Normally, I’m inclined to see the better nature of people who might have obesity problems, medical issues, and mental deficiencies, because most of the folks with such severe problems are people who  would never hesitate giving whatever generosity they could offer to others, but in your case, you’ve displayed your progressive venom far too often to merit any sympathy from me, because you’re constant nastiness, bile, and vindictiveness prevent any doubt of your warped intentions, and so I’m afraid I can’t offer you any sympathy.  

Thanks to all of you for your kind words and, from many of you, donations. It means the world although — true confession — it also makes me really shy. I always prefer to be on the giving end. Give me some stray cats to feed or a hard-up neighbor who needs some groceries.

Re some comments:
1) We do need universal health care. The current system leaves too much to chance. If I’d had good insurance, I would have made an appt. to see an orthopedic surgeon myself, and probably have had all this behind me already. (I knew the current group of local docs weren’t “hip” to my problems, but I was wholly dependent on them for referrals, xrays, etc.)

2) I wish I could have hip resurfacing, but I think I’m too far gone for it.

3) A few months ago, I joined a support mailing list, and have been astonished by the stories. There are so many teenagers and young adults who need hip replacement or resurfacing — this is because of medications they had to take for cancer, for lupus, for sickle cell anemia, etc. (There’s also a man in Ethiopia on the list — he’s in the kind of bone-on-bone pain that I’m in, but he doesn’t even have the chance I’ve got. One list member got him the promise of surgery at a Christian hospital in Ethiopia, by an American surgeon who practices there, but the hospital can’t afford to pay for the impant (@ $5K), and so he’s stuck. He can’t work anymore, and he had to ship his children to relatives. The list members have tried various fundraisers like RobinHood,com, none of which have worked so far. He wrote the list last month that he feels suicidal, and I totally identify with that. If I won the lottery, he’d get it done. If anyone has any ideas, please share. He haunts me.)

4) Please don’t take steroids if you can help it. I was bad off two years ago, but really went downhill after the local docs put me on a long course of Prednisone. It caused me innumerable side effects — hypokylemia (dangerously low potassium), very high blood pressure, infection from a suppressed immune system, and excruciating pain. When I complained to the local doctor, one kept telling me the only side effect is weight gain (which I didn’t have). Another doctor asked if my intense thigh/knee pain was Restless Leg Syndrome. My daughter ended up forcing me into her car and driving me to a Trauma ER in Seattle where the ER doctor found all of the above side effects and immediately began treating me. He lectured me how I could have died from the hypokylemia or the bladder infection — neither of which I knew I had although I’d diligently gone to the local docs to report the terrible pain. I don’t know what they’ve got against blood tests. Furthermore, steroids can cause osteonecrosis (bone death), which is probably why I had such intense pain while on the steroids and for months afterwards. (It’s really important, obviously, that one get the best doctors and also be assertive, which I have a tendency not to be.)

Centrocitta, I’m so glad you had great doctors. And how smart of you to move to a country that has great health care. It’s essential. Those systems are so much more humane. Jerome A Paris, a banker in Paris who posts at Daily Kos all the time, has a young son with recurring brain cancer. The French government pays his wife to stay at home and care for their son. That’s humane treatment.

I’ve funded my PayPal account this evening – as soon as it clears I’ll send it over.

My mother has decided to come out to Australia for the second time in 5 years and Sydney isn’t good enough for her. So I have had to organise a plush hotel and a flight to Melbourne. To make matters worse I have purchased an entire suite of new furniture (it needed to be done) as well.

Anyway enuff anout me. Thankyou President Bush for stuffing the US currency. This means that a paltry Australian dollar is now worth as little as a US dollar, or thereabouts. Thankyou President Bush.

Because of that, I shall refer to my heart and see if my wallet will grant access for this cause. My wallet is usually offbounds, else it would be perpetually empty. But this is a special case as Susan has tirelessly provided a good read her fellow sycophants & occasional crusader.

It is interesting reflecting on the analogy of this situation. One thousand well wishers and protesters aren’t worth a damn. Only three ingedients will do: fine doctors, God’s blessing and most importantly money to buy the fine doctors’ service. After that all well wishers can be cherished and revered.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hip-resurfacing/AN01550
http://www.udel.edu/PR/Messenger/04/04/medical.html
http://www.aarp.org/bulletin/yourhealth/a2004-10-14-hiprepair.html?print=yes

“Six months after surgeon Myron Stachniw began performing an alternative to total hip replacement called resurfacing in U.S. clinical trials, he reached a conclusion: He wanted the procedure himself. “I had severe arthritis in both hips, which was really limiting my activities,” says Stachniw, 57, of Galesburg, Ill. “When I saw how well my patients were doing after resurfacing, it didn’t take too long before I figured out, ‘This is for me.’ ”

Good luck Susan!

Get well girl. Keep your spirits up. Mental hygiene is important.

This poem is, in my humble opinion, is in a category I call “quantum awesome.” WIthout further ado…

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were all meant to shine as children do.
It’s not just in some of us.
It’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

–Marianne Williamson from A Return to Love

I have basked in your praise of stuff I’ve posted here at NQ, or encouragement you’ve given me re: my writing a book about post WW2 America. I have a poem for you in a separate post.

Preacher Lady, thank you for what you’re doing. My preference is snail mail. I have an email in to you.

Leslie, thanks for bringing this to everyone’s attention. (Didn’t know about the tributes elsewhere; look forward to reading them when I get a few minutes.)

Larry, if you want, we can talk via email. Then set up a phone call. I can help by providing “copy”/posts 1-2-3x a week. Your call. You email me. (And my posts are raw at times and I just let it fly; my copy is more under control. Focused. Tighter. Ranger sniper motto in Nam: OSOK. One Shot, One Kill.)