Tasha Tudor has died...

Thank you V, I always admired her. Her gardening style was unmistakable.

Cheryl

> Just thought people here might like to know.>

Thank you for letting us know, Victoria. I missed that. I love her children's books, most especially "The Christmas Cat."

Here's the NY Times obit:

a character, and what a talent! A singular person, indeed!

Sue

Yes indeed, sorry to hear that, fascinating woman.

I thought many of you would want to know and I didn't see it posted here. I do lurk sometimes.

V

Well quit lurking and come out into the sun lol

Eh, I only just recently started stitching again recently. I'm finishing the Winter Sampler by MLI for my MIL. It was last years Christmas present!

I recently had knee replacement surgery. How long does it take till the pain stops? Geesh. In between that I was chemo for another year. I have no idea how long its been since I've posted here.

I hold no grudges, no harsh feelings, no anger or intention to get anyone upset about anything. That's why I lurk. I still see what's going on in stitching and that's that.

Mark was laid off Thursday with the other 8800 employees from Dell. Seems it's better to outsource. Bottom line and all. He got a four month severence w/ two months paid med benefits. Now what? I say sell it all, buy a yurt and go live off the grid with a satellite dish and solar. Is there land left anywhere that's warm? I'd move to Montana today if it wasn't so cold.

I just looked after a friend after her surgery. She was disgusting, never seen anything like it. She was out on day three and barely needed the wheelchair down to the car. Walking with a stick in just over a week from surgery. It seems to be the luck of the draw, there are no common denominators as far as I can see between at least 8 people I know who have had it done. One even had to have it redone, really bad.

Did the chemo do any good ?

Really sorry to hear about Mark, seems unfair as he worked hard.

Yurts are very comfortable at low temperatures due to design. I think I could be very comfortable in a yurt year round in Nova Scotia, on balance our weather is not unreasonable. However I am older than you and don't have a Mark to chop wood etc. so imagine I will stay put in my condo lol

Stick around Vic, it's nice to see you again.

Oh I was walking the first day and on a cane in a few days, but it still hurts. Realize I fell on it twice since, once on very hard concrete and it twisted out and shifted the fake knee cap. I'm still in PT.

Got the viral load way low, but not clear. I have to go back on. What it did was to make concrete an intense case of chronic fatigue. Now I know what people talk about when they describe their experience. I ate some crow on that one.

Yeah well...the bottom line. You know. Ugly America does exist, unfortunately. We're seriously looking to move out of the country. Where is the problem. Mark wants warm, but is now sort of willing to move up north to Wisconsin. Maybe Madison. I want to move to Cancun! A yurt in Cancun...too bad there's no off the grid left unless it's in kidnap culture!

I can feel the jaws drop! Don't worry you jaw droppers. Things change. People grow. I can't be all bad, I stitch; right? LOL

v

As Sheena said, it's a very personalized thing. Barb started preaching at me almost immediately after hers "you need to get yours done, the pain is completely gone. I wish I'd had it done sooner."

Dad, OTOH, took longer to walk well enough to be released home (he and Barb are about the same age and same general health, so that's not the determining factor).

However, it's now been determined that my real problem is that all the stuff inside that should be connected has come loose, so what I really need is not replacement of the bones but re-attachment of the ligaments.

> Just thought people here might like to know.>

I was thinking about her a few days ago, used to read about her in Victoria magazine years ago.

Edna in Sydney

((vic and Mark))

Sorry to hear about the layoff. That's very worrisome, especially about health insurance - can't do without it, and hard to afford it without a full income. Is the cost bearable under COBRA?

Hope he can line up something else soon!

sue

In all honesty, I did have several setbacks. First, I was released and two days later was readmitted because of a very serious infection. I needed IV antibiotics. It was a strep not a staph so I was very fortunate. I was in hospital for another five days.

Then home, I fell hard on it.

Then again three weeks ago I fell again on the concrete outside and when I fell I twisted which is not something a prosthetic knee can do. At least not the one they used on me. There is a knee now which can pivot and move all four directions. My doctor doesn't like them because the plastic miniscus wears and needs replacement.

So I'm now almost 5 months post op and I no longer have radiant pain, but when I move certain ways I get a banger of pain. Could be adhesions, but doc thinks it's fluid and inflamation from the fall.

I will say it is much better to get it done as young as possible. If you need it done, I would still say get it done while you're young even though I had or am having discomfort. Really, this takes about a full year for the joint to seat and connective tissue to reconnect. If you need that done, the younger the better.

imo

v

Dell is covering two months of COBRA and fortunately I have Medicare as part of my SSD. It doesn't cover medication, but I don't take anything expensive. All rather old medications and generic for over a decade or more.

I won't know how much the COBRA will cost out of pocket until Dell sends the papers and check to cover for it. It's retroactive so we are covered.

Money mongering seems to be the national passtime lately.

It's at times like these that I give thanks for our much-maligned National Health Service Bruce

And I for our maligned Health Care. It's true we pay more taxes to cover it, that you don't get a new knee tomorrow but when you are an emergency, you receive excellent treatment.

I don't know if you see the same thing but I notice that most of the whiners here are young enough they have never known a medical bill, Health Care came in 1968. Me, I figure that if I am not a true emergency I should not go to emerge since that is the most expensive medicine we have. I drove a drill bit through my hand, I didn't hit anything arterial, it clearly didn't need a stitch so I cleaned it well, taped it then poured a nice stiff whiskey - much better than four hours at emerge because I was not going to bleed to death :)

I have news for you, America has a socialized medicine as well; it's called Medicare and it comes with another socialized program called, social security. I'm with you.

I am sure we are all proud of of medical systems, but when I compare what we have in Canada to what is available in the USA and UK, I am glad I live in Canada. The difference that makes the Canadian system better, IMHO, than the other two is no queue jumping (in general. I know there are exceptions). Our system means that no matter who you are or how much money you have, it is almost impossible to get preferential treatment. There is a true story where a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, equivalent to a Law Lord in the UK, or similar office in the USA, fell on the ice one January and broke his femur. He was taken to hospital and waited the same 36 hours for an operation, that everyone else had to wait. There was no way he could jump the queue. I told this story to a doctor in the UK, and he practically called me a liar. They have recently rerun the story of Tommy Douglas, on TV. Tommy almost singlehandedly, brought in our medical system. I doubt if it is available in another country, but if you can get to see it in the USA or UK, it might be interesting.

You missed a key detail - when it was set up here they did extensive study of the National Health in the UK and decided it's main failing was having private and public running alongside each other. So ours was set up so that there were no private clinics.

I have seen why private medicine in conjunction with public does not work in the case of my aunt in the UK. She needed a knee replacement and had to wait quite awhile because her surgeon was doing four days private work and only one with National Health. So private work does affect public. We should resist private clinics at all costs, Tommy must be writhing in his grave.

One thing we have done in NS is stop directing patients to hospitals for xrays etc. For me, I would sooner drive twenty minutes on the highway to a hospital where I will get my xray and leave within 20 minutes, than go downtown, find a parking space and wait maybe one or two hours at a major hospital. The result is the same because they use diagnostic imaging technology so your results are up on the web site by the end of that day for your doctor to peruse. The marvels of modern medicine.

Giving the patient a sheet describing what is to be done and then allowing the patient to choose which venue suits them best is working well in reducing wait times and spreading the load around. It has meant the smaller hospitals just outside town have been able to afford equipment and to have employees they would not otherwise be able to do if they only had patients from their immediate area.

My curiosity has come forward.

Why do you think Medicare, where you get to choose your doctors and decide for yourself where and how you are to be treated is socialized medicine? Are you even aware that it's a rare doctor who will accept the Medicare payment as payment in full?

Are you talking about HMO plans, because if so, not everyone is in one or wants to be in one.

As to Social Security, didn't I pay for years for that?

Lucille