Now Scottish Girl, I enjoy the questions. Sharing what this is all about sure helps. By the way...Merry Christmas. I hope you have a great one over there.

I never heard of the "oven mitt" condition you mentioned. That has to be pretty hard to get used to. I would imagine that would lead to many dropped tea cups. Is it hard for you to get used to or can you ever get used to it?

It's interesting to hear your view on the hospitals. I certainly agree that some fo the older doctors are set in their way and to me it seems that some of the other doctors just want to do as many of the surgeries as fast as they can when there may have been alternatives. Then again I guess they don't get paid for "alternatives". The best doctor I ever met was trained in Scotland and practices in the US and Kuwait. He wouldn't do us much good as he specializes in kidneys. I live about three and a half hour drive time to Houston but our facilities here are pretty good or so I thought. Looking back maybe they're not to good after all. The hospital actually lost me when I had my gall bladder out a few years ago. Not the bad kind of lost but they misplaced me. My kids were trying to find me after the surgery and the hospital had no idea where I was. My girls found me only because I'm 6'5" and my feet always hang off the end of the gurney. They saw my feet. Yep, quality medical care.

So now the question, where does that leave me? I'm done. I refuse to have any more surgeries and I had my doc take me off the morphine at least for now. I needed a break from that stuff. I don't sleep much because of the pain now. I've managed about 6 hours over the last 7 days and of course nothing helps to make me sleep except a shot or two of Bacardi 151 rum.

What's the latest on you now? I guess for most of us, pain relief is the main thing. Maybe Kadian would work for you. I don't think you have to worry about cost, do you? I have my insurance but the pharmacy forgot to run the prescription through my insurance company and the gal handed me the Kadian and didn't even flinch when she said "That will be $722." And that's for a one month supply.

Anyway...Just so you know, I visited Scotland in 1988 and loved it. It's such a beautiful country although I was a bit disappointed. I took the train to Inverness and rented a car to drive around Lock Ness but Nessie didn't make an appearance for me. I met some great people there but I did need an interpreter when I went to a pub. I had no idea what was being said but that's OK because they couldn't understand me either. I can't say enough about Scotland or the people.

Take care of yourself and let me know about your back, your hands and what they're going to try next for you......Gregg