Little over a year ago Dr. Ben Carson made national news when he criticized the President and his signature national health insurance legislation at the national prayer breakfast. His quiet boldness and commonsense approach to the health issue made him an instant celebrity. Ever since, he’s been a much coveted guest on conservative talk shows and the twenty four hour news networks. Many conservative groups are now calling for the retired neurosurgeon to seek the republican presidential nomination in 2016.
In my mind it may be a bit early for a conversation about the presidency since few of us really know a lot about the good doctor’s larger political philosophy, including issues like foreign policy. As a part of making his fellow citizens more aware of his more expanded political ideas Dr. Carson’s new book has just been released. It is entitled “One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America’s Future.” Which brings me to the purpose of this write up; Dr. Carson made a visit to Tyler on Friday for a book signing at Sam’s Club. Obviously he didn’t take the opportunity of his visit to declare openly that he would be a candidate for the presidency, but he did discuss perspective issues that would be high on his list should he jump into the race. He swore off lobbyists and the lobby system, strongly expressed his support for faith-based organizations, and causes, and again took issue with the president’s “Affordable Care Act.”
Dr. Carson is undoubtedly an extremely intelligent man and would perhaps make an excellent president. But his outsider status can potentially hurt and help at the same time. The helpful side would obviously be the infusion of much needed new blood into the national political system. However, not having held a major state office could make building a base of support or starting point, a bit more difficult. Particularly given that his (presumably) home state of Maryland (which is where he spent much of his professional life) is considerably more liberal than Dr. Carson himself.
Regardless of what Dr. Carson ultimately decides, he is an interesting public figure and his visit is certainly good for our area.
Life just flat out sucks sometimes. As we get older, we experience more and hardships and loss. One may figure the more loss we experience, the easier it is because we learn how to deal with it but that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s only going to get harder as we go.
I recently had two procedures done on my leg to remove varicose veins. The first procedure was the Endovenous Laser Ablation which heated the inside of the vein causing it to close. The second procedure was the Ambulatory Microphlebectomy which some veins were removed through small incisions.
During the procedures a few things went wrong. The facility did not have non latex gloves and I am allergic to latex. I told them before they started that I’m allergic to latex but Dr Robbins and his staff used the latex gloves anyway. He did ask me what kind of reaction I have and I said usually a rash and very itchy. Another thing that went wrong was during the Microphlebectomy a small vein was either left partly out of the incision or it somehow came out. I didn’t know this until I removed the bandage a few days later and that vein was stuck on the bandage. 
The recovery was harder than I thought it’d be, mostly because it was so itchy the next day. I took some Benadryl and that helped. I probably should have brought my own gloves or refused to let them use latex gloves. Taking off the bandage was painful because a small vein was attached to it and I had to pull it off. The vein mostly went back in the incision and just left a tiny pink bubble which turned to a scab. There was a sore tight cramp in my thigh which was expected but it wasn’t too bad and eventually faded away.
They did try to charge me for the visit that they told me was free and I told Mary at the checkout desk that I thought the Dr wasn’t going to charge me because of the vein that was left hanging out. She put a note on my papers and I received a call later and was told that the Dr didn’t mess up on my leg and he was just being nice and not charging for that visit. I’m thinking Ok, whatever, as long as I’m not charged anymore.
I left them a box of non latex gloves in case someone else is allergic to latex. I really am shocked that they didn’t have any.
Are you a fidgety person? The funny thing is that by fidgeting you can actually burn a significant amount of calories each day. What I am talking about here are things like crossing and uncrossing your legs, making up and down movements in your chair, spinning from side to side in a chair, stretching and standing often, and just being an overall restless individual. This fidgety person being described pretty much fits me to a T. I get my work done but I like to fidget, it just comes natural and thankfully it burns a significant amount of calories daily.