Restoring My Faith in Today's Youth

                Regular readers of this blog will have noticed that on occasion I use this space to vent about my life, its issues and my problems. They will be delighted to learn that today I am NOT going to vent. Today I celebrate!

            There is a lot of ugliness is the world. Open any newspaper, turn on the radio, the television or fire up the Internet and you will find countless stories of the atrocities people commit against each other. Over the years it seems that we are feeling increasing despair for our youth and are complaining about how cruel and selfish they can be. A lot of those stories are true, some of them are sensationalized.

But what about the kids that aren’t total screw-ups? Why do we never hear about them? Do they not exist? Can all of our youth be as bad as the media makes them out to be?

            Today I saw something that restored my faith in humanity and in our youth.

            While I was out-and-about with a friend, we pulled up to a light and there, at the side of the road, we saw an elderly woman who had lost control of her walker/chair, had fallen off the curb and landed on top of her walker. We had no more than noticed her when we saw a teenage boy sprint through moving traffic to her side. It was clear that she was unable to stand up unassisted. As he gently helped her up, three other boys dodged the traffic to help.

            Working together, they gently set her on her feet, righted her walker, reattached its basket and returned her parcels to the basket. Although we couldn’t hear their words, their expressions showed that they were reassuring her and making certain that she wasn’t injured.

            It was a very touching moment, and lasted less than the duration of a red light, but it was enough to remind my friend and I that good does still exist in this world, and there are still young people unselfish enough to help a stranger and ensure she was unharmed. Sadly, it is unlikely that the local media will ever hear of this kindness and the world will be poorer for not knowing about this not-so-small act of kindness by our youth.

            To those four boys, I would like to say “Thank you. You’ve done a good deed and should be proud of yourselves.”

            My faith in today’s youth, in humanity, is restored.

Hugs

Cath

Fun and Games: Medicine and Applique

Close up of one block.

Today I have to update my beef about the medical system. Parts of it do work! Over the past week I have seen 3 ER docs, 2 Ortho docs, 1 rheumatologist, 8 med students,1 family doc, and 2 neurologists. If you add in the two radiologists who have looked at my X-ray’s and MRI, I have seen a grand total of 19 doctors in one week. Some of them, I have seen more than once. They are all confused about what is happening with my knee/calf/foot, none of them have seen anything like this before. So, they bumped my MRI up to emergency and I have already had it. How fabulous is that? The system can work!

As it turns out, I have a severe sprain/strain of my MCL (a ligament in my knee.) That explains why the knee is sore, but not why the calf/foot are buggered up. They are hoping that the issues lower down are related to the swelling in the knee. One would think that if your knee has a severe sprain that you would remember damaging it. Not me! I have no idea what I did. I’m not sure if that is a comment on my coordination (or lack thereof) or on my mental acuity.

Yesterday I was back at the rheumatologist’s office. She froze the knee (which hurts like a bugger), aspirated off a small amount of icky looking fluid and injected some steroids to speed the healing. She is optimistic that it will help the knee, but isn’t sure about the rest of the leg. We shall see. The rheumatologist was fabulous and her staff wonderful. Except for one little thing …

Had to decorate my Band-Aid myself.

I sat up after the brutally painful procedure and looked at my knee. All there was to see was this wee tiny flesh colored Band-Aid. So I said, “What all that pain, and I get this crappy little Band-Aid? Where’s the Hello Kitty Band-Aid? Old people like fun Band-Aids too. I would have settled for Batman or even smiley faces.” They did get a laugh out of that.

An old work in progress that I am revisiting.

One to more pertinent things relating to sewing, quilting and fabric … I have discovered that while sitting to sew, or standing to run the longarm is still quite painful, I can do short spurts of hand sewing. (Thank God for good drugs that are controlling the Rheumatoid Arthritis.) I could be doing the bindings on some of my WIP’s but have decided to focus on something more fun. I am doing some hand applique on a project that has been underway for a number of years. The blocks are supposed to be Six inches square. Much too small for a beginner at hand applique like me. So I enlarged them to nine inches. I think it is coming along quite nicely.

My lovely friend Mrs. Brown has brought me this beautiful purse from Hawaii. It is so nice to have such generous friends. I’ve carried the purse for one day and have already lost track of the number of compliments I have received for it. My other friends and family have been fabulous too driving me back and forth to appointments with no complaints. Thanks everyone. Your help means a lot and there is no way to express my gratitude.

Hugs and keep quilting
Cath

Reports of My Death Are Exaggerated!

           Wow! What a slacker I am. It’s been ages since I’ve posted anything here. In my defence, I think it’s been close to two months since I set foot in my studio. My life has been sadly bereft of the longarm, fabric, sewing, quilting, and hand-work. I haven’t even fired up the computer to design anything on EQ7. Pathetic.

That’s not to say I have been slacking off. Okay, mostly I haven’t been slacking. We all need some R&R, me included. My attentions have been focused elsewhere. I’ve focused most of my attention of my writing career and my health which is the subject of this rant post.

During the middle of last week, I had cause to visit the local emergency room. TWICE! Now if our medical system worked like it should, one visit should have been sufficient to solve my dilemma. Instead it took two trips and I still have no diagnosis.

The saga begins ... Recently, I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, and that is the root of all my problems. The arthritis caused issues with my knee joint and it was all downhill from there. Knee swelling turned into calf cramps which became swollen foot and the inability to stand or walk. Since I’m on a new regime of drugs, I contacted my rheumatologist who said, “Go to emerg and get checked out for blood clots, what you are experiencing is NOT a drug reaction.” So, off I trot. (Okay, my man drives me and I use a wheelchair.)

I got lucky, emergency wasn’t busy and I saw the doctor quickly. In a nutshell, he had no idea what was going on and recommended an ultrasound to ensure that there were no clots. Here’s where the medical system gets a big fat FAIL!

Please tell me why, at eight o’clock at night, in a major hospital emergency room I can’t get an ultrasound?  The department was closed and all the staff gone home. The alternative would have been an MRI, which I am already on the waiting list for. But, those folks were gone home too. So here we have a woman in need of tests, and the machinery stands idle. I have to go home, get the ultrasound the next day at a remote site and go back to emergency with the results. While it does not appear to be a blood clot, they have no idea what is causing the pain.

 Skipping to the point of this rant, tell me why with an MRI waiting list that is months, if not years, long the equipment stands idle for much of the day?

I don’t know about the rest of the folks in line, but I would gladly show up at 2am for my test, just to get the damned thing done and my problems fixed. Can’t they staff the thing 24 hours a day? Nurses work shift work, why not MRI techs? Is this a union issue? Does the equipment need a long cool-down time after running a day? Perhaps the machine needs a nap? Is it a political way to control the dispensation of health care? I’ll tell you what it is! It is complete and total insanity!

Hire the staff and man the damned equipment 24/7 until the backlog is gone!

 As it stands for me, they still have no idea what is wrong. The leg is improving, but not with any great speed. So I wait for spontaneous recovery and an MRI. On the plus side having a chronic, debilitating disease has turned out to be a great weight loss program! The new meds have killed my appetite and I’m dropping weight like a stone. J Go me!

Hugs
Cath

Side Note: "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated," is a Mark Twain quote from when a newspaper mistakenly printed his obitauary.

What do Vodak, Kids and Chocolate have in common?

Okay, okay. I know. Monday is supposed to be the worst day of the week. And for a lot of us, it often is. But for some strange reason I woke up this morning feeling very grateful. Weird, I admit!

I started pondering this strange phenomenon and a list began to grow in my mind. So here it is in no particular order ... the things in my life that I am grateful for.

1. My darling husband.
2. My lovely sweet daughters. (AKA the Spawn)
3. A bushel full of friends, male and female.
4. Cupboards full of fabric.
5. My lovely longarm machine.
6. Chocolate.
7. Beer and vodak.
8. Books, books and more books. (Yup, I'm a reader.)
9. My cats. Sir Winston Churchill and Miss Trixie.
10. My soon to arrive grand-baby. (September can't come soon enough for me.)

Does my  new grand-baby look like me?

Caution: Nut Job Behind the Wheel

Okay, I admit it. I may not be the best driver on the planet. It’s true!

I have a serious tendency to be aggressive. I drive an ancient Honda that gets great gas mileage. The trouble is that I drive a wee-bit faster than I should sometimes. I have received a couple of Fast-Driving Awards in my day and have been in the occasional accident. In high school, I backed into some old battle-axe’s car in a parking lot. (I blame her; she wasn’t there when I shoulder checked and started backing up.) Once, a dozen years ago, I managed to center punch my suburban on a light standard in a Safeway parking lot. On the plus side, I didn’t hit the kid I saw darting through the parking lot. Although my innate honesty forces me to tell you that she wasn’t nearly as close as I thought she was. (I see a theme here, maybe I should avoid parking lots!)

So yeah, I am not a perfect driver, although I am scrupulously careful in playground and school zones. I don’t text while I drive, and I have a Bluetooth thingy for my cell phone.

I do have a couple of driving pet peeves. Learn how to merge people. Speed up to match the flow of traffic you are joining, and the rest of you make a gap! And can we please, please, please watch the lights and get moving when it turns green. Oh, and those speed signs, can we make an attempt to get to posted speed in less than five minutes and can we travel the posted speed. I’m not asking you to exceed the speed limit, just get there!

Okay, enough venting, on to the positive part of a road trip, the music.

My previous post was on the shameful tunes on my Ipod. Today’s post kind of ties into that. I love music. Yup, it’s true. I get in the car and turn the radio from talk-radio to music. (Why does my man listen to that?) I have five classic rock and one country station pre-set on the radio. (And two classic rock for another city that I visit often.) I start pushing buttons until something moves me and I start singing along. (The car is too old to have a CD player.)

I back out of the driveway, and I’m off. Recently, I noticed that I get a lot of funny looks while I am driving and singing away. I’ll be stopped at a light, sun glasses on, reading glasses on top of my head, Bluetooth in, and caterwauling away to the music. Teenagers look at me like I’m some kind of a nut job. Small kids smile and wave. Women glare at me. Old people ignore me and men smile.

I thought it was just a coincidence, but I started paying closer attention to the reactions of the folks around me while I sing and drive. Rarely do I get an unexpected reaction. Although, one lady looked at me, and said to her friend, “Oh my God, look at her.” (Lip reading. LOL) Now, that just made my day.

Now I admit I’ve seen people rocking-out while they drive and it makes me smile. I love pulling up alongside someone when you can tell they are shouting the lyrics at the top of their voices. It just makes me laugh. The teenagers really crack me up, because as soon as they notice that you are looking, they stop singing. Too funny! Me, I don’t care what you think of my singing, or how silly I look. I’m just having fun.

So keep your eye out for me when you’re touring around. I’ll be the brunette with the wild-out-of-control hair, tortoise shell sunglasses, reading glasses and Bluetooth, singing away at the top of her voice and driving her wee Honda like a cross between a tank and a Porsche.