July 30, 2007 by SUM.

I have, like many others, a phone answering system that I can remotely access by phone. You only have to assign a remote access code to the system so that you can access many features of your answering system remotely from a touch-tone phone.

Yesterday, before I left my apartment, at least 4 messages were stored on my answering machine. I wanted to listen to them once more. When I came back, I heard the beep signal from my answering machine signaling that a new message had been recorded.

Immediately I walked to my phone and noticed right away that the number on my answering system had been reduced to number 1. My system is set up so that it enumerates and displays the number of the recorded messages in a message window. The number in the message window should have been at the least number 5.

You probably can imagine that I was stunned seeing my previous stored messages being erased from my phone storage system. The new message that was left consisted only of a short message: a greeting, my name was said twice and afterwards the words “thank you.” The female person on the phone spoke with an accent. Due to her intonation, I believe it was an Asian woman, maybe Chinese. Since I don’t have contact to Asians or Chinese people, I didn’t recognize her voice.

Later that day I spoke with a neighbor about this incident, and he suggested that I change my remote access code to prevent anyone else to remotely access my phone system. After he reminded me that my answering system could be remotely accessed (I actually never used this feature from another phone), I wondered whether this had happened before. Did someone access my system without my authorization and erased messages left for me? I’ll probably never know that.

I’m writing about this incident because I want to remind you that whenever a code is required, someone else can retrieve this code, access the system without your authorization, and delete important data and/or messages.

Posted in Pacific Northwest, General | No Comments »

July 24, 2007 by SUM.

After having visited different physicians including a gastroenterologist on May 9, 2005 and having different lab tests done, I received from an investigation company, ordered by my insurance company, a letter inquiring whether someone else is responsible for paying the medical bills. I wish I could have told them that someone else is responsible. But the physicians I had contacted either had shrugged off the problem or told me that they thought that the x-ray machines had not caused the damage.

I know that I had been perfectly healthy before I underwent these two preventive procedures: mammogram and DEXA scan. Since the nail of my thumb had been burnt and the DEXA scanner had been close to my thumb, I believe now that the damage occurred during the DEXA scan procedure, but I didn’t have the proof neither then nor now.

Though the symptoms are gone, I don’t know what kind of effect this will have on my body in the future. And besides being sick for almost a half-year and feeling very uncomfortable because of not knowing how this had happened, I was additionally punished by paying always these $20.00 co-payments per doctor visit and for lab tests. But the worst part was being sick and nobody cared to investigate why this had happened.

Posted in Malpractice, Wellness, Doctor's visits | No Comments »

July 22, 2007 by SUM.

World Vision makes it very easy to communicate with your sponsored child. If your child cannot write yet or a language barrier exists, a World Vision worker will write you in the name of the sponsored child. The child I’m sponsoring is fife years old and speaks French.

Though I learned French in school, my French language skills are very modest. But I would like to write in French to this girl. Recently, I received a letter from World Vision that included a neat birthday card for Fatoumata with an age-appropriate drawing puzzle on the back of the card.

I took this opportunity and wrote a brief birthday wish in French on the card and mailed it to World Vision, which will deliver the card to Fatoumata. She will get the card way ahead of her birthday, which is in November.

I hope Fatoumata will enjoy the card as well as her birthday celebration with other kids of her family and community members, and I’ll hear from her through her World Vision worker.

Posted in World Vision, Sponsorship, Wellness, General | No Comments »

July 19, 2007 by SUM.

A person, I had met when I worked at Microsoft, awakened my curiosity for genealogy. He worked as a translator for a translation company in Germany, and his company worked on the translation and localization products of Microsoft software.

Since I was working on translation projects, I met him on one of my visits with Microsoft translation vendors. After he had told me about his family tree search, I was interested in finding out more about my ancestors, too. After I came back from my visit from Germany, I wrote him an e-mail and asked him whether he could give me a reference for a professional genealogist. Unfortunately, I never received a reply.

After not knowing who I could retain for doing genealogy work in Germany, I forgot about this matter for quite some time. But the thought knowing more about my ancestors never left my mind.

Last year I decided to start my own my family search site. A couple years ago my aunt Elisabeth had given me a lot of information to my mother’s family. Unfortunately, as you can see on my family search site, I have hardly any information about my father’s ancestors.

Now, besides working on my book, I’m also working on my family tree. But that is a pretty time-consuming and expensive undertaking. Nevertheless, I’ll keep working on that, too.

Posted in Saxony-Anhalt, Ancestors, St. Pankratius, Travel | No Comments »

July 17, 2007 by SUM.

A couple years ago I saw a car parked, with the words “Invisible Fence” painted on it, on a parking lot at an Antique Mall, which I visited quite often. You all have heard the words “glass ceiling”. It is an invisible but unmistakable barrier; not only on the career ladder of a woman, but also of another member of a demographic minority within an organization.

Due to my experiences here in the Bellevue, Redmond, and Seattle area, I’m experiencing another kind of barrier, or let’s call it discriminatory boundary. I know I’m entitled to the claims described under Crest Night Effects. As of today, I have written more than 40 attorneys in this area and informed them of my two claims that call for taking legal action. But nobody showed serious interest in helping me in this matter. Some replied, while the majority kept silent. A few attorneys actually gave me either odd and/or incompetent counsel.

I believe that some of my experiences were not only purposefully orchestrated, but also meant with the intent to mislead. Read the articles about the Lake Washington Technical College. My experiences there had been purposefully manipulated, too. And these aren’t the only places, where I experienced purposefully planned manipulation and deception.

Posted in Attorney consultation, Wellness, Malpractice, Stage, Crest Night Effects, Doctor's visits, Personal care, General | No Comments »

July 10, 2007 by SUM.

While having these weird symptoms in my mouth, I was also pretty tired. I felt like energy had been drained from me. I’m not exactly sure when it started that I felt constantly tired. In my journal on March 26, 2005 is the entry that I had been pretty tired for the past few weeks. This condition stayed with me for quite some time while the symptoms in my mouth got worse.

At the end of April 2005, I spoke with my cousin in Vancouver, and we talked about my symptoms in my mouth. Over a period of four months the discomfort in my mouth had developed in stages:

Dry mouth, less saliva, metallic taste, taste of bitterness on gum.
Outbreak of rash in my mouth.
Dry mouth, salivary function lost; I wasn’t able to produce any saliva the natural way for at least 2-3 weeks.
Producing very frothy saliva, constantly extreme salty taste in my mouth for at least 2-3 weeks.

While the physicians just told me that they didn’t know why I had these problems in my mouth, I informed myself on the Internet. When I didn’t produce any saliva anymore and nobody cared to examine the source of this problem, I was pretty desperate. On the Internet I had read the following:

- Oral dryness is usually accompanied by a severe reduction in the secretion of unstimulated salivation. The severity of dryness can vary depending on the amount of salivary function lost.
- Saliva is essential for digesting foods and fending of infections. It also prevents the development of caries.

The remedy for this condition was either to use artificial saliva to moisten the mouth, or to promote salivary flow by chewing sugar-free chewing gum if residual salivary function is left.

For a few weeks I was constantly chewing gum until my salivary glands were restored to function again without external stimulation.

In May of 2005 I had no doubt anymore that my salivary glands had been damaged. Therefore the question was, why and when had it happened? I had not undergone any radiation therapy, but I had been exposed twice within a month to x-rays. Shortly after I had undergone the preventive procedures of mammogram and DEXA scan, radiation symptoms appeared (burnt nail in January, unusual tingling sensations in mouth beginning of February). Therefore I believed that I had received an overdose of radiation during at least one of these procedures.

While I had these symptoms I talked to several people about this. I also spoke with a friend in Germany who had studied medical technology. She told me that if the x-ray machine is not operated properly, a person could enter a higher radiation dosage. And if the machine is not calibrated properly, a higher dosage can be given, too.

During that time I consulted with different physicians who just shrugged with their shoulders and said they didn’t know what had caused these symptoms. There was a lack of concern to find out the source of the problem, and nobody cared to refer me to another physician who perhaps could have helped me to deal with this situation another way instead of just having my blood checked for metal poisoning and a brief saliva test at the beginning of this ordeal.

Posted in Malpractice, Wellness, Doctor's visits | No Comments »

July 4, 2007 by SUM.

After the emergency consultation with Dr. N. at Minor & James I called the nurse assistant from Dr. H. several times. Though I had left messages on her answering machine, she didn’t call me back. When the symptoms got worse, having not only constantly a metallic taste in my mouth but also a very dry mouth because of not producing enough saliva, I scheduled an appointment through the appointment phone line with Dr. H. for Wednesday, 13th April.

At this time I didn’t want to switch the medical clinic and/or physician again. Therefore I decided to consult once more with Dr. H. My appointment with him was set up for Wednesday, 11:00 AM. I was at the clinic on time and registered at the front desk.

After I had been waiting for 30 minutes and not been called in his office, I inquired about how long I still had to wait. The desk clerks told me that he lets people sometimes wait for fife hours, and they asked me whether I wanted to re-schedule. I declined to re-schedule.

I not only was sick, but I also was prepared to have a cholesterol test done on that day. Dr. H. had advised me the last time I had seen him, not to eat anything when I would see him the next time. Therefore I arrived at the clinic with an empty stomach so that a cholesterol test could be done on the same day, too.

While waiting I read a magazine and spoke to a Minor & James employee who sat for a while next to me. She had the label Datarecords on her shirt. I waited for a long time until I knew that letting me wait so long was not only not appropriate but also part of a planned action. At 12:30 PM I insisted on seeing a nurse, and the nurse assistant from Dr. H. showed up. I asked her why she hadn’t answered my phone calls. Her reply was that I had asked about my test results and she prioritizes. I thought that these actions were not professional either. Afterwards she told me that someone else would take care of me, and she left for lunch with a black sports bag.

Here I would like to mention that I didn’t know the people I consulted with. Since I knew that their actions and behavior was neither appropriate nor justified I kept a very detailed journal.

When I entered the room of D. H. on that day, it had been a little bit re-arranged; a chessboard was sitting on a counter, more family pictures and a boy standing in front of a cross were displayed. I just thought that this didn’t look like the usual examination room.

I told him of my symptoms in my mouth: metallic taste and very dry mouth. Since I had no idea why I had now constantly, for the past few weeks, a metallic taste in my mouth, I asked him to test for some metals in my blood, too. After he had filled out the form for ordering lab tests, he said to me that I could decide now whether I want to see him again.

I had to wait for a while in the lab’s waiting room. While waiting there a young guy who wore glasses entered the waiting room. He held a digital camera in his hands. He actually sat next to me leaving an empty chair between us and played with the camera. While waiting a nurse whose nametag was M. came in and got herself some water from the water dispenser. I just knew that his and her appearance as well as many other actions had been planned, too.

Nurse A. drew again blood from me. I asked him to use the vein of my arm, but he said that he’ll use a small needle and he pulled the needle out of his coat pocket. This time he filled six vials.

While I was in a small room where blood is drawn, I was a bit nervous to contemplate about the events on this day, but later I felt very uncomfortable about the experiences on this day, specifically about the nurse pulling the needle out of his coat pocket. I recalled the words from the other nurse and the reaction on my arm after she had injected me with a needle.

That day I left Minor & James at about 2:30 PM. I was hoping that the tests results would give some hint at the strange symptoms (constantly metallic taste and very dry mouth due to not producing enough saliva). Dr. H. didn’t recommend any other procedure to examine further the cause of these symptoms.

Now, I’m actually appalled about the different experiences I encountered while contacting various health care professionals in this area. With time it became obvious that something was definitely wrong. I not only was ill-treated without receiving accurate medical care, but also misled by people who neither knew me nor I knew them.

Posted in Malpractice, Wellness, Doctor's visits | No Comments »

July 3, 2007 by SUM.

During the consultation at Minor & James on Friday, 25th March, I reported the symptoms that I experienced in my mouth: obvious symptoms of a rash, metallic taste in my mouth, and having a bitter taste while touching my gum with my tongue.

Since I had not as yet received the lab results previously ordered by Dr. H., I inquired about them while consulting with Dr. N. I was told that the lab results had come back and no medical problems had been found. Everything had looked fine including a thyroid test. On that day Dr. N. ordered another batch of blood tests including another urine test.

At the lab I requested the same male nurse A. who had drawn blood from me the last time. But this time no other female nurse assisted him. The last time when he had drawn blood from the veins on top of my hand, I had experienced no discomfort. But at this occasion I almost thought that my hand would burst because of an extreme swelling up while having blood drawn. It took A. a long time to draw blood from my vein and after a while my hand started not only to swell up, its color also turned to bluish-red. Nurse A. filled again three small containers, but the last container had hardly blood in it because of a lack of blood flow after a while. He made the remark while pointing to the small container “that does not make it.” At this moment I just was relieved that he released the pressure from my arm. Strictly speaking I hardly could believe that I had to experience such a discomfort during this procedure.

Dr. N. had prescribed medicine for a rash, and after leaving Minor & James, I drove by the pharmacy store at Costco to buy the medicine. I had been told at Dr. N’s office that the medicine wasn’t so expensive. The bottle Nystatin 100,000 Units/Ml SUSP # 240 cost $67.79, which I had to pay out of my own pocket because my insurance didn’t cover these costs. Additionally, each time I visited a physician I had to pay a co-payment of $20.00 and was charged for lab tests that weren’t done at Minor & James. Here I could mention that my monthly insurance wasn’t cheap, which I had to pay out of my own pocket, too.

Since I hardly had bought medicine, I wasn’t knowledgeable about these costs. I just had the feeling that the medicine bought at Costco was a bit pricey. Thus I inquired at the Walgreen’s Pharmacy store how much they would have charged for the same medicine. To my surprise I was told that the cost would have been $50.00. Therefore I decided to talk to a manager at Costco about this price difference, and I actually received a refund.

The following Monday, 28th March, T. from the Redmond water utility department came by my house. He tested my water for its pH value and chlorine content, while he was in my kitchen. The values were okay. Since I had told him that I also had a metallic taste in my mouth, he offered to test the water a little bit more. He called it a plumbing test. He told me that he would be back the next day with a bottle to collect another water sample.

While he was in my kitchen, he took a gulp of the tap water from my kitchen faucet and said that it tasted good to him and that he is drinking it now for the past 25 years. Just to see how the water tasted, I also took a gulp of the tap water. Since the incident on the day of last Thursday I had only used water bought at a grocery store, and I had experienced no problems while using bottled water.

After T. had left, about 10-15 minutes later, I had white foam streaming like tiny bubbles out of my mouth for some time (maybe about a minute). This seemed so weird to me. Since I had taken the medicine starting last Friday, I have had no problems until I drank some tap water. I considered this incident quite strange. Somehow the tap water had an effect in some way on the medicine.

After white foam had poured out of my stomach, I left a message at the Redmond water utility department informing them of this incident, too. The next day T. handed me a print-out of the water quality test results of May 2004 from the Seattle Public Utilities, tested the chlorine content again, and took a water sample of my tap water for further testing.

After this incident I decided to contact another physician to inquire about some other tests, for example an endoscopy.

Here I would like to remind you that the symptoms started with a grayish-black burned nail in January. Slowly some new symptoms appeared: some tingling sensations in my mouth at the beginning of February, and a metallic and bitter taste starting towards the middle-end of March.

Besides having some saliva with a Q-tip extracted from my mouth, I had two other medical exams performed concerning the affected area: examination at the UW dental clinic in February and dental procedure at a dental practice in Bellevue at the beginning of March.

Posted in Malpractice, Wellness, Doctor's visits | No Comments »

July 2, 2007 by SUM.

If you ever visit Washington State, take also the time to tour Northeast Washington, which looks totally different than the Pacific side. Northeast Washington’s terrain was created by cataclysmic Ice Age Floods and left a deeply scarred plateau with hundreds of small lakes, flat top mountains, and canyons known as “coulees” (ravines and ancient basins of waterfalls, some still holding water).

Last week I took a few days off and toured this area with Kari. Though I had visited the northeastern part of Washington once before with George on a weekend sightseeing tour in September 1997, I always wanted to tour this area again because of its unique awe-inspiring landscape. It not only exists of long stretches of uninhabited majestic table mountains as well as small and large lakes, but also the famed massive Grand Coulee Dam, which you can tour. Additionally, on weekend evenings a laser show is hosted along the dam telling the story of the land, its people, and the creation of the dam.

Like last time we were on the road again for 2 1/2 days. From I-5 we took Hwy 20 East, stayed overnight in Winthrop, where we also visited the Shafer Museum that houses several historic buildings with many authentic displays dating back to the late 1800’s. Winthrop is located in the Methow Valley, which is Washington’s equivalent of the Old West. As you drive up the valley, you’ll pass fields of baled hay, big old weathered barns, horses and cattle. The sign below is located in the town’s center and displays past and present cattle brands.

We continued our trip on Hwy 20 and 155 to Coulee Dam, where we stayed overnight and watched the laser show at the dam in the evening. The next day we drove South on Highway 155, 17, 28 and 283 to Vantage on I-90, where the Gingko Petrified Forest and an interpretive service center is. Along the way we stopped at the humongous Dry Falls with its awe-inspiring landscape and view and Soap Lake.

It was a great sightseeing trip and pictures of this tour and some additional tourist information are posted under the page Out & About, too.

Posted in Grand Coulee Dam, Dry Falls, Ginkgo Petrified Forest, Winthrop, Northeast Washington, Pacific Northwest, North Cascades, Travel | No Comments »