WTF-Beta

So sorry, Daniel.
That sounds like living hell.
Thank heaven you can look forward to an end to it.

Like you all, I loved her too.
Interestingly, the younger sister of my closest hometown friend, Kit Morris went on to work with her (I remember their house always smelled of monkeys, even when she was very young. Tolerant parents)

Kit worked with her for a good while, but eventually went on to get an MD (reminding me I really ought to try - again - through her to locate my friend, Terry).

BTW When I was at Stanford, on the bulletin board, they had photos and bios of the grad students in Psychology, and one was an unbelievably beautiful blond (like Jane Goodall) whose passion was gorillas (Penny Patterson). I think she has several books out now about her "adopted daughter", KOKO. Look them up if you're interested.

This lady may not have (yet) reached the other's age, but I LOVE her way of staying young and limber through YOGA.

I used to do all those stretches with ease (and more), but never again since my spine was encased in a titanium armature.

I suspect I have Ehler's Dehlers hypermobility Syndrome (the kind where you're extra stretchy). I thought it was enviable from Jr High on up, but not now. I think it was the result of that hereditary disorder - not my daily exercises. In those days they didn't check school-children for scoliosis and the like.

Have a look.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/well/move/102-year-old-yogi-charlotte-chopin.html

ShiroKiro - identified with your problem as described. It started right after I came to from the spinal op (something called "toeing out" which is getting worse and worse. In a way no surgeon so far has been able to figure out, the whole lower left limb (I figure it's like the old song goes - "hip bones connected to the knee bone, knee bones connected to..." etc. The scoliosis
and spinal deformity which necessitated the surgery, left me very off kilter - center of gravity is just NOT as it should be and with time, all the moving parts on that side are twisting the others so right now, my left knee has gotten quite bad (also collapsing under me suddenly which puts me at constant fall risk).

I want to have the left knee replaced like the right, but I can't figure out how I could rehab it (requires tons of bending so the healing comes out right, and my back is like the tin man, so what then?)

Drives me crazy that insurance and the age of specialization, force me to make appointments with three - four different surgeons, each separately separately (hip, knee, foot and ankle - and, of course, spine) when it's clearly a contiguous problem affecting all three/four parts!

WHAT IN THE HELLERONI AM I SUPPOSED TO DO TO FIGURE OUT WHAT'S GOING ON (AND - DARE I SAY IT? - FIX IT, OR AT LEAST IMPROVE IT??)

Meanwhile, I'm constantly tripping over my own feet thanks to tendonitis, extreme pez planus (I used to think flat foot was kind of a joke diagnosis!), and foot drop on that same side. Now the left foot is becoming deformed from all the pronation - the bone actually seems to have changed shape.

Meanwhile (what I'd intended to write about) about the bone density. I take a monthly pill to hopefully improve it (Actonel - there's a stronger one given by injection which supposedly remineralizes the bones to a degree). And the exercise I rely on for the recommended weight bearing, is a stair stepper.

You can hold on to the handrails to adjust how much you want to rely on your arms to rely on the stairs (different levels of speed and other adjustments).
There are different kinds, but all gyms have them. I actually got a fancy model from Craigslist - it was one or two hundred miles away but by great good luck, it happened to be on the route to my spinal surgeon so my son managed JUST managed to fit it in his RAV (bending it a teensy bit).

(Funny digression - asking the owner why he was getting rid of it - he said sheepishly he hadn't checked the height it raised him to, and the ceiling of his basement gym was too low. He showed us, and sure enough it would have partly decapitated him had he tried to use it! His loss, my gain (and a lesson on precautions one needs to take when buying exercise equipment!.)

You spoke of the difficult recuperation from foot surgery but evidently you aren't at risk of the one which SCARES me the mosts, from undertaking it - - those gargantuan heavy boots they require. They do a number on my spine. The one I had to wear after an ankle fracture, caused me so much back pain, I had to get PT to try to relieve it! It was far worse than the ankle discomfort.

Oh, no! How miserable! So sorry it struck you again. Hoping for a swift rebound.

But I just don’t get it.

If I remember rightly you were the first (or nearly) and got horribly sick (at first without testing positive) – that was after your husband got it. He was so sick and you nursed him back to health.

But I’ve only gotten it once and was hardly sick (thanks Paxlovid!) while you stand out to me as one of THE healthiest and most resilient members of WTF

I’ll never forget your description of moving cross country twice (?) - once it was riding herd on your husband was who was driving - researching and guiding him the whole way because he was driving a huge van (and with attached cars like a circus train as I pictured it - but you did an unbelievable job packing almost everything you owned!

Are you still enjoying your beloved boulder you moved besides two (TWO?) horses and masses more? (A jeep or something like that and other large objects??)

And I was equally impressed by your lengthy stint working at Cosco (?) for the insurance since your hubby was between jobs - nearly breaking your back lifting immense cakes, followed by a long time collecting shopping carts (again a train comes to mind). And they didn’t even have one of the modern aides to reduce your muscle power.

But (at the risk of jinxing myself ) there’s me, who’s scarcely active owing to my bad back – for which I went through a nine hour operation, trying to reconstruct it (but it left me mobility impaired – and even more sedentary than before owing to his mistakes.)

But I not only didn’t get Covid, I didn’t even have reactions to the vaccine (once, an itch for a week or so) – FWIW not even to the Shingles vaccine. And I was a sickly kid (I never ate vegetables or even drank milk, and no one seemed to notice). I DID work out in the gym two hours a day almost a year before the spinal op to enhance my chances of survival (it’s a dangerous op) – even through the years of active Covid, handling the equipment and being around students daily). Besides a few decades of strenuous exercise even before that (I was actually invited to join a “golden” triathlete team!) , I worked out almost as much too til that nasty surgery after which I haven’t been able to do much of anything. I can’t get a dog (dying to) since I couldn’t walk it.
But I'm still not catching bugs (not even flu).

And then there’s you – practically an Olympian, but plagued by terrible cases of Covid.
One thing is sure about it, it’s a super mysterious virus. One is certainly not protected by being in the pink of health. It's almost like it strikes the healthiest.

I sure am sorry you are going through this and wish you a speedy recovery. It certainly isn’t fair. (I guess to add to the strange contrasts, I should add that I did go through two bouts of breast cancer, but – knocking lots of wood – except for amputated breasts, I seem to have gone through it with no ill effects, never even lost my hair nor had chemo. And FWIW - it wasn't a recurrence. Second one was a different cell type).)

Whatever predisposes to COVID and other infectious diseases, it must be some kind of DNA thing, which I’ve been spared. I’ve been anxiously waiting for “them” to finally learn how to test people to figure out such things, so as to know what medicines will work for people (and more). Thanks to you-know-who’s defunding medical research, I guess we’ll have a much longer wait. (Not to mention Long Covid – I know a few people who are completely disabled by it!)

Although the long lasting Tube strike is over per se, but if your plans depend on using it be aware there are "rolling strikes" going on now - unpredictable. Need to keep abreast of what's going on transportationwise.

Link to video

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/magazine/cancer-research-grants-funds-trump.html

There are so many promising advances underway here and midway through - all to be discontinued?

I'd feel just the same if I hadn't bumped into two bouts of breast cancer in ten years myself (Not the same kind, which is promising. And more good news there - only 5% chance of recurrence).

I just HATE it when any research is halted in the middle. It's not just trashing future findings but wasting all those years of hard work and expensive equipment in the past!

I wonder what would happen if someone with the last name Trump were diagnosed with it...

For a first ever accident (didn't know there WAS such a thing!) it sounds like you were relatively speaking, very fortunate - fitting between those two "obstructions", thank Heaven! Did your airbag inflate?

But you MUST be traumatized from what you described. What a jerk, whether kid or DUI or nutcase - he put you very much in danger, and to a ton of trouble, whether or not you get reimbursed.

My last total (comes of driving older cars) was especially annoying because it was an "oldie but goodie" perfectly maintained CAMRY with under a hundred thou miles, and most infuriatingly, I too had just gotten four new tires. Of course, its intrinsic valuation and the new tires weren't factored into the car's worth. (I've since learned that it's not just Blue Book valuation but a portion thereof - at least with State Farm, 80% Blue Book).

That was the accident caused by an empty trashbin (trash day in an Ides of Mach wind!)
that somehow blew and wound up wrapped around my drivers side wheel. Caused me to lose control. Spun several times, ending up wedged against a tree off the road.

I ended up with several broken ribs, a severely undervalued car, and most maddening, I was declared at fault so my premium zoomed up! Even the car behind me hadn't seen the blowing trashbin. I call that an Act of G-d!

Jeez, I felt slight extrapolated trauma just reading about your accident - can't believe you escaped without serious injury (and yes, do check it out!*) So sorry you are going through this.

[*pique, that molar that fell off months after your accident, is almost incredible - especially that the auto insurance covered it ! Good thing that dentist identified its cause]

(Confused about how to complete edits. In the interests of more readable sections, perhaps cutting this long post here will help, although I'm only doing it because I couldn't do otherwise!)

...They continue to be drafted at the ordinary age (18) at the same time that the rest of military age men (to age 50) are mercilessly called up from the reserves. They serve far longer than is supposed to be their maximum stints, leaving their families without income and depleting the workforce. I have no idea why the economy hasn’t collapsed. The ever increasing number of service-related suicides attests to the nationwide crisis which protects Netanyahu reign.

G-d forbid Evangelicals in the US were to be armed! It does seem that was the overarching plan of Charlie Kirk. It is a certainty that their civilians are already far more armed than any opposition, but what if the Army were called in to back them up?

Just a thought off the top of my head - the extraordinary parallelism of Christian Nationalism and Israeli Religious Nationalism.

And both equally dangerous when armed.

Anybody remember the major conflict in Israel (before 10/7) when Netanyahu's coalition was fighting for Israel's executive branch to supersede the Supreme Court in decision making.

Israel was verging on Civil War. An exogenous war on all militarized fronts apart from Egypt and Jordan, took the heat off that controversy. How long can war with inimical neighbors, serve to postpone returning to that internecine conflict ?
(And with it, finally precipitate a New Election and with it, prosecuting Netanyahu for “ordinary” corruption) ?

Especially since there’s another urgent internecine conflict in Israel (whether to draft Yeshiva students) which should by rights be decided by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court technically has legislative precedence over the Rabbinate (except over civil issues like marriage) this controversy should be easily resolved.

However, because Netanyahu is dependent on ultra religious parties to remain in power (a power bloc behind the Chief Rabbinate), there’s no way to resolve the draft impasse. Meanwhile, the injustice of sparing the lives of Yeshiva students continues at the expense of the non-ultrareligious populace.

@wtg
Why do you say Putin's "winning on all fronts" if the Europeans are stepping up to help Ukraine?

Nut

(Bernard: I don't get it - "Frank")

I'm unhappy to see Massachusetts is one of only three states where CVS won't dispense the vaccine with or without a script. (I wonder why. Same question re Florida with all their retirees.) One son who lives in MA is working as a paramedic (exposure!).
I hope other pharmacies there will fill scripts.

SK:
If you have a portal for out of office questions for your provider, might that be a good alternative to such a question in a meeting?

Nevermind.
I see wtg already asked about this option, and you looked into it.
(Your obligatory PCP change sounds like a humongous nuisance.)

Fairies

Grey

@ Daniel

"It's complicated". Has to do with it's being a state's issue, with many separate arrangements which amount to significantly lower medication prices through Medicaid.

However, you're right strictly speaking. Those mechanisms aren't negotiations per se on a broad federal level.
(quote from Perplexity)

---

WHAT?
I can't cut and paste it - must be some kind of copyright limitation.

Here's a link.
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/can-medicaid-negotiate-medicat-6pPD5c4dTwyxm6MOW4aaFg

Today's NYTimes reports Trump's intention to impose tariffs on meds manufactured overseas (almost all of them, considering they're mostly manufactured - piecemeal - in several countries apiece).

As someone who takes a fair number of prescriptions (the most expensive ones being ordered from Canada), that made my heart sink.

But, hey! What IS going on? Does anyone besides me remember his announcing not long ago that he was going to sock it to Big Pharma for charging Americans multiples of the prices other countries charge for the same medications? (Why? Because other countries are able to put pressure on American companies by forced negotiations, so their citizens can get them at a mere fraction of what we pay). Old news, but fabulous that Trump was finally going to make it right.

I cheered (even my sons sent me happy "about time" messages) - and indeed it would have been. (I guess everyone knows how we're gouged in med prices, rationalized as needed to pay for R&D because our insurance companies aren't allowed to negotiate price so patients everywhere would divide that expense. (Except - for some reason - MEDICAID is allowed to negotiate.).
It's been a scandal forever and a day.

Or did I hallucinate that whole make-it-right pronouncement??

Because it doesn't jibe with this newest announcement about imposing tariffs on medications coming from overseas. Or can both policies somehow go together?

I guess it's laughable to question Trump's flip flopping on an issue, but it really DID seem that (for once) a policy change benefiting consumers fit in with his "America First" dogma.

Anybody else notice this and have comments?

shtick