[UPDATE]: This story appears to have legs. Something to keep your eyes on.
Hey, it’s been a while, don’t know if anyone is still reading, but I thought I’d drop in because this seemed important.
There is so much hinky with this entire process, from the (guffaw) “McConnell Rule” keeping President Obama’s pick off the court, to all of the Republicans (*cough*cough*JOHN MCCAIN*cough*cough*) vowing not to seat any of Hillary Clinton’s Supreme Court nominees back when everyone assumed she would win, to all the really serious people who stroked their chins and reminded us that there’s no special reason for nine Supreme Court justices in the first place.
And now this, from the White House Correspondent for NBC News:
Stay strong, peeps. Ever resisting …
Southern Beale 
Hey, SB, welcome back!
I’m disgusted–but not surprised–that this back-channel deal went through.
Spoils of war and all that. The key to victory is winning.
and then ‘fixing’ the system so nobody can ever win…
…nobody *else* can…
So nice to see you again! I have missed you. I hope you have recovered and are feeling as well as one can in the midst of this fetid Rethuglican sewer.
No surprises here. Rethuglicans/Trump are rabid jackals sating their blood lust. I am comforted by the message from MacBeth, which is pure evil sows the seeds of its own destruction. I just pray that the rest of us can survive their collective downfall.
Thank you! Dark days, indeed.
Good Morning, Ms. Beale:
I have indeed missed your perspicacity and attendant biting sarcasm of the assholes that are trying to hand the republic over to the bone pickers.
I am up at 4:00 AM after spending five days in the hospital following an emergency appendectomy with the complications of petotinitis after it became perforated. NO.FUN.AT.ALLti
I am going back to bed to sleep for another hour or two, I hope but I will be back, later.
Oh my! I hope you are on the mend soon. You are the second person I know who had to have an emergency appendectomy this week. So sorry you had to go through all that. Is Buddy being taken care of??
Buddy’s care and feeding have been somewhat maladministered by well intentioned friends who simply can’t hear me sometimes (they’re not listening). If he has seizures right now (due to hid meds cycle being totally fucking shot and I’m not doing well–even if I’m recovering–there are no real options other than somebody else taking over his care or giving him a quick and painless exit. It sucks. I cannot deal with another three weeks of the insanity I went through with him starting in late May. I have been having chronic pain issues (bad knees and sciatica most prominently) since several years back then his seizures after I had a rather nasty fall on my bike (maybe the 6th in the last couple of years) and now this.
I’m hoping it is not going to happen but preparing for the eventuality,
I found out a lot about myself in the last six or seven d orays–some of it not good. I realized that I have a threshold which is rarely crossed in regard to telling people I actually like (I’m incapapble of trusting OR loving anyone–it hurts me far worse than them, usually, as they are not TOLD some of these things).how I feel about them. It’s been a very emotional week and I’m not even afraid of death, it’s the knowledge that I have never told some people how much I care for them and if I try to do so, my always simmering rage is just below the surface. I don’t get mad at them but the rage eats my heart and makes it almost impossible for me to catch my breath, never mind speak of my other, better feelings.
I left a message for my VA MH counsellor (Adderall, they no likey–so I have to talk to a very nice muslim lady several times a year) and expect a call from her, soon. I want to see if can find the root of my dis-ease.
Near death experiences have a way of focussing the mind–and not on salvation.
I’m sorry to hear it’s been a difficult time … Katy makes a good suggestion, a good rescue organization might have recommendations for a temporary foster, someone who can be more attentive to Buddy’s care, and as for the emotional stuff, your counselor is a great place to start. “The first step to solving any problem is recognizing that you have one,” yada yada.
Hey, Demo, so sorry to hear that you and the hairy roommate are both suffering. Sincere wishes for good health for both of you. Sincere regret that all I can offer are my good wishes.
“nasty fall on my bike”
recumbent instead?
though recumbents are expensive, and visibility seems terrible on roads with cars.
dog’s meds: I wonder if pet foster volunteers would provide foster dog care? Though afterwards, your dog will be “re-adopted” by you.
@ Name, Katydid and Ms. Beale.
Thanks, all of you, for suggestions and insights.
In addition to having my chronic pain unmediated by either ibu or lyrica I also stopped my Adderall. It doesn’t “hurt” to not take it. I don’t feel anything physically, except a little cotton mouth if I restart after a layoff but electrically, my brain goes into overdrive and pretty much stays there about 2-3 days after I stop. It’s exhilirating, like riding your bike down the steepest hill in town. It’s scary, like going down that hill with no helmet and eyes closed. It’s a bit like herding cats, if you’re a magpie and the cats are dressed in tinsel and glitter.
With Buddy’s seizure disorder even people who know him are afraid to deal with him OR they simply don’t believe that meds schedules are just as important for his tiny body as they are for me. Anybody who’s willing to deal with that issue either has animals who view Bud as a chew toy or they have no experience with full blown episeizure and all of its attendant mess.
BTW does anybody have any idea why folks can’t understand that small dogs need to piss and shit as often as big ones?
Another btw, ALL of this stuff is going on with me having ONE asset, a shithole dump of a house, to worry about somebody suing me for to cover what will likely be well north of $50K in bills. Biggest problem in U.S. healthcare–unequal care. 2nd biggest problem, making healthier homeless people.
@Demo; I’ve heard the complete opposite about dogs–that big dogs can “hold it” for days on end but little dogs can’t. I’m just astounded that people don’t realize body functions and body functions and every human and animal needs to relieve themselves.
As for the meds–one saying I’ve heard over and over is physical things are all people pay attention to. If you have a broken bone sticking out of your leg, nobody would say, “You’re as focused as you want to be–just PAY ATTENTION and that broken leg won’t matter at all.” One of the many sucky things about American health care is that the people who really need it don’t have the strength to fight for it. And it does take a fight. I take a drug that’s minor and it wouldn’t kill me to miss it, but I function better when I have it. Trying to get a refill is a multi-week exercise in futility that involves daily phone calls to my doctor’s office that go unanswered in concert with calling my pharmacy to have *them* call and bug the doctor’s office. All bets are off if the nurse or her assistants are on leave, because even though what I take has zero street value and nobody would ever take it unless they had to beause it provides no recreational effects…nobody else at the doctor’s office will authorize a refill.
All of this to say, wow, I really feel for you and hope you can get back on track soon.
@ Katydid:
Bud CAN hold his water for over 12 hours, he usually won’t and I would rather have a small puddle of his piss on the floor than a multi-hundred dollar bill for tests and meds after he gets a UTI. I think he is perhaps becoming diabetic but he’s happy (for milliseconds, after every biscuit shower) and shows no lethargy or loss of appetite. When he becomes too ill to care about life, I’ll take the steps necessary to help him over.
I told the surgeon prior to my appendectomy last week that death holds no sway over me, but I did not want to wake up dependent and debilitated for a long period of time (the rest of my life). He, as is proper, pretty much ignored me on that–his ethics seem intact–and said, “Let’s see if we can make this right.”.
As for drugs, the Adderall and Lyrica (both on hiatus for now, along with ibuprofen) are both scrips I CAN do without and neither of them gives me the faintest pleasure after I take them. Not being able to unmagpie is troubling–but I did it for nearly 44 years with no thought of it being a problem. Chronic pain is much different as it both distracts and dissipates my energy. We’ll see what’s what on that front after I’m released from my surgeon’s service.
I thank you for your kindness and I am sad that you have to fight for what seems to be something like my Adderall scrip, not critical but not inconsequential. Fuck scolds and self-appointed arbiters of my wants and needs.
Is CBD oil legal where you are? It’s really helped my knee and my insomnia.
Yes, as long as it has no THC or other “fun” factors.
The problem is that it’s difficult to know what’s not woo, in that regard (and I don’t think that marijuana is non-efficacious). If you still have my e-mail, send me the name of the one you’re using–or leave it here–and I’ll look into it.
As of this morning, the pain that’s been in the background for the last couple of years is starting to reassert itself. My arms feel like they’ve been “indian burned” and the flickering aurora of pain up and down my arms and legs is like oneathem old theater marquees.
I will not be restarting either ibu or lyrica until I have some idea about how much pain I can stand before I just say, “fuck it”.