Betty, my Sweetheart, Had Knee Surgery Today

So it's accurate, today is Monday, July 21, 2014.

As she rests, though moaning in pain a little as her anti-nausea meds wear off, I'm going to attend to her when she's fully ready, which for now, NatGeo is preventing, though I think she'd go anywhere I asked, within reason, of course. She won't stay in the family room at night, she says, because she doesn't want to be alone with the hidden demons that haunt that part of the house.

Okay, there aren't any demons. There's a boarder who's been with us for a couple weeks. He'd have moved out pretty soon but lost his job today. He's going to look in Provo because he's found an apartment in that area of the county. I hope it works out. He gets interviews quickly it seems, so I think he'll be able to make it stick. I hope. It's time.

Back to Betty. It's tough for a lifetime ADHD person (note; no use of the word 'suffer' because I'm not suffering, at least not from that) to focus long enough to actually put something on paper.

I wrote an email to my siblings and children which you can now read:

Hey all,

I have been remiss about giving an update on what's going on with my sweetheart.

First, she doesn't do pain very well, as some of you know. Much of that is because all narcotics so far have caused extreme nausea, so this time the Dr. also prescribed an anti-nausea pill. She's not comfortable, but doing okay.

Here's what the Dr. told us after the surgery, plus he gave me some pictures which I'll post on my blog later.

In her knee, there was a lot of floating tissue. During surgery, they pressed a lot of saline through and blew it up so the pictures show a lot of space that isn't there, so all the shreds of tissue would be pressing against the joint in places it just isn't supposed to be.

The crux of the matter is her knee was terribly inflamed because of the infusion of extra tissue strands that were generated by the protective shell that's around the joint that typically keeps things together.

Dr. Ritchie cleaned up the superfluous tissue on her meniscus, which was torn about 1% of the way through. That tear may have been the cause of all the other issues, or it may have been caused by those other issues.

There were literally huge chunks of tissue that was in some cases, larger than the parts of her knee that should have been there. You saw how huge it was. Just 3 weeks before the surgery, the doctor took about a cup of fluid off her knee.

After the surgery he explained that the extraneous tissue inside her knee very likely caused the fluid build-up. Once I get the pictures on my blog, you'll understand better.

If you have any questions, please let me know. I'll answer them as best I can.

Okay, enough from me. I would like to thank the members of our family who understand our gluten-free requirements and have brought meals to us. The ward threw their hands up because it would take an hour to teach each family who would bring a meal to help out.

So, thanks to Alicia and Andrea who are so diligent in caring for us in our old age.

Love all your guts,

Karl/Dad/me

So there you have the story to date, and as promised, here are the pictures the doctor took:

Now with those shown, there's one thing I need to get off my mind.

About 10 months ago, I had surgery in the same facility to fuse a joint in my right pinky (titanium screw) and replace the end of a large bone in my right thumb with a titanium piece that looks like a mushroom. It is half of the joint. It's working out well. No longer do I have the awful pain of a locking joint. Smooth and strong. But, that doctor, one of the best in Utah, if not the country (Dr. Mark Sanderson), told me he won't work on a joint that's had any type of steroid treatment because the steroid (cortisone) causes the tissue to be eaten away, and if there are a lot of injections, there isn't enough surrounding/supporting tissue to work with.

My private question is, did Betty's knee doctor encounter a large amount of extra tissue because she'd received a cortisone shot to treat the inflammation a few months back?

The thing about any study on people is we don't know what the result would have been had the treatment not been done. We can't go back and get a do-over to see an alternate reality. Can't do it regardless of Groundhog Day (the movie), or Somewhere In Time (also the movie), and their manipulation of the time-continuum, whatever that is (doesn't exist--sorry trekkers).

I'm Karl,
the over-worked, but grateful husband of a wonderful bride.

----

Just a Few Thoughts from the past

Yes, these are older than dirt, much like me. They are, however, like all true things--still true. It gives us such a feeling of security to know the truth just doesn't move.

---

A few good thoughts with a little fun from the past

• I'm not saying let's go kill all the stupid people. I'm just saying let's remove all the warning labels and let the problem work itself out.
• I changed my car horn to gun shot sounds. People move out of the way much faster now.
• You can tell a lot about a woman's mood just by her hands. If they are holding a gun, she's probably angry.
• Gone are the days when girls used to cook like their mothers. Now they drink like their fathers.
• You know that tingly little feeling you get when you really like someone? That's common sense leaving your body.
• I don't like making plans for the day because then the word "premeditated" gets thrown around in the courtroom.
• I didn't make it to the gym again today. That makes five years in a row.
• I decided to change calling the bathroom the John and renamed it the Jim I feel so much better saying I went to the Jim this morning.
• Dear paranoid people who check behind shower curtains for murderers. If you find one, what's your plan?

That last one is my favorite, other than the one about a woman's mood and whether she's holding a gun because I made the mistake of teaching my sweetheart to shoot after we'd been married a while. She's pretty good. I'm afraid.

You might ask what I have to be afraid of. 

Simple. I'm a guy. That means I am an idiot. I do stupid things. Often. Some of them make my lovely bride a little "short" with me.

Okay, enough. I hope you enjoyed this one.

Yeah. Karl is me.

Popeye's Chicken anyone?

I'm on the road. I don't go on the road much.

Okay, I lied, technically speaking. I'm in a hotel room. A nice, big, elegant, but old, hotel room.

In California.

Sunnyvale to be exact.

I'm being trained on a product I don't support. It's okay though because I'll have to use it to test my own products. Sometimes. Or more.

What does this story have to do with Popeye's Chicken? Enough that I told it.

Betty, my sweetheart, is a miracle worker where research is concerned. She is the one that figured out that statin drugs cause memory loss. And that it becomes permanent if you take them for 5 years. And it gets worse the longer you take them. I know. I went through the memory loss for ~4 years.

Mine is coming back, but I'm afraid it won't ever come all the way back. Too many years of foolish trust in a failed drug industry.

Back to chicken.

I made the bad mistake of eating at Popeye's Chicken tonight.

I was hungry.

Now I'm sick.

I'm not going to throw up, or that other sick thing we all hate.

No, the sick I am is disappointed in myself sick. I broke my diet, but more than that, I ate ingredients that are proven over and over to kill everyone who eats them.

Not right away.

MSG. Bad and made from GMOs

Soy oil. A GMO that also creates phyto estrogens in the body. Those wreak havoc in little boys, helping them grow breasts and never develop all the masculine stuff necessary to have a deep voice and healthy children, or even have children in some cases.

Canola oil. Another GMO that's really bad for you. Of course, all GMOs are bad for you.

Corn and corn oil. All corn, except some organics and all popcorn, are GMO foods now. Never eat regular corn again. It's going to make your sicker and sicker.

Gluten from wheat. Most wheats are hybrids that have been "bred" to be more glutinous, which is the worst part of the grain. Technically it's not a GMO, but it has been hybridized so that it contains chemical chains that resemble narcotics, and it is addicting.

Other stuff that makes me sick to think I actually paid them to poison me. Check it out at Popeye's Own Site.

Nasty.

Disappointing.

So I bought some organic bananas and ate 3. I feel very full, not better.

Drat.

----

I'm [a larger version of] Karl...

Double Drat!

Proud To Be A Democrat!

The story and image below are about, and from, a newspaper clipping. Its content is a letter to the editor. That letter explains more in a few paragraphs than all the conservative talk can teach.

We know this.

We believe this.

Now we have evidence that supports us.

Right Here:

PROUD TO BE A DEMOCRAT

From the Carteret County News-Times

[Editor's note: The following Letter to the Editor, published in the Jan. 23 edition, has gone viral on the Web after a reader linked it to a Fox News Facebook page. It had received more than 4,000 comments and been shared more than 12,000 times by the following Tuesday morning]

And now an appropriate quote attributed to John Wayne

"Life's tough -- it's even tougher if you're stupid."

. . . and I'm Karl, and 'nuf said!

Frontier Airlines Just Lost My Business - Forever

My Mother died Tuesday.

It's a hard time for my family.

I have 2 children, their spouses, 3 children each--6 of my 10 (for now) grandchildren--who live a long way East of me.

They are in the military, for which I'm proud. Yes, we have the worst military-friendly administration in history, and hoping for never a repeat. Okay, the worst administration, period.

If there could be a worse administration, I don't know how. For once, contrary to Martin Luther King's declaration, this abysmally and purposefully ignorant country voted for a man because of the color of his skin and not for the content of his character. A man who, in the proud tradition of all great nations, should be executed for treason, leads us now.

But, that's another story.

Today my oldest daughter is flying with her youngest child, a nearly 2-year-old, to be at her grandmother's funeral.

Because she wasn't 2 hours early for the flight, Frontier is not only making her wait for a later flight, but they are pouring salt on the wound by charging $100 to change the flight, plus now my daughter has to pay for her luggage to fly.

What other airline does this? Really, I want to know.

I won't ever fly with them again either.

So, if you leave a comment about that, I'll probably update this blog with the news.

Frontier Airlines, you lost my business in 6 weeks when I fly to the coast for business. I get to choose my carrier. I don't choose Frontier. Ever again.

---
I'm Karl. Still. I miss Mom.

John Roberts Blackmailed? + Inoculations Causing Disease!

Was John Roberts blackmailed to vote in favor of Obamacare?

His illegal adoptions were the tool used to convince the already crooked judge to add his game-changing opinion that ObamaCare is a tax, so is constitutional.

So, who has the smoking gun? 

John Roberts Protecting Obamacare?

Adoptive Father, John Roberts

John Roberts blackmailed re: Obamacare - will he be blackmailed to support gay marriage?

I shouldn't be, but I have to admit I'm amazed at the corruption in our country.

Why do I say I'm amazed? After all, the Doctrine and Covenanthatts (for non-Mormon, that's a book of scripture we have, which you can find online; link after the quote) tells us that "In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days," (D&C 89:4) that conspiracies are always going to be part of the work evil people use to destroy good.

I have strong opinions about that. I know for a fact there are conspiracies, and the nonsense of calling anyone a nut who believes in conspiracies is a tool of Satan to make good people shrink from calling a spade a spade. There are conspiracies. They are all around us. Wake Up People! It's about too late. Obamacare was thrust down our throats against our will by wicked vile kingmen (Book of Mormon, specifically Alma around chapter 60, especially verses 27-29, for the solution which is distasteful to liberal-leaning cowards. The chapters before and a bit afterwards are about this faction of the government that had to be pulled down to protect the liberty of the people. Are we less in need of a cleansing? No, we are not. My father told me we are at a place where to regain our liberties, it will take )

Here's the second part of this post, and it's just as much of a lightning rod. ---- Vaccinations cause the diseases they are supposed to prevent...

When I was in college, I took a biology class. It was taught by one of the most famous researchers in the world for viruses and how they are spread and what they actually are.

One thing he taught is that diseases are prevented by injecting what he termed as "killed" bacteria and viruses. He also told us it was an imperfect science. The following articles tell you what I've believed since then.

Vaccine lies: Whooping cough outbreaks being triggered by vaccinated children

Whooping Cough (Pertussis) vaccine causes the disease

The vaccine hoax is over

These are a few of many links about this conspiracy to separate us from our money. The drug manufacturers are evil empires that must be brought down. At first, they did a lot of good, but that good great into greed, and from there to amoral and vile corporations run by liberals who aren't afraid of murder and graft to get what they want.

These are the equivalent of Monsanto, which is a topic for another time.

Okay, I'm off now. Two posts in one isn't how I'd like to do it, but limited time gives incentives I hesitate to ignore.

I'm Karl, even if I'm dualizing the webnetses

Utah Mormons

This topic is on my mind right now.

Why?

Because of the following email sent to my wife by the mother of a missionary serving in the U.S. (outside of Utah, duh):

Dear Moms,

I don't know if any of you have had this problem or not but it seems to be a re-occurring theme for both of my sons who are on missions, and it needs to stop! As President Uchdorf has said, "STOP IT!"

So, I am writing to the only group that I know who can help spread the word. I'm sure there are none of you in these email groups who have this problem.

There is no room for this in our church, in our wards, in our homes, or in our hearts. My son has written to me and has informed me that there are MANY members, missionaries, and just people in general, who "put him aside" because he is "just another Utah missionary!"

Are you kidding me? Now, I have known people who don't like Utah Mormons and say rude things about them as if we were all grouped into some weird cultish blob. I usually just ignore it as immaturity on their part.

He has heard people in his ward say "I would never want to raise my kids in Utah because I want them to grow up with a strong testimony!" Who in their right mind would say such a thing!? It's happening and it needs to stop!

I don't need to go on about how strong my Elders are, not to mention the 24 missionaries that are serving from our ward or the more than 250 from his seminary class. They are great because they have strong parents who taught them how to be valiant, tolerant, and faithful in all things. It's not because they were born and raised in a different state or country! We have lived outside of Utah and the people we live with here in Utah are not any better, or any worse, than those we lived with "in the mission field."

In fact, the youth here in Utah have been the strongest and most valiant I have seen. My son lived a mission life before he turned 18 and most of his friends chose to do the same. Were there kids in his high school that struggled and didn't have a strong testimony? Yes, but not because they were raised in Utah! Are there great members and missionaries and youth that live in California, or Idaho, or Ohio? Yes! But it's not because they don't live in Utah. It's because they Choose The Right, and live it. Seriously, we must stop playing the "where do you come from" game and start living the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

I'm writing this for my son! He deserves to be treated better than this as does every other missionary regardless of where they are serving! They have enough to worry about and they should not be bothered with this kind of talk from our members, including missionaries. How do those people treat black missionaries? It's no different!

My sister's "adopted" son, who they are supporting because his parents can't--btw my sister lives in Utah--is from Hawaii and serving in Paris, had to silence his district of Elders who were bashing Utah Mormons in front of him. Where do young men and women learn behavior like this? From judgmental and bigoted parents!

We need to change as a people if we ever want to convert others. I'm sorry my son had to hear these negative, derogatory and wicked things. I'm sorry he might be convinced to feel less than worthy because we chose to move back to Utah. Please help it stop by speaking up when you hear of such things. It is not "of good report" and it is definitely not "praiseworthy". It can stop with us. We are these missionaries' Mothers and we after all, are the ones who have largely taught them their attitudes.

Sincerely,

[name withheld by my wife though the sister said putting her name on it was fine]

I have nothing to add, other than:

My wife knows her groups well enough to know there would be more than a few who are offended and would cruelly lash out against this woman's true words. Why? Because they hold the evil attitude that Utah Mormons are bad people. That attitude is evil and will keep them out of the Celestial Kingdom as sure as being [an unrepentant] stripper in a nightclub would. Seriously, if playing poker on a Saturday night will keep you out of heaven, then denigrating others of (presumably) your own faith will too.

Clean it up people. It's time to be a Zion People because we know not when the Saviour will return, and if he comes to Utah, what are you going to think when He asks, "Why did you denigrate members of my Kingdom in Utah?" because if He doesn't verbally ask, the Spirit will whisper to your hearts, "Why are you holding this attitude? It will keep you from My presence."

Isn't the atonement wonderful? It can cleanse us of even the little things that might otherwise tarnish our souls beyond repair (by us alone).

---

I'm still Karl, and I'm happy to be a Utah Mormon who is converted and understands that a faithful Latter-Day Saint is worthy to enter the temples of God regardless of whether he lives in Utah, Morrocco, or downtown Hong Kong. Okay, I lived 5 years in California. I'd never move back, but it's because it's a socialist society now, not because the saints there are any different from those here.

And so you understand about me and my wife, I'm the Owner/Admin of all the services at OurLDSFamily.com which includes LDSMissionaryMoms.com and LDSMilitaryMoms.com, among others. See them all at the first link.

And just in case, anyone can get support for any service we offer here: Support.OurLDSFamily.com

FYI: you can read my profile on "Mormon.org" here: http://mormon.org/me/1GCM. If you don't have a profile there, start one now.