Hello Rachel: Are you OK? I have not seen much from or about you. You probaly are well but very busy. Is the flu season bad in Alaska also? The lower states and Canada are overwhelmed. Our area being more isolated is so far not too bad. My clinic si full however with very anxious persons particularly the elderly. Regards Karl

Dear Rachel: I am a bit concerned. You were always so acvtive on Chat and provided nice glimpses into your life up in Alaska, yet recently there is mostly quiet around you . Are you only very busy or is there a problem. Hope not and I hope that you are still enjoying the life and the chalenges. If needed I can paddle up the inner channel. It is easy to reach Ketchikan but I dont know how to get from there to Juneau, but if you need it I can find a way. Best regards

@kenright, Karl, you are so kind to ask if I am OK. 2 wks ago today I threw out my back moving my treadmill. Oh my! On a subjective unit of discomfort scale (SUDS) I was an 8. My husband took me to the Sunday medical clinic, and after the doc worked on it, pain injections, Rx, etc. I was a sobbing "10" in a wheel chair. There wasn't a position I could be in that didn't cause spasms ( severely). Thank God, it only took 5 days to calm down to a chronic 2 or3, and I am working through it (Phys Therapy, etc.). Quite scarey actually; I always (naively) assumed that if there was severe enough pain one would pass out. Apparently not, and now I understand why some bad people torture prisoners, etc. On a lighter note: Now we are in an extreme warm spell. They were predicting freezing rain. So grateful they were wrong and the rain went elsewhere, but it is snowing and very warm= 34 degrees. Not good for the Arctic. When snow melts the little creatures under it are exposed (like mice/voles) and then it gets severely cold again as it must (after all, it is the Arctic!) and they freeze and there aren't enough little creatures available for the foxes and other predators to eat/thrive on and the whole food chain crashes for a few years. Such a simple thing as the temp warming up causing such huge outcomes for years. The world is a complicated place! Bye for now. Love to you and Dear Inge. I ;LOVE your island view and the kayaking options! Your family pic is sooo beautiful, also. Full of joy and life!

Thank you Rachel for relieving my concerns. I am glad you have good health care. Our backs are very delicate. We are bipedal only because the errector muscles in the back hold us anchored to our hips. It also means that the back muscles are never relaxed. If a person has even the sligtest sway back the muscles are even more under stress. Now if an insult like moving a heavy treadmill occurs and probably you did it with sraight legs and not bent knees then the muscles will go into spasm. Hopefully you will also be advsed to strengthen your abdominals if they are not as yet strong. If the pain persists and you dont get good advice let me know. I know a bit about chronic pain. Also try to lie on your back on a hard surface and push the small of your back toward the floor with your knees bent and hold the position for a few seconds.. Also practice a position by standing with your feet slightly apart, knees bent, hands planted on the thighs above the knees, thus being slightly bent forward, Now inhale deeply, exhale fully, and then pull your umbilicus toward your diaphragm and hold it for a few seconds. If you can repeat it two to three times and then 5 -6 times during the day. But discuss it with your Physiotherapist. Hope you will be well soon. Please let me know. Thank you for the interesting story about the food chain in the arctic. Very instructive. Best regards xxxx

Karl, thank you for your med. info re: back injuries. My poor back has had quite the go of it over the years. I honestly blame it on playing the harp since I was 8 and being a prof. concert harpist, etc. before I became a clinical social worker. No one taught then about ergonomics for musicians. Harpist sit for hours every day playing, and if only I had realized I needed to listen to my mother and SIT UP STRAIGHT. But in the ignorance of youth, I didn't understand. I slumped for literally 100's if not 1000's of hours in the symphony, jazz band, and orchestra rehearsals. The other part of a harpist's life is that you can't be active in sports ("you will ruin your million dollars fingers!!" I kid you not! I even had to take showers instead of baths because a bath will soften finger tip calluses quicker and I had to preserve those calluses at all costs or I got blood blisters. I couldn't wash dishes (calluses again) so did other chores. No sports since might break a finger, damage one, etc. Life was about being super busy rehearsing, but no physical activities in general. I finally started walking several miles every morning as an adult and that has been my usual exercise. The problem is I can't walk much in the sub-arctic. It is easy to sprain an ankle walking on tundra, or musk-keg (spelling?) etc. Or too cold, too dark (might run into a critter I don't want to run into, etc) Finally got the treadmill. I love it! I have sworn off lifting it shut after use. It has no handles, so I picked it up by the tread part and it began to turn on and moved, rolling right out of my hands. I let go and voila', back out of whack. So enough about me, how are you and Inge?

Thank you Rachel. If your Physiotherapist agrees the exercises I described if done regularly will help you, Inge and I are OK. You will probably understand the matter. I had an ileostomy now for 20 years ago and for me it is a routine by now. Inge has now becuse of the bladder surgery a urostomy and as I am by now an expert, we are helping out each other with the stomas. We really are very well. Our 4 children are spread, but our daughter from Ontario is visiting and the one from Vancouver area is just about ariving for a few days also. So we are happy to see them.Thank you for keepig up the thread. Love and hope your back will improve. Best regards Karl xxxxxx

Karl, tonight is a good aurora. You can google "salmon cam" and it takes you to the Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks aurora camera. It is wonderful. North of town, run by the astrophysicist dept. folks.

Thank you Rachel for link to the SALMON project. Beautiful images. Thanks Xxxxx

@rachel from alaska: The weather forecast is not very positive. Severe winter weather is forecast which will move gradually east. Are you also anticipating severe weather. We are here so far OK. The ocean moderates and we barely hit 0 C. So far we had no snow acummulation this winter. How is your back? All the best wishes Xxxxx

Hi Karl, I just checked the weather report and it says it will drop to 44 below zero Friday and stay at 35 below for a few days. I hope they are wrong! It certainly wrecks havoc on life. I must say that it seems odd for me to complain about the sub-Arctic if I've chosen to live here! Ha! Have you checked out the videos I put in the thread on the Aurora? They're put to music as you watch the Northern Lights dance. Quite beautiful!! I think I will re post them as one link in its own posting at a time; it seems to have all run together in a word scramble that may be hard for folks to decipher. Got to run, got some form of bronchitis and am seeing the doctor. Hugs for you and Inge. (I absolutely LOVE your island view!) You are a blessed man, Karl. Bye

Hello Rachel. If you can afford the time off, you are most cordially invited to come down here while the bad weather will last. You shall miss the Aurora (which BTW is beautiful!) but you could enjoy waking up to the view of the ocean. We could also fix or strengthen your back. We have a two bedroom guest cottage on the property and you are welcome to use it as a baseline. All you need to do is jump on the plane and I either pick you up in Vamcouver or you take the ferry to our place. I could also arrange for a harp recital at our Music School to make it more exciting. I am serious. It could be that you have some premonition that the weather will be bad and you might deserve a small escape. If you wish we can offer it to you..Love Xxxxxx Inge and Karl.

Karl! You are too sweet! Was at doc for more than 3 hours; inhalant treatment, x-rays, and so on. I am so grateful for modern medicine! Now at home, cancelled clients, and rest with inhaler, antibiotics, etc. I would ;LOVE to visit your place! What a wonderful view. I am going to Phoenix to visit my Mom in 5 wks, she is 81. She fell last wk and wasn't wearing her life alert pendant, broke rib in back and collarbone. Oh my... how I wish I was there just to be with her; she is in a wonderful facility with awesome Phys. Therapy 3x's a day. Leaving the Interior is very expensive compared to air-flight deals in the Lower 48 States. I decided to use up our frequent flier miles and go first class. I shall be Queen Rachel for the day. When one leaves here they say, "I am going Outside",i.e., leaving the only normal place in the world and going into citified chaos. It is as if Alaska is it's own country. There is actually a political party that runs on the issue of leaving the 50 States, Alaska Independent Party. I could write for hours and hours about the quirky things one learns about Alaska if they live here long enough. But, all in all, it is a blessed place where God put some special miracles like the aurora. Were you able to read the thread links to the you-tube videos to see those aurora films?

Thank you Rachel. I am up with the threads and have seen all the Aurora pics on YouTube. Do you fly direct to Arizona or interruopt the flight? If you have a stopover in Vancouver I could still pick you up nd bring you to.our palce. Sorry about your URI. You have to be careful with that. Inhalation is helping. Do you have a vaporizer ot inhale over a steaming pot? Do you use Menthol or Eucalyptus in the inhalation? Just watch out for the cold spell which will hit us soon. Be in touch Thank you Xxxxx

Oh Karl, what a cool idea to go via Vancouver. I would need to go to Seattle-to Vancouver-to Seattle-to Phoenix. A bit tricky but may work. My hubbie thinks I should look into this the next time I see Mom. I used to go 2x a yr, but it has been a full year this time. So GLAD you could see those you-tube videos! I love the one on Olnes Pond with the lush music. My neighbor has a waterless cabin with 8 kids and they go swimming and take baths in Olnes Pond. It is only 15 miles from us north of Fairbanks.

Di, no offense to you at all, but I enjoyed reading about Rachel and Karl's adventures. Obviously, others did too because there are a lot of people that viewed them. And I agree with Rachel, American's do love an Aussie accent. Don't even try to lose it!

Karl, I have pertussis (whooping cough)! I did not know adults could get it. Definitely using a humidifier (always use them in winter), also use menthol/etc., amazing how draining a URI can be. Did you know Alaska's Interior is a desert? We get less moisture year round than Arizona. But, we live around permafrost (permanently frozen ground) which, if the climate warms, would make the Interior into a wetland. So, no one is allowed to do much on "protected habitat" such as a wetland-- even tho' it is FROZEN and technically a desert! I recalled your story about the warm cabins with children who had ear infections due to hyper-dry air. I wish more folks understood that. It is late, better go. Hope it is not as cold as they were telling us earlier this week! ;^)

Hello Rachel: It is scary that the epidemic reached so far north. There is a pertussis and para pertussis epidemic. I had it last year twice. It is strange that after immunization infections of this nature can re occur.; The only explanation might be that because of the over use of antibotics new resistent strains are emerging. Doomsayers warn us that we are coming to a time when there will be frigtening infections and NO antibiotics to control them. You might have also noticed that since there are less bacterial diseases more virus caused surfaced. Many blame the use of antibiotics and pesticides in food production as a cause. Back to pertussis. The cough can be spasmodic and severe and end only when a person nearly vomits. The cough is accompanied with the typical WHOOP. and then it starts all over again. There are few anti tussives which ease the cough. Codeine can help but it constipates. At times I found an other narcotioc TUSSIONEX to be helpful but it has to be carefully monitored and not taken too much or too often. Unfortunately it is not a short lasting illness and the cough can persist for weeks but it will be less severe. I also found the inhalations helpful. Rachel I feel for you .It is tough and just keep up. If there is anything I can help let me now immediately. Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Love Karl Xxxxxx

Rachel, please do not leave this site! I will talk with you more later!

Karl, oh my, I think after reading your info on pertussis I should Google it and get up to date on what I am dealing with. I have had very intense cough spells that honestly felt like I was coughing up a lung. It has now slowed down to just a few a day, but even the act of such a severe cough has given me sort of a minor whip lash. The inhaler, antibiotics, increased house humidity, and the steroids seem to be working. I am drained; and have a ways to go. I totally agree with your thoughts about the casual abuse of antibiotics and the rise of super viruses. My Mom contacted C difficile A and B at the hospital after an emergency appendectomy, and it just about killed her. She had to take $1,000s of dollars of probiotics for months to get over it. We avoid all meats with antibiotics, milk products with hormones except organic milk/goat milk, etc. Fresh wild salmon, halibut, and moose, etc. I am juicing, esp. lots of carrot/ginger/parsley/beets to help my immune system. The cold front coming up is not too big a deal right now since I will just stay inside and cancel clients. Karl, did you see the movie that came out last December/January 2012 called CONTAGION? It was quite a good enactment of how a super bug could spread throughout the world and how the US Center for Disease Control tried to stop the spread in the US. The biggest gap in the story line was that falsity that the lead characters mysteriously had food and running water although the rest of the city was rioted/pillaged, stores looted, etc. Well, I am off to look up pertussis and see what else I can do.. Stay warm in Vancouver, too! XXOO Oh, Karl!! I just read about pertussis. The Chinese call it the 100 Day Cough! It can last up to 12 wks! Well, I guess on the bright side of things... I might get REALLY GOOD at Solitaire and Mahjong! sigh... grin....

I am glad you get your info. Not everything on Google is pertinent or reliable but reputable sources like Mayo Clinic are a good resource. Please let me know if you need any other info or clarification. If the cough lessend, you are on the road to recovery and you might not have had the worst pertussis. You probably know already that steroids if you take then longer need to be built down gradually. Just be of good cheer and please keep in contact. Love and get well soon. I worry about you. BTW. I also make home visits to shut ins and old folks, at times alone and some times when nurses invite me Karl