Category: Uncategorized

Outrage of the day: I’ve been using 1800PetMeds to save A LOT of money on prescriptions for my pack. It’s convenient, too, with the drugs being delivered right to the door. But now my veterinarian has decided that PetMeds isn’t reputable and I have to come to the vet’s office to get a written prescription each time I want to refill my dogs’ medication.

We’re talking 275 pounds of dog here. Four of them, two of which are senior citizens and consume a lot of medicine.

Basically, the vet has decided to make it so difficult to get cheaper prices on these meds, that I’ll have to go back to being charged through the nose at the vet. I went round and round with the fine folks at Pellissippi Veterinary Clinic, reminding them how much I spend on routine exams and other services each year. But there were adamant.

Then I called another vet. They, too, have decided that PetMeds is dangerous. Well, it might be dangerous to their unscrupulous practice of overcharging pet owners for medication. But I don’t see how it’s dangerous to the dog. The dogs have to have medical records at the vet. PetMeds calls to confirm that the dog is current on its shots, etc., and really should be getting the prescription.

Looks like the vets of America are aligning against PetMeds and other low-cost providers of medicine. Fortunately, I finally found a vet who is willing to work with PetMeds. I’ll be stopping by Pellissippi today to get my dogs’ records and move them to the new vet. Bastards.

Lara and I saw Gillian Welch and David Rawlings last night at the Bijou, a small, very intimate theater in Knoxville. It was incredible. I still think her “Time (The Revelator)” CD is one of the best I’ve ever heard. I haven’t picked up a copy of the new one, Soul Journey, but the cuts from it that they played last night were great.

Highlights:

— There was a lot of banter with the audience, and Gillian and David departed from their set list almost as soon as the show began. It felt very impromptu and informal. After David played a scorching guitar piece, someone in the audience hollered: “What kind of guitar is that?”

“A good one,” David deadpanned.

— Beautiful encore version of “I’ll Fly Away.”

— After “I’ll Fly Away,” they came back out one more time, stepped out from behind the microphones and stood at the very edge of the stage to do an acoustic-beautiful version of “Long Black Veil.” The theater was dead silent. Totally sublime. It was like having Gillian and David in your living room.

If Gillian comes to your town, check her out. You won’t regret it.

OK, I’m coming out of the closet. I’ve been on the Atkins diet since late July, and it’s working. In my carb-counting madness, I’ve settled on a favorite snack: Perrier and pork rinds. Or, as I prefer to call them, chicharrones (it doesn’t sound as nasty as pork rinds). I can have something fizzy and something crunchy without adding any carbs, despite the disparate food combo it takes to get there.

This came to a head last week when I ended up in hospital for a few days. After a colonoscopy, I woke up in the middle of the night exhibiting all the symptoms that the take-home sheet said: Get immediately to an emergency room. But it was 1 a.m. I was freezing and chilled. And I decided to see if I could live till morning, wake Lara and then go to a hospital. I made it till morning. We went to the emergency room and a very concerned doctor decided to admit me to the hospital.

I spent a few days on an IV and having antibiotics pumped into me. After the first 24 hours, though, things evened out. Then came the rub: My staff was trying to decide what you send a hospitalized Benz. Flowers were out. I’m definitely not a plant kinda guy.

Then it came to them: an Atkins basket, packed with lots of low-carb stuff, including two bags of chicharrones. It was the perfect gift, though I had to wait several days before I could indulge.

When all is said and done, I’ve lost 26 pounds since July. Lara’s lost even more. And I’m convinced there’s a there there with Atkins. I actually like eating this way and feel better than I did when I was loading up on carbs. I still eat a lot of veggies. I just steer clear of potatoes, rice and pasta.

As for the colonoscopy, don’t misconstrue the above as a horror story. Apparently, mine was the exception, not the rule. The actual procedure really was no big deal, and I’ll do it again as the doctor advises. Beats the hell out of cancer …

Hospital oddities:

— I saw a woman “code” while I was gurney-bound in a hallway waiting to have a CT Scan. Pretty creepy, especially since I was feeling awful and things were all a little blurry. I didn’t fully realize what was happening until the guy who was wheeling me back to my room apologized for the fact that I’d witnessed this.

— My sense of smell seemed to improve. I don’t know if this was imaginary or what, but I could swear that I could smell things more acutely while I was in the hospital and for a day or so after I got out. That’s faded now, and I’m still not sure if it was real or imaginary. But it was strange.

— Fort Sanders, the hospital I was in, was awesome. The staff was very competent and friendly, the room was pretty nice and I was impressed with the overall state of health care, at least from the perspective of someone who gets dumped into it with full insurance.

— Lara rocks. She was totally there for me and was determined to stay there the first night until I told her to go home and feed my dogs. It’s a lot easier being ill when you have that kind of support.