Happy Canada Day - July 1

Except in Toronto, where all events have been canceled. Yes, you read that right, Canada Day events have been cancelled because of a strike by city workers. What is interesting about this is that this past weekend was Pride weekend here in T-dot with both the Dyke March on Saturday and the big Pride parade being allowed to go ahead. What happened to the garbage? Yes well, city management staff and private contractors were allowed to clean it up. But not for Canada Day celebrations, there's no money in it. Pride weekend generates millions of dollars for the economy of the city, Canada Day celebrations probably not so much. It's strictly for the enjoyment of the residents. Seems we don't really count to our wonderful city representatives.

Together with the rotting garbage in city parks, closed public pools, closed city run day care centers and summer camps, this has raised a stink. Most city councilors are missing in action these days, not going to work so they don't have to cross picket lines. During the last garbage strike many years ago my then councillor rented a truck and picked up all garbage from elderly and disabled residents who couldn't go to drop off stations. This current councillor wouldn't even dream of doing that.

So what's being used as drop of stations? The city is using some of the nicest parks in the city as garbage dumps and residents are understandably up in arms. There have been fights between people wanting to drop of their refuse and locals trying to stop them.

I'm still good, so far I have a quarter bag of non smelly trash and I'm hanging on to it. I have a small bag in my freezer for all food scraps and I'm using the composter. The recycling bin is full though and I'll have to start using clear plastic bags soon. I will not take my garbage to a neighbourhood park and add to the residents misery. I know I wouldn't like it if I lived there.

Twenty three days and counting for the wires and cast to come off my foot. I'm going stir crazy not being able to leave my house. I'm even getting tired of knitting, sigh...

Prettier Than My Foot

No more pictures of my foot. I wouldn't subject my poor loyal readers to such a sight. Suffice it to say it looks pretty bad. Friday was the day I thought the wires were coming out. Wrong...one more month. Either my husband misunderstood the grumpy nurse or she intentionally gave him the wrong information. I can't say myself since I don't remember much post op. My memory seems to have flown the coop.

So Friday we did have to go to the hospital for a 1: 30 appointment at the Fracture Clinic. The waiting room was overflowing and when asked how long the wait was we were informed that it would be anywhere from one to three hours. Three hours later on the dot I was admitted to the cast room where a very lovely young man removed it. He also took out the gazillion stitches and told me the wires were staying. My foot looked like chopped liver, truly, and I almost made me ill looking at it. My husband who was with me, took one look and turned decidedly green. He had to leave the room. I got a new lime green cast and we were on our way. Total time spent at the hospital, over four and a half hours, yuck.

That's our system boys and girls, everyone waits. Meanwhile on the same day, a baby born 14 weeks premature in a Hamilton hospital found no room at the inn. There was not one neo natal bed available in all of Ontario. This infant had to be flown to Buffalo, New York for treatment. Unfortunately due to the new American border regulations where no one without a passport can enter the country, her parents were not allowed to be with her. Reading that story put my long wait at the hospital into perspective but I do fear for our future health care system.

The pretty peonies are dead, they didn't survive the horrible wind and hail storm of last Thursday. Oh yes, almost forgot...we are entering week two of a city wide garbage strike. So far so good for this household. What can't be composted gets stored and all food scraps are being collected in the freezer for when the strike is over. I hope the city doesn't cave for once, they really do earn enough money and the city is broke.

The Shoe Doesn't Fit!

I'll get to the shoe part later... As I mentioned in my last post we drove to a friends cottage on Sunday for a few days of rest for me and work for Steve. He had been promising to drywall a bedroom and dining room on their new addition and it seemed like a perfect time to go.

The drive up was a bit stressful for me sitting in the back seat with my foot elevated and became even more so when we lost half our brakes on the very curvy road. Luckily we were able to safely get off the highway and find a mechanic to replace two broken brake lines. Our friends who were waiting at a pre arranged meeting spot just ten minutes away came to get us and we left the car behind. I think we were incredibly lucky.

To say I was spoiled for the three days would be an understatement. I didn't take advantage of it though, I'm sure I was a good guest. Once settled at the cottage, this was my view for the whole three days, lovely isn't it...


While there we also celebrated Steve's birthday. Liz quietly baked her famous family birthday cake for him and I'd like to report it was delicious and I had more than one piece. Steve was thrilled to be remembered.

The shoe that doesn't fit. When I was given this boot last week I told the nurse it didn't fit. She was the snarky one who told me not to worry, it fit. Well it doesn't, it's about a half inch short. Now since I'm only allowed to walk on my heel this is a problem. My heel is now terribly sore from hobbling around on this thing. Tomorrow I'm back to the hospital to change the cast and hopefully take the wires out of my foot and I'm going to insist on a boot that fits. I can't imagine hobbling around on this thing for another four weeks.

Recovery - Day 3

It's not going as swiftly as I had hoped. I suppose I thought I'd be up dancing by now. Life's not like that is it. The fact of the matter is that this foot is a big huge pain, literally. I wake up every couple of hours with shooting pains in the toes that is worse than any pain I have ever had. Even the hip replacement wasn't that painful post surgery.

In desperation I phoned the wonderful anonymous Telehealth people we have here in Ontario for advice. I was told that the wires touch on nerves that cause the pain and to just medicate. Problem is that the pain meds given to me make me deathly ill. I can't take percocet without puking my guts out. I have some tylenol 3 that I'm taking but it isn't really strong enough. They put me to sleep for a couple of hours and then I'm watching the clock waiting for the next dose. I'm told when the wires come out next week it should get easier.

Tomorrow we are supposed to go to a friends cottage for 3 days. This was arranged long ago and I'm quite frankly dreading the trip. It's a three hour car trip and I'll be in the back seat with my foot propped on pillows. Once we get there of course it will be lovely. I'll be catered to and spoiled the whole time we are there. It is a lovely, remote spot in northern Ontario with a gorgeous lake view. The weather is supposed to be in the 30's so that will make it even nicer. I think a change of walls and view might be good for me. In spite of how lovely this room is and how beautiful the view of my yard, I'm getting tired. I just want this week to pass quickly, get the wires out of my toes, my cast changed and off these drugs.



There won't be any posts since there is absolutely no Internet were we are going. Back Thursday...

It's Done - Hope It Was Worth It

From the last three surgeries I've had since December 2007, this has been by far the worst. Part of the reason is the hospital and partly because I had a very bad reaction to the anesthesia this time, first time ever. Maybe it was the combination of things, the I.V. had Prednisone and Antibiotic in it. Then I got a fair shot of morphine and a couple of hours later two Percocet. Let's just say that the plastic bag they gave me for the trip home came in very handy and a bucket was by my bedside all night. Not a sip of water stayed down my throat.

It didn't start well either. I was given a check in time of 11 AM and arrived promptly. I changed into a flimsy hospital gown, got hooked up to the I.V. and was directed to sit in a very uncomfortable chair. Compared to the other hospitals (the previous three were all different hospitals) were they had very comfortable recliners and you were immediately covered in a warm blanket, this was maybe a one star joint. After a two hour wait my husband finally told someone I was freezing and they finally brought me a blanket.

At 1:30 I went into the O.R. but my surgeon was no where to be seen. Only his assistants who kept the conversation flowing until the good doctor arrived. Things got underway just before two and around five I awoke again.

I have decided that this hospital has the most unhappy nurses. I thought that when my Mom was there for seven weeks when they tried to put the blame on me. They said at the time, I was too intense. But now having other experience I believe that this particular hospital can't be a good workplace. What you don't need when you wake up is someone crabby and that's what I got. Sadly it is our only real neighbourhood hospital but my husband knows that if push comes to shove, never to take me there. This time I went because of the surgeon. I hope I got it right and the foot does well.






Meanwhile, I'm just chillin out and a little drugged out. I sure hope they get those wires out painlessly, I'm already worried...

24 Hours

Tomorrow by this time I will be in the O.R. having this food fixed. Two years ago while my Mom was hospitalized I broke it and didn't do a thing about it. That decision has come to cause me a lot of pain in the last two years. The surgeon now has to re break the bone, shave off some spurs and fix the toes. I will be in a cast for 6 weeks. I do have a plan as to how I'm going to spend my time. Lots of knitting...


I feel very confident about the surgeon doing this operation, what I don't have is confidence in is the hospital. My reasons are purely emotional, it is the hospital where my mom died from what I thought was pure neglect and a general dislike of elderly people. I witnessed many terrible things in the six weeks my mother spent there.

This is my fourth surgery for different things since December 2007 and hope it will be my last for a little while.

Hurray For San Fransisco

San Fransisco is doing what we have been doing here in Toronto for the last three years. Composting food scraps, good for them. It is what every city should be doing. They need to go one step further though and that is, limit the garbage being put out for collection to one green bag every two weeks just as we do. If you have more than that you must pay extra. We've had the one bag system since last October and each household was give 5 little yellow tags for an extra bag. So far I haven't had to use them.

These are my bins. The big blue one is for recycling and I manage to fill it right to the top. The grey one is for my one bag of garbage and the little green one is for food scraps. The recycling and garbage are picked up bi-weekly and the food scraps every week.



We haven't totally banned plastic bags in grocery stores yet but we must pay a nickel for each bag. I admit to getting them from time to time to line my garbage buckets with. The compostable bags being sold currently disintegrate in my buckets making for a big mess.

The biggest thing we've done here in Toronto is ban all lawn and garden chemicals, no exceptions. Big fines if you are caught. I have mixed feelings about this since right about now my allergies are so horrible I just want to spray the entire city with some stuff just to get rid of the billions of dandelion fluff that's in the air. I never did use a lot of chemicals on my lawn. The most I ever did was spot spray the dandelions. I suspect though that my allergies notwithstanding, it's probably a good thing to have less chemicals in the air. Maybe by August I'll be able to breathe again...

Huh!!

With sincerest apologies to my American friends, I simply can't get over the sheer audacity (love that word) of some members of President Obama's administration. Where did he find her?

Anybody remember the interview Janet Napolitano had with our local media where she uttered the following wisdom;

"The fact of the matter is that Canada allows people into their country that we do not allow into ours," she said.

I guess she wasn't kidding. So what do the Americans want from us? Well they would like to take some 17 Chinese Uighurs terrorists who currently reside in Guantanamo Bay. Seems even U.S. authorities don't want them in the country. Well guess what, neither do we and our Prime Minister rightly turned down the request to take them.

Not our problem, this country has done enough by fighting in Afghanistan we don't need your Gitmo detainees. Another Canadian soldier died today in Afghanistan. He was just a child.

Time For Some Fun

It was our turn to host the monthly bridge dinner yesterday and as usual I think about deserts first. Forget the main course, cake has priority.

The beginnings of a Pavlova, lots of lovely meringue.

There are actually three layers but the oven isn't big enough so it was done in stages. I did this part on Friday night.

Now a true Pavlova is just one really large, high, mound of meringue with the whipped cream and fruit on top. I prefer it in two or three layers with lots of cream, fruit and nuts which I pan roast with butter an sugar sprinkled liberally throughout. I used hazelnuts for this one but almonds are just as nice.

Since we really did need something other than desert, I scored some really great rib steaks on sale. I thought it was a brilliant idea since I then didn't have to cook them. My only preparation were a potato onion casserole which I forgot to photograph, the salads and lots of appetizers.


I did get a chance to bake a loaf of no knead bread.

Steve and our friend Brian thinking about starting the barbie.


Genie and Liz enjoying the beautiful evening.

And a serious game of bridge happening. There was a second table and since there were nine of us I luckily got to chill on the sofa and do a little knitting. I don't mind playing but I was kind of whacked from all that cooking. The Pavlova by the way, was demolished in short order.

Fighting Big Pharma

While I figure out a heading for this post I'll do a quick update on what's been going on around here. First and foremost the battle with Wyeth is not over, at least from my perspective. We may not win it but we can sure make it uncomfortable for them. I personally am boycotting products that the company makes, more on that later. A price increase of almost 1000 percent is insane.

This has been an interesting week though. Last week I sent an email to a television station's medical reporter who had previously done a story on Premarin and the sudden price hike. I was asked by the reporter to do an interview. I have to say that I thought about it for a while since I'm not terribly good in front of a camera. I get kind of tongue tied actually, I'm better one on one. In any case the camera guy was great and the interview was on the Wednesday night newscast and was rerun again Thursday morning. Here's the link for anyone interested. Halfway down the page on the right side just underneath CTV.ca blogs you will see a video link. That would me me. Avis Favro has also linked my blog to the site and traffic has increased. I have another story to do on Wyeth and Premarin but it requires a little more thought than I'm capable of today.

Now as I've said before, taking Premarin is a personal choice, not for everyone but certainly for me very necessary and not because of something as benign as hot flashes. This week alone I tried two times to do without the pill and both times woke up with a debilitating migraine. I'm not talking about a small headache here, I'm talking about pain so severe that the slightest movement feels like a hammer hitting my head and taking even a sip of water causes gut wrenching dry heaves. It's not fun. Because of the migraine I missed my pre op appointment on Wednesday for my foot surgery. Fortunately for me I was able to get another appointment yesterday. And the beat goes on...

June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square

June 4, 1989

Read the Angry Chinese Blogger"s take on the protests. Was the loss of life worth it?