Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?
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Just a few notes from out morning jaunt to Marion V.A. We started out first by going and feeling the feral cats. Then on to the car wash since my car looked like it had fallen into a couple of pretty big mud puddles. Then onto the old highway to Marion. I could take the Interstate, but it is a truck route ( trucks going both ways ) and though I'm thankful for our truckers, a lot of time I don't care to share the roadway with the kind of numbers that are out there.
Got to the bldg. in Marion on the grounds of the V.A. hospital well in time for our appt. Got in and did fine. No real wait. Got the shots and then to the room with recliners etc. where we needed to wait for the 15 min. period to be up. I had to wait for a half an hour due to one time having a reaction to a tetanus shot. But -- no reaction and we came out to get back on the road for home. I heard a strange noise as I was backing out of the parking spot -- and the car wasn't moving as smoothly as was the usual. Well, I was no where by that time that I could stop so the minute I could get off the road I did. My rt. front tire was almost flat. By fortune there was a gas station almost directly across the street. Refilled the tire and bac to the old highway home. We got to Mt. Vernon which is about 25 miles from home. They have a Culver's there ( I love their burgers and fires ) so we stopped for lunch. Lo and behold -- by the time we had finished eating lunch the tire was flat again.
Once more as luck would have it we were right across the street from a Phillips gas station. We put some air in the tire than limped our way to Walmart's which thank goodness was not too far away and they took the very lg. nail out of my tire and repaired the hole. It was wonderful. No one was in the automotive bay then and there were three people to work on my car. It was done fairly quickly and only $18.00. I saw it as a bargain. I could have tried to get home as the man I buy my tires from ( there had less than 15,000 miles on them ) repairs for free if brought to him -- the only thing is he is normally quite busy and has little help so I did not want to risk a long wait. Happy, but tired and with that great Culver's burger and fries to sooth me we are home. I can feel where I had the shot but not much else. I have moved my arm as much as you can for the fact that I spent most of my time behind the wheel. If it is sore now I rather expect to feel it tomorrow too but that is okay. Just glad we are that far along.
Altogether we did have a good day. We had mainly sun so I had sun glasses on most of the day.
Hope you all had a great day as well.
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Jackie, great that your tire was repairable and didn't need replacing. I'm "jack-challenged" and can't change to my spare, so I carry a can of Fix-a-Flat if I can't get Roadside Assistance (GEICO & Subaru are much better than AAA) to get me to a tire shop or service station (alas, my flats are usually irreparable). Make sure to exercise that arm to diffuse the vax throughout the muscle--it'll cut down on the soreness & stiffness. Ice (or a bag of frozen peas, corn niblets or berries) helps too.
Our snow guy came early this morning and cleared the snow/ice berm, so Bob was able to drive his own car today (though tomorrow he'll need my car again because he'll be away overnight, to be "greeted" with another 2-5" of snow upon his return Fri. night). But my HK will be able to get me to & from my mani & the pharmacy before the snow gets impossible. Freezing rain had been predicted, but latest prediction is all-snow. (As my former singing partner, who is now a "Yooper" in northeast MI, said when we found 6" of snow had fallen on my car during the course of a house concert we performed up in Marquette, "Cool! You can get traction on this stuff!").
Not taking any chances, though--just ordered a couple pairs of roll-up traction mats to store in our cars' trunks.
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Karen - congratulations on your 15 years. As I was scrolling through the posts, I realized how many of you have been here for awhile. Thanks for sticking around and providing encouragement to us relative newbies.
Marge
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Taco - thanks - when I was newly diagnosed, it was so wonderful to hear of people surviving 10 years, 15, 30 years. I stay for the camaraderie, but always to give hope. I talked to a gal the other day who is a couple years older than me and she is a 30 year and 6 year survivor. I love hearing those number. Hugs ,y friend.
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Good morning, ladies. It is 28 this morning, but bright and sunny. I am not feeling 100 percent and have an appointment for a drive through COVID test. I ran a low grade fever, had chills and muscles aches. The only place I have been was the PCP's office. The receptionist had cold symptoms, but wore a mask and behind the glass window. I had a mask and immediately used sanitizer. I even commented that she should not be working. I am hoping for a negative result.
IllinoisLady, that sounds like an adventure.
Karen, congratulations.
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Yesterday my car wouldn’t start (it’s in a heated underground garage), my portable GPS had slid over and covered my gas gauge. My gas tank was empty and I hadn’t realized it. Our maintenance man had a can of gas for the snowblowers that he let me use so that I could get to the gas station to fill the car. What are the odds that I would be empty inside a heated garage rather than on the side of the road out in this cold blowing snow? I certainly had a guardian angel watching over me yesterday.
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We don't always know whose lives we touched and made better for having cared, because actions can sometimes have un-seen ramifications. What's important is that you do care and you do act.
Charlotte Lunsford
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Puffin, delighted to hear about your 'miracle'. It is wonderful when something wrong turns out right. Not only nothing really wrong with your car, but a guardian angel near at hand with enough gas for you so you could right the situation yourself w/o much discomfort. It is the good life, huh !!! I'm so glad that it all worked out well.
Yes, I do think it was a 'miracle' yesterday that both times ( our bad, we did not have our roadside service number with us ) we needed air in my tire we were parked across the street from gas stations that offered free air -- though obviously we would have gladly paid. Miracles happen everyday but we become blasé and just see it as an incidental and often somewhat un-remarkable segment of life and move on.
Rained a while ago so going to be gray today. Warm enough for rain, but who knows but later on toward evening it could turn to snow. Some cooler/colder weather is on the way so we could have snow again. I'm not thrilled about late winter since we came with far with only one recent snow. Well, we will have to just wait and see.
Have an appt. with our old tax people as we never received any stimulus. We were told not to file taxes by our tax people and am thinking some box that might have needed checking along the way to last yr. may not have been. We will know the answer by tonight.
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Jackie, congrats on last chemo, Karen congrats on 15 years (seems like a long time for me at 3 years!), Puffin congrats on a heated garage and a helping hand, anyone else with good news congrats for that!
My most recent tire issue led to replacing the tire. Driving on a 70 mph freeway, a big rig cut in front of me, I swerved to the berm and heard a thunk, as I moved forward heard the dreaded flip flop flop sound of a very flat tire. Called my roadside service, while waiting for them to come from an adjacent city a local policeman came along and changed the tire for the 55mph spare. Turned out the thunk was a piece of metal that cut the side wall of the tire. All is well that turns out well.
Overcast cloudy and warm day here today. Will be concentrating on some work on the computer so will try not to let the greatness get to me!!!
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Thin glaze of ice on the ground. Took Tippy out, and we went around the building. I had my poles with the tungsten steel tips exposed, and cleats strapped on to my shoes. Tippy seemed satisfied. It is now snowing, odd that for a while there was nothing coming down, usually it is a gradual transition. Three to six inches predicted. Prediction for next week is seven days straight of temps peaking in the single digits.
My sewing machine is in the shop, expected to be so for two to three weeks. I just called the leader of the quilting group, we chatted for a while. She had a sudden idea for me to call the owner of the local quilting ship and ask her if she knew of someone who is not currently using a machine. She said that depending on the weather, that should be no problem. I HATE idle time!!
Been having some nasty backaches lately. I am wondering if something was cut during my mastectomy to make my upper back hurt worse than before?
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All you ladies who are dealing with the snow - be careful. Don't need broken bones to add to this covid year.
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Coming home from having our tax person check our stimulus for us we saw snow flurries. I think that is all there will be really as I think it is likely still a bit too warm. Turns out as far as the tax goes, we had to make out a non-tax payer form in order to be eligible or the stimulus. I guess it was a matter of since we don't have to file we are not recognized so we have to fine a non-filer's form. I now have great confidence in there being a FORM for everything.
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Karen, congrats on 15 years. My MIL was a 32-yr bc survivor (she died at 95 of a stroke).
Puffin, glad you had a good Samaritan with a gas can, and your car was in a heated garage. Ours is detached and unheated, so I'll go out daily and just run the engine for a few minutes (garage door open, of course). 2 yrs. ago we were in a brutal deep freeze (-20s) but only for 3 days. This time, though it won't be as cold (the worst low predicted is -6, and all highs above 0) it'll be like this for at least another 7-10 days.
Leslie got her first shot today! (She's a CTU-member teacher). Gordy'll have to wait till group 1c (16-64 with risk factors--his is asthma) comes up. But J&J just applied for an EUA for its 1-shot vaccine, and Astra-Zeneca might too.
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Good morning, ladies. It is bright and sunny and warmer. I am feeling a bit better and did eat a little this morning. It will be few days before my results come in. The drive through test went smoothly. My right nostril did burn all the way up to my tear duct. No problem with the left. They said I will be notified by email with 24 hours to 5 days of my results. I will self quarantine until the results come in. I am still aching and don't want to do anything, anyway. Drinking a lot of fluids.
Hope the snow is melting for those that are having to deal with that.
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To free us from the expectations of others,
to give us back to ourselves -
there lies the great singular power of self-respect.
- Joan Didion0 -
Has been a nice day here with sunshine. About 40 degrees so not the worst by far. One of my work days and I'm not getting much done now that I'm home. I had one of those rare 'didn't sleep well ' nights so I've been tired since getting home. My energy ( the biggest part of it anyway ) comes in the morning hours and actually starts going downhill about 1:30 or 2:00. Didn't get home till a bit after 1 p.m.
So, I will do some things in the morning that were meant for this afternoon. We are going to go back into some really cool/cold weather. Zero type temps. A bit like Sandy has described. She is 4 hrs. to the North of me and I felt so bad to hear her weather report - then find we will have some of it too. I don't think we will get much for snow -- but nowadays, who knows what may come.
I hope you all have all had a really nice day.
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We are having our version of a polar vortex here too-- today's high is 30 degrees lower than yesterday's. Had a surprise thunderstorm of short duration, got ~2 cm. of water, according to our rain gauge. We are dog sitting DS1's min-pin who hates loud noises-- she still has not forgiven us for the morning's noise!
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The greatest way to live with honor in this world
is to be what we pretend to be.
- Socrates
Reputation is what other people know about you.
Honor is what you know about yourself.
- Lois McMaster Bujold0 -
My COVID test was negative. Yay. But I am still feeling poorly.
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Average overnight low for the next ten days is predicted to be -10. Daily temps are predicted to get barely above zero. Tippy and I went for a walk, I did not check the temperature before I went out. He wanted to go further, but I said no. It was zero.
My sewing machine is in the shop, and I am having trouble figuring out what to do. I do have a call out to two places asking if I could borrow one. I'll put on a mask and start tearing fabric to make pillow covers for our scraps of batting, I guess. I have some things to listen to during that.
I may be going to the Austin area of Texas with my sister in a few months for a while. We need to sort through our sister's stuff; she died in a tragic auto accident a few years ago. Her son will be with us. Time to grieve. I suppose I ought to get with it and get a month's worth of Ancestry. We were going to get busy with that when it happened. Haven't been back since.
I think I have my sleep problem figured out. When I wake up in the early hours of the morning, it is because all my nine o' meds have worn off. So I take some CBD formulated for sleep and finish out the night with a minimum of seven hours. My brain is happier.
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Brrrr, cold this morning out of doors. Not so much to do, but did have to go out and feed the feral cats. It is still a joy. For the longest time I only had one or two. For a bit over two months one of the black cats that used to come returned. The last couple of weeks her kittens ( from last batch of the season ) come out. They too are black. They are a nice size now. One is just a short hair, but the other looks to have more hair ( almost fuzzy ) and they have very short legs ( mom does too ) so they are all the more adorable.
After we went to Walmart's to get some creamer. Ended up with a half a car full of groceries. Still had to stop by Aldi's for dog food -- so a few more things they were out of the last time we were there. Good thing I had a couple of checks I had not cashed and had put into my account.
Our weather is not going to be much nicer so I'm glad I have the chemo done and not working much now. Will get to stay inside a bit more.
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Jackie - is there a program near you that will trap and splay those ferals and release them. My daughter fosters for Hart animal rescue in Maine. They can often socialize the kittens and get them adopted after Mom and/or Dad have been neutered and released. Or if Mom is really young, she gets adopted too. Debbie loves fostering and it has been fantastic for her self esteem. It's also really opened up some friendships, both in person and on line.
Mary - a month of Ancestry might get you hooked. I am fascinated with all I have found.
Be careful in the cold, ladies. I will suffer this summer but wouldn't change places with you.
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MC, when you want to search family history try www.familysearch.org. It is free, you will need to register but there is no fee or obligation involved. While I have found some records on Ancestry that I did not find on Family Search the reverse is also true. The same caveat holds true for family trees in either site, don't trust them but use their information as hints and then search for the records to prove what they say! An example, my great grandfather's given name was Amster, in one census he is indexed as Amstreet. When I see that spelling in an online tree I know the person who posted it has not really verified information for that family. Have fun climbing your family tree, as Taco implied it can be addictive!! And , yes, I am a genealogist and teach classes for area genealogy groups.
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I wrote the following letter to the editor of our local newspaper and just learned it'll be in tomorrow's issue:
I live in a 55+ apartment complex in Fargo. Usually those residents who want their annual flu shot sign up and a local pharmacy comes to our building to give us the vaccination. Yesterday we were told that the North Dakota Department of Health has declined the covid vaccine shots for our building, and we were told we're on our own to find one.
The average age in my building is 78. We had 100 people who had signed up in our office to get the vaccine, bringing their Medicare cards as proof of age. Many don't drive, many don't use a computer and can't register online for appointments. It seems terribly short-sighted that the Department of Health would not bring the vaccinations TO the elderly, like they did for the nursing homes. There are several 55+ complexes in town. If the Dept of Health is concerned that there are residents who don't meet the age requirement, then require those who get vaccinated to present their Medicare card. For that matter, I know there are people living in nursing homes who are younger and I imagine they received the vaccine when their building's residents were vaccinated.
It's time to use some common sense in this process.0 -
Puffin, That's a great letter! And one that needs to be published.
I received my first Moderna shot today. I went up north to an unfamiliar location to get it and got totally lost. The compass in my phone refused to tell me where north was and the maps were useless. I am going to buy a city and regional map next time I'm someplace that sells them. Of course, I can find this location again without it.
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Wrenn - trying to buy paper state maps, let alone city maps is a trial. For my last trip to WA and OR, I got them ahead at AAA - where I go for TX maps now. I did the same when I went to Boston. In CA, I drop in at a local AAA. In HI the only place I could find a city map was at a major bookstore in a big mall. I hadn't picked up one ahead of time because I was sure the airport would have one. Well, the rental car place did - but only of the major highways and Waikiki, and I was visiting two different residential neighborhoods.
Glad you got your shot.
Edited to say Puffin - I agree. URGH.
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Puffin, good for you!
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Good morning, ladies. I am feeling better. It is gray and over cast. We have been under tornado watch and now dense fog warner. The weather is suppose to clear up and become a pleasant day. Husband will be watching football.
Puffin, that is a great letter.
Beaverntx, ancestry is very interesting. My late brother really enjoyed doing research and compiled date back to the 1400's.
Minus2, I agree it is impossible to find paper road maps. When I went to Virginia, I had to use a pocket atlas. Some places the GPS just won't work.
Illinois,Lady, those kitties sound adorable.
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In a society that has you counting money, pounds, calories, and steps,
be a rebel and count your blessings instead.
- Rev. Lisa Heckman0 -
Puffin I totally agree. Great letter and it should be shared everywhere. There are so many people who would VERY willingly get the shots but they need a bit of direction and help. You should not be penalized because you don't have electronic devices or if you are electronically challenged even if you do. Surely, even though there are some issues with keeping the vaccines at certain temps. adjustments can be made to still get it to people who don't drive and are in congregate type living.
Wren, I'm glad you got your shot. It is a good feeling to get started on protecting yourself and everyone one else. Doing so with masks etc. was fine, but as I told Dh -- there is something of a sense of the freedom that we have missed for a long time. I know we still have to do the things we have been doing and I very much am willing -- but things happen -- even when you are being careful and that is the freedom I'm thinking about. That should one of those un-masked people we sometimes see in stores be a carrier we will still be okay. I do feel we are on the way -- just hate that we have leaders now who will help us but it has come at a time when we have the virus mutations coming on too. Hoping and praying for all.
Snow outside this a.m. Not a lot and that is great, but it will be bitter out of doors. We do have sun and I sure hope that hangs around for most of the day but we are starting a week where no matter what -- we likely will not be too thrilled about outdoor temps. Good that I have a bit less overall to do.
Stay well and have a good Sunday. Enjoy the Super Bowl.
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