The Gimp Chronicles: Shade-Stealing Crips: D-Day and more

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

D-Day and more

Greetings all on this D-Day, yet another day my students don't remember as they have little history retention.

I was thinking today that there has to have been at one time the sense of a just war, and if there was ever one for Americans back in the day, it was WWII. It seemed so clear to us who was good and who was bad, so very transparent. We know now of course that it wasn't neat or clean, but there did seem to be a sense of universal humanity's need to survive this overwhelming darkness personified most in Hitler. I don't think we were more simple back then, same as I don't believe there was ever a "good ol' days".

Since then, it seems our ability to distinguish "good and bad" on a personal level has lessened, with the rise of newsmedia giants allowing mass manipulation on a huge scale. More often, I hear people responding to a situation with the blindest of reactionary impulses, simplifying what once we knew wasn't so simple, and demonizing anything not like "us".

Is it simply that as a nation we have to grow up? Do we, like the Roman Empire, need to collapse before we can grow? Do we need to be five hundred years old? When in the calendar of human endeavor does a society become, nominally, "civilized"?

I'll settle for civil-- enlightened and fearless we work out later. D-Day reminds me that at one time almost the world had to face fear and mass destruction, and somehow the forces for good seemed to win--for a while, at least.

Go hug one of our WWII vets today, and thanks him or her for the struggle. I feel we could take a moment to try ourselves to be fearless and on the side of "good".

D-Day memorial Foundation

On another, unrelated note, the man arraigned for the murder of Amancio Corrales in the Yuma, AZ area has had the grand jury lessen the charge from murder to manslaughter and abandoning a body. Apparently, there wasn't enough evidence by GJ standards to indict for murder. Yes, they can change it if more becomes apparent, but how wonderfully screamingly loud of a nasty-ass pride month announcement is that?

I can really learn to hate this place...

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Your humble gimptastic blogger:

Dx with RRMS on January 13, 2009-- interestingly, also one of my brothers' birthday. I'm in (*was in) a clinical trial for Ocrelizumab at present, and have had the first two infusions (August 2009). Before that, I spent 6 months poking myself with an Avonex needle and learning to cope with side effects the first two months. I probably have had MS for about four years, and was diagnosed at first with RA in 2007 , summer. Luckily, in Nov 2008 I hit Vertigo City after asking for a pain management referral, got a neurologist who dared to give me valium and meclizine for vertigo and got me a MRI. I so remember he called me soon after the MRIs were taken, asked me to come in, and explained that the radiologist reading the MRI had panicked and called him, saying 'You have to get her back in!'. He was pretty sanguine, but also told me, "If you were my daughter, I would tell you to take this [MRI] disk and go to the emergency room at Barrow or go to San Diego." I looked at him and basically asked, "Really?" His contention, and I believe him, was that my little podunkia county could not get the team he thought it would take together in less than several months' time, whereas Barrow had everything in one place. He let me know he didn't think it was cancer, that maybe it could be MS, but oh, "you also have a disk protruding right... there." Joy.

Long story short, I went the next day with bear and proceeded to have every bit as exciting and frustrating a diagnosis process as the TV show "House" presents. I believe I had seven doctors in several specialties trying to dx me-- a neuroimmunologist, a neuroncologist, an infectious disease guy, a neurosurgeon, a rheumatologist, and at least two other neuros. Two wanted to biopsy my brain (AHHHH!!), and luckily my hero-MS-doc held them off while I was tested for every conceivable disease. I swear. In the end, after eight days I had one diskectomy in my neck, had given lots of blood, but went home for Xmas. I had to see them four weeks later, and two things happened-- my neurosurgeon said the neck was looking good, and my hero-MS-doc gave me my official diagnosis. Sis, hubby, and myself were there. Thus began the real drama in life.

In regular life I profess English (figure it out), have a large family of four-legged ones, and fiddle on computers. Texas is my home, though I presently am in Arizona exile and really am not fond of the place*. I am grateful in the extreme for Barrow and the docs and staff there, and I don't even mind the 350 mile round trip drive up there. I will not reveal names, but lemme say that my MS doc and his trial coordinator rock the box!

And there you have me.
*Note: this loathing of Arizona is just getting worse (May 2012). **Better note-- I don't live in AZ anymore!