CRAZY TOWN WAITING ROOM - TESTS coming up? All Stages Welcome.
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WF near me has started carrying 70-calorie sugar-free fudge bars, which taste much better than that Arctic Zero or frozen coconut milk stuff. And I find that a small portion of “EuroTart” (YoFresh or Forever Yogurt) or “Plain” unsweetened (Yoberri) topped with either almonds or coconut keeps me full for hours. Same thing if I make myself a breve (half-and-half or cream diluted with water or FairLife skim milk) cappuccino--it’s the fat plus the air incorporated during the steaming/frothing process.
Sorry I was MIA yesterday. Busy dealing with ophthalmologist visit down on the S. Side--and all the insane traffic that went along with it. (He’s a family friend & Bob’s colleague and the best eye doctor we’ve ever had). He confirmed that I do indeed have ripe cataracts--but they’re “blotchy,” which explains how I can still see well enough to function--and also why I have less trouble with night driving than Bob does. Oddly, it turns out my astigmatism isn’t corneal (like most people who have it) but “lenticular,” which means I don’t need a toric lens, any kind of keratotomy, or even (I hope) any astigmatism correction in my next prescription--he said I should be able to use drugstore readers! Once I’m healed and get re-refracted, he suggests replacing the right lens in my glasses with plain glass (or even removing it from my frames) and just using the sun-shield he gave me when out in the sun. Speaking of which, even though I stayed awhile in the office to allow my pupils to normalize, I was still so light-sensitive last night that I had to wear the shade over my sunglasses on the drive home. First open surgery date he had was Aug. 31--we’ll do the right eye first. Because Medicare won’t cover multifocal lenses (and they can cause glare when one is driving at night), I’m going with monofocal, corrected for distance. Same thing when I do the left eye--no point in correcting one eye for near and one for far vision, since my reading difficulty is due to presbyopia--lessened ability to focus. In the meantime, I bought a keychain flashlight and a magnifying glass. (Sloan can attest to how much I could have used both of those at dinner Monday night)!
Spent the wee hours in Customer Service Hell. Before going to sleep, I decided to add my Costo Citi VISA to my ApplePay (Costco switched from AmEx. cancelled that account, and ported my balance over to Citibank). Was able to successfully snap the pic of the card, enter the CVV, and then......”Verification Required--call Citi at (number)” There was also an alternate verification method choice, but I figured calling was faster. Well, after 22 minutes of the world’s stupidest on-hold music loop alternating with “We’re sorry for the delay--all of our representatives are busy ignoring other customers, out looking for Pokemon, playing Candy Crush or kibitzing in the break room,” I got another recorded message: “We are experiencing a power outage. Please call back in 2 to 3 hours. Good-bye (click)”). Yeah, like I was going to stay up till 3 am binge-watching Netflix (assuming it wouldn’t buffer and then disconnect). So I tried to do everything online from Citi’s site.....and only my MasterCard showed up. Had to use their chat help--and halfway through walking me through the task, they switched techs--with a message box: “We are transferring you to a more appropriate representative. There are 2 customers ahead of you...” Needless to say, I’m running on fumes right now.
Had my trigger-thumb cortisone shot this morning. Yee-OWCH--those suckers HURT! The hand surgeon says I shouldn’t be very sore by tomorrow, should be able to play guitar just fine, but the triggering might last a week because nodule could take about a week to dissolve....if it dissolves. If not, then I go under the knife. Ugh.
And dealing with three mysterious itchy scratches that appeared surrounding my right wrist overnight Mon. into Tues. At first I was afraid they were bug bites, but we checked for bedbugs (and when I looked closely, the wounds were definitely scratches and not insect bites). Best I can recall, perhaps they were from forgetting to take off my MedicAlert faux-Pandora bracelet before retiring, and the charms might have scratched me. Or--more likely--I was sleeping so soundly that I didn’t notice one of my cats poking me on the hand so I would pet or feed them, or maybe one of them was using my exposed hand as a launch pad for jumping off the bed. (As I am allergic, I’ve always gotten swelling from any scratch or nip--anywhere, not just on my LE arm). Anyway, being paranoid about infection after my little MRSA adventure, I washed and covered the scratches with Neosporin on Band-Aids. Definitely healing now.
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Iris, so frustrating about that leg weakness, Is something impinging on the sciatic nerve before it exits the spine? I’d almost suggest going on to the NYTimes website and searching for all the “Think Like a Doctor” medical mystery columns that deal with orthopedic or lower-body neurological symptoms.
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Hooray.............great to know I'm not the only one who gets abused........(just kidding)........honestly.....don't they think........or are they a ll brainless.......I'm talking very intelligent people here...and they can't figure out .......OOPS.......Mom/Nan is kind of dragging behind................are they all in f/n denial........that would be a "NO"......they just can't face the fact that we are not what we used to be..........
In my opinion that is the same as closing your eyes when you don't want anyone to "see you".........duh........
I just think......WTF......and continue walking, and just hoping I make it to wherever they are headed........sore feet, sore knee, sore back, plus asthma and we're walking in humid sucky weather.........but I have to admit it was a fun night........and I had a ball..........here is the result of my night out........LOL...if you want to know who is who ask......if you don't..............I don't care either......LOL
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Lol....I see you, your daughter who is standing beside you...correct? Where is your GD?
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Here is another one of us all acting like asses......
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They are all related to me, or will be soon..........there are 3 daughters........1 daughter-in-law......6 grandaughters.......and 2 grandaughter soon to be once they are married to my grandsons.......
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In the one picture oneof my daughters is hiding behind her paintings.....in the one where we are all laughing you can see her........she is standing to my right side as I am turning...in the other picture she hid behind her painting.........
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sandy, good thought but past the stage of dr Google stuff although have learned lots from my new docs web site
It is a common problem from many many back issues, guess as all have said to me, it is less due to all my exercise over the years but that is likely part of my frustration!
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Ducky, I love the pictures of your painting family. I think all of the paintings look great. I laughed out loud at your description of the second photo.... "us all acting like asses"!
Sandy, It sounds like good news regarding your eyes... and you can travel.
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Just a quick hello to everyone. I'm in my busy season for work, it's so overwhelming. I have my first post-cancer mammogram on Friday. Dancing around the edges of Crazytown. I want to tell you if I haven't already that I found a supplement called GABA that just works wonders on brain fog. I mean it lifted overnight! I get headaches after a couple of days, so I'm taking it every other day trying to get the amount right. It really is amazing.
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Oh my goodness, Ducky what great pictures and it looks like fun! You have a wonderful family even if they are in denial about you slowing down. My son and his girlfriend walk with me a few nights each week. I tell them not to let me hold them back but DS will slow his pace to match mine. When did 55 become old? Oh yeah when AI's got added to the mix.
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Careful titrating the dose of that GABA supplement, eggroll. Pure GABA (your brain actually makes it) is harmless. Unfortunately, it doesn’t cross the blood-brain barrier if ingested orally and you end up with expensive pee. So, many GABA supplements include vitamins & minerals that help your brain make enough of it to improve your mood and calm you enough to think more consistently and productively. But some also contain herbs. The herb valerian is a natural calmative, so much so that it works better for insomnia than some OTC “sleep aids” (though it smells like toe-jam). BUT it can have estrogenic effects, which is why I had to switch from it to melatonin and “Vitamin X” (generic Xanax, 1/4 mg) for sleep. As to the brain fog lifting and the headache, unfortunately they might be connected, and not in a good way. Check the ingredients list for ginkgo biloba and vinpocetine (or vincamine--both of which come from the same flower as the older chemo drug vincristine). They definitely improve mental acuity, not just by calming you enough to “shut off the worry tape-loop,” but by actually increasing blood circulation to the brain. But so do blood thinners, even fish/krill oil and baby aspirin. Combine them and you could be putting yourself at risk for a brain bleed--that headache might be high blood pressure. I used to take ginkgo and vinpocetine (along with manganese) to keep my tinnitus at bay; but my primary noticed I was taking them along with the baby aspirin and krill oil for heart health. So out went the ginkgo and vinpocetine--my heart prevails over my hearing. (And I can still do crosswords in ink).
So get the GABA with just the vites & minerals added and you’ll be fine. If you still get headaches, check the inactive ingredients: you might have an intolerance to one or some of them.
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A while back some of you were sharing pics of grandkids and such, with an emphasis on the adorable shots of them eating spaghetti....so I had to share this photo of my grandson enjoying his dinner.....sorry to be late to the party on this one... who could resist those eyes?
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Octo.........what a cutie..........love the fork in the dish, and he is using his hands........they are trying to teach Bobby to use a fork.......he pokes the food with the fork, and then picks it off the fork and puts it in his mouth.......but he is. doing pretty good......................I told my daughter when she was showing him............the prongs on a kids for are blunt so they don't poke themselves in the face, eye, mouth or other areas (LOL), but those blunt prongs also don't pick up food.............so the poor kids are in a lose, lose situation.
That being.......drop the food with a blunt prong, or put your eye out with a sharp prong.......LOL.....oh the decisions.............hugs Octo.0 -
Octo, he is absolutely adorable and those eyes! I would be in love instantly. Ducky, totally agree about the kids forks being rather useless.
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I just received the call I have been dreading. My MO wants to see me, sooner than next month, to discuss my tamoxifen. Well, lack of, actually. I will really need you all in my pocket. 7/18 @2pm
I am looking to borrow any and all cojones to be able to tell my MO I am done for now. Maybe we can revisit the discussion after my IOP treatment is complete, and my brain stops feeling broken.
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In your pocket, Robin!
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Thank you so much Molly.
Update: called my intake therapist and then called and cancelled my MO appointment. I will sign a release at my program and the therapists can talk o my MO.
Still feel like Taz is spinning around inside me. I really hate the tailspin these things create. Time to listen to some good music and utilize my MMJ.
Love you all. Looking forward to the time I can give back! XOX
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robin best wishes, think,you may need a bowl of ice cream tonight
Sorry just scared down my new nightly bowl
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Robin, I hear you on Taz spinning around in your head. Things have been overwhelming, it seems like over the last few weeks so many people around me have had serious medical issues or their family members have had serious medical issues. I'm to the point where I freak every time the phone rings, and I find it tough to concentrate on anything but my whirling thoughts. I understand where you are coming from about needing to be in a better state of mind before resuming the tamoxifen.
Eggroll, in your pocket for tomorrow's mammogram!
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Got great news on hubby's wrist last week. The orthopedist said the wrist has fully healed.
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As usual, pages behind. But Robin, good to see you back, and I hope the new eating program works for you.
Tomboy, I love your diet. Makes SO much sense.
Octo, the cutest boy!
Ducky, the loveliest family!
Mommy, good news about DH's wrist--whew.
{{{{Cubbie}}}}
Waving to all crazies who are noisy or quiet....
A heat wave has settled over the city, and looks as if we're in for at least a week of high 80s/low 90s humid weather. Ugh! We've tickets for a minor league baseball game in Coney Island tonight. If the baseball is not of absolutely top quality, the shtick and people-watching is extraordinary, and there will be a few cool breezes. A happy and pain-free Friday to all!
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Always meant to catch a Cyclones game when in NYC--along with a trip to Nathan's, of course. Every time we hit Coney Island, the Cyclones were on the road.
Mommy, congrats on DH's wrist. Jumping in eggroll's pocket at the mammo center, and hugs to Cubbie. Sometimes it's harder to have loved ones fall seriously ill than it is to go through it yourself. I actually was less stressed dealing with my bc than I was when Bob had his botched-colonoscopy, two unsuccessful hospital admissions, a hemicolectomy and then emergency hernia repair....two weeks before the annual screening mammo that started my bc journey.
Triggering is not as pronounced today--mostly painless, just annoying. I think I can probably stop disinfecting the injection site and ditch the band-aids. Will continue applying Voltaren gel to the bruised area and the joint. It didn't interfere with our gig last night (though my singing partner having forgotten to bring a critical part of our sound system from Madison forced us to perform essentially unplugged). He had only a single line-in input on each of the power base of our Bose column speaker system and the dinky little guitar practice amp he carries with him because there is a wonky channel on the part of our system--the little mini-mixer/EQ/phantom power module--so uses the amp as a “kludge" fix. (We dropped three grand on the system--he uses it for his 3x/wk nursing home gigs, it's finally out of warranty, but he refuses to let me pay to have the power module repaired. IMHO, if you buy an expensive system, you get it repaired, rather than doing a third-world-level workaround). And plugging a good (low-impedance) mic into a line-level (high-impedance) input requires a transformer, not merely an adaptor cable, so the mic gave us almost no volume even when cranked up high. I calmly and non-judgmentally tried to explain that, but since he runs sound at a monthly showcase--and is a male--he blew up and told me he knows what he's doing and he's “always done it that way." Must be a guy thing....
Meanwhile (I think I mentioned it at Lumpy Lounge), Bob's car (2011 Ford Fusion Hybrid) croaked last night 3/4 of the way home on Lake Shore Drive (while I was performing and couldn't help him). The car suddenly slowed down, the gas pedal didn't work, the gas engine died and the dashboard warning light came on with the message “Stop safely now." He managed to limp it, using only the hybrid battery, in “safety mode," into a parking lot along the beach. It wasn't the alternator, since the accessories work and the hybrid battery still came on. It wasn't the starter--because even though the gas engine wouldn't turn over, the problem occurred while the engine was running and he was driving. The exact thing happened to my 2002 Taurus SEL in 2010--was driving and suddenly the “bottom dropped out" and I had to pull over, wait and re-start; but that one wasn't a hybrid. The dealership couldn't find anything wrong. One year later, the opposite thing happened: pulling out of a gas station as I eased up off the brake, it suddenly accelerated dangerously without my even touching the gas pedal--I had to stand on the brake pedal to get home safely. The problem was a faulty throttle linkage, which would have cost too much in labor to even reach (and I'd sunk thousands into repairs). So I traded it in for the Fusion Hybrid, which Bob inherited when his 2005 Five Hundred bit the dust and we bought the 2014 Subaru Outback (which steering wheel he will have to pry out of my cold dead hands). I went online and found that faulty accelerator linkages are a known issue on Ford Tauruses and Fusions, but there's no recall. IMHO, he should let it go (80K miles on it already in only 5 years, it has low road clearance and front wheel drive, so it gets stuck in snowy alleys) and get a Subaru Crosstrek (though all Subarus have AWD, only the wagons and SUVs have high road clearance). He has become obsessed with maxing out the Fusion's mpg--50.1 so far!--and never fills the tank more than 1/3 full (makes the car too heavy, he says), coasts whenever he can (but is convinced the reason drivers cut him off is the liberal bumperstickers), and turns off the ignition rather than idling at long suburban red lights. (And contrary to the owners' manual, he idles in neutral--which you're not supposed to do with a hybrid or a CVT transmission). The Crosstrek comes in a hybrid, but it gets “only" 34 mpg, not high enough for him. For a doctor, you'd think wanting to get going in snow would be important--but he'd rather shovel his way out than even borrow the Outback. (“Gas-guzzler," he says. It gets 28 city, 31 highway). So he's driving a rented Sonata (regular, not hybrid) for now. Hope he can get it into the garage--I'll probably have to move the Outback as close to the left wall as I can, because he has trouble parking even the Fusion straight (he is afraid he will hit stuff stored against the right wall, because his depth perception is affected by his remaining cataract).
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Hi to all,
I am a "quiet crazy", but I have a link to share with memorial information for Blondie, who knew many on this thread... Her daughters asked me to share this information on BCO.
http://mcgfh.com/tribute/details/597/Sandra-Wadswo...
Please consider attending if you live nearby:
Memorial Service: 1PM, Saturday, August 13, 2016 at McCausland Garrity Marchesani Funeral Home, 343 S. Chester Pike Glenolden, PA 19036, A memory box will be placed out on the day of the Memorial Service for you to write down and share your favorite memory of Sandy with her family.
Visitation: 12-1PM at the funeral home.
My husband and I will be there, and hope that others will be as well -- Ducky, I hope to meet you...
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I am happy that hubby's wrist has healed. Hoping he will come to the end of the physical therapy on it soon as well. He's doing good with it, but he's getting a bit tired of the PT.
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Morning all, heading out to stuff my fridge with jersey fresh veggies, then back create
Dumbo me, must have twisted my foot Ankle yesterday so got a new special limp going on
Nuts, wearing sneaks with ties tight as need a new ankle bandage
Oh well
Mommy, i love pt but do get that it gets old at times
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DaisyLover: thanks for posting the information here (and elsewhere). I won't be going as I'm too far away (and didn't know her quite well enough) but I think several people on this list are closer physically and emotionally to Blondie than I.
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M0mmy, so glad to hear that your DH's wrist is healed. I read the obituary of Blondie. So young, it's so sad. She seemed like a beautiful person.
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Happy with hubby's wrist too. It means I can get back to doing my normal work without his being added to my load.
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Mommyof2, glad things are getting back to normal.
Daisylover, thanks so much for posting info about Blondie's funeral. I also read the obituary. She touched so many lives here and was so obviously loved by many. Thinking of all who mourn her and knew her personally.
Iris, hope your ankle heals. You have too much going on!
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