Maybe I Should Call It a Bro...

[Guest guest]

Good afternoon, all.

I am sorry for the silence of the last few days. It's been a pretty

busy time, but I'll try to bring you up to date. WARNING: there is a

little bit of " ghoulish " humor in parts.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but one of my paternal aunts

had ALS. She was diagnosed just about a year ago, at the age of 78,

which is apparently pretty unusual. At any rate, she died early in

the week, and the funeral was set for Thursday morning, ten o'clock,

at a church in Verdun (a suburb of Montreal).

Problem 1: my rheumatologist appointment was for 4 Wednesday pm, and

he is going to tell me all about my MRI results. I really don't want

to miss this appointment, and that means that I don't leave for

Montreal (about five hours away) on Wednesday. OK, so at four in the

morning on Thursday, I take off and head east, arriving in Verdun at

about nine o'clock.

Some news: it's a good thing I arrived in time, because I find I'm

one of the pallbearers. The funeral goes on as scheduled, and we give

my aunt a right and proper sendoff.

I don't know about how they do things in other places, but in

Montreal the duties of a pallbearer do not end once you get to the

doors of the hearse. You are also expected to carry the coffin to the

gravesite. And the graveyard my aunt was heading for was on the

mountain (Mount Royal) in the centre of Montreal.

Did I tell you I have a pretty poor sense of direction? Well, it's

something I have been aware of for quite a while, so I asked another

pallbearer (a cousin) if I could get a ride with him to the cemetary.

So did another out-of-town pallbearer. No problems, and soon we're

all happily seated in a big Volvo station wagon, near the end of the

funeral procession. Everything was going just perfectly well, until

we came to the freeway entrance. The funeral cars and everyone else

took 20 West, while my cousin took 20 East. As you can imagine, this

caused a lot of discussion in the car.

We ended up circling the city at high speed, took several very

illegal short cuts, and viewed red lights as a suggestion, not a

command. We made it to the graveyard about twenty minutes later. No

office or directory was visible, and we had no idea where the

gravesite was.

Montreal is a city of about 3 million people, and it has been a city

since the mid-1600s. That translates into BIIIG graveyards. I have to

say that Volvo station wagons handle very well. We scooted up and

down the mountain along very narrow, ice-covered trails, and never

once slid off the road or took out any headstones. Inside the car, we

were discussing whether it would be better to just drive me back to

my car so I could head off to Toronto (there was no way I was going

to face my aunt's family after this). We also talked about what would

be done at the gravesite, and concluded that, with only three

pallbearers present, they'd likely end up dragging my aunt to the

grave instead of carrying her. Oddly enough, our driver wasn't

enjoying the discussion much...

Anyways, what do we see but the headlights of an approaching funeral

procession. We pulled off the path onto the right, and guess what? It

was my aunt's! Thank goodness! But the looks on the faces of my

relatives, as they passed by us, facing the wrong way and obviously

not in the procession, were something to see. The explanations later

on at the reception were pretty well-received (I guess my family has

a slightly sick sense of humor), and so things ended very well.

Other things: the MRI showed a suggestion of asceptic necrosis to the

ball-joint of my femur and hip bones, and so I'm set for a bone scan

in about three weeks. I was told this is something occasionally found

when prednisone dosages are reduced, and in most cases, it resolves

itself without problem, so long as there is no undue strain put on

the bones. Also, the bone scan is better at viewing this than the MRI.

The MRI showed no disease activity at all in my muscles, so this part

was good news. Prednisone has been reduced to 9 mg/day, and the

shakes have just started.

And , concerning the bra -- it's only a problem if I view it as

a problem. So there.

Keep warm and laced up, everyone else.

Mike B

[Guest guest]

Well Mike....First let me say how very sorry I am for your loss. I'm

sure your Aunt got a kick out of watching you three.....

I however, sure did need that good laugh.... I swear you should be a

writter for a comic strip in the newspaper.

While I was reading what you had gone through I immediately thought of

the Three Stooges. Don't know if you know them or not... My ribs hurt

from laughing so hard.

I've had the bone scan and it really shows the bone problems and

loss.....interesting to look at.

Are you taking any Calcium?

I woke up this morning with 4 " of snow on the ground. Just enough to

make it hard for me to get down to the barns. I'm sick of this weather.

Now it's raining cats and dogs.... good for melting the snow and

wonderful for creating mud bogs. Guess I'll get up and go down and try

to feed my girls early tonight.

If someone knows a dance to stop this weather here in sunny Calif. then

will you please do it for me? I can't take this much longer. We've

never had snow in mid March....

Take care Mike and again, thanks for the laugh.

Vicki

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[Guest guest]

Hi Vicki.

Sorry about the snow, but any complaints should be directed to

and Ann-Marie... but they're probably watching Groundhog Day

on TBS as I type this.

Yes, I am on calcium. I've had a bone density scan, and it showed

perfectly normal densities, so osteoporosis is not yet a concern.

The good news is that up here the snow is finally starting to melt.

With the forecast of rain on Tuesday and Wednesday, we have some hope

that we'll have bare ground instead of snowfields by Thursday.

Just tough it out for another four or five days, and you're done!

Mike B