disability, but unable to do anything about it.
I'm getting better, today. It seems as if the Procrit injections and iron supplements (spring a few bucks more for the time-released version, kids!) may be kicking in, a bit. I was able to eat a poached egg.
My personal story is but a point of departure for understanding the GOP, today. The hemoglobin deficiency is very evident. New ideas (or, indeed, facts) are not absorbed in the lungs, and old ideas are not exhaled.
They need bitter medicine to combat the cancer of ignorance and greed which has seized the party. They don't take it. This is foolish, of course. To extrapolate from my own case, my lung tumor has shrunk sufficiently to restore almost full function to my left lung. Side effect: a bit of a hemoglobin problem. Yesterday, I was almost unable to sit up. Today, a bit better.
When I began the chemo treatments, I could barely walk - I was misdiagnosed with various infections, until the tumor was large. Oxygen wasn't getting to the tissues, because I wasn't getting enough air in the left lung.
Now, the unfortunate deluded Republicans seem still to believe that a course of antibiotics (vitriol and combat) may prop them up. This is not true. As a political physician and a (long-ago) fan of Buckley and Goldwater, I shake my head. No. The party is starved of air. Even with treatment, they will merely stagger on.
Their latest prescription for themselves is to freeze federal spending.
Nurse! Oxygen! Stat!
Job, sitting on his ash-heap, covered with boils, was on his way to wisdom. What to say of those whose are tanned and fit, useless appendages to society, whose flocks are counted in foreign lands? What Job never did was to curse God. He had good reason to do so. It is very inconvenient to lose all that you have. God gave Job all his possessions back, and even increased them. Rejoicing would be inappropriate. The old family, flocks and tents were still wiped out. Surely, even Job must have missed his old servants, wives and descendants.
One, somehow, wants to see Madoff, Stanford, et alia, in the dock. They will express contrition, and bargain for reduced sentences.
Job didn't bargain. He just forged ahead, refusing to curse the Universe. That's pretty much like my life. I don't think the Republicans are quite ready to visit the doctor, yet.