Psychiatric pioneer wrote back - I quote Joel Fuhrman, MD, like a Christian quoting the Bible - Grace won the baby's marathon walk today

Donald F. Klein, MD, who graduated medical school 59 years ago. He's one of the top psychiatrists in the country.

Last night while working on my kidney memoir I looked up Donald Klein b/c my psychiatrist Larry Schwartz was a student of Klein, meaning he followed Klein's recommendations. I learned he is still practicing - at Columbia in NYC - and figured I had nothing to lose by sending him an email. I was pretty sure I would hear from him.

Sure enuf, this a.m. he wrote me back.

I asked him why he thought my bipolar went away. Whenever you talk to a psychiatrist, you've got to convince them you were properly diagnosed. So I threw in the fact that I was forcibly hospitalized.

I titled my email: Question for you, please!

Klein wrote:

Ms Deming
Bipolar Disorder is notoriously unpredictable so I can't say yea or nay.
Best
Don Klein

Here's the new Compass. I mailed out lots of em on Friday - Media Mail. At dinnertime last nite, the phone rang. It was Carolyn Constable, author of our Pursue the Wonderful into Autumn column, and award-winning poet.

"Did you get them?" I asked her.

"Yes," she said. "It's a fantastic issue."

"Oh, I'm so glad you like it," I said. "I haven't talked to anyone who read it yet."

Carolyn and I talked about Compass and other things for 25 minutes while I rode my stationery bike.

Rob, how can I get copies to you? I'd also like Gyulai to see the issue, not to mention Marna. As you may know, Laszlo doesn't believe lithium causes kidney failure. He thinks all of us were predisposed to kidney disease. So not true.

I have totally changed my philosophy about diabetes. I am now following most of the teachings by nutritionist Joel Fuhrman, MD, star of late-nite PBS shows. Here's his book which I bot for my mom. I'm nearly done reading it.

Here's what I had for breakfast. One egg sauteed with mushrooms and scallions. Since I forgot to add the spinach, I sauteed the spinach separately and put raw scallions on top. Delicious! For dessert, I had a small bowl of cashews.

Note: I did not eat starch as the professional diabetes organizations recommend. Starch shoots up my blood sugar. Fuhrman suggests diabetics rarely eat starch or minute amounts. He's also a big advocate of Beans. My black beans are soaking now.

It's so important to me to have good blood sugar that I'm following his tenets.

He also said that most Americans do not know what hunger is. People living in poor countries know what it is. That thought sustains me when, like now, I'm ready to eat but wanna finish blogging first.

I'll take my sugar just to make sure I'm not low. It's fine.

I had a half-hour warning about when the Demings would arrive. I accomplished an amazing amount of putting things away. Deadlines, we love em!

Grace is on a new sleep schedule. Nicole's philosophy is to tire her out so she'll sleep around noon. You would not believe how far that little lady walked. She's 15 months old.

We walked thru a little wooded path in my backyard to the parking lot of Keystone Screw. Even tho we did find used condoms in the their parking lot, the company serves another purpose: they make screws and bolts.

I told Dan that many yrs ago I tried an experiment. Some of the employees litter the parking lot or throw things in the little woods. At one time, their 'ear stoppers' - from the loud noise of the machinery - dotted the parking lot.

I put a trash can out for them, placing it near the steps which led down to the factory. I put a little trash in the bottom to show them how it was done.

The experiment failed.

Next door to the Screw, as we call it, is Elmar Blinds. Shockingly, they went outa business a few months ago in this bad economy. Their website it no longer available, but here's what a goggle search revealed about em:

In 2005, Elmar had sales of USD 61 million and has 350 employees. ... An Introduction To The Diverse World Of Mini Blinds For Your Home · Window Treatments

Before it was Elmar Blinds, it was Alfred Angelo Bridal factory, made famous in the movie "Rockie" b/c Rocky's wife had an Angelo dress.

Look at how Nature arranged herself in this beautiful pattern.

Dan and I walked thru Elmar's parking lot to meet up w/Grace and Nicole. They were inspecting Elmar's picnic area, a nice thing for employees - did they really have 350 here? I think they had a shuttle bus which picked people up at the train station.

Look who's been partying there now! The ground is littered with Bud Lites. Someone left a beautiful pot pipe on the table. There was also a nice warm woolen hat left on the bench which is in my washing machine right now.