In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2)
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Friday, September 11, 2026 15:29
VIEWED: 338648
PAGE 68 of 84
SIX you can't sue them. Lawsuits follow the "no harm, no foul" principle. And even if you suffered permanent harm with a monetary value attached, you'd have an incredibly hard time winning since Drs are allowed to make mistakes. It takes heaven and earth to prove malpractice.
You know what they say about the difference between doctors and engineers?
"Doctors bury their mistakes, engineers have to live with theirs".
Oh, here's another:
"Q: What's the difference between surgeons and God?
A: God doesn't think he's a surgeon!“
And, one about lawyers:
"Q: What do you call six lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?
A: A good start"
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
BRENDA, I doubt you'll see this, but thanks for the explanation.
And, yeah ... it WAS a bad week!
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
What do you call 6 doctors at the bottom of the ocean?
A good start.
We need to change their protections.
I've got CGM logs that prove what they did to me. Or at least what they would have done to me if I was as stupid as Ted or Second, anyhow. This isn't hearsay.
I'm writing logs on everything, and my old man will see it all first thing when he comes in the door a week from now when he's trying to call me about what day to come over and I'm not answering because my blood sugar went too low. Not saying that's going to happen, because I don't think it will, but if it does...
The doctor who made it very clear that it was extremely important that I got the X-Rays yesterday was not in today either, and I doubt very much she'll be in until at least Monday. Not a single other person has reached out to me to go over my X-Rays and tell me what the next step is or if I need to be on other meds, as she alluded I would be depending on the X-Ray results.
As of this morning, 23 hours after I got the X-Ray, they still hadn't gotten it. Not only that, but when I explained the high glucose situation and the fact that I'm now basically a Type I and Type II Diabetic at the same time because of these steroids, the girl working behind the computer had the gall to tell me "because of what you're telling me right now, I would recommend not taking anymore of the steroid". I told her "all due respect, but everything I've read about this drug says DO NOT STOP TAKING IT UNLESS A DOCTOR ORDERS YOU TO STOP TAKING IT".
So I called the facility where I got the X-Rays and they swore up and down that it was already sent to them. I told them that they told me that they never got it. So she sent me the X-Rays directly to my email. I'm glad I kept her on the phone, because it was in a password protected zip file. At least she had that. But then I opened it and it was a blank form that didn't say anything about me except for my name and my Sex. Everything pertinent was either "N/A" or "No information on file". So she said she was going to "try something else and send it to me again". She had no interest in staying on the phone while that happened, although she told me she would be resending it to the place where I got my scripts.
This time I got a real form with real results. Not any of the X-rays themselves, but a one page form with a bunch of doctor-speak about the results.
It has now been 2 full days and several hours since my initial visit. I still have not been contacted by anybody there. My only conversations have been with the desk jockeys, and that's only because I called them. Every time I've been told that a "provider" would be calling me back, whatever that means, but nobody has called me yet.
They have my phone number. They have my email. No contact whatsoever.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick. 
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Trust me, SIX, you'll get nowhere bc you don't have a winnable case. We have “been there and done that“ with our daughter’s catastrophic birth, and lackadaisical followup and misdiagnosis for the first three years of her life and got nowhere.
Even if you were to die, your family couldn't prove malpractice. The best they could get would be "wrongful death".
Find something else to be pissed off about bc this will just eat a hole in your stomach.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Trust me, SIX, you'll get nowhere bc you don't have a winnable case. We have “been there and done that“ with our daughter’s catastrophic birth, and lackadaisical followup and misdiagnosis for the first three years of her life and got nowhere.
Even if you were to die, your family couldn't prove malpractice. The best they could get would be "wrongful death".
Find something else to be pissed off about bc this will just eat a hole in your stomach.
Yeah... if the Methylprednisone or whatever it's called doesn't do that first. That's just one of the 30 or so super-dangerous side effects this drug can cause. Major stomach ulcerations and perforated colons and whatnot.
I used to crap every morning right when I woke up before I started taking it. Just occurred to me now that I haven't had a BM in 3 days now too.
This might really be the end this time.
Oh well... Had a good run.
Not really, but after a lifetime of chasing the truth, I think I'll allow myself that one little white lie.
I do have to say that I appreciate that Second hasn't been rubbing this one in my face. I can't imagine it's because he spent his time while this site was down growing a new soul from scratch, but I always hold out hope for everybody. It's not those two dipshits' faults that they're evil little pricks today. They're not the real enemy. The real enemy is the one that got us all talking this way at each other in the first place.
They know not what they do.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Oh, it's not worth being a drama queen over, SIX. Just remember that if your blood sugar gets to 390, call 911. Make the medical professionals work for their money!
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I'm not one for melodrama.
Put the glucose stuff aside... I'm more worried about the report that said the X-Rays didn't show any signs of pneumonia and something along the lines of a differential showing that whatever the radiologist saw being either malignant or a vestigial infection, which is why they're recommending the CT scan. (I don't have it right in front of me now).
That and the fact that my heartbeat is around 135bpm right now (I'm always high, even when healthy... usually around the 90-95 range, but I've never been up to anything over 120, even when I was working out, busting ass at a job that had a bpm machine, etc., and this appears to just be my "resting" heartbeat now.). Strangely enough my blood pressure is fine in the meantime, which boggles my mind because there are times where I can literally feel/hear my heartbeat in my right ear cavity.
At least I've cut down my smoking to about 6-7 cigarettes a day right now. Maybe I'll ask for the patch and try that out if I can get a scrip for them. Probably doesn't matter if I'm type 4 already. I just watched my friend's dad die of this, and my uncle maybe 8 years ago. They both shrivled up and looked like Jesus on the cross before they died, and spend the last week pissing and shitting themselves before they went.
I won't be doing any of that. If that's the case I'm going to get a shit ton of weed gummies from my friend, fire up my car in my garage with some good tunes on and go to sleep one last time.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Well.. I think I can say one thing for all of the illicit drugs, alcohol, nicotine and caffeine I've ingested over the years. I think my body absorbs new stuff quite a bit better than most other folk.
Not going to say that managing this steroid is "easy" or that it's not still having an effect on my insulin resistance still, but the 2nd 24 hour period which is over in a few more hours has been significantly easier to manage than the first. I'll chalk some of that up to being armed with knowledge going into the 5-pill day, over complete ignorance of the first 6-pill day, but I only went over 200 once in the 2nd 24 hour period, and it wasn't by much and not for long either. Unfortunately, I did probably have about 12 glucose tabs because of going too low while I was sleeping and being woke by the blaring alarm, or just being awake and catching myself in the 75 and falling range. I actually did take advantage of those times and eat some legitimate carbs too, with peanut butter since that has carbs too but does a great job of spreading out whatever other carbs you eat with it over time rather than allowing for hard spikes all at once. I never took a single direct bolus shot, and managed everything with the very heavy basal drip.
Way better than spending 3/5ths of the day over 300 and not being able to bring it back down no matter what I did, that's for sure.
It's strange that I only had a 30 unit basal from the pen right before I took the 2nd batch of pills too, despite using way less insulin from my current pod. I know that this pod will be thrown away well before 3 days even with the full 200 units put in, but I'm surprised at how well I was able to manage the 2nd day when I did all of that reading on reddit where people were saying they went into keto-acidosis or were just resigned to be over 300 the entire time they were on the drug.
Knowing this, I'd better really be careful on day 3, now that I'll only be taking 4 pills. I think I might up the pen to 50 basal units today after taking the pills, and lowering my hourly intake from 7 to only 3 and putting a percentage multiplier UP or down on that instead of only using DOWN multipliers on the 7 and outright pausing the insulin delivery for hours at a time when I would go low.
I've only ever taken steroids one other time in my life, when I was a teenager and suffered a Poison Oak outbreak that forced me to quarantine myself from my friends the last few weeks of summer of Junior Year with head to toe nastiness, and Aveeno baths. So I'm kind of surprised to see how well my body has adjusted to it already given everything I've read and the experiences other people have had while on the drug.
The cough is still there for sure, but I'm due for another inhaler and whatever anti-coughing pill they gave me. It's not a cough I can't control though.. more of a light wheeze after holding it back.
Unfortunately, when I do get something up it still tastes pretty vile and looks just as bad as ever, but the amount of lung bits that come up are about 1%-2% of what was coming up before I was put on any of the drugs.
Still feel weak and shitty, but part of that is probably that I haven't had any coffee for 2 days now, and the few days before that my coffee intake was only about 1/2 of usual. I'm surprised my head isn't just throbbing right now due to caffeine withdrawals. I haven't had any ibuprofen for a few days now, come to think of it.
Getting tons of sleep and drinking tons of water. Peeing a ton, even when the blood sugar is low, so that's annoying to have to keep waking up to take care of that business. Still no urge to BM after 4 days, but I know I haven't been eating as much as I usually do.
I don't think I've actually been hungry now for about 2 weeks, but I've never felt I needed to force food down. I didn't eat last night before going to sleep, which is odd for me, but I have been eating during the day before taking th
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
So, about Zpack (azythromycin): it's very resistant to being broken down and excreted, so even after you stop taking it, with a half-life of almost 3 days it'll be in your system and still at an effective concentration for about 7 more days. https://www.drugs.com/medical-answers/long-azithromycin-stay-system-af
ter-you-finish-3120142/ You may worry about not being "on" an antibiotic, but it's still in there, doing its job.
The great thing about Zpack is that it's effective against many bacteria, but also against a special class of bacterium called "mycobacterium" which is incredibly hard to culture and to see under a microscope. Mycobacterium was the origin of a lot of previously unspecified pneumonia.
What is the exact wording on the radiology report? Do you have it to refer to? "Vestigial infection" isn't standard medical terminology, but it's possible you have some scarring in your lungs from a previous infection. I have some weird shit in my lungs, calcified nodules that may have been nodes of infection, or possibly granulomas or angiitis or even cancer that got nailed with chemo, as well as larger areas of "changed lung architecture" (scarring) from radiation treatment. I'm reasonably certain you had Covid at one point, which could be the source of your diabetes and may have scarred some areas of your lungs.
Until you hear otherwise, assume the best bc that's the most likely. It's the radiologist's job to note all this stuff, even if they can't tell what it is. (And you'd be surprised how often that happens!)
Just to satisfy my medical nosiness, what color are you coughing up?
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
Just a note. I am at the library because my monitor froze again on Monday. Used it before I went out then when I got back it had turned itself off. Have been trying to warm it up myself to get it working. Paying for help is bordering on the impossible without the bring it in. Easy for them to say. Even the monitor is heavy for me. Every one says it is hard ware. But that is all. Hopefully I can get it running soon and be back.
This has been a really crappy week. Booby prize at mah jong. Was late and the boss got upset. Then I broke tooth yesterday eating cereal. I figure the drilling must have put a crack into it and last night was just enough. Have to call or go in to make an appointment to repair it. This is the only place I can get to because it is the only one I remember my password for. UGH!!! Some one just shoot me.
You said you had another monitor on your other computer when we were talking about this earlier, Brenda. I knew it was only a matter of time before the monitor or the cord failed on you. If you try the other monitor and it doesn't work, you can also try moving your computer to your TV and using one of the AUX HDMI inputs and using your TV as your monitor until you get a replacement.
Sorry about the tooth. That sucks.
Glad you're alright otherwise, health-wise.
Was getting a little worried about you over here.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
One monitor is too old and the other one is full of dust, so cleaning it would be a b&tch. Also my tv is too old to do all that stuff with. It's at least 20years old. Have to look at the cords I got and see what I can do.
This tooth has been repaired before and I don't know if it is repairable again. All I can think is there was another crack in it and all the drilling is what finally let it break.
Yeah. Cough is all gone now. So no worries there.
I know but not much I can do until I figure out a way to sort this all out.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
BRENDA, I doubt you'll see this, but thanks for the explanation.
And, yeah ... it WAS a bad week!
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
No worries. I am at the library again.
Yeah, it's been pretty bad for sure.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So, about Zpack (azythromycin): it's very resistant to being broken down and excreted, so even after you stop taking it, with a half-life of almost 3 days it'll be in your system and still at an effective concentration for about 7 more days. https://www.drugs.com/medical-answers/long-azithromycin-stay-system-af
ter-you-finish-3120142/ You may worry about not being "on" an antibiotic, but it's still in there, doing its job.
Nice.
Quote:
The great thing about Zpack is that it's effective against many bacteria, but also against a special class of bacterium called "mycobacterium" which is incredibly hard to culture and to see under a microscope. Mycobacterium was the origin of a lot of previously unspecified pneumonia.
Double nice.
Quote:
What is the exact wording on the radiology report? Do you have it to refer to? "Vestigial infection" isn't standard medical terminology, but it's possible you have some scarring in your lungs from a previous infection. I have some weird shit in my lungs, calcified nodules that may have been nodes of infection, or possibly granulomas or angiitis or even cancer that got nailed with chemo, as well as larger areas of "changed lung architecture" (scarring) from radiation treatment. I'm reasonably certain you had Covid at one point, which could be the source of your diabetes and may have scarred some areas of your lungs.
I got it all for you here... Except for the BAD stuff, there's a lot of good stuff on there too. I still think it's 50/50 that this is lung cancer, but I think that it probably hasn't spread yet if it is. Strangely, I think it might be TB as well... Maybe I should stop shopping at ALDI, because that's the only place I can think of that I go where I am regularly in contact with people who would be the most likely to have that, and it's probably where I got the "suspected" Covid-19 infection as well. I haven't really left my house all that much in the last few months, and outside of my buddy's house and visits from my old man, the only other places I've been have been my CVS pharmacy and the Dollar Tree.
Quote:
Examination
Description: Chest xray, 2 views
Comparison: None Provided.
Findings:
- The cardiomediastinal silhouette is unremarkable.
- No pleural effusion is noted.
- There is no pneumothorax present.
- The soft tissue and bones are unremarkable for age.
- 8.0 cm left upper lung opacity with a possible cavitary appearance is on the lateral view.
IMPRESSION:
1. 8.0 cm left upper lung opacity with a possible cavitary apperance on the lateral view
2. Differential considerations would include malignancy versus a cavitary infections process.
3. CT recommended for further evaluation.
Quote:
Until you hear otherwise, assume the best bc that's the most likely. It's the radiologist's job to note all this stuff, even if they can't tell what it is. (And you'd be surprised how often that happens!)
Just to satisfy my medical nosiness, what color are you coughing up?
5-6 weeks ago, though rather infrequent at the time, it was a thick green color.
Maybe about a month ago it started changing. Definitely a lot more "fleshy" color. Taste was like rotten chicken nuggets (I dunno where I came up with that, but I haven't been able to eat a chicken nugget since I started coughing like this, and I may never eat them again).
Not too much nasty phlegm at first, but over the last 2.5 weeks it was quite a bit, although there would be 2-3 day periods in between where I didn't cough up anything at all. I'd say that when it was its worst, it was mostly thick and white, with red inside of it. Maybe like a vanilla-strawberry swirl yogurt or something. (Nothing super bright red or anything, but I'm not going to lie to myself and say that it wasn't because
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
One monitor is too old and the other one is full of dust, so cleaning it would be a b&tch. Also my tv is too old to do all that stuff with. It's at least 20years old. Have to look at the cords I got and see what I can do.
Maybe take some time to clean the one up that you think would work with an HDMI cable. Short of that, look for a monitor or smaller TV that has HDMI inputs/outputs which would also work. You should be able to pick one up at a Goodwill or something similar for a song if you manage to find one.
I was afraid your monitor was about to go when we were discussing it. Don't throw it out just yet, but I think you just need to get a working used monitor and new HDMI cable and you should be back in business imediately and you can just toss out the problem monitor. These things happen. I've gone through 3 flat screen monitors over the years now. Those old CRT monitors worked forever and would probably still be working today if I had any of them. These LED flat screens are all pieces of shit that are designed to fail because they want you to just keep buying new ones even if you aren't upgrading to the biggest and the best all the time.
Quote:
This tooth has been repaired before and I don't know if it is repairable again. All I can think is there was another crack in it and all the drilling is what finally let it break.
Yeah. Cough is all gone now. So no worries there.
I know but not much I can do until I figure out a way to sort this all out.
Yeah... Bummer about the tooth. With my dental history, I can totally empathize. Look at the bright side though... You'll still have a lot more of your teeth than I do if this one needs to go.
Glad your cough is gone. Hopefully I see some good news about mine soon. Finger's crossed that I'm not already a dead man walking.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
So, as usual (!) with radiology reports, I have to look up the terms ...
Quote:
Cavitary pneumonia, also known as necrotizing pneumonia, is a severe lung infection characterized by the formation of cavities in the lung tissue due to liquefaction and necrosis. It is often caused by bacteria such as Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus, and can lead to serious complications if not treated promptly.
Quote:
A cavity has been defined in the radiology literature as (pathologically) “a gas-filled space within a zone of pulmonary consolidation or within a mass or nodule, produced by the expulsion of a necrotic [dead, rotted] part of the lesion via the bronchial tree [coughed up]”
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2292573/
Basically, a portion of your lung rots away and is coughed up. Given what you were coughing up, that sounds like you.
Eeeew!
Given the number of organisms that can cause this, especially pseudomonas bacteria and aspergillus mold, you may need to be on heavy- duty IV antibiotics or antifungals.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So, as usual (!) with radiology reports, I have to look up the terms ...Quote:
Cavitary pneumonia, also known as necrotizing pneumonia, is a severe lung infection characterized by the formation of cavities in the lung tissue due to liquefaction and necrosis. It is often caused by bacteria such as Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus, and can lead to serious complications if not treated promptly.Quote:
A cavity has been defined in the radiology literature as (pathologically) “a gas-filled space within a zone of pulmonary consolidation or within a mass or nodule, produced by the expulsion of a necrotic [dead, rotted] part of the lesion via the bronchial tree [coughed up]”
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2292573/
Basically, a portion of your lung rots away and is coughed up. Given what you were coughing up, that sounds like you.
Eeeew!
Given the number of organisms that can cause this, especially pseudomonas bacteria and aspergillus mold, you may need to be on heavy- duty IV antibiotics or antifungals.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
Yeah... Eeeew! is right.
Fucking gross, is probably more appropriate.
Your treatment is pretty much in-line with what I heard on the phone today, at least assuming it's not cancer. He may have mentioned a specific drug or both of them, but even though he made no mention of any IVs, he said based off my CT results if it wasn't cancer we would be going from the Z-Pack to a MUCH more aggressive antibiotic than what I'm currently on. I didn't ask, but I would assume the 2nd drug they'd be giving me is probably a stronger steroid than what they've currently got me on too.
What do you think about the cancer though? If I had cancer, do you think that the Z-Pack/Steroid I'm on would have such great results in only a day or two like I've experienced so far?
* Also... that's why I put all the "good" parts of the X-Ray results too, which to me and what I've read online point to no evidence of any spreading of cancer to or from my lungs to anywhere else, and that my heart itself seems to be fine and normal sized as well.
* The "good" parts...
Quote:
- The cardiomediastinal silhouette is unremarkable.
- No pleural effusion is noted.
- There is no pneumothorax present.
- The soft tissue and bones are unremarkable for age.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Also...
I will be going to get the CT done on Monday. I just need to verify that my medicaid will cover it. Nobody from the provider, state or any hospital I called would confirm this for me, or even give me an estimate of what it might cost if I did have to pay for it. Some things online say that if the ER visit was warranted, I could face a co-pay of between $8 and $20. Don't care about that. I just don't want to be blindsided 3 months from now with a bill in the mail for $4,000 for a CT scan.
I was told that between Mon-Fri during business hours they have people there who can do preauths, and nobody appears to be on staff anywhere during the weekend that can answer this question for me.
I don't understand this since I've had a CT done before several years ago for my heart after the bad EKG reading that was guaranteed to be covered BEFORE I have the procedure done, but nobody can do that for me now with a much more serious and potentially life-threatening issue like I have right now. I would have gone and gotten a CT already today if I could get one single person to guaranty that my medicaid will cover the process, but looks like I'll have to just wait until Monday.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Well, you can get a good response to ANYTHING with steroids, so that clouds the picture. Also, it's possible to have cancer AND an infection, just staying.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So, as usual (!) with radiology reports, I have to look up the terms ...Quote:
Cavitary pneumonia, also known as necrotizing pneumonia, is a severe lung infection characterized by the formation of cavities in the lung tissue due to liquefaction and necrosis. It is often caused by bacteria such as Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus, and can lead to serious complications if not treated promptly.Quote:
A cavity has been defined in the radiology literature as (pathologically) “a gas-filled space within a zone of pulmonary consolidation or within a mass or nodule, produced by the expulsion of a necrotic [dead, rotted] part of the lesion via the bronchial tree [coughed up]”
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2292573/
Basically, a portion of your lung rots away and is coughed up. Given what you were coughing up, that sounds like you.
Eeeew!
Given the number of organisms that can cause this, especially pseudomonas bacteria and aspergillus mold, you may need to be on heavy- duty IV antibiotics or antifungals.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
Yeah... Eeeew! is right.
Fucking gross, is probably more appropriate.
Your treatment is pretty much in-line with what I heard on the phone today, at least assuming it's not cancer. He may have mentioned a specific drug or both of them, but even though he made no mention of any IVs, he said based off my CT results if it wasn't cancer we would be going from the Z-Pack to a MUCH more aggressive antibiotic than what I'm currently on. I didn't ask, but I would assume the 2nd drug they'd be giving me is probably a stronger steroid than what they've currently got me on too.
What do you think about the cancer though? If I had cancer, do you think that the Z-Pack/Steroid I'm on would have such great results in only a day or two like I've experienced so far?
* Also... that's why I put all the "good" parts of the X-Ray results too, which to me and what I've read online point to no evidence of any spreading of cancer to or from my lungs to anywhere else, and that my heart itself seems to be fine and normal sized as well.
* The "good" parts...Quote:
- The cardiomediastinal silhouette is unremarkable.
- No pleural effusion is noted.
- There is no pneumothorax present.
- The soft tissue and bones are unremarkable for age.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
No matter what they find, the doctors have a treatment. Even for me, with my aggressive cancer and rare autoimmunity.
But AFA infections are concerned, what they pick depends so much on the causative organism. Most drugs, even very strong antibiotics, are oral. The latest generation cephalosporins are IV bc they degrade in stomach acid.
Oh, BTWM, cough hard enough and you will bring up stomach acid, just from putting so much pressure on your stomach. Not to worry.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Thanks, Sigs.
Feeling pretty good overall right now, but I'm sure the steroids do have a lot to do with that. I haven't actually coughed anything up today, although I still get those dry coughs that don't taste/smell good still, but only on occasion.
Looks like my heartbeat is down to about "normal" right now too, or pretty normal for me. I mentioned that even when I was in good shape I'm usually over 90bpm to around 95bpm. Right now I'm at 97bpm (I did it with a pulse check on my wrist, so probably 95 to 100bpm, anyhow). That's down from 135bpm while at the hospital. I also haven't heard/felt my heartbeat in my right ear at all today either.
I've even had a little bit of coffee for the first time in days too.
Having a much easier time managing my glucose levels today too. Been between 70 to 110 all day long. Only did 30 on the basal pen and been keeping the basal drip at 4/hr and making adjustments here and there when I think about looking at the phone. I haven't had a high/low event to force me to look, but it's not swining so wild that I need to either. I just have to keep remembering to check is all.
I did read after asking you the question about the steroids though, and I realize that this might all be fake news and I'm really not recovering. Won't really know anything concrete until I get a CT on Monday morning. Finger's crossed.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Yes indeed!
I have my fingers crossed for you!
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Coughed up my first loogie in the last 24 hours or so last night and it was tasteless, scent-free and though it wasn't clear, it wasn't dark or red at all either. Just whiteish. The first one I've coughed up in about 3 weeks that I wouldn't have thought nothing of if I hadn't had the last 3 weeks behind me.
Still get a bit of a stink with the dry coughs though, but they are few and far between right now.
last 24 hour period+ I've kept the sugar between 70 and 120, even through the night when I slept. I did make several adjustments to the dose when I'd get up to go to the bathroom.
5 days without a BM still though. I'm wondering if the steroids have me using up most of the food or something??? I don't feel any gut discomfort. You'd think I'd be backed up so bad I couldn't move at this point otherwise. Weird.
Feeling pretty good though. But I'm not going to do much today but continue to get rest until I can get that CT done on Monday.
I think I forgot what it felt like to feel good. It's been a while.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
You do sound like you're on the mend.
But... head's up, SIX! If you're like me, when you come down or get off steroids you're gonna feel like shit, relatively speaking. Tired, blah, achey.
Not getting sick again, just a rebound reaction.
Dang, those steroids are addictive!
Let me know all about the CT. I'm rooting for you.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Yeah... I heard about the addiction to the roids. I assumed that's why they started you on 6 and stepped you down to one.
I don't think I'm out of the woods at all, to be honest. I only have one more pill of the Z-Pack, and 2 days left of the steroid. I know I let this thing go a long time, but it's clear I'm nowhere near "good" with only 2 days of meds left.
Not coughing, or coughing up much at all, but it still tastes like rotten chicken nuggets in my mouth if I do regardless of what if anything comes up. Heart is still beating pretty fast and hard at times, while other times it seems fine. I'm not really doing anything, so that's not something I can live with when I'm back to working for a living or even just doing lawn maintenance in about a month from now.
At least I pooped today finally. Yay!
Guess we'll see what happens after the CT comes back.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
It would appear that God or The Devil aren't ready for me yet.
The nurse practitioner who saw me the other day called me up at around 5PM today. I missed that call since I was too busy raising threads from the dead here for a laugh. I called her back and she pretty much put the fear of god in me that I needed a CT done, STAT! She told me stop dicking around worrying about health insurance because I could be dead by tomorrow morning and I should have gone yesterday when the other practitioner sent me that paperwork.
Alright, alright. Fuck... I guess I'm just fucked if the medicaid doesn't cover it then.
Unfortunately, my paperwork didn't say how serious it was, so nobody at the ER was taking me seriously, since the other "provider" at the clinic didn't put "STAT" anywhere on the paperwork for a CT and they only had "within 7 days" on there. Although when I mentioned she had told me that Tuberculosis was a good possibility here, all of the sudden they took that pretty seriously and they all put on their own masks (I was kind enough to already be wearing one on my way in).
They made me do X-Rays all over again. This time I was down to 6.4cm by 3cm.
Got the young male doctor to admit to me that he thought it was cancer, although while we were talking the radiologist sent him a message that said they were leaning toward a very aggressive pneumonia diagnosis over cancer. I asked him if he was just bull-shitting me now to make me feel better, but he actually pulled the message back up on his phone and showed me.
I may not LIKE being around people, but I'm usually able to get them to tell me things that most other people probably wouldn't.
And finally we got the CT done and I just kind of sat there in a zen state, with the lowest bpm I'd probably had in days, even though I just had a real doctor tell me he thought it was probably cancer...
And then 10 minutes to 10PM the doctor comes in and tells me it's not cancer. There's nothing solid within that massive mass in my lungs. It's all liquid and puss. It's either a staph or strep related pneumonia. So I was able to give my Dad a call before he was going to sleep (at 10). He was thinking about not going to see my brother for another day or two and coming to stay with me, but I told him either way I didn't want him wasting a day with me in the ER tomorrow if I was still there. He told me when we ended our call an hour earlier he said he was going to do something he never did before, and that he was going to pray for me.
So I told him when I called him back to remember whatever prayer he said if he ever wanted to use it again because it worked.
So they gave me two pills of whatever super-aggressive antibiotic they're going to have me pick up at the pharmacy tomorrow to get me started. He told me to use the Z-pack tomorrow, finish up the steroid until that runs out, and use the new antibiotic, and follow up with my Primary a week from now and get a new X-Ray while I'm there and I should be good. They weren't even going to use an IV antibiotic on me for whatever it was that they saw with that CT.
I ain't so easy to kill, but we already knew that by now.
Oh... and I told you all I look kind of like a younger, stronger version of Walter White when I've got my glasses on with my head shaved like this. Since I brought all my meds and toothbrush and my dentures stuff, in my man-purse tool bag along with other things, I decided to make a rare appearance outside my house with my glasses on rather than add contacts and solution to the mix.
So I took the opportunity to wear my Breaking Bad shirt with the police sketch of Walter White that said Heisenberg underneath it.
A few people there got the joke, so I guess it's not that out of date yet. I'll bet my doctor was in high school when that show was originally airing.
Told my old man about that and he was laughing. I told him, be
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Hey Sigs...
Whatchu know about Doxycycline Hyclate?
We're not playing anymore, are we?
Got a good dose of it last night, and now they got me on a ten-day 2-pill regimen (morning and night). They told me to wrap up that Z-Pack and the steroid too, and not to worry about any overlap.
My only concern is that there is a possibility of hives breakout because of the Amox allergy from before, but with all the warnings of side effects of the other drugs so far, the only thing that got me was the first few days of insulin resistance from the steroid catching me off-guard. None of the warnings about cramps, constipation, diarrhea, dizziness, blah, blah, blah did anything with the other drugs so far. Didn't poop for days, but wasn't in any pain or discomfort because of it.
They are telling me to drink two whole cups of water with this one though, which I've never seen on a drug before.
I thought it was funny that this one warns you not to be in direct sunlight for the whole time you're on it. I guess you can get really bad sunburns while on this stuff???
Well it's a good thing I'm a vampire. It's also March 2nd in the part of the country that's dead for half a year and it's 37 degrees out right now, so I think we're good on that.
I don't think I'll have a problem with the ween off of the steroid either. Only have the 2 pills today and 1 more pill tomorrow, and we're about 2 hours away from today's dose and I'm not feeling like I'm missing it.
I'm coughing a bit more today than I have been in the past, but maybe that's a good thing. The taste is almost gone now, even on the dry coughs, which is surprising given that my mass was still over 6cm by 3cm last night, but maybe that first hit of the new stuff they gave me last night has already been making some inroads on that.
Probably feeling better now than I have in about 2.5 months or so, to be honest. But maybe that's just partly because of getting the good news.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Hey Walter! Good news! No cancer!
I'm in a rush right now so just a few comments on doxycycline:
It works on many gram positive and gram positive bacteria.
Doxycycline is in an entirely different class of antibiotics than amoxicillin. So unless you develop an entirely new and different allergy, an allergy to amoxicillin is irrelevant. (However, an allergy to amoxicillin means you may be allergic to antibiotics in the penicillin class. Anything ending in "cillin".)
Yeah, stay out of sunlight, and if you develop a purple-ish, peeling, burned-looking rash, STOP taking it and call your doctor RIGHT AWAY. RARELY, ppl can develop something called Steven's Johnson syndrome.
It can cause diarrhea by killing off "good" gut bacteria and allowing the overgrowth of something called clostridium difficile. I advocate getting on a multi-strain probiotic, but if you develop watery diarrhea tell your doctor.
Yes, water. To reduce possible stomach upset. Don't take it with antacids or anything high in calcium, magnesium, aluminum, or iron. It binds with these metals and effectiveness is reduced.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hey Walter! Good news! No cancer!
YAY!
Quote:
I'm in a rush right now so just a few comments on doxycycline:
It works on many gram positive and gram positive bacteria.
Doxycycline is in an entirely different class of antibiotics than amoxicillin. So unless you develop an entirely new and different allergy, an allergy to amoxicillin is irrelevant. (However, an allergy to amoxicillin means you may be allergic to antibiotics in the penicillin class. Anything ending in "cillin".)
I did not know that. Thanks.
Quote:
Yeah, stay out of sunlight, and if you develop a purple-ish, peeling, burned-looking rash, STOP taking it and call your doctor RIGHT AWAY. RARELY, ppl can develop something called Steven's Johnson syndrome.
It can cause diarrhea by killing off "good" gut bacteria and allowing the overgrowth of something called clostridium difficile. I advocate getting on a multi-strain probiotic, but if you develop watery diarrhea tell your doctor.
Yes, water. To reduce possible stomach upset. Don't take it with antacids or anything high in calcium, magnesium, aluminum, or iron. It binds with these metals and effectiveness is reduced.
Thanks for the info.
Nobody mentioned anything about the purple rash or Steven's Johnson syndrome to me.
Although I did read about the antacid/iron. The label does warn not to take it within 2 hours of either taking antacids or vitamins (in general). I read about the Iron online, but the label just plays it safe and mentions vitamins as a whole.
The doctors mentioned not to lay down within at least 30 minutes of taking this too, although the label says just 10 minutes. I guess it can really mess with your esophagus if you don't let it properly start digesting and you get a little creep back up the wrong pipes. I will not be ignoring that advice since I've had a near 30 year on-again/off-again abusive relationship with acid reflux.
If I wasn't wearing a hoodie in the cold house, I'd probably have to move where I sit/sleep because of those window coverings I put up years back. As cold as it is today, it is quite sunny as well. About 1 hour from now I'll really be getting sun in the side window because of how low it is in the sky off that side around this time of day. Should be good though. Took my morning dose at noon, because they didn't have it ready sooner, but I didn't want to skip one. I kind of stay up late and eat late anyhow so not really worried that the 2nd dose will be quite late at night.
Feeling pretty good.
How you handling all of your stuff right now? Managing it well I hope?
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
One monitor is too old and the other one is full of dust, so cleaning it would be a b&tch. Also my tv is too old to do all that stuff with. It's at least 20years old. Have to look at the cords I got and see what I can do.
Maybe take some time to clean the one up that you think would work with an HDMI cable. Short of that, look for a monitor or smaller TV that has HDMI inputs/outputs which would also work. You should be able to pick one up at a Goodwill or something similar for a song if you manage to find one.
I was afraid your monitor was about to go when we were discussing it. Don't throw it out just yet, but I think you just need to get a working used monitor and new HDMI cable and you should be back in business imediately and you can just toss out the problem monitor. These things happen. I've gone through 3 flat screen monitors over the years now. Those old CRT monitors worked forever and would probably still be working today if I had any of them. These LED flat screens are all pieces of shit that are designed to fail because they want you to just keep buying new ones even if you aren't upgrading to the biggest and the best all the time.Quote:
This tooth has been repaired before and I don't know if it is repairable again. All I can think is there was another crack in it and all the drilling is what finally let it break.
Yeah. Cough is all gone now. So no worries there.
I know but not much I can do until I figure out a way to sort this all out.
Yeah... Bummer about the tooth. With my dental history, I can totally empathize. Look at the bright side though... You'll still have a lot more of your teeth than I do if this one needs to go.
Glad your cough is gone. Hopefully I see some good news about mine soon. Finger's crossed that I'm not already a dead man walking.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
Library again.
I've been looking at what I've got and been considering what you've said Also last night I tried putting some extra heat on the monitor a foot or so away. I could see the power button struggling to come on before the heat started tripping safety stuff. Then I had to restart things. I don't want to turf anything if I can help it. Got enough old electronics around my bedroom. Pain in the butt. I've also got the monitor covered, I could feel it warming up before I go to bed of course but I couldn't stay up and baby it as I had things to do today.
Yeah, I have to get to the dentist office tomorrow and talk to them.
As to your health problems. TB is highly infectious even today and you would have to be on heavy antibiotics for that and possible hospital time.
Not to scare you but if this does turn into lung cancer, you will need a biopsy to identify. Surgery could be an option if caught early enough. Other than that you are looking at chemo.
Wish I could help more but the cough I had was why I dragged myself into the doctor as it was hanging on too long. I got lucky with it not being anything serious.
I just hope for you that it doesn't morph into anything worse.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Wish I could remember my other pass words. Would love to let people know what is happening.
SIX, anyway of doing that from another computer until I get my poor sick thing up and running again?
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Ok, so now I'm gonna nag. Yanno, like a mom.
Consider this infection to be a heads-up that cancer is in the cards if you don't stop smoking. Yanno, it seems to me that everone has an anatomic "weak spot". With me, it's my sinuses. With my mom, her lungs (after decades of smoking). With my sis, tonsils and ears. Hubby? His back.
It seems your lungs are a weak spot. After smoking and breathing in a lot of chlorine and probably working in a lot of dusty /moldy areas, it might be time to treat your lungs gently so they'll last longer
Quote:
How you handling all of your stuff right now? Managing it well I hope?
I'm busy which means I'm mostly feeling pretty good, altho I AM looking forward to a knee injection and I definitely get tired at the end of the day. But it's what I'd expect at my age.
So far, so good.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
Wish I could remember my other pass words. Would love to let people know what is happening.
SIX, anyway of doing that from another computer until I get my poor sick thing up and running again?
Damn, Brenda... I can't remember what browser you use. I'm going to assume that it is Firefox? I think that's what we decided on ultimately?
If that's the case, on the same line above whatever website you're looking at as the line where the " http://www.fireflyfans.net/"; etc. is, all the way to the right, there should be an icon with 3 horizontal lines on top of each other.
___
___
___
If you click that, you'll get a very large drop-down box that pops up underneath it.
From there you have a few options, but for privacy and safety there's really only one you want to do. You could back up all your settings and load all your passwords onto another browser, but you don't want to do that at a library on a public computer even if they were designed to reset after use (I wouldn't trust that... too dangerous). So your going to have to have a piece of paper and a pen on you so you can manually write down your important login/passwords for sites you need short-term.
So on that drop-down from the 3 horizontal lines, select the option that says "Passwords" and left-click. It should be pretty close to the top. Maybe the 4th through the 6th option.
It will pull up a new tab. On the left side it will give you a scroll box with all of the sites you have saved your login info, and on the right it will show the Username and Password for the site selected (it will show the first one alphabetically by default, but you can scroll up/down and left click on any of those to bring up the site info).
The Username will be there for you to see plainly in just about the center of your screen, but the password will just be a bunch of dots. But to the right of those dots will be an icon that looks like an eyeball. If you left-click on that, it will show you the password you have saved for the website. Write both of these down for the first website you want the info for, then on the left side scroll and find the next website you want the info for and rinse/repeat until you have all of them.
Oh crap though.... I forgot. No. You can't bring that up at the library itself. You won't have your browser there. This would only be an option for you if you manage to get your old monitor miraculously working one last time. Or if you get a new monitor it's something you can do in the future just in case something like this happens.
Sorry I couldn't be more help than that.
Really... You need to try to clean up any of the old monitors that have an HDMI input and see if you can get that working. Better if you do it with a new HDMI cable, but if you only have the one cable, that might be a good test on the cable too. I think we still don't know if the actual issue is a broken monitor or a bad cable or power plug. I'm leaning toward a broken monitor/power plug, but there's a chance it could be the HDMI cable too.
I know how frustrating this must be for you. I hope you can find the time/energy to clean up that monitor and try to put it on your computer soon though. That or find an old monitor/flat screen TV with HDMI inputs at a Goodwill.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
As to your health problems. TB is highly infectious even today and you would have to be on heavy antibiotics for that and possible hospital time.
Not to scare you but if this does turn into lung cancer, you will need a biopsy to identify. Surgery could be an option if caught early enough. Other than that you are looking at chemo.
Wish I could help more but the cough I had was why I dragged myself into the doctor as it was hanging on too long. I got lucky with it not being anything serious.
I just hope for you that it doesn't morph into anything worse.
Hey again, Brenda.
Yeah... Looks like it's not lung cancer or TB. I know I did a lot of writing so you might not have gotten to that part before you replied. Looks like it was just a very extreme case of either staph or strep related pneumonia, and the doctors said they couldn't see any solid masses on my lungs with the CT and it was all "fluids and puss". I even mentioned to them that I was on the Z-Pack/Steroid combo that I read could hide early diagnosis of cancer, but he assured me that since we were actively looking for any possibility that they were very confident that cancer is not an issue here and it's all soft/liquid stuff that should be eliminated by the time I'm finished with the aggressive antibiotic they just put me on.
Hopefully we're good now.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Ok, so now I'm gonna nag. Yanno, like a mom.
Consider this infection to be a heads-up that cancer is in the cards if you don't stop smoking. Yanno, it seems to me that everone has an anatomic "weak spot". With me, it's my sinuses. With my mom, her lungs (after decades of smoking). With my sis, tonsils and ears. Hubby? His back.
It seems your lungs are a weak spot. After smoking and breathing in a lot of chlorine and probably working in a lot of dusty /moldy areas, it might be time to treat your lungs gently so they'll last longerQuote:
How you handling all of your stuff right now? Managing it well I hope?
I'm busy which means I'm mostly feeling pretty good, altho I AM looking forward to a knee injection and I definitely get tired at the end of the day. But it's what I'd expect at my age.
So far, so good.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
Thanks Mom.
No... I know, sigs. My old man is really on me about this right now too. He says that he was a few years younger than I was when he quit and even nearing his mid-70's now he feels better now than he did back in his early 40's (aside from the general aches and pains you get by then). And he knows that he'd have been dead a long time ago if he didn't quit.
I was able to quit drinking cold turkey, but I don't know if I can with the smoking. It's just a different beast altogether. I am going to see if I can get my primary to order me a prescription for some patches and if the insurance will cover them. Maybe at least give that a shot and see what happens.
Glad to hear that you're managing too. And I'm really glad for you that you have a few reasons there to keep on like you do too... even if sometimes they make you feel like maybe they're not as appreciative some days as they could be.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Hey, I troubleshot (bang!) the frig today!
The frig door was just not closing solidly. We looked all around the sealing surface for anything stuck, or anything sticking out (a drawer, some food) getting in the way.
So after we all threw up our hands and shrugged, I looked at it VERY carefully, and realized that part of the ... cushion?.... around the door had peeled back a little bit.
Double sided tape fixed it.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hey, I troubleshot (bang!) the frig today!
The frig door was just not closing solidly. We looked all around the sealing surface for anything stuck, or anything sticking out (a drawer, some food) getting in the way.
So after we all threw up our hands and shrugged, I looked at it VERY carefully, and realized that part of the ... cushion?.... around the door had peeled back a little bit.
Double sided tape fixed it.
Sweet!
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
The reason why people are addicted to cigarettes is because we have nicotine receptors in our brain. Just like we have opioid receptors. We DON'T have "alcohol receptors" in our brain.
Bc of that, quitting is really, really hard. Most people "quit" three, four... more... times before finally quitting for good. That's how hubby quit. That's how my parents quit. Forewarning that for some people, it's extra hard bc they have double the # of nicotine receptor genes and double the # of receptors, not a fault of character or personality. Other lucky ones have no nicotine receptors at all.
Patches help keep blood nicotine up, but it seems to me that smoking provides a "hit", and the routine of smoking ... pulling out that cigarette, lighting up, smoking with meals, or when stressed, or when drinking coffee ... is all tied to that "hit" and the whole thing becomes rewarding.
One possibility is to use vaping as a transition from cigarettes bc you're exposed to fewer toxic chemicals, but there are a lot of cautions about where you get your liquid from https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/5-truth
s-you-need-to-know-about-vaping If the FDA were smart they'd certify clean vaping products as a medical Rx to help ppl quit.
The other trick is to strongly associate some other routine with smoking/ vaping, and eventually substitute that routine. Most ppl gain weight bc they eat instead. Any foods that you find particularly rewarding that belong in your diet?
I'm just spitballing bc even tho both parents and hubby smoked like chimneys it's a habit I never picked up. I have my fingers crossed for you.
*****
Oh, BTW, if you should ever need steroids again, AFAIK EMT's consider a blood sugar of >400 to be a medical emergency, so if your blood sugar goes that high, DON'T PANIC, but call 911.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
BRENDA, all of your passwords are saved on YOUR computer at home, so until you can see what's on your computer, your passwords are inaccessible. Should you get a working monitor, all the passwords that you used for the internet ... which should be most of them ... are saved in your browser in a file. Unfortunately I only know Firefox, but if you should ever get that monitor going again, SIX can walk you thru the menu, or I might be able to help. But they're there, not lost.
Also, if working on a public computer, I assume their browser allows "private" mode? Also allows "clear history"?
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
BRENDA, all of your passwords are saved on YOUR computer at home, so until you can see what's on your computer, your passwords are inaccessible. Should you get a working monitor, all the passwords that you used for the internet ... which should be most of them ... are saved in your browser in a file. Unfortunately I only know Firefox, but if you should ever get that monitor going again, SIX can walk you thru the menu, or I might be able to help. But they're there, not lost.
Also, if working on a public computer, I assume their browser allows "private" mode? Also allows "clear history"?
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
Brenda's solution is really going to be just to get a new (used) monitor or clean up an old one that works. That's really the only fix here.
I didn't think about her passwords as being a problem while we were backing up her book. We could have also done this back then, but I figured we'd have a backup monitor for her by the time this one finally crapped out on her.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
Wish I could remember my other pass words. Would love to let people know what is happening.
SIX, anyway of doing that from another computer until I get my poor sick thing up and running again?
Damn, Brenda... I can't remember what browser you use. I'm going to assume that it is Firefox? I think that's what we decided on ultimately?
If that's the case, on the same line above whatever website you're looking at as the line where the " http://www.fireflyfans.net/"; etc. is, all the way to the right, there should be an icon with 3 horizontal lines on top of each other.
___
___
___
If you click that, you'll get a very large drop-down box that pops up underneath it.
From there you have a few options, but for privacy and safety there's really only one you want to do. You could back up all your settings and load all your passwords onto another browser, but you don't want to do that at a library on a public computer even if they were designed to reset after use (I wouldn't trust that... too dangerous). So your going to have to have a piece of paper and a pen on you so you can manually write down your important login/passwords for sites you need short-term.
So on that drop-down from the 3 horizontal lines, select the option that says "Passwords" and left-click. It should be pretty close to the top. Maybe the 4th through the 6th option.
It will pull up a new tab. On the left side it will give you a scroll box with all of the sites you have saved your login info, and on the right it will show the Username and Password for the site selected (it will show the first one alphabetically by default, but you can scroll up/down and left click on any of those to bring up the site info).
The Username will be there for you to see plainly in just about the center of your screen, but the password will just be a bunch of dots. But to the right of those dots will be an icon that looks like an eyeball. If you left-click on that, it will show you the password you have saved for the website. Write both of these down for the first website you want the info for, then on the left side scroll and find the next website you want the info for and rinse/repeat until you have all of them.
Oh crap though.... I forgot. No. You can't bring that up at the library itself. You won't have your browser there. This would only be an option for you if you manage to get your old monitor miraculously working one last time. Or if you get a new monitor it's something you can do in the future just in case something like this happens.
Sorry I couldn't be more help than that.
Really... You need to try to clean up any of the old monitors that have an HDMI input and see if you can get that working. Better if you do it with a new HDMI cable, but if you only have the one cable, that might be a good test on the cable too. I think we still don't know if the actual issue is a broken monitor or a bad cable or power plug. I'm leaning toward a broken monitor/power plug, but there's a chance it could be the HDMI cable too.
I know how frustrating this must be for you. I hope you can find the time/energy to clean up that monitor and try to put it on your computer soon though. That or find an old monitor/flat screen TV with HDMI inputs at a Goodwill.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
No worries SIX. It was just a thought is all. I do have another question. If I have to switch monitors it won't screw up the3 programs on my hard drive? Sorry. Old lady here and I still refeer to the case as a hard drive.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
As to your health problems. TB is highly infectious even today and you would have to be on heavy antibiotics for that and possible hospital time.
Not to scare you but if this does turn into lung cancer, you will need a biopsy to identify. Surgery could be an option if caught early enough. Other than that you are looking at chemo.
Wish I could help more but the cough I had was why I dragged myself into the doctor as it was hanging on too long. I got lucky with it not being anything serious.
I just hope for you that it doesn't morph into anything worse.
Hey again, Brenda.
Yeah... Looks like it's not lung cancer or TB. I know I did a lot of writing so you might not have gotten to that part before you replied. Looks like it was just a very extreme case of either staph or strep related pneumonia, and the doctors said they couldn't see any solid masses on my lungs with the CT and it was all "fluids and puss". I even mentioned to them that I was on the Z-Pack/Steroid combo that I read could hide early diagnosis of cancer, but he assured me that since we were actively looking for any possibility that they were very confident that cancer is not an issue here and it's all soft/liquid stuff that should be eliminated by the time I'm finished with the aggressive antibiotic they just put me on.
Hopefully we're good now.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
Good but to my understanding staph is still dangerous. Keep taking the meds from the doctor but do ask questions about them. You need that information.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
BRENDA, all of your passwords are saved on YOUR computer at home, so until you can see what's on your computer, your passwords are inaccessible. Should you get a working monitor, all the passwords that you used for the internet ... which should be most of them ... are saved in your browser in a file. Unfortunately I only know Firefox, but if you should ever get that monitor going again, SIX can walk you thru the menu, or I might be able to help. But they're there, not lost.
Also, if working on a public computer, I assume their browser allows "private" mode? Also allows "clear history"?
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
Yeah, I know. Library so very public. All will have to wait until I get that turkey working again.
That's why for here I don't turn on the remember me from the library. I do on my computer.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Library again. Got HMDI cord and will try it out this afternoon. *fingers crossed* it will work.
Got an appointment for Thursday afternoon about broken tooth.
Rain all week.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
No worries SIX. It was just a thought is all. I do have another question. If I have to switch monitors it won't screw up the3 programs on my hard drive? Sorry. Old lady here and I still refeer to the case as a hard drive.
Your hard drive will be fine, Brenda. Your hard drive is inside of the desktop machine. Any of your files or programs on the hard drive will remain intact, just as you left them.
If you had a problem with your video card and we needed to swap out for a new video card, there could be some minor issues with that. Windows 11 is really good with generic drivers, but with Windows 10 we probably would have had to install your new video card drivers to get it to work right. But that's not what's happening here. Swapping out or adding additional monitors to your setup won't change any programs you have.
Not an "old lady" question though.
You probably know more about computers right now than 40% of the people my age do at this point. I was a computer nerd growing up. I only had one friend that knew more about computers than me in high school and he's the guy who taught me to build my own computer when we went to a computer show and bought all the parts to build our own since he wanted a new one. By the college years, I only had a few other friends that got interested because of Napster and they wanted their own computer jukebox after they saw mine. I'm pretty sure, unless they had a job where they needed to learn it or they took a few "intro to computer" courses in college, probably about 4/10 people my age still don't know how to mess around with files and are only online now because of smart phones and smart TVs. Hell... I'm hearing now that the kids coming up probably know less than you do now because everything has been made so easy now that they spend all their computer time on their phones and they have no idea what a file system is either.
It's kind of become like driving a car. Almost everyone has a car or knows how to drive one, but short of pumping gas (or plugging their phone into a charger), they don't know what's under the hood of the car.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
Library again. Got HMDI cord and will try it out this afternoon. *fingers crossed* it will work.
Got an appointment for Thursday afternoon about broken tooth.
Rain all week.
Glad to hear you got a new HDMI cord. We'll use that going forward, and at least we can eliminate that as the source of your problem if it doesn't work tonight. I really do think that your monitor itself is the issue here though, so I won't be surprised if I don't see you again tonight.
Try to clean up that old monitor with the HDMI input(s) and get it attached now if this doesn't fix your problem tonight. And just keep an eye out for a used monitor/TV with HDMI inputs in your travels.
Good luck with the tooth.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
BRENDA, all of your passwords are saved on YOUR computer at home, so until you can see what's on your computer, your passwords are inaccessible. Should you get a working monitor, all the passwords that you used for the internet ... which should be most of them ... are saved in your browser in a file. Unfortunately I only know Firefox, but if you should ever get that monitor going again, SIX can walk you thru the menu, or I might be able to help. But they're there, not lost.
Also, if working on a public computer, I assume their browser allows "private" mode? Also allows "clear history"?
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
Yeah, I know. Library so very public. All will have to wait until I get that turkey working again.
That's why for here I don't turn on the remember me from the library. I do on my computer.
Yeah... I believe there is a way now with some of these browsers to save your settings and passwords and the like to the cloud, which you could access somewhere else through your email, but I would never suggest you do that in a public space, and that would probably be extremely hard to walk you through compared to backing up your book anyhow. Especially when you're not doing it from home.
At some point, you might also want to see if you can pick up a used laptop on the cheap as well. I'm sure I'm on the far end of the spectrum here, but I have 4 computers that I use currently for various tasks, and I've got another 3 or 4 backup computers that I could swap out if one broke.
You should have access to at least 2 at any given point in time. Not just for backup purposes, but if one goes out on you like this, you still have access to a 2nd unit to do your troubleshooting on a broken PC.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
Good but to my understanding staph is still dangerous. Keep taking the meds from the doctor but do ask questions about them. You need that information.
Yeah... I think staph is really dangerous. I don't think we'll ever know if this was staph or strep, unless we discover at my follow up there's still an issue and we need to do a biopsy on the lung. I'm actually surprised they did not try to get me to cough anything up while I was there to test. That was another surprise to me like when they didn't bother hooking me up to an IV for antibiotic. I think whatever they were seeing ended up being so non-concerning to them that we didn't do a lot of things I thought we might be doing. It probably only got as big as it did because I let it go on for as long as I did.
I probably coughed up more today than I have in a few days, but it wasn't because I was involuntarily coughing. It was more just me trying to clear out my lungs, especially when I woke up in the morning and after a nap.
The bad taste is all but gone now, and the phlegm color doesn't look disgusting anymore (or any more disgusting than a bad case of bronchitis, anyhow). More white and green than anything else. None of the fleshy/rust colors we were dealing with just a few days ago.
I can still tell it's in there because I can't breath in a full breath without some pressure or even some light pain if I really try forcing a full breath to the max, but I can tell that only 3 pills in on our 20 pill regimen of this new antibiotic we're making some real progress here.
Still making sure to get plenty of sleep and drink plenty of water.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I've actually put a few hours into my project today. It's not the first time in the last 10 or so days I've put any time into it, but the first time I was able to put in about more than 1 hour without giving up on it.
Got a few minor things I want to do on my house before my Dad comes over after he gets back from my brother's and before he leaves to visit my East Coast brother's family for a few weeks. Minor things, really. Just fabricating a few thresholds for my coat closet and pantry doors and painting them before installing them. Nothing too strenuous, but something I've had prepped to do in the basement for about 3 months now but didn't bother doing in the cold basement. If you don't count building the banisters for the stairwell going to the basement and 2nd floor, that will be another complete room in my house once those two little things are done. Shouldn't take long for me to get that done. I'll probably spend more time waiting for paint to dry between coats than doing the actual work on it.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Glad to know you're up and about, and planning to do some things with the house. I wonder how long you've been sick, really. At what point did you start slumping?
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Glad to know you're up and about, and planning to do some things with the house. I wonder how long you've been sick, really. At what point did you start slumping?
Probably several months at least now.
I don't think I've really felt good since around mid-October. I don't remember when I was having those deep sweats that weren't related to my diabetes that you thought might have indicated sepsis.
Back then I wasn't coughing though. Just feeling really lousy in general. Nothing that was keeping me from working on my project, but that's easy to do when I'm mostly sitting around all day even when I'm working.
The coughing started maybe 6 weeks ago, and it started turning pretty bad maybe a month ago.
I think I probably let this thing go on for so long that it turned into an emergency when it never should have in the first place.
I'd say right now, aside from the coughing and the obvious discomfort while breathing in heavy now, I probably feel as good as I did back in October/November. I guess we'll see if that's still the case in a few days now that the steroids are finished (I took my last single-pill dose this afternoon).
I'll have another 16 pills of this new antibiotic over the next 8 days, but other than the inhaler they gave me, that's all the medicine I have to take.
So hopefully this is it. Going to need to start worrying about mowing the lawn and regular lawn maintenance soon, and I know I'm not ready for that yet.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
No worries SIX. It was just a thought is all. I do have another question. If I have to switch monitors it won't screw up the3 programs on my hard drive? Sorry. Old lady here and I still refeer to the case as a hard drive.
Your hard drive will be fine, Brenda. Your hard drive is inside of the desktop machine. Any of your files or programs on the hard drive will remain intact, just as you left them.
If you had a problem with your video card and we needed to swap out for a new video card, there could be some minor issues with that. Windows 11 is really good with generic drivers, but with Windows 10 we probably would have had to install your new video card drivers to get it to work right. But that's not what's happening here. Swapping out or adding additional monitors to your setup won't change any programs you have.
Not an "old lady" question though.
You probably know more about computers right now than 40% of the people my age do at this point. I was a computer nerd growing up. I only had one friend that knew more about computers than me in high school and he's the guy who taught me to build my own computer when we went to a computer show and bought all the parts to build our own since he wanted a new one. By the college years, I only had a few other friends that got interested because of Napster and they wanted their own computer jukebox after they saw mine. I'm pretty sure, unless they had a job where they needed to learn it or they took a few "intro to computer" courses in college, probably about 4/10 people my age still don't know how to mess around with files and are only online now because of smart phones and smart TVs. Hell... I'm hearing now that the kids coming up probably know less than you do now because everything has been made so easy now that they spend all their computer time on their phones and they have no idea what a file system is either.
It's kind of become like driving a car. Almost everyone has a car or knows how to drive one, but short of pumping gas (or plugging their phone into a charger), they don't know what's under the hood of the car.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
Thanks SIX. That makes me feel better.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
Library again. Got HMDI cord and will try it out this afternoon. *fingers crossed* it will work.
Got an appointment for Thursday afternoon about broken tooth.
Rain all week.
Glad to hear you got a new HDMI cord. We'll use that going forward, and at least we can eliminate that as the source of your problem if it doesn't work tonight. I really do think that your monitor itself is the issue here though, so I won't be surprised if I don't see you again tonight.
Try to clean up that old monitor with the HDMI input(s) and get it attached now if this doesn't fix your problem tonight. And just keep an eye out for a used monitor/TV with HDMI inputs in your travels.
Good luck with the tooth.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
Tried the new cord yesterday and nada. Will take sometime to clean up Blair's old monitor as it has been in and out of storage and all kinds of stuff. So ugh!
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
BRENDA, all of your passwords are saved on YOUR computer at home, so until you can see what's on your computer, your passwords are inaccessible. Should you get a working monitor, all the passwords that you used for the internet ... which should be most of them ... are saved in your browser in a file. Unfortunately I only know Firefox, but if you should ever get that monitor going again, SIX can walk you thru the menu, or I might be able to help. But they're there, not lost.
Also, if working on a public computer, I assume their browser allows "private" mode? Also allows "clear history"?
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
Yeah, I know. Library so very public. All will have to wait until I get that turkey working again.
That's why for here I don't turn on the remember me from the library. I do on my computer.
Yeah... I believe there is a way now with some of these browsers to save your settings and passwords and the like to the cloud, which you could access somewhere else through your email, but I would never suggest you do that in a public space, and that would probably be extremely hard to walk you through compared to backing up your book anyhow. Especially when you're not doing it from home.
At some point, you might also want to see if you can pick up a used laptop on the cheap as well. I'm sure I'm on the far end of the spectrum here, but I have 4 computers that I use currently for various tasks, and I've got another 3 or 4 backup computers that I could swap out if one broke.
You should have access to at least 2 at any given point in time. Not just for backup purposes, but if one goes out on you like this, you still have access to a 2nd unit to do your troubleshooting on a broken PC.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
No worries. I am getting through this. Library computers do clear browsing or they would get too cluttered with everything people look for.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
Good but to my understanding staph is still dangerous. Keep taking the meds from the doctor but do ask questions about them. You need that information.
Yeah... I think staph is really dangerous. I don't think we'll ever know if this was staph or strep, unless we discover at my follow up there's still an issue and we need to do a biopsy on the lung. I'm actually surprised they did not try to get me to cough anything up while I was there to test. That was another surprise to me like when they didn't bother hooking me up to an IV for antibiotic. I think whatever they were seeing ended up being so non-concerning to them that we didn't do a lot of things I thought we might be doing. It probably only got as big as it did because I let it go on for as long as I did.
I probably coughed up more today than I have in a few days, but it wasn't because I was involuntarily coughing. It was more just me trying to clear out my lungs, especially when I woke up in the morning and after a nap.
The bad taste is all but gone now, and the phlegm color doesn't look disgusting anymore (or any more disgusting than a bad case of bronchitis, anyhow). More white and green than anything else. None of the fleshy/rust colors we were dealing with just a few days ago.
I can still tell it's in there because I can't breath in a full breath without some pressure or even some light pain if I really try forcing a full breath to the max, but I can tell that only 3 pills in on our 20 pill regimen of this new antibiotic we're making some real progress here.
Still making sure to get plenty of sleep and drink plenty of water.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
Okay. If you are still having breathing problems at the follow up they should suggest a breathing test. Or you could ask for one. My other thought because of the breathing problems is this could be an early case of asthma. Also not nice.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Okay. Library again. Mah jong in morning and dentist for tooth in the afternoon, so don't know if I will be able to give a shout out. Depends how long at dentist and what I feel like.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
Okay. Library again. Mah jong in morning and dentist for tooth in the afternoon, so don't know if I will be able to give a shout out. Depends how long at dentist and what I feel like.
Well, I hope your dental appt goes well, BRENDA. IIRC you were thinking a couple of dental appointments ago your teeth would be all set for a while, but thst was one root canal and one broken tooth ago.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
Good but to my understanding staph is still dangerous. Keep taking the meds from the doctor but do ask questions about them. You need that information.
Yeah... I think staph is really dangerous. I don't think we'll ever know if this was staph or strep, unless we discover at my follow up there's still an issue and we need to do a biopsy on the lung. I'm actually surprised they did not try to get me to cough anything up while I was there to test. That was another surprise to me like when they didn't bother hooking me up to an IV for antibiotic. I think whatever they were seeing ended up being so non-concerning to them that we didn't do a lot of things I thought we might be doing. It probably only got as big as it did because I let it go on for as long as I did.
I probably coughed up more today than I have in a few days, but it wasn't because I was involuntarily coughing. It was more just me trying to clear out my lungs, especially when I woke up in the morning and after a nap.
The bad taste is all but gone now, and the phlegm color doesn't look disgusting anymore (or any more disgusting than a bad case of bronchitis, anyhow). More white and green than anything else. None of the fleshy/rust colors we were dealing with just a few days ago.
I can still tell it's in there because I can't breath in a full breath without some pressure or even some light pain if I really try forcing a full breath to the max, but I can tell that only 3 pills in on our 20 pill regimen of this new antibiotic we're making some real progress here.
Still making sure to get plenty of sleep and drink plenty of water.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
Okay. If you are still having breathing problems at the follow up they should suggest a breathing test. Or you could ask for one. My other thought because of the breathing problems is this could be an early case of asthma. Also not nice.
Thanks Brenda.
I think I'm getting better every day now. My old man said I sounded great on the phone when I talked to him. First day without steroids and I'm feeling pretty good. I actually cut, primed, painted and installed 3 thresholds for my coat closet, pantry and the door going up to my attic today. Just need to use some DAP to fill in the brad nail holes, sand those down and give 'em one final coat of paint. They look great.
First time I did any work on the house since I was laying down the rock back in August/September, and the first time I've worked inside the house since I refinished the 2nd floor bathroom door with the new towel hangers installed on the inside, and refinished the attic door. I don't even remember when I did those it was so long ago now.
Still can't breath in all the way, but almost zero coughing now. I haven't even used the inhaler for almost 2 days since I haven't needed it for coughing. Only managed to spit up just a tiny little bit today, and it was basically clear. Yay!
But it makes me wonder, where the hell is it all going if I'm not coughing it up.
You got any ideas, Sigs? My lungs wouldn't just absorb that, would they? I would have figured that I'd still be coughing up a hell of a lot of foul smelling/tasting stuff, but if it weren't for the feeling that there's something still in there when I try to take a full breath, I practically wouldn't even know that i had a problem in the first place right now.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
That's an interesting question, SIX! I had to look it up.
It appears to be a mechanical process...
Postural drainage
Belly (abdominal) breathing
Something called "huffing", a not-quite cough
Hydration and humidification
Something I never heard of
Quote:
Using vibrations. You can purchase a small tool online called a flutter valve or an acapella valve (prices start at about $24). It might look like a child's bubble pipe or kazoo. "You blow into it and hear small balls fluttering inside it. The vibrations reach into your airways and help loosen secretions. Try to cough after using the tool," Philben suggests. "The secretions loosened by the vibrations may be coughed up more easily."
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/breathe-better-after-a-
chest-cold-flu-pneumonia-or-covid
I used to have asthma pretty bad, so a lot are similar to treating that. Postural drainage and percussion really helped me clear the occasional sticky gob causing persistent cough, unfortunately you need someone to do the percussions on your back.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
What I mean though, is would that even be necessary if I wasn't coughing?
When I went to the ER, the Z-Pack/Steroid had shrunk the thing from 8.0cm (didn't have a second dimension from them), down to 6.2cm x 3.3cm. That's still pretty damn huge.
I haven't had a ton of coughing since then, and the amount of stuff I've coughed up is a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what I was coughing up before I first got help.
I'm wondering if my body is absorbing it and removing it in some other way (perhaps through the blood and ultimately excreted through urine/bowels, or if I have a big old ball of rancid garbage somewhere still in my left lung that isn't going to go away on its own.
Late last night I had a little cough and could still faintly taste the bad taste, but the few times I have spit anything up in the last two days it was clear and tasteless/odorless.
I guess we'll find out when I have my follow up.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I was wondering about that, too. I can see how fluid can be absorbed, but pus is another matter as it consists of a lot of ead bacteria cells and dead white blood cells.
So I specifically looked that up and, honestly, couldn't find anything along those lines. There must be SOME kind of mechanism, otherwise anybody who ever had a skin infection or pneumonia would be left with permanent hard knots of dried out pus, but since that doesn't happen all the time they're getting cleared somehow.
OTOH people do wind up with cysts in lungs, skin and elsewhere ... walled off pus pockets that can only be removed surgically, so obviously the clearance is imperfect
With a cavity the size that you had, I guess I wouldn't be surprised if you wound up with a cyst. So I guess the answer is: keep working on mechanical clearing, basically respiratory therapy, and you'll see on the next x-ray or CT.
Wish I had a better answer.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Don't apologize. I just thought maybe you'd know with your work history and your own history with health issues.
The only person I knew in my life who I could have even asked about it was my grandpa who died a long time ago. When he was around my age or maybe a few years younger he was hospitalized with a case of walking pneumonia himself. Like, taken to the hospital in an ambulance hospitalized (I know where I get my stubborn genes from ).
He was a heavy smoker at the time, and he gave it up immediately after seeing the X-Rays, so the story goes. Back then they sent you home with those Xrays and he kept them and showed them to me when I was a kid. He lived well into his 70's, but he had a ton of other problems and probably ate more pills every morning by volume than he did breakfast.
I'm assuming that his pneumonia was even worse than mine if he was rushed to the hospital like that, although I don't think he ever had any free time and was always working so whatever event happened that got him a trip to the hospital was likely triggered by his extremely elevated heart rate on top of physical labor at his job, where I had the "benefit" of being able to sit around either doing nothing or working on my project which didn't require much movement.
I never heard about the aftermath, and I don't remember if he ever needed anything surgically removed.
I think my doctor the other night was just happy to be able to come in and tell me the good news that it wasn't cancer and was probably done doing any "speculating" about what the next step would be since he had already told me he thought I had lung cancer an hour or so earlier and probably didn't want to tell me anything about my own future with this and decided to leave that in the hands of the Primary Care doctor after a new Xray was taken after the antibiotics were done.
Oh well... I can wait.
I'm feeling better by the day.
My appetite is certainly back. It was never a problem eating enough to live, and I never felt like I was forcing anything down, but I really don't remember ever feeling hungry for the last few months. That's not the case right now though. I'm ravenous.
In fact, I just clogged up my toilet for the first time in I don't know how many decades. I'm hoping with a few more big flushes I can get it to go down on its own because I really don't want to have to get my hands dirty with that today.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
Okay. Library again. Mah jong in morning and dentist for tooth in the afternoon, so don't know if I will be able to give a shout out. Depends how long at dentist and what I feel like.
Well, I hope your dental appt goes well, BRENDA. IIRC you were thinking a couple of dental appointments ago your teeth would be all set for a while, but thst was one root canal and one broken tooth ago.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
I hpe so too. But we shall see.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
Good but to my understanding staph is still dangerous. Keep taking the meds from the doctor but do ask questions about them. You need that information.
Yeah... I think staph is really dangerous. I don't think we'll ever know if this was staph or strep, unless we discover at my follow up there's still an issue and we need to do a biopsy on the lung. I'm actually surprised they did not try to get me to cough anything up while I was there to test. That was another surprise to me like when they didn't bother hooking me up to an IV for antibiotic. I think whatever they were seeing ended up being so non-concerning to them that we didn't do a lot of things I thought we might be doing. It probably only got as big as it did because I let it go on for as long as I did.
I probably coughed up more today than I have in a few days, but it wasn't because I was involuntarily coughing. It was more just me trying to clear out my lungs, especially when I woke up in the morning and after a nap.
The bad taste is all but gone now, and the phlegm color doesn't look disgusting anymore (or any more disgusting than a bad case of bronchitis, anyhow). More white and green than anything else. None of the fleshy/rust colors we were dealing with just a few days ago.
I can still tell it's in there because I can't breath in a full breath without some pressure or even some light pain if I really try forcing a full breath to the max, but I can tell that only 3 pills in on our 20 pill regimen of this new antibiotic we're making some real progress here.
Still making sure to get plenty of sleep and drink plenty of water.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
Okay. If you are still having breathing problems at the follow up they should suggest a breathing test. Or you could ask for one. My other thought because of the breathing problems is this could be an early case of asthma. Also not nice.
Thanks Brenda.
I think I'm getting better every day now. My old man said I sounded great on the phone when I talked to him. First day without steroids and I'm feeling pretty good. I actually cut, primed, painted and installed 3 thresholds for my coat closet, pantry and the door going up to my attic today. Just need to use some DAP to fill in the brad nail holes, sand those down and give 'em one final coat of paint. They look great.
First time I did any work on the house since I was laying down the rock back in August/September, and the first time I've worked inside the house since I refinished the 2nd floor bathroom door with the new towel hangers installed on the inside, and refinished the attic door. I don't even remember when I did those it was so long ago now.
Still can't breath in all the way, but almost zero coughing now. I haven't even used the inhaler for almost 2 days since I haven't needed it for coughing. Only managed to spit up just a tiny little bit today, and it was basically clear. Yay!
But it makes me wonder, where the hell is it all going if I'm not coughing it up.
You got any ideas, Sigs? My lungs wouldn't just absorb that, would they? I would have figured that I'd still be coughing up a hell of a lot of foul smelling/tasting stuff, but if it weren't for the feeling that there's something still in there when I try to take a full breath, I practically wouldn't even know that i had a problem in the first place right now.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
Hope fully you really are on the mend. No coughing is good and no real gunk coming up is good too. Just remember if anymore gunk does collect, spit it out! That is nessecity to
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Out quick bite. Bad lunch at seniors centre and no luck at mah jong inspite of going out about three times.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
Out quick bite. Bad lunch at seniors centre and no luck at mah jong inspite of going out about three times.
You posting from the library or did you get your monitor working????
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
Out quick bite. Bad lunch at seniors centre and no luck at mah jong inspite of going out about three times.
You posting from the library or did you get your monitor working????
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
Sorry. I was at the library for a few yesterday.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Library again. Still working on the monitor.
Dentist yesterday. Tooth filled. Now, I wait and see if the filling breaks again then it is another root canal and crown. Fingers crossed it won't break.
Laundry tomorrow. So will see everyone later.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Yeah, fingers crossed that all your dental appts from now on are routine!
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Good luck and good luck, Brenda.
My Dad came by today. Watched a few movies. He said I looked better today than I have in months, so that's a good thing if he's not blowing smoke up my ass.
Feeling pretty good. Only 5 1/2 more days left of the antibiotics left, so hopefully we clear it all out. I don't feel sick anymore, but I know I've still got quite a bit of shit in that left lung that needs to be removed one way or another.
I didn't seem to have any issues weening myself off those steroids. Haven't had any in 3 days now and don't feel any withdrawal symptoms or anything. I almost fell asleep during a movie we were watching today though. That's not like me. But I've been so used to getting a lot of sleep day or night while I was fighting this thing off, so maybe I was just missing my nap.
Was hoping to maybe hang out with one of my friends tonight, but I can't reach him right now. He's been having battery problems on his cell and it went straight to voice mail. Raining and thundering like a SOB right now, so I really don't feel like driving out that way in the dark and rain too much anyhow.
It's going to be over 60 degrees for the next 5 days before we go back down into the 30's so hopefully we can get together this weekend.
I'm pretty sure I have to be beyond the point where I'm contagious at this point. 6 days of z-packs and another 5 days now of the heavy duty antibiotics.
Hey Sigs... any recommendations on good pro-biotics? I think with my auto-immune issues it's probably going to be pretty important to try to rebuild that gut biome asap. We just kind of waged a nuclear war on the poor things.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I like Garden of Life Primal Defense probiotic bc it contains 12 different strains of bacteria instead of just one, which is what most probiotics contain. However, it's on the pricey side. OTOH you shouldn't need to take more than one bottle to restore gut bacteria. Yogurt also helps.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
You're not lying about the price.
Thanks for the tip. I think maybe I'll treat myself this one time.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Yeah, fingers crossed that all your dental appts from now on are routine!
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
Me too. They will be calling me next week to see what is happening. It is getting easier to chew today. Granola bar and lunch were pretty good. So, I think all the swelling is pretty well gone.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Still at library. Need to get a couple more extension cords to try and use the heater to get my monitor running. I am starting to hate this apartment. Don't mind me just frustrated is all.
Well, mail was lousy yesterday. Letter from cardiologist. Echo is set for March 28th which is a Saturday. Have to be a to be there half an hour earlier to register. I will have to a little earlier than that. I don't know where the cardiology department is. Local hospital. Letter says main floor but that covers a lot of ground. I know where the cancer clinic is and the neurology department and even the mammogram area but this one I am lost. Will go to information and ask.
See everyone on Monday.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I really think your monitor is shot, Brenda. Keeping it warm and moving it away from the window may have been a temporary solution for a monitor that was dying its last gasps of breath may have helped for a while. But like I said from the beginning, electronics of all types perform much better in the cold. It was why I told you that if you shoved anything between the monitor and the drafty window/door to be really careful you weren't blocking any airflow holes in the back of the monitor for it to release the heat. They're designed to withstand a fair amount of heat since electronics heat up rather quickly once they're turned on, but even in a cold room or drafty area they will overheat if the internals can't properly radiate their heat out into the room around it.
I wouldn't even keep that monitor as a backup once you replace it either with Blair's old monitor or with a used monitor or TV you pick up 2nd hand somewhere. It really just needs to be junked.
I don't want to dig too deep if you don't want to talk about it, but is there something keeping you from cleaning up Blair's old monitor? I understand if that's the case. If that is the case, you really need to just buy another monitor so you don't have to do all of your online stuff at the library.
And while you're looking for 2nd hand monitors/TVs for a replacement, you should look as well for a used laptop as well so you always have a backup way to get online. With the force to Windows 11 and so many PCs and laptops not meeting the minimum requirements for the upgrade, you should be able to find one pretty darn cheap right now. And since you don't do anything online regarding your finances, you really don't need to worry about security all that much if all you're doing is going to websites like FFF.net and using your personal email, and Windows 10 should be just fine for your purposes.
Most laptops that would still be in circulation but would not meet the minimum Win11 requirements should have an HDMI output as well, so you would be able to plug the laptop into the new monitor if your desktop ever went out. They should also have at least 2 USB ports on them so if you didn't want to use the track pad and/or laptop keyboard, you could also plug your desktop mouse and keyboard into it and use those instead.
Don't freak out about the cardiologist. They kind of freaked out about my EKG readings a few years ago but there was nothing really wrong and they just gave me some generic pills to take. They gave me another EKG reading while I was in the ER last Sunday and the results were exactly the same as they were 3-4 years ago despite living with strep or staph related walking pneumonia for months now, having an elevated heart rate because of it, and nobody even made any mention of seeing a cardiologist over it this time.
Good idea to get there early though. If your hospital is anything like mine, it's all hurry up and wait and you're just going to end up finding it quicker than you thought and waiting around longer than you would have if you showed up on time, but just in case they're actually not behind schedule on March 28th, you really need to be there when they're ready to see you. They won't think twice about bumping you out of the rotation for being late, but they will never give you any apology if they're late or if the doctor you were supposed to see didn't show up that day and nobody bothered to tell you that until you got there.
Ask me how I know.
See you on Monday, and try not to worry about anything until when and if you know there is something to worry about. It won't do you no good.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I really think your monitor is shot, Brenda. Keeping it warm and moving it away from the window may have been a temporary solution for a monitor that was dying its last gasps of breath may have helped for a while. But like I said from the beginning, electronics of all types perform much better in the cold. It was why I told you that if you shoved anything between the monitor and the drafty window/door to be really careful you weren't blocking any airflow holes in the back of the monitor for it to release the heat. They're designed to withstand a fair amount of heat since electronics heat up rather quickly once they're turned on, but even in a cold room or drafty area they will overheat if the internals can't properly radiate their heat out into the room around it.
I wouldn't even keep that monitor as a backup once you replace it either with Blair's old monitor or with a used monitor or TV you pick up 2nd hand somewhere. It really just needs to be junked.
I don't want to dig too deep if you don't want to talk about it, but is there something keeping you from cleaning up Blair's old monitor? I understand if that's the case. If that is the case, you really need to just buy another monitor so you don't have to do all of your online stuff at the library.
And while you're looking for 2nd hand monitors/TVs for a replacement, you should look as well for a used laptop as well so you always have a backup way to get online. With the force to Windows 11 and so many PCs and laptops not meeting the minimum requirements for the upgrade, you should be able to find one pretty darn cheap right now. And since you don't do anything online regarding your finances, you really don't need to worry about security all that much if all you're doing is going to websites like FFF.net and using your personal email, and Windows 10 should be just fine for your purposes.
Most laptops that would still be in circulation but would not meet the minimum Win11 requirements should have an HDMI output as well, so you would be able to plug the laptop into the new monitor if your desktop ever went out. They should also have at least 2 USB ports on them so if you didn't want to use the track pad and/or laptop keyboard, you could also plug your desktop mouse and keyboard into it and use those instead.
Don't freak out about the cardiologist. They kind of freaked out about my EKG readings a few years ago but there was nothing really wrong and they just gave me some generic pills to take. They gave me another EKG reading while I was in the ER last Sunday and the results were exactly the same as they were 3-4 years ago despite living with strep or staph related walking pneumonia for months now, having an elevated heart rate because of it, and nobody even made any mention of seeing a cardiologist over it this time.
Good idea to get there early though. If your hospital is anything like mine, it's all hurry up and wait and you're just going to end up finding it quicker than you thought and waiting around longer than you would have if you showed up on time, but just in case they're actually not behind schedule on March 28th, you really need to be there when they're ready to see you. They won't think twice about bumping you out of the rotation for being late, but they will never give you any apology if they're late or if the doctor you were supposed to see didn't show up that day and nobody bothered to tell you that until you got there.
Ask me how I know.
See you on Monday, and try not to worry about anything until when and if you know there is something to worry about. It won't do you no good.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
Hi SIX. Library again. I finally found someone in a shop who answered all my questions. Yipee! And basically told me what you have said. I found the other monitor
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Yeah. I know you've got a desktop, Brenda. Just saying that it might be a good idea to pick up a laptop in the future for cheap since you can get them 2nd hand really cheap now with the Windows 11 forced upgrade. Might be something for you to look into as a temporary backup in case your desktop ever goes.
Hope to see you later on your desktop with the other monitor.
Hope the visit went well today.
Got my followup tomorrow myself. I didn't realize that somebody had called me last Monday about the followup since nobody left me any messages. Called them today and they said the earliest available appointment was on the 26th, but I was able to finagle them to get me in tomorrow afternoon by jokingly saying that I might be dead by the 26th.
Probably not, but with only 5 antibiotics left in my bottle, I'd like to see somebody before I backslide and land in the ER again. I'm definitely way better off than I was a few weeks ago before I went to that clinic and got those initial Z-Packs, but there's still shit in my left lung for sure, and with only 5 pills left I'm glad I got that appointment tomorrow afternoon instead of weeks from now.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Sometimes you don't know how sick you've been until you start getting better.
I don't know about you, but after a serious illness I've sometimes gone thru several days where I'd look back and think, "Wow, I didn't know how sick I was“ ...
and then thought the same thing the next day, and the next few days after that!
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Yeah. I know you've got a desktop, Brenda. Just saying that it might be a good idea to pick up a laptop in the future for cheap since you can get them 2nd hand really cheap now with the Windows 11 forced upgrade. Might be something for you to look into as a temporary backup in case your desktop ever goes.
Hope to see you later on your desktop with the other monitor.
Hope the visit went well today.
Got my followup tomorrow myself. I didn't realize that somebody had called me last Monday about the followup since nobody left me any messages. Called them today and they said the earliest available appointment was on the 26th, but I was able to finagle them to get me in tomorrow afternoon by jokingly saying that I might be dead by the 26th.
Probably not, but with only 5 antibiotics left in my bottle, I'd like to see somebody before I backslide and land in the ER again. I'm definitely way better off than I was a few weeks ago before I went to that clinic and got those initial Z-Packs, but there's still shit in my left lung for sure, and with only 5 pills left I'm glad I got that appointment tomorrow afternoon instead of weeks from now.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
Trust after this episode I have been thinking about another lap top. Ugh! Hate the things but I can see the useful of one.
Hope they can get you in before the 26th. That's a long time to wait and I know you don't freak out like I do. Still.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Believe it or not my area actually got some of the white stuff this morning. So, I have my cane, umbrella, scarf on and used my gloves.
Well, I bit the bullet and bought a new monitor which was on sale at the local London Drugs. I've told SIX about this place before.
Got it out of the mall and dropped my cane. Young woman picked up for me as I almost dropped the monitor box. Then a young man came up to me and asked if he could carry it back for me. He got me to the main door and one of the other people let me, so I didn't have to fish for my key. He asked me if I was okay to get it upstairs and I said yes. Got on the elevator and up to my floor, key out and it is in. Waiting for me to set it up. Don't think they like answering my stupid questions which I think they are.
Oh, tried hooking up the other monitor I had and it was dead. Then I went into the kitchen for an apple turn over, I knocked them ones left over and had to sweep them up. *sigh* Not a great day.
Was snowing when I went out and stopped. Warming up so that means rain. Should be partly gone by tomorrow and hope we don't get anymore. *fingers crossed*
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Okay, I need lunch and some more goodies. Never got to my taxes. So they can be done tomorrow. *sigh*
Okay another fingers crossed for today. *sigh*
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Library when I typed those posts. Now I am out.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Sometimes you don't know how sick you've been until you start getting better.
I don't know about you, but after a serious illness I've sometimes gone thru several days where I'd look back and think, "Wow, I didn't know how sick I was“ ...
and then thought the same thing the next day, and the next few days after that!
Hey... We'll see. Only 3 pills left, so after I take my pill tonight I've only got one more day on the antibiotic.
My primary wasn't so quick to rule out lung cancer, although he said that it was a great sign that the antibiotics have improved my situation as much as they have and after reading the radiologists report on my CT he doesn't believe it's likely. He's set me up with a pulmonologist and I've got another CT scheduled for the beginning of April, which will be 1 month after the CT I had in the ER visit. No new drugs, so I guess we're just going to let it ride until then.
He listened to my heart and lungs and said that my breathing was clear and nothing appeared to be blocked up, which is what he was looking for. He's not surprised I still feel like I've got crap in my lung after how large I let it get before getting any help.
I don't feel 100% for sure, but I do feel a lot better then the day I went to the clinic. It's sure nice not having a fever and chills randomly throughout the day and/or night, and even nicer not coughing up puss and death too. Although I wish I'd cough up SOMETHING and get the rest of this out. I stopped taking the inhaler 5 days ago and I still don't cough unless I'm forcing it. My doctor wants me to try to remember to take 10 deep breaths in and force a cough out every hour that I'm awake to try to get more of the crap out.
He also had me do some blood work, an A1C, a urine sample and another EKG, and since I hadn't eaten since last night I was able to knock all of those out right after I saw him. Results on the tests that are finished quickly look normal except my blood sugar was a little high at 111 at the time I took the test. Wont' have the A1C, urine sample or EKG results probably for a couple of days.
I guess I just schedule my other doctor appointments and then I just wait it out.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
Believe it or not my area actually got some of the white stuff this morning. So, I have my cane, umbrella, scarf on and used my gloves.
Well, I bit the bullet and bought a new monitor which was on sale at the local London Drugs. I've told SIX about this place before.
Got it out of the mall and dropped my cane. Young woman picked up for me as I almost dropped the monitor box. Then a young man came up to me and asked if he could carry it back for me. He got me to the main door and one of the other people let me, so I didn't have to fish for my key. He asked me if I was okay to get it upstairs and I said yes. Got on the elevator and up to my floor, key out and it is in. Waiting for me to set it up. Don't think they like answering my stupid questions which I think they are.
Oh, tried hooking up the other monitor I had and it was dead. Then I went into the kitchen for an apple turn over, I knocked them ones left over and had to sweep them up. *sigh* Not a great day.
Was snowing when I went out and stopped. Warming up so that means rain. Should be partly gone by tomorrow and hope we don't get anymore. *fingers crossed*
That was real nice of them to help you out like that.
Hope the new monitor works out for you. It should. Maybe I'll see you again tonight.
Good luck with the snow.
I don't want to jinx it, but it looks like a MAJOR storm is coming our way but it appears that most of it is going to miss me. My old man is looking at Thunderstorms, Tornadoes, up to 2-inch hail and 3 to 5" of rain overnight.
From what I can tell by me, we've got potential severe thunderstorms, but only about half an inch to possibly 1 inch of rain. Tornadoes, at least for now, don't appear to be something they're warning us about.
Just hope everyone's power stays on tonight. It's getting real cold around these parts again after the warm spell, and even people who don't have possible indoor flooding issues could be in a bad spot without heat if the power gets knocked out for too long. And once again, it's happening at night. I don't know what it is, but the last 3 or 4 times we've had our power knocked out, it's always been very late at night when they have to round up the guys who were already finished for the day and make them work in the cold pitch black. We never seem to catch a break and have power outages during the middle of the day anymore.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I wish there was some way besides CT scans that you could tell whether your recovery has reversed course.
It seems to me that your symptoms were so subtle and intermittent they never triggered an ER visit until the infection was advanced. Maybe do a self assessment twice a week? Check for fever, breathing rate and heart rate? But before that you need to know what your "normal" is, so maybe take a few readings now.
FWIW I've found oxygen saturation (Osat) meters to be extremely helpful in detecting pneumonia. (We had one left over from mom.) Hubby's is always low but when it hits 90 I push him to the ER.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
Believe it or not my area actually got some of the white stuff this morning. So, I have my cane, umbrella, scarf on and used my gloves.
Well, I bit the bullet and bought a new monitor which was on sale at the local London Drugs. I've told SIX about this place before.
Got it out of the mall and dropped my cane. Young woman picked up for me as I almost dropped the monitor box. Then a young man came up to me and asked if he could carry it back for me. He got me to the main door and one of the other people let me, so I didn't have to fish for my key. He asked me if I was okay to get it upstairs and I said yes. Got on the elevator and up to my floor, key out and it is in. Waiting for me to set it up. Don't think they like answering my stupid questions which I think they are.
Oh, tried hooking up the other monitor I had and it was dead. Then I went into the kitchen for an apple turn over, I knocked them ones left over and had to sweep them up. *sigh* Not a great day.
Was snowing when I went out and stopped. Warming up so that means rain. Should be partly gone by tomorrow and hope we don't get anymore. *fingers crossed*
That was real nice of them to help you out like that.
Hope the new monitor works out for you. It should. Maybe I'll see you again tonight.
Good luck with the snow.
I don't want to jinx it, but it looks like a MAJOR storm is coming our way but it appears that most of it is going to miss me. My old man is looking at Thunderstorms, Tornadoes, up to 2-inch hail and 3 to 5" of rain overnight.
From what I can tell by me, we've got potential severe thunderstorms, but only about half an inch to possibly 1 inch of rain. Tornadoes, at least for now, don't appear to be something they're warning us about.
Just hope everyone's power stays on tonight. It's getting real cold around these parts again after the warm spell, and even people who don't have possible indoor flooding issues could be in a bad spot without heat if the power gets knocked out for too long. And once again, it's happening at night. I don't know what it is, but the last 3 or 4 times we've had our power knocked out, it's always been very late at night when they have to round up the guys who were already finished for the day and make them work in the cold pitch black. We never seem to catch a break and have power outages during the middle of the day anymore.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
It was nice. And snow is gone because of the rain.
Still at library because the HMDI cord is different from my old one. My connectors are blue and this one has little ends that look like USB connections to me. So, it is back to the computer guy who could answer questions tomorrow.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
Believe it or not my area actually got some of the white stuff this morning. So, I have my cane, umbrella, scarf on and used my gloves.
Well, I bit the bullet and bought a new monitor which was on sale at the local London Drugs. I've told SIX about this place before.
Got it out of the mall and dropped my cane. Young woman picked up for me as I almost dropped the monitor box. Then a young man came up to me and asked if he could carry it back for me. He got me to the main door and one of the other people let me, so I didn't have to fish for my key. He asked me if I was okay to get it upstairs and I said yes. Got on the elevator and up to my floor, key out and it is in. Waiting for me to set it up. Don't think they like answering my stupid questions which I think they are.
Oh, tried hooking up the other monitor I had and it was dead. Then I went into the kitchen for an apple turn over, I knocked them ones left over and had to sweep them up. *sigh* Not a great day.
Was snowing when I went out and stopped. Warming up so that means rain. Should be partly gone by tomorrow and hope we don't get anymore. *fingers crossed*
That was real nice of them to help you out like that.
Hope the new monitor works out for you. It should. Maybe I'll see you again tonight.
Good luck with the snow.
I don't want to jinx it, but it looks like a MAJOR storm is coming our way but it appears that most of it is going to miss me. My old man is looking at Thunderstorms, Tornadoes, up to 2-inch hail and 3 to 5" of rain overnight.
From what I can tell by me, we've got potential severe thunderstorms, but only about half an inch to possibly 1 inch of rain. Tornadoes, at least for now, don't appear to be something they're warning us about.
Just hope everyone's power stays on tonight. It's getting real cold around these parts again after the warm spell, and even people who don't have possible indoor flooding issues could be in a bad spot without heat if the power gets knocked out for too long. And once again, it's happening at night. I don't know what it is, but the last 3 or 4 times we've had our power knocked out, it's always been very late at night when they have to round up the guys who were already finished for the day and make them work in the cold pitch black. We never seem to catch a break and have power outages during the middle of the day anymore.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
It was nice. And snow is gone because of the rain.
Think I heard last night about the storm system heading your way. Be safe. There have already been some tornadoes down there.
Still at library because the HMDI cord is different from my old one. My connectors are blue and this one has little ends that look like USB connections to me. So, it is back to the computer guy who could answer questions tomorrow.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Ran into the lady that used to come in and look after my mum. She had to straighten out something with her tax form from her former employer. Then she had to take her husband to his cancer treatment. They have to go all the way into Vancouver. It was that or a city across the river from mine. When my mother was dealing with cancer, the doctor told us: Vancouver or this other city or our local hospital. I decided on our local hospital because I wasn't dragging my mother all over the place. Guess there is no more clinic at my local hospital.
I am off to the neurologist tomorrow, so I don't know about anything right now.
Need some shopping and i can get my taxes done today. Which is good.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Too late for you to read it now, Brenda, but if you still have the old HDMI cord, or any HDMI cord from previous monitors, you could give those a try as well. The cord from the failed monitor was probably fine.
Good luck with the Neurologist.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I wonder if the steroids are finally out of my system and that's why I've had such a great day when it comes to removing what garbage remains in my lung.
I noticed it beginning sometime yesterday, actually. And although at the beginning it had remnants of that god awful smell and taste early on (both yesterday and this morning), that seems to have disappeared now. There's no evidence of blood, which is probably because I've stopped coughing now for about 10 days on top of 15 days worth of antibiotics and the 6 days of the steroids, but what is coming out now is very thick, and very green or white with no opacity.
I can tell I'm not "empty" yet, but by far I'm able to breathe deeper than I have in months.
I still haven't gotten that 2nd CT scan scheduled. They haven't called me yet, but I might just go ahead and schedule it myself instead of waiting any longer. My primary said he wanted it scheduled 1 month out from my ER visit, but he also said of the pulmonary specialist wanted it earlier we could change it after the visit.
The Pulmonary specialist's office did call me today, and we've got an appointment set for Tuesday.
I love how quick medicine happens in Indiana with very little wait times for appointments. I didn't even have to twist anybody's arm to get me in quick like I managed to do with my primary yesterday. They just called me up and told me they had an opening 6 days from now.
Hey Sigs... I had a low creatine level reading with my urinalysis. A couple years ago it was up around 88 (units) which was well within the normal readings, but yesterday was only 32. Online says normal is somewhere between 20 and something like 280, but my lab says anything under 40 is low (abnormal).
Do you think the steroid and/or antibiotics could be the cause of this low reading, or is it more likely that I've had some muscular atrophy from my recent inactivity?
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Sounds like your lungs are finally clearing up. Yay! I hope it's all cleared out before your antibiotics end.
I'm not familiar with urine tests for "creatine", and not familiar with that numbering scale.
If it's low creatinine, that's a different story!
"Creatine" is an energy source made by the liver and used by muscles as a source of quick energy. Once it's been used by muscles it becomes creatinine, a waste product filtered out by the kidneys.
I dont understand the significance of creatinine in urine. Since your kidneys are supposed to filter it out of your blood, low creatinine could mean that your kidneys aren't filtering it out, causing it to build up in your bloodstream. So low urine creatinine combined with high BLOOD creatinine indicates a kidney problem.
The other possiblity is that you your kidneys are working fine, but you just don't have much creatinine in your blood. Either your liver isn't making enough creatine for your muscles to turn into creatinine, or you don't have enough muscle mass.
I think the definitive test is BLOOD creatinine. Again, wish I could be more help.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Well my antibiotics are officially done. I just took my last pill about 6 hours ago. I think, rightfully so, that my GP didn't even consider giving me any more antibiotics at this stage because I've been on them for over 2 weeks now. It is why I was disappointed that they didn't at least give me a new X-Ray the other day if I wasn't going to get a CRT for another 3 weeks just so we could see exactly where I stand now compared to the initial 8cm mass at the clinic and the 6.2cm x 3.3cm mass that still remained when I went to the ER on the 1st.
I'm just hoping now that it doesn't get worse. At least I'm seeing the specialist on Tuesday, but I would have felt better about seeing them if we had another test done. I'm sure he/she is just going to waste my time on the first visit and all we're going to do is have them listen with a stethoscope like my GP did.
I didn't even know we were doing a creatine test in the urine. I was under the impression we were doing the urine test to see how much sugar I had in my urine, so that was a surprise to me. I had 3 vials of blood taken too, and they did 3 or 4 various tests with those. I will look at them again tomorrow and see if any of the results were creatine related. If they were, I don't believe that there were any negative indicators there. As far as I know, the only numbers that were high or low from "normal" at all other than my 111 current glucose reading were red blood cell related. (It appears that I might be suffering from anemia). I'm not too worried about that result just yet because up until about a month ago I hadn't been taking vitamins for a long time and my diet hasn't been great. I'm not saying that it isn't bad news, but I think that the most likely reason for it is malnutrition than one of the scarier reasons for this, such as bone marrow issues or any chronic diseases. I haven't had any red meat at all for well over a year because of the prices, and my largest sources of protein now are peanut butter and the occasional chicken breast or can of tuna. (I really need to start eating eggs again now that the prices have come back down, at least until beef prices get back to something reasonable).
The best news from my tests is the 6.3 on my A1C. I know that compared to my first year on them when I was on top of everything I've been doing quite badly managing my sugar. I was sure that number was going to be over 8.0, if not closer to 9.0. Especially because I'm aware that even though this test is supposed to cover the last 90 days, the last few weeks of those 90 days have a much stronger impact on the end result than the beginning of the 90 days and I just had those steroids which had me abnormally high 24/7 even using 3 times the amount of insulin than I usually do to keep that in check. 6.3 is still only pre-diabetic, and it's only .5 higher than the 5.8 that I got twice during the first year when I was doing everything right.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Creatinine, not creatine. Creatine is the fuel, creatinine is the waste product.
Oh, yeah, sounds like your diet is low protein. You're like hubby: most non-meat sources of protein... like beans and quinoa ... are out of the picture because they come with a substantial carb load.
Peanut butter, BTW, is not a good source of protein.
I think you're going to have to start eating some credible high protein, lo carb food. Chicken, turkey, pork, beef, fish, eggs, etc. and ... yeah... go back to taking a good multivitamin with iron. IDK about your state, do you qualify for food benefits?
But congrats on your A1C! Most ppl on insulin would give their eye teeth for that reading!
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Too late for you to read it now, Brenda, but if you still have the old HDMI cord, or any HDMI cord from previous monitors, you could give those a try as well. The cord from the failed monitor was probably fine.
Good luck with the Neurologist.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
Went and asked another question of the computer guy in the local mall and said new cord should be fine. Just make sure I get it in the right hole.
Neurologist was okay. Won't have to see him until end of year now.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Okay at library for now. Need some shopping then when I get in I will get brave and hook everything up. *fingers crossed I can get it right.
Neurologist is pleased with his blood work and the cardiologist. Though he was surprised that the cardiologist did the tread mill test on me, he was glad that it was good.. Meds are alright for him. He doesn't want to put them up anymore because of side effects. I haven't had any and I usually don't until they stop working. Oddly enough I did stop for a minute when I was on the phone with his receptionist on Tuesday. Took her saying his name to bring me out of it and a second for me to catch up with what I was doing. He was also surprised at how fast I got in to see the cardiologist and now the echocardiogram.
So end of year unless I have another what is a grand mal for me.
Groceries now and monitor when I get in. Wish me luck.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Creatinine, not creatine. Creatine is the fuel, creatinine is the waste product.
LOL... Yeah. You're right. Whoops!
Got word back from the Dr's assistant via text and he's not concerned with anything in my urine or blood samples... even the red blood cell stuff. The urine was good because it was showing that my sugar in my urine was very low, which is what he wanted to see. Along with my A1C readings he's happy.
The new EKG sent up some warnings though, and I'm not surprised with my heartbeat being so fast and the fact that I sometimes hear/feel it in my right ear. So I'm getting set up with a new cardiologist since the old one was crap, and I'll be scheduling an appointment with them soon. I do probably need to be on that Crestor generic that I stopped taking years ago, although my blood pressure is good at 110/70. That's a bit higher than it was when I was still doing everything right 2 years ago, but it's also still a lot better than it was years ago.
Quote:
Oh, yeah, sounds like your diet is low protein. You're like hubby: most non-meat sources of protein... like beans and quinoa ... are out of the picture because they come with a substantial carb load.
Peanut butter, BTW, is not a good source of protein.
I think you're going to have to start eating some credible high protein, lo carb food. Chicken, turkey, pork, beef, fish, eggs, etc. and ... yeah... go back to taking a good multivitamin with iron. IDK about your state, do you qualify for food benefits?
I don't qualify for food benefits in IN. If I'm working 20 hours per week I do (as long as I'm under 55... over 55 I would qualify now). But the limits on income right now are still so low in Indiana that even if I did work 20 hours per week I still wouldn't really qualify without a wife or kids (dependents) as I'd be making too much money to actually get any benefits. The only exception to this in IN is if unemployment goes over 7% or something pretty high. When I worked overnight at K-Mart and was making only $8.25 per hour, it was easy to max out my food benefits with over 20 hours worth of work, but I think I'd be really hard pressed to find a job making less than $13-$15 per hour even though our minimum wage is still the national $7.25 per hour, and it would be foolish to even actively look for a job making that little just to get $180 or so per month in benefits anyhow.
Eggs are cheap again, but I fell out of buying them for so long with the prices that I have to force myself to remember to buy them again. I need to cook my chicken more and eat it more too. It doesn't do me any good up in the freezer getting freezer burn. I'm kind of burned out on chicken at this point, but I really need that protein.
Quote:
But congrats on your A1C! Most ppl on insulin would give their eye teeth for that reading!
Yeah... Thanks. That's what my GP said too. He said I'm an endocrinologists dream with my metabolism and that most people who go to see them are very overweight. I think in my mind I thought I was doing everything wrong, but maybe I was making things out to be worse than they actually were.
Still a little worried about the heart and the small possibility that I have lung cancer, but hopefully by the middle of next month I'll have all of those answers. Especially since I could possibly be losing the health insurance because of the BBB by mid April, although I don't think that would actually be happening until April of next year after the mid-terms if it does.
Finger's crossed.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by BRENDA:
Okay at library for now. Need some shopping then when I get in I will get brave and hook everything up. *fingers crossed I can get it right.
Neurologist is pleased with his blood work and the cardiologist. Though he was surprised that the cardiologist did the tread mill test on me, he was glad that it was good.. Meds are alright for him. He doesn't want to put them up anymore because of side effects. I haven't had any and I usually don't until they stop working. Oddly enough I did stop for a minute when I was on the phone with his receptionist on Tuesday. Took her saying his name to bring me out of it and a second for me to catch up with what I was doing. He was also surprised at how fast I got in to see the cardiologist and now the echocardiogram.
So end of year unless I have another what is a grand mal for me.
Groceries now and monitor when I get in. Wish me luck.
Sounds like your medical issues are at least as good as mine so far. Probably better. Good to hear, Brenda.
Good luck on the monitor. Hope to maybe hear from you back from your home tonight.
Finger's crossed.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Good luck BRENDA!
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Jeez, what is with this effing weather???
95°F today! 95!!!
And most of the next 10 days predicted to be low 90s.
Welcome to climate change!
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
We've got 35 mile an hour winds gusting at 70mph right now until 4PM tonight.
We've been whipping around from the teens at night to 70 degrees some days. Monday the high is 20 degrees, and then it's in the 50's on Tuesday.
I'm surprised my house is still standing with how that wind is howling out there right now.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Hey Brenda,
You know I try to keep you out of these things, but now we're starting to get some other people coming onto the site because of signs that there may be some new Firefly news after all these years and Ted is lying about me. I was hoping you could set the record straight.
I just posted an interaction from this morning in the "Today in the Tags" thread that I was hoping you could chime in on if you had a chance when you're at the library or hopefully after you get your monitor situation fixed.
Maybe you could as well, Sigs... I know you don't post in the tags at all and maybe you don't pay attention to them, but you know how Ted troll bombs the Garden all the time too.
Here's the interaction from this morning...
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=67406&mid=1
240492#1240492
Quote:
SoulOfSerenity: You know, I remember the days when the taglog would be filled with chats about Firefly, not politics...
THG: Firefly ended 25 years ago. I used to post funny cartoons and a hello in chat each day I was here. Jack changed that. He moved out of real world and started trolling me in tag. Then we lost the ability to post anywhere but in tag and chat. Thankfully that got fixed, but nobody can fix Jack. So you know, there are only about 7 of us left at the site. It would be nice if that number grew and more sane people came back to the site.
6ixStringJack: Oh... We both know that that's not the Truth. I do hope Brenda chimes in to set the record straight on that. I was the one who constantly told you to keep politics out of the tags and keep it in the RWED. After the site went down for a month, both you and Second started posting a dozen political things in the tags. You're a liar.
6ixStringJack: If you both stop posting political things in the tags, I won't be posting here anymore at all.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Yeah, medical good.
Still at library because I am trying to get things right, *sigh* I am having a hard time figuring this all out from the library.
Will take a look at Tags for you.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME