Two months today

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Tuesday October 17, 2017 · 10:15 AM PDT

2017/10/17 · 10:15

Charley James, Lucky 7 Bar and Grill, January 2017

It is two months today since the worst day of my life. Worse than election day 2016. Worse than inauguration day 2017. Two months ago I lost my husband, bridge partner, companion, soulmate, caregiver.

Charley was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma a little over four years ago. I almost lost him in 2016 when he did an immunotherapy clinical trial of modified T-cells. It was amazing although he was in the hospital for 18 days with two stints in ICU and 7 hours on a ventilator (the hardest thing I ever did was say they could intubate him.) Afterward they couldn’t detect any lymphoma, but it only lasted about 8 months and it came back. Or more likely, some had been dormant or too hard to detect for the T-cells and eventually they woke up.

But he didn’t die from lymphoma. He had just started a new chemotherapy, a simple injection in the belly rather than an infusion. We also had seen his oncologist the day before and reported digestive issues. No one suspected what was really happening. You apparently can’t see it on an x-ray or CT scan or PET scan.

He started having severe abdominal pain Tuesday evening, the day he had started the new treatment. It got really bad and I took him to the hospital. They admitted him and determined he had a perforated duodenal ulcer. We had no idea. They repaired it but it was too late. He died of hyperkalemia (too much potassium) and septic shock.

You can read his obituary today at The Seattle Times. It’s too expensive to say everything in the newspaper. I will write a few blog posts about him over the next few months to try to get things off my chest.

Thanks for reading.

DreamyAJ

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Tuesday December 09, 2014 · 12:13 PM PST

2014/12/09 · 12:13

The Bill of Rights includes the 8th Amendment, which states, in full:

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Let's talk about this below the orange squiggle. Read More

Verifying Your Vote (with Poll!)

DreamyAJ

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Thursday November 01, 2012 · 12:54 PM PDT

2012/11/01 · 12:54

I emailed a friend to ask him whether or not he had voted yet. In WA we vote entirely by mail, so many people have already sent in their ballots. He replied that not only had he voted, he knew they had received his ballot and verified his signature! How to do that is below the squiggle.

Poll

40 votes Show Results

Should every jurisdiction let you check on your ballot status?

40 votes Vote Now!

Should every jurisdiction let you check on your ballot status?

Of course they should

37 votes

No, you are on the hook for the risk by using the US Mail

1 vote

Just because they received it doesn't mean they'll count it

1 vote

Meh

1 vote

Pie

0 votes

Exotic Pets and Others

DreamyAJ

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Wednesday February 29, 2012 · 12:46 PM PST

2012/02/29 · 12:46

I mentioned in yesterday's pootie diary that we used to have chinchillas as pets, and I was asked to elaborate, so I am writing about all of my childhood pets. Some were pooties and woozles, and we also had other animals that you could say were less commonly kept as pets.

As you read this, keep in mind that my Dad always said he hated pets, especially cats. And we believed him for some reason.

None of the pictures in this diary are of my actual pets. Sadly I don't have any pics of them. But these are VERY close approximations! Thanks to Google Images for helping me find them, and great thanks to whomever they belong to.

Follow me over the squiggle!

DreamyAJ

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Thursday October 20, 2011 · 8:14 PM PDT

2011/10/20 · 20:14

I'm in Washington State, so I was a little surprised today to receive an email from Rob Zerban. Rob is a Democrat running for Paul Ryan's seat in Wisconsin's First Congressional District. I don't know which mailing list he might have gotten my email address from, but the odds are it was a progressive one.

DreamyAJ

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday September 20, 2011 · 11:19 AM PDT

2011/09/20 · 11:19

When I was a kid, I briefly considered joining the service, but I quickly decided I was going to be too short to qualify, and that I was definitely not athletic enough to survive basic training. Plus I have really dreadful eyesight. When my brother turned 18, I was 16, and I was surprised that he had to register, since there was no draft. I also thought that it was unfair that girls didn't have to register. I already knew that Israel had mandatory service for everyone regardless of gender. Why didn't we?

DreamyAJ

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Sunday July 31, 2011 · 11:55 AM PDT

2011/07/31 · 11:55

I have wondered about this for some time, particularly because there are plenty of Democrats who are not progressive, which I have found hard to comprehend. There has to be something more fundamental that distinguishes Democrats from Republicans, even when they seem to be kind of right-wing Dems.

DreamyAJ

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Saturday July 30, 2011 · 6:43 PM PDT

2011/07/30 · 18:43

Netflix, I just can't quit you

For a break from all the debt ceiling debacle, I thought I would try to figure out what to do about my Netflix membership. As you may know, prices recently went up. Instead of $9.99 for unlimited DVDs (one at a time) and unlimited streaming video, it will soon be $7.99 for DVDs and another $7.99 for streaming. Not even a discount for having both!

DreamyAJ

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday July 19, 2011 · 4:24 PM PDT

2011/07/19 · 16:24

On Sunday, I was playing bridge at a local tournament with my husband. The tournament was held at a private day school attached to a synagogue.

As usual, before the game started, I sat catching up on headlines from my RSS feed on my BlackBerry. I got to a story about Herman Cain's outrageous claim that communities can ban mosques. I stopped and related that to my husband, who acknowledged he had heard something of the sort. (He was equally disgusted.)

But there was someone else sitting at our table... a member of our bridge team-of-four for the day's event.

DreamyAJ

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Saturday April 30, 2011 · 10:22 AM PDT

2011/04/30 · 10:22

Kos wrote about the American Taliban, and I agreed with virtually every word he wrote. But it's even scarier than I thought.

DreamyAJ

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Thursday November 04, 2010 · 3:55 PM PDT

2010/11/04 · 15:55

I have just written to my Representative and to my Senators, suggesting that we not extend the Bush tax cuts at all. Instead, we should rebuild infrastructure with a jobs program. Maybe implement tax cuts that benefit those who need it most and will spend them. My letter is over the jump.

DreamyAJ

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday October 04, 2010 · 11:06 PM PDT

2010/10/04 · 23:06

Many of us are discouraged, depressed, and disillusioned. We are mad as hell and we aren't going to take it anymore. By not voting. By not volunteering for GOTV efforts. By not contributing, even to our preferred candidates. I have a remedy for you...

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Two months today

What Matters

Verifying Your Vote (with Poll!)

Exotic Pets and Others

WI-01 Help Rob Zerban defeat Paul Ryan

YADADTD (yet another DADT diary)

What is a Democrat?

Netflix, I just can't quit you

Religious intolerance: Muslim variety

American Theocracy

An argument against extending the Bush tax cuts

Discouraged? Depressed? Do something nice for yourself!