It's time to worry

Eircom has been a disaster since Mammy O Rourke privatised it. It's been laden with debt and the services are expensive, unreliable and do not reach all areas of the country. To make matters worse, the company has crumbled before IRMA at the first hurdle in violation of a ruling of the ECJ and will hand over IP addresses to an interest group.

Eircom is spying for IRMA. The offline equivalent might be the NRA reporting car speeding to the Gardaí for penalty points except in this scenario the NRA have a faulty speed camera and have lost the instruction manual which was written in Japanese to begin with. For one thing, someone downloading a piece of music from [sic] The Pirate Bay may be totally legal. Many groups publish online music for free and torrent software is great because if the connection is dropped the download can resume from that point rather than having to begin all over again. That holds true for all file types.

IP addresses are not the same as physical addresses as anyone with an internet dongle can testify. I can connect and the IP address may be one in Cork or Dublin or Limerick. It seems like techno fail to me.

Anyway what's worrying me today is this from the Irish Times

Mr Magee (56) left Eircom in February after 15 years with the company. As acting chief executive of the company last year, he set the wheels in motion for a major restructuring of Eircom’s cost base and helped to scuttle Australian financier Rob Topfer’s attempt to capture the business

The HSE is a "Frankenstein['s monster] stalking our land" and now Eircom's acting chief executive is going to take over from Brendan Drumm. Anyone else felt a cold shiver at hearing that news?

Behold the Lisbon solution

Click to embiggen

Did you know...

Did you know that one of the causes of depression is death.

Which in turn can be treated with fish oil and inhibition.

Also I can treat the undead with a necromancer.

Strange that Israeli F 8 and Sunlight cause vampires. I would have thought it was the other way around. But rest assured Twilight freaks you can cure vampires with saliva and a vampire trap.

Hours of fun on HealthBase 

Techcrunch has more. As does WildlyParenthetical.

h/t Belledame

Happy birthday to me

I'm not where I thought I would be at the age of 31. I thought my career would be soaring and I'd be well on my way to that job I've always wanted - political officer at the UN.

Instead, I'm living in my parents' holiday home, on social welfare and disabled with PTSD manifesting in serious depression and insomnia. I have no career. I can get it together enough to write a few rants and to garden a little but it's not what I wanted. It's not what I planned.

I just have to accept that things are different now. I've got to give up my plans and ambitions. I've got to focus on things besides self-harm. I've got to work within my limitations. It would make me so angry if I could feel it, if the drugs didn't work. I am limited by my mind and body. It's not fair but it's the way it is.

Happy birthday to me.

Better than coffee?

I have made a most startling discovery. It has been tested on a sample group of one and 100% of the group agree that X is better than coffee for waking me and staying awake.

Coffee may be

a social binder, a warmer of tongues, a soberer of minds, a stimulant of wit, a foiler of sleep if you want it so. From roadside mugs to the classic demi-tasse, it is the perfect democrat.

What could possibly replace coffee, that nectar of the gods? Certainly nothing as simple as a cinnamon stick in hot water. Alas yes, while I still love my black bitter coffee, I alternate with cinnamon water - that sounds revolting. How about : tisane de cinnamon (sounds pretenious)? Cin keeps you up all night (open to misinterpretation)? Cinnamon tea is what I'll have to stick to I guess. Try it and let me know if it works for you or whether it's just me.

Yet another health care crisis

Now I may be accused of "flogging a dead Equinusian packbeast" but our health service is lacking. The Irish Times highlights yet another flaw in the system, that is possibly fatal.

BOTH PRIVATE and public patients must wait up to 18 months before being seen by a consultant neurologist, a review of neurology services has found.

It also found that patients being assessed on an outpatient basis have to wait 10 months for an MRI scan and 90 days for an EEG test of the brain.

Well it's too late to ask Lenihan for a new Health Services Executive. Let's cross our fingers and hope that our entire health system doesn't collapse before next year's budget. Cos hope is all that we have left. There is the possibility that people may end up robbing valium just to deal with the stress of that pesky clot in the brain and an 18 month waiting list.

So while you are stressing about the ticking clock the HSE is commissioning reports and paying administrators.

The report, commissioned by the Health Service Executive and drawn up by senior HSE managers, consultants, nurses, allied health professionals, GPs and patient advocates, found that inpatients may have to wait up to two weeks to see a therapist or a psychologist, “thereby prolonging their length of hospital stay”.

“Outpatient services were considerably less accessible with many patients waiting between three to six months for a minimal service and in some cases, no service at all,” it states.

The report, which took two years to research and complete under the chairmanship of the then assistant national director of strategic health planning with the HSE, Dr Marie Laffoy, deals with conditions such as dementia, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and acquired brain injury.

Despite some recent investment, it paints a bleak picture for patients seeking diagnosis and treatment of potentially life threatening conditions.

Well it sucks to be them. Better hope that you don't get sick no matter how much health insurance you pay.

A consultant neurologist quoted in the report says: “I am aware that some patients travel to other countries to see a neurologist because of the delays here – I know of one patient who was seen in Stuttgart and another who went to Scotland.”

Why is this not setting alarm bells off? Why can other countries manage their health systems and still provide free health care? Why can hospitals in some developing countries provide high standard health care for a reasonable price tag but one of the most expensive countries in Europe cannot.

The HSE says funding of €3 million was provided in 2006 for the development of neurology and neurophysiology services, and that there are 24 approved posts of consultant neurologist, an increase of 10 since 2003.

If the budget is there, why have vacant posts? Is it jobs for the boys or incompetence?

I am bitter about health care in Ireland since 2004 when I paid 150 euro to see a consultant about a potentially life-threatening condition. He spent five minutes with me, did no physical examination and when I asked about the condition, told me to go look it up on the internet. I was then bundled out the door. I sent letters of complaint but they went unanswered.

To me, the most fantastic aspect of the health care crisis in Ireland is that there was no journalistic outrage when Mary Harney stood up beside Brian Cowen and Micheál Martin and blamed former ministers of health for the systemic problems. The two previous ministers for health were standing beside her. How does that go unremarked?

It's enough to make one want to run for office if only to expose FF incompetance.

Believe it or not health is a human right. It states clearly in the "Right to Health Factsheet No 31" that.

The right to health contains entitlements. These entitlements include:

• The right to a system of health protection providing equality of opportunity for everyone to enjoy the highest attainable level of health;
• The right to prevention, treatment and control of diseases;
• Access to essential medicines;
• Maternal, child and reproductive health;
• Equal and timely access to basic health services;
• The provision of health-related education and information;
• Participation of the population in health-related decision-making at the national and community levels.

Yeah the government is required to provide timely access to basic health services. So step up Minister.

Menstrual pain

I was snoozing on my return flight, half watching the screen, shifting around in my seat to find a comfortable place when pain that I have difficulty describing struck. I felt that my uterus was seizing. Not even in my adolescence had i felt pain like this - muscles spasaming, stomach churning, flushed and sweating. I had no idea what was going on.

I expected my period in a few days and the pain felt like menstrual pain but magnified to the nth degree. I couldn't do anything but moan and tremble. After what seemed like twenty minutes, I managed to haul myself out of the seat and find an steward. No one had responded to the call button.

Finally I understood what was going on. The steward explained that the air pressure had an effect on premenstrual tension. She told me that it was well known in her profession and that the women scheduled their shifts around their periods. Of course it makes sense...

I consider myself fairly up to date in health and menstrual cycles but I had never heard of this before. It's something I'll consider the next time I fly. Did I miss the class that dealt with pressure? Did I blank out the memory because taking our periods into consideration of travel plans is yet another way to set women apart? To my knowledge, no medical professional, no friend, no website has let me know that air travel can cause extreme pain.

I'll remember that pain and pain accordingly in future.

The perfect doctor

With the experience of the past 30 years on earth, I thought nothing about medical professionals could surprise me. I've been told to get bariatric surgery because it's a magical cure for PCOS. I've been told to lose weight or die. I've been told that not hating my body means I have a personality disorder. I've been told to look it up on the web seconds after a diagnosis. I've argued with doctors and corrected doctors (many don't appreciate that)

After all that I'm fairly cynical about doctors. The majority see a fat woman and think that I eat too much and don't exercise because I weigh around 120 kgs. Even the more respectful doctors suggest losing weight for health reasons. There are reasons why I weigh 120 kgs but I refuse to categorise myself into a "good fattie" or a "bad fattie". However, I do find it particularly evil and ignorant of doctors to suggest losing weight when I have a certified medical disease that prevents weight loss.

Dengue fever struck me two weeks ago - a final gift from the developing world. I have since been seeing a very hot, witty and intelligent doctor who was already ticking all my boxes. Very competent and thoughtful.

Today he took the cake, as it were. My ankles are swollen for some unknown reason probably unrelated to the dengue. They've been swollen for the past six months. He's given me diuretics and requested to weigh me. This was the first mention of my weight. I refused. He explained his reasoning.

He reckons I'm carrying about 5 kilos of water weight. He wanted to weigh me to track that 5 kilos until I got back to the right weight for me.

Yes he said the right weight for me. I almost started crying. He implied that I'm fine the way I am. I know that but first time ever that a medical professional treated me as a person rather than a big fattie.

I almost launched myself across the desk to shove my tongue in his mouth but I restrained myself.

How am I gushing so much about human kindness? Why is his behaviour exceptional when it should be standard? I am used to walking into a clinic with gritted teeth prepared to fight for my right to be treated as a human being and not an insect. It's a relief to know that I don't have to always play defence.

Happy thoughts to Dr N, the perfect doctor