Amanda...it's great to have you back!! So sorry to hear of all of your difficulties, it sounds like a nightmare...but, I'm glad that you survived the ordeal. Best wishes with your hoyas and hoping the future is only good things for you. Bless you, Patrick

Amanda, I am so very sorry for all that you've been through! I am glad to hear that you're home and on the way to recovering. I wish you the best and Godspeed!

I'm sorry you lost some of your hoyas...but I'm sure the rest of your hoyas will be just fine now that your home giving them all the TLC that they need. Plants and people are a great combination. We've missed seeing you here...welcome back and please take care!

Amanda,

I think I agree with my mom that the deadliest place to be in the world is in a hospital. I've seen or heard of enough screwups by doctors and nurses that I vow to never, ever get sick! What I have never gotten is why in a profession that holds people's lives in their hands, they give them 12 hour shifts. If anything, they should have shorter work days than the rest of us, to make sure they're always at the top of their game.

Well, I'm glad you survived your hospital experience and I hope you're well on the way to a full recovery. And you must feel so lucky to have gotten to work with David before he passed. I feel fortunate that I participated in last year's Liddle order and have a few of his plants to enjoy. I haven't heard that there will be one this year...

Here's to good health and getting your Hoya collection built back up!

Denise in Omaha

Amanda it is good to see you back on the forum. With such a stressful time it must be difficult to come home to find sick plants, please do take care. :)

Denise I agree with you about hospitals. If anyone is interested do a search for drug complications and death, you will find that it is usually around the third to fifth leading cause of death. I find it ridiculous that if a person has some sort of reaction to a herbal medicine they try to ban it ASAP while every year thousands of basically well people die because of drug interactions with hardly a mention of it to the public. The fact that health care and drug production is just one big business should be enough to raise suspicion, we all know the rules of business.

Mike

Here is a link that might be useful: The shocking truth

Amanda-

I'm so sorry to hear of your ordeal, but glad to hear you're now doing better!

How many hoyas did you end up losing?

Kelly

Thank you for all the well wishes!

I think I lost 5 or 6 ... of course mostly my faves!

Pachyclada
Australis ssp. Oramicola
Australis cv. Lisa
Carnosa cv. Hollianna
Curtisii

My Linearis is hanging on my a thread and my serpens is also unhappy. What a bummer hey??

Amanda, I am so sorry to hear of your recent health issues and I will keep you in my thoughts! And I am sorry your plants are not doing well either - But I am darn glad you are feeling a little better! Plants can be replaced but I know that those plants had a special place in your heart. Anyways glad to have you back and you take good care of yourself!
Golden

I'm so sorry Amanda. My middle name is Amanda and I too had a large benign tumor removed from the tibia as a child. Long story and 1-1/2 yrs of therapy to learn to walk again. I can certainly understand where you are comming from. I have some cutting of Curtisii you can have.

I am definitely not looking forward to the extended period of therapy to get my neck working again. Not being able to drive is really hard, I'm basically totally dependant on my mom right now. I dont know what I'd do without her help. Thank goodness my little boy is being so amazing, I even get little back rubs from him.

Toby I would LOVE a cutting or 2 of Curtisii! It was definitely one of my faves. Thank you so much for offering!

I have to take stock of the ones I have that are still healthy and once they get bigger I will be able to trade back with you :)

Amanda
When I get back from my trip I can send you a cutting of pachyclada.This hoya is one of my favorites and I know I would be sad if I were to lose it.I wont be back until the 26th.

Cindy

Mike,

That story is exactly what I was talking about. I've read advise like if you're having a limb amputated or eye or ear surgery, mark the correct one with a magic marker AND mark the other one NOT THIS ONE!! Apparently, some doctors can't read (uh, check the chart dumba$$) so you must protect yourselves from the illerate ones who might "accidentally" cut off the wrong limb! (I hope my drippy sarcasm is evident...) And it's not just drug interactions you have to worry about, but being given the wrong medicine altogether. We've been trained to trust medical professionals, but if you're smart, it's wise to always query them when they're handing you medicine to take. My brother (while in the hospital once) was given anti-seizure medicine that was meant for someone else!

And it's not just the hospital - I became allergic to penicillin, and the very doctor who determined that I was allergic then prescribed a dose to me a couple years later, resulting in such bad hives that he had to give me a shot of adreniline.

And the drug ads on TV just make me sick. "Ask your doctor if you should be on this" - I can't imagine that people are running to the doc after seeing a commercial wanting to "try" a drug, but would ads like this be successful if they weren't? I really think they need to ban these ads...

And that's my rant for the day!

Denise in Omaha

Thank you so much Cindy!

What I forgot to mention in my first post was that a couple of weeks after getting home I had to go back to the ER with a massive infection under the skin that was supposed to be healing. My surgeon ended up moving me right into surgery at midnight on a Sunday. So I got to have the whole thing done again, not bone deep but he had to reopen everything to get the infection out... ARG.

The next day he comes into my room and tells me he has to talk to me... He says "I dont want to freak you out but I have to tell you something. The OR has been shut down due to dirty instruments being found on a number of occasions." AWSOME!!! They cancelled 200 elective surgeries over 2 weeks until they cleaned everything again.

Talk about gross!