Thread: XL-entLady's Account Talk

S&P 500 Large Cap Index ($SPX) INDX
29-Sep-2008, 13:22 ET, daily, O:1,209.07 H:1,209.07 L:1,161.43 C:1,164.93 V:0 Chg:-48.34
Traditional, 3 box reversal chart

Prelim. Bearish Price Obj. (Revised): 1,110.00

P&F Pattern: Double Bottom Breakdown © StockCharts.com

For what it's worth, and that's probably not much, here are my thoughts on the current TSP situation:

I thought about dabbling in F Fund for about 3 seconds, then decided that the credit situation is too wierd to chance that.

If I understand charts correctly, there is a bear triangle possibility forming in I Fund and that's too scary for me.

If I was in C or S right now I think I would be reluctant to lock in my losses. Especially if I had some time until I needed that money. Because the markets are going to go up eventually. And Baron Rothchild's statement about the best time to buy is when blood is running in the streets has been proven right over and over.

But the SPX now has a preliminary price objective of 1100. And I'm in G now and won't be tempted to even take a nibble out of C Fund until it gets into that 1100 area. And I do think it will get there. So I'll wait.

Y'all keep your powder dry!

Lady

Originally Posted by XL-entLady

Prelim. Bearish Price Obj. (Revised): 1,110.00

Correction: Bearish price objective is now 1030. Look out below ....

Y'all keep your powder dry,
Lady

Originally Posted by XL-entLady

Correction: Bearish price objective is now 1030. Look out below ....

Y'all keep your powder dry,
Lady

Whee! Wile E Coyote imitation! Well I didn't like this bill anyhow.

Originally Posted by XL-entLady

Correction: Bearish price objective is now 1030. Look out below ....

Y'all keep your powder dry,
Lady

Agree. Back in Jan-Feb. timeframe, I predicted a market bottom of 1150. I now think I was too optimistic and didn't fully realize the extent of the problems - I think now around 1000 or so is the new target, assuming we get things "stabilized" in the very near future.

Originally Posted by XL-entLady

Correction: Bearish price objective is now 1030. Look out below ....

Low of 1112, revised price objective of 1010, 1/2 hour until close. All hands to the lifeboats.

Keepin' powder dry,
Lady

Originally Posted by XL-entLady

Low of 1112, revised price objective of 1010, 1/2 hour until close. All hands to the lifeboats.

SPX P&F price objective has gone from 1130 to 990 in the last few hours. Where's my chocolate.

Over the last few weeks, several people have mentioned 800 as a bearish price objective and have had logical explanations for that number (Alevin and Uptrend come immediately to mind, there have probably been others).

Y'all be careful out there,

Lady

Originally Posted by XL-entLady

SPX P&F price objective has gone from 1130 to 990 in the last few hours. Where's my chocolate.

Over the last few weeks, several people have mentioned 800 as a bearish price objective and have had logical explanations for that number (Alevin and Uptrend come immediately to mind, there have probably been others).

Y'all be careful out there,

Lady

Does this mean you're going to start a XL-entSauce company to recoup losses in the market?

Originally Posted by Frixxxx

Does this mean you're going to start a XL-entSauce company to recoup losses in the market?

No, thank Divine Power that I'm being a chicklett in my little G Fund rut! My "Pasta Sauce" day created more stomach acid than my Tums could handle!

Lady

Well, since I was invited (something that doesn’t occur very often, you were serious, right?), kind of scanned the last couple of days post in your thread to see what was going on. I’m glad it’s not all financial!

I’ve kind of a mind set about how and when to take my FERS retirement, and guess I’d like to discuss that shortly as I’d rather comment on some of the post I’d glanced at concerning neurological pain.

For years I’ve lived with a condition called Stenosis, with only a vague understanding of its implications as it pertained to me. For years I’ve seen spinal specialist whom has said I need to quit racing off road motorcycles, loose weight, exercise, quit caffeine, don’t drink, wasn’t a candidate for surgery and on and on. When I said for years, I’m talking from the age of 16 (I’m 52 now). Even on the least days of pain, anything short of a narcotic wouldn’t do anything for the pain in my lower body. Ambien to fall asleep for the last 10 years. Only when racing, or riding aggressively and the endorphin level (http://www.road-to-health.com/64/Wha...dorphins_.html) in my body was brought up was there any sensation of relief. Of course banging around an old body isn’t the best way to medically deal with a condition (mentally, I’m nuts), but it was pain relief for a period of time where nothing else helped. A trip to a back quack would help for about 30 minutes, and one to a spinal specialist sometimes would be rewarded with enough codeine to get me through a week or so, but no long term pain relief.

Right about the time I was going full force into racing again just under two years ago, at age 50, I began to have episodes of tremendous pain and complete loss of feeling below my waist several times a week for periods of 30 seconds or longer. When I finally couldn’t hold my motorcycle up (or perform adequately at work) without constant pain, I began to look out of my area for a spinal specialist. I live in a very remote area where even getting a splinter removed from my sons back when he was kid required my assistance in the local hospital emergency room. I Googled and found a Professor of Neurology at UCSD (University California San Diego) whom is also a spinal specialist in both conventional and non-invasive surgery. After an initial consolation and a properly ordered MRI, we met once again to discuss my options. We discussed my condition, term, levels of pain and when it occurred. He asked about previous treatments and recommendations. After answering his questions, he stated, “none of that worked for you did it?” but not in a questioning way, it was a statement. That’s when I realized that I’d finally found a surgeon that was interested in treating the problem. We opened up the MRI on the CRT, and he pointed out to me (I’m basically a high dollar mechanic, so I know what a pinched line can do) something that none of the other physicians had ever disclosed (maybe it was the Radiologist or physicians interpretation of the paragraph that usually accompanies a $3000.00 imaging procedure). In my lumbar area, in the spinal cannel of three of the vertebrae my spinal cord was being pinched so much it was distorted into almost half diameter in some areas. He said the good news was that he has done hundreds of laminectomys, and that he was confident that the procedure would alleviate the symptoms 100 percent as other than some slight disk compression, there was nothing wrong with my back. The bad was that the surgery was open back, a triple laminectomy, not non-invasive, would require 3 to 4 days hospital stay and about 6 weeks recovery.

On August 26th of last month I checked into Thornton Hospital in LaJolla for the procedure. I was treated with more respect and care than had ever been done for me in my life. The UCSD medical system is by far the best place for medical treatment I’d ever been involved with, but again, I’m not a big city boy or have visited many other facilities such as UCSD. In my short stay many short-term personal relationships with all sorts of physicians and staff developed that will never be forgotten. I’ve had 8 previous surgeries, everything from fingertips being amputated, hernia repairs, shatter bones removed, bones rodded, you name it, and none of it ever scared me. This was entirely different, and the staff knew how to control the situation to make me as comfortable as possible. It was also nice to have so many young bright smiling wide eye students attending the physicians in the clinics and hospital itself.

I was actually allowed to wake up on my own in recovery after almost 6 hours of anesthesia (He gave me a two-fer, also did a ulna decompression on the left elbow) instead of being jarred awake by some attendant and rushed out the door, was visited by almost everyone involved within the hours that followed, and the next morning. Nurse Wendy saw I was wide-awake at 7am eating a nice breakfast from the cafeteria (better than Sizzler!) and said that as soon as I was done she wanted me to sit up. I needed a bit of a tug to sit up right, then after a few minutes was standing. She wanted to know if I’d like to try to walk with the stroller the IV and catheter was attached to. So I did several “laps” (everything is a race to me) around the ward. One of the attendants alerted nurse Wendy and the PA to the surgeon how much I’d been walking, so she asked if I’d like to walk without the stand. Sure, I wanted to walk. From the moment I’d awoken that morning, pain I’d felt for years was completely gone. My big toe had burned as if on fire for over twenty years. Gone. Pain in my leg and hips, gone. There were so many other issues that were related to the condition that are now gone it’s just too hard to describe! I continued to walk around the ward for about an hour, I’d never felt joy quite like this. Pain is the mind killer, and figured I’d just won. I’m a smoker, and was beginning to have fits, even filled with morphine (don’t get me wrong, before the surgery, a spinal block would only slightly alleviate the pain), so casually walked over to the third floor window on the ward. Low and behold there was an elevator, and it lead to an outside smoking area. I figured being a Government worker, it’s better to ask permission later, so I took the elevator down to the first floor, which still left half a floor of steps to actually get outside. As bad as I wanted the smoke, I really wanted to test what this person had done for me, so I navigated the stairs without a flinch. After downing two smokes (make me sick!), I decided to walk the three flights up to the ward. I was almost hoping up the stairs where before I’d be hanging off the handrail, feeling pain with every step.

About the time I rounded the entry door and started back to my room, there was nurse Windy with the surgeons PA standing there with hands on their hips, but for the life of me I couldn’t contain my excitement about the results. Instead of scolding me, she said as it seems I’m doing so well, after a bit of a bowel movement she’d be inclined to release me that day from the hospital. I don’t know about you ladies, but a guy being filled with codeine and morphine makes it pretty damn difficult to urinate, and it was great effort I produced a sample with quantity to convince her to allow me to be discharged.

I walked out of the hospital, no wheel chair that afternoon with my dad. That day went well, and two days after being released there were three days spent in pain I’d never felt before, but finally after a week at my parents (bless their hearts) I was able to drive my self home (200 mile jaunt in a stiff 4x4). With a good supply of codeine, the following couple of weeks were not that bad, no bad reactions, no indication of reversal of the procedure, just the pain from tissue and muscular disturbance. It’s been about 5 weeks now, I’m out doing yard work, refinished the wash room, and aside from being a bit out of shape (which I was in the first place form inactivity for a year or so), feel pretty darn good about life once again.

Now everyone can search the Internet and likely read more horror stories, but finding the right doctor, that can diagnose the actual cause is the road to recovery. It took many years of pain and reading about subjects to make my decision. Fortunately for me it was the correct one. I’m sure technology; micro imagining devices, neural guidance devices and such likely made this the best decision at the best time. You can be sure I’m going to enjoy the “Second Hundred Years” (loved that show).


Even as long as this post is, it isn’t about me. It’s about others that suffer continual neurological pain. It’s a nightmare. There are so many conditions being discovered each year that treatment for any of them is on the edge of medical technology. Others have always said I have so much going for me in life, but I could never see that living in pain. My disposition was so terrible (and I’m still pretty much an azzwhole, the surgery didn’t change that!), and yet my back is still that of a 52 year old with many years of abuse, I can look into the cabinet and know that a Motrin or two will do the job.

Don’t give up, and look outside the box we all live in. There is a whole world of people in the world who would like nothing better than to relieve you of your pain. I would have never thought they existed.

UCSD Medical is a heck of a good place to start. They are also entirely Blue Cross FEP.

http://health.ucsd.edu/specialties/neuro/

http://health.ucsd.edu/specialties/miss/

My Surgeon, one heck of a person, sports active with lots of kids.

http://health.ucsd.edu/UCSD_MD/Results?pict_id=0003350

Next onto my retirement plans. It shouldn't be much longer than this post

Rustynut - Congratulations!!! Good for you!!!