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Originally posted by Brenda:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
That's a lot of steps if you're not used to doing it. How you getting around these days, Brenda? Are you able to manage that until they're back on?

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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It is awkward for sure. I'm still walking pretty good. I should be alright until they are fixed what with tomorrow being Sunday and I don't do anything anyways.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Just a lazy Sunday around me and it is dry for today. Not sure about totally about the rest of the week. Was suppose to work tomorrow then my boss remembered that she made arrangements to go hiking with a friend, so that is off the table. I should send an email to someone else I know as she must be wondering what happened to me. Hopefully I will get to that tonight.

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My down day was Friday. I was miserable bc of this crazy infection, and depressed bc of lack of energy and progress.

Have to say, those antibiotics are powerful stuff. They started working with the first rinse. My nose is still incredibly stuffed, but the green goo (yeah, TMI) is almost completely gone and I slept thru the night. FINALLY, three rounds of antibiotics and two rounds of steroids and several different kinds of rinses and sprays, SOMETHING is working!


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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

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Originally posted by Brenda:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
That's a lot of steps if you're not used to doing it. How you getting around these days, Brenda? Are you able to manage that until they're back on?

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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It is awkward for sure. I'm still walking pretty good. I should be alright until they are fixed what with tomorrow being Sunday and I don't do anything anyways.

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Are they working now?

Be careful!!!!!

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Just a lazy Sunday around me and it is dry for today. Not sure about totally about the rest of the week. Was suppose to work tomorrow then my boss remembered that she made arrangements to go hiking with a friend, so that is off the table. I should send an email to someone else I know as she must be wondering what happened to me. Hopefully I will get to that tonight.

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My down day was Friday. I was miserable bc of this crazy infection, and depressed bc of lack of energy and progress.

Have to say, those antibiotics are powerful stuff. They started working with the first rinse. My nose is still incredibly stuffed, but the green goo (yeah, TMI) is almost completely gone and I slept thru the night. FINALLY, three rounds of antibiotics and two rounds of steroids and several different kinds of rinses and sprays, SOMETHING is working!


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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Grocery shopping done for today and one elevator was working as I was going out. So that was good. Could hear workmen talking in the second shaft and that one is working which is a good thing as it goes down to the parking garage where the garbage and recycling bins are. Garbage is now out because of that one working.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Grocery shopping done for today and one elevator was working as I was going out. So that was good. Could hear workmen talking in the second shaft and that one is working which is a good thing as it goes down to the parking garage where the garbage and recycling bins are. Garbage is now out because of that one working.

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Glad to hear it Brenda.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Grocery shopping done for today and one elevator was working as I was going out. So that was good. Could hear workmen talking in the second shaft and that one is working which is a good thing as it goes down to the parking garage where the garbage and recycling bins are. Garbage is now out because of that one working.

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Glad to hear it Brenda.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Well, I'm using the Rx'd antibiotic powders and steroid in my nose rinse. Not sure it's making a difference just yet, but I discovered it's so much more pleasant -and possibly more effective - if I warm it slightly before rinsing. Also I'm sanitizing everything every day so I don't carry germs over from day to day in my nose sprays and rinse bottles. I've given up expecting to breathe thru my nose, at least for now, and am trying to adapt my sleep to that. So trudging forward on the medical front.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Grocery shopping done for today and one elevator was working as I was going out. So that was good. Could hear workmen talking in the second shaft and that one is working which is a good thing as it goes down to the parking garage where the garbage and recycling bins are. Garbage is now out because of that one working.

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Glad to hear it Brenda.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Me too!

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Well, I'm using the Rx'd antibiotic powders and steroid in my nose rinse. Not sure it's making a difference just yet, but I discovered it's so much more pleasant -and possibly more effective - if I warm it slightly before rinsing. Also I'm sanitizing everything every day so I don't carry germs over from day to day in my nose sprays and rinse bottles. I've given up expecting to breathe thru my nose, at least for now, and am trying to adapt my sleep to that. So trudging forward on the medical front.

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It's too bad power tools don't work on humans.

Whenever I'm stuffed up I just want to take my cordless drill and make a new hole.



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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Back from the dentist and I broke another tooth. Going back next week to have it repaired and another spot as well as maybe something pulled.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Back from the dentist and I broke another tooth. Going back next week to have it repaired and another spot as well as maybe something pulled.

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I hate it when that happens.

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I might have finished the door today. I want to see what it looks like in daylight to be sure. It's only got two coats of paint on the two coats of primer instead of three, but it was rolled on so they're hefty coats. If I do anymore it's just going to be rolling the front and the back.

Boy am I glad I did those hinges first. I don't know what I was thinking yesterday when I thought I'd get to them later. I didn't make a mess of my kitchen wall, but I did miss a little bit on the door itself as well as the jamb out to the porch. Easy fix compared to what I'd have been fixing down the road. Now the hinges match all the other hinges on finished doors in the house as well as the kitchen cabinet hardware.

Door closes super smooth now. I'm afraid if I painted a 3rd coat on it that it won't anymore though. I've been using a postcard to slide in between it when the door is closed and it still moves freely but I can tell it's tight now. I'm hoping nothing related expands in the heat of the summer. I thought about that today when it was too late to do anything about it. That door isn't going to budge, but the jamb might.

I also put two coats of paint on the jambs for the kitchen overlook and my three pieces I'm going to use to make jambs for the small living room window.

Still didn't get outside to do any yard work though. I hate when the sun goes down at 4:30PM.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Our doors regularly stick and get loose again. Here it seems to be more a matter of humidity than temperature.

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Yeah. Good point.

I noticed to my great dismay, that the caulked seams on door/window trim I put upstairs would separate and then come back together at some of the miters in the year or two I finished them but before I got the A/C unit. I would think that low humidity would be the reason for that, but it appears that they're all fine now that the A/C keeps the humidity out during the summer and the humidity in the house stays pretty much the same year round. I also haven't noticed my bathroom door getting stuck for a couple of years too, but I will make sure to sand that one down a bit where it needs it just in case too.

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What is a "kitchen overlook"? I'm still trying to piece together the various parts of the house as you described, but I'm confused!

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Whenever I get around to building whatever I'm going to build I can show you pictures.

My house is a stupid tri-level with wide open access to both the 2nd floor and basement, with the stairs up to the 2nd floor on the right and the stairs to the basement on the left. In the kitchen on that wall, just to the left of the staircase, the wall goes from the ceiling down only to about 2.5 feet from the floor where it is jambed out. The wall goes all the way down to the floor on the left side of the kitchen for about 1.5 feet, and on the right side next to the stairwell there is a post that joins up with the stairs to the basement that is covered in drywall and has the right jamb attached to it on the left side of the post (if you're looking down into the basement).

When I first moved in there was a decorative, brown cast-iron "grate" installed inside of it that matched the cast-iron banisters. I hate cast-iron inside houses, so all that is going to be replaced.

I think I'm actually going to buy a 3/4" board for the bottom "jamb", round the long edges on both the kitchen and basement sides with a roundover router bit, then install simple wooden cylindrical coat hanger stock inside of it, spaced however far apart I can get away with spacing it per code. Let's just say that it's a huge code violation right now, because if you had a baby crawling on the kitchen floor it could get to that edge and fall about 3.5 feet onto hard ceramic tile in the basement.

:(

In any event, I decided that I don't need to have all of that done before I painted the jambs and get my trim up there. It might not be functional for a while but at least it can look good until I get there.

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Oh yeah, that time change! It sure cuts the day short! I used to plan on working until 5 or 6 outdoors. No more!

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Yeah. It sucks. At least I'm getting out of bed a lot earlier these days though.



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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
I am out to the walk in vampires to make another attempt to get my thyroid blood test done. Then see about a pick up game of mah jong in the afternoon.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Wow, that looks so classy!!! My god, not only are you a great handyman, you have great taste!!! I can't tell you how awesome that looks!

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Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I'm really glad that the white trim thing is in and doesn't seem to be going anywhere. When I first moved here I saw it done on a TV show and I loved it and knew that's what I wanted to do in my house.

I've also kept a TON of stuff out of a landfill. The biggest being those kitchen cabinets, but aside from bad kitchen flooring and all of the garbage (tiny) trim and baseboard with a billion coats of paint on it, I've kept all the doors in the house by repairing and painting them. Those cabinets are top-notch quality too. Not the pressed wood BS that you get when you spend "only" $30,000 to 40,000 for new cabs.

I also had a good deal of help from my friend and his dad. Just the flooring in the kitchen, but a HUGE amount of help basically rebuilding 2 walls in the porch and installing those windows, as well as running a few external outlets, the porch light and building the window jambs.

I've learned so much from my friend's Dad over the last 25 years. I call him my handyman Dad, and my real Dad is my financial/tech Dad.

The joke was that when I grew up we used butter knives for screwdrivers.



My Dad actually got fairly handy in his old age when he retired, but that was well after my time.

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The painted floor in the porch was an inspired idea.

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I can't remember... did I tell you I was doing that? I didn't know what I wanted to do out there since the porch is the most likely place that could still be settling due to the less-than-ideal foundation it was built on. Tile was out of the question. It was either going to be something like I did in the kitchen or carpet, but carpet is probably a bad idea on the floor most likely to get wet from coming in from outside... especially without being tied into the heating system.

I was only going to paint it temporarily since I had a gallon of that color from years back that I never used and I wanted to use it up before it went bad. I was able to get 3 coats out of the gallon and after I put the rug out there I kind of like it as it is. because of the unneveness of the floor I had to put backer rod under the baseboard in some spots and I caulked it. Then I painted all that the same color as the baseboard and cut the floor into it all around.

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Dood, you have made a showpiece home. Anyone would be happy to buy it.

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Well... let's not get too carried away. You're seeing the finished stuff.

I can't even think about finishing that basement until I fix the foundation cracks, get a second sump well and at least one sump pump with a battery backup, and maybe even get a Generac installed in case the power goes out. I probably won't ever take the chance and put a furnace down there, but I might look into installing a heat pump system or two instead.

LOTS of work still to do, but man... this is big. Even without the final solution for the overlook in place, you can't even imagine how good it feels walking into that kitchen right now.

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I see what you mean by kitchen overlook. I've never seen anything like that before. I wonder what the purpose was? Ventilation? Is it common in your area?

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Yeah... I don't know either. I don't believe I've ever seen anything like it myself. Houses in this area are way different from each other, and I'm sure every house on this block looks completely different from each other unlike my brother who moved into his own tri-level home where every house only looks different because they shifted the cookie-cutter design around like tetris pieces.

I'm not even sure what the official name for it is, but overlook just felt right.

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I'm so impressed. And just a tad jealous.

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Well thanks again...

But if I showed you the horrors of the stuff that isn't finished it would put that jealousy right out of your head.



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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Well, I saw the ENT today. She looked in my nose and she's putting the pedal to the metal and sending me to Infectious Disease. And I thought I was doing better!

Anyway, I'm to continue rinsing with my medicated rinse until Infectious Disease calls me in to set up an at-home IV port for antibiotic self- admin. In the meantime I'm to see an allergist/ immunologist to get control of the inflammation in my nose. Sigh. I'm tired. Too many humps to get over and too many doctors visits!

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
I am out to the walk in vampires to make another attempt to get my thyroid blood test done. Then see about a pick up game of mah jong in the afternoon.

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Er... did they not find a vein the first time?

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Well, I saw the ENT today. She looked in my nose and she's putting the pedal to the metal and sending me to Infectious Disease. And I thought I was doing better!

Anyway, I'm to continue rinsing with my medicated rinse until Infectious Disease calls me in to set up an at-home IV port for antibiotic self- admin. In the meantime I'm to see an allergist/ immunologist to get control of the inflammation in my nose. Sigh. I'm tired. Too many humps to get over and too many doctors visits!

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Oh geez....

Have they given you any idea what they think it is if they're going to send you to infectious disease?

I hope you're okay Sigs. Take care of yourself and get some rest.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Well, I saw the ENT today. She looked in my nose and she's putting the pedal to the metal and sending me to Infectious Disease. And I thought I was doing better!

Anyway, I'm to continue rinsing with my medicated rinse until Infectious Disease calls me in to set up an at-home IV port for antibiotic self- admin. In the meantime I'm to see an allergist/ immunologist to get control of the inflammation in my nose. Sigh. I'm tired. Too many humps to get over and too many doctors visits!

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Oh geez....

Have they given you any idea what they think it is if they're going to send you to infectious disease?

I hope you're okay Sigs. Take care of yourself and get some rest.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Oh, they know what it is, and I know what it is, being a nosy person and reading the culture report that they posted. (I often read the various lab and radiology reports and scare myself half to death most of the time.) It's a mix of pathogenic bacteria usually only found in the nasal cavities of those with cystic fibrosis or immune compromised patients. AFAIK I'm not either, and I have no idea how I could have gotten so massively exposed except that one of the products that I've been using - distilled water, steroid and decongestant spray, saline rinse packets - was contaminated or (in the case of the water) mislabeled (i.e "purified" or "deionized" water was labeled as "distilled"?)

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Well back and done for today and once again I won at mah jong. I got first place today. Having a sit down now.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Well back and done for today and once again I won at mah jong. I got first place today. Having a sit down now.

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Hey! Good for you!!


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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SIX, I definitely have an autoimmune issue! It's either Sjogrens or lupus (test positive for both) or maybe rheumatoid arthritis (test positive for that too, sometimes!). Curiously, it (whatever it is) is being treated with hydroxychloroquine.


Also, I had several blood transfusions so maybe my "system" has decided it doesn't like red or white blood cells.

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Did you just find this out today???

I'm a little confused.

I'm sorry to hear that.

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Anyway, I guess I need to be patient. Maybe that's why we're called patients!

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Well you should be getting treatment soon. You've been dealing with some bad stuff for a while now, but you should be given a path to manage it going forward and hopefully it ends up being a minor inconvenience instead of several major ones.



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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SIX, I definitely have an autoimmune issue! It's either Sjogrens or lupus (test positive for both) or maybe rheumatoid arthritis (test positive for that too, sometimes!). Curiously, it (whatever it is) is being treated with hydroxychloroquine.

Also, I had several blood transfusions so maybe my "system" has decided it doesn't like red or white blood cells.

SIX: Did you just find this out today???
I'm a little confused.

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SIX:I'm sorry to hear that.

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SIGNY: Anyway, I guess I need to be patient. Maybe that's why we're called patients!

SIX: Well you should be getting treatment soon. You've been dealing with some bad stuff for a while now, but you should be given a path to manage it going forward and hopefully it ends up being a minor inconvenience instead of several major ones.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SIX, I definitely have an autoimmune issue! It's either Sjogrens or lupus (test positive for both) or maybe rheumatoid arthritis (test positive for that too, sometimes!). Curiously, it (whatever it is) is being treated with hydroxychloroquine.

Also, I had several blood transfusions so maybe my "system" has decided it doesn't like red or white blood cells.

SIX: Did you just find this out today???
I'm a little confused.

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Oh, I've known about the autoimmune problem for a while. It kicked off in 2019 after I was on levquin for (yet another) sinus infection. My tendons and ligaments really hurt , but I just ignored it much as possible. But then cancer happened, and I noticed that even tho chemo had all kinds of nasty side effects, it did make the pain go away. I mentioned that to my GP and she thought it was significant enuf to send me to a rheumatologist. A few tests later, I think in late 2022 I was dx'd with either Sjogren's or lupus (could be either). Dr Rx'd HCQ and it's been a lot better since.

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Out for my walk on a sunny day but I would imagine cold. I really have to dig out some gloves for myself. Computer temp reads 0c. There is a call for rain tomorrow.

Need to pick up some light things when I am out.

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