I had to get some help with my back. So after zero sleep, at five in the morning, I said to hell with it, called a taxi, and had him take me to the hospital.

Now, I use the VA system, because I have little income and only Medicare - no supplemental. You must know that Medicare doesn't pay for a deductible and after so much they won't pay for anything. Also, a typical Medicare hospital bill results in thousands that you have to pay out of pocket. That's why supplemental insurance is required to pay all the bills.

I can't afford the supplemental. My Mom's is 185 a month. I pay that and can't afford my own, so I suck off the Veteran's Administration when I get problems.

The place you have to go to get VA treatment is Toledo, or Ann Arbor (MI), too far at 5 a.m. and especially in a cab with a meter. (I was unable to drive.)

So I got to the emergency unit and got helped inside via a wheelchair. I felt even worse sitting in the damned thing.

They took my information. I told them I had taken two Percodans and a handful of Aleve during the night. They wanted to do an MRI type scan. I asked if Medicare covered it and they said it did. So I accepted that and warned them that I am claustrophobic and to give me something that would keep me from upchucking or screaming whilst in that damned thing.

Much later, after being looked over and poked while stark naked by a doctor, I was released. I got a ride home from a cousin who happened to be there in the E ward. He drives for one of the volunteer bus outfits and had just dropped off a customer at the hospital.

I don't know what this is going to cost but I figure it will be about a thousand bucks that Medicare won't cover, just because I shoveled the damned snow twice this week.

I am not able to lie down, sit or pick anything up. The pain is excruciating. The doctor thought I had two rib separations. Nothing was broken but my ribcage to the right of my backbone is swollen slightly. They gave me a prescription for Vicodin, even though I protested that I already have tried that many times and it only screws up my head. It is a very low-grade pain reliever. So I will continue Percs.

A lot of good it did me. No relief. Just more bills to pay someday.

When the pain from this is gone, I am going to sleep for two days straight.