While philosophers continue to argue about man's free will, one can wonder about whether optimism is a choice or determined by one's chemical make-up. I ask the question, having many years of work with clinically depressed people. There is no way that they can drum up optimism when their world looks and feels so dark.
So when I came across an article addressing just this issue, it caught my attention.
2009: Now for the Hard Part
Posted by Peggy Drexler, Huffington Post at 3:33 AM on January 1, 2009 "Is the glass half empty, half full -- or did somebody take the glass and smash it against the wall? In times like these, optimism is a decision. " This author believes it is a choice. I would challenge that thesis. I don't believe it is a choice but I do believe that people, even pessimists, can come to trust that change and hope is possible. There may have been optimists that helped elect Obama, but I would assume that there were also lots of pessimists who voted for him as well. The message of hope and directives for change, rather than the empty rhetoric we had seen for eight years, won the day.
"Only a fool expects to be happy all the time". Robertson Davies Is it pessimistic to know this?
“If you will call your troubles experiences, and remember that every experience develops some latent force within you, you will grow vigorous and happy, however adverse your circumstances may seem to be.”
” John Heywood Having learned a lesson from experience doesn't seem to make one an optimist, either.
If I were to try to define the medium in which optimism thrives, it would be in a person who has self-confidence and knows the simple truth: "When life hands you a lemon, you can make lemonade."
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Friday, January 2, 2009
HANDWRITING ON THE WALL BEING IGNORED
The other day I was engaged in a conversation about shopping and commented that I have stopped going to Malls. Since we had been discussing the very poor season for merchants, I was asked why I wasn't supporting them. When I took my finger out of the dike, I watched today's world pour out. Merchants have brought defeat unto themselves by wasting too much money on advertising, fancy stores and trim, and too much piled onto overhead charges. Has no one observed the success of warehouse stores like Costco and online stores like Amazon? The response to me about not supporting this dying breed made me think about the reasons that people today cannot deal with change which means that some businesses will no longer work. When autos came in, blacksmiths, in numbers, went out. Makers of lanterns lost business when electricity came into homes. Printers lost business when computers started desktop publishing and typesetting also went out. Newspapers are on their way out because the managing editors think that firing their experienced and higher paid reporters will save money. Do they not realize they also threw away the reason for people to buy their papers?
While there still may be a few holdouts who don't use computers, they are also dying out as a breed. Pretty soon they, too, will be forced to get a computer or remain out of touch with the real world and unable to get information or buy what they need.
It is already $5 cheaper to buy flights online than on the phone and has been for a few years now. Even pre-op registration was done online for me the other day and saved me filling in forms in the office where I was less likely to have the information I needed.
If people in business choose to have their heads in the sand and pretend to be surprised when predicted results finally reach them, they cannot expect everyone to bail them out as the Detroit three are trying to do. A friend said that there is as much manufacturing in the USA as there ever was. I asked what the statistic was based on, realizing that it was not scaled to the larger number of people there are who live in the US today. With more people there are more deaths and accidents than ever before, but again, the key is what percentage of the population in total this represents. More often now, I realize that few people can really grasp a whole picture or system, able to see only one facet at a time.
Deregulation allowed CEOs to become great managers if all they were looking for was the bottom line of profit. It didn't matter if outsourcing cheated the US workers of income and jobs, of tax revenue, or that it violated every moral obligation to the workers to value them as the heart of an organization which would take care of the company if the company took care of them. When the economy was good, the founder of Starbucks could afford to charge more for his product in order to take care of his employees. His product at the time was unique and people who had money were willing to pay for it. But, when the economy slowed down and people saw their Starbucks as a luxury, it had to be cut back. So did a lot of the goodies for workers that had been built into the system.
Americans Continue To Eat Out Despite Recession
US Economy Poll (1/1) - "Synopsis 60% of Americans say they ate dinner out at a restaurant at least once during the prior week, similar to the 64% recorded in December 2005 and down only slightly from 66% in December 2003" Does this give the reader an idea that the quality of restaurant has also gone down. The gourmet restaurants now have fewer lines and reservations while fast food enjoys plenty of business. They are all restaurants but, is the picture the same if one looks at the numbers rather than comparing those to quality of restaurants patronized?
While there still may be a few holdouts who don't use computers, they are also dying out as a breed. Pretty soon they, too, will be forced to get a computer or remain out of touch with the real world and unable to get information or buy what they need.
It is already $5 cheaper to buy flights online than on the phone and has been for a few years now. Even pre-op registration was done online for me the other day and saved me filling in forms in the office where I was less likely to have the information I needed.
If people in business choose to have their heads in the sand and pretend to be surprised when predicted results finally reach them, they cannot expect everyone to bail them out as the Detroit three are trying to do. A friend said that there is as much manufacturing in the USA as there ever was. I asked what the statistic was based on, realizing that it was not scaled to the larger number of people there are who live in the US today. With more people there are more deaths and accidents than ever before, but again, the key is what percentage of the population in total this represents. More often now, I realize that few people can really grasp a whole picture or system, able to see only one facet at a time.
Deregulation allowed CEOs to become great managers if all they were looking for was the bottom line of profit. It didn't matter if outsourcing cheated the US workers of income and jobs, of tax revenue, or that it violated every moral obligation to the workers to value them as the heart of an organization which would take care of the company if the company took care of them. When the economy was good, the founder of Starbucks could afford to charge more for his product in order to take care of his employees. His product at the time was unique and people who had money were willing to pay for it. But, when the economy slowed down and people saw their Starbucks as a luxury, it had to be cut back. So did a lot of the goodies for workers that had been built into the system.
Americans Continue To Eat Out Despite Recession
US Economy Poll (1/1) - "Synopsis 60% of Americans say they ate dinner out at a restaurant at least once during the prior week, similar to the 64% recorded in December 2005 and down only slightly from 66% in December 2003" Does this give the reader an idea that the quality of restaurant has also gone down. The gourmet restaurants now have fewer lines and reservations while fast food enjoys plenty of business. They are all restaurants but, is the picture the same if one looks at the numbers rather than comparing those to quality of restaurants patronized?
Thursday, January 1, 2009
2008: IN MEMORIAM
Each year the old year dies and a new one is born with all the hope that is attached to all births; hope,ideas, projects, promises, leaders, new bosses, new jobs, new schools and the list could go on. However, even hope can die. It is up to us to keep nourishing hope in this country, support as many as we can to survive the tragic lives into which so many have been thrown, and rebuild America. As none of us can do it alone, note that even those in charge cannot do it alone, either. Obama is a man, not a God, and as such cannot perform miracles.
We will look back to the losses of people we did not know other than their public personas. We will mourn our lost loved ones and friends as we will mourn the many changes we are forced to accept and adjust to work for us. We will accept that we will spend more time trying to reach anyone in business, having to wade through a telephone maze as difficult as walking through the maze at Henry the VIII's garden, Hampton Court in Surrey.
We will continue to have to get computer program updates and spend so much of our lives reading manuals and relearning software that we have little time for things we want or need to do. We will replace our dead appliances with new ones, adding the instructions to the pile waiting for us to tackle the added learning curve. We will try to pay our bills on time to avoid the astronomical fees attached if our payment gets there 2 seconds beyond their random deadline, so that the creditors can continue to make obscene profits from the little people.
We will make New Year's Resolutions to diet, quit bad habits, be better people, save money, quit impulse buying, cook in rather than eating out so much, and all sorts of things, with good intent, and promptly start rationalizing the reasons we didn't follow through.
Some of us will rely on our Faith in God and some of us will claim full responsibility for all our own actions and chances. Some of us will pretend we still live in a democracy and speak out with our complaints about what has happened to our educational system, medical system, and all other areas in which the USA used to be a leader and accept that we no longer offer the best of much of anything for which we can be proud. We've outsourced our collective soul and it is unclear whether we will ever be able to reclaim it.
With sad hearts, struggling to maintain that hope the campaign and election fed us, we drink champagne at midnight and wait to see what 2009 brings.
We will look back to the losses of people we did not know other than their public personas. We will mourn our lost loved ones and friends as we will mourn the many changes we are forced to accept and adjust to work for us. We will accept that we will spend more time trying to reach anyone in business, having to wade through a telephone maze as difficult as walking through the maze at Henry the VIII's garden, Hampton Court in Surrey.
We will continue to have to get computer program updates and spend so much of our lives reading manuals and relearning software that we have little time for things we want or need to do. We will replace our dead appliances with new ones, adding the instructions to the pile waiting for us to tackle the added learning curve. We will try to pay our bills on time to avoid the astronomical fees attached if our payment gets there 2 seconds beyond their random deadline, so that the creditors can continue to make obscene profits from the little people.
We will make New Year's Resolutions to diet, quit bad habits, be better people, save money, quit impulse buying, cook in rather than eating out so much, and all sorts of things, with good intent, and promptly start rationalizing the reasons we didn't follow through.
Some of us will rely on our Faith in God and some of us will claim full responsibility for all our own actions and chances. Some of us will pretend we still live in a democracy and speak out with our complaints about what has happened to our educational system, medical system, and all other areas in which the USA used to be a leader and accept that we no longer offer the best of much of anything for which we can be proud. We've outsourced our collective soul and it is unclear whether we will ever be able to reclaim it.
With sad hearts, struggling to maintain that hope the campaign and election fed us, we drink champagne at midnight and wait to see what 2009 brings.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
AS THE YEAR 2008 ENDS
It seems that many of the political talk shows which can't do anything new, are repeating the year, the campaign, and all the sound bites they can find. It has gotten pretty boring when my own knowledge of history is as broad as theirs. Having seen those shots in video form so many times that I can play them in my head without a TV, I decided to try to do the same with my own year.
Having just spent an hour on the phone with an old friend, whose wife (an even closer old friend) died yesterday, I was reminded that there were many other personal losses this year. Losses come as death, life styles, health, separations, security, constancy, and too many more elements of our lives to identify and mention. Each person in one's life who dies takes a big chunk of your own life with them. You no longer can talk to that person, get hugged, laugh with, learn from, play with, debate with, or share the past. At this age, as one's friends keep dying, the only way to survive is to make younger friends. They will never replace the old ones because they don't share the same history but they can sure fill your life and drag you into a new experience of life and the world.
Politically, this year's denouement allows hope and visions of change from the feelings of helplessness we have lived with for the past eight years. It is a sharp contradiction to the pain and suffering we will still have to muck through to bring our country back to the way it once functioned for its people. It has been totally gratifying to hear Barack Obama speak intelligently, coherently, grammatically, and on a topic.
We have all had the opportunity to see what Fundamentalists can achieve if they work long enough and hard enough at goals that were unintended by our forefathers. Our country has been held in hostage by them, and others even more destructive, for too long. We must work hard to keep this country out of the control of bigots, racists, self-serving lying politicians, religious zealots, sociopaths and thieves. The media should also learn that ratings don't trump truth and honesty in reporting.
Having just spent an hour on the phone with an old friend, whose wife (an even closer old friend) died yesterday, I was reminded that there were many other personal losses this year. Losses come as death, life styles, health, separations, security, constancy, and too many more elements of our lives to identify and mention. Each person in one's life who dies takes a big chunk of your own life with them. You no longer can talk to that person, get hugged, laugh with, learn from, play with, debate with, or share the past. At this age, as one's friends keep dying, the only way to survive is to make younger friends. They will never replace the old ones because they don't share the same history but they can sure fill your life and drag you into a new experience of life and the world.
Politically, this year's denouement allows hope and visions of change from the feelings of helplessness we have lived with for the past eight years. It is a sharp contradiction to the pain and suffering we will still have to muck through to bring our country back to the way it once functioned for its people. It has been totally gratifying to hear Barack Obama speak intelligently, coherently, grammatically, and on a topic.
We have all had the opportunity to see what Fundamentalists can achieve if they work long enough and hard enough at goals that were unintended by our forefathers. Our country has been held in hostage by them, and others even more destructive, for too long. We must work hard to keep this country out of the control of bigots, racists, self-serving lying politicians, religious zealots, sociopaths and thieves. The media should also learn that ratings don't trump truth and honesty in reporting.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
DOCTORS: WELL-TRAINED BODY MECHANICS
There exist among doctors the 'Click and Clacks' who are good diagnosticians, surgeons, and educators. There are also those who are not, but still answer to the title 'Doctor'. There have been some difficult moments for me in doctors' offices when I feel they didn't hear a word I said. Most frightening for me was hearing "Oops" while I heard what sounded like a saw (it was in fact a power drill inserting screws in my broken ankle. I had a spinal and was fully conscious and no one would tell me why someone said the 'oops'.
Another time an oral surgeon was annoyed because I made him use a hospital and surgery so my insurance would pay for it rather than pay out of pocket so he could perform the surgery in his office. At the time, I had no money to spare for 'principle' to show the insurance company the error of its way! As a result, though I had asked him to talk to me during the surgery, he spoke nothing to me and kept chatting with the nurse. He later told me he did it deliberately because I had refused to have the surgery in his office. I never went back to him and have no respect for his lack of respect for my financial situation. His fee may have seemed insignificant for him but it would have been massive to me, out of pocket at the time.
Most frustrating are the doctors who say, "There is nothing wrong with you. I find nothing." That their ability to see the first sentence as 'ergo' the conclusion is that there is nothing wrong is unconscionable. It should read, "I can find nothing wrong with you. You must either see someone else or undergo tests to check what I have not been able to find." That hubris does not belong in medicine and equates with the mechanic who says I fixed your brakes when in fact, he did nothing significant to them.
Harvard University
Former journal editor decries research 'corruption'
Link|Comments (2) Posted by Elizabeth Cooney December 26, 2008 12:10 PM
"Dr. Marcia Angell takes on conflicts of interest, blockbuster drug development, and disease-mongering in The New York Review of Books.
In her review of books by Alison Bass ("Side Effects: A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower, and a Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial"), Melody Petersen ("Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs"), and Christopher Lane ("Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness"), she also evaluates the current practice of medicine and the conduct of research.
"It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines," she writes. "I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine."
Drugs companies aren't the only ones at fault, she says.
"As reprehensible as many industry practices are, I believe the behavior of much of the medical profession is even more culpable," she writes. "If the medical profession does not put an end to this corruption voluntarily, it will lose the confidence of the public, and the government (not just Senator Grassley) will step in and impose regulation. No one in medicine wants that."
The error in Dr. Angell's writing is that she write the public WILL lose confidence in the medical profession. I believe she is too late. I lost it quite a few years ago. I believe that each patient should be their own advocate and ask as many questions as they have to ask to assure that the doctor knows what they are talking about instead of assuming that the doctor does. Too many practices allow each doctor 10 or 15 minutes with each patient. This is an absolutely absurd restriction p[ut on the physicians. Now all problems can be solved in the same amount of time, even the 'easy' ones. Two things should happen. Patients should be more aware of how they are describing their symptoms so that the doctor gets an accurate picture, and that patients do their own research on line until this happens.
Another time an oral surgeon was annoyed because I made him use a hospital and surgery so my insurance would pay for it rather than pay out of pocket so he could perform the surgery in his office. At the time, I had no money to spare for 'principle' to show the insurance company the error of its way! As a result, though I had asked him to talk to me during the surgery, he spoke nothing to me and kept chatting with the nurse. He later told me he did it deliberately because I had refused to have the surgery in his office. I never went back to him and have no respect for his lack of respect for my financial situation. His fee may have seemed insignificant for him but it would have been massive to me, out of pocket at the time.
Most frustrating are the doctors who say, "There is nothing wrong with you. I find nothing." That their ability to see the first sentence as 'ergo' the conclusion is that there is nothing wrong is unconscionable. It should read, "I can find nothing wrong with you. You must either see someone else or undergo tests to check what I have not been able to find." That hubris does not belong in medicine and equates with the mechanic who says I fixed your brakes when in fact, he did nothing significant to them.
Harvard University
Former journal editor decries research 'corruption'
Link|Comments (2) Posted by Elizabeth Cooney December 26, 2008 12:10 PM
"Dr. Marcia Angell takes on conflicts of interest, blockbuster drug development, and disease-mongering in The New York Review of Books.
In her review of books by Alison Bass ("Side Effects: A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower, and a Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial"), Melody Petersen ("Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs"), and Christopher Lane ("Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness"), she also evaluates the current practice of medicine and the conduct of research.
"It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines," she writes. "I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine."
Drugs companies aren't the only ones at fault, she says.
"As reprehensible as many industry practices are, I believe the behavior of much of the medical profession is even more culpable," she writes. "If the medical profession does not put an end to this corruption voluntarily, it will lose the confidence of the public, and the government (not just Senator Grassley) will step in and impose regulation. No one in medicine wants that."
The error in Dr. Angell's writing is that she write the public WILL lose confidence in the medical profession. I believe she is too late. I lost it quite a few years ago. I believe that each patient should be their own advocate and ask as many questions as they have to ask to assure that the doctor knows what they are talking about instead of assuming that the doctor does. Too many practices allow each doctor 10 or 15 minutes with each patient. This is an absolutely absurd restriction p[ut on the physicians. Now all problems can be solved in the same amount of time, even the 'easy' ones. Two things should happen. Patients should be more aware of how they are describing their symptoms so that the doctor gets an accurate picture, and that patients do their own research on line until this happens.
Monday, December 29, 2008
SEX TRUMPS WATERBOARDING
"The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift."
CIA Using Viagra To Help Build Alliances In Afghanistan
Washington Post | Joby Warrick | December 25, 2008 10:44 PM
Rather than torture, against Geneva Convention rules, Viagra given to the warlords in Afghanistan was most welcomed. One warlord, with four wives, came back for more Viagra in exchange for troop information. Since our present leaders have little creativity and historic results hold no guide, they preferred the illegal torture.
"The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.
Four blue pills. Viagra.
"Take one of these. You'll love it," the officer said. Compliments of Uncle Sam."
Another article by Ed Brayton:
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Bribing Warlords with Viagra
Category: Politics
Posted on: December 28, 2008 9:09 AM, by Ed Brayton
The CIA is pulling out all the stops to get Afghan warlords on our side in the fight against the Taliban, including giving them viagra.
Paying for information is nothing new for the Central Intelligence Agency, but officers have started employing unusual incentives to persuade Afghan local leaders to share intelligence about the Taliban's movements, the Post wrote, citing unnamed sources in the spy service.
"Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people -- whether it's building a school or handing out Viagra," one CIA operative who has worked in Afghanistan was quoted as saying.
And it seems to be working:
CIA agents have offered pocket knives and tools, toys and school equipment, travel visas, medical services including surgeries and sometimes the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra for Afghan chieftains, the paper said.
The aging chieftains often have up to four wives and are open to the Viagra pill as a way to "put them back in an authoritative position," said another official.
More customary bribes such as cash and weapons can create problems, because guns fan fall into the wrong hands and a sudden influx of cash can draw too much attention, agents told the paper.
Four Viagra pills transformed the attitude of one influential 60-year-old warlord who had been wary of the United States.
"He came up to us beaming," one official told the Post.
"And after that we could do whatever we wanted in his area."
What happens when you give Viagra to a warlord? He gets taller.
CIA Using Viagra To Help Build Alliances In Afghanistan
Washington Post | Joby Warrick | December 25, 2008 10:44 PM
Rather than torture, against Geneva Convention rules, Viagra given to the warlords in Afghanistan was most welcomed. One warlord, with four wives, came back for more Viagra in exchange for troop information. Since our present leaders have little creativity and historic results hold no guide, they preferred the illegal torture.
"The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.
Four blue pills. Viagra.
"Take one of these. You'll love it," the officer said. Compliments of Uncle Sam."
Another article by Ed Brayton:
My Amazon.com Wish List
Subscribe via Email
Stay abreast of your favorite bloggers' latest and greatest via e-mail, via a daily digest.
Sign me up!
« Gay Navy Secretary? Cue the Outrage | Main | Dobson v Beck: Who Do You Root For Here? »
Bribing Warlords with Viagra
Category: Politics
Posted on: December 28, 2008 9:09 AM, by Ed Brayton
The CIA is pulling out all the stops to get Afghan warlords on our side in the fight against the Taliban, including giving them viagra.
Paying for information is nothing new for the Central Intelligence Agency, but officers have started employing unusual incentives to persuade Afghan local leaders to share intelligence about the Taliban's movements, the Post wrote, citing unnamed sources in the spy service.
"Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people -- whether it's building a school or handing out Viagra," one CIA operative who has worked in Afghanistan was quoted as saying.
And it seems to be working:
CIA agents have offered pocket knives and tools, toys and school equipment, travel visas, medical services including surgeries and sometimes the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra for Afghan chieftains, the paper said.
The aging chieftains often have up to four wives and are open to the Viagra pill as a way to "put them back in an authoritative position," said another official.
More customary bribes such as cash and weapons can create problems, because guns fan fall into the wrong hands and a sudden influx of cash can draw too much attention, agents told the paper.
Four Viagra pills transformed the attitude of one influential 60-year-old warlord who had been wary of the United States.
"He came up to us beaming," one official told the Post.
"And after that we could do whatever we wanted in his area."
What happens when you give Viagra to a warlord? He gets taller.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
POST-SURGERY -DAY 3
It is always a surprise to me when a nurse or doctor phones days after surgery to see if I am okay. When a nurse whom I had met at the time of surgery called two days after surgery to see how i was doing, I was pleasantly surprised. The gesture was consistent with all the care I had received in the less than 3 hours I had been in the surgical unit on the day before Christmas. She assumed I didn't remember the instructions given to me just before discharge, less than an hour after the operation. Of course she was right. I had totally forgotten I was given a sheet of them though I seemed to have remembered most of what I had been told.
Having spent an extremely painful previous night, I was relieved by the pain medication that had been prescribed with a firm admonition before I had left that I should not let the pain build up, but to take the medication every four hours. I was to wake myself up and not go through the night, so I just stayed up and read until 5 AM which was easier for me.
I was told to take the bandage off and that the fluid with which they had filled the knee would take a bit to absorb and empty, making it easier and less painful to bend my knee. I was not prepared for the river of fluid mixed with blood that ran down my leg from my knee when the bandage came off. I had to leap to get it off the rug and rushed to the kitchen with its ceramic tiled floor which was far easier to mop up than from the rugs everywhere else.
Miraculously, as the nurse had told me, once the fluid was out I was able to bend my knee 90 degrees and the pain had diminished. If I didn't live in Grand Central Station I might have also been able to take a shower. The odoriferous zephyr around me certainly suggested it was time to do just that. Nevertheless, it got too late for me to shampoo my hair and have time to dry it before bedtime so I waited until the next day. Happily, I had no problem shedding the crutches and maintaining my balance. In a flash, the oft stated, "Boy, a shower never felt any better!" spoke itself in the echoes of the room.
Now that all the anesthesia has surely warn off after three days, I can tell that it was worth having to work to convince a surgeon that I knew what I was talking about and that it had not been a diagnosis that could have been made from x-ray only. The MRI took it the necessary step further and I now was much relieved, though agreeing that the next step after physiotherapy was probably going to be a knee replacement. The vision in my head is that part-by-replacement-part would eventually either make me pretty bionic or beyond salvage.
My suspicion is that nothing will stop my knee from making it hard to get out of a chair if I have sat still more than 15 minutes. Ice packs on it are still helpful but being able to wobble around with out crutches is sheer Heavenly delight.
Having spent an extremely painful previous night, I was relieved by the pain medication that had been prescribed with a firm admonition before I had left that I should not let the pain build up, but to take the medication every four hours. I was to wake myself up and not go through the night, so I just stayed up and read until 5 AM which was easier for me.
I was told to take the bandage off and that the fluid with which they had filled the knee would take a bit to absorb and empty, making it easier and less painful to bend my knee. I was not prepared for the river of fluid mixed with blood that ran down my leg from my knee when the bandage came off. I had to leap to get it off the rug and rushed to the kitchen with its ceramic tiled floor which was far easier to mop up than from the rugs everywhere else.
Miraculously, as the nurse had told me, once the fluid was out I was able to bend my knee 90 degrees and the pain had diminished. If I didn't live in Grand Central Station I might have also been able to take a shower. The odoriferous zephyr around me certainly suggested it was time to do just that. Nevertheless, it got too late for me to shampoo my hair and have time to dry it before bedtime so I waited until the next day. Happily, I had no problem shedding the crutches and maintaining my balance. In a flash, the oft stated, "Boy, a shower never felt any better!" spoke itself in the echoes of the room.
Now that all the anesthesia has surely warn off after three days, I can tell that it was worth having to work to convince a surgeon that I knew what I was talking about and that it had not been a diagnosis that could have been made from x-ray only. The MRI took it the necessary step further and I now was much relieved, though agreeing that the next step after physiotherapy was probably going to be a knee replacement. The vision in my head is that part-by-replacement-part would eventually either make me pretty bionic or beyond salvage.
My suspicion is that nothing will stop my knee from making it hard to get out of a chair if I have sat still more than 15 minutes. Ice packs on it are still helpful but being able to wobble around with out crutches is sheer Heavenly delight.
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