Vegas views

I said I'd upload some Vegas shots, so here they are...
(I hate trying to upload pictures from blogger so that's why I don't much. How do you all - who do pictures - do it?)

This is a view of the Stratosphere from waaaayyyy down the street at the Pawn Stars pawn shop:

Ron in the pawn shop. Next to him is the barber chair they bought and refurbished and behind him is the Harley that had the pink and red design. The barber chair had just sold that day (probably to a tourist) and the Harley had a $20,000 price tag:


The line to get into the pawn shop:


Inside the M&M Factory. That place was huge - and packed. Ron had to wait outside because there was no room to move for him:


The "other" Elvis. He didn't want to let me take his picture because I didn't have any money to tip him. I really didn't (wasn't trying to stiff him) but Ron and Elvis share the same birthday (Jan 8):

Ron is better today...

Which is good. I'm glad that the bug he seems to have picked up has not turned into pneumonia. Since he does sound better, I'm confident that it will not.

He still has some confusion but it's more of the level that we've been having the past year or so and not an increase like we just dealt with. That's a relief!

I called today to get an appointment with the nephrology doctor; he said he wanted to see Ron in one week. The lady said his first available appointment was April 24. Hmmm.... That's a bit longer than one week. I explained that he had been in the hospital, was discharged, and the doctor wanted to see him in one week. She said she's not authorized to put him on the schedule without clearing it with the doctor. OK - whatever you say. She'll call me back.

Ron sees the neurologist on Wednesday. This is not the same one who came to see him in the hospital. I don't know why this one didn't come, but at least we already had an appointment lined up and don't have to wait on one. We'll take him the new medication list and see what he says.

So, we're looking to the future with high hopes and expectations.

Home from the hospital

Ron's kidney function returned to his "normal" so they took out the catheter. Once he performed the required bodily functions, he was discharged to come home. He has strict orders to keep his fluid intake at 48 oz or less per day and to watch his sodium and potassium intake. For a diabetic with chronic kidney disease, all of these dietary restrictions make meal planning somewhat of a challenge.

Ron does feel much better and he can see that I was correct in insisting that he go to the ER. He said he realizes that I know him better than he knows himself so he just needs to listen to me. That's easy to say when he's lucid, but when he's having an episode of confusion, his "reality" makes more sense to him than what I am saying. I do have durable power of attorney for medical decisions so I can always force my hand if I have to. LOL - I just need to find my copy.

The doctor says he does not have NPH but he does have mild vascular dementia and mild Parkinson's. I read that Parkinson's can cause dementia so I'm wondering how much of this is all connected. Parkinson's > Dementia > Diabetes > Dementia - a vicious circle. He also has high blood pressure, which is another factor in cognitive function.

I believe that he has had Parkinson's for a couple of years as he has been having increasing instances of tremors of his hands. He has the "cog-wheel" effect in his arms when given resistance and told to push against it. He was initially diagnosed with intention tremors but those are supposed to happen when he "intentionally" tries to do something. He has worse tremors when he's at rest - but not all the time, which is weird. He can shake whatever is in his hands right out of them, when he's not even doing anything with it. Makes getting food into his mouth difficult when he bounces it right off his fork/spoon or out of his hands. LOL - makes getting the stains out of his clothes a bit of a challenge, too.

I have to admit the actual confirmation of the diagnosis is a bit unnerving. I wonder how long it will be before Ron can no longer be trusted to stay home alone. I wonder how I'll manage taking care of him, taking care of a house, and keeping my job. Working from home is not an option for me although I have requested to be able to do so more than once. There are a couple of people in my department who have the same job title that I do who work from home at times but that benefit has not been extended to the rest of us. I'm not entirely sure why this is so but one of the reasons I was told regarding one person is that she is perceived as going above and beyond her job title. Hmmm... The last time I went above and beyond and volunteered outside of my responsibilities, I was told I didn't know my place. So - I backed off and now I'm not doing enough. Oh well... that is life in the fast lane. Since I'm not one to make waves, I'll let it ride until I'm no longer able to handle all sets of my responsibilities.

Ron has a really good sense of humor so we'll get through this just like we've gotten through everything else that God has laid in our path. Someone reminded me that He only gives people the amount of stress/responsibilities they can handle. I believe that, too but I wish He didn't think I was quite so capable of handling so much. {grin}

Water show

I loved the water show at Bellagio so much that I took pictures and videos with my camera. The last one that I did was the best - it had Celine Dion singing the theme song to Titanic and I had the best shot of the water fountains and lights. But, there were a couple of guys - obviously not interested in watching the show - having a conversation over my left shoulder. I wanted to so badly ask them to take their conversation elsewhere, but I did not. I held my tongue and tried my best to ignore them. The funniest thing about the video is the guys' voices can't be heard that much. Instead, I hear these women yakking away and they are LOUD! I also hear someone singing who is not Celine. It ended up striking me as quite funny since I wanted the guys to be quiet. I guess God has a sense of humor because He got me on this one.

I tried for two days (over several hours) to get the video to upload but I don't know why it won't. So, you'll just have to take my word for how great it was. I'll post some pictures instead.

In the hospital - again

We returned home late Tuesday evening from our trip. Ron had been having some issues while we were gone and I was afraid that he was headed downhill. He fell twice in the hotel room, once in the street (when he hit a bump on the curb), and in the Denver airport. By the time we headed home, he was very swollen and his legs looked shiny because the skin was stretched so tightly. He, of course, did not think there was anything amiss with him at all. He thought I was nuts and just making things up.

The crew at the airport and on each of the planes could tell that Ron was having issues. I have to say that Frontier Airlines went above and beyond to take care of him and to make sure that we got to our destination safely. The flight crew on each flight (both going out and coming home) were very solicitous of Ron and did their very best to make sure he was well taken care of. We flew on a propeller plane from here to Denver and back. Those planes have steps and don't hook up to the tramway. Ron can't do steps so they had to hook a small ramp up to get him in and out of the plane. The crew getting him loaded and unloaded were very helpful, but I have to give big thanks to the crew from Denver to here. The gentleman who took Ron from our connecting flight absolutely saved my life. Ron had gone into the men's room and this guy stayed with me while we waited on him to come back out. A man came out a few minutes later and said, "There's a man on the floor in there" and I knew immediately that it was Ron. I had to crawl under the stall door to help him up. The transportation helper was right there with the wheel chair once I got Ron presentable and off the floor. I could not have done it without his help.

Once we got back to the gate, he told the crew there that they would need the ramp and that Ron would take a while to get loaded. We were second on the plane (after another wheelchair customer) and the flight attendant (Tom) was very caring in getting Ron seated, comfortable, and belted in. Each of the flight attendants on each flight helped me with our carry-on (I had Ron's BiPap machine and a rolling bag with his medications and other necessities). I emailed Frontier to let them know how much I appreciated their ground crew and flight crew assistance.

Before we had even taken off in Las Vegas, Ron looked at me and asked if we were home yet. On the shuttle ride from the hotel to the airport he asked me if it had been daylight or dark when we arrived in Las Vegas (it had been 9:30 in the morning on Friday). He fell asleep on the plane almost immediately and slept the entire way to Denver. Once we got to Denver he again asked if we were home and where was our baggage. He did manage to stay awake longer on the Denver to home flight, but it was much shorter.

Once we got home, it was obvious to Keith and me both that he was having some definite mental confusion. He didn't remember what day we went to Las Vegas (took him three tries) and could not remember what time of day we got there (never did get that right). He also could only remember that we had gone to Hoover Dam and only that because it was the last thing we'd done before we left. He couldn't name one other thing we'd done except in generalities (we went out on the street and saw some things). He did not remember that we had gone to the Pawn Stars pawn shop, that we had seen Criss Angel, or that we had seen the Titanic Exhibit. He asked me if I was going to take a picture of the chickens. I asked him what he was talking about and he insisted that I was going to take pictures of the Kentucky Fried Chickens to compare them with the baked chickens that the CSI crew was trying to find with the crazy people at the pawn shop. When Keith and I started laughing at him and telling him we hadn't talked about any cameras doing anything, he said I had set him up.

Keith and I told him that if he didn't let us take him to the ER that I was calling an ambulance. He agreed about 11:30 that we could go. He could see that we were not giving in so probably figured that was his best option. They did a CT scan, took a couple of x-rays of his chest, did an EKG, and some blood work. He was admitted about 3:30 so Keith and I went home to bed. He's got some swelling of his ventricles but not enough to indicate head trauma from his falls. He's also got elevated potassium which signifies that he was headed to kidney failure. Then, he's also not emptying his bladder all the way so they had to put in a Foley to compensate and restricted his fluid intake. The neurologists yesterday asked him how long he'd been in the hospital (he said two days) and what day it was (he said Saturday). They asked him to count backwards from 100 by 7; Ron got to 93 and could go no farther. Earlier, they had asked him to spell "world" which he did correctly. Then they asked him to spell it backwards, and he promptly said "b-a-c-k-w-a-r-d-s". He had a liver scan yesterday evening to check liver function but I don't know the results of that.

We got a solid "mild Parkinson's" diagnosis yesterday with a probable Vascular Dementia, and a "maybe" Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH). The NPH is indicated by the swelling of the ventricles but they don't think he has enough of the other symptoms. In looking at the list of symptoms online, I think he has more of those than he does for the Vascular Dementia. NPH symptoms include (from http://www.emedicinehealth.com/normal_pressure_hydrocephalus/page3_em.htm):

• Memory loss – check
  
• Speech problems – depends on the definition of "problem"
  
• Indifference and withdrawal – check; he doesn't really care about much of anything
  
• Changes in behavior or mood – not really
  
• Difficulties with reasoning, paying attention, or judgment – depends; sometimes
  

Walking problems, including:

• Unsteadiness – yes
  
• Leg weakness – yes; he has said how weak his legs feel
  
• Sudden falls – yes, I think so but he says maybe more balance related
  
• Shuffling steps – no; he waddles with a wide gait
  
• Difficulty taking the first step – not usually; sometimes he has trouble getting started but not often
  
• Getting stuck while walking – not really
  

Urinary symptoms:

• Inability to hold urine – not often; only a couple of times
  
• Inability to hold stool (less common) – he has two ways he goes: not at all or all of a sudden
  
• Frequent urination – no
  
• Urgency to urinate – no
  

Vascular Dementia symptoms include (from http://www.helpguide.org/elder/vascular_dementia.htm):

• Memory problems, forgetfulness – yes
  
• Dizziness – no
  
• Leg or arm weakness – yes
  
• Lack of concentration – not really
  
• Moving with rapid shuffling steps – sometimes
  
• Loss of bladder or bowel control – see above
  
• Slurred speech – no
  
• Language problems – no, unless you count not being able to think of the word he wants
  
• Abnormal behavior – hey, this is Ron we're talking about (grin)
  
• Wandering or getting lost in familiar surroundings – not really; sometimes confused as to where we are and where we're going (I drive)
  
• Laughing or crying inappropriately – no; cries at sad scenes in movies
  
• Difficulty following instructions – well, sometimes when he's confused
  
• Problems handling money – not really; got to have money first (LOL)
  

It is difficult to determine which of these is the correct diagnosis. Ron's mental awareness does vary depending on how his kidneys are functioning. Are they connected? Probably. Is it a kidney-caused problem? I don't know. I know that it is going to make things change once again for us. I'm not sure I'm totally up to the change or the requirements that it will put on me. I know that he worries that I will put him in a nursing home. That is not even on the horizon so I told him to not worry about it. A friend of ours came to visit him today and Ron said the same thing to him. Garry told him that he didn't believe that was anything I have considered, or would consider.

We shall see…

Vegas trip

We are home and had a great time, with a few bumps in the road. Literally. Ron had some issues and fell twice in the hotel room and once in the street when he hit a bump on the curb with the scooter. Over he went, right into the road. Thankfully, there were several good Samaritans on the street and I had many people helping to pick him up and get him back on the scooter. I was very thankful! He has a few bruises but he didn't break anything. (I'll post the "rest of the story" with regard to the falling issues in a bit.)

We stayed at the Luxor. I don't recommend it to anyone, especially if you are traveling with a disabled person. Or, a diabetic who needs to keep insulin cold. They don't provide refrigerators unless you pay an extra $20 per day for the privilege of having one in your room. No exceptions and if I had issues with it, I could take it up with "corporate" because that is who made the rules. Of course, management could have put one in the room anyway since it was just for insulin purposes. We were already spending a lot of money on the room and had the budget pretty much set in stone. An extra $20 per day doesn't sound like much in the grand scheme of things, but when you are skating by, the total ($80) is a big deal. Customer service isn't what it used to be, that's for sure....

The doors are very hard to get through if you're driving a scooter and there is no one to hold them open. I found one set of automatic doors at each main entrance but getting on and off the elevators can be a problem. To get to the rooms, you have to put your card key in the reader and then push the floor button. Ron could in no way do this. I had trouble getting it in the reader a couple of times before the elevator went somewhere else. We rode down and up more than once before we landed on our floor.

There were no drinking fountains to be had. I found out later that somewhere, between the two bathrooms is a drinking fountain. Evidently we were never there because we bought several bottles of water while we were there.

The Internet is not WiFi. It's hard-wired Ethernet cable that you have to string across the room, leaving it unsafe for others to climb over in an attempt to get from point A to point B. That was one fall for Ron... In order to use my laptop at the table and chairs that are in the room, I had to hold the laptop in my lap (novel idea... "laptop" in the lap!) because the chairs were too low to be comfortable using the table as a desk. Forget using a mouse. The Ethernet wouldn't stay connected and no matter how I did it, I would lose my connection every 10-15 minutes, which meant rebooting my computer each time. I made a personal trip to the front desk but the clerk neglected to put in the request for service. I finally got it fixed the day before we left.

The pool is closed for the season but I could take my room key and go use the pool and hot tub at Excalibur. If I had wanted to use Excalibur's pool I would have booked my room there. In hindsight, it would have been a better choice. If I wanted to use the on-site hot tub at the spa, it was an additional $10 per day (that is outside of the resort fee of $12.95 I was already paying for the "extra" services that I was receiving - like the pool, hot tub, Internet, etc.). Plus, I really didn't feel like traipsing between hotels in my swimsuit and towel. No thanks.

The decor of the hotel was beautiful. The main lobby areas were very nicely done. The "Shops at Luxor" in the Galleria consisted of just a couple of stores. The area was under construction. The gift shops there were nice with items consistent with what you'd find in other Vegas hotels.

There is a food court in the hotel where you can find McDonald's, Quiznos, and a pizza place. But unless you know where to look - or know how to "ask" where to look - you won't find them. We found them on our last morning there. When I asked about places to eat within the hotel, these places were never mentioned. Only the high dollar places were mentioned to me. We could have had more than one meal per day if we had found McDonald's sooner! Since there is no in-room coffee, I would have much rather paid McDonald's price for coffee than Starbucks!

I have decided...

I am an amazing person. LOL - that sounds a bit flaky and self-centered, but I had an epiphany this morning.

I am 100% wife - taking care of Ron in all things that he needs (which is considerable and will increase).

I am a straight-A student working on my 2nd master's degree. I was a straight-A student for the first one, too.

I work full-time and do a darn good job. I'm very conscientious and always give credit where credit is due - and take full responsibility for when I mess up.

I help take care of Isaiah.

I do 95% of the household chores and responsibilities.

I do a pretty darn good job of it all, too.

That takes a pretty amazing person to pull all that off.

It's February - ALREADY!

January just flew by and it's hard to believe that we're into the 2nd week of February already. I have to admit, it's been a good month. We were able to get our house refinanced and it will save us nearly $300 per month. With the refinance, it lowers our interest 1.5% and pays off our second mortgage. I'm so thankful! We also don't have to make a payment now until April, so we can use the mortgage money from February and March to pay off a couple of other debts. That will save us a little bit more money in monthly payments. I give God all the credit for this to have taken place.

Ron's toe (from his shoe incident) looks great. It has a dark spot but it is healing. His right foot also looks better. Dr. Heady trimmed some around the "hole" and although it still bleeds it does look better. If he wears his new brace, it takes the pressure off his wound and it doesn't bleed as much. I think he bleeds because of the pressure, and the more pressure he puts on it, the less chance he has for healing.

I am excited to be looking forward to our trip to Vegas on Friday. I believe that we will definitely be able to take the trip. I've rented an electric scooter that will be waiting for us when we get there ($120 for the five days but worth it) and we will have a handi-cap accessible room. I can't wait! Ron is finally starting to look forward to going, except the actual "going" part. We have to fly on a small airplane from here to Denver and from Denver back to here. I honestly don't know how we're going to get him in and out of it. He can't do stairs. I know they have a chair they use for disabled individual but he's a big man and I'm not sure they can get him in or out even with it. Oh well - we will cross that bridge when we get there.

I am continually looking forward and looking up!

Just random thoughts

I've only made it 26 days into the new year without letting much get me down. But, I only made it this far because I haven't posted the stuff that's been going on that's less than positive. Ron continues to have issues; I've decided that just probably isn't going to change any time soon.

He fell three weeks ago (which wasn't the only fall he's had) and landed very hard with his fist between his chest and the floor. He doesn't know why he falls, he just does. He's refused to let me get a monitoring system and says that he'll just be more careful. So now, he sits in his chair all day and only gets up if he really, really has to (i.e., bathroom trip). He can't stand well enough to fix himself anything to eat so unless he grabs a piece of fruit or a carton of yogurt, he's not been eating much. He grabs some snacks but for the most part, my evening conversation usually goes something like this:

Me: What did you eat today?
Ron: Eat? Was I supposed to eat? (he's kidding; he knows I'm going to ask)
Me: Yes, I told you to eat {whatever I've mentioned that morning}
Ron: Oh, well - I guess I didn't.
Me: Why didn't you eat?
Ron: Too much trouble (or) I didn't feel like it

He's been shaking a lot more, too. Last night he wanted a drink and because I was doing homework, he thought he'd get himself a drink. He was standing there, with his cane, and shaking so badly he could hardly stand up. He said he'd been shaking quite a bit during the day. I got his water and got him back to his chair. In bed, he started shaking again. He was shaking so much the whole bed was moving. I wondered how long it would last, should I say something, should I ignore it and try to sleep, or just wait and see what happened. After about three minutes, it subsided and he was able to get to sleep.

One night last week, I thought he was having seizures. He was sleeping, I could see his chest moving up and down (I was lying on my left ear, which is the only one I hear out of so I could only "watch" and not "hear" him breathe). Every few seconds, his whole body would jerk. This went on for several minutes. I was getting quite concerned but it stopped almost as suddenly as it started.

He got a new brace last Monday. I was so thrilled. It really helped him stand up better. We were able to put it down into a pair of his shoes he got after he had his left foot amputation. Because of the way the brace was made, we put it down in the shoe and then he slid his foot in it. This was great because he could pretty much do this on his own, and the shoe fastens with Velcro. Woo-hoo! Thought we were on to something. He wore that shoe on Tuesday to the cardiologist's office (had to have his pacemaker checked out after the fall because of the amount of pain he was in), walked in from the car and back out again. When I took off his shoes and the brace, I checked his foot and did not see any evidence of "wear" on his foot. That was a good sign...

Wednesday, I put the brace in the shoe and showed him how to put his foot in, fasten the brace, and then fasten the shoe. Told him to take the whole thing off if he felt like he was having a problem. I got home Wednesday evening and he said he thought the shoe felt too tight and could I take a look. I took the shoe off and immediately knew we had a problem. His big toe was bleeding. {sigh} That is never a good sign. He said, "It's only a blister, right?" I told him that nothing is ever "only" anything where his feet were concerned. It looked like someone had literally taken a cheese grater and grated off the end of his big toe. I cleaned it, added antibiotic cream, and bandaged it along with the other hole.

Today, it does look better but he can't put the brace and shoe back on until it's healed. He sees Dr. Heady again on Thursday so I'm sure he'll take a look at it. The other hole is just not healing. I can tell the hole is bigger underneath the layer of skin than it appears. When I push down around the opening, I can tell it's squishy underneath. I think Doc will probably cut the outside off to let the inside heal. We've been months on this hole.

In fact, next month makes four years that we have been trying to keep Ron's feet attached to his body. April 1, 2006 he had his first amputation (1/2 of his left foot - a transmetatarsal amputation) and he spent the rest of the year healing from that. 2007 we spent treating a recurring blister on his right heel. 2008 we spent having surgery after surgery on the right heel. Finally got the wound VAC off and the healing was looking good, and we then spent all of 2009 on the heel and a "new" blister caused by his first brace. Once that heeled (it's not quite heeled), the next "new" one popped up caused by pressure on the end of the next brace. Each time we get something healed, a new issues crops up.

About the fall... We believe that he cracked a rib or two when he fell, or bruised his chest cavity. He's been barely able to get himself in or out of the bed because of pain. Finally, this week it is starting to get better. I ask him every day if he wants to go get X-rays and he says "if I'm not any better tomorrow" and he's been a bit better each day.

As I was contemplating this post today, I was in tears. I couldn't decide if I felt sorrier for him or for me. Sure, he doesn't like the position he's in any more than I do - but are my feelings of sympathy really sympathy and compassion - or are they self-pity? Some days - I truly don't know. Other days - I'm ashamed of the answer. When I see his struggles, my heart just breaks for him. I'm torn between jumping up and doing what needs to be done and sitting back to see if he can make it. But, he's in so much pain that I have a hard time just waiting to see if he can do it because I figure I'm making him suffer needlessly. Then, I think that if he did more things for himself he might feel better. Then, I see his hands shaking and trembling and him struggling to do even the simplest of tasks and know that he is in tremendous pain, and the cycle starts all over again.

I have been letting my guard down lately with people and expressing my thoughts and my fears. I realized (today) that it is making me more vulnerable to feelings that I cannot afford to have. So, I am shutting back down and putting the survival walls back up. I cannot allow myself to feel, because feelings mean failure and failure is not an option. I have to just remain numb to all that is going on around me and put one foot in front of the other - day in and day out. That is the only way to survive. Running away is not an alternative action. LOL - I'd be on the phone every day asking if he was OK and if he had eaten.

I was talking at work today with one of my co-workers. I was doing fine until I started talking about concerns and the wondering if I could do anything differently than what I'm doing. I often feel like I'm not doing enough, and then there are times that I feel like I'm doing so much that I can't do another thing. I waver between resentment for some of the things that I have to do and compassion when I have to do those same things. I say over and over again that I wouldn't want to be in his shoes and that I do these things because I love him and because I'm glad to do them.

After I decided that my own feelings were causing my feelings of weakness and distress, I was able to get a grip on myself and get on with the items at hand. I wondered about the years my mom took care of my dad without ever complaining. My mom is my hero. I want to ask her if she ever got tired of her responsibilities and if she ever felt guilty for doing so. After all, at the time she was in better shape than my dad was. She never let on that she might have more on her plate than she could handle. She was retired, so that helped - but because she was retired, she was also older. Her trials with my dad's health started when she was 55; he died in Sept 2005. She was 75 and he was 74.

To catch a con man

I'm watching MSNBC tonight and Chris Hansen is profiling email scam artists. One of the American victims was a city treasurer who got taken for over $18,000. The next one was a county treasurer who not only "invested" his own money (to the tune of $80,000) but then embezzled hundreds of thousands of money from the county. Amazing... The first (a woman) said she thought she was trying to help someone out by helping them get their money back. Of course, the promise of $2,000,000 as a reward didn't even come into play. Puh-leeze... The only person she was convincing that she was trying to help someone out was herself. While I do feel sorry (to a certain extent) for the people for the loss of their money, I can't help but think "how stupid are you or how greedy are you" because they actually believe they're going to get something (millions) for virtually nothing (a "small" investment). Although some of them could be falling for something because they're desperate (after all, today's economy has created a lot of desperate people), maybe some of them are actually ignorant of the rampant email scams and "think" they're really helping some poor widow, who is dying from cancer, with twenty-four kids who live in poverty because their father absconded with their money, and the father died before she could have him apprehended and her money returned to her, and her kids will be forever grateful that some kind American has helped restore what is rightfully theirs - AND - because of their selfless generosity in helping out, the "rescuer" will receive a paltry percentage of the bulk of the money, but since the paltry sum is in the millions, the generous soul can't wait to help out. Right...

The county treasurer received seven years in prison for his "selfless" act of generosity in helping others, who just happened to be in Nigeria.

Chris Hansen has set himself up as a rich businessman and is calling himself Jim E. Dimoni (Gimme the money). Kind of catchy, don't you think? I loved it.

I continue to be amazed at how people fall for these, and why they think "this one" is honest when there have been so many exposed for the frauds they are. I continually get emails letting me know that I've won millions in a foreign lottery and I just need to collect - or that my wealthy long-lost relative has died and I'm the only remaining relative and I need to send my information in to collect my millions. It doesn't matter that I've never entered (and never will enter) a foreign lottery and I don't have any long-lost wealthy relatives (and I wouldn't be the only one because I have a BIG family). I especially love the ones that begin "Dearest" and implore on my sensibilities to help someone out.

My newest thing is scammers hitting my Avon website. They send a contact me request in, which I dutifully answer - knowing they don't want anything except to attempt to scam me. Of course, they want to place an order but because they are temporarily out of the country, they need for me to place the order - pay for it, and then ship it to them. They'll, of course, handsomely reward me for taking care of it but since they have they're own shipping company, they'll have that company pick the items up and ship them. They usually want to order anywhere from 30-60 of each item. I guess they think I have a lot of money (LOL, that's laughable) and I have the resources to order hundreds of expensive items (oh yeah, the items they want aren't the $2.00 things - they're the $30+ bottles of perfume).

Most of them I just ignore or say I don't ship - PERIOD. If they want something, order it from the website, have it shipped directly to them, and pay with real money - which is something they're not planning on paying me with. I've called one individual on his game and critiqued his email to me, correcting his punctuation, his spelling, and his grammar. He was not impressed and said that someday I would be "had."

Well, in order to be had, you have to respond and give your financial information, actually give them some money, and expect something in return. I don't buy anything from anyone who contacts me via email. Especially if I don't know the person. If I do get pleas from people I know, I respond back to them in a manner that is different from how I was contacted. If you're truly my friend and in need, I know how to contact you outside of email. Plus, if you're truly my friend you probably know I probably only have a couple bucks in my wallet at any given time and no resources to wire money or withdraw money.

I really believe greed plays the biggest roles in people being scammed. How many times have we been told that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. How many times have we been told that easy money isn't really that easy - except for the scam artists?

Money can solve a lot of problems, but in these cases it also causes a lot of problems.