Dialyzing In a Unit Far From Home

Ok, now for the experience dialyzing at another unit other than the one that I have been accustomed to. Traveling gives one the opportunity to visit another dialysis unit in another town. The experience was generally good. There are specific things done in each local.

Here they are inexperienced with a person who inserts his own needles via button hole, taping in a different manner, setup needles without syringes and using a different manufacture machine.

I know that there’s one thing that’s common with every, and I mean every dialysis unit, that’s the ability to make a person wait to start dialysis. They ask you to be there at least 15 minutes prior to your dialysis start time and just because you can be there with a 15 minute head start, they aren’t ready or haven’t gotten it setup. Sometimes I get the feeling that I’m a paycheck for them and they think that they don’t have to be concerned about my time or feelings. Just have me come in, connect up, disconnect, clean up and make ready for the next paycheck.

There are good and even great people in every dialysis unit and there are others that shouldn’t even be involved in the care of people. I had one “nurse”, probably a dialysis tech that I would have kicked given the chance. My venus line started to alarm and the needle was showing a little under the tape and she decided to try and push the needle into my arm a little deeper without first peeling back the tape. Needless to say, that was painful and ineffective. I had to tell her not to manhandle me or my needle. The one thing I didn’t get a chance to say was that her action was completely inappropriate. If you want to adjust the needle, remove or release the tape. Needless to say, I won’t allow her to touch my or my dialysis again.

I would dialyze again in the same unit; I would give another dialysis unit an opportunity, probably California next time I have to try another unit. Life is still going to go on whether I get a kidney soon or not.

Talk to you again soon,

Darrell

Too Good To Be True

I got this from a good friend and I thought I would share it with all of you. He forwarded an email message and I did a little research to find out that the destination web site is a scam. If you get a message that is poorly worded and seems to be good to be true, it probably is. The one in question is called luckeg.com and here's what another blogger says about it:

"This is an example of a common Chinese scam selling all kinds of brand items at unrealistic prices. There are thousands of such websites out there with no other purpose than fraud. Please be careful and remember: if something looks too good to be true it’s usually just another scam." Electronic Scams Black List

According to the blog and other information gathered, there are hundreds of scam sites out there, please be careful and trust your instincts, especially as we near the holiday buying season.

As always, safe surfing,

Darrell

“Here you have” Virus

I know that it’s been a while since I sent out a broadcast about something that you should be aware of, because the latest versions of anti-virus and anti-malware have been effective at picking up trouble before it strikes you, but there’s always something in the wings.

“Here you have” is a rehash of another virus blast not to long ago.  It looks and acts like the “Anna Kournikova” virus from about 2001 – click on the link in the email and attempt to navigate to the suggested web site and you get malware that attempts to steal your password and other private information.

This time it’s offering shared PDF documents or pornography. 

Be careful not to open attachments or links in emails from people or organizations that you are unfamiliar with.  If you have gotten this virus – Microsoft has instructions on how to get rid of it.

As always from Darrell – Safe Surfing

Oops minor ID theft hijacked my Gmail account

I noticed several emails sent from my gmail account that I didn't create or intend to send. Each of these emails was sent to the list of emails that I have stored in my Google email account.

The contents of the emails were a link to a non-existent web site and that's about all that was there (probably a test). The first clue that they were from my gmail account was the signature that each contained. I have a separate signature for each of the important email accounts that I use. Another clue was that there were some emails that were no longer active and responded with domain failure to deliver messages. I checked those out and discovered once again that it was from my gmail contact list.

Doing some research on what was going on while my computer was doing a full and complete virus security scan, I found a few references to this type of hijacking and the lack of response from Google. One of the responses was to go back into your Gmail account settings and change the password.

Well I have talked about password strength and security in the past and fall prey to my own lack of follow through. I've since changed my Gmail account password to a stronger one with eight characters rather than the one I used to use with only five characters and easy to guess.

So if you were one of the people that got the errant email, I apologize and want to let you know that I have taken steps to make sure it won't happen again anytime soon.

As always, safe surfing,

Darrell

How fast is my High Speed Connection?

I've been following several articles about the Governments plan to make high speed internet available to everyone. This is going to be another health care plan when it comes to special interest groups and providers. Who is going to get the benifit from the plan, hopefuly us the consumers. As an option, start early and communicate often that you and your neighbors want to be able to have internet service that is current and capable of the high speeds that today's internet use requires.

Along with the articles is another tool that the government has provided to allow them to gather some information about the average speed of the internet across the country. You can give it a try. It provides a test of your connection speeds that is non-biased. You might already have a "speed test" from your internet service provider, give that one a try and then try this one. National Broadband.gov provides a speed test. Just look near the middle of the page and you will find a Consumer Broadband Test. Click on Test my Broadband Now to start the test.

When you access the test, it will ask you for your street address and zip code, this will provide statistical information only. You can also report that fact that you don't have broadband internet through the "Dead Zone" link.

As Always, Safe Surfing,

Darrell

Facebook virus warning...

Facebook users, don't let your guard down. It seems as though the Grinch is at it again. Here's an excerpt from a CNET article:

Facebook’s 120 million users are being targeted by a virus dubbed "Koobface" that uses the social network's messaging system to infect PCs, and then tries to gather sensitive information such as credit card numbers.

Koobface spreads by sending notes to friends of someone whose PC has been infected. The messages, with subject headers like, "You look just awesome in this new movie," direct recipients to a website where they are asked to download what it claims is an update of Adobe Systems Inc's Flash player.

If they download the software, users end up with an infected computer, which then takes users to contaminated sites when they try to use search engines from Google, Yahoo, MSN and Live.com.

Explanations for manual or automatic removal is available from hubpages.com.

As always, safe surfing,

Darrell

Wiped out – Virus and Worms Using Best Security Practices

Oh, what an ideal – but that it could be true. There are still purveyors of cyber crime and lurkers of malfeasance. Conficker made the national news just a year ago and is still lurking out there. There is another threat that similar to conficker and that threat is called Taterf. It works much in the same manner as conficker and is a growing threat.

Taterf is designed to steal your online gaming user accounts and passwords. Once your information has been stolen, your account can be accesses, your amassed tools, gifts and other booty can be sold or transferred. You no longer have sole ownership of what you have so gamely played to get and keep.

Taterf is spread using the auto-run settings for a USB port on your computer and has the ability to affect all of the hard drives. Once it has inserted itself, it will replicate to an entire network.

I have been using Microsoft Security Essentials and I know that the latest definitions are able to detect and remove an infection of this nature. It is best to have a resource like Microsoft Security Essentials and allow it to update regularly and scan on a scheduled basis. This will protect you today and provide protection for tomorrow.

As always safe surfing,

Darrell