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Kitt

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  1. Kitt

    Why do they do that?

    By Kitt,

    I don't post blog entries often. So seldom do I post here I had to look up how. 
     This one is a rant and if you don't feel like listening (reading) I fully understand and suggest you move on.
    Some of you know that last fall I managed to tear a small part of my hamstring off of the bone at the upper end.  To quote a friend, "What a pain in the ass!"
    Three doctors, months of limited activity, various physical therapy treatments and lots of discomfort later, the rock I sit on has gotten no smaller, no less uncomfortable, and lots more emotionally annoying.
     
    Basically the bit of muscle (tendon? ligament?) has come away from the bone.  All the PT has strengthened the rest, and the structures surrounding it, but apparently nothing can really be done for the knot formed by the loose bit, and that is what I sit on. At today's appointment (one that has been postponed 6 times over the last 3 months, thank you very much mr. covid 19) I was told that no amount of exercise, stretching, or medication will give me any more improvement, and surgery is not an option.
     
    Before being given this little gem of info, Dr Quack had suggested PRP therapy to promote healing during a teleconference check in during the shut down. Being who I am, that kicked off a round of research so I was armed when I actually saw him again today.  The issue is a knot of muscle that is no longer attached to the bone.  It cannot be surgically reattached, trimmed away or otherwise alleviated. I have made all the progress I can with exercise.  Deep tissue massage may help soften it a bit and we are going to give it a shot, but the thought of someone digging their fingers deep into my butt muscles does not sound too promising, or comfortable for that matter. There are few side effects, but a small possibility I could have an allergic reaction to the injection. Yes, to my own serum platelets. My luck? I would be the one in 10,000 who does. I told him to keep his PRP since any healing that it might have aided occurred 10 months ago when I first injured it, and the cost vs probable result was not promising. I could have built a baby in the amount of time I have been trying to get this rock out of my pants!
     
    Which brings me to the title question. If there is nothing to be done but treat the symptom and alleviate the pain with otc meds, Why the hell could he not tell me that( or one of the other two docs) back in the fall. Once the surrounding muscles had been built up ( around Christmas) I could have embarked on remedial solutions to allow me to ride again, like a gel seat pad for my saddle. WTF? They knew they could do nothing for it, jerked my chain, charged me large sums of money over and above what my insurance pays, and the only thing I can do is take a Tylenol?  I have learned on my own how to sit differently to reduce the discomfort without throwing my back out of alignment. Now to learn to ride again.
     
    My horse thinks I don't love him any more because I have not ridden since last September.  Anyone with a pet will understand. Bo literally tries to push me to the mounting block outside the barn door any time I am walking him to his field. He is a very smart horse, but that is the subject for another blog
     
     
  2. Kitt

    If I were gone...

    By Kitt,

    Recent events started me thinking. I have made many good friends online, both here at GA and elsewhere. I would worry if one of them went missing with no warning or explanation.
     
    When SkinnyDragon found about his prognosis, he took the time, something he had precious little of, to fill us in.
     
    I am one of those super organized people. After having to make the arrangements for both my parents, then my father in law, I decided that was something I didn't want my loved ones to have to deal with. When I got a diagnosis of cancer, one of the things I did was a visit to our families choice of funeral directors. We discussed what I wanted and put it all in a file "just in case".
     
    My family is well aware of my membership here, but some would prefer to keep GA a more private part of their life. While speaking with Hugh, (yes we are on a first name basis, we have known each other since highschool) he asked what I thought at the time an odd question, if there were anyone my family might not know about that I would want notified in the event of my death. After discussing it, I gave him the info he needed to get to GA and one of the things he will do when the time comes is post a notice here.
     
    Please friends, consider including info on contacting us in your "when I am gone" stuff. If you are in a position where you would prefer your family not know, reach out to someone you trust. It gives me peace of mind knowing I will not just go poof. 
  3. Kitt

    Are they kidding me?

    By Kitt,

    My refrigerator has a reasonably small freezer drawer. I am a fairly old fashioned cook who likes to purchase and preserve foods in season so I went out back in 1982 and bought a chest freezer that served me well for 30 years. When it finally passed on it didn't owe me a penny and I replaced it with a new model.
     
    That new freezer worked well until about a week after the warranty ran out. That is when the fun began.
     
    I understand that the warranty having run out means I need to pay for all repairs. Not a problem really. The problem lies in that not a single refrigeration repair service in my area will work on this brand, including one that proudly advertises that they service all makes and models regardless of where it was purchased. It seems that the service people cannot get parts for this brand of freezer, the manufacturer wants to handle all repairs and replacements.
     
    That lead to a call to the store I purchased the freezer at to get a number for the manufacturer. Several phone calls and internet searches later I finally get a lady on the phone who seems willing to schedule repairs for me.
     
    The catch? She wants me to pay a $145 diagnostic fee, and SHIP THE FREEZER TO MICHIGAN! Yes, you read that correctly - they did not have anyone in the area (I live in NJ) who could work on the thing. If i wanted it repaired I need to crate the silly thing up and ship it to Michigan, where they will either repair the unit, or if it is beyond repair they will replace it with another refurbished unit. Shipping costs were my responsibility - IN BOTH DIRECTIONS.
     
    The silly freezer only costs $300 brand new right now in the local home center! By the time I pay to have the thing crated up, shipped to Michigan, pay the $145 repair fee, and have it shipped back I could buy 3 or more of the damn things brand new!
     
    I shall not repeat exactly what I said to the woman. Let's just say I was less than polite in informing them they were out if their minds and I would never purchase another one of their products again.
     
    Tonight we are going freezer shopping again. This one will make a very nice home made smoker!
  4. Kitt

    Let's be fair.....

    By Kitt,

    I was going to try and say all this as a response to MikeL's blog entry but it seems I have way to much to say for that.
     
    Mike is right in that the 5 things gay's cannot do need to be fixed, but I don't see them all as "gay" issues. They strike me more as human rights issues and at least three of them hit the "straight" community just as hard.
     
    Donating blood - I can understand why they banned it in '85. Back then they barely knew what HIV was. It was a logical step to reduce the possibility of transmission. With new testing methods is it still necessary? Well - I would rather modify the ban for a bit before completely lifting it. Testing history showing a potential donor clean before donation ( and I think that should go for all donors - not just gay ones) could be a place to start. A simple card provided after routine blood work would be easy to present at the time of donation. The government sees fit to supplement the incomes of hundreds of thousands of people who should not be on public assistance, I feel this is something they SHOULD be supplementing. When you go for regular blood work tell them you are a blood donor so the extra tests can be done on the governments dime. Something i would not mind my tax dollars going towards.
     
    They should also allow directed blood donations. If I can donate and store my own blood against a surgical procedure that is pending for religious reasons, why cant similar arrangements be made if my gay neighbor with the same blood type wants to help me out in my time of need? I would rather get blood from him, a man i know and trust than some stranger that could have slipped thru the testing cracks.
     
    Eventually blood supply monitoring will prove itself reliable enough to lift the ban, and none of these actions will be necessary. But till then its better to be safe than sorry, and ALL donations should be carefully screened.
     
    Adoption should be an option to ANY person with the love and the means to raise a child. A single parent family that is a loving family is much better than foster care. Sexuality certianly adds to the obsticles when it should not, but there are other hurdles that need to be cleared as well.
     
    Medical decisions are something EVERYONE should make preparations for. When my mother was ill and became unable to make her own decisions, a decline that occurred very rapidly, I legally could not make decisions for her - that should have fallen to dad. He however was unable to do so do to his own medical problems after a stroke. Had my parents thought ahead and arranged a medical power of attorney before things became so screwed up I would not have needed a small army of lawyers in addition to the army of doctors to take care of them. My point here is again - the system needs fixing, it isn't just gay couples affected, and in the interim a lot of planning needs be done to prevent landing in an impossible situation.
     
    Seek legal recourse for unjust dismissal? Sorry - while there may be no laws specifically banning dismissal on sexuality there is always a way to find legal recourse. If some idiot can sue McDonnalds because her hot coffee was hot then unjust dismissal is fair game with or without specific laws. You just need the right attorney and I would suggest the ACLU to help with that if you are unsure of where to turn.
     
    The scouting issue - well that whole situation is just wrong and I will gladly lend my voice in hopes that nonsense like that can be eradicated!
  5. Kitt

    I need to rant...

    By Kitt,

    Something was said in my hearing this morning that makes me want to sound off. A supposedly learned man made a very sweeping statement that condemned an entire group of people. It was a basic case of prejudice, but rather than an ethnic group or the gay community, it was pretty much anyone who did not hold a college degree from the "right" university that he was condemning.
     
    Why do people feel they have a right to pass judgment on people they neither know nor care to find out about? There is no way the man this morning could have possibly spoken to so much as a tiny fraction of the people involved in the slight, let alone been able to make a judgment as to if they are educated. Yet he felt confident enough in his knowledge to make sweeping statements condemning a group of literacy volunteers. Seems no one, in his opinion, should be "teaching" without a degree. Uneducated rubes, as he called us, have no place being literacy volunteers.
     
    Well please allow me to offer my “uneducated opinion”. It is uneducated as while i did attend a well respected university, I never completed university study. Life simply got in the way. But life itself is an educator, and when a man who is young enough to be my son gets so overwhelmingly pompous, I find it difficult to resist the urge to turn him over my knee and educate him on basic etiquette.
     
     
    Think before you speak. God, or Allah, or Jehovah, or whomever it is you believe in gave you a brain for a reason, use it! I would like to think your mother would be as appalled as I was at the way you put down an entire group of people. In this case it was a group of volunteers who put in a large amount of time to try and help people who want to better themselves and improve their reading skills. You don't need to be a university professor to teach reading to the illiterate or to someone for whom English is a second language.
     
    Gee I wonder what it would be called if someone hated that much on a group of gay men or an ethnic group instead of less skilled volunteers. Wait – there is a term for that, isn't there? It’s called “Bigot”.
     
    Yes, I know on the grand scale badmouthing a bunch of literacy volunteers falls way below homophobia or ethnic prejudices. Please don't yell at me for the comparison. I just feel bigotry in any form needs to be addressed and eliminated.
  6. Kitt
    I have met a lot of wonderful people here on GA over the last couple months. Most of you have welcomed me with open arms and hearts. Time for me to open up a bit more for you guys and answer the unasked questions about some of the things i have said. I am pretty open about most things in my life, and I think its pretty important to be very open about this one. If it helps even one person to get through a tough time it is more than worth it!
     
    Last summer i went for my annual boob smushing ( what my circle of friends call our annual mammograms). The results were not my usual smile from the doc and a "see you next year". That visit started what has been the most difficult year of my life.
     
    The short version? Biopsy, then surgery, then a period of hell called waiting for the pathology results, chemo, radiation, and finally a maintenance program of an estrogen inhibitor medication which will probably be for the rest of my life.
     
    I think the worst was the waiting on results at each step. My mother died almost a decade ago from complications of breast cancer, so I was intimately familiar with every set of possibilities having taken her to every appointment from finding the lump thru the day she passed. Believe me, knowing did NOT make it any easier.
     
    Chemo .....well thank the powers that be that most of you will never experience it . Basically its pumping the human body full of poison in hopes it kills off the cancer before it gets you. Radiation- not a whole lot better. No sick to your stomach etc but the burning on the surface can get.....difficult to deal with. The most common misconception is that its biggest side effect beyond the fatigue it causes is the equivalent of sun poisioning. I have on one or two occasions been stupid enough to stay out in the sun long enough to blister- it is NOT the same! Not everyone burns as badly as I did but it is a possibility. If these sorts of burns were to have been caused buy getting clumsy with a pot of boiling water most emergency rooms would send the person to a burn unit.
     
    A few thoughts for people out there with loved ones facing this and other forms of cancer..........
     
    Women - don't I repeat DON"T get 'too busy' to have your annual! Mine found the problem at stage 1, the best shot at a cure. The tumor was still so small the surgeon could not feel it and a special ultrasound guided biopsy was needed. Yes they are uncomfortable but soooooo worth the head start they can give you in this fight.
     
    Men and friends - BE PATIENT with the lady going thru it. Our bodies are being messed with, chemistry being totally thrown out of whack, hormones going wacky, not to mention the twisting in our heads. Hold us - hug us - and don't go telling us we are being ridiculous even if we are!
     
    Actually that can pretty much go for any cancer patient.
     
    Please note, I said patient, NOT victim. I have no intention of being a victim in all of this.
     
    Each step of the way various health care professionals told me once I hit the five year mark with no relapses I can call myself cured. No one seemed to agree on when you start counting tho. The surgeon called the day he removed the tumor day one since theoretically the cancer was gone at that point. Each doctors office along the way had similar viewpoints. So I chose Feb 1 as my "New Years Day" this year. I had my last radiation treatment on Jan 31, and started counting my 5 years the next morning. 143 days down, 1682 to go.
     
    Anyone who wants a little extra support through something similar feel free to pm me. I know I'm really just a stranger, typed words on a screen, but sometimes its easier to talk to someone you don't have to face every day and who had been through similar hardships. I wouldn't have made it without losing my mind if it hadn't been for a very good friend I had met in a chat room years ago. The fact that I have never seen him does not change the fact that he was there for me every step and I love him for it!
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