MEDICALEXAMINER FREE T AKE-HO ME COP Y!
TM
HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS • HEALTH • MEDICINE • WELLNESS
APRIL 19, 2024
AIKEN-AUGUSTA’S MOST SALUBRIOUS NEWSPAPER • FOUNDED IN 2006
AUGUSTARX.COM
EVERYONE HAS A STORY
T NEW WORDS As time marches relentlessly forward, new terms worm their way into our vocabulary nearly every day. For better or for worse, some become permanent. Others quickly slink away into the recesses of declining memories. Here a few new ones that come to mind from just the past few years. Add your own as you see fit. Bidenomics Never-Trumpers MAGA (Make America Great Again) DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) Wetbacks became: Illegal Aliens > Illegal Immigrants > Migrants > New Comers Covid
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (most of the time) A series by Bad Billy Laveau
Herd immunity White Christian Nationalist Two-Tier Justice System Participation Trophy Ballot Harvesting Transitory inflation Shrink-flation Black Lives Matter Mostly Peaceful (demonstrations with vandalism, arson, looting, murder, assault) Nonpaying or Cashless shoppers (shop lifters) Please see WORDS page 6
When time stands still
his isn’t exactly a news flash for many readers, but nothing is quite as long as a single night. Normally, the interminable hours that comprise the darkness slide swiftly past our slumbering, snoring selves. But as anyone who suffers from insomnia knows, or who has spent a sleepless night because of pain or illness, the very same hours that fly by in an instant when we sleep through them can drag on endlessly when we’re awake to watch the procession slowly slog past. I suffered through one of those eternal nights recently. On March 14 I had surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff in my right shoulder. A nerve block was used to completely deaden my arm, and I was told the split second I felt the slightest sensation return to my arm to crack open that bottle of oxycodone and pop a pill. Don’t wait, they said. Get ahead of the pain, they said. Ok, I said. The surgery was scheduled for 6:30 am. That first tingle happened at 6:30 pm. The first pill was popped at 6:31 pm. Not to spoil any surprises, but let me interrupt this tale to announce that oxycodone’s reputation seems to extend far beyond what it delivers. Ah, but I digress. That first night I thought everything was going to be all right. After all, I had the famous and infamous oxy coursing through my bloodstream. I was in bed shortly after 11:00, and fell sound asleep fairly quickly. It was a way better than expected scenario. After several hours, half the night or so, I woke up for some reason and decided to use the occasion to visit the bathroom. On the way back to bed I broke a house rule: my personal policy is to never
look at the clock when I wake up or get up during the night. But for some reason I broke my rule that night. Maybe I thought I would be proud to know I had made it so far into the night so soon after surgery. But to my shock and dismay, the clock said 11:38. I hadn’t even been in bed for half an hour. How on earth...? As I was soon to discover, time was only starting to play its tricks on me. If this has ever happened to you, it’s like taking a power nap right before bed. Now you’re wide awake and ready to go. And the jolt of seeing 11:38 on the clock didn’t do me any favors in the falling back to sleep department either. I tossed and turned for a long time, and my shoulder gave me a lot of pain. It felt like each hour took two or three hours to pass by, but what did I know? I wasn’t about to make the mistake of looking at the clock again. Except that’s exactly what I did. I wondered how long I had been tossing and turning, wracked by pain. I was hoping the gray of dawn was near. But this second time the clock read 1:57. That’s it? Wow. I had been thrashing around sleeplessly for an hour and a half. This was going to be one long night. But eventually I did manage to finally fall asleep again. At some point much later that night I woke up and had the shock of my life. Or at least the shock of that night. And it was a big one, a truly unbelievable one. After experiencing the frustration and disappointment of seeing that it was just 1:57 and then eventually falling into a deep sleep, imagine my intense shock when I woke up again and, since I had made this my official Break Please see TIME page 11
GOT MEDICARE? A LOCAL AGENT CAN STILL HELP! • Personal, local answers and assistance • Review your current plan for optimum benefits • Call to see if there is an enrollment for you • All services provided at no cost to you
RENEA SOOS
Independent Medicare Broker Renea Soos Serving Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Michigan • Email: srsoos@yahoo.com
706-399-1989 • soosbenefitsgroup.com