Bob & Bobby

[Guest guest]

First, thank you all for the prayers for my Bobby, he is coming home today, but

will not be able to leave his home until all tests have brought in positive

results for the next 8 or 9 weeks. They do not know what he has and every day

brings different results and questions. He was so depressed he made me cry and

then called his wife and said he had upset me. HE is in a different hospital in

another city with a completely different set of doctors who all have different

opinions, but he has lost 2/3 of his lung, which comes up white on the x-rays.

It's possible that welding rods he used for 40 years has destroyed his lungs,

like asbestos has caused mesothesioma. I have a friend who has a majority in

her family who has died from this cancer causing chemical, and now one sister

has two daughters who have it. History channel is supposed to be doing a

documentary to find the cause for this entire family having the same disease if

they were never exposed to the asbestos in great quantities.

I love your jib jabbing with each other, even though you don't agree on the

intensity. LOL Bob, I have a question, do you have to eat rye bread to get a

yeast infection? Bobby, must you have lime in your Vodka?

France may have a good health care system, but from what I have heard and

read in the news, their health system is broke and they are not fighting a war

on several fronts. I know the citizens are happy with it, but sooner or later

someone will have to pay the piper.

Speaking of the health care system, I think we should be able to discuss it

amicably and not get personally offended because someone doesn't have the same

ideology about it. We all stand to lose if it goes awry, so we are all on edge

about what will happen to us. Please be respectful to everyone, we are all here

for the same reason, to combat CML and all the undesirable side effects and

financial problems that go with it and to hold each other up in bad times as

well as good. I know that sounds a lot like the marriage vows, but we have

something in common that binds us together, ring or no ring.

Yesterday I went to pick up a prescription for Procrit, which I was told by

my insurance company that it would cost me $42 a month, so I ordered it -

HOWEVER, and that is a key word here, it put me in the donut hole and was told

it was going to cost me $1900. Last month my statement said I had over $1400

left before I hit the gap. I would happily pay for it if my income was that

expendible, but I had to refuse it. I will have to go back to getting blood

transfusions and the government will have to pick up the tab. Do I like it,

heck no, but if I want to go on living, I will have to take my lumps and lose 1

1/2 days in the hospital every month.

Do I mouth off at my senators and representatives, heck yes - a lot. I want

them to tell me that they are going to drop their insurance and belong to the

same plan as the peons like me. My senator said he would and challenged the

others to do the same, but he is so desperate, he will say anything to get

re-elected. I also want them to tell me if they voted to give more money to

cancer research, but they lie about it and say they do and the congressional

records say they voted against it. When I write them back, I don't hear from

them. People are tired of being lied to, so I don't think their word is

sacred, they can change it to fit their needs at any time.

I think the plan is too broad, too hard to understand and ambigious. Spell it

out in plain English that we can all understand and make it ironclad that

nothing will change unless there is a referendum approved by the majority. Even

Abraham Lincoln said " You can't please all of the people all of the time " so

it's not going to be done in the time congress wants it done. We can all agree

to disagree without being disagreeable, so let's start over. Let's all be nice,

as my little grandson used to say when we used to correct him.

Hands & hearts,

Lottie Duthu