Save and Conquer

Our son has apparently inherited a somewhat crowded mouth from his mother. There is not enough room in his mouth for his adult teeth. This is going to necessitate a pallet expander and braces, among other things.

They have come a long way since the days of the wire tension devices and external head wraps that some of the kids wore around school when I was young. (Sorry, but I do not know the names of all the orthodontia that were in use back then.) Our son is going to have most tensioning done with elastic materials. He has been to the orthodontist at least 2 times and says he likes her. He had molds done during the last visit.

We do not know the total cost, yet, but we know it is going to be somewhere around 4 thousand dollars. Our dental plan does not pay for any orthodontics. The silver lining is that we are insured through work with a Health Savings Account (HSA). In our case, our company puts money into our account up to the amount of the deductible every year. If we do not use that much during the year, we get to keep the excess money. If we use up to the deductible within a single year, then our insurance coverage kicks in for any additional medical needs.

It turns out that the HSA money can be used for the cost of orthodontics. So we basically will only have to pay for any orthodontic costs that are above the substantial amount that is in our HSA cash account, and our regular medical will be covered, regardless.

I was a bit skeptical about the HSA when our company first converted, but now I am happy.

This past Sunday afternoon our family went for a hike at a county park in the nearby hills. There was a map holder at the trail head that had some maps and brochures from the local parks department. There was also a brochure from the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department with the support of Kaiser Permanente San Jose and the Santa Clara County Public Health Department called the Healthy Trails Challenge.

The Challenge is to walk, ride, run, or roll on five different trails in the County Parks Healthy Trails network. There is a guidebook, log book and informational brochure that are available online. The deadline for completing the log book is October 17, 2008.

We are avid hikers and we did not know this program existed. It started in October of 2007. That is unfortunate because I hope this doesn’t sound conceited, but if we did not know about it, then probably many others also did not know about it. I have no idea of their advertising budget, but it’s probably small. We regularly bicycle on one of the trails in the guide, and have biked or hiked on 4 others out of a total of 21 trails in the guide.

I think it is a wonderful program. The idea of getting people motivated about visiting and exercising in local parks is great. Their brochures are very informative and professionally done.

No matter where you live, I recommend you check out your own local county and city recreation departments. You may be surprised by the information on free and healthy activities that you can find there. We were.

I hope everyone had a happy Father’s Day. My family asked me what I’d like to do on “my” day. It didn’t take me long to decide on the frugal idea of going for a family bicycle ride.

There are some great bicycle/hiking trails that rim the bay near us. Besides the natural beauty of the bay, there was wildlife to observe, and the joy of being active with my family.

The cardiovascular advantages of bicycle riding have been written about in many places. Bicycle riding is considered a low impact exercise. As with any exercise, you need to ride regularly to get the most benefit from it.

Bicycle riding is also one of the more economical ways to get somewhere. As fuel costs increase, more and more people are riding and commuting by bicycle. There currently is a problem in our area where public transportation cannot accommodate all the bicycles that people are trying to bring with them.

On this Father’s Day, I just wanted to get out with the family and have fun.

I wrote a post a couple days ago about things I want to do in my lifetime. I mentioned that I have road-raced motorcycles, and have flown and even own a hang glider. I still enjoy doing outdoor activities, but I have ratcheted down the danger.

Ratcheting down the danger does not mean staying home and never going out for fear I might get hurt. The act of living has some element of danger. Quite a few people get hurt in the bathroom. But I do not want to take unnecessary risks that could cost my son his daddy or my wife her husband. I want to avoid activities that have a high probability of putting me in the hospital. Hospital stays are expensive, even with insurance, and disabling accidents are even more expensive.

Hang gliding is a high-risk sport. I have stopped doing that. Motorcycle road racing is high risk and high cost. I have stopped doing that.

I have a 13 mile work commute and I often ride my motorcycle. It is much less expensive than a car and is often faster, since I can use the carpool lanes. I don’t ride dangerously or foolishly. I have taken several of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation courses, and in fact was once registered as an instructor. Riding a motorcycle is risky, but so is riding a bicycle in traffic. I have had friends get hit by cars on their bicycles as have I. Luckily I was just side swiped and was not seriously injured. An accident can happen to anyone. My wife, my son, and I all love riding our bicycles. We are careful to follow the rules of the road, and always wear protective equipment. (We still keep to the bike trails that are separate from the road with our son.)

My wife has asked if I miss doing the things I used to do. I honestly tell her that I don’t. There are more important things in my life now.

I want to see my son grow up, and I want to grow old with my wife. I plan to be around for a long time. By ratcheting down the danger, I expect I will be.

Related posts on Save and Conquer

• Things to Do in Our Lifetime
• Avoid Confrontation

I am physically farsighted and can see everything crystal clear if it is an arms length or further away. Things start to go blurry as they get closer than that. I used to be 20-20, but age is catching up with me.

This loss of focus is not macular degeneration, because I have not lost central vision. Rather, this is just age-related farsightedness (presbyopia) where my eye lenses have lost some of their flexibility. This is very common.

It is so common that reading glasses to correct this have been available for centuries. So, it was off to Walgreens. They have several kiosks full of reading glasses of different corrective power and size and shape. I put on a pair of +1.50 glasses and looked at a reading sample. Wow! Crystal clear. I got a pair of rimless flex-hinge glasses for under $20. It was well worth it. I can now read books at a comfortable distance.

Pinyo at Moolanomy just posted a vary scary account in The Cost of Road Rage and Aggressive Driving, where he describes being physically accosted by a road rager. The person tried to cut in front of Pinyo at the last second and Pinyo closed the gap and did not let him in. Apparently, the person bulled his way in front anyway, stopped his car in traffic blocking two lanes of the highway, got out, opened Pinyo’s door, and proceeded to beat Pinyo up. After leaving Pinyo bruised, the accoster slammed and kicked the car door closed.

Pinyo called 911 and filed a police report for the assault. I hope the perpetrator is caught and serves time.

This was a very scary incident and all in the blogging community are expressing their concern.

My question for Pinyo is, could this have been prevented? I think he will agree that the answer is, YES.

I know when we are driving, we typically feel safe in traffic because we are surrounded by a big metal machine. Sometimes due to a perceived slight, we get honked at, get or give the finger, or fists are shaken. Normally that is the extent of a disagreement in traffic.

I live in an area where traffic gets pretty heavy. I see people doing foolish things every day. I have seen people who felt they were slighted, accelerate to get in front of someone else and then hit their brakes, hard! That maneuver always leaves a big backup in its wake. Not to mention lots of scared people.

Sure, I still get annoyed when someone cuts in front of me, especially if I have to hit my brakes to avoid them, but I let it go almost immediately. I just open up a gap, listen to the radio, and let them get away from me. I have a wonderful family and a great future. I will not let some yo-yo on the highway jeopardize that. I and others in my car are too valuable to put at risk with a hot-tempered road rager. They will eventually cause their own problems, far, far away from me.

There is no excuse for what that criminal did to Pinyo. I hope he gets arrested and fined. And I’m glad, Pinyo, that you are generally OK. I feel for you, man. But next time, open a gap and give the a-hole room.

Due to the exorbitant cost of medical insurance, our workplace has gone to using a high-deductible health plan and an HSA. That is not bad for us, since our work puts the full amount of the annual deductible into our HSA, but it means I now think more about the cost of going to the doctor. After all, if I can avoid going to the doctor, the money in the HSA will compound and accrue earnings tax free, and remain available for our later medical needs.

One little way to cut costs is to deal with small medical issues using home health remedies. This is different than homeopathy, where that regards diseases and sickness to be caused by disturbances in a “vital force” or life force in humans and that these disturbances manifest themselves as unique symptoms.

I am referring more to home remedies such as chicken soup for colds. There are many over-the-counter medicines available today that used to require a prescription (and still may for stronger doses). I am not an expert in this area and would point you to sites like the FDA. But many of these medicines can be bought and used without seeing a doctor.

Prior to buying a medicine, or using a home remedy, you have to be able to perform self-diagnosis. Some good sites for this are familydoctor.org and WebMD. Good diagnosis is the most important part of home remedies. You obviously cannot obtain or administer the correct remedy if you cannot diagnose the problem. If you are not good at self diagnosis, then by all means, call your doctor.

Once you have diagnosed the problem, you can look on-line for home remedies. You have to weigh the remedy against who is giving the information. For example, there are lots of web sites that will tell you that ginger root will cure everything from the common cold to arthritis. They are usually selling dried herbs. (The actual healing power of ginger is that it contains a stimulant and has some effect against certain forms of diarrhea – wiki.)

As an example of using a home remedy, a few years ago I developed a fungal infection under one of my toenails. Euwww, gross. At first I thought keeping it clean would help. Nope. Then I tried the athelete’s foot medications. That didn’t work, either. The fungus got a good toe-hold (had to say it) and fully wrecked my right big toenail. I was ready to go to the doctor to get a prescription, but then I read online that two drops of white vinegar every day on a toenail infection would clear it up over the course of a year (toenails grow very slowly.) I gave that a try, and within a couple weeks I could see improvement at the nail root. I kept at it and it did clear up after about a year. Total cost was less than $1. ($0.50 went to buying a small dropper bottle from Target.) Sorry for the gross example, but most medical problems are not pretty, and I have seen lots of people with this affliction that is easy healed at home.

The information for healing this affliction was not well known and is certainly not advertised because there is no profit in vinegar for medicinal purposes. But it is out there. For most any affliction, you have to do some research and then use some common sense. In my case, I read about using vinegar and then did a little more research where I found that vinegar contains acetic acid, which is a weak herbicide. Sounded plausible, and since we eat the stuff, I figured topical applications couldn’t hurt.

Just don’t take everything you read on the internet as correct. You can find conflicting advice on everything. There are lots of scams out there. And you don’t want to play games with your health. Never take prescription medications for anything other than what it was prescribed for. Also, do not ingest anything that does not have FDA approval or isn’t a normal part of your diet. Basically, use common sense.

Obviously, you still should see your doctor for annual checkups and any time there is something you consider to be an emergency. Not to mention regular gynecological visits and mammograms for those of the fairer sex. And if you are over 50, get a colonoscopy.

Don’t play games with your health, but for things like colds and toenail fungus, you can take care of them yourself and save some money.