IEEE Consultants' Network of Long Island

Check Endorsement - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I met someone to whom I had written a personal check and who in endorsing that check, had written only a personal signature.

Never mind how I found that out, but  I had to explain that doing so was to have rendered the check insecure as follows:

The simple payee signature alone renders the check as negotiable as cash. Any “bad guy” who comes across that check, whenever and however, can add a second endorsement signature and take the dollar value of the check to his or her self.

The intended payee by adding the words “For Deposit Only” and then adding the account number into which the check is to be deposited can guard against the above.

Handy Wallet Sized Cards - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Just put each handy sized card in your wallet for easy and convenient access:

Keeping Secrets - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I had two maternal aunts who died at relatively young ages. One died of leukemia at the age of forty-nine in 1964 and the other died six years later of ovarian cancer at the age of fifty-seven in 1970. In both cases, family members had tried to keep the severity of their situations hidden from extended family members in misguided hopes of not “worrying” anybody.

I was at my parents’s home on the day before the first death. My mother was on the phone that night when she first learned that her sister’s illness was leukemia. At that time, leukemia was an absolute death sentence. Although she knew that her sister was very ill, she did NOT know that leukemia was the cause until that very moment. I still shudder at the memory of her shriek when that reality was revealed.

Instead of having been granted time to absorb the situation and perhaps to have discussed things with her sister when her sister was still able to converse, because of having been spared the “worry”, my mother was hit with a devasting last minute bombshell. She was not the better off for it.

My other aunt’s illness appeared five years later. We were first told that she was not feeling well, that she needed to take time off from work and so forth. However, given the first experience as described above, my mother asked probing questions to which there was initially resistance to open up, but which eventually revealed the truth. Again, efforts had been made to not “worry” anyone.

As the end approached, my mother took it upon herself to fly across country to visit her sister before finality. Once she was there, how things unfolded I never knew and did not need to know. There was emotional trauma among everyone as I later learned from my uncle, but my mother was not shut out until the very end, at least not that time. She returned home in a very much better state than earlier.

I have just crossed eighty so I am now an old man. I have survived four heart attacks, four strokes, two major gastric surgeries, part of my right foot has been amputated because of a bone infection, I have widespread osteo-arthritis and I have a blood cancer. That same blood cancer killed former French President Georges Pompidou, entertainer Gower Champion and the Shah of Iran so I am in illustrious company.

The one rule that I insist upon for all of that is that none of those things are in any way secret. I have benefitted immeasurably from proper medical care, I am still functioning and for as long as I am granted those blessings, I will enjoy myself in full view of all of my family.

Eye Dilation, Part Three - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

A few years back, we looked at eye dilation as part of an eye examination where pupils need to be widened so that inner structures of the eyes can be examined. Please see:

https://licn.typepad.com/my_weblog/2021/09/eye-dilation-revisited-john-dunn-consultant-ambertec-pe-pc.html

At the moment of this writing in mid-December, there are all kinds of celebratory lights in operation. One such was right outside the window of a local diner where I was having dinner with my wife shortly after my eye doctor had done his thing on me.

I couldn’t photograph what I was seeing, but I have been able to create an image that comes pretty close.

I didn’t time my vision recovery this time around, but there was still flaring when I got to bed that night.

If you have regular eye check-ups, this image won’t come as any surprise to you. However, it you have not been an eye patient and you are going for an eye exam for the first time, please be aware that what you see above is quite real.

For the sake of your personal safety, have someone come along to guide you after your examination and to do the driving if you travel by car.

Anthem - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

When I was a little kid, I would sometimes get pain through the center of my chest. I tried to tell my mother about it but when I did, the reaction was “That sounds like heartburn, Johnny, but that can’t be. You’re much too young for that.”

It was heartburn. It was being caused by gastroesophageal reflux disease, also called GERD.

As I grew up, that sensation would show itself from time to time until I was in my mid-forties when I was taken into the care of a gastroenterologist. He ascertained that at the base of my esophagus, either there was no lower esophageal sphincter, or there was one but that it was atrophied to the point of not functioning. Which was actually the case was unclear but that didn’t matter. Either way, I would never get closure there which allowed stomach acid to rise into the esophagus where that acid would attack the esophageal tissue. If that had continued, it was going to lead to a condition called Barret’s Esophagus which would then likely turn into esophageal cancer. When a whole series of different medications failed to help, I was sent for esophageal surgery. That was in 1998.

The surgery worked, but some years later in 2012, pain started up again. I was told that the surgery from 1998 had gone bad. Something inside of me had torn so that my stomach was rising up inside my torso to where it had started binding to my heart. Ultimately it would have killed me. A second surgery was necessary.

The surgeon to whom I was sent expected to do his work laproscopically. With the surgical resources of the time, the procedure would take approximately one hour and would have left me with minimal scarring. That didn’t happen. Instead, issues arose on the operating table and I was there for five hours. Instead of the laproscope, I needed to be cut open and sewn back together again which left me with some rather spectacular post-surgery staples and eye popping scars.

Hold that thought and see the following URL:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anthem-blue-cross-blue-shield-anesthesia-coverage-policy/

In the first paragraph we read:  “Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield said Thursday that the health insurance provider is reversing a policy that was set to go into effect in February of that would have limited anesthesia coverage during surgeries and other procedures, a change that had prompted an outcry from some physicians and lawmakers.” (sic)

Grammar and typos aside, Anthem has denied any ill intent in the matter, but I do not believe them. I am convinced that if my medical situation had arisen now with myself as an Anthem policy holder, that Anthem would happily have allowed me to die or go broke if it were to save them a few dollars.

Yes, I do confess to the personal trait of skepticism. I can’t help that.