Last weekend, 60 Minutes had a story about the high cost of dying in a hospital. One doctor said that 30% of procedures and tests performed during a patient’s last couple of months were unnecessary. They are paid for with little question by MediCare and the doctors ordering them are mostly doing so just to cover themselves in case of lawsuit. The story included a couple of patients who were shown in the hospital: One man in his sixties was extremely ill and he wanted a liver and kidney transplant. Another woman was in a coma, hooked up to a lot of machines that were keeping her alive indefinitely. At the end of the piece, the narrator said that both of these patients had died.
The story touched a nerve with me because of the experience I had a couple years ago with my mother’s death. My mother was 92 and had experienced four or five heart attacks, beginning in her 80s. In spring of 2006, she had another heart attack, went to the hospital, then spent a many weeks in a rehab, which sent her into a deep depression. Her independent living facility refused to take her back, insisting she go to assisted living. She was extremely upset about this but we moved her. Within a week of moving into the assisted living apartment, she then had another series of problems, went back to the hospital and then for another long stretch in rehab. We then had to move her again into a nursing home. Again, within a couple weeks, she was back in the hospital — most of her systems failing. We met with hospice people and decided to move her to hospice and switch to palliative care. That meant she’d no longer take the 20 or 30 pills a day she’d been taking and she wouldn’t be on any machines.
That weekend, she went into a coma and we were told by people at the hospital to prepare ourselves for her death. Then the doctor gave her some anti-biotics and she woke up. When I went in to see her, the doctor was there, very proud of himself that he had gotten her to wake up. Meanwhile, my mother was in a living nightmare. The only things she said to me was, “How do I get out of this nightmare?” She was convinced that the nurses were trying to poison her and she refused to eat. To my amazement, the doctor then ordered a CAT scan for her, which meant they’d be dragging her down to the lab and so on. I almost choked. I questioned the need for this CAT scan (thinking, gee, do you think it’ll show that her heart is bad????). He did not respond well to being questioned and my mother was hauled downstairs for a CAT scan, which costs thousands of dollars.
Later, I had a phone conversation with this doctor and I told him we wanted to move my mother to hospice anyway. I don’t remember his exact words, but he implied that I didn’t care about my mother and just wanted her to die. We waited one more day — during which my mother was increasingly afraid and incoherent — and then we finally unplugged her from the machines, threw away the drugs and moved her to hospice.
I can hardly describe the relief I felt at the hospice. They dressed her in regular clothes instead of a hospital gown. The nurses there were completely different — I remember watching them get her settled in the bed and crying at the gentle way they handled her. Instead of Patient X, she was a human being again. Two days later, she died quietly in her sleep.
My mother was no longer cognizant by the time she got to hospice, but for the rest of us, getting her out of that hospital room and letting her die like a person (sans machines) was an enormous relief. I still deeply resent that doctor and the things he implied when I questioned his efforts to keep testing and keep drugging and keep her alive — without any regard to the quality of those extra hours he gained for her.
The moral of my story has to do with a certain mentality we suffer from in in our culture — that when your time has come, we must — to quote Dylan Thomas — “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
With all due respect to Mr. Thomas, an admittedly a brilliant poet, we have institutionalized this sentiment. We have the technology now to keep people alive indefinitely, to wake up the dead, to prolong the agony of the death process. Aside from the enormous cost of this, which is the real villain bankrupting our country, what is the point of buying a few more hours or days, or mindless months? When I contemplate my own death, I do not want to die in a hospital, costing hundreds of thousands, and listening to the tick and whir of machines. If at all possible, I intend to slink out into the woods somewhere with a .38 and take care of it myself.
Hi Escribacat,
I saw this on 60 minutes also. Heavy topic, but so important that
people talk about it in a thoughtful and caring manner, as you have done so here.
I have gone through four parents passing on, mine and my husbands.
My Parents wanted hospice and had planned it out years ahead of time.
So there was no ‘guess work’ by any one in the family.
They had it there in black and white, what a relief for everyone.
Their experience was peaceful, unpainful, respectful, comfortable and dignified.
My Husbands Parents left the decisions up to him.
His Mom had diabetes and a heart condition.
His Dad, Parkinson’s.
After seeing what they had to go thru,
I can not imagine anyone not having that, end of life care,
discussion with their doctor.
You could call what they are doing, medical torture,
but once you start down that road how do you stop?
If it is a son or daughter making the choices, imagine the guilt,
the conflict and the burden.
How far do you go?
Are they in pain?
They can’t tell you anything.
They can not give you any guidance even thought they have done that your whole life.
Now their voice is silent.
A machine makes them take in air.
I wonder if you could take a vote and asked-
When you go…..
Would you like to pass away with dignity, peace, no pain and surrounded by your loved ones?
or
Would you like to be hooked up to machines?
Tubes for feeding and liquids?
have a catheter inserted here and there?
Restrained in your bed?
Lying in waste?
Unable to communicate?
In pain?
Confused?
Afraid?
Bed Sores?
Strangers around?
I wonder how many would choose the later?
I read this earlier today and knew I needed a little time to respond.
You are very brave to put this together.
Thank You….
Thanks, Patsy. It was a relief to get it out. It has been three years now and that 60 Minutes program kind of brought it all bubbling up again.
Why is health care a political question? Why is dieing with dignity such a difficult question? Why is compassion for one’s fellow man perplexing? Perhaps I know so little of purpose of life, to be so damned sure of the “after.”
When it comes to euthanasia that is one of the arguments the RWs always use – death with dignity.
I’ve never understood how making a person suffer needlessly through their final days as dignified.
And when did health care become political?
I remember the good old days when a person would get sick and see their doctor and lots of times, the doctors handed out the pills from his office and a pharmacy wasn’t even needed, unless the medication was something special.
You’d pay the person at the desk and that was that.
When did it all get so expensive and complicated?
And who made it political?
Was it Reagan?
I did not realize the dastardly right was trying to co-opt that phrase but I’m not a bit surprised. I always understood the “death with dignity” movement to be associated with causes like hospice and assisted suicide.
I support the efforts groups like death with dignity.
http://www.deathwithdignity.org/
Thank you for sharing your story escribacat, it made me sad, then made me mad as I recall my own mother’s story of too little too late. Although now more than 2 decades ago, I recall the suffering she endured for the final 6 months of her life and still feel something akin to rage when I think of her doctor being too complacent to order the necessary tests which could have saved her life.
Morning Kalima, looks pretty cloudy today. Suffering on one’s own with one’s decision and suffering due to someone else making the decisions is certainly a vast difference. Is respect so difficult?
Good afternoon evening bitohistory, hope things are well with you.
We are like two ships passing in the night, I left you a link on “Morning Blog” before I turned in last night, setting your webcam to my correct location. It’s been pouring here since last night, I love the rain.
Respect seems to be a difficult emotion to obtain these days and I would never beg or demand it as someone suggested here the other day.
Kalima, I had that same thought this morning. I get up, stumble around, and when I turn on the laptop you are saying “Goodnight”. I do like the webcam. Adds a little personal touch on your corner. You and the hubby wave when you go to that store. 😆
I stumble around all day, it’s my speciality.:)
Don’t get out of the house much on my own anymore, need a chaperone these days not as bad as you might think, all young kids in their 20’s who work for us. A bit of eye candy for this old broad. 🙂
Now, now, easy girl 🙂 I get all tingly when the nurse rubs my arm for a blood test.
😆 You naughty boy!
Hey Kalima. 😉
That’s the damn truth some doctors don’t order the tests or procedures that can save a life and then when a patient is ready to go they order unnecessary tests. The worse factor in the US is that doctors make their decisions based on the level of insurance the patient has.
I call that murder KQ.
Kalima, the situation with your mom sounds worse, frustrating in an entirely different way. I have learned from all my encounters with doctors (including my own back problems) that I have to be a pro-active patient. Learn about the issue, ask questions, push, prod, insist, even throw fits. I have done all these things with doctors. I know they don’t care as much as I do.
I don’t know about worse escribacat but she was only 49 and each time she visted her doctor it was the same song, “Mrs.?, you are starting your menopause.”
My mother was a SRN for many years, she knew something was wrong, by the time she collapsed and they had drained 11 liters of water from her stomach wall, decided to operate, it was far too late. The last 6 months of her life were hell.
I confronted her doctor a week after her funeral and gave him hell. My father said he closed his practice after 6 months, probably afraid that I was going to sue him. If I had still been living in England at the time I would have, but my grief stricken father just said, “It won’t bring her back, let it go.”
Escribacat what a touching and poignant life experience that you shared with us. Modern medicine does not take into account quality of life issues nearly enough. Just being alive is not enough. I think more doctors are realizing this but the culture has not changed. At a certain point the patient should be able to refuse all procedures and if the patient is incapacitated the family should speak for the patient. I know living wills does this to some extent but doctors still do what they want in many instances. Doctors must realize this is not an intellectual decision this is a decision of the heart.
Kqark, from taking care of my mother, the family has to be the advocate for the patient, because at times the treatment that they are going through is pretty tough on them, like chemo, and they are not able to voice their wishes.
This happen to work for my family in particular, we presented a strong, informed and united front. But after hearing this story, we were lucky in way, we had wonderful caring doctors.
Unfortunately now a days, this may not be the norm….
Thanks for sharing your very personal story. I saw the 60 minutes program also. A year ago, my very independent 90 year old mother passed away, after a year in the nursing home. We had talked about her living will and she signed one while she was still able to. She did not want to be hooked up to machines, and luckily she didn’t have to go through that. Her quality of life was extremely poor for the last 5 to 6 months. She couldn’t stand or even sit up and talking became difficult. She was ready to go.
Yes, it was very difficult, but she had made it clear, several years ago, that when her time came, we should just let her go. She was ready. I understand when people want everything done because we don’t want to let go of them. But that is just selfishness on our part.
I’m not yet 60… and (I think) in good health, so I don’t see any terminal illness around the corner. But, hey, there could be the proverbial bus around that corner, so we never know! But already, I’m thinking about what I need to do to prepare for my own demise. Mostly, I need to clean the house and get rid of all the junk I’ve collected. Other than that, I’m not too worried about the afterlife, whatever that is.
Yes, we spend too much money trying to forestall the inevitable, rather than accepting that it absolutely will happen. I wrote something to that effect on that other site and it got deleted. Hmm.
You bring up such an important point with your mother. She sounded like a wonderful woman.
I’ve had relatives “ready to go” and relatives that fought death to the bitter end. The relatives that accepted mortality always left this world more peacefully. While the two uncles I can remember the most fought their ultimate demise left the world seemingly incomplete. That taught me to make sure you have few regrets in life and accept your fate when it comes. Ironically I’ve faced that fate twice and I think because I was fine with whether I lived or died it actually helped my recovery because I had no fear.
KQ, Something about hearing “You have Stage IV…… here is what we can do…..” Certainly made me jell my thoughts. This being after losing both my parents to cancer. Fear, or lack of, has a large effect on ones’s attitudes.
Suzanne, the truth always seems to get deleted over there!
Talk about cleaning house, I was the executor for both my parents and grandmother, and had to clean out both their houses to get them ready for sale. You would not believe the years of accumulation of stuff that they had. It took close to 6 mos. to go through each house and many dumpsters later, before the houses were ready to go.
Since then, I have learned that a lot of the “stuff” that we accumulate is not really necessary, you can’t take it with you, as the saying goes.
I have had at least 4 tag sales over the past 5 yrs, given things to goodwill and have stopped buying “stuff” and live a much simplier life….hopefully when my time comes it will be easier for my nieces and nephews to clean up and they won’t have to go through what I did.
BDM, made me chuckle. When I was exec.for my friend, she would laugh about getting rid of many of her belongings. “Why should I worry about that, I won’t have to worry about it when I’m gone. some one in the family can take care of that.” (she did end up getting most everything marked and a list written down). She had fun with that attitude though.
I have a list for my jewelry, my neices have already put their dibs in and I’m only 51, very healthy and very active, can you believe that!
Well, who cares…it’s only for me to enjoy while I’m still on this earth…
Good evening BDM, hope you are well?
I find that rather unbelievable about your relatives, but the I remember when my grandmother died suddenly and my grandfather was too numbed by grief to notice his surroundings. A bunch of relatives stormed their house like vultures, by the time I got there from England, I found my grandfather in another room sitting in her rocker and the demolition gang showing their true colours fighting over silverware, cystal wedding presents, anything and everything, I couldn’t find my voice, I was in total shock. When one of them started to take down the curtains to pack, I let out the loudest scream I had ever heard, retrieved what I could from their greedy hands and threw them out. Thank goodness that my grandfather seemed oblivious to their behaviour.
They had just celebrated their Golden wedding anniversary a few months before she suddenly collapsed and died.
I have not told my family members anything yet about how my things will be divided, I want it to be a surprise.
Suzanne, your mother’s condition sounds very similar. It is an experience that certainly makes you think about your own mortality. It is around that time that I decided I wasn’t going to go like that.
Hey there Escribacat: what a touchingly beautiful, hauntingly sad story! Right now, we are going through end of life issues with my father in law. He is in his mid-80s, had several heart attacks, went to get a quadruple bypass in August 2008, and AFTER surgery, suffered a major stroke. He can’t walk, has difficulty talking, and needs help round the clock. He got depressed, threatened suicide while in a nursing home, so his two local children moved him back home. He is now holding the entire family hostage, and their anger, frustration and depression is building like a volcano.
He tells his children that they HAVE to take care of him (never mind my sister in law has a job, a husband and two teen sons she seldom sees anymore), that it is their job because he “took care of them”. This from a man who didn’t change diapers, and when his own father fell ill, didn’t take him into his home or wipe his ass for him. (Sorry, I am angry with him as I see what has happened to the rest of the family. One brother in law is on the verge of a breakdown, my mother in law is now in a hospital and has had her hair fall out and her psoriasis worsen to the point of untreatable). Yet no one challenges him. I have backed away – it’s not MY father, after all – but inside I am seething. My husband has formed very good boundaries, but still we spend hours each night, him talking to his siblings, me talking to him afterwards to get the shorthand version.
My father in law actually said the reason he had children was so that they would take care of him! Never having had my own children – just my exchange student/refugee “children” – the concept is as foreign to me as having parents so they can pay for your tuition to college!
aaarrggghhhh! Sorry for the venting. You touched a nerve.
But now back to you: there is a great book, written by my doctor. He’s been on NPR a lot – his name is Jerald Winakur. He wrote the book “Memory Lessons” about his own father’s descent into Alzheimers, and his efforts to care and comfort his dad. His story is wonderful and made my husband cry in public when we went to the reading. Check it out, if you can.
And thanks. I love how open everyone is here to sharing. As I tell the students who have witnessed such atrocities in Afghanistan, “sometimes if you share your story, each person can take a little bit of that burden from you, and help carry it for you”. I feel better already.
I am so sorry to read about the problems with your father-in-law.
I cannot imagine the helplessness, pain, guilt, frustration and anger.
Is there no one that can consult with your father-in-law’s caregivers?
I am not familiar with hospice caregivers, but from listening to others who have dealt with them and reading the stories on this thread from PPOV members, it is my understanding that hospice nurses are compassionate, caring people and maybe someone could talk to one of them for guidance.
(We are also going through something similar, but not nearly as bad with my mother-in-law. But it’s on another side of the spectrum whereby she refuses medical care for a problem and is in denial. It’s very frustrating and depressing for the family.)
Hi Javaz! Thanks for the suggestions. We are working to get him some psych help. I KNOW he is frustrated and feels like he is out of control; the problem (and remember – I’m the daughter in law) is that this seems to have only been exacerbated by his situation. In other words, he had the same tendencies before the stroke; but it’s magnified by his situation.
As to your mother in law: it’s hard. I lost my parents when I was 30 and 37 (way too young to be an orphan). Both died from lung cancer. I tried to talk them into quitting smoking. What I learned is that you have a duty to speak up, but you can’t make grown-ups (especially parents) do as you ask.
I’ll keep you guys in my thoughts. Keep your spouse supported. That’s the best we can do in these in-law situations! I’m so glad I have this forum which allowed me to vent here – I want to just listen at home, and not vent.
I lost my parents when younger, too, and when they were far too young, and I do have 3 older brothers, but we’re all so removed from each other and not exactly what a person would call family.
We do the obligatory exchanging of Christmas cards, and I am close to one brother, but he lives back east so we communicate mainly via email.
PPOV reminds me of a family with all the quirky and not so quirky relatives (myself included in the quirkydom!) with AdLib being the parent!
Poor AdLib!
We’re lucky that we’re here at the initial start of this marvelous site, because I have complete confidence that this site is going to take-off and take-off big and we’ll lose a little something, but gain a whole lot more when it comes to valuable members and liberal ideas!
Hi Alpha. The situation you describe is quite familiar to me. I’m sure this happens a lot. My mom wasn’t doing that but there was a lot of “Why are they doing this to me?” meaning, “Why am I dying?” An unanswerable question.
Escriba, My heart goes out to you. Your story brought tears to my eyes. I lost both my parents and I was the principal caregiver for both of them. I was also their executor in their living wills. I was also executor for a good family friend (or as the family joked I was the executioner) The difference from your experience, was I had very understanding and sympathetic Doctors. In all three cases they honored their wishes.
In my fathers case he wised and chose no medical intervention immediately after the diagnoses and went into home hospice. He died 2 months later with compassion and dignity in his own bed.
My mother’s and the friend’s cases were different, but in both, the died under hospice care and I made every attempt to follow their wishes
My observations: A: is that you had asshats for doctors! B: The Hospice nurses and helpers are saints. C: Consider it an honor that you helped your mother in her time of need. D: Everyone should have a living will/ directive and a person that you trust (discuss with them your last wishes)to act as you executor.
Peace
Thanks, bito, I agree with a, b, c & d! My mother did have a living will actually (indicating she did not want to be kept alive by machines) and a do not resuscitate order. I think what happened here is that the doctor in charge was a bully and a jerk, clouding up the issue with a lot of medical jargon, and we had to be strong enough to stand up to him. Luckily, my sister in law was a nurse there (she thought he was great, by the way). She is the one who finally said, “Okay, we’re MOVING her to hospice!) The rest of us were just standing around numbly at that point — mainly because of the guilt involved in “giving up.”
Strangely enough, my sister in law, apparently in “nurse mode,” as we were preparing to move my mother, got right into my mother’s face and said, “We’re not giving up on you!” Weird thing to say.
e’cat…I’ve got a sister-in-law that’s a nurse, that goes into “nurse mode” also…my god, what is it with them and doctors…do they think they hold all the power.
Sorry, I have issues with my siter-in-law, or as I say, my husbands sister…try to distance myself from her as much as possible, the gruff know it all that she is.
Boy, a button was just pushed in me, sorry, just venting, have a nice day!
Don’t worry! I can relate.
Yup, we’ve all got one or two in our families and extended families, and some aren’t even associated with the medical profession.
Going to make for a fun, joyful holiday season, eh?
I thank God she lives in another state, none of us in the family, even her sisters will take her calls any more. We all let our phones go to the machine to see who it is!
Sad when you have someone like that in the family…
Oh, I understand what you mean!
Just recently had a major problem caused by the person that disrupted and hurt the entire family and even my husband has now said enough.
(wanted to let you know that I baked the pie using one of the crust recipes you found for me and it turned out wonderful. The dough was a bit harder to work with, but it isn’t tough as I had thought it might be. Thanks again for the help!)
@javaz,
Good, I’m glad, if you need anymore recipes, let me know.
Tonight I’m making two cheese cakes, one for Thanksgiving and one for my husband for here at home. He always complains that there’s never any left over when I make it!
Aw, Bito, it takes a special person to take on the responsibility of caregiver and executor and even though it must be an honor to have been asked by a close family friend, it’s still a very hard and emotional job.
You’re a good person and a kind soul.
javaz, let’s not get carried away now~blush~
I just try to learn from others and attempt to understand what ground they have walked on in their lives. Perhaps not so much understand as realize the different, yet similar, lives we all lead.
To steal a line I recently, “Live your life conservatively, treat others liberally.”
My wife is my caregiver and angel. I’m the survivor which I think is the much easier roll in the relationship. Surviving is instinct and while I have a strong constitution, based on my doctor’s prognosis I should be long gone, it takes much more inner strength for my wife to take care of me. As I’m sure you know being caregiver means not just taking care of medical needs but taking care of everything.
Blessed be the caregivers, they are the real heroes.
escribacat, what a wonderful post.
I find it amazing that at the number of tests conducted at the end of someones life. I understand that doctors took a hippocratic oath, but enough is enough…..they must have known that no more could be done for your Mother and for those other patients.
The doctors that we had for both my Mother and Grandmother at the end of their lives, must have been anomalies. For both, those doctors knew there was no more that they could do for them and suggested to us that hospice was the way to go. Which was such a blessing, the nurses were wonderful to the family.
We should be all allowed to have everything possible done for us medically, but when it’s time, it’s time…death with dignity should be the norm, not prolonged misery…
Thanks, BDM. I could not understand the man’s attitude, except that it seemed like a “technical challenge” to him and a great victory when she woke up.
Incredibly touching post, escribacat.
And incredibly depressing.
Thank you for sharing such a painful and personal experience.
I am sorry for the loss of your mother and the suffering she endured and the suffering you endured.
PBS did a show not very long ago about the same topic and end of life decisions and they also interviewed several people, doctors and clergy.
The most amazing thing about this show, was when the doctor talked about religion and how doctors must understand and allow for religious beliefs.
The doctor concluded at the end that it was the most religious people facing death that wished for every option in keeping them alive, no matter the odds of their survival.
Those not so religious or whatever their beliefs, were more pragmatic and chose not to resuscitate or being hooked up to machines.
http://video.pbs.org/video/1324700718/
Even though the PBS show is called – Religion and Ethics – it surprises me more times than not in showing the hypocrisy of certain religious ideology.
If you’ve never seen the show or steered clear because you may think it’s a right wing program, it’s not.
It covers the bases without opinion and leaves the viewer to decide.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/october-9-2009/end-of-life-decisions/4516/
Thanks, javaz. I’ll look at those links. My mother was a vocal atheist but she did agree to talk to a clergyman at the end. He asked her if she felt she had any quality of life at that point and she said “No.” I think she was torn — very much afraid to die but also worn out by the slow train wreck of this process. This whole things took about six months. I believe what resistance she had stemmed from certain family issues that were unresolved for her.
PBS NOW also did a show about end of life decisions and the main focus was a Vietnam Veteran dying from cancer due to Agent Orange and a hospital that deals with end of life decisions using unconventional means and the chief doctor that has been to Congress and travels to other hospitals urging training in dealing with end of life.
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/541/index.html
javaz, when my mother was in Hospice, the staff Doc was also a prof. at UMC (Tucson). Years ago he started a course for the Med students on end of life and hospice care. He would bring in a couple of students a week to the hospice so that they may gain the experience. Very kind man. He treated my mother like it was his own.
Your mother and you were quite fortunate to have such a caring man.
Thank you, escribacat for your amazing story. Mine is the precise opposite. In 1987-88 after several months of constant nausea and loss of weight while in the hands of buffoon doctors, my mother-in-law finally got decent care. My husband and I got her admitted to a wonderful hospital in upstate NY where she was quickly diagnosed with terminal cancer thanks to a fast and reasonably painless liver biopsy. The doc declined to do any more tests, asking what was the point of trying to determine the origin of her cancer and putting her through tests that would do nothing for her well being? Wow. When we went to the hospital, if we asked to see the doc or the resident – they CAME and told us all we needed to understand. She was sent home, we got hospice for her, and in the last two weeks she had round-the-clock care that took care of her – and of us. She died in her own bed, sweet smelling and comfortable from all the lotions, massages, and loving care she received. I will be forever grateful to the doctors and hospice nurses who gave my mother-in-law such attention and care. That hospital and all the people associated with our experience are the standard to which all medicine should aspire. It was not costly – it was quite reasonable since they minimized the testing and had no treatment of what was untreatable – combining good medical practice with humanity. We all deserve these outcomes. My mother-in-law did not rage against the dying of the light. She did not need to.
What a difference the right hospital makes! I wish it could have been like that for my mother! (And may it be that way for all of us.)
escribacat, I can’t read all of your post, it hits too close to home. Thanks for posting this story. I know how much strength that must have taken.
Escribacat; KevenSeven: If you upload a photo first and then go to the library to retrieve it you may have difficulties. The only way you find it is to select “unattached” and then it doesn’t always let you get to it. It is easier to first put a photo from your drive into the story, then, in a different browser window, go into the library, open up the now attached photo and find out where it is located for the preview frame. Why this is a difficulty, I don’t know, but it happens.
Wow, that is crazy.
I’ll try to understand it and implement it the next time I need to.
Jezus, how harrowing.
The fact is that 30% of all our heath care dollars are wasted. Spent on stuff that need never be done. That at end of life the number does not shoot way above 30% amazes me.
And I can never get a picture to post, either. Perhaps next time I will work in a different browser.
Well, Adlib! I uploaded a photo to go with this but it didn’t show up…? (Maybe the default settings were off?)
I can upload something escribacat — if AdLib is not around. I’m on vacation this week (hurray!!) and spending much too much time on the computer.
What image did you have in mind?
Cool! I uploaded one from my hard drive — a somewhat cliche picture of a sunset. Can you find something good? (It wasn’t that great.)
I can add as soon as you’re done editing. 🙂
Okay. I was done but still had it open. I’m out of there now.
Thanks…maybe you could explain to me and I’ll write a procedure.
I’ve written a post in Speaker’s Corner: How to post a photo. I hope that will help.
You can replace this photo with the one you wanted to use. Just delete the preview link and the link at the top of the post.
Nellie — I thought this picture WAS the one I uploaded. You would not believe how similar they are! Dark silhouette of some mountains, a lake, the setting sun and sky with clouds. ~eerie music~
You gotta help me figure out why I keep failing at this.
Agree, this uploading a pic seems to be a problem for many of us. AdLib, Oh Wise One, can you give us some guidance/clarification with this problem? What the hell are we doing wrong?
In order to answer that, it does take some knowledge as to what you are trying to do now, in a more precise manner. I can aid you some if I know what you are doing.
Monk, If I knew what I was doing, I wouldn’t need help 😉
I wrote a post in Speaker’s Corner: How to post a photo. I hope that helps.
Thank you, Nellie!