I. O. U. .....

....and I owe myself one official blog.  But a real, thoughtful blog won't be happening tonight.   I just returned, at 10 to midnight, from the emergency room at the Claremore Indian Hospital, where I spent 6 HOURS to get a full leg brace (that I can't get in the car wearing, and it slides down anyway) and 4 painkillers (identical to the ones I have for migraines) for a left knee that has gone completely wonky.  This started earlier in the week when the first major rain front in about 16 years rolled through, and it was so bad last night that I couldn't walk without holding on to the walls and the furniture.  I still couldn't really walk on it today, so off I went this afternoon to get some help.

Strangely, in much the same way that taking a car to a mechanic magically "fixes" the problem so that the owner looks like a nervous Nellie, I am able to move my leg better now after sitting in said ER for 6 hours.  I just wish I'd not had to waste that time there.  And oh, I am so grateful for Indian health and would be destitute without them, and certainly less medicated---but this may be the only fringe government agency that is forced to do more with less to an even greater degree than educators.  What worries me the most is that I truly believe in the Affordable Care Act, that universal health care should be a right, not a privilege, yet I see what happens in almost all of the IHS agencies and how overwhelmed they are, and I can't help but think that we'll face those same problems in medical industries when the ACA goes into effect.  I still know, because of my own experiences, that ACA is the right thing to do, but I wonder how many of these bugs will be worked out ahead of time, and how many will have to be growing pains we all suffer through together.

But that's a problem to unravel sometime when I'm more clear-headed and less frustrated, and AFTER a nice hot meal, which I haven't had since 10 a.m.  

I feel like I'm cheating with such a short blog.....but not too much.  After all, I was nearly wild to get out of there in time to get home and post before midnight.  While blogging shouldn't be uppermost in my concerns right this minute, I'm GLAD the worry is there, because now I know----I'm in this thing.  I've made a habit, and for once it's a good one!