The "what's On Your Mind?" Thread -2018

[Alicia88]

Aedan has been much happier and less fussy today. He hasn't really cried or fussed at all. The only thing different? It's John's day off so he's home. That settles it. John is just gonna have to quit his job. Now taking donations so we can still afford to have all those little extras. Ya know - a roof over our heads, food to eat, electricity. Stuff like that. Thanks in advance! LOL

 

[kashmir64]

I hate to sound horrible, but I won't be getting on that thread. I have zero experience with either and all I can say is my usual "Get a second opinion." @foxxycat Could you relay the second opinion for me, if no one else recommends it?

I won't be getting on this thread either. I know what she's going through and had a cat exactly the same way - minus the mouth sore. The outcome is not good and my only advice would be to say "if he's chronic, put him down now. You don't want to see him die this way and go through the same thing I did".

 

[Margret]

On TV is yet another Humira commercial. Humira is apparently the cure for eczema, arthritis (not rheumatoid) and bowel issues. I'm surprised they aren't trumpeting it as the cure for male pattern baldness and the common cold.

Since when is turning off our immune system the fix-all for everything? It's there for a reason. It's there so a case of the sniffles doesn't end up with you drowning to death on your own bodily fluids. Not every long-term or chronic issue is because the body can protect itself from germs.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease; osteoarthritis is caused by damage to the cartilage, either from long wear and tear or actual injuries. It makes no sense that I can see to use an immune suppressant for osteoarthritis but not for rheumatoid arthritis, and if it's an immune suppressant that's ineffective for rheumatoid arthritis I have to wonder whether it's actually good for anything.

Yesterday my parents babysat Froggy all day because I had a work event I couldn't take him to. It was a big step (normally he just goes to work with me, so I've gotten used to him always being there) but it went well and he seemed to have a good time with them.

Gluten in the diet causes mental illness.

There's some evidence that sometimes schizophrenia can be caused by an unusual antihistamine the body sometimes produces in response to allergies. I happen to know about it because ~35 years ago my former sister-in-law had a psychotic break that was borderline schizophrenia, and my brother and I did some serious research on it at the Stanford Medical Library (a friend had very kindly given my brother access for this specific purpose). The problem is, "schizophrenia" is actually an omnibus term; it should be "the schizophrenias." It's defined by symptoms and what drugs work on it, not by cause, and part of the definition is "incurable." Any time they find a cure for a particular variety of schizophrenia, that variety ceases to be schizophrenia, and becomes a newly "discovered" disease.

And frankly, from some of the papers we read while researching schizophrenia at S.M.L., some of the doctors who are trying to find treatments are more insane than my sister-in-law was.

I'm working on an essay for English Comp right now. It's an argumentative essay, and my topic is book banning. I'm devoting the body of the essay to three books, one per paragraph. I don't know why I'm having such a tough time writing this thing. I'm glad it isn't due until Thursday

What books are you writing about? My favorite banned book is Huckleberry Finn.

I will see what I can help with....poor kitty! Poor owner! Jerk of a vet!

Thank you.

I hate to sound horrible, but I won't be getting on that thread. I have zero experience with either and all I can say is my usual "Get a second opinion." @foxxycat Could you relay the second opinion for me, if no one else recommends it?

It's been relayed, and you don't sound horrible at all. I was asking for people with experience in this area, not for everyone on TCS pile on.

I won't be getting on this thread either. I know what she's going through and had a cat exactly the same way - minus the mouth sore. The outcome is not good and my only advice would be to say "if he's chronic, put him down now. You don't want to see him die this way and go through the same thing I did".

Her vet is so horrible that it's unclear to me just how sick her cat actually is; that's why I didn't say that to her. And I don't blame you at all for staying away from it - I, also, have watched a cat die this way. If you're still too close to that horrible experience you shouldn't be getting on this thread.

It may come to the place where that's the best advice we can give, but I don't think we're there yet. I just hope she can get a different vet; she said she lives in a small town, and money is a problem as well.

Margret

 

[Katie M]

I was able to complete that essay, and my professor loved it

 

[Alicia88]

I guess we just can't win when it comes to horrible neighbors. Last night, John and I were sitting outside talking and here come the neighbors screaming at each other. The guy yelled, "John, you're my witness, she's trying to hit me while I'm holding the baby!" Apparently she confessed to performing a certain act on some guy at work and she was saying it's his fault because he smoked a certain plant when he had an earache a couple months ago. We just came inside. We didn't see anyone trying to hit anyone. It's not good for the poor baby or the other kids to hear all that fighting, though.

 

[arouetta]

Is this the only time? Or do they screaming fight a lot?

 

[Alicia88]

John said he heard them when he was on his way to work the other day. We don't hear them inside, so I don't really know. That's a plus, at least.

 

[arouetta]

Infidelity plus drug use while in pain.....there is a chance that the screaming fight is a short lived event, if the other two are one time events.

 

[Alicia88]

I hope so. I don't know much about them.

 

[arouetta]

I was so lazy today that I had to work at being lazy....and ended up with four blisters due to laziness.

My daughter felt she needed a disability advocate today at work so I got all snazzied up and accompanied her. Our home is about 2.75-3 miles from anyone's work. Her work and my husband's work are just shy of half a mile apart and both are nearly a mile from mine.

After meeting with her boss I had a choice. Take Lyft home, 3 miles away, then get dressed for the bike and combo bike/bus 3 miles to work, and bike home. Or walk the near half mile to my husband's work and talk him into lunch....in a dress and heels, blazer slung over my arm.

Mostly my feet were okay, except the toes felt squeezed. I had flats in my purse but they have zero cushioning so I knew my heels would hurt walking on concrete. They're good at work because there's carpeting.

My husband wanted fast food, blech, so I planned to eat after. He offered to take me home, but 3 miles home just to go 3 miles back, too much work. I got a sit down meal near his work and then I started walking to work. I probably had 1200-1500 feet left when the toe pain went from "ow" to "OW". I wiggled off the shoe and there was a broken blister on top of the ring finger toe. I changed shoes right there, got some bandaids at work.

Yeah, I was so lazy about not wanting to go 3 miles home and three miles back that I walked about 1 1/4 miles in totally unsuitable shoes.

 

[Alicia88]

Ouch!!!
I did that one halloween. I was bar hopping in these horrible heeled boots and they were old and messed up inside AND I broke a heel. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, I'd had enough to drink that I didn't feel a thing til morning.

 

[Alicia88]

Yeah, this is why I keep to myself and avoid my neighbors. I was outside earlier and overheard a phone conversation from the new neighbor who moved in. The other day she was telling me about her infant daughter who's in the NICU in Kansas City. I offered my sympathies and told her I'd pray for the baby. Well, it seems that the baby needs even more prayers. She was bragging on the phone about how she was so strung out when she was in labor that she kept ripping out her IV's until they put one in her neck and she was too chicken to pull that one out. That poor baby. She didn't ask for a mother who was going to do all drugs while pregnant. This town just seems to be getting worse and worse. But I guess that's the way it is everywhere. Needless to say, I will not be making friends with the neighbors because I do not want to be around that stuff.

 

[arouetta]

Are you certain that the baby is going to be given to her? I thought all states took custody of the baby away from a mother who is high during delivery.

 

[Alicia88]

I don't know anything about it. Only what I happened to overhear when she was talking on her phone, clearly drunk, at the top of her voice. I hope they do take the baby. She deserves better.

 

[arouetta]

I'm whining.

So I was lazy today, and boy did my body pay the price.

Sneak peek of the damage I did to myself by being lazy.

The blister on the "ring finger" toe is clear as day. The blister on the little toe is just as big but not as easily seen. I think there's a second, smaller blister on the little toe next to the big one, also on top. There's also a big long blister going from top to side of the main knuckle of the big toe. Amazingly, the other foot only suffered a teeny blister in the same area on the little toe and a teeny blister along the big toe main knuckle. Yep, shoes were involved.

I also ended up with a heat rash between the legs, they are raw, really deep red, the rashy areas are raised and bumpy like hives, and really big on both legs.


So, yeah, I was lazy. The kid felt she might need a disability advocate for a meeting at her job this morning, so I threw on my best stuff. I have gained weight and can't really fit the nice slacks anymore, so the best option to me was a dress that would look professional with a blazer thrown over it. And heels.

I was done at 12:30, and didn't have to be at work until 6pm. The kid, the husband and I work really close together, their work places are about half a mile apart and both are almost a mile from me. The kid and I are both about 3 miles from home, hubby gets to cut about half a mile off of that.

I really, really didn't want to leave the area that I work in to go 3 miles back home and then turn around and go 3 miles back to work. It'd be Lyft home, bike and bus back back to nearly the same spot just a few hours later. So I walked to my husband's work almost half a mile away. In a dress and heels. In 85 degrees.

My toes felt all cramped up but the ball and heel felt great. My husband felt he couldn't break away for a meal together and he offered to drop me off at home. But that meant going 3 miles away, only to go 3 miles back. I rode with him while he wolfed something down and then walked to my favorite Italian place in the same shopping center. In a dress and heels. In 85 degrees. At least I could ditch the blazer in my husband's car.

After the meal I walked to work almost a mile away. In a dress and heels. Heels most of the way, when I was close to work my toes had gone from cramping to "OWW". I took the more painful shoe off, saw the blisters. I took my flats out of my purse, which hurt my heels if I walk extensively on concrete but are comfortable in the toes, and continued on the last quarter mile. Still in a dress. In 85 degrees.

And of course the clothes I had stuck in my purse in case I didn't feel like coming home were a skirt and flats. So no relief for the heat rash that was starting to form, it was bare skin on skin the rest of the night as well. And the bandaids that I got at work would slip and then the "ow" blisters would become "OW" blisters until I could put the bandaid back in place.

I should have just sucked up the "I don't want to go all the way home and then all the way back" attitude and just done so. Walking about a mile and a quarter in a dress and mostly heels, followed by a skirt and flats all night, just rubbed parts of my body raw.

 

[kashmir64]

It happened again. Yay for the lions.
Poacher Eaten By Lions He Was Trying to Hunt in South Africa

 

[arouetta]

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease; osteoarthritis is caused by damage to the cartilage, either from long wear and tear or actual injuries. It makes no sense that I can see to use an immune suppressant for osteoarthritis but not for rheumatoid arthritis, and if it's an immune suppressant that's ineffective for rheumatoid arthritis I have to wonder whether it's actually good for anything.

I was unclear. They do say it's for rheumatoid arthritis, but I know that's an immune problem. They don't say osteoarthritis. But they also claim psoriatic arthritis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis. I know that idiopathic means they don't have a clue what causes it, so blaming the immune system is a far stretch. Either way, those last two would be called rheumatoid arthritis if they were caused by a malfunctioning immune system, so the cartilage damage is happening in another way.

Oh, I just found another use for Humira that seems to feed into the hysteria of the immune system being something we should destroy to stay healthy. A skin disease that leads to infections and abscesses. Antibiotics are the first treatment for managing it. So we try to kill the bacteria, and when that's too tough, we weaken the immune system that works with antibiotics? I can't grasp that thinking.

 

[Willowy]

so blaming the immune system is a far stretch.

I suppose it could be argued that if an immunosuppressive drug works to suppress the condition, it probably is caused by a psycho immune system .

A skin disease that leads to infections and abscesses

I don't know which condition you're referring to but generally, infections and abscesses are caused when the skin breaks and bacteria gets in. If the drug can prevent the skin from breaking, the infections shouldn't be an issue.

I guess I just don't understand the hostility toward a drug that may help a lot of people have better quality of life. From what my friend with psoriasis said about what her doctor told her, they don't prescribe it lightly. Only after the more conventional treatments have failed. Or the side effects may be judged to be less severe than that person's reaction to the other drugs (long-term use of steroids and/or antibiotics isn't exactly great either).

Now, I don't think ANY drug should be advertised on TV. If it's for your condition, your doctor should tell you about it, not some dumb TV commercial. But that's sort of a different topic, lol.

 

[arouetta]

I guess I just don't understand the hostility toward a drug that may help a lot of people have better quality of life.

I am not hostile to the drug, but it is the most heavily advertised of the immune suppressing drugs. I am hostile to the idea that a very, very important part of our body is now considered to be the cause of most illnesses and that most people who live now will only be healthy if they take steps to make that part of the body cease to function.

It used to be that a few fortunate souls got a new organ and had to work around an immune system that functioned correctly, and a few unfortunate souls got lupus because it was one of the rare times the immune system didn't work right. Now, a kid can't have a peanut butter sandwich because another kid across the gym sized cafeteria might smell it and go into anaphylactic shock because the immune system is a horrible thing to have and is the root of all evil. All these other conditions, rather than finding and treating the actual cause, it's all blamed on that bad, bad immune system so we have to make the immune system go away.

Whenever that flu pandemic sweeps through the world, I'm wondering if the doctors will have even the slightest guilty feelings when they see their patients on immune suppressing drugs dying and their patients who refused the drugs and insisted on a real cure living. Somehow though I doubt it because the immune system is bad, bad, bad and must be destroyed, and that thought will still exist after a pandemic.

Edit: It'd be one thing if it's just a very few group of people having auto-immune disorders. But it seems to be half the country now, everyone has something that can be blamed on an immune system being robust and looking for trouble, ie dangerous proteins/germs.

It happened again. Yay for the lions.
Poacher Eaten By Lions He Was Trying to Hunt in South Africa

Again, hope the bad meat doesn't give them heartburn. Stand Your Ground most certainly applies here.

Folks, I need preservation technique ideas. My husband brought home two cucumbers from someone's garden, and there's no way I can make enough salads before they go bad. He does not like pickles though. Can I freeze cucumbers? Can I somehow cut them and treat them in a way that lasts in the fridge longer?

 

[Willowy]

most people who live now will only be healthy if they take steps to make that part of the body cease to function.

I don't think anyone is saying they'll be "healthy" if they take immunosuppressive drugs. They already aren't healthy. It's just to make their life more livable.

Now, a kid can't have a peanut butter sandwich because another kid across the gym sized cafeteria might smell it and go into anaphylactic shock because the immune system is a horrible thing to have and is the root of all evil.

Not sure what you're saying here. Of the people I know who have life-threatening allergies, none of them were taking immunosuppressive drugs before developing the allergy.

rather than finding and treating the actual cause,

I'm pretty sure that's what everyone is trying to do.

I mean, we can get into conspiracy theories about the drug companies suppressing that information in order to sell more drugs, but I'm not sure if that's where we want to go.

If you have suggestions, though, feel free to share. My friend with psoriasis has tried pretty much everything, from a gluten-free diet, alkalinized water, and every other fad out there (which haven't done any good) to hard-core immunosuppressants (which work but she's not willing to take them long-term). And she grew up on a farm and was into horses so I don't think a sterile childhood can be blamed. She just has to put up with people treating her like a leper :/.

It would be worth researching whether auto-immune diseases and/or allergies are more common now than in times past, and if so, why. So far they haven't come up with much though.