And Now For Something Completely Different

THE WEATHER SUCKS, THE ECONOMY SUCKS . . . WE NEED RELIEF:

Our Politics Worldwide Are A Mess. We’re Infiltrated With Communist Academics. The Enemies to our Freedoms are Within. The World Has Openly Shifted to Jew-Hatred, Israel is Fighting for its Life, And The Global Media Has Become The Leading Threat To Our Existence As A Free People.

I’m Tired Of Beating My Head Against A Brick Wall . . . Trying to Figure-Out what our Politicians are Going to Do Next, How they Screw all of us with Near Impunity, and Why so Many People who Vote – I Wouldn’t Trust To Clean The Manure In One Of Our Horse Stalls.

The Problem Is . . .  if People Like Me Decide to Give it a Rest & Abandon the Things We Advocate-For . . . Who Else Will Pick-Up The Baton?

So Here’s The Deal Today . . . I’m Going To Answer Questions I Receive That Are Not Political.

I’m Not Going To Deal With US/Canada Border & Trade Issues. Trump is Free from Criticism from Me Today. And for just One Day, I’m Going to Pretend that Anti-Semitism Isn’t Really Real. And I’ll Make Believe That Inflation Is Something That Doesn’t Exist.

HERE’S SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT FALCON & MAC THAT I’M ASKED OFTEN:

How Do The Two German Shepherds Get Along?

First Of All . . . Falcon (AKA – The Falconater) is Closing-In on Two Years Old, and He is a Dream Dog with Long Hair, Weighing-In At Just Under 100-Pounds.

Mac (AKA – The Mac-Attack) Is Just Turning 10-Months Old. He is a Plush Coated German Shepherd, even though his Long Haired Daddy is the Falconater.

The Name Mac Is A Shortened Version For Maccabee, the Storied Hebrew (Israeli) Warriors who Defeated the Hellenizers Going Back to the Festival of Chanukah. The Mac-Attack Is About 75-Pounds & Will Probably Finish-Up At Around 90.

These Are Two Big Boys . . . The Mac-Attack Is A Gem. And Between the Two of Them, they Make our Lives (Anne & Myself) a Living Joy. And Together – Neither Of Them Have A Mean Bone Between Them.

I Don’t Know If They Love Each Other. But I Do Know that they are Inseparable, and even though from Time to Time when they Mouth-Off at Each Other, There Is Zero Confrontation Between The Two.

If You Wonder Where They Sleep – Anne & I Have To Fight For Space On The King-Size Bed.

WHAT MEDICATION DID I TAKE TO BEAT-OFF WHATEVER AILED ME?

Because I’m A Type 2 Diabetic. And Because (Almost) a Dozen Years Ago I Survived a Stroke, there are Four Medications I Take Daily to Control Blood Flow & Blood Pressure, Not Including A Daily Dose Of Insulin & A Weekly Dose Of Ozempic.

Other Than These Somewhat Mandatory Drugs I Take Daily . . . I Prefer Not to Take any Medications. So . . . The Short Answer to the Question Asked About The Medications I Took to Fight-Off the Flu or Covid, or Whatever I Had for About a Month’s Time, The Answer Is None. I Don’t Even Like to Take an Aspirin.

I Drank Plenty Of Fluids, Including Pure Orange Juice. I had No Appetite for most of the Duration of the Illness, so I Forced Myself to Consume as Much Soup as I Could. Anne, who Also Came Down with the Same Misery Did Likewise. I’m 99% Healed, Anne Is About One Week Behind Me.

HAS OZEMPIC MADE A DIFFERENCE?

I Have ZERO Medical Qualifications . . . So What I’m About To Tell You Is Based Exclusively on Personal Experience, And In No Way Is This A Suggestion For Anyone To Follow.

SOCIALIZED MEDICINE IS GREAT WHEN IT WORKS – BUT . . .

In Canada, One Has To Be Fortunate To Have A Family Doctor. And Even at that, to Generally See your Family Doctor Requires an Appointment that Could Run into Several Weeks (Or Longer).

Generally In Canada – Certainly In Ontario Where We Live, if you Have a Real Medical Problem, you’re Advised to Go to an Emergency Room where you Can Wait for Hours to a Day to See a Physician Depending on your Health Issue.

Because Medical Appointments Are So Tough To Secure . . . I Turn to Sites on the Internet Like the Mayo Clinic when I Have a Health Issue that Needs to be Answered. For Another Terrific Source of Information, I Speak with my Pharmacist for Whatever Advice He Can Muster.

A Little More Than A Year Ago, I was Fortunate to Get an Appointment through our Family Doctor with an Internist, who Insisted that I Go on Ozempic to Control my Diabetes . . . And For Me To Lose Weight . . . So I Did.

Here’s The Result . . . I Lost A Ton Of Weight – Far Too Much, to the Point that I Went from 225-Pounds Down To 170-Pounds. In Addition to Losing a Great Deal of Body Weight, I Also Lost An Enormous Amount Of Muscle-Mass.

I Found Myself Irregular, Weak & Constantly Tired. I also Turned Away from  any Pleasure in Eating what Used to be my Favorite Foods like Steaks, Roasts, Ribs, Pot-Pies, Bacon, Eggs, Pancakes and even Many Soups.

I Liked How I Felt When I Was At 225 . . . I Don’t Like How I Feel At 170.

Here Is The Upside . . . Even Though I Gave Away a Treasure Trove in Clothing that Swam-On Me, many Articles of Clothing with the Tags still On Them, my Blood Sugars Dropped Significantly. I Take One Third the amount of Insulin Daily, and I Take No Other Diabetic Medication . . . But I Don’t Want To Continue This Way.

There Really Was No Doctor Available For Me To Query. I Checked with the Internet & Found Nothing of Use. I Spoke with my Pharmacist who told me that I Wasn’t the Only Person with this Conundrum . . . So This Is What I Did.

The One Month Weekly Starter Dose For Ozempic Is 0.25 Mgs. The Weekly Maintenance Dose for Ozempic is 0.5 Mgs. And Some People Take as Much as One to Two Mgs per Week. I Was At The Maintenance Dose Of 0.5 Mgs.

Understanding That I Could Go Off Ozempic Without Consequences, Other than a Return to Weight Gain & Possible Higher Blood Sugars, I Arbitrarily Decided To Step-Down The Dose To O.25 Mgs Per Week – Three Weeks Ago.

HERE’S THE CONSEQUENCE FOR ME:

My Blood Sugar Has Remained Low. I Haven’t Gained any Weight, even Though I’m Trying to Gain Some Weight Back. I Would Like To Be At Around 185 Pounds. My Appetite & Appreciation for the Tastes of Foods Has Returned. For Example, this Morning I had Three Large Strips of Bacon, Two Sunny-Side Eggs & Two Large Slices of Rye Toast.

Before Stepping-Down The Ozempic, I Could Have Eaten just One of those Eggs, Maybe Two Pieces of Bacon and a Few Bites of one Piece of Toast, Without Any Enjoyment.

Let Me Say This Again . . . Do Not Take What I’m Writing As A Suggestion.

I Have An Appointment In Early June With The Internist (If He Hasn’t Yet Retired), who I Haven’t Seen since a Years’ Time. I’ll See Him with Fresh Blood Tests & Listen to What He Has to Say about my Little Ozempic Experiment.

In The Meantime . . . I’m Only Eating Non-Processed Foods, I Don’t Eat Between Meals. And if I am Hungry, I Eat some Fruit or Proteins like Nuts. I Monitor My Blood Sugar Levels Every Day & Step on a Scale Several Times a Week.  So Far This Is Really Working-Out Well For Me.

TODAY – ANNE, THE TWO BOYS & I ARE GOING TO MONTREAL TO CELEBRATE:

There Is A Jewish-Style Take-Out Deli In Montreal Called Fressers.

A Fresser is a Jewish Word that Describes Someone Who Likes to Eat Just To Eat. Fressers Makes Fresh from Scratch Some of the Best European & Middle Eastern Jewish Food you Can Imagine.

Up Until A Week Ago . . . The Type of Food a Place Like Fressers Makes would Have Been Lost on Me . . . Today Is A Different Story, so We’re Going to Fressers to Celebrate with Healthy Delicious Foods that I Can Now Taste & Enjoy.

I Just Hope That I’m Not Living In A Fool’s Paradise – Time Will Tell.

SO THIS WAS MY FIRST & SO FAR ONLY NON-POLITICAL EDITORIAL:

I Don’t Know If You Enjoyed Reading-It Or Not . . . By I Certainly Enjoyed Writing-It.

My Next Editorials Will Be Back To Normal . . . I’ll Be Back to What I Consider to be Bad Tariff Deals, Damaged Canada/Us Border & Retail Trade Issues, the Threat to Democracy by the Propagandized Media . . . And Rampant Anti-Semitism That Is Getting Worse – Not Better.

For Me . . . Today’s Was Like A Vacation.

Best Regards . . . Howard Galganov