Surgery next week

Ok, so an update... if things go right, I'll be having knee surgery next week. It's usually not a big deal, but I'm high risk, so it's a big deal in my case. (And I'm kind of freaked out about it.) But I can't stand for more than 20 minutes and I can't do simple things like go shopping downtown, get stuck standing on a streetcar or bus (hell no), exercise (a big deal for me!), etc. So, crap, no real choice in the end.

If you've been reading, you know this has been a long, drawn-out bunch of crap stemming from an injury clear back in early October. Because of my particular health problems, there was a big delay getting an MRI at first, then I got sent to an orthopedic surgeon in another city, waited for several weeks for the appointment only for him to tell me that he can't do surgery on high risk patients. Agh! I was then referred to a specialized clinic in yet another city and had to wait six more weeks just to get in to see them. Then, again because I'm high risk (growl), they couldn't say for sure until I saw them a second time for an anesthesiology check-up. So I've been cleared for surgery (yay... I hope 'yay' is appropriate... eek) and it's scheduled for next week.

Oink Oink

"The EU's health commissioner calls on people to avoid traveling to Mexico and the United States..."

So, the plague has arrived.

I was a total 'disaster junkie' back in the 90's, spurred on partly by my weird dreams of future catastrophes and all the horrific prophecies set to culminate in the 1998 to 2012 timeframe. You better believe I went to the theater for '12 Monkeys', 'Dante's Peak', 'Outbreak', 'Independence Day', 'Volcano', etc. (Ok, so I still love apocalyptic movies. Give me 'War of the Worlds' or 'I Am Legend' any day.)

[Update: Just found this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I2pLJ_hPbU . 2012. Ooooo! Yeah, baby! One thing about living over here is... you never know a damned thing about movies until everyone in America does, lol. Or is that just me?...]

I read 'The Coming Plague' by Laurie Garrett in its entirety. Go ahead, ask me something about ebola or the 1918 flu virus that killed 50 million+ people (in a world with much less population and significantly less international travel). I've even done C.E.R.T. training. I've got my trusty hard hat still and I know how to turn off the gas after a quake, how to successfully put out small fires and how to do basic triage in a disaster. (Not that my certificate means shit in Germany, but I have it.)

So, there's a confirmed case now of Swine Flu in Spain and suspected cases in Scotland. Doesn't take long to get overseas these days. I guess we're lucky that summer's about here. The question now is if this is another SARS & Bird Flu situation, where the media and gov't agencies will scare the shit out of us for months for (almost) nothing (not that 100 people dead is nothing), or if this is... it. If so, ouch, is this fall and winter going to SUCK.

It could turn out to just be overblown scare tactics, but the fact is that this is sounding similar (even H1N1) to the 1918 flu. (Hmm, and just where did it come from? Conspiracy theories come to mind, ahem.) I saw a good documentary some years back about 1918 and I'll tell you... that's scary. There were so many people dead in the US even that everything was closed down and bodies were piling up faster than morgues could handle.

And no, Tamiflu won't save your butt. It could help, yes. Maybe. But it's not a cure, for certain. IF you get started on it soon enough, it could help REDUCE the length of time you're sick. But it won't save you.

Nor will those cute little surgical masks. That is, unless you get the really good kind (US standard N95 or EU standard EN 149 FFP2), it fits correctly with no gaps, you also cover your eyes completely and you disinfect yourself before going into your home, throwing out the mask and sanitizing your clothes, shopping bag & contents, goggles and scrubbing yourself down with Purell. And then there are your windows. Conceivably, you could stay at home with no contact to the outside world, but the coughing folks outside would spew their aerosol flu droplets into the air, which would be carried in through tiny gaps along the edge of your window. Bam, you've got it. Sucks, huh? (Ok, wearing an N95 mask and goggles outdoors and scrubbing your hands well should help significantly, but it will never be a guarantee.) I guess in this case the survivalist nuts will have one up on all of us. A year's supply of food and water in their underground bunker with super purified air =;-)

So, if this turns out to really be a big deal and not just undue panic, besides hoping they pull a vaccine out of their butts really freakin' soon, here are some websites of interest to check out. It's also wise to eat plenty of fruits, veggies and lean protein, get regular exercise (but don't overdue it even once, because that can do you in) and get enough sleep every night.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu

http://www.n-95mask.com/avian_flu_mask.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_4933231_stay-healthy-avoid-swine-flu.html

P.S. If anyone actually knows where to find real hand sanitizer (like alcohol gel/Purell) in Germany, by all means share. We asked for it, explained what it was, etc, at several pharmacies last year and they looked at us like we were crazy. I like to clean my hands anytime I've been in doc's office or we're about to eat something & a bathroom isn't convenient. We found some sanitizer wipes (like handy wipes) at Kaufland before. If all else fails, there's Sagrotan wipes (by cleaning supplies in drug stores & at some pharmacies). They're supposedly just for wiping surfaces, but the main ingredient is ethanol, so I don't see why you couldn't use it on your hands with some lotion once or twice a day to keep them from drying out.

ALSO... a creepy dream I had in 2007:
My husbunny was sick or something and couldn't leave the house at all and I HAD to get some medicine for him. Everything in Germany was closing down when I left to take the Straßenbahn down south to the doctor's office. There weren't many people outside, and those that were were wearing surgical masks and looking panicky. I knew there was some type of pandemic going on, but I didn't have a choice but to be out. I reached the clinic/hospital and managed to catch the doctor just as he was leaving. Even they were shutting down. Everyone was scared, wearing masks and trying to avoid contact with others. I got the medicine and got back home, but I was terrified I'd possibly contracted the disease and was now bringing it home for the both of us.

Superstar!

Today's Good Friday, which means Germany (all or most?) is shut down for a holiday. Also, like with Christmas, there are two Easter Days, Sunday and Monday with everything closed down.

In the spirit of the weekend I brought back out my CD of the original London cast recording of Jesus Christ Superstar (link). Oh! I just wanted to say that this is still, every darn time I hear it, one of the best albums in history, lol. It's just great. Murray Head as Judas and Ian Gillan from Deep Purple as Jesus. It's a great musical/opera anyway, but this recording is amazing, blows all others out of the water. Bunny's never heard it so I loaded it on his MP3 player and I'm forcing him to listen to it today while he works around the house, lol.

If he doesn't like it I might have to wonder why I married him... hmmm... =;-) I think, though, that it might be one of those things that's hard to take in the first time, but gets better with repeat listenings.

What the hell is up with ebay? (rant)

A nice thing about ebay is that if you have an account in the US (or wherever) you can log into all of ebay's different country versions with the same login, purchase things from them, whatever.

Well, I don't know if something changed now as of April or WTF, but today I went to buy a little something from ebay.de to be shipped here within Germany. I bought something from ebay just a few weeks ago and didn't have a problem. Have never had a problem, whether the seller ships to Germany only or worldwide, makes no difference. Today I click "kaufen" and I get this message, paraphrased from German, "You are not allowed to buy this because the seller doesn't ship to your country." WTF??? The seller only ships to Germany and Austria and so since my ebay account was from the US, before even wanting to know where it was to be shipped (in the same country, asswads!), it's just flat out denied. So I guess that means that if you have an ebay account from the US but live in Europe and you want to buy something from someone on ebay.co.uk who only ships to Europe, up yours now??! What complete bullsh*t.

You know, PayPal already did that crap where they won't allow you to use an international address AT ALL, not even for a gift address anymore. The only address you can choose is one that's in the same country as your bank account. No exceptions (at least if your account is in the US - not sure about German ones, but I'd guess it's the same). I've complained to them several times about this, but there's no way around it. I understand this is for security reasons, blah, blah, but if I personally add a freakin' address three weeks before a purchase, what's the big damned deal?! Why can't they just make a waiting period before you can use a new address that's outside your bank's country? Tada, that type of fraud virtually eliminated. But NoOooOOoOO, like everything else financial lately, they have to make everything more effing difficult.

Everything financial feels like it's getting tighter and tighter controls placed on it, probably thanks in part to ... here comes the conspiracy theory .... the powers that be who want to have total control over what we do with our money (where it comes from, how we use it, where we use it, etc), and, of course, thanks to the identity theft pieces of sh*t out there. Before long you won't be allowed to use a credit card outside your home zip code without it being stuck on a fraud watch. It's getting ridiculous. You'll have to report to the government that you want to use PayPal to buy a DVD in Germany and wait for approval before you're allowed to take that $10 out of your account. (You know you already have to report to the US if your name is on any foreign bank account that for any moment hit $10,000 worth in the year, right? I'm serious. There's a form for it. Now, that's not something I have to worry about with our incomes, lol, but I still find it bullsh*t. I can understand a million or something, but $10,000 just feels like Big Brother.)

Well, if anyone else runs into this problem with ebay, here's what to do. Go into your main account settings, to addresses and then to change the anmeldung/registered address. You'll have to change the country, then enter the address. There's a warning about how VAT would now apply if you're a seller, and then you're good to go. But then I guess you're screwed in the future if you want to buy something as a gift for someone back home and that seller doesn't ship to Germany. You'd have to go back into the addresses, change your account back to an American one, then make your purchase. See? Complete bullsh*t. Just making everything more of a pain in the ass than it already is to be an expat.