What's messing with your Groove?

[Unheard Of]

I got off lightly, again. Now running a larger team in the same company.

[GGT]

It seems gogobongopop has lost his battle with cancer (?) He hasn't posted since last Feb. and doesn't reply to PMs or emails. He told us if he stopped posting that would mean he died....but I'm hoping that's wrong and he's recovering from surgery, or something.

Update: Just heard from gogo and he's doing well, going back to work next week! Some good news for the new year!

[wiggin]

Some close friends were having a difficult pregnancy: first, difficulty getting pregnant, then very early contractions forcing an extended hospital stay on enforced bed rest. I learned tonight that it looks like they just had to deliver a 25/26 week baby. *sigh*

They're going to need a whole lot of help.

[GGT]

Some close friends were having a difficult pregnancy: first, difficulty getting pregnant, then very early contractions forcing an extended hospital stay on enforced bed rest. I learned tonight that it looks like they just had to deliver a 25/26 week baby. *sigh*

They're going to need a whole lot of help.

Yes, they'll need a whole lot of help, and their child will need LOTS of resources, not just for the immediate term as a premie, but probably for many years to come.

It's also hard to admit that their child will probably get more help, just by being premature, than most babies will get if they were 'simply' borne to poor/low income parents. It's difficult to reconcile the paradox.



And I loathe having to post in these "chat" threads because the deep conversations we used to enjoy have dwindled and died.

[Aimless]

Absolutely spectacular northern lights all over the country the other day. Missed it completely. Would've been an extraordinary experience for our daughter, who's obsessed with northern lights

[Aimless]

On the train home from sthlm. On Thursday, after several days of steadily worsening symptoms, my mum fell severely ill. Had it not been for her foresight—and the determination of a very resourceful family friend—she would've died, alone, in her flat, another victim of the staggering incompetence of the operators in charge of dispatching ambulances in sthlm. Things were nearly as bad at the ER; it wasn't until she finally arrived at the right ward—after ten hours at the ER—that they finally took decisive measures to treat her. I arrived shortly after she was transferred, and a few of us were able to help clean up the dog's breakfast the ER staff had made of the situation.

It's been a rough weekend, but she'll hopefully be discharged tomorrow. Spoke with a close friend who's chief of medicine at that hospital, and she—like the physicians responsible for my mum's care—agree that, even by the standards everyone in sthlm has gotten used to over the past couple of decades of reckless privatization, this was poorly managed. So we'll find a way to trigger a formal investigation, so that those involved do better with the next patient like my mum. This experience has really bolstered my appreciation for the incredible staff at my own hospital, who've somehow managed to retain their grasp on the fundamentals of good patient-centered care despite facing similar pressures.

It's not all gloom and doom though. On this trip back, I really saw—and felt—the strength of all the bonds of love and friendship and community that tie us together and keep us afloat. I sometimes tell my students that love saves lives; this time, it saved my mum.

[Nessus]

That sounds awful Minx I'm glad you could at least somehow help resolve the situation, by the sounds of it.

Also that is a good message to tell your students. For what little that is worth.

[Dreadnaught]

I'm sorry to hear -- but also glad that at least people aren't gaslighting you that this was okay. I hope she gets better soon.

[Hazir]

I'm helping someone to prepare for a Dutch history exam that has been made one of the conditions for his enrollment at the VU in Amsterdam. At first the syllabus seemed very doable with a mere 3 transcripts of lectures about the use of archieves and private correspondence in history and only the first part of 'The embarrassment of riches' by Simon Schama. Just 125 pages. It seemed like a breeze. Seemed, because that man created a hotpotch of ideas that he describes as if he planned to create structure but then only leads you into a morass of disjointed mentions of events, descriptions, that do not really add to the picture but that just as easily could pop up in the exam as a stand in. It's not a good thing if a first read with a highlighter lands you with a yellow page.

I struggle to understand how this became a best seller in 1987. I struggle even harder to understand why it's still being used.

[Hazir]

On the train home from sthlm. On Thursday, after several days of steadily worsening symptoms, my mum fell severely ill. Had it not been for her foresight—and the determination of a very resourceful family friend—she would've died, alone, in her flat, another victim of the staggering incompetence of the operators in charge of dispatching ambulances in sthlm. Things were nearly as bad at the ER; it wasn't until she finally arrived at the right ward—after ten hours at the ER—that they finally took decisive measures to treat her. I arrived shortly after she was transferred, and a few of us were able to help clean up the dog's breakfast the ER staff had made of the situation.

It's been a rough weekend, but she'll hopefully be discharged tomorrow. Spoke with a close friend who's chief of medicine at that hospital, and she—like the physicians responsible for my mum's care—agree that, even by the standards everyone in sthlm has gotten used to over the past couple of decades of reckless privatization, this was poorly managed. So we'll find a way to trigger a formal investigation, so that those involved do better with the next patient like my mum. This experience has really bolstered my appreciation for the incredible staff at my own hospital, who've somehow managed to retain their grasp on the fundamentals of good patient-centered care despite facing similar pressures.

It's not all gloom and doom though. On this trip back, I really saw—and felt—the strength of all the bonds of love and friendship and community that tie us together and keep us afloat. I sometimes tell my students that love saves lives; this time, it saved my mum.

Sounds like a horrible experience Minx. Hard to imagine how that would have worked out for most regular people who don't have the support system your mother has.