Mike & Mary Beth Krebsbach

A colleague of Mary Beth sent her a link to a segment of the Oprah show. Oprah has Randy Pausch do a reprise of his “Last Lecture”. It is really an amazing video. Click HERE to watch the video.

“Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”, the inspirational and moving “Last Lecture” given by Professor Randy Pausch (www.randypausch.com) at  CMU (Sept 2007). Randy reprised and discussed this talk on the Oprah Show in Oct 2007. Randy Pausch is a virtual reality pioneer, human-computer interaction researcher, co-founder of CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center, and creator of the Alice (www.alice.org) software project. Other videos by Randy, including downloadable versions of this and other talks, can be found at www.cs.virginia.edu/robins/Randy

This year is the most snow since we moved into this house! Most of it has fallen since Eric moved in. My back thanks you a lot Eric! The latest snow came while Zennon was spending the weekend with us. It was fun for about 10 minutes before he was ready to go inside. It seems that no matter what we are doing - Zennon wants to help. He helps me cook, he makes his bed and he even wants to help clean up after supper!

Zennon stayed with us last weekend plus Monday & Tuesday. We spent most of the time in the house. He loves to play with his model train set and visit the “Train Store” in downtown Eau Claire. On this visit he also got to spend two afternoons playing with his friends across the street. They are twin boys - Ethan & Evan - that are about two years older than Zennon. They have a blast whenever they get together.

I have been adding pictures at a web site called “Photo Bucket”. To get there look at the menu on the right side of the screen. Under the heading Pages just click on “Online Photo Albums”.

 This was probably the most unusual way we have ever spent Valentines Day. Mary Beth and I were at the Wisconsin State Capitol to meet with our Senator and Representative to talk about bill related to Epilepsy. The picture was taken on the second floor rotunda facing the East Gallery. Mary Beth is on the Board of Directors for the Western Wisconsin Epilepsy Foundation. She also had epilepsy until she was in her 20’s and our oldest son, Eric, also has epilepsy.

The bill that we were there to support would require pharmacists to notify the doctor and the patient when the pharmacy changes manufacturer of a particular drug. There are lots of manufacturers of the generic form of any particular drug. By law, the generic can be anywhere from 80% to 125% of the “blood absorption” rate of the original brand name of the drug. This is not a big deal for most drugs. If the pharmacy changes the manufacturer of my cholesterol pill it won’t cause me to have a heart attack! However, drugs that control seizures have very narrow effective ranges. Changing manufacturers without even your doctor knowing can and HAS caused seizures. If the doctor knew about the change and knew your specific history a test would probably be ordered to check your levels on the different pill manufacturer.

You might think this is simple common sense - right? It passed in the Senate on a voice vote. Then it went to the Assembly. The leadership of both parties may be pretty smart about politics, big business and special interest groups. But when it comes to doing something simple and right for us common folks - forget about it! First they have to speed dial one of their lobbyists to see what they should do. In our case it is opposed by the pharmacist lobby. It’s too much work for them - that’s not what they say - but that is their only real objection. The rest gets obscured with a flood fancy terminology and numbers and science and absorption rates and on and on and on.

Mary Beth and I are happy to report that both our Senator - Kathleen Vinehout and our Representative - Jeff Smith are in favor of this bill. This was also the first time we have ever had an appointment with a legislator to discuss a bill. It is an amazing thing that more people should take the time do. If you live in Wisconsin we would really appreciate it if you would email or write your representive in Madson to please Support Senate Bill 71. It is real easy to find out who your representitive is. Just go to www.Wisconsin.gov or google “who is my wisconsin state representative”.  When you send your letter or email please let them know where you live. It makes a big difference to them to know that you are an individual with an opinion and not part of an organized effort to flood them with email. Also, if you email - please copy Representative Vukmir at Rep.vukmir@legis.wisconsin.gov - she is one of the leaders that is against the bill. Thanks a lot for helping!

If you would like to leave a comment on this - or any post - please do! Right below this post is the underlined words “No Comments” or something like “3 Comments”. Anyone can read comments - but you have to register or log in the leave a comment. In order to avoid being flooded with porn and spam I have to approve comments - so you won’t see it right away.

 It’s taken me some time to be able to do this. Quite a few people have visited this web site expecting to find something new. I guess I just needed a little time before I could start writing again. We thank all of you for all the cards and calls along with your prayers and support. It really does make a difference. I think about him alot and I will always miss him.