Friday, August 23, 2019

Bicycle: Letter to Jimmie Heuga

Happy Birthday Jimmie

Sept 22, 2012

Dear Jimmie,
This is a letter I wrote to Jimmie Heuga, ski racer, MS champion, my pedal partner on my first 150 Bike MS ride. His was the inspiration for Can    Do MS in Vail. September 22 was Jimmie’s birthday and he died February 2010.  Two years later, on his birthday, I did a bike ride that was a challenge for me. This is a letter I wrote to him about the ride.    

Dear Jimmie,

This is a letter I wrote to Jimmie Heuga, ski racer, MS champion, my pedal partner on my first 150 Bike MS ride. His was the inspiration for Can    Do MS in Vail. September 22 was Jimmie’s birthday and he died February 2010.  Two years later, on his birthday, I did a bike ride that was a challenge for me. This is a letter I wrote to him about the ride.  
  
On Saturday the 22nd, 4 friends and I rode a bicycle ride I tagged as the CanDo 50.  The ride heads west from Loveland. At the base of the foothills, the route turns north to Mansoville, which begins the climbs over the Horsetooth Reservoir Hills. Just before Bellvue is Bringham Hill Road that heads back east to Fort Collins.  At Overland Trail, we head south on streets and trails to Loveland.

At the start, the weather was slightly hazy and cool. I admit I was worried about doing this ride because I did not know if I could climb the six Horsetooth hills in the same ride. While the hills are not much by Colorado climbs, to me each represents overcoming MS challenges.  When I started riding to improve my overall health and put my MS on notice that I was in charge, I remember each of those hills because many times I had to get off the bike and walk up them.

By mid-morning, the haze is lifting and the two of the west Horsetooth hills are finished. Because I trained on those hills, claiming them was still work, but not difficult.
A turn north and across the dam, the forth ill is a short steep climb above the reservoir. Silly, how sometimes just the thought of a thing will block success. Months before today, I walked that hill at least five times or more. At the base, looking up I said to myself, “That’s not much of a hill, what are you worried about?” Sure enough Jimme, it was not much of a hill today. Next was hill 5, it is long and steep, and provokes heavy breathing, but the MS never fatigued. The downhill is great  Hill six is a bump but it marks the turn back to Loveland.

I am sure you remember, that climbing hills with MS takes special conditioning, the descent takes even more conditioning. Because downhill is faster, it requires faster reaction times and coordination. It’s the same for all riders, but for MS’ers, fatigue is riding out in front looking for a way to cause trouble.   You get to the top, legs are burning, lungs gasping, heart-pounding, arms and hands weak from gripping the handlebar, and you see that downhill. In quick order, not only does the ride focus change, but you must shift from low gears to high gears, test brakes, relax tense muscles, change line-of-sight focus, switch mental fears, watch for obstacles, plan a safe path, adjust riding positions, anticipate curves, heighten the  back sense, and then look for that downhill freedom path to make the ride. 

 For me as an MS rider, both the climb and the descent have MS challenges. MS  has no place is during the downhill ride. The MS cannot catch me there. I let go of the struggles, trust my bike, tuck down, smile and laugh at the fatigue. 

By noon, my friends peeled off, each heading home. That left three miles to finish the ride by myself. This was a great day because those last minutes gave me time to reflect on the ride and remember the one time I met you, the day you signed my helmet as my first pedal partner. As an MS Ambassador, I told that story many times and the importance of fighting MS in many ways.

At the end, the CanDo ride was 47 miles. I rode the 6 hills without walking a single one.  After getting back to the start, I still had a couple of miles to get home. No problem.  We had a great ride pedal partner.

Happy Birthday, Jimmie!






Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Veteran: Veterans' Administration is Breaking the Law


This post is about the VA creating regulations that are not compliant with the Law, engaging in acts of bureaucratic extortion and bureaucratic racketeering. -- Ok, I am not a lawyer, so maybe the terms are expressions of frustrations. This article explains my use of the terms.

Breaking the Law

When a veteran has ER treatment at a non-VA facility, the VA will either pay-the-provider or reimburse-the-veteran. If the veteran does not have private insurance, the VA accepts the provider's bill. If the veteran has private insurance, that has copays and deductibles for the episode-of-care, the VA claims by Law the VA cannot pay the copays and deductibles. No statute in Law supports that claim.

On September 11, 2017 at 3 AM, my wife, an Army vet, woke with pains in her chest.  The nearest VA hospital is in Cheyenne, more than an hour away. The VA directs veterans who have an emergency condition to seek treatment at a community provider.  I took my wife to the nearest ER. The diagnosis was gallbladder problems. We followed all the VA protocols for adverse conditions.  Two weeks later a surgeon at the VA removed the gallbladder.

We followed all the reporting protocols expecting the VA would consider the community hospital treatment the same as if the treatment occurred at VA facility. We give the VA permission to use our private insurance for cost recovery at VA facilities. We did not expect the VA to use the information about the insurance to deny the ER benefits. A few weeks later, the hospital sent a statement for $3600 which is the $3500 insurance deductible and some patient copay. Because the VA is the primary provider, a $3500 deductible keeps the premiums down, yet still provide a cost recovery threshold.

Next, a letter from the VA arrived denying the ER expenses stating, "By Law, the VA cannot pay other health insurance deductibles and copays." The VA's letter shocked us. We followed protocol. We give VA cost recovery permission, the ER was not considered the same as at a VA facility, and the VA used the information about our private insurance with a third party. I thought we did everything right, yet the VA said we did not. I needed to understand why.  Next started months of study.

Until the VA's denial, I was ignorant about Contsutinal Law and executive department regulations. Starting with an empty mind has rewards, although, acquiring information the mind will postpone the rewards. Once in awhile, something happens that trips a mental trigger and all the pieces of information blend from chaos into order.

US Government
As Americans, we know about Congress, the President, the Supreme Court. Our mental model includes Representatives, Senators, Judges, and the Federal Bank. Most citizen federal government interactions are with one of the
And we hear about law, regulations, and procedures. Until the VA's denial, my knowledge of government was intuitive. As I learned more about the Federal Government, the more I felt uneducated. United States Code (USC), the Law, defines the executive departments, operations.  Each of the department's code has a number and a title. The VA's title is 38 USC Veterans' Benefits.

The US Federal Budget is the corner post of government that enables government operations. Constitutional law is a business plan that directs operational activity for spending the Budget's money.

Other laws like contract law and privacy supersede and enable the Code. When the Code uses words like pay,  payment or reimburse, these words immediately invoke business processes and the laws related to business.




MS Inside-Out: History of MS

MS Inside-Out: History of MS

  • 1399, 1st diagnosed case of MS
           Saint Lidwina of Holland
           1380-1434 
           Diagnosed with MS at 19 
           MSer for 34 years!  
  • May 1, 1945 
          a New York Times classified advertisement read:
        “Multiple Sclerosis. Will anyone recovered from it 
          please communicate with the patient." 
             Placed by Miss Sylvia Lawry, Founder NMSS
  •      March 11, 1946   
           The National Multiple Sclerosis Society founded. 
  •     1993 - first disease-modifying therapy
     
  •     2020 Still no cause, no cure.

MS Inside-Out: Your are my HERO

YOU ARE MY HERO

When I give MS Ambassador talks, I always thank those listening with this recognition:

When I rode my first Bike MS 150, wearing my first “I ride with MS” jersey, riders passing would call out “You're my hero.”  After about 100 miles, I realized, I am not the hero, but those out here riding to support the cure for MS are my heroes. 

After thinking about heroes, I realized “hero” is an 
acronym for Help Everyone, Respect Others.

When you give time, talent, treasure and tenacity, you show respect. For me, tenacity is the most important. 
Never give up.

Each of you is my hero.

Thank you

Monday, August 19, 2019

MS Inside-Out: Concurrent Complex Syndrome


Concurrent Complex Syndrome

Inside-Out:

For years I looked for a term that groups all the different interconnected complications with MS. In my "MS from the Inside-Out" study, an MS attack is a type of trauma. The factors of trauma are injury, emotional, social and disability. The term "Complex Trauma Syndrome" acknowledges the complicated interdependent trauma factors. An MS attack inherits some characteristics from complex trauma syndrome plus adds the labyrinth effects from "Complex Fatigue Syndrome” caused by the physical, neurological and neuropsychological MS wounds. By thinking of the "MS syndrome"   as a layered complex group of symptoms whose characteristics are distinguished by inherited or innate. For example, the MS emotional symptom of an outcast is inherited but denial is innate. However, both outcast and denial are each complex syndromes within the group.

The origin of a complex syndrome happens as the trigger from some event. Power engineering uses the term dark start to describe the process uses to restart the main power generation turbines following a grid backout.  To start the big turbine requires a motor strong enough to initiate turbine movement. Then another motor is used to start the turbine starter motor. And another motor starts the motor that start the motor that starts the turbine starter motor. When some flips a switch to turn on a room’s light bulb, the light’s glow happens as the result of a dark start switch. A simple power on switch has many dependencies on science, physics, chemistry, engineering, craftsmanship, architecture and more including the biomechanics of the hand, human physical prowess, neurological coordination and the neuropsychological wherewithal that creates a plan to turn on the switch.  Sometimes, all that is necessary to intuitively attribute a dark start as a common event. From the room’s perspective, the dark start trigger occurred at the flipping of the switch.

Every injury does not exist until a black start trigger event happens. In MS, the explanation “no known cause” means science has not found the true dark start source for MS symptoms. However, science does know the MS injury begins with a wound from the immune system removing myelin. This injury is the clinical dark start source that in turn causes wounds.  

Concurrent Dissonance Disorder – In wellness, concurrent dissonance disorder is multi-factor physical, mental or social disorders occurring near-simultaneously caused by a trauma event. A disorder is an injury where the injury provokes a wound that disrupts or creates an injury that affects other orders.

Imagine playing the guitar. Each string's normal order rests in the air quiesced and stretched in tune. As the pick strikes the string, the sting becomes disordered producing harmonic vibrations. The string's disorder provokes dissonance in the air causing the air to be disordered to be heard as sound. When the pick strikes several strings, the near-simultaneous disorder from each string produces a complex syndrome of sounds called music.

Monday, August 12, 2019

Pysc: The 40 Human Senses

The 40 Human Senses

What are the senses?

To answer what is a sense the first question is why do senses exist in animals? While all-natural living phenomena may have senses, the human phenomena with its brain can react to diverse sense stimulus.

A sense is a particular natural neurological (CNS and PNS) facility producing neuropsychological (thinking) representation models.  These sense models are self-activated which, in turn, generate other models. Each generated model maintains traits from the parent. A generated sense model may have one or more parents.

Nociceptive pain

Examples of nociceptive pain are a cut or a broken bone. Tissue damage or injury initiates signals that are transferred through peripheral nerves to the brain via the spinal cord. Pain signals are modulated throughout the pathways. This is how we become aware that something needs attention.

Neuropathic pain

Neuropathic pain is pain caused by damage or disease that affects the nervous system. Sometimes there is no obvious source of pain, and this pain can occur spontaneously. Classic examples of this pain are shingles and diabetic peripheral neuropathy. It is pain that can occur after nerves are cut or after a stroke.
The fundamental survival actions are flight, fight, fawn, fade, finesse, and freeze.  The precursor to each of these actions is the anxiety sense signal. The signal prompts consequence learning or memory recalls that generates an appropriate action. Anxiety itself may not be a natural sense and most likely is the result of precursor chemistry from the 41 natural senses.
Process is the capability to build sense models. Learning is high order application of process models.  A process sense accepts signals from other senses.  Imagine a set of balloons inflated to various sizes lined adjacent to each other in a straight line. Each balloon represents a process sense. 

The purpose of the natural senses is survival. Each sense can trigger an anxiety signal that demands attention.

The wonderful characteristics about natural senses is their harmony state.  Each operates within a disturbance tolerance without triggering a reactive or executive action. Each sense’s harmony state is always active. Each maintains operational boundaries proprietary to survival persistence.  When a condition occurs to compromise the boundaries and threatens persistence, then the compromised sense can be corrected to its harmony state either by predefined reactive means or by getting assistance through raising an anxiety flag. While a reactive correction, like pulling a hand from a burning stove, can happen immediately, an anxiety flag also signals an urgency demand. An accidental trip that causes a fall would have an anxiety urgency demand evoking other body systems into immediate action. Whereas, reading a book would have less urgency.



The Human Senses
Qualitative
The 5 environment senses:
  • sight
  • sound
  • taste
  • touch
  • smell
The 10 wellness senses:
  • movement (still)
  • hunger (glut)
  • thirst (want)
  • safety (threat)
  • waste (preserve)
  • rest (active)
  • strength (weakness)
  • flexibility (rigidity)
  • endurance (exhaust)
  • heat (chill)
The 7 social senses:
  • process
  • perception
  • trust
  • communication
  • community
  • habitat
  • acceptance (rejection)
The 9 emotional senses:
  • respect (contempt)
  • peace (war)
  • happiness (agony)
  • love (indifference)
  • hate (aversion, concern)
  • faith (doubt)
  • fear (confidence)**
  • hope (despair)
  • empathy (detachment)
The 11 intrinsic senses:
  • awareness
  • fullness
  • thermoception
  • oxygen levels
  • vomiting
  • magnetoreception*
  • balance [gravity]
  • itching
  • pain 
  • sexuality
  • proprioception
( ) opposite. [] example
22
22
Note: This list originates from multiple sources —  Joseph Flanigan

The human senses belong in two categories.  1. The quantitative senses tend to have measurable physical characteristics.  2. The qualitative senses tend to have self-comparative characteristics.  Both quantitative and qualitative senses have at birth a natural response to recognize a change. A sense message signals the existing brain stasis model and triggers an action message about the change. The brain mixes many sense sources to build models. Rich models become stories. Some common language expressions, like a sense of well-being, can occur as a result of change provoked by one or more senses.

Life includes the intrinsic senses at birth or before..All senses have a precursor trigger. The trigger occurs as a stimulus from an event. The primary source for the event can be either internal or external to the body.  The intrinsic senses are internal events. Some senses are precursors for other senses. A fear threat response begins with an intrinsic proprioception event that triggers an emotional fear sense that initiates the response. The mind retains the model for every sense as a mood. A mood will contain one or more models for actions. 


Discussion:
These are learned models, not senses.
Þ            Dimensions – length, width, depth, time.
Þ            Birth – all senses exist, but some continue to grow.
Þ            Growth -  some senses
Þ            Reasoning – reading, calculations, planning, intuition, ESP are learned models.
Þ            Relationships – behavior, conduct, manners are learned models.
Þ            Sensations – the processing of senses, vertigo, posture, barning, position are learned modes. 
Þ            Awareness – shame, humility, remorse, guilt, honor, pleasure, happiness are social-emotional feelings.

Þ            Death – loss of all senses.


Other pseudo senses:
Time is a learned social understanding model of natural phenomena.
Behavior: A a complex model of time and a social sense merging into a new generated model.
Indifference
ESP
Intuition
Health

Undefined:
Quiescence > Interrupt > Chaos > Association > Order > Action

Psyc: Mood Change Process


Mood Change Process

The brain is always in a mood state. To read these words, the brain will invoke and revoke many moods. The term mood is very overloaded. 


Enjoy this Idea

Colorado DOT Regulation on Private Propertry Roads

Colorado Department of Transportation Regulation 2024-12-01 This letter was sent to the Colorado DOT regulations committee to help prevent L...