They can't put a good man down - but they had a damn good try!

[PierrePanache]

While I was in & out of hospital - my youngest daughter purloined my laptop to get her stuff transferred to a new set up of her own. It has taken a while but she has kindly - albeit grudgingly - allowed me the use thereof! I've had a few problems with my health but am gradually seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. I am still a bit shaky & may talk garbage for a while. So what's new - I hear you cry. I hope that you are all fit & well & I promise that I will not moan too much. I believe it was Emma Wheeler Wilcox's "Solitude" that ends with, "One by one we must all file on through the narrow aisles of pain". She obviously spent some time at the West Middlesex Hospital Richmond Ward! I shall try & laugh with the world methinks. Take care & hopefully I shall be back soon.

[PierrePanache]

Many apologies - on checking the famous poem - 'tis Ella Wheeler Wilcox - not Emma.

[Kellemora]

I hope you are back in the pink in short order, and confiscate your laptop back!

[yogi]

I know little of your trials and tribulations, but you have come to the right place for sympathy and understanding. I believe we are as fit and well as we can be at our ages, or at least have adapted to our circumstances. We have all been through those "narrow aisles of pain" and would be very understanding of any moaning you cannot suppress. I'm very glad to see you here to testify that you have not evolved to a higher level of existence. As much pain and agony Middlesex Hospital might have imposed, it did not kill you. Apparently it actually made you stronger.

[ocelotl]

Glad to know that you're still around, although we may not know each other personally... Health care may be among the most necesary issues that governments worldwide have decided to stop taking care of. Hope the trend your health is taking helps you keep improving for the foreseeable future. Greetings from Mexico City.

[PierrePanache]

Am off to Ealing Hospital tomorrow for an MRI scan to check how my latest Cryotherapy op went. My latest PSA reading was 2.5 so I am hopeful. Had 18 weeks of a catheter come to an end & it is so glorious to pee again. Also had a v small (luckily) camera down my Turpin - not a great barrel of laughs! Kellemora's news has taken the wind out of my sails & so no more jokes for now & I am so sorry that my way of coping is to act the goat. Take care you lot & shall return later in week - promises to keep & many miles to go before I sleep!

[yogi]

I sense that overall your health is improving, albeit not in the fashion you would like. I had prostate problems and nearly died from neglecting it. My PSA score was over 5.0 before I went to see a urologist. At the moment I'm relatively healthy and will be going for my annual checkup this coming Wednesday. I doubt anything serious will be discovered. I have to agree that Gary's situation is not very promising but he has a heck of a positive attitude about it all. I think that helps a lot. Take care and we look forward to seeing you post here soon.

[PierrePanache]

Good morning from London, England. Have to be a quick visit as I am the healthiest bod in our family at prez! My youngest daughter who works at a Harry Potter theme park in Watford 25 miles away came home earlier in the week feeling rough & eventually tested positive for Covid' My w*fe followed soon after & not to be left out - I am now testing positive. As before it's only likr a rotten stinking heavy cold but I feel totally exhausted & apathetic. Please give Gary my best regards if yr able to & I shall try & pop in & out but may not make a lot of sense. I have now to feed our rescued cats but luckily we have only 4 that live indoors at the moment, It always amazes me that hungry strays that we encourage inside - after being neutered - get very fussy about what they eat!! Take care of yourself Dennis - A Bientot - Rod A-S.

[yogi]

I had to look up A Bientot. I'm not familiar with the German language, but as it turns out the phrase is a French term.

I think COVID is now a permanent part of the earth's atmosphere. It seems to be be the kind of bug that quickly mutates into different variations, which means the immune system can never adapt to all of them. If it does, then the new mutants take over. I navigated through the pandemic with no observable trauma inflicted upon me or my wife of many years. I have had a few "colds" that could have been more than the common virus, but I never was checked to find out. I'm certain the vaccine jabs I had a few years back have all worn off by now so that I might be vulnerable. Apparently there still is some concern because many of the pharmacies around here are still giving out free jabs. In any event, I hope your experiences with COVID remain mild to non-existent.

Cats never impressed me as being friendly critters. I can't fault anyone for being kind to animals of any sort, but those strays are such for a reason. They all have personality problems as far as I'm concerned. LOL

[Kellemora]

I don't mind a good joke Pierre.
I have a barrel full of them myself!
Some of my comments even make an undertaker cringe, hi hi.
You know, people are just dying to get into those places, hi hi.

I know my end is near. I also know, being twice a widower and taking care of those wive's what they all went through.
I just hope I don't end up putting Debi through what I had to do for them. I'm already a burden to her in many ways.
One thing I can't do now is move a full air tank to replace one I emptied. I can move the empty one out of the way by tilting and rolling it. But I can't get a full one out of the rack, and she has carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis in her hands, so even that is hard for her to do.

I do read almost everything posted here on the boards, but usually stay out of most of them, due to time constraints usually.

The docs keep moving my pain medication dosages up, and some of them make me a little loopy after taking them for a while. Others make me fall asleep, sitting up, and I wake up as I begin to tilt and catch myself. So instead of 40 winks, it's more like a partial single wink, hi hi. Some times I'm dizzy, sometimes I'm dead tired, but almost all the time I am in pain now, more so than from the injury I know I suffered at the hospital, even though they would never admit to dropping an Anvil on my rib cage, hi hi.

At this point in time, I have one foot in the grave, and the other foot on a banana peel!
Just making it up here to my office is a major undertaking. But I'm still making myself get here.

[ocelotl]

Having family in the undertaking business gives different perspectives. My uncle Manuel used to say "no single client has come back to comply so far"...

[yogi]

True enough. Nobody makes it out of this place alive. I've done the Harry Houdini thing with a couple people now on the other side. Harry promised to communicate with his best friend from the other side just to verify that there is another side. Last I read his friend never heard back, and I too have not heard from the people I made deals with.

[ocelotl]

It's weird. We tend to take things for granted, establish routines, do things that we enjoy... Until someday, something happens that changes everything. ¿What's next? we may ask. Is something or someone going to fill the space left, or things just will accommodate by themselves and fill the voids, only with a trace of what was and is no longer there...

Hope it all comes together for the foreseeable future.

Glad to read everyone of you, either recurrent or not.

[yogi]

Been around for several decades and frequently pondered the nature of life. I've come to the conclusion that the existence of the universe, us included, is nothing more than a series of random (quantum?) events. Life reacts to those events and in that sense can be considered having consciousness. Our purpose for being is not very profound. We are here simply to exist and manifest our being to it's maximum potential.