Ardith Hinton wrote to James Bradley, "Introductions...  1B."

 JB>  started at the Roman numerals. <-;

 AH>          Glad to hear you were paying attention in English

LOL! Thought you'd get a kick out-a that one.  If I could bother you to
"shop talk" for a moment? There's a name for that, that I wasn't
recalling. You
know the I-A-1-a-i business... 

 AH> class... [chuckle]. Yes, if we had done that we'd be able to
 AH> subdivide further.  We're not writing formal essays here,
 AH> however, and we can always change the subject line when it
 AH> becomes unwieldy.  Seems to me one of the signs of a good
 AH> conversation is that it keeps expanding, and Fidomail lends
 AH> itself very well to expansion....  :-))

[-|

 AH>          Maybe you're better able to tolerate pain than
 AH> some other folks might be because you learned from these
 AH> experiences.  What did you find most helpful in such
 AH> situations... a feeling of accomplishment, a reasonable
 AH> certainty that the present discomfort wouldn't last
 AH> forever, a long soak in the bathtub, or??

When layed out on the day-surgery gurney, the best thing that came to mind was
pregnancy-breathing. Cripes, I might as well have given birth that day. Today,
I tend to do the usual breathing exercises, shortcut meditation, and some small
mutilation. Nothing severe, but I tend to press on the eyeballs, or acupressure
the sinuses, or if in desperation, I'll pull out a spring-clamp or two, and
attach it to the web of my hand, or a sweet spot on my ear-lobe. If that needs
some bolstering, a sharp blow to the thigh or three can do wonders.

 JB>  I doubt they didn't think Valium was addictive, but
 JB>  their convoluted definitions of physical versus mental
 JB>  addiction likely let them sleep at night.

 AH>          I guess it was about thirty years ago that my friend
 AH> began taking the stuff, and psychological addiction wasn't
 AH> generally understood at the time.  I notice also that some
 AH> people are mistrustful, even today, of whatever can't be
 AH> measured & quantified in concrete terms.  Maybe addictions
 AH> didn't seem real to such individuals unless they could see a
 AH> physical result... e.g. people needed more of the same drug
 AH> after awhile if they were using it routinely... or maybe they
 AH> equated psychological addiction with weakness of character, and
 AH> therefore considered it beyond the scope of the medical
 AH> profession.  I got caught by the same line of reasoning in
 AH> a different way.  I didn't know until a decade later what
 AH> was wrong with my spine because the family doctor was quite
 AH> convinced the pain was "all in my head".  By the time I was
 AH> old enough to pay my own medical bills, however, I'd
 AH> realized he said things like that when he didn't know what
 AH> was wrong... so I consulted another doctor.  The x-rays
 AH> clearly showed that my spine was twisted & my tailbone was
 AH> broken.  But maybe the family doctor slept soundly, in
 AH> blissful ignorance, because he'd never looked at my
 AH> spine....  :-/

You opened a few Pandora-boxes there. One more 'second' opinion, and the
inevitable ROM exams attached to them was about to send me off the deep end.
Until I saw the Chief Neurologist here, I'm sure they were under-diagnosing me.
Once confirmed, I saw so many funny looks from the nurse and anatomy prof for
*their* missed assessment, I REALLY developed an ill feeling toward the
profession. I'm sure there is still some mistrust even to this day on my part.

When I was in withdrawals from the narcotics, my regular doctor wouldn't see
me. I went to another that prescribed me Librium. When my regular doctor
inserted himself into a position again to influence my care, the Librium went
down the drain. (READ: toilet) Instead, they introduced more narcotics. I have
to respect that physician for his knowledge, as he is a prof too. I will never
respect him for being the little weasel-wimp that he will likely never
acknowledge that he is. I've heard other doctors express the same opinion about
him, and their assessment is more credible than mine.

I can't help but admire any doctors expertise. I can have problems with what
they do with it.

 AH>  He's the moderator

 JB>  Oh oh... What'd I do now? 

 AH>          We post the rules on or around the 28th, that's
 AH> all....  :-)

Must have been a knee-jerk reaction. {-|

 AH>          Yes.  I could say a lot more about any number of
 AH> things I write about in SURVIVOR, but I'd like to see some
 AH> hands waving in the air first... [grin].

L!!! Mom just left from an over-nighter. Her verbal diarrhea was a little
excessive. I was beat after todays' outing. ...And I mean beat! Falling in the
door, I was being barraged with another volley of questions. I said, "What do
you *want* to hear? Yes... Yes... YES!!!" W/o hearing any more of her
questions.

I can be irksome to be sure, and I did notice myself being perturbed at times
just because she's not perfect. I did tell her once that when I'm being
barraged, I'll tend to shut up. When she didn't take the hint, I gave her the
above. What are you gonna do, eh? We all have issues I guess. /-:



... Change is inevitable, except from vending machines.
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