Hello you guys --

I'm back in the US! Not yet in HOrnbrook -- I'm in the SF Bay Area
getting MD appts and tests done. So far I have had 11 appts and seen 9
docs, female and male, plus various technicians, etc. I'm starting to
get the results of the tests. Others will take a week or two. As one of
my sisters observes, there are so many things to keep track of now. Ah,
as we "get older" there certainly is no lack of drama and excitement.

Major ferret-withdrawal symptoms going on here.... I want to see their
little faces, hold their dear bodies, see them hop about, watch them
sleep, and and AND -- Rico! Jonas! My friend Phil says that I just
light up when I talk about them and when I talk about ferrets in
general. Well, I've got to hold on till Oct 23 or 24 when I arrive at
Zoo's. I can't wait to see her and all her little ones.

Are any of you -- or is anyone you know -- refurbishing a vet (or
human) lab and have equipt to ****SELL**** or to ----GIVE AWAY----?

I am wondering what to do with my Symposium table. I've never been to a
symposium before.... What do you all advise???! What would catch YOUR
attention in that busy room?

One thing I'll definitely have is something to show pix from Addis.
Maybe one of those frames that you put a memory chip into to display
a slideshow.

How about Waving Banners? Music? Flashing lights??? I'd better ask
Francine what is allowed.

Here's a new list of what we would like to have in our vet lab.

   Portable digital x ray equipt
   Digital ultrasound scanner
   Veterinary chemistry analyzer
   Veterinary blood analyzer
   Dental equipment and supplies
   Microscope
   Veterinary Tonomerter
   Grooming equipment and supplies

It sounds as though everything in Addis is going along fine. They're
finishing up the inventory of the tools, machines, and raw materials,
and they start their free (gv't-supplied) training this Monday, in
which they'll learn the basics of garment sewing by making a shirt.
Happily this training, unlike the last, uses electric rather than
treadle sewing machines. So they'll have learned how to control an
electric machine by the end.

Here's the latest on my meningioma.

y poor neurologist, Dr Hsu. I don't mean to give these guys a hard
time.... I'm just an Excitable Old(er) Lady (and poor Warren Zevon ....
Ahhh WOOOoo! Werewolves of ... what? Pittsburgh?)

The damned tumor has grown in diameter fr 2.3 cm to 2.8 cm since last
year. It's sort of disc-shaped, though at the bottom it's insinuated
its way into some brain gooves. The neurologist said it's not a big
deal, and that it's a very slow-growing tumor. I pointed up , w
*lightning-fast* cxalculations, that we are talking abt a 20% growth.
He thought it was less. Then he did the calc and agreed -- yes, 20%.

I couldn't figure out why this was nothing to worry about -- 20%/year
sounded like a rather fast clip.. I asked might it stop growing? Oh no,
it wd keep growing, but I shd wait till/if I have symptoms (e.g., he
said, a seizure, like Eliz Taylor's) before I get the thing removed.

To me this sounded inSANE, and almost before he finished telling me
that, finally, when E Taylor had the seizure she had HAD to get it
removed, I said I. I want it out beFORE I get symptoms. And before I
get any older and wd have a harder time with the surgery -- after all
I'm already 66.

He looked startled, looked at my chart, and then his face cleared (har
har, do you suppose the face lift is WORKING? Do you think he thought
I was 24?). Plus was I supposed to be flattered by the ref toLiz? Or
soothed? Umm.... so waitaminnitt, WhAts's going on here?

I cd tell he still thought I shd wait, and I wondered why on earth,
scrambled inside my beleaguered head for some ideas, and asked Would
the insurance refuse to pay for i?. No, he said, they'd pay for it. Oh,
well, then why not get rid of it now?

Finally he said that the risks of surgery might outweigh the risks of
the tumor growing. I asked something like Well, would it? He said he
didn't know. I said (hopefully somewhat humorously) something like
Isn't it your job to know if it would? He said No my job is to watch
it; you'd have to see a neurosurgeon. Oh, I said. OK.

So he said he'd send me to a neurosurgeon. He wanted to send me to a
local general neurosurgeon, but I could almost see that coming, and
before he began, I reminded him of the meningioma specialist he'd used
last year -- a guy surgeon at UCSF who does nothing but meningiomas. He
said well, yes, I (Nell) could try to get in to see him, but it might
take a couple of months. I said Fine.( After all, I thought, he (Dr
Hsu)'d said I needn't do anything about it till I got a "symptom" ...
and isn't it now considered common sense to have procedures done by
people who have lots of experience with them? and and and....).

So Dr Hsu said he'd find the name of the UCSF surgeon for me. Then he
looked at the record again to see where the thing is in my head and
told me Oh those are easy to remove; Wouldn't have to go into the
brain; Just pop it off, etc etc, I think "Just" means they'd have to
get into my skull but that the tumor is between my skull and the
membrane that surrounds the brain, rather than the usual case of on
the meningioma, which is on a membrane on the brain surface (e.g., MY
brain surface) .

At the end of the whole thing, Dr Hsu said that any competent
neurosurgeon cd remove the thing, it was so easy. OK, thinks I, that is
A-OK. Then it will be a perfect piece of cake for the specialist. Amen.
(Ahhh WOOOooooo.) Sigh.

[Posted in FML 6120]