Due to Comcast buying Time-Warner, I will be losing my e-mail accounts and my homepage. I've had [email]rogue@wi.rr.com[/email] for 15 years. Unfortunately I won't be able to keep "rogue" if I go to gmail. Once I get a new account I'll have a lot of updates to make.

[QUOTE=rogue;372450]Due to Comcast buying Time-Warner, I will be losing my e-mail accounts and my homepage. I've had [EMAIL="rogue@wi.rr.com"]rogue@wi.rr.com[/EMAIL] for 15 years. Unfortunately I won't be able to keep "rogue" if I go to gmail. Once I get a new account I'll have a lot of updates to make.[/QUOTE]:sad:

[QUOTE=c10ck3r;362308]Status update: Dad had a stroke Dec 14, the day after he turned 39. The cancer has metastasized and spread to the brain. The doctors are putting in a shunt to drain fluid from his brain tonight, and he sees the oncologist sometime today. It's not looking like he'll make it another year.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=c10ck3r;326556]Just a quick update on me da': the doctor has changed his prognosis to Stage 4, non-small-cell lung cancer, due to the discovery of a mass directly under his adrenal glands. He starts radiation tomorrow, on top of his 5-hour dose of chemotherapy every three weeks (they give him intense amounts at a time). On the same front, though, his (and my step-mother's) baby appears to be on schedule to pop out on time, if not a bit early. She has taken to kicking and scratching her back on my stepmother's stomach. A good note, though, in regards to the big C and the baby: my father has finally quit smoking (he actually started cold turkey about three weeks before finding out about the cancer, which was undoubtedly a result of chain smoking for 18 years)[/QUOTE]

Well, I guess now is as good of a time to update as any. Actually, two months ago would've been better, but, well, it didn't happen.

Ms. Avery Renee is alive and well, and celebrated her first birthday in March. The birthday, though, was made somber by the notable absence of one person: our father. My stepmother found my father lying on the floor of their new house on the morning of March 1st, 2014. He was 39. Graduation is this coming Friday, and it will be especially hard knowing he won't be there to see me complete this step of my schooling.

[QUOTE=c10ck3r;372597] The birthday, though, was made somber by the notable absence of one person: our father. My stepmother found my father lying on the floor of their new house on the morning of March 1st, 2014. He was 39. Graduation is this coming Friday, and it will be especially hard knowing he won't be there to see me complete this step of my schooling.[/QUOTE]

You have my sincere sympathy. I lost my father four days ago and I know how you feel. Even though he was 86 years old there were still things I had planned to share with him but couldn't finish them in time.

[QUOTE=Puzzle-Peter;372599]You have my sincere sympathy. I lost my father four days ago and I know how you feel. Even though he was 86 years old there were still things I had planned to share with him but couldn't finish them in time.[/QUOTE]

You have my sincerest sympathy as well. My only advice is to not make the same mistake I have made: dwell not in what could have been, but cherish the time you had together. Don't be afraid to talk to someone (or something) about how you're feeling, even if it feels dumb. All I can say is that, whether you are feeling mad, or sad, or depressed; no matter how you feel, you're feeling it right. Death truly hits each of us differently, and there is no wrong way to grieve. My prayers to you and yours as you deal with the arrangements and relive the memories made over a lifetime with him.

The Wounded Knee Incident
 

As many of you know, I grow bamboos, ornamental grasses and the like. One of them, [i]Miscanthus floridulus[/i] is a giant deciduous clump-forming grass with leaves to 3m high and the flower stalks can add another metre to that --- assuming it flowers, and it doesn't always do so up here in the sub-arctic.

Anyway, the clump had grown just too big for its location so about 10% of it was split off and moved elsewhere in the garden. That bit was fairly easy. The rest was freecycled and 5 have people collected their lumps over the last couple of weeks.

Digging it out and splitting it was an exercise in the subtle use of a hatchet, a mattock, a sledgehammer and sundry spades, two of which broke beyond economic repair. My right knee was also damaged in the final episode, though I hope it is reparable. I twisted it falling over and it is now swollen, painful and inflamed. I can barely walk on it. If icepacks and anti-inflammatories haven't fixed it I'll have to go see the quacks next week.

[QUOTE=xilman;372647]If icepacks and anti-inflammatories haven't fixed it I'll have to go see the quacks next week.[/QUOTE]You will be waiting >=7 days to be physicisted?

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;372648]You will be waiting >=7 days to be physicisted?[/QUOTE]At first there were nothing but extremely minor symptoms. About 3 days ago discomfort began and it's become markedly worse today. Self-treatment for 48 hours appears reasonable to me though, of course, if it gets much more painful overnight I'll have myself doctored sooner rather than later.

[QUOTE=xilman;372649]At first there were nothing but extremely minor symptoms. About 3 days ago discomfort began and it's become markedly worse today. Self-treatment for 48 hours appears reasonable to me though, of course, if it gets much more painful overnight I'll have myself doctored sooner rather than later.[/QUOTE]

Having had at least one similarly-sounding knee sprain (which proved no more than that but was quite bad for several days), upwards of a week of ice + anti-inflams + joint-elevation (and me no'talkin' 'bout 'liftin' spliffs Rasta style, mon, 'do 'dat be parfeckly OK, mon) seems reasonable, if you can avoid heavy strains on the joint in the interim, and the joint is not obviously making grinding noises and/or flopping around in ways that indicate a ligament rupture.

Jell packs fresh from the freezer can work wonders. Cold therapy should be the first thing done, as it can head off the full development of inflammation.

When a joint hurts, I love my cold wraps. :love:

[QUOTE=xilman;372647]My right knee was also damaged in the final episode, though I hope it is reparable. I twisted it falling over and it is now swollen, painful and inflamed. I can barely walk on it. If icepacks and anti-inflammatories haven't fixed it I'll have to go see the quacks next week.[/QUOTE]

I feel your pain (well, *felt* your pain). I did this same thing to myself as a bonny lad of 16. I was playing baseball, swung the bat, and every part of me followed through except my right knee (and below). I felt (and saw!) my knee twist in a most disturbing manner and then basically fell to the ground writhing in pain. All of the other guys thought I was joking until they understood what had happened. I couldn't stand or walk; somehow I crawled back home (no fun at all as I was in the neighbor's yard behind ours, separated by a fence). Our family has never been one to rush to the doctor (for better or worse) so we did the whole "elevate and ice" protocol. I regained the ability to stand in about a day, walking with a limp followed shortly thereafter, but it was nine days before everything was back to normal. Nine days at age 16 probably equates to 2 weeks to a month in an older person's case, but it should get better on its own if you are kind to it. I shudder to think how it would have been if the knee hadn't known enough to pop back in on its own!

Do be mindful that this can happen again in the future. I think it might even be a birth "feature". While I have never had an episode as severe as that one, my knee does sometimes twist when I change direction while walking or if I turn my upper body to the left or right while keeping my feet pointed straight. I also will hear lovely popping or grinding noises from that knee from time to time. My mother complains of the same problem from time to time, though she has never twisted her knee as severely as I did at 16. (To be honest, I initially thought that I had somehow broken my leg, between the pain and how my knee looked when it twisted.)

So, yeah, it will hurt like hell and you will have a limp for a while, but by the time you have endured the NHS waiting period, your knee will quite probably be back to normal. In the meantime, now's the time to bask in special treatment from the Mrs.!