Very, very busy!
I retrieved shadowkatt from her brief stay with mayremi‘s family. They attended a homeschooling “park day” yesterday and a “gym day” today, so she’s had lots of social time.
Then the girl and I went down to Decatur and took care of some business stuff, and swung by Nease’s Needlwork to pick up some floss bobbins I’d requested. Now I can finish putting away the newest DMC colors! Susan wasn’t there, but I did see telynor briefly. She and her harp seemed to suit the environment nicely. Music and handwork go together well.
Then we picked up sambear and headed back up the road. We stopped at home just long enough for sambear to change out of his work clothes and for shadowkatt to grab the cupcakes she and mayremi made for the meeting (they were celebrating the birthday of the Girl Scouts).
Then it was back onto I-75 and way up the road to find the meeting place (yet another new one). The cupcakes were very popular.
After dropping off the girl, Sam and I grabbed a bite to eat, then chatted and gamed for a bit. After the meeting, we picked up the cookies for delivery and hit the road again. We stopped at a Mcdonald’s that’s part of a truck stop to get food for Katie. Sam was fascinated by the unique array of gadgetry designed to run in a vehicle. Did you know they make ovens that’ll do that? I had no idea!
We learned that “nightsticks” (I spare you the term I first learned for them back in Alabama) have been renamed “tire checkers.” Right.
shadowkatt is getting the net fix she was jonesing for. I’m enjoying being undressed. I want to game more, but I think we’d best go to bed soon as we have another busy day planned tomorrow.
Oh—tonight’s episode of The Infinite Mind was very interesting. It was about OxyContin, but it did a good job of covering the problems those of us with chronic pain have with getting adequate treatment. Very few doctors are actually trained to treat chronic pain properly. Patients are often labeled as addicts seeking drugs to get high—or people who want to sell the drugs on the street.
Siobhan Reynolds became so frustrated with trying to get good care for her husband, that she founded the Pain Relief Network, an advocacy organization for pain patients and doctors. Through her work, she’s spoken to hundreds of desperate pain patients. Reynolds says, “You can’t imagine what it’s like to be sort of set upon by society, because you find yourself in this incredibly vulnerable position where you’re ruined by the pain. You’re feeling your life leave you. You’re feeling your ability to function leave you. You can’t perform your duties. You can’t have spousal relations. You can’t do any of the things people do, and, when you try to go get help for that, you are absolutely turned away. The under-treatment of pain is an appalling reality in America. It effects the most profoundly ill people in America in ways I think most Americans would find devastating and mind-boggling.”
That’s it. Precisely. The pain becomes another person in your relationships, a barrier to working and playing and taking care of yourself, much less anyone else!
