I have yet to recover from pericarditis. It was diagnosed on 4 October 2021. Other problems were diagnosed later: an inflammation of the rib cage muscles and broken ribs. However, the initial diagnosis remains valid. It is pericarditis, and it is harrowing. I have undergone several tests, but I cannot say that I have been treated. Life in Magog is better than life in Sherbrooke. I have a friend who looks after me and is good company. If I can use my left arm – I am left-handed – we sit at the dining table and work at our computers. I can barely use my left hand. I am now in Sherbrooke looking after domestic matters. The co-owners of this building were told to get rid of their thirty-year-old whirlpool tubs because they could leak. I was not prepared for this.
Life goes on despite the pain. Canada is spending billions on its healthcare programme. I could choose my doctor in Canadian provinces other than Quebec, but one is lucky to have a doctor in Quebec. It could be that, by now, matters have also changed in the rest of Canada. At any rate, some people are going to private doctors. It may be my only recourse, which should not be the case.
Winter has come. There is very little snow, but it is cold. Storms devastated many American states. I grieve for those who have lost a loved one and their home.
Medical Tests
I went for tests on the 14th and 16th of December. On the 14th, I was in considerable pain when I arrived for the tests. So, afterward, I returned to the Emergency Room. The doctor who looked after me told me, somewhat aggressively, to dismiss all previous diagnoses. She also stated that we did not have a firm diagnosis concerning my illness and that she would not prescribe medication. If my memory serves me well, my doctor also said that she was a young emergency-room doctor and that she did not have the authority to prescribe medication. Other emergency-room doctors had prescribed medication.
But we did have a diagnosis. I had been diagnosed with pericarditis, inflamed muscles in the rib cage, a deteriorating left shoulder, and arm, etc. In rare cases, the vaccine can cause pericarditis and/or myocarditis. However, Covid-19 is the greater evil. Therefore, one gets vaccinated.
However, after my heart was examined and tests performed, this doctor wanted to send me home unmedicated. Pain may sound the alarm, but it can grow into a medical issue. I told her that I could not tolerate this level of pain and needed medical help. I could not understand what had happened to me.
Another doctor walked by and asked, jokingly, if I was the lady with the sick shoulder. How did he know? I said that I was indeed the lady with the sick shoulder and told him that the pain had become so intense that it was crippling. Something had to be done. He said he would look at the papers. In the end, the doctors, or my doctor, phoned the pharmacy to prescribe barely effective painkillers, but painkillers.
However, I still wonder why I was not prescribed effective medication. I am small, but I am not a child. The doctor also said that the pain I felt was not always constant. It could stop for a few minutes and then recur. Therefore, it did not warrant medication. My friend Paulina arrived, caught a few words, and said that for the last few weeks, I had not been the same. I was not at my computer.
One is asked to provide a number from one to ten to describe the intensity of one’s pain, but that is very difficult. I was not being burned alive, yet I was experiencing considerable pain.
Reality has changed, but has it changed to the point where taking a few tablets of codeine is considered harmful? Moreover, although Covid-19 has exerted an influence on everyone, the medical use of morphine for a few days is still acceptable. In rare cases, Covid-19 vaccines can trigger pericarditis and myocarditis which in no way lessens the benefits of the vaccine. This may have led my doctor to a degree of analysis paralysis.
This little post is not under “Medicine in Quebec.” But I am worried. Will I be left to age and die in pain as though I were the epitome of nothingness? It comforts me to think that if there is a God, and there is a God, God knows me.
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This is the month of Christmas and the day of the longest night. The Winter solstice, is very near in this hemisphere.
We are going back to Félix Loriaux. Would that I could find more pictures of his Buffon pour les enfants, One site does show illustrations of the Buffon pour les enfants, but are short of images. So, I may have to order the relevant books, if they are affordable. As you know. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon was a naturalist. The animals he discussed were animals, not animals in disguise.
Below the video, you will find a page from an illuminated manuscript belonging to madame Marie Hainaut (1285). I love this naive depiction of an angel telling the shepherds that Christ is born.
A picture on our video features anthropomorphic humans, humans disguised as animals.
As for the related articles, they are the story of a Czech gentleman, John Amos Comenius, who may well have been the first educator to state that illustrations helped students to remember. A picture is worth a thousand words.
Livre d’images de madame Marie Hainaut, vers 1285-1290 Paris, BnF, Naf 16251, fol. 22v. La naissance du Christ est annoncée aux bergers, aux humbles. “Et voici qu’un ange du seigneur leur apparut [.]. Ils furent saisis d’une grande frayeur. Mais l’ange leur dit : “Ne craignez point, car je vous annonce une bonne nouvelle [.]” (The Birth of Christ announced to the Shepherds) (Photo credit: the National Library of France [BnF])
Micheline on 23 November 2021 (Photo: J. Prosnick)
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I am still sick, but my friend took this picture of me yesterday. I wanted to smile, hoping it would make me look healthy. I thank John for taking care of me during this illness and for staying with me as I went from test to test at the hospital in Magog. He did not leave me.
Kindest regards to all of you. ❤️
M. A. Suzor-Coté, R.C.A. (1869-1937) “Still Life with Lilies”, 1894 Oil on canvas 25.1/2 x 32 in. (SOLD) (Galerie Eric Klinkhoff, Montreal)
I have noticed that one can no longer “show likes.” It may be a temporary problem and a problem intended at progress. If I cannot see who liked at post, I will lose my community of readers.
Moreover, I cannot be interrupted when I write a post because I lose my train of thought. In fact, after writing a post, I am tired and must rest a little. So, I have writing days and reading days. I am growing old.
It may therefore be a good policy to re-enter the “like shows,” if a permanent change is contemplated. It would also be very convenient of all gravatars led to a page of a pose. One would click on the page. It is extremely usually. Remember proverbs: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it (Wikipedia). The French say « Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien » (The best is the ennemy of the good.) This proverb has been anglicized, but it is not necessarily understood.
I have also notice that I lost 1000 readers overnight. The number was 3000 +.
I thank you very much for keeping posting on one’s blog possible.
Dear readers, I apologize for attempting to update my last post. In fact, an apology is no longer essentiel because the few lines I wrote have disappeared.
I had modified the paragraph that precedes the conclusion. I wrote that, ironically, Cameron of Lochiel’s decision to a refuse a promotion that would not allow him to help the d’Habervilles reinforced James Murray’s conviction that their “sovereign” could not do without the services of so loyal and grateful an officer. Cameron of Lochiel richly deserved a promotion. He is the hero in Aubert de Gaspé‘s Anciens Canadiens.
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I also wrote that I would be closing my post in the not-too-distant future. My memory plays tricks on me. I will resume my career as an artist. I do watercolours, sanguine, drawings… Once in a while, I will dip the brush in my coffee instead of the water, but it does not affect the coffee. I really do not know what will happen to me. Nor do doctors. I can still function but I make spelling errors, repeat myself, etc.
Fortunately, scientists have now determined that Covid-19 attacks the brain and they have started to map out the harm inflicted by Covid-19. Forty-five years ago, no one knew. For 15 years, I did not dare tell anyone that I could not attend meetings that took place in the evening, or go out, whatever the event. In 1991, a Spect scan revealed a seriously slow rate of perfusion of blood to the brain and extensive damage. I was not expected to do anything anymore.
I tried to return to work. However, a new Chair, who wanted to avenge the dismissal of a colleague, would not look upon me as a full-time member of the Department. For four years, I taught on a part-time basis. I re-entered the classroom after he resigned. However, once I resumed my duties, my workload kept growing. I was teaching in several areas of learning. I fell ill and made decisions that I regret.
James Murray was a good man and Cameron of Lochiel, the bon Anglais. It seems that the only person who would harm the citizens of New France and the Amerindians who lived among them was Jeffery Amherst.
I will quote Wikipedia:
Amherst’s legacy is controversial due to his expressed desire to exterminate the race of indigenous people during Pontiac’s War, and his advocacy of biological warfare in the form of gifting blankets infected with smallpox as a weapon,notably at the Siege of Fort Pitt. This has led to a reconsideration of his legacy. In 2019, the City of Montreal removed his name from a street in the city, renaming it Rue Atateken, from the Kanien’kéha Mohawk language. The town of Amherst, Nova Scotia is controversially named for him, as is the town of Amherstburg, Ontario.
My computer is doing very strange things. Yesterday, an unfinished post was published. I finished the post, but it went into drafts and had to be republished.
My computer has been attacked and still requires repairs.
I have continued to research Scots in Canada. They were fur traders and became were wealthy. When beavers nearly disappeared, they became explorers. As fur traders, they founded the North West Company (1779) which competed with the Hudson’s Bay Company (established in 1670). They lived in the Montreal’s Golden Square Mile(mille carré doré) and socialized at the Beaver Club, a gentleman’s dining club, founded in 1785. Later, they moved to Westmount, Montreal. A few senior members married French-Canadian women. The French who had remained in the fur trade after the Conquest were senior members at the Beaver Club. New France had its bourgeoisie and bourgeois remained. Some were Seigneurs. Affluent French-speaking Canadian may have lived in Outremont, a lovely area of Montreal. Until recently, bourgeois French Canadians did not live in Westmount. They lived in lovely homes located in Outremont. I visited relatives in that arrondissement. Their homes were lovely, but their dining-room could not accommodate a hundred guests.
Charles Chaboillez was a wealthy fur trader, but he lost his money. His daughter married James McGill who, in his will, paid his father-in-law’s debts and provided him with an annuity.
Montreal is a gem, but the money was in the hands of Anglophones, as Mr Neilson told Alexis de Tocqueville and as Tocqueville himself knew.
The Château Clique is associated with some members of the North West Company, but seigneurs and French bourgeois also belonged to the Château Clique. Fur trading had its classes, and the wealthy are its upper class. The French had been voyageurs and Amerindians were their guides. However, one could be wealthy in New France and Canada without exploiting others. I would not make that generalization.
I apologize for a delay in posting. There have been many events. The worst, however, is difficulty logging in to Windows/Microsoft. I supply a password. It works, but suddenly it no longer works. I do not think the password is the problem but something else. I am also facing criminality on the Internet.
As for my posts, the next one is a song in which the Vent du Nord ensemble express an opinion on Confederation. At this point, statues of the main father of Confederation have been removed. A building or buildings named after him have been renamed.
I have been updating posts on La Fontaine. La Fontaine’s Official Site is no longer the same, so the link to the text of the fables must be changed. These posts are listed on a page and, to my knowledge, all have been updated. In the days of Covid-19, informative posts may benefit students.
Where the Pandemic is concerned, the rapid emergence of variants combined with civil disobedience are undermining the vaccination campaign. The number of victims has risen. It seems that Easter has been as deadly as Christmas and refusal to wear a mask or to be vaccinated are deadlier still. It would be my opinion that governments respond to protest by loosening sanitary measures prematurely.
My memory is playing tricks on me. It’s a neurological issue caused by the virus H1N1, which I caught in February 1976. Beware of “slow Covid.”
Given the passing of Prince Philip, I am playing my “royal” music, the second movement of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony. It has long been a favourite.
Love to everyone 💕
Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, 2nd Movement, Israël Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta
A 1st-century fresco painting from Pompeii, Italy, depicting the poet Sappho holding a stylus. Photograph: Mimmo Jodice/Corbis (The Guardian)
Most of yesterday’s post was written online. It was quite the adventure. It was published before I had finished writing it. I had a copy in Word, but it was not complete. Moreover, I am not the only person writing my posts. Parts of my posts can be and have been removed by someone else.
Yesterday’s post lacks a formal conclusion, but it is fine as it is. Missing from the post is the name of a Danish scholar and a link to his publication: a booklet.
This morning I added links. One needs a link to Blanche de Castile and Louis IX.
We know that four Bibles moralisées were realized in France in the 13th century and that they constitute paradox literature. You may have noticed the feet of our depiction of Gods. They are nicely depicted if the side of a foot is drawn, but not if the front of the feet is depicted. Dimensionality had not been fully explored when our Bibles were illuminated and it remains somewhat problematical.
On a more personal but interesting note, I would like to tell you that I have recovered from myalgic encephalomyelitis after 44 difficult years. The problem started when I caught a virus in 1976, but ME was not diagnosed until 1991, after I underwent a SPECT scan at Mount Sinaï hospital in Toronto. I was told that my brain was damaged and that I could no longer lead a normal life. I chose to remain intellectually active as a university teacher.
ME disappeared quietly during the last eighteen months to two years. I cannot tell how it went away, but I can tell when my life started to change. It did after a strange three-month flu and voice extinction that triggered advanced emphysema. I had never smoked, not even one cigarette, and I am feeling quite well.
I apologize for rebuilding my post online. It took a long time because older versions would eliminate changes. Life can be strange.
Loreena McKennit sings Greensleeves by Henri VIII
Sappho (1877) by Charles Mengin (1853–1933). One tradition claims that Sappho committed suicide by jumping off the Leucadian cliff. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Micheline's Blog 
