Jean Scott's Frugal Vegas

I have good news I couldn’t wait to report, so I am writing this through foggy vision.  All my lab tests came back negative. Brad says dodging this bullet beats all the good luck we have ever had in a casino. 

One short frugal tip: If you haven’t ever got around to joining the Wynn players club, there is a great new-member bonus going on right now. Earn just 25 points and you get one free buffet; earn 50 points and get two. You can choose to use these at the most expensive meal offered. And there may be more perks with further points — just ask. One warning: Slot club-joining bonuses come and go with no warning, so you should always check in advance by phone before you make a special trip. 

I have the surgery on my left eye tomorrow and hopefully I will be seeing clearly enough to be back to regular blogging soon.

Hopefully you don’t know from personal experience that this year’s flu season has dished up some particularly nasty flu strains, some that weren’t included in this year’s flu shots. Brad and I have been lucky and missed it, but it seems that almost every visitor we have had from out of town in the last three months has reported being ghastly ill when they returned home. 

Who knows where they got the bug. In a casino? In a restaurant?Maybe they didn’t get enough sleep and their resistance was low. Maybe — even very likely — they caught it on the flight to here or back home. That re-circulated air can be a killer germ spreader!  

In any case, I recommend that everyone get a flu shot before they come to Vegas. No, it’s not too late. The flu season lasts right through March and the federal Centers for Disease Control have named Nevada part of a regional flu outbreak. I urge people to use good sense, even though Vegas temptations are not always healthy. Eat regularly and nutritiously. Get plenty of sleep. Take frequent breaks to get out of smokey casinos. Go easy on the free alcohol. 

However, if you do get sick while you are in Vegas, I would like to give you some resources that might make your visit more pleasant. There are now three Walgreens drugstores on the Strip, one just north of the Stratosphere, one across from the ghost of the Stardust, and one north of the MGM Grand.  

CVS has two stores, one near Circus Circus and the other just north of New York-New York. This last one might be particularly valuable to remember because it has a MinuteClinic, where you can see Board-certified practitioners, like physician assistants (PA's). They don’t require appointments and can diagnose and treat many non-emergency medical problems, including writing prescriptions. These mini-clinics are being added in many Walgreens and CVS pharmacies all over town. Check the Yellow Pages or online for their locations and hours.

What a week this has been. First, the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, at 700 Shadow Lane, was closed for unsterile injection practices, and 40,000 of us former patients received a letter from the Health District recommending that we get blood tests for hepatitis B and C, and HIV. Then yesterday came the suspension of the licenses of three additional clinics run by the same doctors who own the Endoscopy Center, two at 4275 Burnham Ave. and one at 5915 S. Rainbow Blvd. 

Now I realize that these jokers have had not two but THREE shots (pardon the pun) at getting me. 

Then there was the ricin scare at an extended-stay motel, just a bit over a mile as the crow flies from our condo. 

Tomorrow I go in for eye surgery, removing the cataract from my right eye and correcting the astigmatism. On the 19^th I am scheduled for the same on my left eye. I know this is a very routine procedure. But I wonder if they would mind if I asked to look around the clinic a bit before they put me under. 

As they say – just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you!

Headlines about health issues usually don’t touch me personally. I read them or hear them on the news and then think, “How terrible for the people involved.”   Imagine my surprise a few days ago when I turn on CNN Headline News, as I do every morning, and find myself (and probably 40,000 or so other Las Vegas residents) in the middle of a medical scare. I had undergone both a colonoscopy and an endoscopy at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, a medical clinic under fire by health authorities when it was found that they routinely reused syringes and vials of medicine when administering anesthesia. 

The City of Las Vegas has shut down the facility, and the Southern Nevada Health District has sent letters to around 40,000 patients who had procedures there between March 2004 and Jan. 11 of this year. In the letter I received they recommend we get tested for hepatitis C, hepatitis B, and HIV, all of which can be contracted by blood-to-blood transfer. Since I have no symptoms, I will probably wait a couple of weeks to get the blood tests since I figure the labs will have long lines this next week or so. 

I knew the lawyers would not be long behind this scandal, and immediately the newspaper and the airwaves were full of their ads. I am not the litigating type but I imagine I will be a party to a class-action suit. 

I am taking the attitude suggested by health officials to be “concerned but not overly afraid.” One lawyer has stated that there might be more than 100 people who will end up being infected by one the diseases. Humm … 100 out of 40,000. As a person who gambles by the book, I know this has a negative EV for me. I prefer zero odds, but I guess I am happy with the tiny risk area I am in – at least until the results of my blood tests come back.