This is from his sister Amy to me, just now.

His wife had called me this morning to tell me that the news was bad. Chris has had many infections over the years, and has been on many antibiotics as a result. Well, now, those drugs are no longer working. The infection he currently has is resistant to all the antibiotics. It will probably be the end of him.

The family was getting ready to meet with the palliative care team to decide on what to do. They said they would call me later, which they did.

But now the news was better. Several of Chris' high school and middle school friends had come by, and there had been much laughter, talking and whatnot in his hospital room. They were all so noisy that the staff told them to keep it down. Through all this, Chris was animated, happy, smiling and looking better than he had in months.

The family asked him what he wanted to do about his situation, and he indicated that he wanted to think about it, and tell them tomorrow.

So the situation is in flux.

I am going to fly out there tomorrow because I want to see him, and say goodbye if that is necessary.

Your good thoughts are much appreciated!

I DON'T NEED SURGERY!*


*not yet, anyway, and if I do, it would be outpatient.

Here's the scoop: The xray showed my new joint almost dislocating. This is because the muscles in the front are tight and the ones in the back of my shoulder are loose.

These two conditions are pushing the artificial head of the joint backwards, and that is what I am feeling. My doctor said it's not an emergency but we need to take care of it before it gets any worse, and I had been feeling it more often these last few weeks.

He just ordered a brace that will hold my arm out away from my body which will encourage the front muscles to loosen up and the back ones to tighten, all at the same time. I need to wear it a number of hours every day for the best results.

And I'll need to wear it for 4 to 6 weeks. OK. I can do that.

I'll see him again in about a month and we'll reassess things then.

Now, if I need surgery, it would be outpatient, and would consist of arthroscopic surgery where he would manually tighten the currently loose muscles. And the resulting scar tissue would be part of the cure.

I cannot tell you how relieved I am!

Thanks, everybody, for standing by me...

NOT.

This is the one that got operated on in January. I had a total shoulder replacement.

A few weeks ago, I noticed that something was slipping inside it. Hard to describe. It was infrequent so I ignored it.

Until today...

I'm nearly at the end of my physical therapy, and today I told my PT lady about this slippage. We actually got my shoulder to misbehave, miracle of miracles.

She called my doctor, and he wants to see me tomorrow. I got an appointment for early tomorrow afternoon...

It doesn't really hurt--it just moves in and out as though it were getting ready to dislocate. But it hasn't done that.

Damn, I hope this doesn't mean more surgery to fix it.

I could use a few vibes if you have any to spare....

And about Discussionist as well.

These two websites contrast in some interesting ways to each other. And they bear similarities to one another as well. This is not surprising since they were created by the same trio of men.

DU is Democratic. And no matter what the topic du jour is, and no matter how we argue and carry on, we belong here and to each other...

Discussionist is ...well, it's hard to quantify. Certainly it's open to all political persuasions, and boy, is it.

It has been very interesting to bump up against these conservative folks.

Some are quite articulate. I've been surprised on occasion by that. They are also past masters of changing the subject to suit themselves. It's frustrating for me; others find it less challenging.

Going there, posting there, participating in juries and all the rest, has taught me one big lesson:

DU is home.

And DU will always be home, no matter what kind of arguments I see here, or flamebait, or whatever. I belong here.

I feel happy here. I know, I'm crazy. So be it.

Just my musings on this early Spring night...

From his wife:

There is not much to report. When Chris tried to pull out his trach, they added a sitter again. When I went on Tuesday, the sitter was gone, so it was short-lived.

Chris was tentatively moving to Kindred on Wednesday, so I packed stuff into bags and took home his guitar and the radio. (Lovely walk to the car! It's is fairly long and with those two very awkward items, lots of fun!) I had taken his computer home before then. As Chris had a low grade temp, the move was postponed again.

I did not make it back until today, as I started substituting this week. After not working for almost a year, getting to schools early and being on my feet all day kicked my butt! I took today off.
Chris had them call me today to ask for his computer again. Now he wants the other computer. Wow!

From his wife:

Please email me your phone number if Chris had it and I don't. His phone has disappeared at the hospital. My email is ldg_4@hotmail.com. Thanks!

The latest thing that prevented Chris from going to Kindred was that he pulled out his feed tube when he was sleepy. This required the doctors to reinsert it and send Chris to x-ray to make sure it is in the right place. So, he is wearing a type of corset that protects tubes so they are not pulled out. It can be hot, unfortunately.

On edit: His wife gave me permission to post her email here in GD.

Unfortunately, Chris' phone is gone. If he had your phone number, please email it to me at ldg_4@hotmail.com. Thanks!

She did give me permission to post her email.

The deaths of four Americans — including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens — in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012 was a tragic (though sadly not unprecedented) loss of life as well as an indictment of security measures at the U.S. mission there. But Benghazi isn't a mystery that needs to be plumbed by yet another congressional investigation.
The select committee offers Republicans another opportunity to bloody Clinton. -

Benghazi has already been investigated by the independent Accountability Review Board and several congressional committees, including four House panels and the Senate Intelligence Committee. Reams of documents have been produced. The evolution of the "talking points" used by then-Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice in television appearances a few days after the attacks has been meticulously documented and deconstructed.


Yet many Republicans can't let go of conspiracy theories about Benghazi, and on Friday the House authorized the creation of a select committee to investigate the issue yet again. House Republicans are especially transfixed by the idea that President Obama and his political aides, knowing that the attack was an Al Qaeda operation, nevertheless concocted a story that the siege was inspired by outrage over an anti-Islamic video that had sparked violent protests in Egypt. In this GOP theory, the Obama administration blamed the video to divert criticism that the president's foreign policy generally, and his war on Al Qaeda specifically, were failing.

In fact, the idea that the Benghazi attack was inspired by the protest in Egypt over the video was mentioned in the earliest version of the talking points, which were prepared by the CIA, not by Obama's political advisors.


All of it at the link:
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-benghazi-20140512-story.html

Four generations. From left to right: My mom, my grandmother holding my new baby daughter (four and a half months old) and me, age 23!



Me and my daughter around the same time: