Ministry Blog

As a parent it’s always nice when your kids are proud over you, or even better boasts about you… We held a little birthday party with the little one the other day. The entire class was there and had hamburgers and drinks. One of the guys started burping, as 9 year olds or younger (and older too) sometimes do to get attention. After a few hefty burps and a few giggles and laughs, little one gives up a sigh with a somewhat tired glance towards the ceiling and comments:
- Pah! That was nothing. My Dad, he can really burp!

That kind of put an end to the attention-burping and the party went on to other things without any further comments on the subject.лак за паркет

I was out shopping with little one the other week and in the midst of the store I got a startling question: “Hey, Daddy, what is a Hipster?”. I know about the concept Hipster, but not good enough to really explain it to anyone, especially not a 9 year old. I was starting to go over different ways on how to approach the concept of “urban” and “style” and “group belongings” and “fashion” and a whole lot more. I asked myself “What da heck a Hipster actually?” when in the corner of my eye I caught a little finger pointing towards a rack of undies. And suddenly the answer was clear to me. A Hipster! Well, it’s a certain type of cut underwear just like that, I said. Suddenly the world became easier. We browsed on through the store cruising towards the cashiers.

On the last day of the year we usually gets very sentimental and thinking back or forward. Of course I wish you a better year on the threshold of the new and a little sentiment:

“The Universe is so fantastically huge and we are so infinite small. There is only one thing we can rule over, and that is if we are good or if we are bad.”

It’s Official: End of World Is Not Near.

Russia’s government have decided to put an end to the dooms-day talk regarding the Mayan Calender. For those not schooled in New Age prophecy, there are rumors the world will end on Dec. 21, 2012, when a 5,125-year cycle known as the Long Count in the Mayan calendar supposedly comes to a close.

Russia’s Minister of Emergency Situations said Friday (the week before last) that he had access to “methods of monitoring what is occurring on the planet Earth,” and that he could say with confidence that the world was not going to end in December.

Sometimes reassurances like these cause even more questions. Exactly what methods of “monitoring occurrings on the planet Earth” is this Minister talking about?? The Minister acknowledged, however, that Russians were still vulnerable to “blizzards, ice storms, tornadoes, floods, trouble with transportation and food supply, breakdowns in heat, electricity and water supply.” Is that just business as usual or does he know something we don’t?

Read the NY Times article about it here.

Sven Plex Pettersson intervjuar Ingemar Stenmark och säger “Vilken tur du hade Ingemar!! Du vann ju med två hundradelar!” Varvid Stenmark replikerar i sin blygsamma stämma “Ja Plex, jag har märkt att ju mer jag tränar, desto mer tur får jag.”

Another day, another problem… Damn car alarm won’t let me in after all the juice went out of the battery. And there´s no trapdoor. Not even an ejector-seat. Rain is pouring down on a Monday morning and I have an appointment at my  physiotherapy’s… After feeling stuffed, smoked and totally lost I managed to find and download a user manual on-line, and after calling the support and talking a bit with a Master Yoda-technician (early on a Monday morning!) I got a few tips about localizing the hidden shut-off button - and Muua-ha-ha (evil genius-laughter). After a few minutes crawling on the cold garage-floor with a shiny lamp I managed to find the secret shut-off button! (And I felt like a particularly successful hacker). Turns out I had an even better alarm than I thought. Turns out a have a frigging 007 alarm system with a secret built-in button! Man… I love Mondays!

I would just love it to end right there… But this chilly, gray and rainy Monday had more in store… The car went fine all the morning. Appointment sorted. Then away to pick up from school. There, outside it harked and stopped. Game over. Towing was all it was in for after that. Now it resides at the workshop. Hopefully nothing too frigging expensive. Stay tuned… (Not sure I’m too fond of Mondays anymore).

Since the beginning of this summer of 2012 a very dear friend of mine has been getting continually more and more sick, and so far non the wiser about his condition! The Swedish health care system seem stupefied since they cannot find out what is causing his condition. Read on to get acquainted with his painful symptoms and how the medical system is “treating” them. Here is his own words, painfully and painstakingly put together with one letter at the time - since he is loosing more and more of his ability to use his hands…

This post is not exciting, or humorous. If anything it’s a damning commentary on Swedish medical care. Feel free to skip over it. It took a lot of pain and time to type but I had to get it out and it’s really only important if you get sick in Sweden.

My anger from yesterday was mostly disappointment at the lack of professional attitude and empathy I’ve been inflicted with by the medical community that I’ve been in contact with here in Sweden.

The Dr. I met yesterday was wound tighter than a spring and really didn’t have time. It takes between 6-8 weeks to get non-acute times at our local clinic. That’s for each appointment. Other than blood tests they are reluctant to send out for x-rays or other tests due to cost.

There is a separation between the testing unit(s), the hospital and the clinic which means that it takes weeks to get the results and then add on additional weeks to get a non-acute appointment to discuss. My results from the long visit in September to neurology at Lund which contained MRI and CT scans and new blood work disappeared, at least they weren’t available to the treating Dr. yesterday (when they were needed).

All the while my condition reaches a stability, then worsens and then stabilizes at a lower plateau. While they dribble away my time I get worse. I am so disappointed.

At each step I have to face a lack of empathy from Dr.’s and many nurses (not all, but a majority). After all, if I was really sick, it would show up on one of their tests. Their technology is, for the most part, on par with the US in the early 1980’s. Even the MRI looks almost 20 years old with yellowing plastic and creaking equipment. The CT scanner was newer but one piece of equipment does not a modern hospital make!

What isn’t understood or cannot be traced by a test result is simply “can’t be a *real* medical problem. After all it would show up in tests”(and the tests aren’t that refined or carefully studied in Sweden unless you’re a star, pro athlete with a totally preventable knee injury, or high government official and happen to be at Sahlgrenska in Gothenburg). Cuts, broken bones, heart surgery…all the mechanical stuff is fine, ask for diagnosis and they get lost.

There was a man in my old town of Trollhättan who was driven by ambulance 57 (!) times to the regional hospital at NÄL - without a single x-ray or control of his head. In the end he had to fake a stroke to get his head looked at and then, wonder of wonders, they found a tumor! He’d been having blinding headaches and problems for 5 years! That is typical, in my mind, of my experience and what is happening to me since around 1998 when the problems with my feet and legs first started to be really bothersome.
It’s systemic incompetence at a national level. I’m well acquainted with NÄL, as that is where my problems were first investigated (and not well!).

All the material I read says this type of problem I’m suffering from is uncommon and often doesn’t, and can’t be traced (between 20-80% of the time), but it’s the overall picture that counts. They don’t spend the time to get the overall picture but stumble from test to test, Dr. to Dr. until I’m too tired to keep track anymore.

There are several illnesses that could fit the bill when it comes to what’s happening to me but I, a total layman, seem to know more about them than the doctors I’ve met and the neurologist and that’s just not right. They give me this blank look like “Really? I didn’t know that” when I mention something that may be applicable but they can’t come right out and say anything for fear of showing their ignorance. The bright star of the group was my visit to a rheumatologist who ventured to speculate on possible brain damage for various reasons. He was actually trying to problem solve! Amazing! 1 out of uncounted doctors I met. That’s just not right.

I don’t care about their pride anymore, I want help.

My personal opinion is that sports related injuries should be paid for privately, in private hospitals as that type of injury is totally avoidable. National health care should be focusing on the unavoidable. it’s not right that a knee injury from football should go before anything else when it comes to medical care. I think they should be trialed to lowest priority. Bleh! I’m just upset.

I read about a new neurology clinic in Billings, Montana (USA). I can’t afford it, but that’s what I’d like to visit. Folks who know what they’re doing and have the equipment and proven background to at least say “I’m sorry. This seems to be permanent. We don’t know the cause but we’ll keep an eye on developments and hopefully we can stop it’s progression and limit it’s effects.”

All they say here is, “Umm…don’t know. You should be alright according to our test” (and they’re never wrong). “Are you sure you’re not making this up” - insinuating that I don’t like working or it could be a depression (been told that a few times, the next time I get up and walk out of the office!) or any number of nonsensical things! My depression is caused by my illness and their incompetence, not the other way around!!!

I need a dedicated neurologist, and experience rheumatologist, a psychiatrist and a physical therapist working as a team. Here I get a physician and physical therapist to “get you back to work as soon as possible” and, according to their documentation “just because it’s painful is no reason to….” I quit reading after that. I’m in constant pain, am losing my voice and ability to swallow and can’t wear shoes and barely tolerate short socks. What kind of physical therapy can I participate in when it’s movement that increases the pain? I’m confused on that point.

I’m going to the pain clinic on Monday. I get to meet a Dr. and a physical therapist. I’m having my wife to write up questions that are applicable. How can I be “rehabilitated” from an undiagnosed illness?

Konstministeriet var under ett par år djupt engagerat i namnsdagar, så det får anses som relativt genomgånget. Dock kan man inte bortse från att Harry har namnsdag idag. Och vi tänker förstås osökt på Dirty Harry, eller Harry Callahan som han egentligen heter. Dirty Harry hette den första filmen i en serie av fem filmer, där Clint Eastwood spelar polisen “Dirty” Harry Callahan i San Francisco. Rollen som Harry Callahan var från början tilltänkt för den lille sparrisen Frank Sinatra men skrevs som väl var om för att kunna passa Clint Eastwood. Dirty Harry hade ett mycket direkt sätt vid konfliktlösning och uteslöt i princip aldrig ett välriktat skott mellan ögonen på typer som gjorde sig bäst på ett bårhus. Harrys favoritvapen var en liten bärbar kanon som kunde stoppa en anfallande Elefant-tjur i steget samt skjuta ett (minst) 2-centimeter stort hål genom vilken V8:a som helst. Man kan ju undra om J.K. Rawling tänkte på Harry Callahan när hon valde namn till sin lille trollkarl Potter…