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J's Journal
Posted by ncrainbowgrrl in North Carolina
Sat Mar 08th 2008, 12:56 PM
Rest in Peace, Eve Carson.

It's raining here
Sort of like the day
knew if had to be gray
and we would not have had it any other way

The bright glare of sun
And glints of rays begun
And snuffed out by a gun

Well it all just melts away
It all just melts away.
Until memories are all that stay

And it can't be easy
And it must be hard
And it should be privately absurd
To know
That this child had to go.
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Blurry vision is not fun. I had this the first time when I started the migraine preventative... it went away- but it's highly annoying, and makes me feel like I'm going crazy- especially since it's my near-vision that's affected and I'm nearsighted. So, All of a sudden, my far away vision is fine, but I'm squinting at the screen here trying to type.

I may have to go out and buy a pair of reading glasses- the OTC ones for this week... It's hard to work when looking at your computer monitor is hard and you can't make out the letters.

I'm kinda tired of side effects. (can you tell?)

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Posted by ncrainbowgrrl in General Discussion
Sat Jun 30th 2007, 07:46 PM
Thought it might be interesting to see how many people post in this thread- and how many DUers had been impacted by something in the movie.


I saw it last night in Chapel Hill. NC.
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I slumped down in front of CVS, having just thrown up two times- luckily not on myself either time. Once in a very public garbage can, and the other in a more out- of the way place...

I had just paid for frova out of pocket- waiting on preauth to come back into place- had thought it would be done by today (fun with insurance)
took one-went outside for head to clear before getting into the car.

15 minutes later, police cadets and their superiors come into the store

Oh, good, I thought. They should be able to help me up... I don't have the strength to get myself up right now.


Wrong.

I'm sitting up there, clutching my CVS bag and...- Extend a hand to one of 'em- the instructor- and ask for help. He may have thought I was asking for money... but even still...

Try again. No luck

Multiply this by like 12 attempts. I'm on the sidewalk. Next to the gum, near the ants- going marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah. I have wires on me- but they're not going to my ears- they obviously scream medical device- don't they?

Finally, I take the bag, and with all of the strength I can muster, ask the last one- "Help, please- I have a medical condition- I can't get up- but I can stand if I get help up." He reaches down and helps me up. His superiors are staring ahead- as if I wasn't a person- or if they wouldn't have instructed him to touch me... as if I were toxic. But this young cadet did help me up. I thanked him. He said "glad to help, ma'am."

What the heck. Why did this happen? Invisible illness problem? Did they think I was enjoying sitting there, reading the tabloid headlines through the CVS glass door.

I got in my car- head resolving in the next 3 minutes to the point where driving back to work was okay. But, peeved. And then, what did I see? The same cadets in their cars ahead of me on the way back to work. Laughing and talking inside their private cars... One cadet turned back to see me behind him. I know he saw me- 'cause the rest of the car turned their heads. And I saw the one who had helped me- giving me a half wave. I nodded back at him and gave the same tentative half wave.

Still. The whole experience left me with more of a bad taste in my mouth... worse than that of the original bile from the migraine.

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Posted by ncrainbowgrrl in General Discussion
Sat Jun 16th 2007, 08:30 PM
It's the rest of the lax team... some who lost so much- respect, academic standing, guilt by association,

It's about a community (Dook) that had to go through this episode (I can't believer i'm defending duke)

it's about the high school seniors who had committed to duke and then watched from afar as their school-to-be was bashed (and not b/c of the performance of the b-ball team. HAH! Had to get it in. )

It's about Durham, North Carolina which became a town under siege by exploitive news media (read: nancy grace, rita cosby, etc...)

It's about race relations coming to the forefront in ways that were unpredictable, sometimes positive, and sometimes, very negative

It's about Lives of the parents of the the accused, the friends of the accused, the siblings of the accused, their friends.

It's about the people of North Carolina who were promised a DA who swore he would not run for a second term when appointed to his position... and then lied.

It's about the waste of state resources spent on this case.

And it's about the fact that he could have ended it all... just by playing within the rules of the legal game... but didn't.

Nope. It's not just about three Duke Men. It wound up being about so much more.
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Posted by ncrainbowgrrl in Political Videos
Fri May 04th 2007, 02:37 PM

 
Brilliant...
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Posted by ncrainbowgrrl in South Carolina
Mon Apr 09th 2007, 10:38 AM
S.C. Senator Introduces Medical-Marijuana Bill
January 17, 2007
http://www.jointogether.org/news/headlines...

A Republican state senator has introduced a bill in the state legislature that would legalize use of marijuana for medical purposes, the Florence Morning News reported Jan. 12.

Sen. William Mescher said his wife's death from lung cancer 24 years ago moved him to propose the medical-marijuana bill, saying that some doctors told him at the time that using the drug could help ease the nausea arising from chemotherapy. "There were concerns that she would become addicted," he said. "Here this woman had maybe two or three months to live -- and in extreme pain. It didn't make any difference if she became addicted."

Mescher's bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Medical Affairs.
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Posted by ncrainbowgrrl in Political Videos
Sat Apr 07th 2007, 04:39 PM

 
Whoa- this is some "Must See TV." This side of "The Donald" is quite impressive.
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Posted by ncrainbowgrrl in General Discussion: Presidential
Thu Apr 05th 2007, 02:57 PM
Please- I know that my representative (for DU's info- David Price- D-NC-04)will stand with me to support the troops... but I'm not sure about my senators.

Pork goes into every bill. We all know that. Heck, even the pig farmers know that down east!

Please, Senator Dole- as a humanitarian, and former head of the red cross, stop the bleeding.

Senator Burr, you won election to represent the people of North Carolina. That includes those who live at the many military installations in our state. Please- stand together... and help the veto pen not stand in the way of the money needed to address the many things that our brave soldiers and families need.

God Bless You All, and May You have the strength to stand with the American People, rather than with Partisan rhetoric.
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Posted by ncrainbowgrrl in Health
Mon Mar 12th 2007, 02:11 PM
May the people bringing the suit- the man and his wife find peace in knowing that they have set precedent for such cases against Merck for Vioxx.

While the financial liability to Merck from this one case is probably not great enough to eat into its' financial profits in a serious way, The fact that this case was decided for the NJ man and his wife sets Merck up for a potential loss that may be meaningful to the company.

My only hope is that if this DOES hurt merck badly enough where they have to tighten their belts, they do so at the top- by affecting the salaries of the CEO, not the workers (like my friends who work for Glaxo doing drug development). These scientists believe in what they're doing- they're not in it to get rich. Usually the job pays well, but the actual researchers shouldn't be penalized because they were motivated to get additional degrees, obtain knowledge, and these research facilities are dream jobs for some... good pay- a chance to make a difference possibly- creating something much bigger than they are...

And while the researchers should not suffer from any outcome determined by the financial implications of potential multi million dollar lawsuits, there are many other employees who also had NO part in the deception and greed. Unfortunately, this tends to be where some of the personnel cuts occur when a company is hit like this... Included into this category are the other staff- the secretaries, the janitors, the people in Shipping/Handling, the lab techs, the interns, and many others.
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Posted by ncrainbowgrrl in Political Videos
Mon Mar 12th 2007, 03:36 AM

 
from the user (ColbyDog) " Military Recruiting done Simpson style... Episode 1805. Arguably, one of the best anti-recruiting shows ever produced! This is just a snippet... you gotta see the rest! (less)"
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Posted by ncrainbowgrrl in Books: Non-Fiction
Sun Mar 11th 2007, 12:54 AM
The Last True Story I'll ever tell-

From Publishers Weekly
Having joined the National Guard for the tuition benefits, Crawford, like many of his contemporaries, never expected to do any heavy lifting. Early on, he admits his is "the story of a group of college students... who wanted nothing to do with someone else's war." But when his Florida National Guard unit was activated, he was shipped to Kuwait shortly before the invasion of Iraq. Armed with shoddy equipment, led by incompetent officers and finding release in the occasional indulgence in pharmaceuticals, Crawford cared little for the mission and less for the Iraqis. "Mostly we were guarding gas stations and running patrols," he explains. As for Iraqi civilians, "I didn't give a shit what happened to any of them," he confesses after inadvertently saving an Iraqi boy from a mob beating. Crawford's disdain grows with each extension of his tour, and he leaves Iraq broke, rudderless and embittered. Unfortunately, Crawford dresses up his story in strained metaphors and tired clichés such as "truth engulfed me like a storm cloud" and "you can never go back home." Despite its pretensions, Crawford's story is not the classic foot soldier's memoir and should provide enough gristle to please military memoir fans.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Take This Job and Ship It: How Corporate Greed and Brain-Dead Politics Are Selling Out America (Hardcover)
by Byron Dorgan



The Lonely Patient: How We Experience Illness by Michael Stein


Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent (Paperback)
by Anthony Rapp


Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency (Hardcover)
by Robert C. Byrd (Author)
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Posted by ncrainbowgrrl in Political Videos
Sun Mar 11th 2007, 12:15 AM

 
Description from the creators of the video "The Middle East response... to the West Coast response "Lazy Monday" to SNL's "Lazy Sunday"
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Posted by ncrainbowgrrl in North Carolina
Fri Mar 09th 2007, 09:01 AM
Source: NC Democratic Party Weekly E-Newsletter! (sign up at www.ncdp.org )

Dole and Burr Voted Against Veterans' Health Care
This week, as details about the deplorable conditions at hospitals responsible for helping our wounded soldiers continue to emerge, Republicans like Sens. Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr joined the chorus of outrage demanding to know how our government could have so severely failed them. But behind all the rhetoric is the harsh reality that, when they had a chance last year to provide funding for these facilities, Senators Dole and Burr chose to put party loyalty ahead of our brave men and women in uniform.

During the 109th Congress, Senators Dole and Burr voted FIVE times to block Democratic efforts to provide more resources to veterans and military health care. They voted against an additional $2.8 billion for veterans' medical care in FY2006, against pegging funding increases for the Veterans Administration to inflation and the demand for care, against establishing a $1 billion trust fund for improving health facilities, against closing corporate tax loopholes to fund an additional $1.5 billion for veterans' medical services in FY2007, and against a Democratic amendment that would have provided a mandatory five year funding stream of $104 billion for veterans' health care.

Take Action! Contact Dole and Burr

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It means that if your doctors don't work together as a team, you don't have a chance.

It means that when you ask for your chart and get it, you find out what your doctors really think of you. And it may not be pretty.
It means relying on doctors to follow through on their promises, and not have their egos take hold- when they're over their head, they need to say so. It means relying on yourself to know that someone's stringing you along. It means cynicism. It means that you need to be proactive. It means that it won't get better unless YOU do something about it- although YOU feel like curling up in a ball and crying.

It means that chronic pain is dismissed. That you're seen as just another whiny patient who the doctor can't cure. It means that you may look as bad as you feel. That weight gain from some drugs happens- and getting it off is just another thing that you can't afford to focus on during acute flareups. And that weight is unhealthy- you know it. And sometimes, my knees aren't happy carrying the extra 20lbs.

It means knowing the pharmacists by name. Knowing which one is going to be helpful- and for whom it's just a job.

It means dealing with doctors who treat you like crap. Others who say nice things to your face, but whoa- what did they just write about you in your chart.

It means you never know what's coming. Will today be the day that the condition flares and you can't predict it, and the thought's always there, lurking somewhere in the recesses of your mind.

It means your work may be affected. It means that you may live in fear of losing your job. It means that you need that job to keep your insurance- if you even are lucky enough to have insurance through work.

It means that if nothing flares up, or changes, even with insurance, I spend over $120 on prescription drugs per month. That's $1340/year if no other Rx meds are added to the mix. It means that when I travel, I have so many prescription bottles in my bag that it takes up almost a whole pocket of my backpack.

It means being told that your coping skills aren't good enough- and it's all in your mind.

It means that I will never get a chance to get back the last year of my life- lost to chronic illness, pain, tears and hospital bills

It means that at the current rate, I'll be paying off my medical bills for longer than I will my new car.

It means that sometimes I get tired of fighting for myself and throw a pity party- but no one wants to come. It's lonely being the only one at a pity party.

It means explaining that unfortunately, you can't make x, y, or z- although you've looked forward to it for a long time. And sometimes, letting other people down hurts more than you care to admit. Or would admit to anyone other than those whom you know are your ally.

It means finding out who your friends really are. And loving them. It means that they know that you're trying your best, and don't take your absence as a slight if you can't make it at the last minute. And you appreciate that more than you could ever let them know in words. So, you send cards, thank you notes, and other things to let them know how much they mean to you.

It means that if your partner isn't supportive, it's going to be a long ride.

It means that I know all of these things to be true.
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Jamie
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Member since Tue Dec 30th 2003
NC, United States
"Is there decency left in American politics? " - Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
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