I loved Patty Duke! I was quite young but remember waiting each week for the “Patty Duke Show!” She was SO cool! (She & Gidget! But Patty Duke played twins: 2X the cool!?)
And, then, there was “Valley of the Dolls.” She played a character who battled drugs and mental illness, with eerie parallels to her own life.
She was the consummate actress and was one of the few actors who was able to successfully transition from child actress to adult artist despite such a turbulent childhood and early adulthood.
And I will always admire her for the courage in facing her problems and committing to get the help she needed, and then to make public her battles at a time when most actors wrote “Kiss and Tell” books to as publicity promptions to amplify their celebrity.

Neo, what a treat to have seen her onstage in “The Miracle Worker!” and to carry that memory with you over the years.
I really only “knew” Patty Duke through television in series and later movies. I imagine she was electrifying in person.

Also on the brighter side, while they were in there, they took out my appendix, so I got a twofer.

I’ve known two people who had this and ignored the pain for a while until they came way too close for comfort to dying. In both cases emergency surgery saved them, but it was really life-threatening.

Glad you recovered. Sepsis is very common, as I wrote in that earlier post.

My friend had gone into septic shock by the time she came to the ER. It seems to have happened within a few hours.

Total bill for the three days – a little under $24,000, which Kaiser picked up in total.

On the brighter side, in the three decades since I’d last been in the hospital. the food has gotten a whole lot better, and the nurses a lot cuter.