September chitchat

[Virginia]

I am also wondering about Tim and just hoping all is well with him. He has a lot going on and I hope nothing has gone wrong with the tooth extractions.

I always feel like I am waiting for the other shoe to drop now. I felt that way all yesterday afternoon. Today I got a call from my middle brother. His wife had her gallbladder removed last week. That went fine, but the doctor saw a few small spots on her liver.. He did a biopsy of one and it has come back positive. She is to have a PET scan on the 17th.

[agate]

jingle, is the weight loss bad news for you? Some people welcome a weight loss but for others it puts them in a risky zone--being underweight isn't good. I'm glad the cardiologist appointment was easy--but it's too bad you had the problems with the emergency alert button.

Virginia, I'm so glad you told about your experience with that button! I've been tempted to send mine back and have been putting off doing the monthly test of it. It is so nice to know how it works and that it works.

I hope your sister-in-law will turn out to have nothing "significant" going on with her liver. Do you sometimes get the feeling that that other shoe has already dropped and that there is still still another shoe waiting to drop, and then there will be another after that?

Thank you for the information about the MedPage Today article. I'll definitely look it up. I get regular e-mails from them but must have missed that one. I'm glad I didn't decide to go with Optum.

Yesterday I started the transfer of my 8 rx's over to the pharmacy that is offered by the hospital complex where my primary care doctor and my neuro are, and the person on the phone was very helpful, much more helpful than the people at the supermarket pharmacy have ever been.

Tim/Prot, I hope you'll let people know how you're doing. It's not every day a person has so many teeth taken out at once.

[Prot]

Tim --- Prot, how are you? Is your mouth healing and you're feeling well? Are you eating? Eating is SO important. Yesterday I had a routine annual appointment with a cardiologist and learned I'd lost 10 lbs. I think that's because this move has been so difficult for me. Which is funny for me -- it takes a lot to keep me from eating.

Mouth has healed well. Food is a rather hit and miss thing. Among the things I've had difficulty eating -grapes, watermelon,peas,sweetcorn, mushrooms,prawns,seafood sticks,broccoli.

Bowel problems are longstanding,a typically autistic thing. From trying to pass a brick to the total opposite. Recently it's been the total opposite i.e the 'runs'. Mobility is no better or worse. It fluctuates. Good days punctuated by less good days. On a scale of O= not there to 10= very psychotic, the schizoaffective/schizophrenia is at 1. The bullying related trauma and severe social anxiety is much more disabling. Way too late for it to be any good I've come to the conclusion that I probably have ADHD- inattentive type. Prioritising what needs to be done in a multistep task like cleaning is much harder than scoring 150 on a high range IQ test.

[agate]

I've been keeping too busy lately. The housing recertification annual paperwork was supposed to be all wrapped up by September 1, and I would have an updated rent rate for October 1, but it didn't happen. The office manager we thought we had (she just started a couple of months ago) apparently is going for back surgery and will be out indefinitely. She's only 26 and back surgery is no small thing--so it doesn't look good.

And there was a supermarket strike at the major store where the shopping service I use shops. This local service for people who can't or don't want to go to stores has been around for about 30 years but it is linked to this one supermarket chain. So last week I had to use a different store and was able to do that with Instacart. I was very glad I already knew my way around Instacart, but since my prescriptions are also at this supermarket, I decided to arrange to transfer them to the hospital system where two of my doctors are (the primary care doc and the neuro).

It hasn't happened yet but should be in the works. I've looked up all of the rx's and submitted information about them to the new system, which will send them by FedEx. In case of more urgent need with less waiting time, they can make arrangements to use expedited FedEx, or the rx could be picked up at a nearby location.

That's my story--and at least the 100' degree weather here hasn't (yet) knocked the power out. Now to catch up with the laundry and a few other details.

At this point I'm very very glad to have given up on the injectable MS drug I was taking. That would have made the pharmacy switch much more complicated as it required refrigeration and other special arrangements.

I've been nattering on here and hope others will feel free to let people know what's going on in their lives.

[Virginia]

Tim, so nice to see you again. It is good to know your gums have healed nicely, though you are still having problems with some foods. When will you get dentures, or do you know?

I can see where both bullying related trauma and severe social anxiety would be disabling. For some people, social anxiety alone is disabling.

Agate, I had no idea you didn't know what the button is for. I have had to push mine when I fell and couldn't get up. I use mine when I check my system. I go in another room and push it then go to the box you talk through and wait for them to call me. That way I know the button works as well as the entire system. The times I was unable to get up, I was sick and running a fever.

[agate]

Virginia, it was just that I never seem to get around to doing the monthly checks. Sometimes when I've done those checks, there has turned out to be quite a technical problem, and I ended up spending quite a bit of time on the phone and pulling cords according to their instructions. So I'm probably afraid to do a checkup because I don't want to get into those complications again.

For many years I had a very similar arrangement in WA state, where Medicaid actually covered the cost of it, and it always worked well with no problems. I can't imagine why there are problems now but it's a different state, and this time I'm paying for it. I think the area I'm in has poor connectivity. At least that was one explanation that was offered somewhere along the line.

Tim, would implants be a possibility? I have a friend who has had them for quite a while and she seems happy with them but I understand they're quite pricey.

[Virginia]

Agate, might be where you are located. I have had mine for many years and have never experienced a problem. I do it from a different part of the house so I know they can hear it all the way to the box. Takes 3 to 4 minutes at the most.

[agate]

This has been shamelessly borrowed from another site:

[agate]

Are you talking about doing laundry, Tim? Sorry but I must not have found an earlier post.

Your granddaughter can help you with the drying?

Hmm. My grandson is 6 now and seems to enjoy being helpful. Maybe I should harness him before this helpful mood passes....

[Prot]

Yes, laundry. I struggled to find the post I made. My daughter or granddaughters help to put it on the airer.

[Prot]

I could have had dentures very quickly, but preferred to wait 3 months for my gums to settle properly before getting them. I'm gradually finding ways to eat more foods. Yesterday I managed to eat carrots(cooked not raw!).

The solicitor phoned my daughter, re the negligence claim, to get an idea of how things were and are before and after the falls. My daughter thinks I won’t get back to the same level I was pre falls. That doesn’t mean I haven’t improved . At one point it was seriously reckoned I’d be wheelchair bound for life. 33 months after the hip op I get good days and I get bad days pain wise. I can’t guarantee that a day will be good. Some days the pain makes me scream and swear. 15 minutes or so upright ,whether moving or not, is my limit before pain kicks in.

[Virginia]

Tim, I certainly think it is wise to wait before you get your dentures. I would think the gums would need to settle down somewhat. Also, I would think it would take some time after you get the dentures to be able to eat well with them.

I am glad that you are not wheelchair bound as was originally thought could happen. But I am sorry you are still experiencing problems.

Agate, your cartoon sounds like it was based on me.

I have had another lazy day. I've just been so tired. My brother and sister-in-law came by and brought just a few groceries. I didn't want my SIL to be doing any shopping for me when she is facing cancer, however she wanted to. Next week will be the PET scan and then I guess they will do whatever they are going to do.

[agate]

Virginia, I hope your helpful and nice SIL will be able to get past this cancer. And I'm happy to find out that you've been taking it easy.

A sudden rainstorm this evening really pounded away at things outside--and I heard a thud on the patio and found my geranium was demolished. A neighbor gave it to me some time ago and it has been nice enough to keep blooming all summer even in that shady location. It had several blossoms on it as well as some buds and could have gone on for a couple of more months.

It was dark out there but it looked as if it will have to go into the trash. It was all in pieces. I think a branch must have hit it in the rain.

On the bright side, maybe this rain will help to put out the fires this state has been having. On the news this evening I heard that there are currently over 20 forest fires burning in this state. Some of the photos showed scary-looking blazes. The worst photos were in the L.A. area, where things are very bad.

[Prot]

Level 7 pain today. 33 months on from the hip replacement I can't guarantee how things will be pain wise from day to day. 6 substitutions with grocery shopping order . Not good enough! Annoyed with genealogist. He claims to have provided sources with the research he's done, but if he has it's not been done in the standard way. Bottom line can't add the info to Wikitree.

[agate]

Tim, sorry you've been having such severe pain. It probably dominates your life most of the time.

I'm not familiar with Wikitree. Is that where you maintain your family record? I've been using Geni and to some extent Ancestry. One nephew started up a family record on Geni, and another nephew started up another one on Ancestry, and I got involved in a small way in both of them.

One big drawback, at least for me, has been that it's difficult to cope with the way the entries are displayed, but I suspect that if a person gets more adept at tinkering with it, it works much better.

[Prot]

I have trees at Ancestry,My heritage, and Wikitree. This is an AI description of Wikitree .





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WikiTree is a collaborative genealogy website where users can build and contribute to a single, shared family tree. The platform is free to use and relies on community contributions to grow and maintain its accuracy. Here are some key features:

• Collaborative Tree: Users work together on a single family tree, ensuring that information is accurate and well-sourced.
• DNA Integration: WikiTree incorporates DNA test results to help verify connections and enhance the accuracy of the family tree.
• Privacy and Accessibility: The platform is free and accessible to everyone. Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register....
• Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register....