INDEPENDENT NEEDLEWORK NEWS

I apologize for disappearing, or seeming to, for a while here recently. I had actually gone up to Michigan for what should be routine medical care (pain management) but isn’t because no Illinois doctors have been willing to provide it — which I know because I’ve been trying to obtain it for over five years while becoming exceedingly worse in the meantime. In fact, only six physicians in the entire state of Illinois are apparently ever willing to provide it, and that includes not just for patients with missing limbs, chronic pain, and so on, but also for those dying from cancer or AIDS. Unfortunately, my friend Creel’s mother never encountered one of those six before dying of two different types of cancer.

I swear, Illinois is the state where all the doctors who just barely manage NOT to flunk out of medical school come to practice. Well, they have to go somewhere, you know! You don’t think they paid all that money to just barely get medical degrees and then aren’t using them, do you? Yes, of course, the students who only graduated to MDs and ODs because of a curve — and barely made it through medical school that way — are out there practicing on people like you and me! How else can they pay off their massive school loans?

One of the reasons this situation is so awfully horrible is because there are only two reasons a doctor can lose his or her license. One is to kill a patient. The other is to over-prescribe narcotics. The really pathetic thing is that most doctors are so far under-prescribing narcotics that they are killing patients by way of suicide instead … but society hasn’t figured out a good way to prove that type of case yet. I believe we WILL figure it out; we just aren’t there yet.

Anyway, infuriated with extremely good reason, depressed by the situation but NOT chemically depressed (as insisted upon by so many doctors, and even by quite a few of my friends — quite incorrectly … and I DO know what the difference is, having been severely chemically AND situationally depressed back in 2000), in pretty close to absolute desperation, frustrated into giving up on Illinois but unwilling to give up on myself, and still FAR from suicidal because I have way too much left to stitch, I chose to go to Michigan to a real state-of-the-art hospital and medical organization to see the doctor of a friend with some of the same health issues I have whose doctor readily prescribes REAL pain relievers for her as needed.

By “REAL pain relievers,” yes, I do mean narcotics — those wonderful pills which are so much less damaging to your liver than Tylenol, and so much less damaging to your digestive system than Ibuprofen. My liver is half again as big as it should be from Tylenol abuse because doctors here won’t prescribe — and Tylenol was barely working anyway. I was going through the 250 pill bottle every week at one point just to take the edge off! The Ibuprofen was just as bad for me — and just as ineffective.

Did you know the addictive potential of narcotics is almost exclusive to healthy individuals who have no pain to start with, while people who take narcotics for pain never experience a “high” from them because the medication simply relieves their pain (which is all the “high” a person who lives in chronic pain seeks)?

Anyway, I was gone just over ten days and my time while away in Michigan wasn’t too spotty as far as keeping up with Independent Needlework News was concerned. It was extremely frustrating, however, and not quite up to my own wishes or standards because I was fighting with a 24K dial-up (even though she has a 56K modem, she doesn’t think there’s any reason to call her ISP and have them check the situation out, and no amount of trying to explain to her why she should be getting better service would change her bullheaded mind) at the house of the friend I was staying with while in Michigan.

You’d think it would have been really great to get home, but while I was away, my dear father-in-law unfortunately had to be admitted to the hospital, where he later became a victim of medical malpractice, dying senselessly, needlessly, and quite unexpectedly while at one of the most well-known hospitals in this area of the country.

So perhaps you can imagine my frustration at receiving the following comment at this particular time from reader Amy Frost:

To whom it my [sic] concern,

I heard about 6 months ago that my favorite thread company Needle Necessities [sic] is going out of business. I have been trying to get some answers on this for months. The place I normally buy my thread told me that she has been waiting for her back-orders for about 10 months now. I have been online looking for the Floss and Pearls that I normally use for my class that I have been teaching for 10 years. I cannot understand why no one has what I’m looking for! I have tried other brands but nothing looks as nice as the Needle Necessities brand.

Today I finaly [sic] called Needle Necessities myself for the 1st time and spoke with the manager, Debbie. She told me that they are no longer in business. I cannot believe this! What makes me upset is that on your website it reads the following information “Needle Necessities NOT, Repeat NOT, Going Out of Business”. [sic] Who do you think you are? your [sic] readers are relying on you for accurate information. This is so disappointing!!!!

Sincerely,
Amy Frost

When I wrote my first article titled Needle Necessities NOT, Repeat NOT, Going Out of Business at the behest of a reader who wished to remain anonymous, I also spoke with the front Office Manager, Debbie BuSteed, just as Amy did. At that time, on Tuesday, August 21, 2007, Debbie vehemently insisted Needle Necessities was NOT going out of business, and that if it were, she would know. Accordingly, that is what I reported.

Unfortunately, Needle Necessities has had some difficulties in the past year or so, including employee transitions which resulting in falling behind on numerous orders. Apparently, these difficulties eventually resulted in the owner of Needle Necessities making the decision to actually close the business. Debbie BuSteed, whom I spoke with again after receiving your comment, Amy, confirmed that the owner had informed her on Monday, September 10, 2007, that the business would be closing. She did not intentionally mislead or lie to me, nor did I intentionally mislead or lie to you. I trusted my source, who was the best source of information I could get at the time — and who still remained the best source of information even when you contacted her and then when I contacted her again. The only “problem” is that Debbie is perhaps a more optimistic person than she should have been in this particular situation — but with a company which had been in business as long as Needle Necessities has, I think I would have tended to err in the same direction myself.

Debbie’s priority since then has been on finding a new job, combined with finishing up the work which remains for her to complete at Needle Necessities (which sounds like quite a bit, actually, especially as there are only two remaining employees) which is one reason she did not inform me so that I could inform you instead of your informing me.

My priority has been on first my father-in-law, and then after his death on supporting my husband and the rest of his family, along with taking care of my own health instead of rushing to inform the rest of the public.

As for your wholly inappropriate and offensive question, “Who do you think you are?” I am the sole owner, investigative reporter, and writer of Independent Needlework News. So far, all the work I’ve done here at Independent Needlework News has been for FREE because I haven’t figured out how to place the ads onto the site, and the person who said she’d help out with that kind of technical support stuff has apparently not had time to work on any of those things. Just because my tag line says, “It’s like CNN, but all needlework news, all the time!” doesn’t mean I’m working 24-7-365 or that various individuals are working for me to cover things 24-7-365. Needlework is important, but not that important. What the tag line actually means is that you can come to Independent Needlework News 24-7-365 for needlework news … and I think pretty much everyone except you understood that prior to this; if not, they will now.

As for me, I still do not feel particularly up to regular blogging for Independent Needlework News or anywhere else. It seemed the doctor in Michigan had been a big help, but then Dad died and now nothing is working. I’m not really sleeping well or eating. I’m grieving and barely holding it together for my husband. This threw a financial wrench into things also that is making life extremely difficult, and I have another trip to Michigan in a couple of weeks that I don’t know how I’m going to manage … except I know it will cost more than the last one did for a shorter stay because I’ll need a hotel, rental car, and so on.

But getting back to work on Independent Needlework News is probably a good idea. That will help restore a sense of normalcy. Maybe I’ll feel like stitching, which always makes me feel good.

Perhaps some of you will let me know of big sales of Needle Necessities floss.

Technorati Tags: Needle Necessities, rumor, out of business, needlework, pain management, health care, medical malpractice, routine medical care, Illinois, narcotic, opioid

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 22nd, 2007 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Heather's Favorite Posts, NEEDLEWORK STYLES AND TECHNIQUES, Needlework Facts, Posts Containing Information about Heather, Special Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.