I am reaching out to all you kind giving RB-er’s to let you know that my work was chosen to be used in a fund raising effort for a WONDER…
I am reaching out to all you kind giving RB-er’s to let you know that my work was chosen to be used in a fund raising effort for a WONDERFUL organization that helps to spread awareness and raise funds for research and support of families that are living with the disease my son has!! They are incredible! Some of you may have seen this image (it’s my portfolio image)...it was turned into a card. I GET NOTHING out of this as far as compensation goes…I get recognition. That’s it. ALL proceeds go to this NON-PROFIT organization if you order the cards! ALL proceeds! They are a pack of 10 for $12.00! Feel free to check it out. / It’s www.apfed.org Click on “gift store”...scroll down..and it’s titled “Stacey Dionne’s Card”. The picture is of my son. .. He is living with a disease that prevents him from eating food! So, please .. help support this organization! It would mean the world to me! AND, if you do order…PLEASE let me know so I can thank you!!! Cuz, it would be deserving of a thankyou! :) / Stacey…
To say that my family enjoys a light moment is an understatement. My husband’s dry wit was one of the things that attracted me to him in …
To say that my family enjoys a light moment is an understatement. My husband’s dry wit was one of the things that attracted me to him in the first place and his father was a comedic jewel. Dad White was always keeping everyone laughing and smiling. My own father was a very quiet man (let’s face it – he couldn’t get a word in edge-wise!) but whenever he spoke it was either very important or funny. My sister looked like Carol Burnett and has always been a hilarious clown despite her two fights with cancer. We’ve had a lot of fun through the years. / Starting with Valentine’s Day of this year the tables could have turned if we had allowed. Things could have gotten fairly dim at our house but the Bible says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” So we have persevered with laughter. / On February 14th I reported to the women’s clinic for those wonderful medical imaging miracles called mammograms. Yep, folks – I had found a lump so I knew that the next few days might be harrowing. My daughter accompanied me every step of the way and we just kept smiling. Two days later the biopsies began. / Now those things make mammograms look like a sunny walk in the park. To say that the experience is “cold” just doesn’t do it justice – what I say is that you just haven’t lived until you’ve walked around with ice packs in your bra! Now, that is an experience. / Two days after the biopsies the visits to the surgeons began due to a tubular carcinoma – another cute phrase for breast cancer. / Well, I’ve never been one to do things without flair so I have to approach this the same way. My biopsies showed the tubular carcinoma in the right side and “atypical, suspicious” tissue in the left. On March 3rd I’ll have a lumpectomy on the right and a “deep biopsy” on the left since more tissue is needed to determine what the next course of action will be. / During all this we had not told my two school aged sons or my 3 adorable grandchildren about any of this. We hadn’t wanted to alarm them needlessly. We still don’t have a definitive plan for treatments but will after the lumpectomy and deep biopsy so we decided to tell the kids when they were all together. / That evening my daughters family was over so we called everyone into the living room. “Come to the living room – we have to have a family conference,” went the call. My oldest son, a senior in high school, said, “This had better be important – when Dad calls a family conference it’s always over something dumb!” My oldest granddaughter – almost thirteen – looked at her mom and said, “Are you pregnant?” when my youngest son – fourteen – chimed in with “Have we won the lottery – are we rich?” / When everyone was settled we began to explain the process and tried to keep a smile on our faces and a positive attitude – after all, attitude will get you everywhere. The fourteen year old boy is a budding guitarist and had his acoustic with him. When we got to the end of the explanations he broke out into a rock rhythm on the guitar – “Mom’s got a growth in her boob, da-da-da-da-da; and one in her armpit, too. da-da-da-da-da. The doctor won’t like it one bit, da-da-da-da-da, when he gets in that stinky pit, da-da-da-da-da.” / By this time everyone was screaming with laughter, the two youngest grands were rolling in the floor but we “adults” tried to keep our dignity by remaining off the floor. Approximately four more verses were made up by those in attendance and the laughter continued. / It proved to be a great way to break this news and gave all of us a different outlook. / Our other component is our faith. We haven’t missed a beat yet and we won’t – God is too good to all of us for us to give up now! I think He loves a good laugh , too. / Just this morning my pastor’s wife – a darling young woman who is one of my daughter’s best friends – gave us a card that said “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” On the inside the verse reads, “But when life hands you a load of crap, don’t make anything. Trust me on this one.” She added that since we were the “quirkiest family in town” she thought it just fit too well! Needless to say, it is my very favorite card ever received from a friend. / So, dear friends – please keep those prayers coming, we trust in the Lord and we know He will get us all through many things. But I also ask that when you pray you smile and give a hearty laugh – prayer and laughter, the two best medicines ever!
Who’d be without it? We’re living longer; the diseases that afflicted our forebears are being eradicated; slowly, we’re learning how to m…
Who’d be without it? We’re living longer; the diseases that afflicted our forebears are being eradicated; slowly, we’re learning how to manipulate the hand dealt us at birth. / Still, it’s time they got serious about attacking the gullible gene
As some of you might remember I had my first mammograms on February 14th, Valentine’s Day, after finding a lump in my breast on February …
As some of you might remember I had my first mammograms on February 14th, Valentine’s Day, after finding a lump in my breast on February 12th. As a note of coincidence – I had my first date with my husband on February 14th approximately 100 years ago! Well, maybe not 100 years ago – maybe just eighty or something like that. I actually took him out because at that time I was working for our local NBC affiliate so I could put him on my expense account! We talked “shop” for about 2 minutes and twelve seconds just to make it “legal.” After we finished enjoying a chinese meal he bought me a chocolate heart shaped sucker wrapped in shiney foil with the words “Be Mine” imprinted there-on. I have been ever since. Oh, but I digress. / So – since Valentine’s Day of this year I have had 3,651 mammograms, 893 sonograms, and approximately four hundred biopsies. OK – I lie. But it seems more interesting that way. Actually I have had three biopsies on the left breast – each one making it more sore and uncomfortable. One biopsy on the right which resulted in a lumpectomy on March 3rd. Then Monday of this week, St. Patrick’s Day, I went back for more surgery – you know the saying “It was just so much fun that we did it again.” – that doesn’t apply here, either, but again, it makes it more interesting. / And to add interesting facts – they also biopsied the left breast again because I am so unique and different. The docs at Hendrick’s Medical Center in Abilene and Baylor College of Medicine just haven’t decided what exactly is going on in the left breast. I really think my cells and lymph nodes are just having a big party all the time thus throwing off the scientific minds that are examining my stuff. Hopefully we’ll know more on that tomorrow. / Once in the hospital this past Monday I got to visit with all the staff members that I had gotten acquainted with just two weeks prior when I went in for all that other fun stuff. / I’m going to tell you about this experience from the get-go so let me warn you that the details can be graphic. If you are pregnant, have heart disease or high blood pressure, or if you ever been diagnosed with mental illness please read at your own risk. Also – if you have young readers please know that viewer discretion is advised and you may want to block this journal entry completely. OK – now keep reading! / At 8:00 a.m. I got to make the hike over to Nuclear Medicine or Nu-Cu-Ler Medicine as we Texans call it. There some cold handed nurse rubbed a salve on my outward most boob area that left the entire top layer of skin deadened. (After the process I realized that they actually needed to deaden the top forty-five layers of skin to make the process completely painless. But alas, only the top layer was affected.) They next told me that they were going to give me four – count ‘em – four injections within the (Hm, Hm) nipple area. At that point I almost decided that heck, I could live with cancer! The doctor seemed to think that I would take some solace in the knowledge that the needles with which they stuck into my (Hm, Hm) nipple area were very fine. Very fine? At that point they looked more like a pencil lead to me. These needles injected some sort of Nu-Cu-Ler dye that migrated to my lymph nodes so the doc’s would know which ones to “harvest” – a cute word for “cut out.” Anyway, I did survive that process but not with a smile on my face. / Then my daughter and I played the waiting game until I was called for pre-op. Pre-op, anesthesia, and the actual surgery were uneventful. I just love that amnesiac they put in those IV’s when you get to the OR. It’s like a miracle drug – you don’t remember a thing. / The surgery took longer than they thought it would. They removed several lymph nodes under my right arm and one of them had cancer cells present. Darn that little lymph node. Without him I probably could get by with just radiation but because he had to show off I’ll have to have chemo, too. / My doctor decided wisely to keep me over-night to help me “manage the pain.” I think he must have understood how bad the pain was when I jumped to a full standing position on my bed, reached over to him, grabbed his upper-lip, and pulled it as hard as I could until it covered his entire face. At that time I yelled “Pain killers, please!” / Once again, I have to be different. The only bed they could find for me was in the maternity ward! I’m not kidding – here were all these cute twenty and thirty something women with their adorable newborns and here I was with two swollen boobs, a head of the wildest gray hair you ever saw, and a doctor with no bottom lip. Oh, my family thought it was just the perfect time for a laugh – “Congrats – it’s twins!” they all said as I was wheeled in. At first I thought they were talking about my bossoms – after all, I was still rather sedated. Even James and Jill – my preacher and his wife – said they wanted to run in yelling “Congratulations – we’re so excited!” but they thought better of it when they saw the expression on my face which obviously said, “Don’t say a word!” / My sister insisted on staying in the hospital that night with me. I really felt bad about it at first because I didn’t want to be a bother. I urged her to go on home saying, “You need to get a good night’s rest – you have cancer” to which she promptly replied, “So do you – I’m staying!” We had a virtual party off and on all night. / I guess the highlight of the night was the first time I went to the restroom to (how do I say this politely?) empty my bladder. The dye that had been shot into my (hm, hm) nipple area earlier in the day had caused my pee-pee to be brightly grass green colored! I glanced down at the toilet – looked up at the nurse and exclaimed “Hey, Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!”
Thank you so much to Mar Silva / for buying a ‘Crow Medicine’ card!!! You have made my day,...
Thank you so much to Mar Silva / for buying a ‘Crow Medicine’ card!!! You have made my day, dear friend!!! Sincere thanks for all your kind support…it means a lot to me….Enjoy the card, Mar! Namaste, / Jan
I appreciate your concern Gregory. My situation is very complex. I just write down what is happening to me. I am very sick right now. The…
I appreciate your concern Gregory. My situation is very complex. I just write down what is happening to me. I am very sick right now. They are either going to provide the medical care I need or I will die that is all there is to it. They can not really torture me anymore, I have nothing left to lose and I am very ill. I feel there are people around me who do not understand this, but it is a simple fact because I can feel what is going on in my body and it is not good. It scares me but it is also reality and I have to deal with it. So I guess what I am trying to say is that it does not matter if they want to pretend I am not sick or not provide medical care for me, because the reality is that I am, and if they do not provide medical care for me I will die if I am not already, and then they will have to answer for this. Whether or not they want to acknowledge it, it is really happening, and no I am not okay. They have let me sit here and rot, and this might very well be what causes my death. Again they will have to answer for this, even if no one else cares I have children. They will have to explain to my children why they let me sit here and rot, when they could have saved my life. That is why I write about what is happening, to make a record whether or not anyone does anything, I have written about it and that makes people aware. I appreciate your concern but I do not think there is anything you can really do for me but be my friend and listen and understand. Thank you so much and you take care. Smiles and friendship from Jane:-)
Hi everyone! I’ve been quite inactive lately. because I had so many things to do. I have a new room in Rotterdam, because I study medi…
Hi everyone! I’ve been quite inactive lately. because I had so many things to do. I have a new room in Rotterdam, because I study medicine here. It’s my first year, so everything is so new to me! Living in a big city, going to college, prepare your meal yourself everyday, being alone in your room xD.. It wasn’t that difficult to adapt to this new life, though. I’m kinda used to it now =) Hopefully, I can upload more designs soon! Maybe one today.. =)
Hi Claire: It is mommy. I hope to hear from you soon. I am not feeling well today as always. Actually I am feeling very bad. I have a har…
Hi Claire: It is mommy. I hope to hear from you soon. I am not feeling well today as always. Actually I am feeling very bad. I have a hard time even painting and you know how much I love painting. I decided to send you one example of the abuse I am subjected to every day, the mind games. I could write you a whole encyclopedia set, but for now we will keep it simple mostly because I do not feel good enough even to sit here at the computer and type this to you. The people (the police) who keep me in this place refer to my body as a building, that is because they have made it a building by not finishing it, leaving a hole in by body intentionally. They have trapped me in this building by not giving me health care, something I need not want. They try to force me into relationships to finish the building, (my body). They refuse to restore my health. They use the bathrooms to torture me with mind games. They say things like they have to use the toilet and then they look at me. That is just one example, they do all kinds of stuff with the rooms —the kitchen, the bathrooms, and the fixtures of the building all the time to demean and degrade me. Like when I first came here and they put me in a bed under a plumbing fixture that had red paint smeared all over it (like blood). They think they can do anything to me and they do. They constantly threaten me and make me live in pain. They constantly play mind games. They took the door off the bathroom yesterday and then one of the people who works here waited until I was eating my food on the stairs (they use food and eating all the time too, because eating refers to the infection in my body) and he came over with another guy and started telling him how he wanted him to SCREW the door. He said just take it out and SCREW IT. It is very hard to prove they are doing these things on purpose because they are always indirect and cowardly, (anyone with courage would just be direct, but they are doing them on purpose and they do everyday). They always play these kind of demeaning games. How do you think this effects me as a human being? How do you think it impacts you to have them constantly sexually demeaning me and making me live in fear like this? Do you think this has an impact on you as a person as well? The answer is yes, everything they do to hurt and demean me, hurts you. As I write this the infection in my abdomen swirls around in pain. I can feel the bacteria crawling around in me eating at my insides. Would you treat your dog like this? No, of course not. That is my example for today of what I have to endure every day over and over endlessly. I want to talk to you about normal things like how you are doing in school, how you are feeling, what is going on in your life and etc…but is very hard for me because of what I have to endure by the nasty people who think it is a game to torture me. They do not care about you Claire, or Mitchell, or they would not endlessly abuse me. Like the guy standing by the nurses station the other day that said loudly as I walked by that he got a job at the DOLLAR store. This was an insult to me as are all of their other daily insults. I am so ill, but this alone is not enough for them, they have to constantly keep at me with the mental insults. And this has hurt me as well. It has made me afraid and changed my personality and actions. I am not the same person that I was thirteen years ago. I used to be so loving and trusting—- Please write to me soon, because I do want to know about how are doing, and how school is going, and etc…and I also want to know what you think about the examples I am going to send you every day of my life and the way these people treat me, and the impact it has on me, you and Mitchell, and anyone else I might choose to love in the future. They are very shameful people. I love you both very much. I am going to go now. I miss you and Mitchell very much. Love forever and Always. Mommy.
Dear Claire: I hope your school is going well for you. How are you finding your classes? Do you like them? Which one is your favor…
Dear Claire: I hope your school is going well for you. How are you finding your classes? Do you like them? Which one is your favorite and why? Have you uploaded any poems yet on the red bubble? It is easy to do, just go to writing, then add a new written work, write it, then go down to the bottom and publish it. There are many groups that you can join to put your poetry and art into. The three that I usually use a lot for poetry are All Things Poetic, Artistic, Philosophical and The Word Tree and WMG (Writers Market Group)- these are good ones to start off with. Especially WMG because anything you write in this group can potentially get published and sold to magazines. Have you made new friends yet? Do you still have your best old friends? Have you met any cute guys? Are you doing any extra curriculer activities, like school newspaper, cheerleader, etc…? Are you doing any sports? I miss you and Mitchell very much and I think about you every day. I am very ill. I have been asking for an appointment and medicine but they do not even seem to be able to do this for me Claire. They are torturing me. I can barely urinate and I have bacteria crawling around in me and on me. I am wondering whether or not they have any intention of healing me when I get the disability insurance that I am supposedly being made to wait for now. The inside of my abdomen feels like a dirty garbage can from the infection they have left in my body and I am very weak and in pain all the time. If they do not heal me, eventually I will die, because you can not leave an infection in someone’s body and not expect it to finally take a toll. This is what infections do, they attack your body, break down your system, and make you ill until you die. I also always feel the bacteria crawling in my hair and on my head from the dirty infection in my body. It is gross and scary. I am being treated very cruelly. None of this was ever necessary, and they have left this infection in my body as a tool to manipulate, torture and control me. They have left this infection in my body on purpose, FOR THIRTEEN YEARS, enough, enough. They never really have good intentions Claire, and I do not believe they have good intentions now either. They have had thirteen years to heal me and they never have on purpose because they wanted to torture me with this infection on purpose. This is ridiculous Claire. This is unbelievable torture. It is time for it to stop Claire. If they do not do the right thing and heal my body then in the future I want you and Mitchell to get restitution, PAYBACK, for the way they are making me suffer and what they are keeping me from being to you. You can prove they are abusing me Claire. You can prove they have made me sit here with an infection in my body until it did detrimental damage and finally made me die. You can be rewarded money for what they are doing to me, because they are abusing me on purpose and you can prove it. There are medical records, prescription records, things I have written, hospital records, other people’s knowledge (they can not lie in court), and other related records. They have harrassed me terribly since I have been here with mind games and denial of medicine and medical care. These are things that hurt me and you and Mitchell too, because everything that hurts me hurts you. You can be rewarded restitution for the bad things they do to me and this is what I want for you because I do not believe they are trying to do the right things, I do not believe they are going to stop abusing and torturing me, I do not believe they are going to provide the medical care I need and employment I need, I do not believe they are going to be fair (I and you and Mitchell should not have to pay for them to put me back together, when they are the ones that did this to me), and I do not believe that they are going to get out of my space and leave me alone and let me be free like everyone else. And besides me, the people who pay the ultimate price for this are you and Mitchell. I am feeling very bad right now, physically. I am very tired all of the time and the infection in my body really hurts, it is very painful. I am going to go now. I hope to hear from you soon. I love you very much, and Mitchell too. Always and Forever, Mommy.
Hi Claire and Mitchell: I am not feeling well, they need to provide health care for me soon. I have asked them to make an appoint…
Hi Claire and Mitchell: I am not feeling well, they need to provide health care for me soon. I have asked them to make an appointment for me to get me medicine, but they do not see to be to concerned about getting this done, (I have been begging for medicine and medical care ever since I have been here, and before for the five years since I have been back in America), however I need more antibiotics because the infection in my body is very painful and hurting other areas of my body I am sure, like my liver and kidneys. Why a group of people would want to keep me like this is beyond me really. Does your father want me dead? What does he think is going to happen if they do not take the infection out of my body, and how much torture does he think I deserve? The true answer to that question is that I have never deserved any of this, and especially not thirteen years of it, and I should not have to sleep with another man for medicine, what a terrible way to treat your mother, but that is what is happening. The only door open to me seems to be the “if I screw someone I will get medicine door”, because my pleas for medical care and medicine go unheeded and ignored. Claire, how would you like to have someone break your leg on purpose, and then find that the only way you could get the doctors to heal your leg was to have sex with Johnny down the street. These people are evil and cruel to me, your mommy is ill and she needs medicine and medical care now, not later. The longer I am kept like this, the more damage is done. These people play with my body, spirit and mind all the time Claire. The other day I was sitting in a private place in this building by the window drawing and two guys came up outside of the window and started talking about how they wanted to take her home and fuck her. They were very loud and obnoxious and I knew it was directed toward me as is all of their never-ending abuse. This is the kind of sexual, mental, and emotional disrespect I have to tolerate almost every day. Those men are strangers to me and there comments are unwarranted, intrusive and abusive and this kind of treatment does damage to me as a human being, and you both too, for you and Mitchell are connected to me. These people have no shame. They will not get out of my personal space and leave me alone with their nasty dirty games of abuse and disrespect. You should not have to see and witness your mother being treated like this. This is the reality of how they treat me and the impact it has on all of us. I love you both very much and I miss you both very much. I hope to hear from you soon. I tell you these things because you have a right to know the truth and how this, their behavior impacts you as well as me. I hate their nastiness and their foulness and the fact that they won’t leave me alone. And I hate what it has done to all of our lives and continues to do. Can you understand why I would not want to be here? This is the life I am forced to live here, a life of never-ending no rights and disrespect, however this is my home too, and decent people would leave me alone and let me function so that I could love and give to the people who deserve it like you and Mitchell, but the won’t leave me alone, they target me no matter what I do, NO MATTER WHAT I DO, and I hate them for it. I love you forever and always, maybe one day I and you and Mitchell, and anyone else I might choose to love will be free of this and these things. This is something I can only dream of…Love, Mommy.
wow..I woke up..logged in and got a sale! thank you to whoever bought my laughter is the best medicine card! !http://images-1.redbubbl…
wow..I woke up..logged in and got a sale! thank you to whoever bought my laughter is the best medicine card!
The Republicans tend to harp about socialism as if it is an evil thing that is to be avoided at all costs. What they don’t want you to k…
The Republicans tend to harp about socialism as if it is an evil thing that is to be avoided at all costs. What they don’t want you to know is that under the Bush and McCain bank deregulation efforts that we are currently reaping the benefits of, the debt of the banks has been socialized. That’s right, the banks can’t be allowed to lose the money they pissed away, we save them by taking on their debt which is a drastic form of socialism. The down side to that socialistic response, the banks are still free to piss away money, but they get to keep any profit they manage to make without sharing the profit with us. The government will be paid back without getting any real benefit from owning a stake in the banks. McCain’s plan to have the bad mortgages be bought by the government, is yet another attempt at making maximum profit for the banks and screwing us. The banks will sell the debt at face value, not market value. That rewards the robber barons bank owners for making bad loans and makes it much more difficult for the government to do anything but lose in the long haul. Anti-abortionists claim to be pro life, most are not (support of a death penalty automatically excludes one from truthfully being pro life). They would love to have their socialist agenda, become law. They wish to force their ideology of life beginning at conception upon everybody. They usually also are against having those most likely to become pregnant given enough information to prevent one. Just saying no doesn’t work for drug users or sexually active teens. Teens that are informed about proper methods for contraception are less likely to get pregnant, but are no more likely to engage in premarital sex. The one main place I do not want government intervention is in bedrooms or between doctors and their patients. If you are going to socialize one area that should not have needed it, why do you not socialize the one thing that would benefit the most Americans, our health care. We are not enabling our citizens to have full and productive lives under the present system. Many older Americans have to choose between eating and medicine. We DIE at a younger age than the citizens of many countries that have socialized care. To further make my point, those of us that do have coverage pay higher premiums for our insurance because ultimately the costs for the uninsured patients unable to pay are passed on to us. Why not make the system fairer for all? Medicare and Medicaid were reasonably well run programs before Bush got his hands on them. They were among the better government run systems. A health care system incorporated into that existing system would offer significant benefits to the majority of Americans. As it is now, health care varies significantly from plan to plan and state to state, so much so, that it is sometimes impossible to find coverage for older employees that were forced to find a new job when their ex employer decided to ship their job to Bangalore or Manila. Why would you be content to cover some citizens, when all of us need it?
Being creative has been hard for me this week. Maybe it’s being at back home after a trip to Florida last week. Maybe it’s feeling overwh…
Being creative has been hard for me this week. Maybe it’s being at back home after a trip to Florida last week. Maybe it’s feeling overwhelmed by everything that I want to get accomplished and the intrusion of the trivia of daily life. Whatever it is has led to a feeling of limbo that nothing seems to shake. Finally yesterday, it hit me. I’m waiting for the presidential election here in the US. It can’t come fast enough. The changes in daily life for most Americans have been massive over the last eight years. Many people will blame it on 9/11, and that has been part of it. No doubt that it sped up and magnified our downward spiral, but the changes had started before 9/11. To me, it seems that the changes in my life and those of my friends are indicative of the deeper problems of our country. Let’s start with medical care. After almost twenty years of a good job, my husband was forced to quit after his hospital was bought by an HMO that was famous for the way it cut the quality of care in order to make money. I was ill at the time with sinus polyps. Under by law, we could continue with our current medical insurance for eighteen month after he left his job. I was locked in a pattern of chronic infection. My body was resistant to the antibiotics that were approved by the formulary. The doctors would put me on steroids and antibiotics. I’d get better for a few weeks. Then I’d be weaned off the steroids and get ill again. All of this was complicated by asthma that presented itself with a chronic cough. At its worst, I could only get a little sleep at night by sitting upright with pillows across my lap and slumping forward over the pillows. Only this position stopped the cough. At no time did my doctors even suggest x-rays of my sinuses or even bother to look up my nose with a scope. As baby boomers, we were told that we were uninsurable by any other private insurance. My husband was jobless, and we had just bought our dream home in Santa Fe a year before. There were no jobs for him in Northern New Mexico. He tried for a year to work locums. They’re sort of have stethoscope will travel. All the travel was exhausting. This led us back to Chapel Hill, North Carolina where we had lived thirty years ago. He went back to work at the University of North Carolina where he had done his anesthesia training.He immediately got me seen by a specialist who probably saved my life. After over four hours of sinus surgery, I got up and walked out of the hospital the same day. We went out to dinner two days later and decided to move to Chapel Hill three months later. We hated to leave our home and friends in New Mexico, but we needed the job and the medical insurance. Our old insurance refused to pay for my surgery as they claimed that I could have gotten the same care in Albuquerque. Short of hiring lawyers and suing the HMO, there was no way we could get our money back. It did not matter that there was none of the equipment used on me during surgery in the whole state of New Mexico. We’re relatively lucky as my husband will always have a job. We’ll always have medical insurance, but overall the quality of care is dropping in this country. It’s unimaginable how many people are dieing with no affordable care. My brother, an epidemiologist who specializes in public health, says that more people die every year in the US from a lack of medical care than died in 9/11. Yet our leaders are callous to this statistic. I have counseled my friends who have thought of retiring or changing jobs to make sure that the medical insurance and benefits are locked in before making any changes. Recently, I went to get a refill for a medication that I have taken for almost ten years. It has been discontinued by the manufacturer. It’s not a necessity for life, but it did take care of my problem. The replacement medication does not work as well and gives me mood swings. The manufacturer of the first medication evidently decided that it couldn’t make enough money on the medication when it went off patent and stopped production. Unfortunately, I can’t find a generic version. The quality of life here has degraded in other ways, too. I don’t see friends if we have to drive too far to meet, as gas has gotten to be too expensive. If you can find gas. It took weeks for the pipeline to the Southeastern part of the US to be repaired after it was destroyed by a hurricane this fall. Many people are having to choose between driving and feeding their families because of the expense of gasoline. Before driving to Florida, a necessity for my husband’s work, he got on the AAA web site and researched the availability of gas on our route and it’s cost. The roads have less traffic. Fewer people can afford to travel. Two friends of mine have had to close small businesses that they had run for over twenty years. People are often buying only necessities. When I run errands, the stores are much less busy and crowded than they were even a year ago. The organic and whole foods stores are particularly empty. People are opting for less expensive foods. These are just a few examples of the changes that have happened in the US since 2000. It’s looking as if Barak Obama will win the current election. If he does, I don’t see how he can do more than make a small start on correcting the mess in four years, but at least it would be a start. This has all been written from my perspective and out of personal experience. I did not take on larger issues because I do not have the time gather the statistics to back up my beliefs. Plus, almost any statistic can be twisted to back up any argument, but I felt the need to let Redbubblers from outside the US know a little of what it’s like to live here at the moment.
From Mommy: / Have you read my red bubble page? Did you read my Letter To My Children? Did you read my last email to you, it is on my red …
From Mommy: / Have you read my red bubble page? Did you read my Letter To My Children? Did you read my last email to you, it is on my red bubble page too…I love you and Mitchell. I need health care and medicine. If they don’t provide medical care for me I will become more ill and die. You don’t deserve this and neither do I, or Mitchell too. I am suffering very much. Very much. / / I miss you very much and Mitchell very much. It is very hard for me not to be bitter. I have been made to suffer greatly and I have been seperated from you and Mitchell for no good reason, just because we can. That is their excuse for all the bad things they do to me, it is always just because they can, because according to them I have no rights forever. / / From Claire: / Hey mommy just wanted to tell you that me and Mitchell love you very much! I will send you a longer message later! bye! / / -love claire From Mommy: / Do you read what I write on red bubble in my journal, down at the bottom of the page, and My Letter to My Children, and other things I have written as well. I want you and Mitchell to read these things. I want you to know the truth about how I have and am being treated because I am being hurt, and when I am hurt you both are hurt. I love you very much, and Mitchell too. It is very wrong for your father to leave me like this…period. I am always thinking of you and I hope that school is going well for you, I love you so much, and Mitchy too. Love Always and Forever, Eternally and Unconditionally, Mommy. From Claire: / I’m going to need to go on to red bubble soon so that I can read that. Right now it is too late. I always check my email right before I go to bed and dad is yelling at me to turn the computer off so I’ll talk to you later! I love you! / -claire From Mommy: / I love you too Claire, and Mitchell too. You need to read what I have written. Your daddy, the police and a bunch of other people are keeping me in a cage. As long as I am kept in a cage I can be nothing for you. I need my health. I want you to know the truth because I love you. They are hurting me very bad because they have left an infection in my body and they deny me medical care, this is not right. They know exactly what they are doing, they are doing it very intentionally. Read what I have written on my red bubble page. I am very angry that I cannot be strong and healthy for you and Mitchell. I am very angry that I am not being allowed to be a person. I am very angry that I have been separated from you and therefore cannot truly love you or Mitchell. I am very angry that people will not stop harassing me, playing mind games, and abusing me. I am very angry that because I have to live in fear and sickness, not only does it cost me, but it cost you and Mitchell as well. I am angry for you as well as myself. I love you very much. I have no idea where the future is heading right now…all I know for certain is that I need my health and I need rights. Without these two things I can be nothing to you or Mitchell. I do not know where I will end up in order to finally find these things I need, not want. I can not truly love you or Mitchell if I am not free, and I am not free. I am being held in never-ending bondage (with my health, employment, and many other things), by people who lie, play games, and manipulate. These people have a choice, (whereas I do not, because I am being held in bondage), they can do the right thing and set me free and make good things happen or they can do what they always do, keep me in bondage and make me live in fear, forced to make decisions based on coercion, intimidation, and fear – So that they make bad things happen and bad things become the reality of the future.
My brother sent me this link after I told him in an email what our family doctor once told me (when 18yrs old) about prescriptions drugs …
My brother sent me this link after I told him in an email what our family doctor once told me (when 18yrs old) about prescriptions drugs … he obviously scoured the net looking for any proof of what I had repeated the doctor told me … and he found this: NaturalNews Some very interesting reading there for anyone concerned about their health :) CJ
The Nights Music was featured in the group Back In Blac…
The Nights Music was featured in the group Back In Black ( sorry~N… / Medicine Woman of the Arts was featured in the group Core [C.O.R.E] / Thank you very much to the Hosts of C.O.R.E and Back in Black…... / These both are very special Art Pieces to me.
I’m back from a week’s visit with my daughter and family in Alberta, and while I was away I was generously given many featured photos and…
I’m back from a week’s visit with my daughter and family in Alberta, and while I was away I was generously given many featured photos and also placed in the Top 10 in some challenges. Many, many thanks to the following groups and moderators for choosing my work. You have no idea how happy this makes me feel. Here they are: / Yellow Beauty was featured in two groups: Flowers Only – Selective Coloring and #1 Artists of RedBubble / / Closed Gentian was featured in Endangered Plants / / Dried Roses was featured in Cottage Style / / Terry Fox Monument, Thunder Bay was featured in Lake Superior – Gitchigami / / What Do They Want? – Series 1 and I’m Outta Here were both featured in Deer Me / / / Autumn Delight was featured in DSLR Users Only / / Sunset Fire Over Caddy Lake was featured in two groups – DSLR Users Only and Lakes and Inland Waterways / / Nice Rack was featured in Antlers, Racks and Other Horned Animals / / Rocky Mountains – Canmore, Alberta was featured in Style! Class! Elegance! Excellence! / / Prairie Crocus2 was featured in Canada….the Great White North / / Medicine Hat Teepee was featured in Statues and Such / PLACED IN THE TOP 10 IN CHALLENGES / Inland Lakes and Waterways / Canada…the Great White North / Antlers, Racks and Other Horned Animals / Lake Superior – Gitchigami / Deer Me! (2nd place!) Many thanks to all the kind folks who voted for my images
After 25 years as I medical doctor I have some wisdom I would like to share. Put your energy into preventative medicine today. Do Yoga…
After 25 years as I medical doctor I have some wisdom I would like to share. Put your energy into preventative medicine today. Do Yoga. What is yoga? Perhaps it is not what you think. Empty your mind for a moment. / Take a deep breath. The purpose of yoga is to “calm the fluctuations of the mind”, according to the sage Patanjali, author of The Yoga Sutras. / You may know that yoga means “union”. Union of what? / Union of the individual self with the Cosmic Self. How do we get there? Practice, practice, practice. Yoga is much more than hatha yoga, the asanas (poses) familiar in the yoga studio. In fact, hatha yoga is only one eighth of the eight limbs of yoga taught by Patanjali. / The eight elements of yoga are as follows: 1. The Yamas / Yama here refers to moral conduct. Yama is fulfilled by truthfulness, respecting others, and sharing. 2. Niyamas / Niyama refers to spiritual observances. Niyama prescribes contentment in all circumstances, purity of body-mind, self-discipline, self-study, and devotion. 3. Asanas / Asana means “right posture”, essential for meditiaion. / Asanas are the yoga “poses” familiar to many of us. Asana practice does far beyond healthy posture. This yoga strengthens muscles and bones, massages our organs and promotes cardiovascular conditioning. 4. Pranayama / Prana means life force. Control your prana, control your life force. / This is accomplished by learning special breath techniques like breath of fire and yogic (deep) breathing. 5.Pratyahara / The literal meaning here is withdrawal of the senses from external objects. / This yoga uses means to shut off one or all of the five senses to focus our attention and energy inwards. / Close your eyes. Plug your ears. Withdraw the external stimuli and there is no where else to go but inward! 6. Dharana / Concentration, holding the mind to one thought. 7. Dhyana / Meditation 8. Samadhi / Superconscious experience, nirvana, turiya, the transcendental state, / heaven-on-earth. “Yoga is simply the most powerful system of overall health and well-being I have ever seen.” (from the wonderful book, Yoga As Medicine, by Timothy McCall M.D.). Where to start….borrow a yoga dvd from the library, go to a yoga class. / Just Go. Then experience physical peace, mental peace and spiritual peace. om shanti, shanti, shanti, harrison
Paper Dragons / was featured in Digital Brushstrokes / !http…
Paper Dragons / was featured in Digital Brushstrokes / / This is awesome thank you so very much for the feature..To the Hosts and Members. / Another Great Digital Group to check out. Blanket of Time / was featured in Digital Artists United / Thank you to the Hosts and members of this Great Group… / Stop by and check out the Art it is fantastic. /
Sales, / Wow THANK YOU SO MUCH I am thrilled you liked them / .A greeting card of “Mother Earth-Spirit” to Kendra Taber / A greeting card …
Sales, / Wow THANK YOU SO MUCH I am thrilled you liked them / .A greeting card of “Mother Earth-Spirit” to Kendra Taber / A greeting card of “Warriors Collaborating Energies” to Kendra Taber / Thank you Kindra hope you enjoy them. / Features, / SOMEDAY / was featured in Spirit of the Native American Many thanks to the Hosts and Members of the Group. I am honored always to be a part of this group, and to be Featured. SHE / was featured Paintings Modern and Beyond – PiMT … Rocks into Water / was featured in Paintings Modern and Beyond -PiMT Thanks so very much for this Feature..Thanks to the Hosts and members of this exciting new Group. Challenges, / Tied for first place in Behind the Masks challenge. And featured in the Group. Many thanks to the Hosts and members. Paper Dragons / Finished in the top ten in Dragon’s Fire Challenge
My “Power Failure Prescriptions” painting was chosen as the avatar for the Nostalgic Art and Photography...
My “Power Failure Prescriptions” painting was chosen as the avatar for the Nostalgic Art and Photography group. I don’t know how long it will last since there is an avatar challenge that just ended. Thank you very much! It is quite an honor.
CAN’T WAIT TO HAVE SOCIALIZED MEDICINE-...
CAN’T WAIT TO HAVE SOCIALIZED MEDICINE
The Five Stages of Grief Everyone knows the five stages of grief, right? Denial, anger, bargaining, despair and finally acceptance. ...
The Five Stages of Grief Everyone knows the five stages of grief, right? Denial, anger, bargaining, despair and finally acceptance. Well I can attest to them all and none is fun. The fact that one is forced to traverse this terrain means that something has indeed gone wrong. Usually it is that someone close has died, or a relationship breaks up, or even the passing of a beloved pet. Well for me it was losing what I thought was a certainty. At first it was just a nagging doubt. One that I was forced to check on. And when I did, I found that the chips weren’t falling as they should. But that couldn’t have been right, so I phoned and phoned and phoned an entire day away to make the necessary changes. Denial. / / Then of course it occurred to me that I had been advised wrong. And even a lawyer I unofficially consulted said I had a case. There were three errors that had resulted in this outcome and someone would make the changes or pay. Anger. But was this reasonable? / / So I stated my case to the highest in the land: The Academic Deans of three universities and all agreed they would make changes and take my request into consideration. But none said they could do it on time… So finally I made a (reeking of desperation) appeal. Bargaining. But three times the emails bounced back. The address had been shut down. And calls, and calls, and calls, but only the voicemail had the balls to pick up. / / And after each shift in psychology I threw myself onto my bed. And lay there. And lay there. Despair. / / And I can definitely state that I knew right from that initial phone call what the result would be. But I also knew I had to try. I had to do everything in my arsenal and know first hand that none of it would change the facts. When reality stinks it’s best not to face up wind. The ground had shifted under my feet and no matter what I did, I was always on the wrong side of the divide. I had built a bridge with all the known requirements, to all the stated specifications, but the crevasse had unexpectedly widened and my materials didn’t reach. / / So now it is time to face the facts and put the unthinkable down in writing: This is not the year I will be accepted into medical school. Acceptance.
Recently I got a letter from a friend who lives in a country who has “Socialized Medicine”. I have to be honest, and tell you that she i…
Recently I got a letter from a friend who lives in a country who has “Socialized Medicine”. I have to be honest, and tell you that she is very sick. And I guess I spend a lot of my time, sitting here at my computer, praying… for her, and many more of my friends who have prayer requests. Again, I thank God, for the privilege of prayer! What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege to carry, everything to Him in prayer / In His arms he’ll take and shield thee, thou wilt find a solace there / and so, the old hymn goes…. and I remember it, as I am praying. / Here is what my friend wrote to me…. word for word I am going for treatment and scans on next Monday after such a long time. The operation was postponed this week due to a national strike… can you believe it? Your prayers and thoughts as well as those of your friends are so appreciated and I thank you for being such a wonderful and kind friend. / I really hope that America does not go the way of universal health care… I was diagnosed end of July and had to wait so long just to have the melanoma removed and now we have to be patient again and hope that the operation to scan for cancer and the removal of lymph’s will eventually be done next week. Whether you have insurance or not, here you have to wait your turn and hope for the best. That is the story of national health care. The medical staff are really kind but their hands are tied by rules and regulations and the patient load is so much for them that the waiting list is enormous Well, this IS a true story, from a REAL person, and a darling human being, who is held hostage to a medical system, that is insidious!! It is evil, and it is coming to a medical hospital near YOU dear Americans. As I have heard it said, lately… / how’s THAT HOPE AND CHANGE WORKING FOR YA Now, I do ask you to pray for my dear friend, won’t you please do that ? / I will tell you when the time is right, who she is, and some of you will know her Please, for now, don’t try to guess, as that is not her wish. Trust me, for now… and PRAY FERVENTLY for her… God knows who she is! That’s all that matters! / THANK YOU, AND THANK GOD FOR PRAYER!!
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