Health information

Estimated Average Glucose	108	128			Graph
Hemoglobin A1c (Normal: 4.0-6.0)					Graph
Hemoglobin A1c (Normal: 4.7-6.4)					Graph
Hemoglobin A1c			5.8	6	Graph
Hemoglobin A1c (Normal: <5.7)

Op-ed

The “Anglosphere” Is in Disarray

          The so-called Anglosphere consists mainly of the advanced industrial societies in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.  The relationship among these countries has now fallen into a state of uncertainty, mainly because of policies enunciated by Donald Trump, and to a lesser extent, Theresa May.

          During his first few days in office, Trump provided China with an open invitation to dominate economically the vast Asian-Pacific region when he nixed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that consisted of a dozen countries in Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas.  Australia and New Zealand were signatories to the TPP and are now cast adrift as a greater portion of their trade shifts toward China and they must endure intense pressure to accept Chinese rules favoring managed trade and certain authoritarian political practices.

          Canada is the number one market for overall U.S. exports and the leading destination for exports from 35 American states. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is trying emphatically to renew and modernize the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), but Trump continues to suggest that he may abrogate the accord or allow negotiations to linger into 2019 or beyond.  When the third partner, Mexico, is included, NAFTA has become the world’s largest free trade area with a combined population of nearly 490 million and a regional GDP larger than the European Union’s.  Approximately 14 million U.S. jobs are tied to trade, investment, and tourism linkages with its two neighbors to the north and south, but Trump is seemingly oblivious to the economic and political consequences of scuttling NAFTA.

          As for the UK, Trump has made life miserable for Prime Minister May by his anti-Muslim and anti-National Health Service diatribes.  In theory, Trump is supposed to visit London later in 2018, but May would privately prefer that he stayed away from the British Isles indefinitely.

          May is also causing her own share of problems.  She recently accelerated her anti-EU stance by intimating that she wants a hard Brexit that will remove the UK from both the EU’s single market and customs union.  Her Conservative Party is in a shambles over the issue and her position as prime minister is tenuous at best.  In addition, she faces a major confrontation with Ireland, which will maintain its EU membership, over “hard” borders and the very sensitive ties between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

          Both May and Trump are living in a delusional world.  Some Brexit voters conjured up the past glories of the British Empire and the UK’s “finest-hour” performance when it stood valiantly alone in 1940-41 after Nazi Germany had taken control of most of the European continent.  In their minds, the UK can once again go it alone in a much more complex and interdependent world.  In 1900, the UK share of global GDP was almost 10 percent—today it is little more than 2 percent. The UK is the second leading destination for U.S. foreign direct investment, but what happens to this investment when the UK is no longer the English-language “gateway” to the EU, and its legendary City of London financial sector is enfeebled by reduced ties to the continent?

          As for the United States, Trump’s “America First” policies are a misguided effort to reenact Fortress America and hearken back to the troubled times of the late 1920s and early 1930s when President Herbert Hoover insisted on protecting the U.S. agricultural sector and later refused to veto the ill-fated Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.

          After World War II, the U.S. singlehandedly accounted for almost half of global production.  In 2017, the U.S. share of world production, measured in purchasing power parity (PPP), fell to 15.5 percent, about the same as in 1900.  Trump’s policies toward climate change, regional trade accords, and alliances with Anglosphere and other allied nations, are in direct contradiction to the 21^st century’s prime directive-- cooperate across national borders to solve problems common to humanity, problems beyond the capacity of any single country to solve unilaterally, including a fabled island-nation and a superpower.

 .............................................................

Living Abroad Taught Me to Love America

By JANINE di GIOVANNIFEB. 10, 2018  nyt

I ran away from America. In my late teens, I decided I didn’t want to be hemmed in by the place where I grew up. It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision; through education, work, marriage, a child and a collection of foreign passports, I more or less made myself European, and for the next three decades I lived the expat life. But I was always, at heart, American — as a reporter working in war zones, when I spoke to refugees, when I traveled through broken post-conflict countries.

And so last year I returned home — just in time to see people here and abroad running away from America.

When I arrived in London on a crowded Air India flight nearly 30 years ago, Britain was in tumult. There were strikes and anti-American protests; Margaret Thatcher was unpopular, and Ronald Reagan was in power.

For the first time, I saw what America represented to the world: greed. My English cousins batted me down at dinner parties about America’s global bullying and mocked its “have a nice day” optimism. When I went to an interview for my first job — as a junior editor on a daily newspaper — the recruiter told me I did not have the proper skills.

“But I’m sure I can do it,” I protested.

“Of course you think you can,” she jeered. “You’re an American!”

I finally found work at a feminist newspaper in East London, where the editor in chief had grown up in awe of Gloria Steinem, Kate Millett, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Angela Davis. “Only America could produce women like that,” she told me.

After 17 years in England, I moved to France, where I spent 13 more years raising my French son. France, too, was going through changes — economic malaise and a brain drain that sent talented young people fleeing abroad. Eventually, I left there as well, not because of France but because of the pull of America. I had achieved my youthful goal, only to find that, in the end, I wanted to be back home.

The United States I have returned to is vastly different from the one I left during the Reagan years. Then, the news came slowly, in small doses, and reading “Doonesbury” was a form of resistance. Today, the news comes too fast; my friends are thrust into a state of gloom with each new turn of the Trump administration.

And yet, despite the election cycle, despite the opioid crisis, despite the tax bill, despite yawning inequality, I still see good in this country.

For one thing, I’ve heard it all before; when it comes to confronting anti-Americanism, I’m a veteran. Anytime I work in Gaza or the West Bank, and must explain why the Trump administration is cutting funding to refugees. Every time I work with a Syrian refugee and must explain why we have a travel ban against Muslims. Over a decade ago, I climbed the stairs to my Baghdad hotel room thinking, how can I ever go home and live in a country that is so dedicated to occupation and regime change?

But there were other moments. I was walking down Rue de Rivoli in Paris on Sept. 11, 2001, when my phone rang. “Someone just flew a plane through the twin towers,” a friend told me. The pain and despair I felt in the following days was matched by the private and public sympathy I felt from thousands of Parisians.

When I served as the jury president for the prize for war reporting given in Bayeux, the first city to be liberated during the Battle of Normandy, the mayor showed me the expanse of American graves at the nearby military cemetery as a way of demonstrating what America meant to him, his family and his people.

As a liberal and human rights activist, I am cognizant of the dark times we live in. But I try to remember that generally, and where it counts, we usually do it right. The First Amendment. The New Deal. The Four Freedoms. The Marshall Plan. The opportunity and social mobility that is more possible than in any other country where I have lived.

Without getting into Norman Rockwell platitudes, I see a determined pragmatism, a freshness that comes from growing up in America that only someone who spent years away from it can notice. As the mother of a child in the French educational system, I was aware of how positive reinforcement and encouragement is frowned on in Europe. “Oh you Americans, always saying, ‘Good boy!’” one of my son’s teachers once told me. “We don’t believe in doing that.”

In France, only the very bright can enter programs to prepare them for the graduate schools that act as iron gateways to the elite. In America, we draw our political and economic leadership from everywhere. Yes, there are loans. But there are also chances.

I am deeply aware of our health care problems. I am aware of continued segregation, the racism, the efforts to restrict voting rights. But I still believe that at its core America both recognizes its flaws and struggles to overcome them. “America is great because she is good,” Alexis de Tocqueville is often quoted as saying. “If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

My friends don’t see it that way. They’re losing hope with each week. But I tell them it’s the best possible time to be in the resistance. Only during times of darkness can you see the stars, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said. The #MeToo movement came out of this darkness. Black Lives Matter came out of this darkness. The press is stronger and better than it has been in decades. There is a real focus on the most marginalized in society, more so than when I left in the 1980s.

I also think about my time working in places like Moscow, Turkey, Syria and Iran. I think about fellow journalists working in Saudi Arabia — our great ally — who are imprisoned and even threatened with execution simply for blogging. I’ve been followed, hacked and barred (from two of those places), but I am still able to write this and travel freely in the United States. So are the people whose views I find repellent.

We have a long way to go. We’ve been badly wounded by the 2017 inauguration, and we are still limping. But I know we can do it, because, having lived outside America for more than half my life, I still see the kind of stuff we Americans are made of.

Janine di Giovanni is a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, an adjunct professor of human rights at Columbia’s School of International and Public Administration and the author, most recently, of “The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches from Syria.”

Travel schedule for April

Please find the tentative itinerary for your speaking engagements in April below:

Monday, April 16, 2018: Arrive in Germany (coming from London or Paris)

Tuesday, April 17, 2018: Program Day in Kaiserslautern                  

Wednesday, April 18, 2018: Program Day in Cologne       

Thursday, April 19, 2018: Program Day in Leipzig

Friday, April 20, 2018: Program Day in Berlin        

Saturday, April 21, 2018: Return (to London or Paris)

My health isssues

Not quite sure how come I look so happy to be at St Mary's hospital overnight.

Earl Fry	Feb 25 (1 day ago)
to Chris, Lisa, Leanna, Kimberly, Steven, Kristi, me

We are having a good time in London but Mom has been ill over the past two weeks.

She has been throwing up on a regular basis and has had significant balance problems, including falling a couple of times and also  blacking out for a few seconds.  When we walk she needs to hold on to my arm.

I took her to the emergency room at St Mary's hospital on Friday.  It took us 8 hours to go through all the hoops and rings.  Fortunately, she received good care and was admitted to the hospital overnight for further testing.

I brought her home late Saturday and she is feeling somewhat better.  For example, she has not thrown up for three days.  However, they are not really sure what has caused her problems.  She has a low sodium content in her blood and continues to experience some dizziness.  This may be do to an inner ear imbalance, the result of a fall where she might have been concussed, or some other reason.  A cat scan showed that there was no blood on her brain, so that is a major positive.

They want me to take here to the "Dizziness" center at Charing Cross hospital and I will make an appointment.

As I said, she is happy to be back in our apartment and is feeling a bit better.  We had tickets to go to Bath tomorrow but will forgo that trip.  She wants you to know that she is optimistic and she has been a warrior throughout the entire process.

We will be weighing our options.  Hopefully she will continue to progress and we will be able to get the treatment she needs here in London.  If progress is minimal, we may return to the U.S. permanently so that she can see our doctor and then go to the hospital in Provo.

She sends her love.

We both love you very much.

Dad

Elaine Fry <kelainefry@gmail.com>	Feb 24 (2 days ago)
to Margaret

Well Earl was so worried about me that he dragged me off to the A and E at St Mary's hospital by Paddington station.  We spent almost all of yesterday in the waiting room.  I got blood drawn and a chest xray and an egg and act scan.  Then they admitted me for over night.

Basically there is nothing wrong with me.  Brain looks good.  Heart is good.  But they still didn't dismiss my problems as being all my imagination.  The only problem that showed up is a deficiency of sodium.  So they want me to see a go and have the sodium level checked in a few days. And recommended that I go to a clinic that specializes in dizziness and balance problems.

Now I could write a thesis about staying in an NHS hospital for a day.  On a women's ward in a room for 4 people.

Other than feeling a bit stupid about my problems I feel just the same as when I went in.  But I have not thrown up since Thursday.

When I am using the computer instead of my kindle and one finger I will write more if you are interested.  I am glad to be"home".   Frustrated at spending over a week being ill.

Thanks for adding my name to the pray role.  Tomorrow Earl and our neighbor will give me a blessing.  I am glad for that.

No snow but below freezing temperature. Before adding the wind chill factor.  We have train tickets to Bath on Monday. Doubt if I will ever get there.

Love Elaine.

.

Elaine Fry <kelainefry@gmail.com>	Feb 15 (11 days ago)
to Margaret

I have had a hard time downloading and labeling our pictures from Germany.  Too tedious??

I have had a rough couple of weeks and of course, I cannot talk to my kids about it.  They will worry.  

In the last three weeks, I have fallen with a resounding smack.  Totally flat.  Once on the street and twice inside.  Before leaving Provo I went to my family doctor and tried to talk about it.  He had me close my eyes and stand on one foot.  I did not waver or fall down.  He sent me off for a stress test. that cost about $3000 to find out that my heart is just fine.  Dah.  At the test, the woman told me to go back to my doctor and have him explore other possibilities.  Of course, I didn't.   We were leaving for England so soon. 

Sometimes I think it is all in my head. Then when I catch myself from falling or fall, I think I need to find out what the problem is..

One of my problems of going abroad now is that. I am an old person and I worry about both myself and Earl.  What would I do it Earl collapsed on the street or on the stairs in our building.?  Not a happy thought. I don't know if Earl worries about that kind of stuff but I do know that he is really worried about me..  He holds my hand wherever w go. 

Other  than that we are doing fine.

St Mary's Hospital, London

St Mary's Hospital is an NHS hospital in Paddington, in the City of Westminster, London, founded in 1845. Since the UK's first academic health science centre was created in 2008, it has been operated by Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, which also operates Charing Cross Hospital, Hammersmith Hospital, Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital, and Western Eye Hospital.

  

Saint Mary''s

Our servicesVIEW ALL SERVICES 

St Mary’s Hospital is the major acute hospital for north west London as well as a maternity centre with consultant and midwife-led services. The hospital provides care across a wide range of specialties and runs one of four major trauma centres in London in addition to its 24/7 A&E department.

Notes on trip to Germany

London unexploded WW II bomb

 Metropolitan police set up a 214-metre exclusion zone after the device was found at George V dock on Sunday. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

All flights in and out of London City airport have been cancelled after the discovery of an unexploded second world war bomb.

The airport’s chief executive, Robert Sinclair, said it would be closed for the whole of Monday, affecting 120 flights out and a similar number of incoming flights.

A 214-metre exclusion zone set up by the Metropolitan police remains in place after the device was found at King George V dock in east London on Sunday. Properties within the exclusion zone are being evacuated and trains on the Docklands light railway between Pontoon Dock and Woolwich Arsenal have been suspended.

Sinclair said: “I urge any passengers due to fly today not to come to the airport and to contact their airline for further information.

“I recognise this is causing inconvenience for our passengers, and in particular some of our local residents. The airport is cooperating fully with the Met police and Royal Navy and working hard to safely remove the device and resolve the situation as quickly as possible.”

Are you sitting on an unexploded second world war bomb?

 

Read more

The unexploded ordnance was discovered during work at the airport just after 5am on Sunday. After specialist officers and the navy confirmed the nature of the device a decision was taken to implement an exclusion zone at about 10am.

The area was heavily bombed during the blitz and Newham council described the bomb as a “German 500kg fused device”. The local authority said residents unable to stay with family or friends were being taken to a rest centre with bedding and refreshments but some had chosen to remain in their homes.

A council spokesman said: “Work will not start on lifting and removing the device until the initial 214-metre zone is clear. When work starts to remove it, it is expected the exclusion zone will be extended to 250 metres and more properties will need to be evacuated.”

A number of road cordons have been established and motorists have been urged to take alternative routes. The operation is expected to continue until Tuesday morning.

London City airport is the 14th busiest in the UK with 4.5 million passengers last year, according to data from the Civil Aviation Authority.

Tubingen Part II

One of my challenges of taking pictures is that when I see them later I cannot remember

what the building is nor even what city we are in. I think this Tubingen which Earl has confirmed for me.  There are some advantages to living together in only one room.

Also, however, there is a downside. I get distracted by whatever is shown on TV. Of course, we watch very intellectual shows such as Murder  She Wrote, Castle, and sometimes even Diagnosis Murder.  And even  Midsomer Murders for the third time. So don't be too critical of this blogger.

I recklessly agreed to walk up these stairs. We had been told there was a castle somewhere in the old city.  Maybe this was it.

I kept climbing and when we reached this point on the stairs I thought"almost there.".  Getting close and then I turned a corner and discovered more stairs. No. I did not count them.  No idea if they are more stairs here or at Notre Dame Cathedral.

The climb was worth it. 

The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen (German: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; Latin: Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg. It is one of Germany's most famous and oldest universities,^{[citation needed]} noted in medicine, natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. Being a German Excellence University, Tübingen is regularly ranked as one of the best universities in Germany and is especially known as a centre for the study of medicine, law, and theology and religion. The university's noted alumni include numerous presidents, ministers, EU Commissioners and judges of the Federal Constitutional Court.

The university is associated with eleven Nobel laureates, especially in the fields of medicine and chemistry.

The University of Tübingen was founded in 1477 by Count Eberhard V (Eberhard im Bart, 1445–1496),

Just a few pictures taken from the gateway into the Schloss.

Roof tops from the front entrance to the castle.

There is a church in the background.  Maybe if you click on the picture you can enlarge it and get and better view. 

The old Schloss Hohenturginggen Tubingen

In this photograph, the castle looks so ideal.  If you look at the other pictures you will see the rustic walls and buildings.  Besides housing a museum,  this is a center for the university. How would it be to go to a centuries-old building for your history class?

We saw several of these fountains with the base of them covered. It reminded us of Vienna where we saw covered fountains, statues, and plants. All in an effort to protect them from Austria's harsh winters. 

A very elaborate bird condo by the bridge crossing the river.

These pictures are from Heidelberg

The first and probably only 5-star hotel I have stayed. We went to see the pool and fitness center, but both of us decided without talking to each other that the biggest problem was, "Who do I have to tip and how much?

Three 3 dimensional pictures on the wall.  A world caught in a shadow box. 

In the hotel's book about the place it has exactly the same picture taken in the very same place except that it is the family who owns the hotel.  Oh and they were not wearing coats. 

Several places we saw displays of costumes. Our guess is that they are available to celebrate Mardi Gras before the long, long lent period begins.

The pub we ate in when in Heidelberg.  We had a hard time finding a place to eat in a busy shopping area. It surprised us that this bustling 'roads closed to traffic' area should have so few places to eat.This turned out to be one of my favorite spots and the schnitzel was delicious. 

Two years ago when we were traveling in Germany while Earl spoke, one of the Americans from the consulate told me that in Germany you are expected to buy a drink.  Thank goodness that in London and Paris no one objects to us drinking tap water.  We know we are cheap but bottled water at about 3 Euros for a small bottle is a bit steep for us.  

In Paris a few years ago we met with some people from the cultural side of the embassy at a very nice hotel that was next to their office.  We still joke about my 7 Euro bottle of coke. This time though the tax payers were paying for our extravagance. 

Taking the train through the countryside. 

So many odds and ends

Of course this restaurant is not located in Istanbul. Some city in Germany. 

Elaine Fry <kelainefry@gmail.com>	Jan 30
to bcc: lisafrybeutler, bcc: leannafry, bcc: kimberlyneves, bcc: kfry17, bcc: frysteven50, bcc: chrisandbecky, bcc: candmbrooks1, bcc: fisherhousejohn

Nope.  Never heard of it before either.  Leaving Freiberg we had to change trains twice to get here.
Before I say anything else, I found out that Germany has 2 cities.  Freiberg where we were and Freiburg which was in East Germany and where the temple is.
This is a very quaint city.  A castle on the hill and a delightful old city.  Apparently it was bombed only once during WW II.  The university is still the main industry. In fact the old schloss houses part of the university now.  Dad expressed interest in what the classrooms were like.  I was wondering about the most recent renowned of the bathrooms in a centuries old castle.  This is definitely built as a fortress on the hill and not a palace for a fancy Kaiser.
We took pictures of the stairs we climbed to reach the castle.  I'll share when we get back to London.  Fortunately we found a steep road to walk down.
Not so confident about our WiFi connection.  Tomorrow we leave for Heidelberg.  We get to change trains again in Stuttgart.  Like we did today.  We have been lucky with weather so far but tomorrow it is supposed to rain and snow on Friday.
Love you and miss you.  Mum