Okey, I hope this is the last update! First---- once again, thanks for the prayers and support. The pin is in the finger. Took very little time- the shots to numb the hand were another matter- I would have willingly hit the nurse while she was injecting me but my husband had ahold of me. I did do lots of involuntary foot drumming! Ouch, hurt like nothing else so far!! But, it is done, and that is a blessing! Pin comes out in 6 weeks. Little or no tendon damage! Your prayers, and mine, were heard! Hugs for all my forum friends! ~Brenda

Hello again friends. I continue to be amazed by your kindness and concern. Paulines and Elizabeth10029 - if you are back in here reading, yes by all means please feel free to save these posts. ALL OF YOU have my permission (and gratitude) to keep or share what I have written. I am humbled by the thought that my words have meant so much. There are so many more stories here that need to be told. The political firestorms have been whipped up to a frenzy over the past few weeks. I am sure many of you have heard on the national news the statements our mayor, Ray Nagin, made this week during his MLK celebratory speech about making the city of New Orleans "chocolate". Well, of course, the whole city is now in an uproar. I really think he is suffering from "Katrina fatigue". This mayor was very, very well liked by the most of the city - all different races. Now, he has become a symbol of division. And this comes at a time, when we must really pull together and present a rational, unified front. I am embarrassed and concerned about the damage he has done - the whole world is watching us. And I think the image he put forth is so misleading. While to the outside world it appears that there is a huge racial divide - in reality, New Orleans incorporates her diversity far better than many other cities. One of my dearest friends of 30+ years is african american - and she has spent the past few months living in my home. Our families vacation together every year. My other best friends are indonesian, hispanic, and greek - I am the "token wasp!" I have wonderful friends from as far away as Syria and VietNam. And I am not uncommon. Most New Orleanians work with, laugh and play with, cry and mourn with the many diverse people here. The problem arises when poverty and crime are added to the equation. I have no answers, only more questions. As do the other good people (of all races) who live here. We shake our heads in dismay and write letters to the editor! We are in dire need of effective leadership - and it is sadly lacking. The initial rebuilding plans for the city were just released and are being evaluated now. There is just no way possible to make everyone happy. We have to choose safety over everything else. Some people are simply not going to be allowed to rebuild their neighborhoods. It is so sad, tragic. But it would be insane to allow these people to live in harms way - even if they really WANT to! Desperate times make for desperate decisions, and some people just cannot believe or trust that the engineers and experts are telling the truth about where to rebuild or not. The next few months are going to be critical ones - will the city of New Orleans succeed in creating a plan for rebuilding better and stronger and wiser than before? Or will history repeat itself? Can we get congress to give us Netherlands-quality category 5 hurricane levees? Are we valued? President Bush visited last week and commented that "this is looking like the New ORleans I remember". Well, that was voted as the most ridiculous statement of last week. He saw the French Quarter (which did not flood at all) and the Garden District (which did not flood at all). It's just unbelievable. Only 30% of New Orleans has lights. That's right. It is pitch black at night. And cold. No heat, no lights, no phones. My friend's neighborhood - about half a mile from me - still has no working phone lines. Not one single person I know, who lived in the areas of New Orleans that flooded, has been able to move back into their house. People in Jefferson Parish (suburb of New Orleans, where I live) are able to rebuild now and some have been able to move back. It is absolutely still a disaster zone. And it will remain so until the city institutes a viable rebuilding plan - which appears to be months away yet. I am leaving tomorrow to visit DD back in Michigan for a week. It will be wonderful to get away from the daily bombardment of Katrina news. Of course, she calls almost daily (and usually right after the 6pm news) and at the top of her list is "Mom, why don't you sell your house and move up here?" Honestly, I do think about it. But, I have decided to give it one year here and if we cannot see a light at the end of the tunnel by then...well, I will have to make some very hard decisions. Meanwhile, I will play with precious grandson, enjoy the clean beautiful snow of Michigan, and my beautiful DD, and leave the troubles of New Orleans behind for a while.

Oh my gosh--I'm sitting here reading your post with my heart in my throat. My aunt was in an assisted living facility for the past 2 years (until she died 2 weeks ago). The charge was 'only' $4500/month (EXTREMELY reasonable for that sort of care). Even though it was only assisted living, she was so well cared for. She was incontinent toward the end--and the staff was always on top of keeping her clean. She had a number of medical issues--the staff took excellant care of her medical needs and always kept me informed. She was ALWAYS kept clean, her clothes laundered, even her own furniture was cleaned by the staff when needed. I daily think how lucky we were to find such a good, caring, reasonably priced facility for Aunt to spend her last days. And while I visited frequently, and the staff knew me well, NOT ONCE was I EVER asked to perform personal or other medical care for my aunt--that's the responsibility of those who are trained to do so safely. Your mom cannot speak for herself these days--she's in too much discomfort, feeling too week, and I can understand her wish to not make waves. BUT you and your stepfather are absolutely right to take on this fight for your mom. I know your health system is drastically different from ours, but you may want to start researching what agency regulates the health system--you've had so much trouble getting decent care for your mom over the past months, I really think you do need to consider the possibility of making a formal complaint at some point in the future. I know right now, you're working day-to-day, but someone needs to step up and demand that these facilities are made to account for the lack of appropriate care your mother has received. Will continue to keep your family in my thoughts. Hang in there--this sort of thing does teach us how to be strong--stronger than we ever thought we could be, right? You'll do fine.

Great to hear from you, Vicky. Check back when you're able to. I know about canning season from my younger years. Jams and jellies, pies, applesauce and butter, veggies, fruit, tomato juice, etc. With a big family and dad working 2 jobs, my sisters and I helped mom do a lot of canning. The boys had to snap the green beans, shell the black-eyes and limas and clean the corn. We really didn't appreciate all the fresh food that was available to us until we were older. SharonG/FL