Goodbye Everyone

Your decision is a complex one based partly on statistics for similar past procedures (mitral valve replacement or repair) done on other patients and partly on the details of your own clinical status.  I hope you receive guidance from a good cardiologist who has no conflict of interest.  Above all, history shows that cardiac surgery has best outcomes in hospitals where the particular procedure is done most often and by surgeons with most experience doing the procedure (and who have best long term success doing it).

Meanwhile, I hope E is ok.

I was wrong. Thanks for the correction. The warning was only for patients with chronic kidney disease who also have AF.

Actually Pradax is contraindicated in patients with AF, per an FDA directive. It’s written into the package insert. Just looked it up.

Dogberry, is that anecdote borne out by results of the clinical trials that supported FDA licensure of Pradax? Did they even compare the trial drug to an alternative standard of care?

Elliot, take heart, literally. A good friend just had his aortic valve replaced trans-arterially, and he was emailing with me next day and already back at work. Amazing stuff.

Here is why I don’t like eBay for selling:

I sell, either audio or camera gear, very infrequently, but I certainly do have experience with eBay. I just bought something on eBay, and I noted that I have 140 feedback entries, all positive, but that is over a period of more than 20 years, probably much longer, and in the vast majority of those transactions, I was the buyer. For the person who is running a business, eBay is probably a godsend. For the hobbyist like me, as a seller, eBay is a pain in the arse. First, they decide on the shipping cost, even when I can almost always ship at a lower cost than they estimate. Then they crank in the cost of shipping when they calculate their own percentage of the total transaction dollars, which artificially inflates their premium. Why should they take a percentage of the shipping cost? Second, I have a problem with returns, if I am selling to a total stranger. I have had the experience of a buyer breaking the item and then sending it back to me for refund, BECAUSE of the damage. The damage in such instances is definitely not due to mishandling by the shipper or poor packing. This has happened more than once. Third, the questions they ask of sellers, when you are filling in their pre-sale questionnaire, are not relevant to the single-time user, yet you cannot get past the questions unless you respond to them all, no matter how nonsensical.

So, I am still hoping that someone can suggest an alternative market for photography goods on the internet. B&H and Adorama, etc, are great businesses, and I probably would buy from them, but I am just guessing that they don’t pay too well for used gear, compared to what one might receive in a person to person transaction.

I’ve donated several cameras to a local high school that has a photography course, rather than selling them on eBay. That’s how I feel about eBay, as a seller.

Elliott, I too am a shutterbug, not as active as I used to be but I have several cameras.  I want to thin my collection of cameras, mostly in order to get some cash to buy new lenses. Other than eBay, which I abhor for the casual one-off sale, is there a website for selling cameras that is analogous to Audiogon or US Audio Mart? Thanks.  And I apologize if this question seems inappropriate here, but since E is not leaving us.....

Babe Ruth had a lifetime average of .342.

Not too shabby. And better than most of us batting here.

Elliot, if you continue to read this forum, perhaps you’ll still find occasion to comment.