Lost Weggie

[Sangye]

Would you like a deep fried Mars bar when you go??

[crackers]

no thank you sangye i think i'll pass on that one.while off topic is really on topic just a few a miles from where we live a man went to the atm machine to check his bank balance.it told him he had 29 million pounds in his account.he goes in the bank and tells the manager that there has been a mistake.the manager says no mistake "it's yours go spend it".so he contacts the head office of the bank and tells them the story.they think he's some crazy person and ignore him.after numerous phone calls and e-mails somebody finally checks it out and realises that he's telling the truth.they quickly take back the money and tell him they will give him a reward for his honesty.the next day a basket of food arrives worth about £20.so much for honesty.after all the bad press banks have had recently you'd have thought they have taken the opportunity to redress that.i have to admit i'd have done exactly the same as him but it makes you wonder if banks deserve that level of honesty.
john.

[Doug]

If this were Hollywood, an angry crowd of peasants with torches and pitchforks would assemble in front of the bank insisting on justice. The craven bank manager would hide in the vault, but young Jimmy Stewart would stand on a pyre (bad choice, but highest point in the village square) proclaiming the intrinsic decency of mankind, the virtues of capitalism and the Transylvanian way of life, and why 20 pounds is a blinking lot of money to foolish peasants and how if they don't disperse, the National Guard will disperse them with "firesticks" (they being too poor to have the word "blunderbuss" in their vocabularies....), and so there. I guess you figured out how they react to that, and we see the young Jimmy Stewart, aflame, screaming in pain, "And to think I've been a heretic for years, have escaped the Office of the Holy Inquisition, only to meet my fate this way. How ironic!" What was the topic?

[Doug]

p.s. Pardon me for blatant self-boosterism, but I've upgraded my blog, adding videos and cat and bunny pictures (I'm shameless...!), completed a new blog on the difference between wedgie- and weggieboy (videos showing both, plus cat picture, and one of me you will recall caused general psychological distress on the site), added a "I am not Maru" and a genuine Maru ("Lion", the cat's name in Japanese) the cat video to the blog where I have a conversation with myself about not blogging in June, and replaced the gamelan video with a much better example from Bali. The WordPress people just recently ungraded the site, and I discovered how to take advantage of them today. Thank you for making yesterday the one with the biggest number of hits since I started it! The checks are in the mail!

[Jack]

I like your blog Doug. It has a relaxed, rambling style!

[Doug]

Unfortunately, it is exactly what I'm like! Hope all weggies enjoyed the back-references to our site in-jokes! Could resist! Took me till 2 am my time (9am GMT) last night to get the videos and pictures to settle down and stay put, but the upside is I now know how to do it! Thanks for you comments, Jack! (p.s. I still need to get our rat-bit into "conversation" some way. It is one of my favorite forum creations. Jolanta, wasn't it?)

[Cindy M]

I agree with the new topics. I have not been on the site since May 21/09 and was not sure where to go to say I am back. I am sorry that I have not been an active member for a while but alot has been going on. I thought I had this almost beat but I lost again. I should have been taking my symptons more seriously but I didn't.

My opthomologist was very concerned with me and wanted to blast this disease. When I went to see him I was down to 9 (5mg) preds per day, and 125mg of cyclophosphamide per day. My right eye was a complete mess, almost total loss of vision, headaches, etc. He talked to my rhuematologist and they increased by preds to 16 (5mg) per day and I also did 3 days of prednisone IV. I also have been approved for a new drug that I will be taking by IV on August 5 called Rituxan. Things have calmed down a bit and my vision is a bit better, but no promises. I have alot of ointments and drops for my eye but they are only for comfort. I also had an orbital CT scan down and I went from 1 mass to 3 masses behind my eye. Surgery is out of the question right now because of all the inflamation. I also get some bleeding from the eye because of the pressure.

My new phrase or motto has become "WHEN I GET BETTER" not "If I get better" because I think that might have jinxed me. I no longer drive because of all the eye problems, not sure how I feel about that. Lost alot of freedom of coming and going, but no longer have to pay for gas.

Hope everyone else is doing fine.

[Sangye]

Hi Cindy,
I'm so sorry to hear what you've been going through! Eye stuff is very scary. I'm glad your docs took it seriously. I hear a lot of good things about Rituxan, so I hope it works well for you, too.

I've recently started saying "When I get well" also. And "When I go back to work," etc.... I said it in the beginning after dx, but just lost heart that it was a possibility after awhile. Hang in there.

[Doug]

You have the right attitude, Cindy.

Living in a prairie province, I suspect losing the ability to drive is much like it is here: everything is so spread out and distant, and you think in terms of hours to get somewhere, not kilometers. Not being able to drive is to be isolated from, well, virtually everything.

I imagine Edmonton is cosmopolitan enough that there must be light rail or buses dedicated to people with disabilities or old age that pick you up and deliver you to destinations for nothing or a nominal fee. Try to find out if such services are available to you. There may even be volunteer organizations that provide transportation for people with needs. There are such services in my small town, so I'd be surprised if you don't have them in your city!

Relying on family and friends for rides for any length of time generally strains the good natures of saints, (even if you offer to help with gasoline) let alone those of family and friends. It's an option, however, for the short term.

I hope the eye issue can be brought back into line for you. It sounds like you might be having some improvement. Let's hope so!

[jola57]

Eyes are scarry stuff, glad they are taking it seriously