Marie Osmond's 18 year old son committed suicide Friday night, according to reports. He suffered from bouts of depression. Stories like this always make me wonder what could be so depressing when you have a loving (by all accounts) mother and a nice home. Do young people not get how final it is, or do they want the end. We will probably never know why, but knowing might help a lot of other kids. And yes, we never know what truly goes on behind closed doors.
Well, I hate, oh it hurts to say it, but a new study, one I think is very important and exact, says that liberals and atheists have higher IQs than the rest of our population. Oh, and also monogamous men. That's right---take that all you cheatin' men.
What you say? This goes against evolutionary thought? True that, but, living away from the norm moves us forward. Thinking outside the box produces original inventions.
Says George Washington University professor, James Bailey,"... these preferences may stem from a desire to show superiority or elitism, which also has to do with IQ. In fact, aligning oneself with "unconventional" philosophies such as liberalism or atheism may be "ways to communicate to everyone that you're pretty smart."
Oh, uh, well that's not nice.
Bailey goes on: "Historically, anything that's new and different can be seen as a threat in terms of the religious beliefs; almost all religious systems are about permanence."
(The study defines "liberal" in terms of concern for genetically nonrelated people and support for private resources that help those people.)
"Liberals are more likely to be concerned about total strangers; conservatives are likely to be concerned with people they associate with," he said.
"Given that human ancestors had a keen interest in the survival of their offspring and nearest kin, the conservative approach -- looking out for the people around you first -- fits with the evolutionary picture more than liberalism," evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa said. "It's unnatural for humans to be concerned about total strangers." he added.
Hmmm, well, since the higher the IQ, the fewer the offspring, conservatives and "true-believers" are here to stay. (Along with men who dabble with the fairer sex.)
Saturday is my mother's birthday, 82. I am wiser now---instead of buying a dozen roses for $120 plus fees in Seattle, I spend$2 on a call to where she is, Ft. Wayne, IN., and have a dozen sent with card for $49.95---"Your momma didn't raise no dummies," she used to say. Her name is Rose, hence the roses. In a nursing home it is all about the show.
My first memory of birthday gift-giving to Mom, was picking her yellow dandelions, which she LOVED and my brothers laughed and teased me about how dumb I was, those being weeds and all. Oh how I hated them. (They were 7 and 8 years older than me.)
But "the boys" could do no wrong and my funniest memory of Mom and gifts was when the middle brother's fiancee picked out diamond pierced earrings for Mom. She was so mad that she ran them down the sink! (She HAD no pierced ears!) If the brother had chosen them I'm sure she would have kept them.
Gifts were big in my family. Aunt Vi started it. I jumped in. As I grew older, so few of my peers were into it that I ended up buying gifts for strangers and hospital patients. But always, ALWAYS Mom, Aunt Vi, and I exchanged gifts. When Aunt Vi (Who ALWAYS said, "Don't waste your money on me!" and she meant it.) turned mid 70s, after I had moved to Seattle, I started sending her money in the amount of her age...never dreaming she would keep going into 100...I know Mom wanted THAT gift too, and she often got short changed, but I always figured her turn would come after...well, it never came, save one birthday before she got into a nursing home. Sigh.
I mention her birthday and when I asked her how old she was going to be she thought 55. "No, Mom, 82!"
"82?! That's old!"
"No, Aunt Vi is old, Mom. Over 100 is old." We laughed at that.
Her hair used to be grayer! Happy Birthday, Mom. "You just have to make the best of things." "Where do you live?" (Momisms)
"Never judge a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes."
"Marry someone dumber than you are."
"What's wrong with you?"
I called my utility company yesterday. I wanted some brochures about energy conservation. My retirement community could use some education , in my opinion. True, we don't pay electric or water or garbage bills, but our rent must reflect such costs. Besides, good for the environment. See, I have this idea that this retirement complex can be modern and conscientious, set an example---I have the idea that just because you are a senior citizen, too ill to care for yourself alone, or disabled, that it doesn't mean you want, or need to drop out of a purposeful life.
Brrrring "Seattle Public Utilities."
Do you have any brochures about how to save on electrical usage that can be mailed to me?
"Uh...I don't think so..." (Oh no she dinn't) "What is your name and address?"
(I give my name and address. I hear typing. I have sat at her desk, ie, walked in her shoes, and I know she is looking for my account which she won't find and it is not relevant to my request. She would rather talk about my possible late bill than the brochures I know they have.)
I say: Don't you have a storage room with brochures in it? (Uh-oh, busted.)
"Uh, yes, I can see if there are any. You don't PAY an electric bill."
I live in a retirement home and want to speak to the residents about conservation.
"Uh, I can mail you one..."
Do you have a conservation dept. that might be able to help me? (Suddenly she is alert!)
"Yes, I'll transfer you." Zip, just that fast I am in a "All the lines are busy...with you in a moment" queue.
Brrrburp, "Conservation, Kristin speaking." (Something like Kristin. She was very professional)
Hi, Kristin, I would like some conservation brochures. Is that possible?
"Just go to www..."
I don't have access to a computer, don't you have brochures? (Yes, I am lying but I am channeling my fellow residents.) I then proceed to explain to her my idea of having a seminar to teach my neighbors about energy conservation. This seems to get her very excited and she starts telling me about many projects that Seattle City light is working on. Now I'm excited too because she tells me that we are eligible to get free light bulbs. Nothing says loving to people on Social Security than FREE. My mind is even swirling with Bingo possibilities. At the end of our conversation I ask her last name, and she tells me she is the only one there. I laugh and say boy, they really are cutting back. We both have a good laugh over that. Then I ask if she can also help me with recycling and composting information. She directs me to another phone number.
Brrrring "Halo thss si garbagey anst whsi u ufghj ghjk ghjkmiuyhdgbjtyu,?"
(I had no idea what the person on the other end of the line just said. She has a heavy accent that I'm not familiar with. I spend the next 10 minutes trying to explain what type of brochures I need. She tells me she can only send me five, because that is all her envelope will hold. I ask her if she has more than one envelope and when she says yes, I suggest she use more envelopes and send me the number that I need. At that point she quickly transfers me to another department. At this point I decide to try our former mayor's one stop shopping phone number, which is supposed to go to the citizens service bureau.)
Brrrring "Customer service girl." What? What did she just say? I say, excuse me?
"Customer service girl." (At this Point I can't believe my ears, and I call back.
Brrrrring a different woman answers the phone. "Customer service girl." I feel like I have just been transported back to the 1970s. Should I ask to speak to the customer service boy? I somehow don't think an African American man would appreciate that.)
Customer service GIRL? That's your title? "Yes."
OK. I was told there was a way I could get water conservation information..."I'll transfer you."
And now I'm back were I started, in the main call center phone tree. I'm looking forward to seeing exactly what I will receive in the mail. And once again with the exception of the Seattle City Light conservation department woman, there was no accountability whatsoever. I had no one's name and no way to get back to the same person I had spoken to. The merger between the electric department, the water, sewer and garbage departments, was and remains a fiasco. Credence given to the more things change the more they stay the same.
During WW II, the cry went out from the citizens of the United States: "What can we do to help?!" Everyone joined in with one aim. People, like African Americans, Homosexuals, Women, all who were being oppressed by their government, dropped everything, sacrificed anything, to help.
Now? I see people running like scared antelope to cover and protect what is theirs. They want to sacrifice nothing. They want to take, take, and make damn sure nobody takes from them!
And these are not ordinary citizens, farmers, factory workers, no, these are Doctors, Lawyers. CEOs of major corporations---these are the HAVES. "I make $500,00.00 a year and you expect ME to pay more in taxes but not that couple who work at Walmart and make $35.000?! How dare you! I will get my lawyer to find the loop hole and you will NEVER get more money from ME!"
"That Obama socialist will NEVER take away MY gun! I'll get the guys together and we will protest NOW, pass laws preserving, EXPANDING our rights to have whatever gun I want! And I'll damn well carry it wherever I please."
"It's just a matter of time before this political correct crap is over and the good old days are back! I am sick of all the gay this and gay that. We NEVER had so many gays until the Democrats took over. Civil rights my ass, the Bible is what this country is based on. The Holy Bible is MY constitution and God is my President. The minute we got a Muslim negro president was the minute they destroyed the US of A. We will fight them to our death!"
"Sarah Palin has the right smarts. I know she's a woman, but she smarter than me and a tough broad. She puts God first and soon the degenerates and Godless people in this nation will wish they hadn't been so uppity. When she is in office, then there will be peace again. And, I'll tell ya what, she won't put up with that Korean fella either. Shock and awe! God bless America!"
"Call Jim at the FDA, we need this stopped yesterday. Too many deaths, just find another reason, everybody has something else wrong with 'em. Find a way. Every man has his price."
"Let's change our rules before the new policies take place. If we can't bilk 'em for a billion there, we'll get it in fees. Fools. By the time we are done they will be paying us more than before. hahahaha"
When did we decide we were more important than our neighbors? When did we rail against our constitution that we died to have the freedom to write? Once, we held it in the highest regard and we understood that the intent was as important as the words. We knew it was a beginning. We believed we would only grow stronger and better and that united we would stand, but divided we would fall.
Now we are just tripping all over ourselves. Watching our government gang up on the Japanese was an ugly sight, especially since it was the old USA that regulated Toyota! And as long as they were giving us jobs, so what if a few people die? Gag/barf.
Now, if the Republicans just leave our Social Security alone.
You have multiple sclerosis? Listen to your brain, it wants to help you get better. Ask Michael Jordan how often he played out game moves in his brain. Watch an actor memorize lines and rehearse the attached emotions. Brain plasticity scores! Applause.
The University of Washington has been playing with brain plasticity and finding out how "moving" it can be. By just thinking about doing something, the brain builds new connections, maybe new cells! Those walking dreams of mine were my brain telling me what I need it to do.
Read all about it here.
If you doubt that people with disabilities have a sense of humor, just read some of their blogs---read MY blog! I had a sense of humor before I became disabled due to MS, and I will die with a sense of humor. My mother with Alzheimer's laughs with me at her and at me, and we always have. Being able to laugh at yourself is healthy and healing.
The recent uproar over the uproariously funny Family Guy cartoon series (nominated for an Emmy) is down home, shoot my moose and with an uzi RIDICULOUS. It is not that people with disabilities don't have a sense of humor, it is that Sarah Get-Your-Gun Palin doesn't appreciate that her actions are laughable.
The cartoon episode portrayed a girl with Down Syndrome on a date with the son of the lead character. She takes a dig at how Palin dealt with her own son who has Down Syndrome, in the words of the actress, Andrea Fay Friedman, who voiced the cartoon character (and, yes, she too has Down Syndrome) "My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes."
People with disabilities don't like being treated like children or victims. And we certainly don't like being used. Thanks to multiple sclerosis, I laugh at myself every day. Every time I reach for a thing, seven other things go flying. And I DON'T KNOW HOW IT HAPPENS! My brain is constantly saying, "What was THAT?" (sensations out of nowhere, imaginary bugs zipping around, I long ago entered the Twilight Zone, better known around here as The MS Zone)
Many famous comedians will tell you that their comedy started from being teased as children. Children making fun of each other is the cruelest pebble of humanity. It is based on insecurities, and a need for power where they have none. Those bullies are to be pitied and helped. And yes, Ms. Palin, your son will likely run up against such bullies during his childhood, but are you really so unintelligent as to not recognize the Family Guy episode for what it was?
Family Guy made fun of Sarah Palin's treatment of her son. Family Guy gave a job to an actress with Down Syndrome. The only fool I saw was YOU, Ms. Palin. I suggest you prepare yourself now for South Park. (How long before you decide you might work this into a SNL gig?)
Aunt Violet at her 103rd birthday party at her nursing home. She cracked to one visiting relative, "I have to have a birthday for you to visit me?" Ow.
Her life is not a happy one. She lives in darkness and deafness. I asked her once before she moved (unwillingly--kicking, screaming more obscenities than a sailor, sitting in the cold until my brother finally arrived to carry her inside) to the nursing home, if she ever had trouble sleeping. "All the time," she replied, "I can't stop thinking."
Can't stop thinking and alone with her thoughts and visions of her dead mother and beloved brother.
It wasn't supposed to end this way. "I don't know why I keep waking up!"
"I'm too old to be alive!" followed by "Now, I suppose I'm too old to die."
"Don't ever wait until you're in your eighties to get your tooth pulled like I did." (We both have an extra tooth in the same spot.)
"How the hell should I know?" (In answer to most questions including why do you think you have lived so long.)
"She can kiss my ass!" (Said about several relatives in the last ten years.)
"What the hell is wrong with your mother?!"
Just a few Aunt Visms that I have heard over the last 40 years; and I'm told she is still spouting them.
A good apology: Accept the mistake was yours alone.
Commit to never repeating it.
Get help if needed.
Ask for forgiveness.
Love means never having to say you're sorry is a stupid quote. It is okay to say you are sorry, but realize only actions make it true.
Good luck, Tiger.
Patty Murray is one of two female senators from my state of Washington. She has always had my vote. Senator Murray was called a "soccer mom," and she never grew up dreaming of a career in politics. She made a name for herself on a local school board and her leadership ability was unmistakable. I am proud to say that she represents me well. Her father was disabled by MS, when she was young so she knows well my personal health battle. She is not your typical rich politician family representative. In Seattle, we will always remember her as the soccer mom who wanted to stop griping and get involved.
At a recent Tea Party gathering, a speaker shouted that like Jake in The Lonesome Dove (I'm guessing he only saw the TV show), Patty Murray should be hanged.
Everything I see or hear coming from these Tea Parties are vile, vicious, and ignorant. They sully the true Boston Tea Party of 1773.
Senator Evan Bayh, a fellow Hoosier, has announced his retirement. He is fed up with the uber partisan game playing with American dreams of a better tomorrow. This has made me very sad.
Growing up, his father Birch Bayh II was our Indiana Kennedy. Indiana is more GOP than Kermit is green. Bayh was our hope. His son was almost my age, and I watched him grow up, just as I watched Caroline and later, JFK, Jr. "Like Father Like Son": his name is Birch Evans Bayh III. (And his father was a US Senator for almost two decades!)
Will this exiting of our bickering elected officials become a trend? Is Bayh pullin' a Palin and preparing for a presidential run? Do they realize what shaky ground such dropping outs leave the average citizen on? Who are we left to depend on to run the business of our country?
I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Bayh, but, where are our leaders? Leaders in politics know it is a difficult, draining, thankless calling. Yet, history has given us leaders who gave their lives for our futures. Today it feels like the most we can do is hope they will not become beaten down by the job. I always thought when the going gets tough, the tough get going...not stop.
Aunt Violet 2/12/10 at her 103rd birthday party. Notice her usual pose of strong, crossed arms and beautiful smile. What a gal!
GOOGLE! Many of the residents of my retirement community would love to use your high speed turbo connection! Seattle is the most literate, well-read, city in the USA! We have a major university, plus an award winning community college, AND the largest biotech enclave you will find! Seattle is flooded with hospitals and medical centers. WE SEARCH! WE NEED ANSWERS! And we want them YESTERDAY! GOOGLE! You are our kind of people, join us in Seattle. We also drink more coffee than a Java King and we live in the fast paced mind lane. GOOGLE US AND WATCH OUR SPEED!
You did it, Aunt Vi! 103 years on this planet. I know you were done at 93, but we don't get that decision. Though you can't read this or hear me anymore, we never took our time together for granted. People called us, "two peas in a pod," and I take that as a compliment, but we were always at odds over certain things---to the end. Ivah may have been right: "You are so stubborn, God won't want you!" You and I both know that the truth is all your deceased relatives are waiting for you, keeping a chair warm at a card table and looking forward to all your funny antics.
They will just have to wait a little longer. Happy Birthday! Enjoy your pizza party.
Photos to follow.
PS: Happy Birthday Kellie, Liz, and Andy!
Aunts and uncles are important for a well-rounded child. And if you are lucky to have either, they can be plain fun! Without my great Aunt Violet, many of her nieces and nephews would have gone without food, shelter, clothes, guidance, and love, when they needed it. She worked on her feet her whole life and planned to work making draperies from home after she retired.
Plans of retirement are too often shelved due to health issues. Her eyes went first, though in her sixties she was told she had a heart attack. She took about a dozen of her heart pills and said, "To Hell with it." As far as I know she never had a problem with her heart again.
What would we children of her siblings have done without her? In all our lives she played a part. I can't even imagine a life without her, my childhood would have been very sad and unhealthy. I never would have known what a clean bed was or a healthy meal. Most importantly, I might never have learned that a woman is as good as a man, and nothing can hold a woman back.
Dream big. Follow your dreams. "And promise me you'll never be like your mother."
That last advice may sound cruel to you, but I knew what she meant. And I will never forget the moment she spoke those words to me, nor my reply, "I never will."
Gleaning, sifting, removing the bad and leaving the good---I wanted to do that with both my mother and Aunt Vi. I believe I accomplished that. I may have made it without my mother, but not without Aunt Vi. My own mother can say the same. She could have made it without me, but not without Aunt Vi.
Sad? Maybe, but true, and such is life---imperfect and flawed; but who would give it up?!
Soft kitty. Warm kitty. Little ball of fur. Purr, purr, purr. Blame it on the ca ca ca catnip.
Ear wax has more vitamin C than an orange. The pith of an orange (that white layer between the orange outer covering and the juicy orange slices) has more vitamin C than the juicy orange part, so using a juicer removes a lot of vitamin C. Just something to keep in mind during cold season.
(If you mix your ear wax with orange pith---ooo la la!)
Seattle is gearing up for a new MS Awareness campaign. This time instead of "Is it the____?" (the water, air, and other stupid stuff) the ads will give symptoms of MS. I am looking forward to these and I imagine they will be popping up around your area too.
Unfortunately, the MS Society is telling us how wonderful their marketing company is. (The same stupid idea company from the scare tactics, nonsense, signs before. Ugh.) See, only in America can doing a bad job actually get you more work.
Hopefully, the new signs will get people who may have MS to a doctor sooner.
When I grew up, writing the answers to a quiz was considered cheating. Even during speech team events, if you had to write notes on your body---cheating. I think it is a great idea that Sarah Palin travels the country in her private jet and speaks, speaks, speaks, three years from now we should all have a good idea what kind of person she is. (For any who haven't figured it out yet.)
BRRRRRRR
Mom: "Hello." (sounds like she just woke up or out partying all night in the nursing home
lobby,seeing that it is 2PM in Indiana, I'm thinking nap)
Diane: "MOTHER!" (she laughs) "Did I wake you?"
Mom: "No, I was just closing my eyes." (That never grows old.)
D: "How are you?"
M: "Fine, how are you?"
D: "I'm fine. What's new?"
M: (laughs) "Oh. nothing. It snowed here. What is your weather like there?"
D: "It is about 50°, very nice."
M: "That sounds nice. It snowed here."
D: "Remember when I was little and you used to take me across Broadway, and back behind the woods by the river next to the mental institution? You liked to look at the hobos."
M: "No!"
D: "Yes! And then on TV they showed one of the hobos killed a mental patient, so Aunt Vi yelled at you for taking me there."
M: (laughs) "That's terrible. I was a terrible mom."
D: (laughs) "No, you just liked hobos. We would hide in the bushes."
M: "Oh for goodness sake! I must not have been in my right mind." (You have no idea, Mom.)
D: "I guess it's too snowy for any visitors."
M: " Sherrie was her, something about Aunt Vi...I can't remember."
D: "Friday is aunt Vi's birthday. She will be 103."
M: "There was a get together...how old?"
D: "103!"
M: "That's amazing."
D: "This is her last year. She wants to die in her sleep."
M: "That would be the best way."
D: "Yes, she has been saying she was going to die every year as long as I can remember."
M: "She has." (We both laugh.)
D: "Do you have a TV in your room?"
M: "No."
D: "Would you like one?" (Her birthday is the 27th)
M: "No."
D: "I'm worried that you're bored."
M: "No. There's no board in here. It's a small room."
D: "I said, I'm worried you are BORED."
M: "Oh, there's a TV in the other room. In the summer I sit ouside."
D: "That sounds nice."
M: "It's snowing here now, snow everywhere. How is the weather there?" (uh-oh)
D: "About 50', very nice. Well, I'll talk to you later."
M: "OK, thanks for calling. Bye."
D: " Bye."
CLICK I didn't handle this one as well as I planned. Sometimes I get her on the phone and just want to linger in the sound of her voice, those first words, she sounds like she did the days we walked down to peek on the hobos. New Orleans one Indiana lost (Oh, look, my voice recognition is on. I hate that creature. I have no privacy and am forever fixing its mistakes.)
A Possible Cure for Multiple Sclerosis
posted by [Redacted] on Saturday, February 6, 2010
Italian Surgeon Claims High Success Rate Against MS
By Sheila Casey / RCFP A former vascular surgeon from the University of Ferrara in northern Italy has apparently cured his wife and 65 other people of multiple sclerosis (MS) by using balloon angioplasty to open the narrowed veins in their necks. All of the MS patients who have had Paolo Zamboni’s procedure have remained attack-free, as long as their neck veins remained open. But if their veins close up again, their MS symptoms return.Zamboni began hunting feverishly for the cause of MS after his wife was diagnosed with the disease at age 37 and began to deteriorate. MS patients often lose the ability to walk, to talk, to feed themselves, and even to swallow.Scientists have known for more than 100 years that MS patients had excess iron in their brains, but assumed it was a byproduct of the disease. Zamboni noticed that the excess iron was usually in the core of the brain near a vein. In addition, the lesions that form in the brains of MS patients are grouped near veins.Using ultrasound, Zamboni examined the neck veins of MS patients and compared them to the veins of healthy people or those with other neurological diseases. He found that nearly 100% of the MS patients had significant narrowing in the veins that should be carrying blood from the brain back to the heart, while none of the other subjects had this narrowing. In addition, there was a relationship between the amount of narrowing and the severity of disease, with patients with only one blocked vein suffering milder disease and those with two or more blocked veins suffering more severely. He also found narrowing in the central vein that goes down to the heart through the chest, and patients with narrowing there often had the most serious form of MS, known as primary progressive. They deteriorate very rapidly, with no remissions.Zamboni reasoned that the blood that was being forced back into the brain, (because it could not drain as it was supposed to) was leaving behind excess iron, as well as forcing immune cells through the blood-brain barrier and initiating an auto-immune response. Zamboni termed the condition CCSVI, or Chronic Cerebro Spinal Venous Insufficiency.When he showed his findings to some neurologists, they were excited. But, Zamboni says, when he suggested a method to treat the condition, their enthusiasm waned markedly.Zamboni hypothesized that opening up blocked veins with balloon angioplasty – the same procedure used to open blocked blood vessels in cardiac patients – and allowing the blood to drain normally, would stop the build-up of iron in the brain and stop the progression of the disease. He teamed up with vascular surgeon R. Galeotti, and they operated on 65 MS patients with a procedure now dubbed the “Liberation Treatment.” Surgeons thread a thin wire through the vein and into the patient’s neck, where they expand a small balloon at the stricture to open the closed vein. Within seconds, they see the blood begin flowing normally again.All of the 65 patients have shown significant improvement, some immediately. Jeff Beale, an Emmy Award winning music composer, was the first American to have the procedure. He relates that, as the doctors were opening his veins, he felt “the lights come on.” He is now able to perform duets with his son, help his son with his homework, and has the energy to get through the day – whereas before he was continually sidelined by soul-crushing fatigue.Other patients have exclaimed, within 20 minutes of having the procedure, “I can feel my hands!” Within ten days, one woman regained use of her legs. Their health often continues to improve over the following months, with some patients returning to full health and no sign of disease at all. Others do not recover their former capacities, but suffer no new attacks. Zamboni said: “if you maintain open veins, you will not have more attacks, and you will not have active lesions.”Zamboni’s wife Elena was one of the first to have her veins “liberated,” and now, two years later, she has had no more attacks and is considered neurologically normal. “This, for me, is the best prize,” says Zamboni.The results of Zamboni and Galeotti’s study were published in The Journal of Vascular Surgery on November 24, 2009, and the response from MS patients has been overwhelming. Zamboni has been deluged with calls and emails from patients desperate to have the procedure before their condition degrades further.But the response from the MS Societies in both the US and Canada has been dismissive, with the Canadian society urging patients to “not abandon the treatment they are on,” and the US society issuing the following statement: “At the present time, there is insufficient evidence to suggest that this phenomenon is the cause of MS.” They have discouraged patients from seeking treatment, or even getting tested to see if their veins are blocked.When I called the press contact at the National MS Society to ask about CCSVI, I was told that she was busy working with ABC on a story about exciting new oral therapies for MS, and that I could find all I needed about CCSVI on their website. On the society’s webpage titled “Intriguing Leads on the Horizon,” no mention is made of CCSVI.There has been scant coverage of Zamboni’s discovery in the mainstream media. A search for “Paolo Zamboni,” on the websites for The New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, CNN and MSNBC brings up, again and again, “no results found,” or “no relevant documents.” A Swiss blog called The Daily Bell opines about this news blackout with: “It is too often the same weary story. Establishment scientific institutions and their planetary satellites - non-profits, etc. - huddle together to keep out anything that remotely challenges business as usual. Have you read about this potential MS cure in manifold versions in the mainstream press? You would think that journalists would leap at the opportunity to cover this astonishing research. Maybe there is nothing to this, but mainstream media silence, as usual, seems deafening.”Exempt from this criticism are a few outlets: The Globe and Mail in the UK, W5 TV in Canada, and The Huffington Post’s Erika Milvy, who wrote: “The pharmaceutical industry stands to lose a lot if Zamboni’s one-time treatment pans out. The most common drug therapies for MS cost about $30,000 a year. And there are well over 100 medications for various MS symptoms…On one MS forum is a link to another pharma-gate headline: “Big Pharma’s Crime Spree”, in which the reporter for Bloomberg Markets Magazine assesses that “finding cures is not even remotely a consideration by pharmaceutical executives.”Newly radicalized MS patients are outraged at the media blackout and are banding together to publicize Zamboni’s treatment and help each other find doctors who will test their veins. A search for CCSVI on Facebook brings up 21 recently formed groups with names like “M.S. (Millions Strong to raise awareness of C.C.S.V.I.)” An MS patient named Andrea has created a YouTube channel called MS Vlog Support Group. In a plaintive speech to the camera, she asks. “Where is the news coverage of this? I don’t understand why it’s not all over the place. It boggles the mind.”As has been seen with numerous other diseases, those who make their living from people being sick are far more interested in treating symptoms than in effecting a cure that would have the patient walk out the door and never come back. Evidently these groups – the nonprofit MS societies, neurologists who specialize in treating MS and, most importantly, the pharmaceutical companies, who sold $8.2 billion in MS drugs in 2007 – have the power to suppress the news about this astonishing development. The possible threat to their livelihoods apparently trumps the value of returning health and hope to the two million people worldwide who suffer from MS.Sheila Casey is a DC based journalist. Her work has appeared in The Denver Post, Reuters, Chicago Sun-Times, Dissident Voice and Common Dreams.
Today I stood for a minute and 5 seconds! Very exciting, and I could have gone longer. Lifted 20lbs 20 reps, 2 circuits---right bicep curl. Just as I start pulling myself back up, it seems something always tugs me down. I'm trying not to get too excited about it. Already 52, almost 53, and excited to stand a minute. Never saw my life this way. Never saw MS coming. MS has capture my left leg. No matter what I do, and I do LOTS, it will not walk with me. I'm not giving up, I'll never give up, but I do question my sanity about it.
Fifty used to be so old. Now Michael Jackson is dead, over, done. You know how to tell when you are getting older? Everyone around you is getting younger, like the cashiers and local TV weather forecasters. Oh sure, your mom and aunts get older (though Aunt Vi was "the baby" for a long time, just like me.) Where is this going? Oh right, Sarah Palin and her tea party. $500 per entry, yeah, that's for everyman, right. Why do the people who flock to her always dress like clowns? Like they're going to the Superbowl. One attendee says, "We don't like anyone." I believe that. Another wants her to be our next president. The president who requires a tanning bed and we the people pay for it; that was the Alaska scenario. (Her emails released today.)
Where was I? Oh right, Amazon is a book price war or something. Boy, we really throw that word "war" around a lot, don't we? The Palin event was in the Gaylord Hotel, GAY lord, hahahaha, tickles me fancy. I wanted some daffodils today. People lost and starving in Haiti and I bemoan not having daffodils, I'm a pig.
Saturday morning, the most beautiful sunrise. All the little birds were singing, chillin' in the big tree...until, I watched for one hour (taking it in as only those of us with MS blindness will want to do) and then Rupert the Hawk arrived. The other birds all left. Rupert stayed there most of day. He looks so lonely.
I think he stares at me too, their eyesight is powerful, and probably thinks, "She sits so still. I bet she's lonely." Hmmmm The Colts are going to win today. I am being like the groundhound, hog, whatever, and my shadow says Indiana wins. I am from Indiana, there ya go. I'm no saint. See the logic? We didn't have a pro football team when I was a kid in Indiana. They must be thrilled there now. I stopped watching footbal in my twenties. Nobody to watch with. Tried teaching the game to partner. "I vote for the men in those pretty blue costumes." That was the end.
Have a great Sunday!
Aunt Vi was best known for her big heart, in the poetic sense. She had so many friends; and relatives would come to see her from one coast to the other. Her parties were true middle class affairs, with drinking, laughing, card playing, story telling, eating, drinking, drinking---Aunt Vi could throw 'em back with the best men. The kitchen table would be covered with liqioour and glasses. Highballs were her favorite, but a shot of whiskey a day was her daily constitution.
Eventually, the kids would want to try and she obliged if she could get away with it. No worries about drunk driving, we were under ten. I begged to try a shot of whiskey. My mom said, "NO," Ivah said, "No," Aunt Vi said, "Don't tell anyone," and poured me a shot.
Of course, I thought I was going to die and next time I asked for some wine. Again, against real grown-up's wishes, Aunt Vi poured me a small glass of red wine. One sip and I knew I'd made a mistake, but I just couldn't let her know that I didn't like the drink again. So, I did the only sensible thing---I poured the wine in a pair of Aunt Vi's white under pants and shoved them way back in her dresser drawer.
It was a drawer on the lowest level of a beautiful maple (I think it was maple...) bed set she bought with a matching headboard and end tables. It was a drawer just for me, my toys, pajamas for when I slept over and so on. There stayed the stained panties for many months.
My concern about being found out was great. It weighed heavy on my mind. What would happen when she found out? Well, one day they were gone. Simply disappeared and not a word was ever spoken about it. Matter of fact this is the first time I have shared this story.
Who found them? What did they think? I'll never know. And I never drank red wine again. Or a shot of whiskey.
MS treatment completely cured MS in Utah woman, but MS Society won't okay money for Johns Hopkins continuing research, read here from ABC News.
The question is simple: Would you rather be born 90 years old and grow younger or be a baby growing to 90?
You probably have all heard of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a movie starring Brad gorgelicious Pitt, an adaption from the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1922. A baby is born looking and aging like an old man, then grows through life into a baby until death.
So, which would YOU prefer? Either way, you go through all the stuff of aging that none of us like (twice, as we do now), for example loss of bladder/bowel control, inability to walk/stand, think like you could at 30 and so on. At both ends of the spectrum of your life, you have no friends or family that you are aware of. Which ever way you grow, you know death awaits you.
The similarities are interestingly exact.
The job issue is boggling, by 65 you will, health allowing, want to take on a job, but how hard was school at 85 and 72? If you got poor grades, can you really handle manual labor in your 60s.
And just like now, if you have babies when your sex hormones are peaking at 15, that poor baby will have a parent who will only be available for a few years, and how will YOU care for a 90 year old?
Either way, life is a hard road to travel. We live alone and apart from our extended families so often now...unlike in past ages, most of us will die surrounded by strangers. Can't we do better?
Would you rather be 30 looking forward to being 21 again or 30 looking forward to being 40? Is either way so different a road?
Excited here about watching Ellen on Idol. I just get sucked into her eyes. What? There will be singing too? Cool.
My memories of Aunt Vi are many. One that is on the top of the list is this: It was my 13th birthday (she is 50 years older than me, so she was 63), and she bought a beautiful, shiny brown tennis racket for me.
Only problem was that I had no friends, no one to play with. So, Aunt Vi, in her shoes, in the snow, played tennis with me (basically hitting the ball back and forth, not easy in snow). There were no children my age on my block, but my brothers had many friends. I was left out and Aunt Vi and Ivah always tried to fill that hole for me.
This is why I say I was raised by a village, long before Hillary wrote her book.
The Judge Judy TV show is my guilty pleasure. When I worked 8hrs a day getting yelled at by customers whose electricity was about to be shut off due to non-payment over months, and I had to be so calm and sweet to such fools, coming home to Judge Judy was so cathartic for me.
But, my gosh! The massacre of the English language spins my head around. (Yes, just like in The Exorcist.) "I borrowed her the money." (I loaned her the money.) Now, I can't even figure that one out.
"He wented out." (He went outside.) Conjugate your verbs for goodness sake! How do these people get out of high school?
In my dreams, I was Judy: "Who USED the electricity? Then who should pay for it?"
Yes, Judge Judy helped me get through those years.
I hope you can click and enlarge. This is Ivah on far left, then Uncle Arthur's wife Sadie, and Aunt Violet. Sadie fit right in, didn't take any crap from men, drank and cussed with Aunt Vi---theirs was a great friendship. Uncle Arthur was not as fond of Ivah. Ivah didn't drink or cuss. She went to church every Sunday, at least, and prayed at every meal. How her bond with Aunt Vi was so strong, I'll never know. Aunt Vi tried to get Ivah to join in the fun and Ivah tried to get Violet to stop cussing and drinking. Neither one ever changed, nor did their love for each other. Go figure.
Aunt Vi never seemed to get sick, but she was quick to remind you of when she did, beginning with how she almost died before the age of five. (Never clear of what was wrong, involved coughing and not eating well. Not eating was a big deal back then, at least I don't hear much about it now. Not "thriving" they called in the late 1800s.)
Surely, this is part of the reason Aunt Vi found it so important to always have food prepared, and offer it to all around. She, much to my dismay, even brought into my mother's house not too long ago, a drifter, "Times are hard, Diane. people need to eat," and fed him. When Mom arrived home, there was a scruffy man in her house eating and talking with Aunt Vi.
Aunt Vi cooked and baked even when she could barely see (probably legally blind) and set their apt. on fire. While she promised me she would stop cooking and my cousin got them both on Meals on Wheels (that food was never prepared properly for Aunt Vi, of course), she continued to cook,"Just a little. Oh DIANE, you HAVE to when company is coming over!"
Aunt Vi also had a "nervous stomach," and Pepto Bismol was always at the ready. Usually she got upset over something to do with her companion, Ivah, or Ivah's mother. I wish Aunt Vi and Ivah could have had more time to live alone together, but for most of their lives SOMEONE lived with them. A religious mother would make for a "nervous stomach" indeed.
No broken bones, no hospitalizations, in fact sick people, or I should say people who "complained" of not feeling well, were frowned on by Aunt Vi. Though in her later years Ivah had terrible varicose veins in her legs. I know she must have suffered through much pain. But, with Aunt Vi, sickness was psychological and with Ivah it was in God's hands, neither woman had much to do with medical science.
Aunt Vi and Ivah were seldom apart, when I was little I thought aunvianiva, was one word. When they disagreed, it usually had something to do with Lane, Ivah's mother. Finally, when I was about ten, Aunt Vi got so mad that she moved to the small downstairs apartment. That was the beginning of the end. Lane got sick, from what I don't know, but back them "incontinence" was the end---one had to go to a nursing home, and that is where Lane spent her last year.
Aunt Vi moved back in with Ivah, but one day Ivah fell. I was standing in line in front of two medics when I heard the address of the house I grew up in/and next to all my life, called over their walkie talkies. They split and so did I. By the time I got there all that was left was a stain of blood on the steps out front. By process of elimination, I would find out it was Ivah.
Aunt Vi has a tale about all that happened after that (I had my own apt. upstairs in my mother's house at the time) and after moving from Ft. Wayne, Ivah died in a nursing home or hospital. But, according to Aunt Vi, Ivah was not cared for properly, undernourished, and she (Vi) was not allowed to see her as she wished, just family allowed.
A visit to Ivah's grave took place once a week, with Mom driving Aunt Vi, for years. Until one day during a phone call, Aunt Vi couldn't remember Ivah, I think didn't want to---too painful. None of us spoke Ivah's name again. That was over 25 years ago.
Still, Aunt Vi went on. Just a week ago, my cousin got a call from the nursing home that Aunt Vi was not well. My cousin discovered that Aunt Vi had a cough. The medicine she was given tasted so awful that Aunt Vi swore she was being poisoned. (My cousin agrees it was horrid tasting when mixed with water instead of food or juice.) Aunt Vi's cough got worse. A chest X-ray showed some fluid, but not too bad. A course of antibiotics did the trick. Within days the crisis was over. Aunt Vi was also "unruly" and cursing at the nursing home staff, which forced (FORCED) then to give her an antidepressant. (Without first contacting my cousin!! Who is none too happy about that and is a great advocate for Aunt Vi. This cousin is an angel. Aunt Vi has called her every foul name in the book, and recently threatened to call the police and have her arrested. For caring too much? Anyway, kind of funny coming from a woman who can't hear or see "worth a damn" (to quote Aunt Vi.)
So she now will be the second oldest person in the nursing home. First place goes to 104. A pizza party will be held and some Ft Wayne relatives will please her no end. Any suggestions on what gift I can give her?
"Diane, don't ever get this old." OK, Aunt Vi, I think that won't be an issue. (To which I answered that day: "Why don't you take your own advice?!") I miss our bantering.
The year Aunt Violet was born, 1097:
Unemployment was 2.8%
First class postage stamp was 2 cents
Nobel Prize in Literature went to Rudyard Kipling
President--Theodore Roosevelt
Population 87,008,000
Oklahoma become 46th state
Radiometric dating finds the earth to be 2.2 billion years old
The Ziegfeld Follies ate introduced
The divorce rate was about .9%
Aunt Vi's life expectancy was 53 years old
The biggest killer was tuberculous, followed by cancers, heart disease, and the flu; (though different sites say it was the Flu, TB, Diarrhea, and heart disease)
The state of Washington has had a good reputation for senior citizen group homes, but the waters can get muddy fast. Homes that may care for 3 or so elderly people will charge more to a buying, since the residents are part of the deal. Read more here.
People are living longer (we are told), and who will care for our parents, spouses, aunts and uncles, when we can't? Our government needs to regulate (and enforce) group homes and nursing homes. But, where do we find enough trained caregivers? Who will care for YOU, when your time comes? And believe me, you never know when that time comes---you can no longer live independently.
This is a bigger problem than any that lies ahead; and the greatest heartache.
Aunt Vi was right, "It's hell getting old."
