Where To, Bud?

After all the moving to our new place, waiting for carpenters, plumbers, electricians and painters to do their thing, we're finally at a point where I can sit down and peacefully write a few lines and report on the recent Alzheimer's Advocacy Forum Dondra and I attended along with hundreds of other folks representing every state in this great country of ours. Beep! Beep! Beep! RUN-ON SENTENCE ALARM!!! (Boy, I can sure tell it's been a while when I set off one of those ROSA alarms! :=)) It was an eye-opening three days, and, after listening to people such as our own Kris Bakowski from Athens, I came home from Washington DC with a whole new appreciation for the battles we have won and those we have yet to face. I am currently at work finishing an article for the Georgia Advocacy newsletter, so what you're about to read will be an overview with the most salient points (and there were many of those) as I remember them and from my notes.. As a "Rookie" I was very...

It is with a great deal of sadness I must say goodbye to a friend and faithful follower of this blog. Norine New passed away recently after an extended illness I did not know she had. Norine was one of the many "Doper" friends from my online community, "The Straight Dope", who helped Dondra and I so much during what we have come to know as "The Troubles" in both our lives after I lost my job, filed bankruptcy and endured the long haul of obtaining my disability. Had it not been for her e-mails and posts of encouragement on the Dope, the way would have been much harder for us, and we are both very grateful to have been a part of her life, brief though it was. We didn't know each other face to face, no, but from what I do know, she is a follower of the Bahai'i faith (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1'%C3%AD_Faith), a gentle people who came together for Norine's "Celebration of Life" this week. You may visit her tribute page ...

....... and she's as good as new! HA-HA! Now all I gotta do is keep her off the salt. (DOUBLE-HA!) See, when she had her abdominal surgery last year (when she almost died, remember?) she started retaining fluid and the diuretics alone just weren't getting rid of the swelling. She finally got to the point where it was affecting her breathing and her doctor decided (finally) to get aggressive and admit her and draw the fluid off with IV therapy and leg wraps. So now those fine looking gams are back and they drew off like 10 pounds of fluid (YIKES!). Home therapy to be performed by yours truly: putting her compression hose on both legs which is very painful indeed (they are pressurized down to 40 mm of mercury which means they are VERY TIGHT !), to the point where she cries out and has tears. This morning we did a trial run and instead of slipping the stockings onto bare skin we used powder which wasn't AS painful, so I had the bright idea of picking up some WD-40 on the way ...