Sorry for being so political lately, but I actually believed Republicans would do the right thing today, and vote in favor of much needed legislation, providing liquidity to the US financial system, and helping home owners, who got caught up in the American dream of home ownership.

But will wonders never cease, the Republicans today (and admittedly some Democrats as well) reaffirmed my belief the Republican philosophy of I’ve got mine, who cares about anyone else, still reigns true, by helping to defeat the proposed legislation.

And to think I almost believed John McCain, when he said he would change the way Congress works, and would reach across the isle to work with Democrats in a bipartisan fashion. But after hearing John McCain’s speech today, I now realize his calls for reaching across the isle, were simply to make it easier for him to stick a knife in the back of Democrats, when they weren’t watching.

Hopefully the American public will wake up in the next 36 days, and see the light, before it’s too late.

Post to Twitter

 

As if the economy isn’t in trouble enough, now my bank, Washington Mutual (WAMU), has failed. Ok, it actually didn’t fail, but it might as well have. Being bought out by JP Morgan for chump change ($1.9 billion), isn’t much consolation.

I’ve been with them over 20 years, ever since they were Great Western Savings. I even owned some of their stock (purchased recently at depressed levels).

Yes I knew there were problems at WAMU, but chose to put them out of my mind. After all, that’s my bank! The wife of one of my cycling buddies is even high up somewhere in the organization, so I thought the risk was low. I thought they were “too big to fail”. So much for my judgement.

But the little bit of money I’ve lost, pales in comparison to what comes next. What’s to become of my branch office located only about a half mile from my house? And more importantly, what will happen to all the people in the bank I have become accustomed to seeing and talking to during my visits?

Oh well, no sense worrying about something I have no control over. I’m sure John McCain and the Republicans will save the day!

Post to Twitter

 

Edie has completed the stem cell gathering process in only 2 days. Actually, there were enough stem cells collected the first day, but that wasn’t known until after she arrived this morning for her second day of collection, so they decided to gather a few more stem cells for good measure (enough for a second transplant if necessary).

There’s no stopping the process now, so for the next 2+ weeks things can get back to some semblence of normalcy, as we wait for October 10th, when Edie will be admitted to the City of Hope, to begin the transplant.

We even managed to have a couple glasses of wine with dinner tonight.

Post to Twitter

 

Tuesday, I was worried about the election and the economy. Well now that the government has come out with a bail out plan to save Wall Street the economy, that’s one less thing to be concerned about.

Now my biggest concern is Edie’s upcoming transplant. I had mostly put that out of mind the last couple of days, but I was reminded of it last night, when Edie indicated she can’t have any more wine, at least until after enough stem cells have been collected. That process begins Monday 9/22, and could take anywhere from one day, to several, or even more days.

As if the ritual Edie goes through every night of cleaning her Hickman Line, loading up a syringe with 900 CC’s of Neupogen, and then injecting herself with it, wasn’t enough, now we have to fore go our nightly glass of wine with dinner.

I know I’d sure be having lots of problems if I were on the other end of that needle. I’m having enough trouble just watching Edie go through it herself.

Heck, it almost makes you hanker for the good old days, when the world financial systems were on the verge of collapse.

Post to Twitter

 

Here it is 1:30 AM Tuesday morning, and for the second night in a row, I can’t sleep.

There are just so many things going on in my mind, the stock market crashing, and likely to go down significantly more, the Democrats and Obama are about to squander another opportunity to elect a president, and set this country on a different track, and then of course Edie’s upcoming transplant.

It’s like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

In the midst of all the chaos going on in the US right now, a financial system on the verge of collapse, unemployment in excess of 6%, inflation (despite what government statistics might indicate) running rampant, it seems the American public is inclined to elect a third straight Republican, who wants to continue the economic policies of the past 8 years, and actually believes the US economy is still strong.

Talk about elitism, and being out of touch with middle America.

We’re about to elect a man, who believes we should continue spending billions of dollars fighting an unnecessary war, which has already killed over 4,000 brave young Americans, while our real enemies are growing stronger elsewhere in the world, and millions of Americans are ignored and neglected at home.

Here’s a man that believes we should give additional tax breaks to big business and the wealthy, to spur job creation, and then balance the budget on the backs of the sick, the poor and the elderly, by cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Well John McCain, just what products are all the businesses going to produce, with all the employees they’re going to hire, as more Americans lose their homes, watch their savings shrink, and continue to cut back on the purchase of everything?

But what I really don’t get is why so many Americans seem more inclined to focus not on what is best for the entire country, or even their own pocketbooks, but rather focus almost exclusively on cultural issues.

Am I the only one who doesn’t get it?

Post to Twitter

 

Got to the hospital around 6:30 AM, and Edie was taken upstairs to the surgery area shortly there after. I sat patiently in the waiting area for about an hour, when someone called me in.

WOW! This was great I thought. The procedure must be over already. I soon learned that was not to be the case. They hadn’t even started yet, and she wasn’t schedule for the insertion of the Hickman Line for another hour at 8:30 AM (2 hours after arriving at the hospital).

Oh well, what can you do? I should have expected it anyways. At least it gave time for the surgeon and anesthesiologist to come in, and explain the procedure to Edie and me.

According to the doctors, the procedure would take about 15 minutes, followed by 45 minutes to an hour in the recovery room, and another 30 minutes or so in the post recovery area.

Well, as I soon discovered, I either misunderstood the doctors, or they were describing a best case scenario, and this did not turn out to be a best case.

It seems Edie had a reaction to the one of the anesthesia drugs, and the surgery ended up lasting an hour and a half. So it wasn’t until around 11:15 AM (2.5 hours after the surgery started) that I was finally allowed in to the post recovery area to visit.

At that point Edie didn’t look too good. She was a little out of sorts from the drugs, could barely talk, and was feeling some discomfort in her back, neck and mouth.

Fortunately though, after about another hour, the drugs wore off, most of the discomfort went away, and she was allowed to leave around 12:30 PM (6 hours after arriving at the hospital).

So now, Edie is resting comfortably in her lounge chair, and I am able to relax somewhat as well. I say somewhat, because this is only the beginning. Tthere is still a lot more to come.

Post to Twitter

© 2011 Living with MCL Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha