INSOMNIACS place to talk in the wee hours

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  • Loveroflife
    Loveroflife Member Posts: 5,563
    edited October 2015

    Yup!!! This is my second home.

    image

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  • Loveroflife
    Loveroflife Member Posts: 5,563
    edited October 2015

    image

    My nickname is actually Tweety.

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  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 19,603
    edited October 2015

    Ally what a beautiful baby and Mom. You've left Ann Arbor. I love AA. I forget where in Ontario you are going? Enerva's in Missausaga. My Mom is from Lindsay area.

    Jac is it a surgical infection? I did a thread on weight, but got into studying the Microbiome while I was there. We have so messed up normal bacteria with antibiotics of the last 8 decades. Now they in turn are wrecking havoc on us.

    Quennie, what's the skin infection? Open or closed? If it's closed(no deep skin breaks), I have some suggestions. What's being cultured?

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  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 19,603
    edited October 2015

    If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

    Henry David Thoreau

    Jazzy, I have it by the door. Decoupaged block of wood from the 70's :)

    Tweety ,see I said we all were connected.

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  • queenmomcat
    queenmomcat Member Posts: 3,039
    edited October 2015

    Sas: (absence of sarcasm) thank you for asking--I shoulda known your nurse instincts would kick in when I said that!

    It is (still!) erysipelas, confined strictly to my face (down to under my jaw, up into my hairline about an inch. I don't recall any skin breaks on my face or scalp at the time, nor could any doctor find any. I first noticed redness and pain around my ears on Sunday the 4th, worse on the right, and it spread forward to meet over the nose. Oral amoxicillin/doxycycline didn't help, so off to be hospitalized over last weekend for IV vancomycin, then home again with Bactrim.

    It's 95% resolved (no longer appear like an extra in a George Romero film, just 'recovering from burn') I'll have a followup with my PCP on Friday, but nothing cultured.

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  • Loveroflife
    Loveroflife Member Posts: 5,563
    edited October 2015

    Yay to 95% resolved. Weird how it developed with no unbroken skin. I guess clog pores or a scratch can do that to you.(?) I read that it's usually Streph. We don't realize how our body continuously working to keep the bad bugs at bay. Did it start on the same side as the MX

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  • Loveroflife
    Loveroflife Member Posts: 5,563
    edited October 2015

    Jacfin, hope you are on the mend too

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  • queenmomcat
    queenmomcat Member Posts: 3,039
    edited October 2015

    Lover: this was decidedly out of the blue for me! No, it was on the opposite side from my lx and rads--no lymph nodes biopsied as I was straight DCIS. As for the source, possibly chronic ear eczema? though that's been annoying me for years at this point.

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  • Jazzygirl
    Jazzygirl Member Posts: 12,533
    edited October 2015

    Your daily dose of cute. That being said, don't try this at home!

    Daily dose of cute


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  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 19,603
    edited October 2015

    Quennie, let me study it tomorrow.

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  • Chevyboy
    Chevyboy Member Posts: 10,786
    edited October 2015

    Queenly... I was just thinking, and it probably doesn't mean anything, but "shingles" popped into my mind..... It isn't that, is it? Okay, never mind... I looked up what you have/had.... I've had to take several different antibiotics one time, because sometimes one won't work.... because some of us are weird.... So an infection....

    Is it also possible that you have an allergy to something? And I know that SOMEtimes the antiB-s they give us make us worse.... like when they gave me sulfa once.....

    I just hope you feel better!

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  • queenmomcat
    queenmomcat Member Posts: 3,039
    edited October 2015

    Sas: fair 'nuff. I'll be here. So will the whatever-it-is. But any (more) questions or clinical history I might present my doctor would help. Sinus infections and tooth abscesses I've had, but this is not that.

    Chevyboy: I wouldn't take a suggestion of shingles amiss--there's a chronic something centered on my ears, which I will press my PCP about on Friday. But the whatever-it-is that hospitalized me is an acute something-or-other that I've never had before. And hope never to have again. I am an exceedingly bad patient, and don't take well to the regimentation inherent in hospitals.

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  • Loveroflife
    Loveroflife Member Posts: 5,563
    edited October 2015

    Hey Rose, best wishes on your Herceptin infusion tomorrow with minimal side effects. Hug

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  • Loveroflife
    Loveroflife Member Posts: 5,563
    edited October 2015

    image

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  • Loveroflife
    Loveroflife Member Posts: 5,563
    edited October 2015

    image

    image



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  • susan3
    susan3 Member Posts: 3,728
    edited October 2015

    queen bee, I bet I got you beat on being a bad patient. It isn't beneath me to lie to stay out of hospitals or to lie to get out of them. I even get dressed stand at the door and say to all passing....can I go now???? Still with iv in arm. Then I keep texting family members all night telling them to get me the heck out of here. I am such a joy...lol. Prob not funny for people around me. Hope they figure it out soon. It seems with whatever symptoms are, there are a top three of "what it can be", if it doesn't fall into that category it takes a long time to diagnose. I used to think one blood test showed everything. Wish it could be that easy. I had bad internal bleeding about five years back. Would just find myself on the floor and never knew how I got there. Found out the difference from passing out and black out. Got tested for two years. Everything you could imagine. They never found out why. Wired thing is I would recover so quickly. Hemoglobin would drop to 5 or 6, and bounce back up in a day. So now I just never get up quickly and I haven't blacked out in 4 years. Wow I was blabby :

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  • Jazzygirl
    Jazzygirl Member Posts: 12,533
    edited October 2015

    Loveroflife- did you ask me about the steel drums recently? I signed up for the second class this fall but the class did not make, so I have not done anything more. However, I am going to check out a place in CA when I go see my sis for Xmas to see if I can find a pan I like. Someone told me about a place in Riverside so it is on the to do list!

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  • Loveroflife
    Loveroflife Member Posts: 5,563
    edited October 2015

    It was Ms. CHEVY, Jazzy. Maybe changing my avatar will help prevent the mix-up

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  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 19,603
    edited October 2015

    loverly, I was just going to ask how long you had that avatars?

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  • Jazzygirl
    Jazzygirl Member Posts: 12,533
    edited October 2015

    Loveroflife- thank you for keeping me honest! Chevy- thank you for asking about the drums!

    Don't change the avatar! Love it!

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  • Chevyboy
    Chevyboy Member Posts: 10,786
    edited October 2015

    Rosie is trying to trick us! She thinks we won't notice! So just go along with her... or whoever she is..... QUEENLY! It's Queenly who has that "condition".....

    Susan and whatever your name is.... You guys are probably not welcome in those facilities... Next time, you better take them all a nice fruit-basket of some kind, so they will accept you! Just stay OUT of those places! My last time to the ER was okay though....

    Remember it was the PAIN in my butt, that muscle-nerve thing.... Well DH went to get me a Starbucks whilst I was waiting for the Doc, who was in Wyoming...(probably) And I stood at the door and asked the nurse... "So just how long I gotta wait for room-service around here?" She just sat there looking at me, laughed, and ignored me.

    Sometimes those places can make you worse!

    And yes Smarty.... Do you just need the Pan Drum? Or lessons? Or classes? Our youngest Grandson is building his own guitar... from the wood frame up! Buying the best parts.... of which I don't understand.... And is just going it alone! Sending us riffs and video's of his "passion"... I think it's great! Just figure out how to get what you really want.... it will happen.

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  • Enerva
    Enerva Member Posts: 3,162
    edited October 2015

    dWill nice to hear from you.

    Aliso that baby is so cute!!!!

    When and where are you ladies meeting up next?

    Lol I ll love to go meet all of you.

    Smarty love the quilts

    Thanks Susan

    Have an amazing day all of you

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  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 19,603
    edited October 2015

    Morning everyone, won't say Good morning b/c I had a "no sleep night". I hate those, they just punk me out.

    MammaRay I was thinking about you needing melatonin. Me too.

    Susan you were blabbery last night. Did we all drink something?

    LOverly, the avatar is so funny. What mood were you in?

    Kathyindc and Loverly, I'm hankering for some foods from Asia and Japan. Saw a show a couple weeks back about Japanese restaurants. Fascinating. One restaurant had the salad on a wood plank designed like a forest. The plank had a microphone in it that played forest sounds. I figured between the two of you we could have a feast b/c you know what to look for.

    Chevy you are so funny. even if I didn't wake up to read you....I love your morning ritual. Sorry about your friends.

    Patty hootie hoo. Did you get the brownies?

    Frenhfrye hope you are doing well. Can't remember if I posted what you told me. I do remember that your tumor markers are down. Two wnl and one one point above normal.

    Heard from 2nd sends her love and thinking of everyone.

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  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 19,603
    edited October 2015

    Quennie interesting phenomenon. Started in the middle ages. Never heard of it before. The pic on the net looked painful. Are you praying to St. Anthony?

    Several concerns. They are doing paintball therapy. I coined that phrase along time ago in a similar situation. This bug was going around that was really laying people low for weeks and weeks. For me nothing would culture up. 12 weeks of a chest thing with 5 different antibiotics. Finally, I asked for a Gram stain. Why I had to think of a gram stain is beyond me. They found a bacteria that shouldn't be there. Gave me the right antibiotic at a higher than usual dose. It worked. Since you have culprit on the ear(s). That would be very reasonable to do a scraping and a gram stain.

    I did have another problem after my only killer chemo. Tubbing twice a day for months Tried the usual from oatmeal to drombero. Then I got an infection on the head. The bug was worse than MRSA. When I read about it, it scared the hell out of me. 5 weeks of antibiotics and no progress. But my reading said it could take months of high powered antibiotics. Even then it was not hopeful to fix it.

    I went to the internet, It was Sept. of 09. In spring of 09 there was a study published in the Journal of Pediatrics. I'll find the wound thread I have the links stored on and bring them back. It was a benchmark study. In 09 the following articles were not kind. The study initially created so much controversy. I revisited the study when I had a hand thing in 2013. There was an explosion of articles in Dermatology and Infectious Disease articles. What was controversial became the accepted.

    The pediatric study took kids that had severe total body psoriasis with many secondary bacterial infections. They tubbed them in dilute chlorine. They stopped the study early b/c the response was remarkable in the test group. The problem that they solved was the kiddo's improve everywhere they soaked, but the heads weren't soaked. They had the kids hold there nose and duck their heads under water. It worked.

    What was controversial is the chlorine amount wasn't clearly defined for people to understand. Chlorine can burn. In the subsequent articles regarding the amount, it was clearly defined the amount used was the equivalent of what it would take to get the level to a commercial swimming pool.

    In 09, I did it and it cleared the body problem very quickly. I did do something different for the head, but won't write about it here b/c it hasn't been studied. Wish they would have, it cleared the head problem in 3 days.

    In 2013(12?) the hand thing, Chevy and I went through eczema at the same time. I went through early in the year till Sept. under Dermatology direction for care. One of the things Chevy told me was that she stuck her finger in vinegar. It was like a lightbulb going off. I started hand soaks twice a day in vinegar. A bit dilute, but basically right out of the jug. Within 24 hours the stinging itch of the eczema was gone. But it took soaks from Sept. till Jan of 2014(13?). It was an interesting process of healing. Technically with eczema there is no bacteria or fungus. But what I observed was the vinegar drew out whatever from the skin. The skin would pop open, then heal. Chevy's scenario was caused by an allergic reaction to a chemical she used on Lacey's skin. She will pop in and tell you about it.

    We both had to fix ourselves after months of doctoring.

    2014, I had a skin problem after Radioactive Iodine 131 forThyroid cancer. I did the chlorine soaks. It helped, but wasn't great. I didn't think vinegar for several months. After the first soak, I knew it was the go to treatment.

    So, I had four scenario's, two in 2009, one in 2013, one in 2014. The 2009 episodes were corrected by dilute chlorine based on new resaerch. The 2013 and 2014 were corrected by vinegar soaks. Vinegar as a treatment has been used by many cultures dating back to Hippocrates. Wiki has a good description of it's uses and history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinegar.

    In conclusion(finally?). Ask for a gram stain. A choice of antibiotic based on gram stain when something won't culture up, is better than throwing paintball antibiotics. Discuss with your doc the dilute chlorine baths and vinegar baths. Lastly, consider an Infectious Disease doctor consultation. ID docs are specialist in diseases caused by bacteria, fungus, mycobacterium------all bugs

    I need to bring back some links and my definition of paintball therapy.

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  • queenmomcat
    queenmomcat Member Posts: 3,039
    edited October 2015

    Susan: call it a photo finish. I fall pretty firmly into the 'stonewalling' category in regards hospitals and hospital regimentation, starting with medication. Many of the rules are there for a reason, but they're predicated on the underlying assumption that the patient is truly ill, and incapable of communicating accurately, so when someone in your/my situation shows up, things get thrown for a loop. I insisted on wearing my own clothing the whole time, and pestered them about my meds constantly. I tried not to be horrible to the nurses--they're following protocol and doctor's orders, in the main--though I did get shirty with the doctors. (Even husband said something mild about my behavior.)

    Chevy: I admit nothing in re. my identity or my conspirators. But you're right that if I get hospitalized again, a lovely huge fruit basket for each of the nursing shifts would be in order, 'cause I'm gonna be a HUGE pain in the various tender parts of their anatomies, and it's not really they who are determining what's to be done to me.

    Sas: yes, I have most definitely been praying fervently to St. Anthony! You're absolutely spot-on about the 'paintball' style treatment; it worked, for now, but since I don't know why I got this now, I can't do bupkus to prevent another bout. The eczema has been there for years, complete with more than a few skin breaks, but NO significant indication of infection. Until now. I'd asked about culturing--you're not the only one to suggest that--but both my PCP and the attending doctors in the hospital said flatly "There's nothing to culture, you haven't got an open wound."

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  • Jacfin
    Jacfin Member Posts: 114
    edited October 2015

    hi SAS ....yes another surgical infection. Not the wholly open wound post mastectomy, but bad enough to make me feel pretty awful. Dragged myself to work today but I am sitting here 10.50pm, getting ready for the procedure that is known as " getting into bed with my pillow throne" laughing and loving the antics you have all got up to again in the past 24 hours or so. ( and, I might add, correcting the auto text rantings that keep appearing on my screen tonight. If I hadn't proof read them, I swear you would have wondered what language I am speaking down here!) this has been the brightest five minutes of my day.


    Susan, you and I might be twins. I am usually heading for the exit before the lines are pulled and i don't give a hoot about parading through the hospital in my "gown" as I head for the car park!

    I love this thread

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  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 19,603
    edited October 2015

    Jacfin, This thread loves you! Sorry you are going through such chit. My foobs could use some definite fixing, but won't risk an infection to get the job done. I figured after four sx's , I would be pushing my luck. Have you been to W&F's yet? The discussion has been about how chicken's mate. Chevy and Loverly are bordering on the risqué.

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  • queenmomcat
    queenmomcat Member Posts: 3,039
    edited October 2015

    Jacfin: call it triplets! Eventually, I think the nurses gave up and let me leave the ward, just so they'd get some peace and quiet--I kept pestering them for 'permission' to go sit outside in the courtyard, when my presence was not required for IV infusions, rounds, and whatever else they had planned for me.

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  • Spookiesmom
    Spookiesmom Member Posts: 9,568
    edited October 2015

    So this excema thing is UNDER the skin? Skin not broken, open, oozing, weaping? Just burning, itching, stings? Have something going on with my fingers. Years ago dermatology said was cousin to excema. Getting more annoying.

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  • Spookiesmom
    Spookiesmom Member Posts: 9,568
    edited October 2015

    I remember when Chevy had the reaction with Lacies stuff.

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