Hello Rachel: The cold spell broke here and we are back to normal again. How are you getting along?. Are you getting over it or do I have to get ready yo make a house call? Best regards and get well soon :}

Karl, it is -48 in town still; should warm up to -30 or higher tomorrow and they promise up to 10 above within days. They are never correct since arctic weather is notoriously unstable, but 10 above it a lovely positive goal!. I see my reg. doc tomorrow and am sure to get an OK to see clients; just take it slow. The severe cough is all but gone. Meds end tomorrow except for inhaler. .Glad it is warmer your direction! Just put some ice skates on your kayaks and have an outing! Ha!

Shall do it Rachel. Also remind me to always take a compass. A few weeks ago I went out alone (Inge did not feel as yet like going out, yet usually none of us goes out alone on the ocean). It was a beautiful and calm day so I went just for a short spin. Suddenly it became really foggy. I had hard time findig home, but luckily I made it. Thank you for writing. It sounds that you are on the mend. Just take it easy and slowly. When I recovered from the Pertussis I was weak for quite a while. Regards and be well.

thank you Di, I wish you and Graeme (spelling?) the very best as you become New Yorkers. Just do not lose your wonderful Aussie accent! Americans LOVE it! I have left this site now. Too painful to continue. Bless your heart, bye.

Dear Rachel, Please let your husband read this if he can not only speak but read Magyar. Udvozlom a Magyar Alaszkai baratot. Ha akar es tudd Magyarul olvasni irhatok Onnek Magyarul. If it is difficult to read as the proper accents are missing. I write that I greet a Hungarian friend in Alaska and inviting him, if he can read Hungarian that I can correspond with him. lol

Karl, you are AMAZING! Seriously! I love all the languages you speak. Poor Richard does not know any Hungarian. His father was Charle and his grandfather Charle, too. Then, when my father-in-law died we got the death certificate and were stunned to learn his name was NOT Charle. Lazlo! Also grandfather Charle was Lazlo! My goodness, the family was shocked. It turned out that when they came to Ellis Island near New York to immigrate to the US the officials said,"Lazlo!? You look more like a Charle! And so it was... they both became Charle! Charle used to tell me what it was like to go back to Hungary as an American adult (growing up in US from his youth). He said no matter how well he spoke Hungarian, the locals could pick him out immediately as an American. They said he walked strong and tall with self respect and independence, as if he was not a peasant in the eyes of his government. Gosh. I loved his stories; he died in 1998 at 88. I am still sick (whooping cough) but much better. I will go to Phx. to visit Mom in 2 wks. I can hardly wait! Hope all is well with you two. Love the pic of the kayaks by the water in your avatar!

Dear Rachel I have 2 stories to tell you. One, to day, will be about your husband's family and the next one about your musher who nearly killed himself, sometime to be told later. Now about the switch from Lazlo to Charle. There is a Jewish family somewhere in Eastern Canada by the name MACDONALD. Allegedly they originate from a Jewish immigrant from the Ukraine who left home following the Kozak Pogroms in the 80's. He maanged to get on a boat for Canada but did not speak any English. Somebody in steerage advised him to just repeat "same" if he wants something somebody somebody is getting, like food. When they arrived at custom in Canada, he was following a large family named Macdonald with many children and cousins. After all passed he came before the immigration officer, he just said just said the word which always helped him so far: "Same" . So he got his landing document naming him SAM MACDONALD.- NB. Although I could never verify it, I was told that this is a true story. Love to you and the semi Hungarian bear eater, whom I would be happy to teach to speak Magyar so that he would be indistinguishable from the natives. . Karl. In truth I am callled Karcsi. Pronounced Kar-tschi.

Karl, Richard had a good laugh at your immigration story of the MacDonald's! I did read this yesterday but didn't know what else to say in response as I just wanted to go back to bed. Now doc (4th one in a row) says I don't have pertussis; he thinks I have asthma. Sure... that's why I had to go on all those meds weeks ago with that horrid cough and infected lungs. Medicine is an art and a science... but it is seemingly more a guessing game than even an art at the moment. The weather is lovely now since we have many hours more sunlight. By March 21st is will be Spring Equinox and 12 hours of sunshine and climbing rapidly to 24. I have had 3 amaryllis bulbs blooming, and they were kind enough to each bloom 1 at a time; first was crimson, next a glorious white with 4 huge blooms, now my pink one has just started it's small beginnings. I love flowers in the winter! Such a joy to the soul. My neighbor told me that when the musher was rushing up on us she saw him first and was going to warn me so I wouldn't be startled too much, but decided not to say anything so I wouldn't try to move my car and maybe hit him or his dogs. She figured he had come upon tree stumps and rocks while mushing and aught to be able to maneuver around a car. He could have broken his neck. I hope I never have such an event ever again. Well, time to fade into night. Tell me about your image of the kayaks. It is wonderful!

Dear Rachel: Thank you for writing back. There is some art in medicine but it is mostly deep and detailed knowledge of anatomy, physiology and pathology. A physician who is versed in these three will be able to have more educated guesses. The next step is to put the hypothesis to a test by starting a remedial approach and MONITIORING closely the effects, side efftects and undesirable effects. Whooping cough was a good guess as there is an epidemic but as I said I was not sure it reached already up to Alaska . As far as asthma ges. An attack particularly if it lasts that long must have a few characteristics. There shoulod be a known sensitvity to something (often it is cigarette smoke, but also other house hold triggers like dust mites, certain dust, animal dander etc). Particularly the house bound triggers are more common in winter as we spend more time indoors. There must be also an infection component. This often shows by elevated white blood cells and particularly eosinophils. Often there is also a psychological and emotional component. Stress adds to the allergic and infective components. You had a course of steroids and that should have stopped the asthma attack. Do bronchodilators help a lot? Is the air in your house humid enough? I wish I would be there as I am a good diagnostician. You will be down in Arizona. It might improve there and or you might have the opprtunity to be checked out. Are you passing throgh Vancouver? To day is a bit late but soon I shall write you the other story about my experiences up north. Have a happy Valentine's. ll be thinking about you. Best regards to my distant Semi-Hungarian buddy. BTW. The avatar is Inge lowering the kayak from the hoist into the water. Because of the tide we built the boat shed above the high tide level and have a hoist to move the kayaks to the water. As you see it, my yellow kayak is already down and Inge is lowering hers. Then we just wait until the tide rises more and paddle out. LOL Karl

Karl, I read some of your posts to my Mom today while we had a Happy Valentines Day chat. She got a kick out of your life, as well as my dog musher story (that I had not told her yet since she worries so much). Hope all is good with you both. ; ^ )

You still did not tell me if you go via Vancouver? Now to my next story related to your musher: My interest in Traumatic Brain Injuries, which then remained a life long interest culminating in developing the Ponoka Brain Injury Center in Alberta, was triggered by my experiences up North. As I told you before, every year starting in March until October I was making my circuit about every 3 weeks and in Winter every 6 weeks. Usually the Nursing station in each community had a schedule prepared for me. It was usually a combination of clinical asessments or treatments, consultations, public appearences, meetings with "dignitaries", some teaching for Nurses or other health professionals and school visits. From the start on, I noticed that not alwyas did the person scheduled for a specific time arrived for the meeting, but they might arrive at a time when they were not scedued. At times a person not scheduled would arrive claiming to have an appointment. Also many had an unusual presentation which I did not encounter before. They were not depressed, not delusional nor psychotic, but were vague, disorganized, forgetfull and very labile. I did not understand how to diagnose and how to treat them. They were definitely dysfunctional in a, for me, novel manner. I remained puzzled but in time, taking detailed histories about their habits, activities, onset of problems, potential triggers, alcohol use etc, I discovered that all these persons did drive dogsleds or skidoos and far too fast. At times under the influence of alcohol. All hit some obstacle or fell of the vehicles for some reason and hurt their heads. Some were only dazed after the accident but some were unconscious for some time. So I started to test their cognitive capacities and so I found out that all suffered from impairments of closed brain injures. (We know that many get killed in such accidents but these were survivers). At that time I knew litle about how to diagnose or treat but in time l learned and in the end I had accumulated some expertise. In 1981 I was appointed to St. John's Newfoundland where I learned more by studying car accidents and as became known I was invited to Alberta to build there the Centre. I was impressed by your story but I heard dozens of similar kind. Many mushers and definitely the skidooers, and particuarly if they also drink, and most do, drive too fast. The dogs might avoid the obstacles but on skidoo the driver is exposed if the macine stops suddenly due to an obstacle or too rapid turn. The sleds were a definite hazard as it swings after the dogs and some mushers fell off and hit tneir heads. Your musher was lucky that he landed in a snow bank. But at times even snow banks were frozen and it was easy to get hurt. Your musher probably drove that route many times and knew the area and he did not count a car being in his way and as he was driving too fast, the dogs avoided it but as the sled was swinging he fell off. I heard this type of events countless times from the type of clients I described above. Regards Karl

Karl, no, I don't go through Vancouver. It is quite expensive to change a ticket after the fact. I really loved BC when I went to a training in Whistler in 1998!! I have some stuff to say about head trauma but will have to wait till Sat. Busy today. Have run into head trauma a lo with domestic violence. Also with sports injuries like you spoke of. No doubt in my mind that mushers get head trauma. Got to go for now. Talk more Sat. bye to you kayakers 800 miles south of the arctic. ;^)

This is funny. In 1998 we were still livng in Whistler on Panorama Drive. We skied both Mountains. Our children always congregated in Whistler for a ski holiday. I practiced a bit locally but at that time I was still Director of the Riverview Hospital in Vancouver and used to drive there from Whistler on Mondays and return on Fridays. It was lovely to live in Whistler but by 2001 it became too crowded and a bit neglected so we moved to where we are now. We did not kayak until 2001 as we were mostly skiers and walkers. We hiked all the mountains from Pemberton to Squamish. Being now on the ocean it is natural to kayak. I am interested in your expriences with traumatic brain injuries. My treatment is cognitive retraining, use of memory joggers ,like Daytimers and some mood stabilizers. I also teach them certain routines like we train actors to portray a certain role. I write scripts for them on how to talk, how to do certain routines, how to behave in certain situations etc. and then practice it with them until they can do it predictably like actors do on stage. Did you notice also that most head injured develop a type of fibromyalgia in time? Sorry not to meet you in Vancouver but I understand the reason. There will hopefully be an other occasion. If you were in the Canadian North it would be easier, but Alaska is US and it is not easy to develop educational or clinical linkages like we have with Yukon. In October last year I was up in Whitehorse sponsored by the University. Best regards and I shall wait for your experiences.

Oh my, Karl, you lived in such a beautiful place!! Sorry I have not gotten back to you by Sat. Today is Monday and I am up to my eyeballs in clients and disability reports, etc. before I leave to see Mom Sat. at 6AM. I do not know how much time I will have to even log on before I leave. Have you followed the amazing work of Dr. Daniel Amen? I have big posters of his work with head trauma, i.e., Spect Imaging of a brain with out a helmet from sports injury, car crashes, motorcycle crash, and so on. Also brains after 10 yrs. of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, alcohol, meth, etc. He just added a new poster of brains after years of high caffeine use. So terrible to see all the dark spots where there in no electrical/blood flow activity. I use these with clients often. Very few get it. "That just can not be me." Have you seen his work...Dr. Amen? I think he is located in Washington near Seattle? Gotta go for now, I will be on SC site very little this wk and while I am with Mom, am in quite a rush and under a huge lode of paperwork and appts. Having pertussis really messed things up re: getting ready. Sigh.... Hope all is well with you two. It is 20 below here. Always an amazing thing to get off a plane in Arizona and be blazing hot! bye

Denise, I can not understand why everyone has gone postal about Karl? I am stunned. How is this happening? I read the horrid postings by the others and I just do not get it. He is a brilliant survivor with an amazing life journey. My husband gets a real kick out of his comments (i.e., "tell that Hungarian Alaskan bear eater Hello" ha, ha!! Denise, how do I get your email with out it being out there for others to see? Can you post it at a certain time like 10AM Alaska time and I will get it and then you delete it immediately? That is why I talk to you guys on the forum, I do not know how to post my email and not have it fall into the wrong hands and just get blitzed with nutty emails. I am leaving Sat morning early and will not have computer access, so you would need to let me know before I leave, or wait till I get back March 8th. Unbelievable! I recall when Robb took all of us down the primrose path with his lies, but this is NOTHING like that. I understand that people can offend others when they meant well, and the more they try to fix it the more the offended party gets offended. That is why I have a job (dumb counseling joke). But seriously, banning Karl? Hey!! Please tell him to contact me through Mahjong Craving's Forum. I know he plays occasionally, unless the Hitler types try to ban him there, too. Oh my... how can life get this complicated? Denise, thank you sooo much for posting your last comments. I am really dumbstruck. Here is a hug; I have been praying for your job stress. bye, Rachel

Rachel, In case they do not let Karl back on SC, he wanted me to tell you that he read your last post and hope you have a great time visiting your Mom. He also said he will miss chatting with you and the rest of his SC friends and to take care of yourself! I have to go now as I can not type for crying. Why do people act like this? He is just a kind, old man with a lot of knowledge to share and big, kind heart.

Rachel, I will tell him to contact you on the other site. I can give you his email address when I email you tomorrow since you were able to find me today I am glad you emailed me today - it really helped to hear from you. I have been in total shock too!

It's better to email each other, that's what the rest of us do when we want to talk about other things.