Category Archives: medical news

medical news

Gotta ask, finally: Has Trump lost it?

My commitment to avoid offering armchair diagnoses of Donald Trump’s mental condition remains fairly strong … although I am going to acknowledge some kinks in the armor.

A lot of men and women, some with medical degrees, are saying the same voice about Trump: They believe the boy’s mental acuity is on a serious glide path toward the ash heap. I now shall acknowledge the obvious, which is that if enough medical experts detect cognitive decline in the head of state and commander in chief of the strongest military in world history … that’s time to engage in a serious discussion.

The question? Is it time to invoke the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the one that empowers the removal of a president from the awesome power at his disposal? We well might be entering that phase.

Trump is increasingly addled. He is changing policy stances literally every hour, or so it seems. He is angering out political allies. He started a war with Iran and has yet to tell us why he has subjected our young warriors to the prospect of war with a nation of 91 million citizens.

I don’t know if it’s time to invoke the 25th. I am leaving that call to others. A growing number of them are saying, “Hell yes, it’s time!”

I’m getting close to joining that amen chorus.

medical news

Shrill GOP voice has gone quiet … what gives?

One of Congress’s loudest and shrillest voices has gone strangely quiet since about the time Donald Trump took his oath of office in January 2025 … and I’m trying to figure out why the silence.

Rep. Ronnie Jackson, R-Amarillo, made a whole lot of noise during the term that President Biden served in the White House. Jackson, who once served as White House physician, could be heard constantly yammering and bellowing about President Biden’s mental acuity. The former doctor never saw any of Biden’s medical charts, but all but declared himself an expert on determining whether the president’s butter had slipped off its noodle.

Jackson, in my view, made a complete ass of himself during the Biden administration.

Now, though, a Republican (in name only) has moved back into the White House. Trump’s ramblings have become wildly incoherent. The individual cannot string two sentences together that seem connected or make a tangible thought.

I won’t venture a personal guess on whether I believe Trump’s train has left the station. It does puzzle me in the extreme that a politician who once was trained to be a medical doctor can suddenly become discreet when in the recent past he was shooting off his mouth about the conduct of a politician with whom he has profound differences.

I suppose that was at the heart of his constant bellowing about the former president’s mental health.

The current POTUS? He exhibits plenty of grist for the likes of Ronnie Jackson and others to comment. Trump has gone to war with Iran without explaining anything to the public about why he has chosen to make this world demonstrably less safe. He can find money to spend on the war but cannot find the dough to pay for needed domestic programs that feed hungry children and provide health insurance to millions of families.

The incumbent POTUS isn’t behaving like a man who knows what the hell he’s doing. Ol’ Ronnie Jackson, though, is standing with him. Silently, while he leads this nation into oblivion.

medical news

Don’t ‘try’ … just do it!

Forty-six years ago I made a command decision that freed me from the enslavement of a nasty habit and then changed my entire outlook on how I should treat future decisions. It changed my life.

Until Feb. 2, 1980, I smoked two packs of cigarettes each day. I liked smoking. I enjoyed lighting up a smoke and taking deep drags on it. Yes, I knew all about the surgeon general’s warning printed on the side of every pack I opened. I didn’t care. I was a young man and I must have thought I was invincible.

Then on that fateful day, I made a decision that has transformed me into a bona fide militant. I had slight cold and an annoying cough. I lit up a cigarette, took a drag … and damn near choked on it!

In that moment, I snuffed out the butt, crumpled up the pack from which I took it, tossed the pack of smokes into the trash. I never turned back.

My wife had been hassling me about the cough. She told me I should quit. I didn’t heed her wisdom. Until that fateful moment! I realized right then that Kathy Anne was a lot smarter than I am and I surrendered to the belief I should have listened to her long ago.

I was 30 years old at the time. I had been smoking since I was 15. So, for half my life I had been poisoning my lungs with cancer-causing agents.

The life lesson I learned from all this? It was to never postpone any decision that awaited! If I am going to quit a nasty habit, I vowed never to wait until next week, or the end of the day or until I was done doing what I intended to quit doing.

I have scolded many friends in the 46 years since that moment about the wisdom of my decision. I have told them if they’re going to quit smoking that they had to do it right then. Right there. No delay. Just quit. Period … full stop.

Of course, I never anticipated back in 1980 that smoking cigarettes could be such an expensive and nasty habit. I must be the master of impeccable timing.

local news, medical news

Recalling the ‘worst day’

It’s been a minute or two since I last wrote about the emotional journey I have undertaken since the worst day of my life came and went just shy of three years ago.

I believe my most recent post on High Plains Blogger mentioned that my journey was for all intents complete. That I had turned an important emotional corner since Feb. 3, 2023 when my bride, Kathy Anne, drew her final breath.

Indeed, my suffering is far less intense today than it was three years ago. I can smile, laugh at bawdy jokes and carry on as I used to do with my wife of 51 years. I have redefined “good” as it applies to my personal well-being and I am comfortable with saying I am “good” now. That’s an important thing for me.

I am also going to reveal on this blog a bit of news for you, which is that I am in a relationship with a woman who understands the journey I am still traveling. I won’t go into detail about her, other than to say we enjoy each other’s company.

My journey also has put me in touch with fellow brothers in grief. Many of them have lost their wives even more recently than I lost my bride to glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. The question comes from them: I can’t stop crying when I think of her. When will it stop? My answer? It won’t ever stop. Do not try to make it stop, because human emotion can be like a runaway freight train. You can manage it. I know that to be true, because I am able to manage my own emotions.

I had a moment today at lunch with one of my sons. He and I were talking about the upcoming date of commemoration and he recalled having dinner with his Mom and me. During our time together, Kathy Anne announced to my sons, our daughter-in-law, our granddaughter and me that in five years we were going to throw a huge party to salute her being “cancer free.” She was recovering nicely from the brain surgery she had to remove part of the tumor. We weren’t able to have that party, as just a few days later, Kathy Anne suffered a grand mal seizure … from which she didn’t recover.

My son’s recalling that statement from his Mom, however, filled me with sadness. My eyes got wet. I wanted to cry out loud. I held back.

These are the kinds of events that continue to tug at my ticker. But I am able to manage my emotions.

I don’t know what will occur a couple of days from now. I don’t expect the day will overwhelm me. I’ll have to run a couple of errands that will take me away from the house for most of the morning. I’ll drive to Bonham to see the Veterans Administration medics who take good care of me.

Feb. 3 always will be a day I will never forget. Not ever! It comemmorates the worst day I hope to ever experience during my time on this good Earth.

I’ll just add this. Kathy Anne instructed me to be happy if that day ever arrived and like most dutiful husbands I know, I always do what I am told.

medical news

This idiocy takes the cake … seriously!

Donald Trump continues to violate the Law of Idiocy by lowering the standard to never-before-seen levels.

Take his response recently during a two-hour Cabinet meeting about the MRI he received from the White House medical staff. A reporter asked Trump about the exam and its purpose. What were the docs looking for? the reporter wondered.

Trump answered with a lie that defies one’s ability to understand anything. You can’t make this up.

He said he “didn’t know” the reason for the MRI. Many millions of us have gone through an MRI procedure. It involves lying perfectly still on a tube that makes a whole lotta noise. It usually takes about 30 minutes to complete the exam.

You must understand this: There isn’t a medical doctor alive today who doesn’t tell the patient precisely why he or she is being asked to subject themselves to such discomfort. That only can mean that Trump lied about his supposed ignorance about why he received the MRI. Why in the name of medical malpractice would Trump have to lie about that? Never mind. He probably wants to hide whatever medical condition from which he might be suffering. Can’t reveal his humanity … y’know?

Anyhow, he lied about a subject that should become public knowledge. After all, he is the president of the U.S. of A., and that includes millions of us who don’t give a damn about the man personally, but who do care about whether our government is working for us.

And this moron is the nation’s chief executive!

Donald Trump, medical news, military news, national security

Why surround yourself with morons?

It’s a fair question, so I am going to ask it: Why does Donald J. Trump insist on surrounding himself with imbeciles and then put them in charge of vital organizations designed to protect our health and everyone from foreign and domestic enemies?

Two examples stand out. You know who they are, but I’ll spell it out anyway: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Pete Hegseth.

RFK Jr., scion of one of the nation’s great political families — and namesake of my first political hero! — continues to astound me with his lack of knowledge of vaccines, of the value in investing in scientific research and his insistence that vaccinations do as much harm as good.

RFK Jr. needs to be shown the door. Rapidly. Without hesitation. Before more people die on his watch as secretary of health and human services. It won’t happen because RFK Jr. embodies the one thing that Trump demands: total loyalty to the notions that fly out of his mouth.

What about Hegseth, the former “Fox and Friends Sunday” co-host whom Trump plucked to become defense secretary? Spoiler alert: I categorically refuse to call him “war secretary” and head of the “war department,” per his and Trump’s name-change effort.

Hegseth summoned every flag officer in uniform to the nation’s capital, where they gathered in a room to listen to Hegseth and Trump talk to them about the need to eliminate “fat generals and admirals,” how women should have to meet the same physical training standards as men and how Trump’s deployment of troops to our nation’s cities should serve as practice for when they go into actual combat.

What is unintentionally hilarious is how Hegseth’s applause lines were greeted with stone-cold silence by the command staff … many of whom have served multiple combat deployments. These men and women are seasoned, highly skilled and effective warriors who need no lecture from a tinhorn soldier such as Hegseth about physical fitness.

And yet … Hegseth continues to disgrace our military — the most lethal and skilled organization of its kind in human history — simply by serving in a capacity for which he has earned zero qualification.

God help us!

medical news

Is Trump in decline?

The headline on top of this blog post demands an immediate answer … I have no clue as to whether Donald J. Trump is suffering any loss of mental acuity.

My reluctance to declare Trump to be off his rocker is more complicated than it seems. Consider the four years when Joe Biden was president of the United States. Critics asserted without a hint of ambiguity that they were certain the 46th president’s butter had slipped off its noodle. Did they have access to medical exams? Had they seen any test results? Were they fluent in body language that often gives away symptoms of mental decline?

No, no and no. Yet they persisted. I resisted the urge to join them. Why? For starters, I am a Joe Biden supporter. Second, I had no access to medical records. Third, I was not qualified to make any assertions about a high-profile politician’s mental fitness.

I am going to apply all those standards to Biden’s immediate successor.

Let me be clear on key point: I am likely to comment on the huge verbal gaffes that appear to be happening with stunning frequency. I cannot in good conscience, though, declare that Donald Trump needs a one-way ticket to the Funny Farm. Still, he does make me scratch my head when he said he ended a war between Azerbaijan and Albania.

Fair is fair. In fairness to the White House incumbent, I’ll let others talk among themselves about whether he belongs in the loony bin. I won’t join them.

medical news

RFK Jr: wrong man for wrong job

As I watch Robert F. Kennedy Jr. get pilloried by Democrats and Republicans in Congress, I am filled with a baffling mix of confused feelings.

Kennedy, the scion of the nation’s premier Democratic family, serves as health and human services secretary in a Republican administration known for its ignorance on health matters. That makes RFK Jr. the enemy of the right and the left.

The right detests him because he is a natural political lefty, the son and namesake of the martyred former attorney general and U.S. senator who was gunned down in 1968 as he was surging toward the Democratic presidential nomination. The left detests RFK Jr. because he has adopted the policies espoused by Donald Trump.

The man is firing health officials left and right. He is endangering the lives of Americans. He is hiring vaccine deniers who buck the views of millions of doctors and other health professionals who proclaim that vaccines save lives.

RFK Jr. cannot give a straight answer to direct questions, such as: “Do you believe vaccines save lives?“

He is becoming a prevaricator to a degree shared only by the nimrod who hired him … Trump.

The guy has to go. How do we get him out of there? Beats the stuffing out of me. The guy who hired him continues to stand behind him.

It pains me greatly to say this about him. I happen to admire his father very much. I miss Bobby Kennedy to this very day and wish he could have finished his race for the presidency, won the office and changed the course of history.

His son, meanwhile, is putting lives at risk. The HHS secretary has to go. Somewhere … just nowhere near public health policy.

medical news

Another conspiracy given birth

Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis is bound to run its course, no matter where it ends up.

If the former president is able to beat back the aggressive form of prostate cancer — which I and others hope happens — we’re going to see the temporary end to what is likely to occur if the president’s cancer fight ends in another fashion.

What will occur will be the birth of yet one more never-ending conspiracy theory. This one will center on allegations that the White House covered up President Biden’s cancer, that staffers knew he suffered from “aggressive prostate cancer,” but wanted him re-elected in 2024, so that he could resign and hand the presidency over to Vice President Kamala Harris.

I don’t feel good about the former president’s prognosis. He is 82 years of age. He has had cancer before, many years ago. But no one ever talks about that.

I am not privy, nor is anyone outside the White House, to what people knew during Biden’s term as president and when they knew it. A couple of questions keep nagging at me regarding the conspiracy theorists.

One is, why even worry about such a thing now? Joe Biden is no longer president. He has exited the political arena after serving what many millions of us consider to be a successful presidency. I am not going to spend a moment of my time thinking about what the White House medical staff knew and whether they covered it up.

The other is that we’ll never know the answer, except that if the White House medical team says it hid nothing, that is going to be good enough for me.

Conspiracy theories are the stuff of individuals who have too much time on their hands and too little to fill their vacuous noggins.

local news, medical news

No redeeming value in this loss

Two years have passed since I experienced the worst day of my life and I still am getting the reaction from those intending to offer some semblance of comfort.

I recently explained to someone who inquired about my marital status. “I am a widower,” I responded. “Oh? Tell me what happened,” came the reaction. I told this individual about the glioblastoma that struck Kathy Anne, about the surgery to removed part of the mass in her brain, the rehab, the grand mal seizure and finally the end that came six weeks after the diagnosis.

“At least she didn’t suffer,” the individual said … to which I shot back, “There is nothing positive I can claim from all this.”

To be clear, I am rebuilding my life and the foundation for my new life looks promising. The brevity of my bride’s battle does not lessen the pain that came at the end of her life on Earth.

I have been through all kinds of family tragedy. Dad’s death in September 1980 was sudden and shocking. The last words I said to him were, “I’ll see you Wednesday.” He left on a weekend fishing trip to British Columbia, but then perished when the skipper of the boat he was in crashed into a log jam. Dad died instantly. I got the news and I felt the numbness of the shock consume my body.

Mom died nearly four years later to the day. She suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. We watched her disappear before our eyes over several years, losing cognitive skill bit by agonizing bit. The end came. I was expecting it.

Both instances inflicted enormous pain on our family.

Then came Kathy Anne’s sudden illness and then she was gone.

I never will accept the end of my bride’s life as a “blessing” because she “didn’t suffer.” The pain, although it still twinges, has become something I am able to manage and control.

Life does go on.