Living with MCL

Well, here it is the last day in Rome, and Edie is sick. So she is lying in bed resting, while I decided to come down to the lobby, and play on the internet.

I guess it’s a good thing she waited till the last day to get sick. It would have been a real bummer if she had gotten sick earlier. It must have been all the walking we did in Rome, Florence and around Tuscany.

But all the walking is done now, since we’re staying at the Rome Airport Hilton, and it is only a short walk to the terminal.

Once out of Rome, things calmed down considerably. We even found a wine festival, in the city of Panzano in Chianti, which was having a tasting of all the various wineries in the area. There were about 20. And as you might expect, some of the wines were very good and some not so good. It was still fun and a good way to taste a lot of wines without driving too much.

We only stayed in Tuscany 4 days (originally scheduled for 7) and then headed south towards Rome, and visited Montalcino, and then a little town called Bourgneggio in Civita. Both towns were really quaint towns, and made the entire trip to Italy worth while.

Next time I think we’ll go some place that is not so hectic. Maybe to Tahiti or Hawaii again, we’re we can just lie around the beach, and do nothing except eat, drink and sleep, and maybe play a round of golf if the urge should hit.

Ok, that’s it for now. I just wanted to give a quick update since it has been a while since I had found easy access to the internet. I will give a complete report, with lots of pictures, once I get home and back to work, where I can really relax.

Now that we are away from Rome, things are slightly better, but even Florence has too many tourists (and Americans), but if you stay away from the major toursit attractions, The Ponte Vecchio, Uffizzi Gallery, and the Galerie d’Academia it really is a pleasant city.

Our hotel is just on the outskirts of Florence, not far from Ponte Vecchio, the most famous bridge in Florence. Not sure why it is so famous, since it is simply lined with jewelry shops. You don’t even realize you’re walking over a bridge, until you get to the very middle, and there is gap left open for viewing.

While there are some historical sites, and some beautiful architecture, basically Florence is just one great big factory outlet mall. But the food is better in Florence than in Rome, and if you stay away from those majror attractions, it’s not nearly as crowded, and Florence is a relatively nice city.

Tomorrow we’re off to the farm house in Tuscany where we’re staying. We are really looking forward to that. A chance to taste some good wines and sample some traditional Tuscan food, and maybe relax just a little, although today we are just going to relax and people watch.

High season ends today, so we’re hoping things will calm down considerably.

Rome sucks!

From having to deal with an ATM card that won’t work, unbelievably enourmous crowds, a traffic system that constantly seems like it is on the verge of gridlock, to a body clock that essentially ends my day at 6 PM, and has me wide awake at 2 AM this vacation has not gotten off to a good start.

I can only hope things will get better once we get to Florence (we leave today), and then on to the farm house in Tuscany.

Beyond that, I will say the people are friendly, mostly speak English (they have to in order to deal with the inordinate number of Americans here), and the first pizza I had, although thinner than what I remember, and the application of toppings different, tasted identical to what I remember pizza tasting like when I was growing up in Pittsburgh.

So things aren’t that bad.

Stay tuned for more updates. Maybe??

It’s a concept that comes up everyday in life. When I go ride my bike, it’s not the number of miles I put in that is important, but it’s the quality of the training session, how much effort I put into those miles, that counts. On the golf course it’s even easier. It’s not how far you hit the ball, but how far you hit the ball in the fairway.

And it shouldn’t be any different in every other aspect of our lives! Or should it?

I’ve often wondered what I would do, or how I would feel, when (if) I get to a point in life, where I can’t ride my bike, play a round of golf, enjoy eating and drinking wine as much as I do, and am relegated to sitting around the house watching reruns of I Love Lucy.

I’ve often told my wife (who is a nurse), when I get to that point, just shoot me up with morphine or heroine, and let me go happy and peacefully! I’m not so sure she would do that, but that is what I think I would want.

Of course it’s easy for me to say that now, since I’m no where near that point in life.

But my 85 year old aunt, who is living with my wife and me, is either there now, or very close to being at that point in life.

To start off, she has congestive heart failure, less then 10% kidney function, severe kyfosis which makes it difficult for her to breathe, high blood pressure, and the list goes on. She’s even at a point now with her kidneys, that she is on a “renal diet”, that is low sodium, low potassium, low protein, or in other words pretty much nothing. Next step is dialysis.

The question becomes is that a life really worth living? Obviously that’s not my decision to make, it’s her decision. But eventually it becomes a societal issue.

Right now my wife and I provide for most of Sylvia’s care, and she does a decent job of taking care of herself when we’re not around. We have actually even seen a slight improvement in her well being, by insuring that she eats properly, and cajoling her into exercising to the extent she is able. She has also developed a tremendous attachment to our cat Morris, who she constantly obsessives over. Morris seems to have given her a greater purpose in life.

But that still didn’t prevent two trips to the ER over the past year and a half, once for a TIA (Transient Ischemic Attack), and another when she was in respiratory distress. Oh, and let’s not forget about the once a week trips to the doctors for ongoing examinations and shots of Procrit, and the numerous medications she takes, all of which are paid by Medicare Parts A, B and D.

But at what point does she become a burden on society? When does the cost exceed the benefit? It’s just not that easy to put a price tag on human life, but eventually we, as a society, may have to!

Even with all that, I’m not sure that would be the type of life I would want to live. Of course, like I said before, I’m not at that point in life yet, so it is difficult for me to say with any certainty how I would react under those circumstances.

Still, I can’t help wondering, knowing how quickly things can change, is it the quantity or the quality that matters?