Patricia, I think the only things that get rehashed when I visit a doctor are my meds, to make sure I am taking what I say and that there haven't been any changes.  While the visits seem to be limited to 15 minutes each, I feel I have been able to ask questions, but if I think of something outside of a visit, I can always do it on MyHealth.  My health is OK and I do not find it necessary to see a doctor often.  Once in a while a doctor will request a blood draw and that is done in the same building as my doctor's office, which is in a complex housing all of the doctors who are part of the hospital system in a certain area (north end, in my case).  It sounds complicated, but to have so much in the same building is not bad.  My cardiologist is not far from that building but is part of the hospital system.  If things are really bad, such as when I had the nosebleeds, they send you to the hospital emergency itself.  We have quite a medical complex here.

That's a bummer about your smartphone.  Possibly they don't have a delivery to Fairbanks often, but I find that hard to believe.  It looks as if they're waiting for more deliveries to make it worth their while.

The DNA testing is interesting because you find a lot of people who share your backgrounds.  The programs lists them as "cousins" because it would be too much for them to separate people as to cousins once removed, or twice removed, or in Annie case as my second great niece.  They give you the possibility of a person being your first or second cousin, fourth to eighth cousin and fifth cousin or more.  I look to see any fourth cousins because they would descend from a third great grandparent.  Oddly enough, Annie shows as my first cousin but they have an explanation that group could be nieces or great.  The funny thing to me is next on the list is a man who is my second cousin once removed (his father was my second cousin and his grandmother was a first cousin to my mother).  The next man is shown as my third cousin, but those two men are brothers to each other.  Annie really is hitting the jackpot in her family search.

I think I'll have to go to another computer to send the twins' picture to anyone because I have Windows 10 on this computer and when I put a picture on here, I lose it. 

Mary Ann

MaryAnn, we are, along with Anchorage, on the polar route which means we get more Europeans here because it is cheaper and faster for Europeans than Americans to travel here or through here. As well as the wilderness, rivers and mountains; and or University for the more adventurous.

Sometimes it seems that there are more folk at the University from Asia, India or Eastern Europe than Americans. So, it's not the frequency of deliveries but something happened in Anchorage. I just received a text saying the package had been located and was due to arrive in Fairbanks this morning. No scheduled delivery date as yet, status is listed as pending. I wonder if it was lost or mislaid and then someone discovered it? Perhaps they were notified of my complaint. My two-day air has stretched into five days so far.

Our hospital complex is sprawling with eight buildings as well as a connected nursing home, purchased a couple of years ago and added to a new hospital wing. The nursing home patients are all long-term medical rather than seniors. They have been in the process of connecting all the eight buildings with new permanent inner hallways so it is now and will be quite a sprawl.

And of course, there are several new separate private medical buildings being erected all around for dental, medical and emergency care. Many of the services and buildings have been accomplished by donations such as the three-story heart building so there is a plaque or two every few feet in all of the buildings. It's a bit odd to me but I guess it gives a person or corporation thanks and in the case of corporations, more advertising. The hospital was originally run by a Catholic Order than by Luthern Sisters and for the last ten or twelve years by Banner Health. After that, an assortment of local doctors purchased it. All of those changes might be a reason for the continued construction?

I believe that must be the new thing to try and put everything medical in one singular location, but I find it confusing & offputting especially as everything is painted white, with rock wall accents and all interconnected. I am not too fond of doctors due to lifelong issue as well as my daughter's misdiagnoses due to other doctors accepting what previous doctors wrote on her chart, thus dismissing my complaints. Then, of course, I was a primary & durable power of attorney on both of my parents' accounts so it made me a tad cynical.

EDIT:  I just received a text saying I had a new delivery time of "by 8 PM tonight." Hopefully, then this saga will end. The phone arrived a little after 5 PM. And I played around on it after activating it and now it's charging. I found out what happened was that the Anchorage Fedex had it set to go to Juneau before someone caught the mistake and finally sent it on to me.

Look what Mary Ann sent:

ONE

ANOTHER

"They are Norm's great-granddaughters, children of James and Alicia Tock.  Johanna is held by James and Eleanor by Alicia.  They were born February 7 and are not identical, but they both have red hair, as their parents do."

Mary Ann, they are so precious!  (And she wanted me to choose one of the photos!  Can you imagine trying to do that?  )

MaryAnn, such sweet babies and happy parents!

Mary Ann, great pics.  Jeanne, thanks for linking here.

MaryAnn.  they are so cute..May have been born small but the look so healthy. You will be surprised how they will grow.  Mother such a pretty girl. They both look so happy.

Thank you, Jeanne Lee, and thanks to all for the nice comments.  We all are so happy to have the girls home.  I will say when they were in the hospital, it was easier for Tom to see his granddaughters because the hospital is in Grand Rapids and now they are home in Holland, about 40 miles from here.  Johanna weighs over six pounds now and Eleanor weighs just over five pounds.  The reason I sent both pictures was that each girl put her hand up by her face in separate pictures.  Alicia is a very pretty girl.  She is a sports trainer for the Hamilton school system and as such, will work in the summer.  James was hoping to go to seminary full time when they became pregnant, but he is putting that on hold for a while but he may take separate courses; it will just take longer.  I told him about my dad (and I don't think they do this anymore) who took correspondence courses for a few years, then had to spend one semester on campus and do student teaching; he had already been teaching over 20 years.  I saw him graduate which was, and I think still is, unusual.  Dad was 42 when he got his degree.  James is Tom's son. 

Mary Ann

Mary Ann......Wonderful children.....Parents and babies both. Tom must be so proud. The parents look so well matched, I wish them the very best in their lives. Give Tom our Congratulations too.

Mary Ann, they are absolutely darling and such happy and joyful parents.... you know Norm is beaming from ear to ear.  In my world the people I love are never "gone", we just can't see them.  Norm's kids are lucky to have a special Aunt Mary Ann, you are a treasure.  Thanks for the photos, they sure don't look like "preemies" anymore.
Congratulations to all of you.  Thanks, Jeanne Lee!

Mary Ann - Two adorable babies, and two proud parents!  I wish them all a lifetime of happiness.    

Mary Ann, thanks for telling me over in the Soda Shoppe that the pictures had been posted by Jeanne Lee.

Such cute little babies, and they really are little.  But, I  am sure the next time you see them,  you will hardly believe that they are the same babies.  They do seem to grow so fast.  Beautiful family picture and I know that  both you and the parents  enjoyed your visit.

Thanks for sharing.

Joy

MaryAnn, thanks for sharing these little cuties.  They are quiet and mostly sleeping now, but wait another six months or so, I bet they will be an enjoyable handful by then!

Hi everyone.  The sun is shining and there is a clear sky.  Once again we will be in the low 80's this afternoon.  As expected, yesterday was a quiet day.  I even fixed our evening meal, which was a nice salad with tuna on it, at lunch time so that when we were ready to eat last evening I just had to set it on the table.  We are having these salad type meals about once a week now as they are easy and we both like them. 

I did get my income tax refund check in the mail.  I thought I had set it up for direct deposit but must not have done so. 

Last evening I did watch the women's Final Four basketball game for the women and saw the South Carolina team beat Stanford and so will play for the National Championship on Sunday.  The South Carolina men play in the Final Four tonight and if they can win they would also play in the Championship game on Monday night.  One of my coffee drinking friends here went to Phoenix yesterday with his son and family to attend the Final Four for the men. 

I expect to have another quiet and restful day with no plans to leave the house.  Since it is the first of the month I will pay bills and then watch the basketball game around 6 pm. 

Mary Ann, I agree that it is usually the doctor's nurse or PA that responds to my online messages and I am fine with that.  Annie certainly has a complicated family structure.  Those babies are precious as Jeanne has said and Jeanne thanks for posting them for Mary Ann.

Patricia, it must be the prescribed protocol to ask every time about the medicine we are taking. These huge hospital complexes have many advantages but for anyone who has a walking problem it is a real challenge.  The University Hospital has about three big office buildings connected to it but the hallways aren't too long.  They also have other facilities located all over the area.  They have two new facilities that are about ready to open here in North Augusta.  Having the inner hallways sound like a great thing for your area with the extreme colds and then the heat in the middle of summer. 

Thanks again for the nice comments on the babies.  I think when I held them in the hospital they were about a foot long.  Johanna was the largest and Eleanor the smallest.  They still are about a pound apart, but now they look more human since they don't have the preemie caps on and you can see more of their faces.  I know that James and Alicia have their work cut out for them and no relatives are near; her parents live in Milwaukee.  But they have a very helpful church family.  While I took care of Tom and his brothers and their children, I am not going to volunteer to care for the girls, but I will be glad to hold and love them.  Alicia says she can tell the difference in personalities. 

I have ears that protrude a bit and I've always tried to keep my hair over them.  My mother tried to tape them down in an effort to get them to lie flat.  Nephew Tim's daughter had a daughter in January of 2016 and the first thing I said when I saw her was "She's got my ears".  She's a darling, happy little girl who now is 14 months old.  She lives near Lansing MI so we don't get to see her often. 

The sun is shining - another nice day.

Mary Ann

Good morning from the Interior. We had plus 21 for a low last evening and a high yesterday of fifty-one.

MaryAnn, the babies look like dolls now, but as Bubble said, give them about six months or so and James and Alicia will have their hands and hearts full!

Larry, it is not only all the buildings and the connected hallways but the surrounding parking lots, employee parking, parking lot shuttle buses, bus or ambulance pickup and drop offs; but the building for patient families to stay, their playground and a raised bed gardening area for patients and patient's families or possibly employees, I'm not sure. The whole complex for me is hard to navigate and sometimes confusing as to where to go and how to get there.

I finally got my phone yesterday and spent the evening setting it up and charging it. I signed on with my account and next thing I knew, I had 490 email addresses on my phone.    I have to find a way to block email addresses. I'm still learning where everything goes and how to navigate.

Larry tell me about all the long walks in these large medical complexes.  I am about to give up on my cardiologist because of the distance from the parking garage to his office. And the fact that parking is so hard to get in the parking garage and the fact that it cost a minimum of 2.50 to park.  I suggested to him to institute valet parking and he brushed it off saying one of the clinics downstairs was moving so it should ease the parking, it aint happened yet.

A few of the hospitals do have valet parking and it is not much more expensive than the normal parking and it saves lots of steps.

Here they have shuttle buses between the parking lots and the buildings and the one designated for heart issues has a lot of special needs features.

Hal, our downtown hospital, where the twins were, has Valet parking and if you have a handicap plate, parking is free.  I have no idea how much parking is without the special plate.  Tom has a handicap plate because of me so was able to park free but he would give the valets a tip.  Frankly, Tom needs it for himself, too, but one is enough.  Tom stops in front of the main door, gets out, gives the keys to the valet, gets a number, and he's free.  Of course, the babies are home now, but it works for any time he might visit the hospital.

Mary Ann

It looks like these huge mega-health complexes are now the wave of the future.  The first one here in Northern California was/is Kaiser-Permanente.  Now Stanford Health Care has started to spread, and has taken over most of the doctors in  the area. 

We live about 15 miles from Stanford University, which has always been famous for it's research and teaching hospitals, plus it's world renown Children's Hospital.  However, in just the past couple of years, Stanford has opened up and  gone into Health Care for everyone.  Most of the independent doctors and medical groups here have now joined Stanford.

They have to follow a certain protocol, so everything is very high tech and what I would call regimented. Many of the doctors are still in their original offices, but they have to now do things "The Stanford Way", (labs, tests, etc) which can be time consuming and exhausting. There are a few doctor hold-outs, like my opthalmologist, who is still independent, but all of our other doctors are now affiliated with Stanford.

The main Stanford complex here in the San Jose area is massive, and involves lots of walking and parking in distant lots or garages.  The good part is that the parking is free, but no shuttle service.  The Cancer Center, is brand new and very "state of the art".  When my husband was having his chemotherapy there last year, I would drop him off in front of the entrance, and then start searching for  a parking place. Sometimes far, far away.

I guess there are a few advantages to all these mergers between health organizations, but I really draw the line at allowing health and health insurance companies to merge. It smells too much like anti-trust or collusion to me.

MarsGal, I haven't heard of any merger of insurance and health care here, but who knows; it could be down the line.

We really have three health care complexes.  Spectrum Butterworth, merged with Blodgett Hospital, and I'd say that is the major health complex in the area.  Spectrum has built a huge complex for research and development and we have doctors from all over the world come to show their expertise in all phases of medicine.  I haven't read of any of the doctors being up for deportation because of religion, but maybe they're keeping it quiet.  My cardiologist is named Musa Dahu.  I do know from the computer that he was educated in the US at Indiana U.  Spectrum has built three or four separate buildings in various parts of the city where all of the doctors affiliated with Spectrum have relocated.  There is Urgent Care, blood draw, x-ray etc in each building.  Our building is only three miles from here and my primary doctor's office is in the building. 

Then we have St Mary's Hospital and Mercy Health Hospital, both of which have about the same thing, except for research and development.  St Mary's is the Catholic hospital and Mercy Health was at first Osteopathic, but I think it is more general now.  We really are well covered medically in our area.

Mary Ann

I got real brave yesterday and had Dan turn off the Thermostat.  So far I am not sorry.    Supposed to be 70 degrees today and nights are warming up also.

Good afternoon, just very windy and cold. was raining when I got up.

MaryAnn, I just come in to day to tell you how happy I was to see those beautiful pictures of your family.  the babies are cutie pies, and what nice looking parents. I know you and Tom are so happy to be able to hold those babies.

This last hospital they took me too two weeks ago is a big complex also. After CCU, I was in one of the towers, on the 15th floor. It is also next to Stonybrook U.

This is really hitting Alaskans right now' They ask, can you hear me now? You answer yes you can and that recording of you is used for scams, arguing that you agreed and they have it on tape.

https://techtalk.pcpitstop.com/2017/03/29/phone-scams-costing-victims-one-word/?consumeralertphonescams=&ad_id=504973&share-ad-id=1

Geisinger out of Danville, Pa has been trying to merge with hospitals in the area for years, not very successfully. So far, every one in the Harrisburg area they have allied themselves with have dissolved themselves. Now it is Holy Spirit's turn. Holy Spirit now calls itself a Geisinger Affiliate. Before Geisinger started expanding their hospital affiliations and mergers down this way they have been selling health insurance.

I could have sworn, I received information about a new health insurance plan sponsored by Pinnacle Health. I didn't consider it, because it was so new and there weren't many doctors, etc. listed in their network (all or most of them were working out of Pinnacle Health  run clinics and hospitals). Since health insurance is regulated differently from state to state, other states may not allow this merging of medical insurance and health care providers. I'd love top hear what others think about health care providers and health insurance providers merging together.

Hi everyone on another beautiful sunny Sunday morning.  I am ready for Sunday School and Church but Pat is not going as just doesn't feel up to it.  I will have to think of something to bring home for our main meal for today.  I did fix Pat's scrambled eggs, strawberries and coffee for her breakfast.  Nothing else planned for today although may watch the women's National Championship Basketball game.  Unfortunately the South Carolina men's team lost yesterday. 

Mary Ann, I am sure your ears are just like God wanted them to be.  I hope we can see many pictures of those twins as they grow up as well as the new baby in California.  There are few things more adorable than little ones. 

Patricia, it sounds like winter's back is broken up your way. Glad you finally got your new phone and now the fun begins. 

Hal, my cardiologist moved her office the first of the year and it is right off the parking garage.  So far we haven't found the hospital too hard to get around in and they offer a free valet service for those handicapped or over 65 from the big parking garage to the front of the hospital or to the heart center.  I haven't used it yet as don't like the idea of having someone else I don't know drive my car.  Our parking is free, which was something we were not used to since we always had to pay to park in Atlanta.

Marilyne, we have pretty much the same situation with doctors being a part of the big corporation.  However, the two cardiologists I have seen since I came here had left the big practice to go into private practice with another doctor as they got very tired of all of the rules and the corporations pushing to do more expensive tests and procedures. 

MarsGal, you have a point about anti-trust and collusion but big money talks so will probably stay the way it is and get bigger and more controlled. 

Joan, hope you stay warm enough and don't have another cold snap.  If you do perhaps Dan will come back and turn the Thermostat back on.  This house has the best heating and cooling system we have ever had so we keep it about the same temperature year round. 

deAngel, hope you are feeling better each day. 

Larry, I think the cold is through with us for the season.   You are right tho, he is close enough to come over and turn it back on if needed.

No Doctors in Private Practice here now.  The 2 large hospitals/clinics have taken over. Most Dr. here for years on the own have retired or passed. I just think Insurance Companies wanted it that way. The few private one could not handle it. So Sad.  I had 3 of mine for 40 years.  Now we are a number. Not knowns by name. Fact only ask for Date of Birth . Also only get info on computers by having a Acct. Number. Heard of you wait for other ways it take 7 days to get in the mail.

So much for progress.

finely. It was beautiful here yesterday and not to bad today. Maybe get a walk in. The weather sure makes a difference to my personality. I ran all over town yesterday. Such energy.  Came home and took a nap at 4:30. Big mistake. Awake most the night. Going to not even sit down today.
Some good TV on Public TV tonight.  Covers the whole 3 hours.

Good morning from another warm Interior day. I had extra sleep as I fell asleep about one PM for an hour yesterday, while waiting on a computer restart and an update. I then turned off the computer and took the kindle to bed for what I thought would be a short nap, and then some reading time. I woke up at 9:19 this morning.    I am reminded of June's saying about the body needs.

Farrah watches me carefully and now I'm aware that she is wanting someone to play with her. Her favorite game is "whack the mole" or "field Hockey." Both consist in some way of tapping the cylinder's yellow ball to an opponent and then receiving your opponent's push or toss back. She no longer seems interested in her felt mice and the laser simply brings her to to come up and watch it in my hand. She no longer seems interested in the red dot as she knows it is from what is in my hand.

I have played around with my phone and had a nice friend show me how to do simple settings I was having issues with. One guy was a bit sarcastic in asking if I was from the "Flintstones?" To my "Why?" He stated that cell phones had been around for about thirty years now. I didn't tell him that it was my new smartphone that was confusing or that I had other types of cell phones. I simply told him I was Wilma's mother.

I spent a couple of hours carrying people's food boxes to their apartments for them in my cart. The lady who has the "frozen shoulder," told me it seems to be slowly getting better and the one guy in the wheelchair I was helping, now has a new service animal who is tethered to his chair and pulls the chair and occupant along with the food box in said occupant's lap. The service animal is a large pit bull mix and when off work, is very friendly and playful.

His owner takes him out to the vacant lot or I should say his dog takes him out to the vacant lot and the dog, off tether, runs around in circles but ever vigilant of his owner. His owner is an over six foot, large boned man so needs a larger dog. Regulations are different for service animals than they are for regular apartment pets. It may have been all the treks back and forth with the food boxes and the hefting them onto counters or tables for folks that wore me out yesterday. The food boxes come here on the first and third Saturdays.

About medical complexes, the parking is free, it is just so many and folks want to park close to their particular building. The shuttle buses are also free and I don't know who sponsors them but it is probably from the borough bus system. I believe that many medical practices are moving to that area in the south as to make the whole area a medical section of town. You have the large hospital complex with buildings and parking lots and then the streets around are full of medical buildings.

Directly opposite of the hospital complex is the Chief Andrew Issac Native Medical Center which is also large. To someone walking, you need to watch out not only for your particular address but also for ambulances and cars. The buses stop just across the street from the hospital grounds. On top of the main hospital building, there are also helicopters coming and going so with military jets practicing overhead and small planes or private ones flying around, it must be a busy place upstairs as well.

I have no idea if this is the same in other states, it is just confusing to me. I also think insurance and doctors should not be aligned but as Larry says, money talks and probably more so now. I do know that the state doesn't allow many medical practices such as the use of primary or secondary doctors but insurance companies get around that by offering discounts if you use their preferred group of doctors.