BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!

Subject: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 09:27 PM

I've just had a PM - typical Joybell, thinking of others (Open Mike) & added the following -

=================

Also to all my friends there -- I'll be back soon. Had several brief and unexpected heart-stops. Electrical meltdown. Now -- have pace-maker -- will live for EVER. Feeling great!

Love and happy thoughts, Joy

=======================

she might not be on line for a while as she has a sore arm (post op?) so I can pass on good wishes.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: maeve
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 09:30 PM

Please do pass on my good wishes, Sandra. I hope she's feeling better and will rejoin us when she can. Thanks to you for letting us know!

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Amos
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 09:42 PM

Awww, Joy, so sorry to hear of your hassles, and so glad to hear of your escape from them!!! Do come back soon.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 09:51 PM

certainly post-op - she was only operated on 2 days ago.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Beer
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 09:54 PM

Speedy recovery Joybell.

All the best from Quebec.
Adrien

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 10:43 PM

You tell Hildebrand to quit getting you all excited, girl!**bg**

Seriously, it is good to hear you are going to be okay and that it is under control. I had been wondering where you were!

Thanks, Sandra, for letting us know and for passing on our good wishes.

Joybell, I give thanks for a full and complete recovery for you. May you be at ease and know that all is well.

luvyakat

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Sorcha
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 11:05 PM

Well, good grief, girl! Heal up down there, OK?
That is an Order, Ma'm!

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Rowan
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 12:38 AM

All the best Joybell!

May that pacemaker get you up in leaps and bounds rather than tiddly little steps.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 12:57 AM

Scary times for the two of you! Hildebrand, take good care of her, she's a treasure! Hope to see you back here soon, Joy!

Maggie

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 01:18 AM

I gotta say, I always enjoy Joybell's upbeat spirit. Joybell, it's a pleasure to know you.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Little Robyn
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 02:12 AM

Best wishes for a speedy recovery from across the ditch.
Robyn

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 02:19 AM

Good to ses she's still alive and kicking, as long as she'd not kicking me!
:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: JennieG
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 03:14 AM

Best wishes from me too - I thought Joy had been quiet lately.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Megan L
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 03:27 AM

Hope you are back on top form soon
Awra best
frae Dauvitt and his Meg

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: fat B****rd
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 06:28 AM

Take good care, all the best from Charlie

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: jacqui.c
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 07:48 AM

Good thoughts coming from Maine, Joybell.

Hurry back - you are missed.

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Peace
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 08:02 AM

Takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'.

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: SINSULL
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 08:06 AM

Stay well, lady.

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: ClaireBear
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 11:08 AM

Joybell, come back to us soon, healthy and happy.

Of course we have missed you (who wouldn't, a dear like you?) but are glad to hear that you took the time you needed to put things right. We want you around for years and years to come.

Hugs,
Claire

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Joybell
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 07:25 PM

Wow! Such wonderful friends. Thank you all so much. I haven't been sick or anything, actually, it's just the switchboard sending signals to the part of my heart that does all the hard work -- blew out. Monday afternoon , late, I woke up on the front path with my feet pointing to the sun and my out-stretched hands still clutching plant cuttings and sissors. No pulse that I could find. Just thought -- "What a funny thing. Wonder how long I've been away?" Nothing like a faint or a sleep. True-Love off in the paddock somewhere. After a bit I found a very slow pulse in my neck. "Funny", sez I, "should be rapid." Heart block didn't cross my mind. Diagnosis from the inside is a flawed thing -- especially when your brain's a bit short of oxygen. Anyway finally got up. Felt fine. Tended to the cuttings. Told True-Love -- but told him not to worry. We went walking together as usual. Fell on my face again at the gate on the way in. Woke to hear True-Love say, "I'll get the wheelbarrow". "No! No! not the wheelbarrow"..... Arm's a bit sore ... to be continued.
Thank you all so much.
Happiness and sunshine.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: ranger1
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 08:03 PM

Ack! Don't scare us like that! Stay well, you hear?

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 08:22 PM

Oh no! Not the wheelbarrow!

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 08:59 PM

well, when I said Joybell had been ill, it was cos there are only a certain number of letters in thread titles! It's not easy getting appropriate info into a thread title.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Art Thieme
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 10:12 PM

Sandra,
I just saw your thread. We are so very sorry to hear this news. What good people Joy and Greg are. He and I go back to Chicago in the early '60s when he was already putting together songs. He brought Joy here to Peru when they were in the U.S. making the rounds. You folks who said what a fine person Joy is are right on the money.

Joy, you be well and do all that annoying rehab crud. I'll do my best to live right and still be here when you two come through again.

Love to you both,

Art & Carol

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell and pacemaker living for ever
From: Joybell
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 10:48 PM

Thank you Sandra -- you did a wonderful job. I didn't know where to start and my little felt penguin said -- Sandra will know what to do.
Art and Carol -- such a special time we had. Such a special time we all share here. Our love back to you.
Hildebrand is still overwhelmed. I feel so very much loved.
... No whellbarrow ride. Hospital by ambulance. Wonderful care. Pacemaker inserted. Going to live for ever.
Love and happy thoughts, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: open mike
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 11:05 PM

here's to your ticker....
amazing the image of you
feeling for your own pulse..
glad you had one after all!!

blessings, and thanks for the
good thoughts, Laurel

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Joybell
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 11:14 PM

Thanks, Laurel. Lost my pulse entirely a few times more.
Blessings back. My thoughts have been with you lots.
Oh -- and I really want to say that my beautiful Rescue-Santa shawl and my toothbrush were the things I insisted on taking in the ambulance. If I'd had more time to think there'd have been a penguin too.

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: rich-joy
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 02:33 AM

Just popped in (which is not so often these days) to find this news!!!
But, So glad to hear you've come through OK, Joybell!
As someone who has experienced some wurrying, out-of-the-blue heart "iss-yewes" over the last year or so, I found that one's "SO" (significant other) can feel the shock almost harder than the patient does - so very best wishes to Hildebrand too!

Cheers!
love,
R-J

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Partridge
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 05:16 AM

Glad to hear you are on the mend, take care,

Pat xx

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 06:30 AM

lucky you, Joybell, to have a talking penguin, I can't hear anything from his his older brother

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Joybell
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 06:42 PM

Awwwwww! That's so sweet. He's talking to my picture. I can tell by the way he has this look of crossed-eyed concentration. That's how his brother communicates. Thoughts. Sometimes all I get is "Fish. Fish. Fish."

So good to be alive.
A bit like being struck by lightning -- in reverse though.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Bruce from Bathurst
Date: 10 Aug 08 - 07:29 AM

The bestest of best wishes to you, Joy. People like you and Hildebrand are sorely needed in this day and age (with or without wheelbarrows), so stay well.

I hope to make it to the next Fiddlers Convention and I'd love share a song or three if you make the trek down the Sunraysia Highway.

Bruce

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Joybell
Date: 10 Aug 08 - 08:32 PM

Hello Bruce. So nice to hear from you. O'Leary says now's the time to get Hildebrand to take me ANYWHERE. Just tell him -- I'm feeling a bit funny and I need to go to a festival or something. Actually just being alive is such fun. Having all this love showered on me from my friends is so good. Looking forward to catching up with you soon would be great. We'll be at the Fiddlers' for sure.
Cheers and regards, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Aug 08 - 01:43 AM

You have a remarkable gift, Joy. That was a tidy bit of storytelling, complete with humor, as you described your recent events.

Do you and Hildebrand plan any trips to the U.S. again soon?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Joybell
Date: 11 Aug 08 - 04:57 AM

I would so love to visit there again, Maggie. My Mucat friends are so special to me and the American south-west calls to me -- the wild bits -- "badlands" and such -- but Hildebrand gets tired so easily and the flight is so long. My thoughts fly over there often -- perhaps that's the way it will have to be.
Thank you so much for the lovely compliment.
Meeting you and the rest was wonderful. We had such a lovely time.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Aug 08 - 10:14 AM

Our prairie (where the sheriff stopped you) is gone. It was pushed over and plowed under for new rubber-stamp houses that will go on the land. It's a sad sight. They didn't take the woods closest to the creek so we still have about 40 acres (flood plain, can't build in it).

We still see birds and wildlife, but not as much or as often, as would be expected. It has been a dry and hot summer here this year, hard on everything.

On the up-side, I have gotten out and harvested some of the wild bounty. I even took my now-16-year-old son (a major source of ennui) with me one day to pick wild mustang grapes. The vines drape a cluster of tall hackberry and elm trees. Some are reachable from the ground, most from a ladder with a pruner to reach the clusters which are most easily collected when a paint tarp is laid on the ground under the ladder.

My son is a picky eater so this summer I proposed making hims some strawberry jelly--it would eliminate the seeds and pulp that he objects to. When I decided to harvest grapes I added grape jelly to the list, and a friend who does a lot of canning helped me make the batches. The grape is a lovely deep read and has a strong sweet-tart flavor (his dad compares it to tamarindo). He actually likes the mustang grape even better than his strawberry jelly--I suspect having helped collect it seasoned his appreciation of the end product. I love the "eat locally" aspect of using jelly from vines a couple of hundred feet from the front door. (This week I've been freezing and canning from my vegetable garden.)

Are you planning for a garden this year, and will you continue to foster baby birds? That is one of the most difficult things I encounter when planning travel--it has to be in a season when my regular activities won't suffer with my absence. I think it must be the same for you.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Joybell
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 08:55 PM

It helps to share the pain of the things we can't do anything about doesn't it? I often think about that walk we had in your little wilderness. What a nice time we had there with you.
When our mountains burned so completely a couple of years ago I found it impossible to deal with. I've had to be strict with myself and turn my attention elsewhere. It's not like I could do anything to help.
I do still foster baby magpies each Spring. Hildebrand is going on tour next year -- for the last time -- so I might have to work something out for then.
For the moment we stay close. Nothing like the threat of death to give us both a jolt.
So nice to hear your news Maggie.
Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 09:16 PM

Lots of love to you, dear Joybell, and I'm glad to hear you're still with us! Blessings to you!
Allison

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Cats
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 12:23 AM

Thinking of you ans sending all good wishes from the Land of Cousin Jacks and Jenny's.

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 09:19 AM

I bet if you go walk on your mountains now you'll be surprised at the new life there! Give yourself a treat and see what new tender plants are spouting after seeds being scoured and liberated by flame, or after bird fly-overs deposited them. It's always amazing how land recovers from fire.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Joybell
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 06:14 PM

Thank you all so much.
I actually have been back to the mountains, SRS. Sadly this fire was so intense it burned the rocks. There is new life but there are some plants that are gone forever. Some birds living on the edge may not recover either -- then there's the rare wallabies. Some Australian ecosystems don't recover after fire and this was a rare and special place. An isolated outcrop in a sea of introduced pasture. Still -- it's good advice, thank you, Maggie. I know you can't walk in your own special wilderness anymore -- except to hold onto that flood-plain. I'm not alone. And I'm alive!
My heart stopped and I'm still alive.
Just got me a copy of my ECG. One bit. There are about a dozen bits the same. Flat lines for 10 seconds or so. No wonder I'm leaving out letters when I write. Bit of a shock to something deep inside me.
Top of the class in cardiac rehab. though. Because my heart is undamaged my fitness level is unchanged. Straight from intensive care to our usual evening walk.
Thank you so much. It's such a special place here.
Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Funny story about pacemakers
From: Joybell
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 06:22 PM

I keep thinking about a sweet lady I once knew. Her father-in-law had a pacemaker inserted and he was to come and live with her. She was happy to care for him but had one great fear.
"They have a detonator built in to them", she told me -- of pacemakers.
"When they wear out -- they just explode. Can you imagine the mess if it explodes when he's sitting in my kitchen?"

I could. I still can. The image burns more brightly than ever now.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 06:36 PM

Joy, you were so lucky to get the timely care you needed. Is the pacemaker doing what it needs, and has it stopped those flat lines?

We're so glad to have you still around to tell us bird and prairie and kitchen table stories! Keep the Duracells handy so the detonator doesn't go off. :)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Joybell
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 07:01 PM

Thanks, Maggie. They say you can sometimes feel a pacemaker kick in. I am conscious of my heart beat at times. I think that might be my version of it. Comforting. If I explode I'll be sure to let everyone know through True-Love. Getting the headline ready:
Joybell explodes on stage. That's how it should be.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Aug 08 - 04:00 AM

can't imagine you bombing, Joy

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Janie
Date: 21 Aug 08 - 07:28 AM

Haven't been on the Cat much lately except for quick looksees and have managed to overlook this thread until now.

Very glad to hear that pacemaker is in and doing it's job!

To second what Joe said, your posts are always like a patch of morning sunshine.

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Hawker
Date: 21 Aug 08 - 08:15 AM

Joybell!
Glad to hear that your little blip has been rectified!
Love, healing thoughts & blessings from Cornwall!
Cheers, Lucy

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Joybell
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 08:24 PM

I can't help but get better with all this love and sunshine and all. All this and blessings from my ancestral home too.
Isn't it a wild thought that I have a little package of lightning inside my chest muscles. My very own power-pack. So lucky. So happy. So overwhelmed by love and friendship -- and
Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 09:00 PM

IT;'s a funny thing to hear or feel a human-made part in our chests, isn't it? Every once in a while I hear my artificial aortic valve clicking away. I am HAPPY to hear it as I don't fancy the alternative! Very. VERY glad you are doing well and sharing with us, Joy.

luvyakat

Subject: RE: BS: Joybell has been ill, now feeling great!
From: Joybell
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 06:07 PM

Kat, yes that's exactly how I feel. Funny thing -- when it happened I thought it was my aortic valve. I inherited a faulty one. Been getting more calcified as the years go by but it's doing fine. Completely symptomless.
Saw the cardiologist. My pacemaker is having to work "lots of the time". It's also having to trigger atrial beats sometimes. I asked him why my version of heart block came on so suddenly. He told me it can be sudden but it's not known how often it happens like that because there's nothing to see at autopsy.
Cheers, Joy