The "What's on your mind?" Thread -2017

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tallyollyopia

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Interesting doings earlier. I got called to go to work--only to have it canceled a few minutes later because the person scheduled was half an hour late and didn't call to tell anyone she was running late. (Or, she wasn't able to reach because the store was busy, or there's a personality clash between the two clerks and clerk two wanted clerk one to get in trouble--has happened, but I don't think it did tonight--or any one of a million other things that could have happened.) I think RB said it best when I told him: Consolulations.
 

Mamanyt1953

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Well, today after work I went to the hospital to visit Grandma, and the situation is much, much more serious than first thought. Her sodium isn't rising, her tryponin levels are dangerously low, she's having heart stutters (at least five that I know of during the visit--might have been more, but I kind of fell asleep), and her lupus is out of remission. I don't think things look good for her right now.:(
In my prayers, Darlin, always.
 

tallyollyopia

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Okay, I know that some of you have a lot more medical expertise than I do, and I have a question. We just got back from the hospital. Grandma has fluctuating, decreasing pulse Ox and her heart is still stuttering. In addition, the swelling I noticed yesterday is worse (both cheeks instead of the one), she has sores opening on the crown of her head, her sodium is still (despite being on a saline drip since admittance) low, her tryponin levels have gone from being dangerously low to being dangerously high, she's having trouble moving (slow, jerky movements), can't get up from bed, and seems to have trouble speaking (voice lower than normal and slightly gutteral). What is this?
 

segelkatt

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Why don't you ask the doctors instead of us? Insist on a plain answer in plain English. While sometimes (rarely) a lay person can come up with an answer that the doctors hadn't thought of (mostly because it was very unlikely or very rare) usually lay people don't know what they are talking about.
 

arouetta

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Why don't you ask the doctors instead of us? Insist on a plain answer in plain English. While sometimes (rarely) a lay person can come up with an answer that the doctors hadn't thought of (mostly because it was very unlikely or very rare) usually lay people don't know what they are talking about.
Tallyollyopia is not the patient so by federal law the doctors can't talk to her. And if Tallyollyopia's doctor is not a quack, then he won't accept an appointment so that she can just list someone else's symptoms and ask for a diagnosis.
 

arouetta

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Okay, I know that some of you have a lot more medical expertise than I do, and I have a question. We just got back from the hospital. Grandma has fluctuating, decreasing pulse Ox and her heart is still stuttering. In addition, the swelling I noticed yesterday is worse (both cheeks instead of the one), she has sores opening on the crown of her head, her sodium is still (despite being on a saline drip since admittance) low, her tryponin levels have gone from being dangerously low to being dangerously high, she's having trouble moving (slow, jerky movements), can't get up from bed, and seems to have trouble speaking (voice lower than normal and slightly gutteral). What is this?
I Googled all those symptoms and found that they all are symptoms of lupus. There is no cure for lupus, the best you can do is get it under control and even then it can flare up and get all nasty again. Chemotherapy is used to depress the immune system in order to get lupus under control but it is not a cure.

Doctors can't talk to you but they can listen. Ask her doctors about it. If she has a health care proxy, bring the proxy in on it.
 

tallyollyopia

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Why don't you ask the doctors instead of us? Insist on a plain answer in plain English. While sometimes (rarely) a lay person can come up with an answer that the doctors hadn't thought of (mostly because it was very unlikely or very rare) usually lay people don't know what they are talking about.
I tried to talk to the doctor. Funny thing is--if we're (by that I mean AWM or me, RB has met the doctor) he's not there. The nurses won't talk to us about this except to say that the doctor doesn't believe it's a heart problem. They'll talk to Grandma's husband--who's ninety-eight, deaf as a post, blind as a bat, and either doesn't understand what the doctors said or won't share the information.

Tallyollyopia is not the patient so by federal law the doctors can't talk to her. And if Tallyollyopia's doctor is not a quack, then he won't accept an appointment so that she can just list someone else's symptoms and ask for a diagnosis.
:yeah:

I Googled all those symptoms and found that they all are symptoms of lupus. There is no cure for lupus, the best you can do is get it under control and even then it can flare up and get all nasty again. Chemotherapy is used to depress the immune system in order to get lupus under control but it is not a cure.

Doctors can't talk to you but they can listen. Ask her doctors about it. If she has a health care proxy, bring the proxy in on it.
:thanks:
 

arouetta

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After applying a bit of logic to it, I do realize that a person's weight goes up during the day due to the weight of food and drink until it is properly metabolized. One time my weight went up 3.8 lbs in one day, and then after sleeping 9 hours it was all gone. I also am on Lamictal which makes one incredibly thirsty and my average water intake is about 12 cups of water a day, on top of food and non-water drinks, and that alone is an average of 6 lbs a day.

But I have also noticed that if Lamictal thirstiness is stronger than Seroquel unconsciousness and I drink a glass or two of water during the night I actually can lose a little weight during the day.

My calorie tracker has me weighing myself every morning, but sometimes I will see if I'm having any weight gain or loss during the day. I normally don't sweat the number because if it's a gain it will be gone the next morning. This morning's weight was 200.2.

I took a picture of the "just curious" number on the scale from a few minutes ago.
:woo::banana1::party2::jump::party::dazzler::beerchug::woohoo:

I met my goal. The next goal is 175.
20170509_173753.jpg
 

segelkatt

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After applying a bit of logic to it, I do realize that a person's weight goes up during the day due to the weight of food and drink until it is properly metabolized. One time my weight went up 3.8 lbs in one day, and then after sleeping 9 hours it was all gone. I also am on Lamictal which makes one incredibly thirsty and my average water intake is about 12 cups of water a day, on top of food and non-water drinks, and that alone is an average of 6 lbs a day.

But I have also noticed that if Lamictal thirstiness is stronger than Seroquel unconsciousness and I drink a glass or two of water during the night I actually can lose a little weight during the day.

My calorie tracker has me weighing myself every morning, but sometimes I will see if I'm having any weight gain or loss during the day. I normally don't sweat the number because if it's a gain it will be gone the next morning. This morning's weight was 200.2.

I took a picture of the "just curious" number on the scale from a few minutes ago.
:woo::banana1::party2::jump::party::dazzler::beerchug::woohoo:

I met my goal. The next goal is 175.
View attachment 179940
You should always weigh yourself at the same time of day, preferably without any clothes so you can be sure it's just you and not clothes, shoes, a towel, whatever , say before you eat breakfast but have emptied your bowels, otherwise you can be off by as much as a pound or more. During the day, as you eat, drink, pee or empty your bowels your weight will go up or down. Resist the temptation of weighing yourself more than once during the day. The results either will make you depressed or unreasonably happy. I'm with you there, I have been teetering around 205 but am happy as at Christmas I weighed 220. I'm only 5'3 so you know that I weigh much too much. I have not set a goal, any pound that I lose and it stays off for a week is a reason to celebrate. I'm not really TRYING to lose weight but have noticed lately that after breakfast which can be anytime from 7 am to 9:30 am I'm not in the mood for eating anything until about 2 pm where I mostly have a sandwich with ham (yeah, yeah, processed food!), a tomato, maybe a piece of avocado and some strawberries, bare, no sugar or cream, and then around 4:30 I think it's time to eat again and I can call it dinner. l don't eat junk food, no chips, cookies etc in my house and haven't been forever, and I have been on a "no sweet anything" for a long time, maybe a year or more, I just don't want it. Then I do make myself dinner and find I can only eat half of it, put a lid on what's left, maybe I'll eat it later but most of the time it ends up in the trash (what a waste but kitties don't get people food!) So what's my downfall, where are the extra calories coming from as I should be losing weight faster with this kind of regimen? RUM! I like a hot toddy when it's cold like it has been here in Calif (anything under 70F is cold here!) or an imitation Mai Tai: Rum over ice with a fruit punch (no Hawaiian Punch, that stuff is gross! ) or a Sprite Zero, and I'll have several of those during an evening when I usually read but sometimes watch CNN or MSNBC. Yep, that's where the extra calories are coming from. But since I obviously am eating fewer calories than before and I'm still losing weight slowly I'm not too concerned. There are days when I don't consume ANY alcohol so I don't think I'm in any danger of becoming a lush. I must be doing SOMETHING right with slowly loosing weight when I'm not even trying or counting calories or going to the gym or even taking a walk as I should.
 

arouetta

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I do weigh myself when I get up in the morning after the bathroom, that is my "official" weight for my phone app. But weighing myself a couple of times a day is what showed me that simply polishing off a glass or two of water while I'm sleeping artificially increases my weight the next morning. Sometimes it's so extreme that it looks like I gained nearly two pounds from the previous day but a second weighing later on shows an equal weight to the day before or even a drop from the previous morning.
 

segelkatt

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I do weigh myself when I get up in the morning after the bathroom, that is my "official" weight for my phone app. But weighing myself a couple of times a day is what showed me that simply polishing off a glass or two of water while I'm sleeping artificially increases my weight the next morning. Sometimes it's so extreme that it looks like I gained nearly two pounds from the previous day but a second weighing later on shows an equal weight to the day before or even a drop from the previous morning.
those weight shifts in just one day can be really discouraging or make you think you've lost weight when you really haven't. Once a day, always at the same time with the same circumstances, is a much better way to keep on track.
 

arouetta

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those weight shifts in just one day can be really discouraging or make you think you've lost weight when you really haven't. Once a day, always at the same time with the same circumstances, is a much better way to keep on track.
That's the problem, it's never the same circumstances. Some nights I don't wake up that much and I only drink maybe a half a glass of water. Some nights I'm up three or four times and I'll drink three glasses of water in the same amount of sleeping time. That extreme variation in the amount of water weight I pick up at night makes the morning weigh-in not reliable. Even when I try to account for the water, the Seroquel has me so knocked out that I don't remember clearly if I refilled my glass more than once, or sometimes I'm not sure if I refilled it at all.

A second weigh in tends to help with accounting for the extreme water weight swings by letting me see if I've gained or lost throughout the day when I can accurately track my fluid intake.
 

Joandlily

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So today is the funeral for my daughters ( she's only 14yrs) best friends brother. This is going to be the hardest day of my life as a mother. I just hope I can be strong enough to help guide my daughter through this difficult day.
 

tallyollyopia

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You should always weigh yourself at the same time of day, preferably without any clothes so you can be sure it's just you and not clothes, shoes, a towel, whatever , say before you eat breakfast but have emptied your bowels, otherwise you can be off by as much as a pound or more. During the day, as you eat, drink, pee or empty your bowels your weight will go up or down. Resist the temptation of weighing yourself more than once during the day. The results either will make you depressed or unreasonably happy. I'm with you there, I have been teetering around 205 but am happy as at Christmas I weighed 220. I'm only 5'3 so you know that I weigh much too much. I have not set a goal, any pound that I lose and it stays off for a week is a reason to celebrate. I'm not really TRYING to lose weight but have noticed lately that after breakfast which can be anytime from 7 am to 9:30 am I'm not in the mood for eating anything until about 2 pm where I mostly have a sandwich with ham (yeah, yeah, processed food!), a tomato, maybe a piece of avocado and some strawberries, bare, no sugar or cream, and then around 4:30 I think it's time to eat again and I can call it dinner. l don't eat junk food, no chips, cookies etc in my house and haven't been forever, and I have been on a "no sweet anything" for a long time, maybe a year or more, I just don't want it. Then I do make myself dinner and find I can only eat half of it, put a lid on what's left, maybe I'll eat it later but most of the time it ends up in the trash (what a waste but kitties don't get people food!) So what's my downfall, where are the extra calories coming from as I should be losing weight faster with this kind of regimen? RUM! I like a hot toddy when it's cold like it has been here in Calif (anything under 70F is cold here!) or an imitation Mai Tai: Rum over ice with a fruit punch (no Hawaiian Punch, that stuff is gross! ) or a Sprite Zero, and I'll have several of those during an evening when I usually read but sometimes watch CNN or MSNBC. Yep, that's where the extra calories are coming from. But since I obviously am eating fewer calories than before and I'm still losing weight slowly I'm not too concerned. There are days when I don't consume ANY alcohol so I don't think I'm in any danger of becoming a lush. I must be doing SOMETHING right with slowly loosing weight when I'm not even trying or counting calories or going to the gym or even taking a walk as I should.
I think most of us are a bit guilty of that.:oops:

So today is the funeral for my daughters ( she's only 14yrs) best friends brother. This is going to be the hardest day of my life as a mother. I just hope I can be strong enough to help guide my daughter through this difficult day.
:grouphug::angel:

That's the problem, it's never the same circumstances. Some nights I don't wake up that much and I only drink maybe a half a glass of water. Some nights I'm up three or four times and I'll drink three glasses of water in the same amount of sleeping time. That extreme variation in the amount of water weight I pick up at night makes the morning weigh-in not reliable. Even when I try to account for the water, the Seroquel has me so knocked out that I don't remember clearly if I refilled my glass more than once, or sometimes I'm not sure if I refilled it at all.

A second weigh in tends to help with accounting for the extreme water weight swings by letting me see if I've gained or lost throughout the day when I can accurately track my fluid intake.
Just remember--it's okay to be a little gung-ho about weighing yourself, but don't get too obsessed over it. Obsession is counterproductive.
 

arouetta

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Question for you all. I was cleaning my fridge and I checked all expiration dates. I found that one of my milk gallons expired yesterday. It hasn't been opened yet. Will it still be good for a couple of days, and if so how long?
 

segelkatt

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People get obsessed with these dates and recommendations so a lot of food gets thrown out for no good reason whatsoever. That milk is going to be good for a week even after you open it.
Grocery stores are the worst offenders. They take stuff off shelves even before the "expiration" date because new stock is coming in and they need space to put the new stuff, even cans which last for years! At least some of them have a discount table where you can get stuff for 1/2 off and it's perfectly ok including cans with ripped labels.
I know people who take stuff out of their pantries, even non-food stuff, as soon as they see those dates, unbelievable! At least they could donate it to soup kitchens who would use it right away. Can you imagine rice and beans and potatoes being tossed because of some perceived "expiration" date?
When I was a child my parents would buy several hundred pounds of potatoes at the end of fall and store them in a bin in the basement which had an opening in the bottom so that you would take potatoes from the bottom all winter long until the new potatoes came in. If they sprouted you just broke the sprouts off and made sure you peeled the potatoes before consumption. Those potatoes didn't have an "expiration " date on them, but now you buy a 10 lbg and it says you should toss it in 3 weeks?
 

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Use your nose. It is the best indicator of when to ditch the milk. Common sense is the guide, here. NEVER use a bulging can. Cook foods that thaw within 48 hours (if they still have ice crystals in them they can be refrozen, tho), if eggs are in doubt, put them in a deep bowl of water. The ones the float, toss. Now, if they still have their tips on the bottom and are just beginning to bob, use immediately. You actually don't even have to toss freezer-burned meats. I will say, however, that I only suggest using them in well-seasoned stews that are going to simmer for a long time. There's nothing that will make you sick, but they are VERY dry (that's what the "burn" is), and lose some flavor. So...stew.

Kitten season is in full swing here in NC. I'm happy to report that Little Bit does appear to be a tom (LORD I wish that cat would lift tail JUST ONCE for me so I can be sure), as there is no sign of pregnancy...yet. Keeping my fingers crossed. Am having NO LUCK finding a feral group to do TNR here in my area. None.
 

arouetta

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Kitten season is in full swing here in NC. I'm happy to report that Little Bit does appear to be a tom (LORD I wish that cat would lift tail JUST ONCE for me so I can be sure), as there is no sign of pregnancy...yet. Keeping my fingers crossed. Am having NO LUCK finding a feral group to do TNR here in my area. None.
What about scratching right at the base of the tail? That works with some cats. Another option would be to double-team the cat, so one person hold and lift tail, the other look.
 

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Kitten season is in full swing here in NC. I'm happy to report that Little Bit does appear to be a tom (LORD I wish that cat would lift tail JUST ONCE for me so I can be sure), as there is no sign of pregnancy...yet. Keeping my fingers crossed. Am having NO LUCK finding a feral group to do TNR here in my area. None.

Good luck getting your ferals sprayed and neutered. I tried and all I got was a bunch of snotty people giving me lip service. I was told to do it myself or get my friends and family to help me. That is not an option. I offered to make a donation and pay all the s/n fees but that made no difference.

Muffy
 
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