E Rene

[OnwardMike at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/31/99 6:54:33 PM Pacific Standard Time, rrodrigu at rush.edu
writes, in part:

<< I'd like to set the record straight Re: The web site for
 HP's and HD's.  I have seen it, and belive me, the effort that goes into
 creating something useful from nothing, IS MAJOR.  Is not only the technical
 aspects of setting the HTML code up in the pages. Any high school kid with
 access to front page or any recent web-page designing program can do it.
 But the issue is, what of value, do you put in the pages?  That, is the
 though job. >>

Rene, I understand that.  Which is why I suggested that she might wish to seek
help, if she hasn't already done so, from members of this list who have
already been there, done that.  Among the people who come to mind are: Russ A.
and Regina M., who have operated a very successful and professionally done SCI
web site for a couple of years now; Bill Baughn, who not only has great
technical expertise in a variety of listserv and webpage matters (and without
whom this list wouldn;t exist today) but much experience also dealing with the
non-technical problems that arise along the way; the Doyles, who publish a
newsletter; James Stewart, ditto; and others with whom I'm less familiar.

<<
 I think is rather generous to put so much thought and personal
 time into it.  Christina is putting her brain, heart and soul into it, not
 to mention 37 years experience as an amputee and 23 as an anesthesiologist.
>>

Again, I agree, as I'm sure everyone else will when it's up and running.  All
those who put significant time --without compensation -- into all of the very
helpful stuff on the Internet deserve our thanks.  This includes Wayne, the
moderator of this list, among many others.

 <<
(Here I agree with you, anesthesiologists have easier acces to some
 controlled substances. Some abuse them. But, if one of these Drs. is into
 it, he/she would not last 23 year in practice. So please lay back a bit,
 will you?). >>

I was careful not to imply in any way that I or anyone else grouped her with
the abusers... or even users.  When I had a procedure awhile back that
acquired general anesthesia, I got into a discussion on this subject with the
anesthesiologist as we were waiting for the other doctor to arrive.  In
addition to the obvious explanation of easy availability, he added "boredom."
He explained that there were long periods of "downtime" for the
anesthesiologist during the procedure and some practitioners found that hard
to deal with and even changed specialties early in their careers when they
decided it wasn't what they thought it was in medical school.  It always
seemed to me to be interesting and important work, so I was surprised  when he
made that point.

As for laying back a bit, I thought that's what I had been doing,
notwithstanding one apparently ill-chosen initiating quip.  My buttons are
somewhat harder to press, but references to club memberships and the
worthwhileness of my activities the night before came close.

 <<
 Continuing with the previous thought, it takes maturity to be
 able to share your experiences, to be a friend, an experieced doctor, an
 experienced amputee, to gather the information from other HP-HD's (which as
 we all know are not many).  To get technical information from experienced
 prosthetists (by experienced I mean guys who may have fitted more than a
 handful of HP/HD's, perhaps during their whole career). There are not many
 of such practicioners out there, with real first hand experience.  The site
 also has practical tips for the new and the somewhat experiences HP/HD.
 Technical tips. Anyway, I am sure that when it is up, any amputee, even
 those of us who are not HP/HD's will realize the major effort that went into
 it, and will find at least a tip or two that are useful to us AK's or even
 BK's.
  >>

Once again, I agree.  And I'm sure when it's up and running, all of that work
will show and it will be done thoroughly and well -- judging from Christina's
past posts to this list.

Michael B.