Cliffs Riffs - Stuph n Nonsense

  Health Insurance – Celebration Day Originally published in the Lowell Ledger 6.7.23 I am writing this on the first day of June. Not only is it a nice, warm day with lots of sunshine, it also happens to be the first day that my health care coverage switches over to Medicare. For a partner in a mom and pop business this is a day to celebrate. Ask anyone who is self-employed or owns a micro sized business like ours and they will tell you how awfully expensive health care coverage has become. Let me spell it out for you. Julie, my wife and partner in our small business, was eligible for Medicare last April. Prior to that, the cost of coverage for the two of us with Priority Health was $1,428.64 a month. The sticky wicket in that equation was that we had a deductible of $9,500.00. Each. Yes, we were paying $17,143.68 a year for health coverage but if we both had something serious happen in one year, we would have to come up with an additional $19,000.00. Once she switched to Medicar...

Have you or a loved one been hit with a serious health care issue?  If so, did it put a hurt on your financial situation? Do you receive regular requests to help someone who is sick pay their bills? Have you ever attended or contributed to a any effort designed to help pay medical bills? Are you aware that the #1 of bankruptcy in the US is medical bills? Are you aware that we are THE ONLY developed nation without Universal Health Care? Do you know that people in other countries cannot believe the way we treat illness? One of the recurring songs we get to hear in the discussion of Universal Health Care (or Medicare for All or National Health Insurance - pick your favorite name) is that we simply cannot afford it. Milk shoots out my nose when I hear this tired, bullshit ridden trope. Never mind that we live in one of the wealthiest countries on the planet. How about we boil it down to just the State of Michigan - where I live and where Blue Cross Blue Shi...

Here are some facts about medical marijuana and marijuana in general when it comes to Michigan in general and Grand Rapids/Kent County specifically. FACT 1: In 2008 the VOTERS in Michigan voted in favor of allowing people to seek treatment for a variety of ills using medical marijuana. An interesting side not on this for me personally was that my father voted with the majority. My dad spent most of his life equating those who used pot as "hop heads" - what he called the heroin addicts he saw as a kid growing up around Detroit. His thoughts on pot changed when my step mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer - which took her life. This was before such cancer was being treated with any success and they sought all manner of relief from the symptoms and pain - including getting some pot from a friend of a friend. Seeing the positive use of weed turned my dad around on the subject. In fact, when he was alive he was an advocate for legalizing it in the same manner as alcohol...

I recently had an opportunity to address the Lowell City Council and their consideration of allowing a medical marijuana dispensary to operate in our town. Here are my remarks: My name is Cliff Yankovich. Business owner since 2002 - Chimera Design - soon to be resident, moving to the corner of Monroe & King while we refurbish our 2nd floor. I am here to support allowing a dispensary in Lowell. I am speaking as someone who has benefited from Medical Marijuana. 2013: Diagnosed and treated for stage 4 throat cancer. 7 weeks of daily radiation with IV cisplatin chemo administered at the beginning, middle and end of the radiation. Lost 40 pounds, landed in the ER twice with complications, spent 3 days in the hospital, and had a feeding tube installed when I could no longer eat or drink. I could not eat because I had no appetite and because of the pain. In addition, the treatment killed my sense of taste. My post treatment anxiety was through the roof - hard time sleepi...

Just read a profile/interview on Tim Gill , a software multi-millionaire who has devoted the majority of his fortune to the fight for LGBT rights for over 20 years though the Gill Foundation . Gay marriage was a goal, but now that this has become law, he continues to work toward making equality a reality in all 50 states. As the article points out, what good does allowing a lesbian couple to marry do if either or both of them could lose their jobs simply by putting a picture of their partner on display where they work? (There are still laws in place designed to push back on gay marriage in many states.) The push for single payer health care - even if it was to be AN OPTION or an option that could be a part of a total health insurance package - needs a Tim Gill or maybe a better plan would be to have several Tim Gills. The beauty of what Gill did for the LGBT community was not simply that he threw a lot of money in the effort for equality. He put his logical, computer coding mind to w...

First off, let me tell you I was diagnosed and treated for throat cancer in 2013, so I am not talking out of school. You can read about my cancer dance in a book which is for sale here: Otter Was A Beagle-ish Dog.  Having danced that dance gives me the latitude to discuss the potential of devoting a month to being more UNaware of cancer. Actually, this concept will work for pretty much any DISease you want to use to fill in the blank. But my target today is cancer. All due respect - I really think we are aware of cancer - breast cancer, testicular cancer, skin cancer, cancer cancer and every other cancer. We got it. The disease is out there and whacking people willy nilly. I work, and will soon live in, Lowell, Michigan,  a small town that has elevated cancer awareness to a new level. Our high school football coach created The Pink Arrow Project, which has done a HUGE amount for folks and families fighting cancer in our little slice of The Mitten. That is why we are ...

As you may have noticed, the back side of the book "Otter Was a Beagle-ish Dog" has some pre-publication reviews that are the product of my imagination. (Yes, Joyce, I know the back cover also has the typo "1980's" which should read 1980s.) Anyway - folks have been buying and apparently actually READING the book with the end result of some reviews, comments, and practical tips from Actual Readers.  I am happy to share some of them with you.  The first is a copy of a 100 word review by Ruth that was submitted to Schuler Books, publishers of the book, the rest of them are quoted from my Facebook page, text messages, or spoken communication: "Otter Was a Beagle-ish Dog is an entertaining collection of musings, from the author's younger days hitchhiking the deserts of Arizona, to an intimate and moving chronicle of the ordeal he underwent fighting throat cancer. Throughout the pages, Cliff's reminiscences of the abiding pr...

The Pink Arrow Project was the brain child of Noel Dean, the football coach at Lowell High School. It began nine years ago and has helped many people in the Lowell community battle cancer (including me!). Compassion is the driving force behind Pink Arrow. Elect Cliff and send some Pink Arrow Thinking to Lansing.

  Life is some kinda weird.   The first time I met Chuck Peterson was at a backyard concert with some Finnish musicians hosted by some friends. Chuck had undergone surgery and treatment for Stage 4 cancer in his esophagus.   At that point Chuck was looking pretty damn good and doing pretty well. At that point Cliff was waiting to find out what was going on in his throat.   My throat cancer story is on this here blog.   Chuck's story is on his blog: Chuck Peterson's Blog   Let me boil some things down. 1. Chuck is one amazing guy. 2. I am fortunate to have known him, however briefly. 3. Chuck is not going to be amongst us for very much longer.   In the last few days it was revealed that cancer had beaten up Chuck's liver and he does not have long. Chuck did not miss a beat - just hours after hearing THAT news, Chuck lay in his hospital bed expressing concern for the pain and discomfort that a mutua...

Throat cancer is striking a lot of us. I was diagnosed and treated in 2013 - if you are so inclined you can read all of my posts on this subject by clicking THIS LINK HERE.  I had three 5-6 hour sessions of IV chemo and 7 weeks of daily radiation (35 treatments). Rather than give you a blow by blow of my treatment, (which you can read by clicking the link) I wanted to boil things down to what I think are four things that will give help you lessen the effects of radiation and chemotherapy and help you in your fight. Not trying to sell anything here - just trying to give anyone fighting throat cancer some useful tools in that battle (to hell with the term "cancer journey" - this is an effin street brawl - you want to use anything and everything in reach to help your cause). These are tools that your treatment team might be overlooking or presenting poorly. 1. FEEDING TUBE - get your feeding tube installed as early as your team will allow it. In my mind I saw a fee...

  Throat Cancer Update 2015 - so, as the date of my last treatment grows even more distant my overall response when folks ask me "How are you doing" is kinda like Snoopy here. All happy dance and what not. After all - I keep going in for check ups with all the various doctors involved in my treatment and they keep giving me Grrrrrrrr-eat news: On top of getting good reports from the Medicos on a consistent basis, I have my own gauges of success to go by. First, I ain't dead. I am cool with that. Secondly, I am getting stronger all the time. I can handle the cold temps of The Mitten waaay better this year than last. I can sing full out most of the time - my weight hangs out at 200 lbs with hardly any variance. Thanks to medical marijuana (I drink tea and use edibles) most of my nights are actually spent sleeping. The pot tea helps with my appetite as well.  Since my taste buds are still toast, I can use the boost in that department.   I am thankful the v...