a witch by a nose
One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Halloween witch is that bump on her nose. Well, not only do I have one; I have three. I guess that makes me officially a witch.
The dermatologist says they are "fibromas," which are benign kinds of tumors. Mine are under the skin, and so they are not really noticeable. I can have them "sliced off" (the doctor's words), but insurances don't pay for that because that's considered a cosmetic procedure. He says it's not a big deal to take them off, or out, or whatever they do to remove them. (But he'll have to cut the skin, so how is that not a big deal??)
When I first got them (one ages ago, one six months ago, and one last month) I thought that they were sebaceous cysts, and so I put hot compresses on them and they eventually diminished in size, but they never went away.
At the moment, they don't bother me, but I know they're there. I can feel them.
I can't worry about them now, however. In two days I'm leaving to head out to Massachusetts for my grandson's sixth birthday, and I'm going to stay over at least three nights.
So it will be just my brother and mother. The hospice nurse suggested a change in my mother's medication, so we're going to try that. Her extreme anxiety is overwhelming her. And us too. I guess it's her dementia getting worse. Between that and her increasing aches and pains, it makes it almost impossible to interact meaningfully with her. It's like trying to take care of a sick toddler.
I often wish I really were a witch so I could get on my broom and fly away.
he can't go home again
Myrln fidgets in the hospital bed in the emergency room, where they have him hooked up to various machines that beep and chime and whir.
"I just wanted a few more days. I needed a few more days. I needed time to think...." He looks at me with eyes angry and sad at the same time. He is back in the hospital after only two days at home from a week-long stay for tests and such. I have been with him for the past 36 hours, including this morning when we had to call a Rescue Ambulance because he couldn't breathe, even with an oxygen tank.
We have been divorced now for twice as many years as we were married. But time had healed our wounds and we had developed a friendly relationship.
"I will be eternally grateful," he wheezes, "for all you are doing for me now."
My eyes fill with tears. "No problem," I say.
"I have to tell you something," he says. "Even through it all, there was always a little love left."
"Yes," I say. "Me too."
And I'm crying and we are holding hands the way we once did long before I begged him to stop smoking.
Tonight he is temporarily hooked up to a respirator. b!X arrived from Oregon, and his sister and family from Massachusetts. He has not yet been awake for b!X and him to have a little time together. I hope he wakes, for both their sakes.
Meanwhile, I am back on the mountain with my mother, but I suspect will be be leaving again in a day or so.
They will take him off the respirator. He will either breathe or not. Either way, he won't be going home again.
Myrln, who once blogged here on Mondays, is my former spouse, the father of my children. He has inoperable lung cancer, which has spread to just about every vital organ.
just a clot of nirvana
I got linked to this from a newsletter I get, and I'm sharing it here because it is a description, by a brain scientist, of the kind of experience she had that others might attribute to sensing "god."
Still others, back in the days of "dropping acid," often described something similar.
And others, yet, tried to achieve it through Transcendental Meditation.
It's not in the mind; it's in the brain.
Listen in as brain scientist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor tells of the spiritual experience she had during her own stroke. This euphoric experience transcends all formal religions and has been pointed to by quantum physics for years. Watch the video.
from here:
....she was conscious as she lost the left half of her brain. She remembers the day clearly, when she eventually curled up into a ball and expected to die. "I was shocked when I awoke later," said Taylor,... [snip] "I couldn't talk. I couldn't understand language. I lost all recollection of my life and lost all perception of my physical presence -- I was at one with the universe.
1) ??? 2) ???
(Monday is myrln's day to blog here at Kalilily Time.)
1) ??? 2) ???
There are two items that could use some attention since both involve our tax dollars and in some ways, they point out just how ignorant we may be about the use of OUR money by the feds.
First off, for the past how long, we've been endlessly bombarded about the primary contests being waged to help find our candidates for the next president. We can't escape the news about them -- which in truth is good. It reminds us that our government is our choice and ultimately our responsibility. So far, what we've been seeing is a number of senators and congressmen mostly out campaigning, trying to whip up votes. Day after day they're out "on the stump," working hard to make their points to the potential voters.
Only, when you look a little harder or just sit and think about it, you come to realize something they don't mention very much. Consider: for months they're out there somewhere in the country and moving from one locale to another, days on end. What they are not doing during this time and in those activities is their job. Remember, they were elected to go to Washington as representatives of their state or district. Yet here they are anywhere but D.C. -- while still getting paid, still getting health care (the best in the nation), and still piling up credits toward their pensions. All of it paid for with OUR tax dollars.
Doesn't bother you? No big deal? It's the process? Oh yeah? Try getting the same deal from your boss.
***
Item 2 is different. It's this: why do we have an FDA, a Food and Drug Administration? At least as far as concerns new drugs coming into the marketplace? Without FDA's approval, no new drug makes it out for sale here. Good idea, a watchdog for our protection against the release of dangerous substances. Oh yeah? Then why in this flood of TV commercials for new and existing drugs does every one of them finish off with someone sounding like a shady used-car dealer talking a mile-a-minute and warning us, almost unintelligibly he's talking so fast, about all the potential dangers of the product?
If it's so dangerous, why was it approved by the FDA for sale in the first place? Hm-m. Good question. Our tax dollars going to approve drugs that in normal use could harm us, even kill us.
A great service, huh?
