Quicken 2005 Sucks

The following is a scathing email that I sent to intuit today in regards to Quicken 2005...
I wasted my money by buying the 2005 version. I'm sure I'm not the first to complain that not allowing us to import qif files to checking and savings accounts is an absurd addition to the new version of quicken. Users are complaining about this all over the net. I have a small bank in a rural area of the US and have no intentions of changing my account to someone who is Quicken compliant as per your suggestions. Sounds like you are trying to force customers as well as financial institutions to comply with your software design or be locked out. Don't you think this is an unfair trade practice? Why not offer both qif downloads and OFX and QFX formats? Eventually technology will catch up with our financial institutions and they will comply with the new format. Until then it seems we are stuck with software that is useless to us. I'm very unhappy and will make sure to express my displeasure to anyone else who might be thinking of buying your product. Kudos on getting my money for a product that will sit on the shelf unused. I wish I had read the 93 amazon.com reviews before I purchased as 68 people gave you 1 star out of 5. (Don't get too excited, the worst is 1)

The idea in updating products is to make software better and more usable for the clients. In a perfect world, everyone would move a bit faster in updating technologically speaking....However does anyone really expect my little TINY bank in WV to change the whole format of their online banking....(which by the way hasn't existed for that long) because Quicken says so? That's a bunch of crap if you ask me! (to use the technical vernacular)

additionally, they have stopped updating prior versions of the product in order to try and coerce (force) their customers to buy the new version. Can you imagine the pistivity of those customer who bought the new version only to realize that they can't use it?????

Bad Intuit, BAD! You deserve a serious spanking! Often and from someone who knows how!

I'm not alone!
Amazon Customer Reviews

Grave's Disease

According to my web stats....I had over 300 hits on my site this month from people looking for information on Grave's Disease. Search phrases like:
sadness graves disease
financial help with children who have graves disease
will my anxiety go when I have rai treatment

It really makes me sad to think of all the people out there dealing with this highly misunderstood disorder. I was told for years by doctors that I was a hypochondriac and that there was nothing the matter with me. When I found the National Grave's Disease Foundation I was so relieved to know that I was not the only one going through all these feelings and problems and it really helped me make a decision to have surgery instead of RAI. I had to fight hard for that choice because surgery is not the standard treatment in the US.

The first thing to know is that Grave's Disease is NOT a thyroid disorder. It is an autoimmune disease that can cause a thyroid disorder. The following is an explanation from the Mayo Clinic Website
Graves' disease is the most common form of hyperthyroidism.(This is a rare disease that tends to affect women over the age of 20. The incidence is about 5 in 10,000 people) Normally, the immune system protects the body against viruses, bacteria, and foreign substances. In Graves' disease, the immune system mistakenly attacks the thyroid gland, causing it to overproduce the thyroid hormone, thyroxine, which causes a number of symptoms. This autoimmune response can also affect the tissue behind the eyes (Graves' ophthalmopathy) and the skin on the lower legs and feet (Graves' dermopathy).

The best advice that I can give all of you is to find a good doctor who LISTENS to you. I don't care how long it took you to get an appointment with the endocrinologist; If he doesn't listen to you and your concerns and fears then find another. It will make all the difference in your life and in the outcome of treatment. Take control and do not let anyone tell you no. Here are some other things that you can do to help.

1. Stop eating processed food if you can. Cook fresh healthy choices that stay away from preservatives and too much salt.(extra protein can help but stay away from too much fat)

2. Watch your milk intake as well as your consumption of anything with red dyes.

3. Stop Smoking

4. Do whatever you need to do to cut back on your stress levels until treatment. I cut my work down to part-time and eventually quit until I got the disease under control. I realize that most of you will not have this luxury but there are always little things you can do. Your partner, family, or roommates can really help by taking some of your at home tasks for a while.

5. Try Yoga! You will sleep and feel better. I use a set of DVD's from Yoga Zone. They offer box sets for different workouts that will really leave you feeling relaxed and strong!
Yoga Zone Box Set at Amazon.com


5. Get at least 8 hours of rest per night. I realize that some of you probably aren't sleeping well. Even if you are not sleeping...force yourself to go to bed and let your body relax.
I stayed on Beta Blockers for almost 3 years and that was too long! I had to wean myself off the things.

I'll remind all of you that I am not a medical professional so all the thoughts and advice contained herein are derived solely from personal experience. Lastly, I will post the narrative that I wrote a few days after my surgery. It's pretty dramatic as all the experiences and feelings were so fresh. Also it was honestly the first time since I was a child that I had really felt good. I take that for granted now...that I can run up 4 flights of stairs and not feel like I'm going to have a heart attack. I still have recurrences when I get stressed...it's nothing compared to before. Please feel free to email me if you have comments or concerns.

My Choice

I have had Grave's disease since I was about nine years old. It became active after a period of stress in my life at that time and has gone into remission twice. In 1998, after a remission of eight years, my Grave's returned with a vengeance. Keep in mind that when Grave's returned I didn't see it. Although I had already had the disease for 16 years, it was still undiagnosed.

It makes people angry when I tell them that I felt relieved when I found out about my Grave's. I don't mean to imply that Grave's is nothing to worry about. I'm the first to admit that it can be scary as hell. Every person living with Grave's has his or her own story. I just mean that the moment I knew I had the disease, I also knew that I was not crazy, manic depressive, sexually dysfunctional, a hypochondriac, and hosting a myriad of psychotic eating disorders that prompted comments from unfeeling individuals like "She must really overeat" and "She's probably got AIDS…nobody loses weight that fast." At that moment I began to chip away at the layers of my life and find the real me beneath the rubble.

So what do you do after diagnosing yourself with Grave's disease? Yes that's right, we diagnosed my Grave's via Internet research after my boyfriend commented on the ever-increasing mass of my lower neck. I was ignoring the goiter although I had noticed it months ago…. I concluded that it must be cancer and if it was cancer it was better that I not know for sure. At 25, I was a mess. I mean, I already had high blood pressure, osteoporosis, a weak left kidney, and a heart that rattled away like the little drummer boy on crack. Cancer really didn't seem so far-fetched at that point you know? After reasoning with me that it was an awfully uniform swelling in my neck and probably not cancer, we began to think about the thyroid. It was something I knew a little about already, two of my Aunt's already had problems, and one had Grave's and the other nodules. I don't know why until that night it really never dawned on me that it was Grave's…but after staring at the computer screen in awe for about an hour, we realized that I had fourteen out of the listed fifteen symptoms. I felt relieved. (I'm not crazy) I started to cry. (Why is this happening?) I got scared. (Am I going to die from this?) I got angry. (After all the money I spent, weeks in the hospital, why haven't I been diagnosed before now?) I made doctors appointment. (I've got to be sure)

You know that feeling when you are sitting across from a new doctor and telling him or her your whole medical history (or a brief summary thereof that can be squeezed into the ultra tight space that is darting eyes, watched clocks and intermittent sighs?) Or what about the moment when you explain that you have this disease and you and your boyfriend diagnosed it on the internet and your whole life makes sense now and you've stopped taking the antidepressants and …wait…uh-oh…. You've lost him…he's not listening…you've been discredited now…. You mentioned self-diagnosis…the Internet…. He's drifting…the fact that red cool-aid and milk make you have an anxiety attack…he's now concluded that your either crazy, manic depressive, sexually dysfunctional, a hypochondriac, or hosting a myriad of psychotic eating disorders that will certainly prompt rude comments from copious outsiders. Or perhaps you get lucky; this is a student doctor. Still learning, this person does a lot of research on the Internet…not afraid of computers…knows about nutrition…(Hmm…. yes, milk contains iodine, people with thyroid disorders are often sensitive to food or drinks with red dyes) Maybe after 5,10,15,or even 20 blood tests or years or suggestions, your tests come back. "This is consistent with Grave's", your doctor says. Surprise, surprise.

Ok, this is you. This is you with Graves. This is you on propylthiouricyl, tapazole, methiamazole, atenolol, valerian, yarrow, bugleweed and open to suggestion. This is you with nightmares, sweats, shakes, heart palpitations, muscle weakness, fits of rage, seas of sadness, depths of depression. This is you when your skin darkens and peels and you just spent a whole day just trying to get out of bed. This is you when none of the medications work. "Radioactive iodine", says the endocrinologist that it took you five months to get an appointment with. "Don't worry", he says. "It's not invasive. Nuclear medicine will prepare a dose of RAI and come out in protective suits and you'll have to flush three times after you go to the bathroom, and stay away from children and women, and eat with plastic picnic ware, and then if we have administered the right dose your thyroid will eventually die, could be a year, could be three months, we could give you to much or to little, may have to dose you up to three times, you will probably end up hypothyroid and have to be on medication for the rest of your life, there have been studies done that claim that RAI worsens Grave's eye disease, but it's non-invasive. We highly recommend it. We've dosed hundreds, thousands, even millions of patients with RAI. I suggest we administer treatment right now", my doctor says. I scream inside. No one is here with me. I feel cold suddenly. I don't want to make this decision right now. But he has told me that I am in the last stage of Grave's. That it could take my life at any time. God help me, I don't know what to do. Back to the Internet. My old friend. If you can help me diagnose, surely you can help me treat. I make an appointment for the RAI in the meantime. I drive home thinking about glowing in the dark and feeling like I already do.

Weeks pass and I am still undecided. My appointment for the RAI treatment is just around the corner but I don't feel good about it. I read on the Internet that the U.S. is one of the only countries that uses RAI as the preferred method of treatment after medication. This scares me. Amazing as the U.S. medical system is in my mind I just keep thinking about Fen fen. I read more letters from others that have had RAI. 75% are negative reviews. Common phase usages like trial and error, started to feel better after 6 months, and having trouble getting my levels adjusted are a common vein in all these letters. I call my Endo and tell him nogo. I want to have the surgery.

Blood tests, blood tests blood tests. Mom's are pulling their children out of my path at the grocery store and staring at my arms in disgust. I feel like a human pincushion. "We have to get your thyroxin levels down in order to administer the anesthetic", says my surgeon. It's another month of waiting and taking one of those medications that my body rejects. I've taken to not sleeping much. I think that I'm afraid that I won't wake up again. I stay up all night and redesign my website with a blue water droplet background that reminds me of tears.

I am in a clean white room with people talking softly to me. At least that’s what the "Guide to Surgery at Somememorialhospital says. Instead I am in a clean white room about to go under fighting with the assistant surgeon whom I have never met about whether this is a total or subtotal thyroidectomy. " Dr Soandso told me you were going to leave part of my thyroid if it is undamaged I say…. To increase my chances of having a normal level and staying off the medication!" I'm going to start crying soon and my boyfriend almost passes out. Who is this guy? Who are the 27 other people in the room? What am I doing here?(yawn) Why didn't they make Barbie's ankles bendable like her knees so you could let her wear flats as well as heels?(eyes close) Oh, she had tennis shoes but (going)…you know(going)…..they..never fit quite…r..i..g..h..t*.(gone)

I wake up feeling cold….I must have said so because nurses surround me from every side wrapping hot towels around me until I must look like a little mummy in new bandages. My throat hurts…not at the incision site but like I have strep throat or something. "It's from the oxygen tube", the nurse says and I go back to sleep listening to my family whispering to one another about how beautiful I look although I just had surgery and my boyfriend is commenting on the ringlets of my hair spilling across the pillow and I'm reminding myself to thank God for them the moment I'm a little more coherent.

I left the hospital the following day. They gave me a prescription for Percaset but I never filled it. My senses were so sharp and I wanted to keep them that way. I felt as if I had been wearing a veil my entire life and now that veil had been lifted. I felt rational and happy and energetic, and blessed. It's been over a week and I still feel that way. Perhaps it's a miracle, perhaps it's luck, and perhaps it's a psychosomatic reaction because I made my own choice as to the treatment I wanted and am too stubborn to feel anything but good. Perhaps it doesn't even matter. Knowing that I made the right decision for me has made all the difference.

I wish you all happiness, love, faith, guidance and above all, health!

Update: 2002 Well here I am, feeling great, almost back to my normal weight and although I have to take the replacement meds, I've had no side effects. I realize now how much Grave's controlled my life, and also how much I let it. I hope that I always feel this good. :-) Be well.


Did you know...
13 million Americans have a thyroid disorder and more than half of them are not aware of it. Only one-fourth of 1% of the population of the US has Graves' Disease!
for more information on grave's disease click here------------> >National Grave's Disease Foundation

XOXOXOXOX

Lobelia

Swiss Trip Part One. Raindrops on Murren and Whiskers on Stewardesses

We had a direct flight from Montreal to Zurich. The gate was in a part of the Montreal airport which I have never seen and which reminded me of an old school. It looked as if it was built in the 60's or 70's and never updated.



(Bitchy rant #1)
Coach class was being handled by several very tall, very dramatic "women" with over the top hairstyles and man hands. I found this very interesting and intriguing until we encountered some somewhat violent turbulence during the flight. The "stewardesses" then yelled over the intercom in quavering falsetto for everyone to return to their seats immediately. I thought the idea was to CALM the masses during a flight. The plane was squeaking and rocking and yet there was no one to soothe us with the speech that tells everyone "we are just experiencing some turbulence" and not to worry. The lack of this one deed caused people on the plane to scream during the next dip. They screamed! Any kind of screaming from adults during a flight causes a certain amount of panic....even in the very calm. KUDOS to SwissAir for equal opportunity employment.....but for Christ's sake can you train your employees to tone down the DRAMA just a few decibels????

1. Zurich
We arrived in Zurich on the 30th of March. We had a reservation at the Hotel Otter which turned out to be a "raver" hotel. Zurich is touted as being the new Berlin soo.........there was a party till all hours at the Wuste bar downstairs. Incidentally we had jet lag and woke up starving at 1am with no food or hope for any food till morning.. so it didn't really matter anyway. All the rooms at this hotel had a theme and we were in the Pur Pur room. It was all in pink satin. Quite a sight. The included breakfast was amazing though. they made us up little plates of food....3 different cheeses and croissant, French bread and rolls covered in pumpkin seeds, 2 different types of jam, coffee and orange juice. Delicious!







we visited the Zurich Zoo during our short stay....I'm not usually a fan of Zoos as I fell that the animals never truly have enough room and often inadequate environments, but the Lonely Planet guide assured me that the zoo was roomy. All in all it wasn't bad...however the camel and the rhino seemed particularly pissed.

Pacing Rhino Video
Pissed-Off Camel Video
(BTW, these files are a few megs each..so be patient)

We also ran across a crazy bird that was singing in the Zurich streets long after dark.
Nightbird Video



Tiger in the midst of eating the remains of an American tourist


Little Leopard in a hollow tree

2. Bern (Mittelhausern) with Mark and Susanna Riese and Vita and Johannes

We were then off to stay with some friends that Chris had met and been roommates with during his 5 years in Switzerland. We enjoyed a terrific fondue (my first true Swiss fondue) and hung out with Johannes and Vita. The company and food were both amazing (Mark and Susanna are vegetarian yipppppppppppppeeeeeeeeeee) and we really enjoyed the community where they live. Such a quaint little train station and community with a great view of the mountains. We went on a little hike out behind their house. It really made me want to move there! Johannes is really into pirates and knights and he and his friend Andrew had Piratenfests out in the back yard toting wooden swords and drinking water as if it were rum!


The Riese Family...Bern


In the gardens of the PDC..Bern


silhouette at the top of the hill in Mittelhausern


3. St. Imier valley with Pierre and Giselle Vorpe

This turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the trip. Not only because Pierre and Giselle were so nice...but also because the area was so beautiful. Giselle was also a wonderful cook and hostess and we had some terrific food as well as a raclette...which was my first. Pierre is an engineer and we all really had some terrific conversations.


The Inner Cloister at the St. Ursanne monastery


Giselle and I at St. Ursanne


Cris, Giselle and Pierre

4. Mürren (Gimmelwald and Lauterbrunnen)

Although Murren has some of the best landscapes in Switzerland..it was my least favorite place that we visited on the trip. Partially because I didn't like our room at the Eiger Guesthouse, and partially because the weather did not cooperate during our stay. The first day was absolutely beautiful...but then we had rain on the 2nd day and lots of snow (20cm) on the 3rd and 4th days. We walked around 15k on the second day but couldn't traverse some of the trails due to mud slides and such. We walked down to Gimmelwald and then took the Funi back to Murren. After lunch we made our way to Lauterbrunen which was a very nice little town. A redeeming quality about our stay at the EG was that the food was really great. The price of the room included breakfast and dinner which were skillfully and deliciously prepared...and they accommodated my vegetariansm which was great. The rooms and the bathroom were just not clean by Swiss standards and the place itself seemed to be in some need of repair.


Eiger(elevation 3970 m = 13025 ft), Mönch(4099 m = 13448 ft) and Jungfrau(4158 m = 13642 ft)


Picture of the snowy tain station from our room window


Lovely waterfall taken from Lauterbrunen

Still to come!

5. Bern
6. Annecy, France with Pierre and Fabienne Castori and children
7. Lausanne (Ouchy, Montreux, Chillion)
8. Geneva
9. Lucerne
10. Zoug

Congratulations to Ron Sexsmith

Hi Everyone. I am staying at this cool hotel in Bern tonight and they have free internet! However it is a German keyboard and it just took me 20 minutes to find the exclamation point!

So to those of you who are not aware, my fave rave Ron sexsmith won Songwriter of the Year at the Juno Awards.....http://www.ronsexsmith.com/home.html Congrats Ron! I cannot think of anyone who deserves it more.

We spent the last 3 days in Murren and it was very beautiful but I am nursing very sore muscles after a 15km hike. So we are off tomorrow to Mesigny, France and then back to Lausanne for 4 nights then we will make our way back to Zürich and then home on the 18th! We have experienced all types of weather in the last few days....Sun, rain and lots of snow! I thought we had left all that behind in Montréal.

Well that is all for now..not sure I will have another chance to write before I come home but I will try! I am getting desperate for a musical instrument to play.

nite....xoxoxo