Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?

Hello all,

Been busy getting ready for DD's baby shower tomorrow. The young lady that had been living her since last June was able to find an apartment, so she moved out a week ago Fri. Usually when Jamie's kids spend the night, Victoria (10) shares my bed, and Kayden (7) has slept on air mattresses, cots, the couch etc. So when Becca left, I put all of V's clothes and toys in the guest bedroom and put an inexpensive quilt from Walmart on the bed, and told her that would be her bed from now on, unless we had company and , of course , when my son is here for the summer. Then I bought a "Minions" throw and pillowcases, again from Walmart, and put them on the futon in the office. I have never seen anyone more excited than the two of them. When I was doing it, I didn't think about the fact that they have never had their own room anywhere. You should have seen Victoria's face when her friend came over and I told her they could play in her room. And K waS so excited about his blanket , he hid it inside his pillow case to keep it safe. Tonight will be their first sleepover in their "own" rooms.

Both of my new granddaughters now have names. Jamie's daughter, who is due at the end of March is Alexandria Rose (Alex, for nickname) and my son's daughter due in June is Julianna Marie, (Jules for nickname). When Rob told me the name the chose, I said, "wow, you'll have a Lu and a Ju" because we all call their first daughter, whose name is Lucia, Lu most of the time.

Hope every one is doing well,

Anne

Sandra, like Jackie, thank you!!

Anne, enjoy DD's baby shower.

Linda, hope you're having a restful weekend.

Sandra,  thank you, it was the perfect sentiment for this group of ladies. They walked me through a lot of scary moments. loved both of your posts

Anne, enjoy DD's baby shower. I love the girl's name

Carole, Enjoy your company and the Mardi Gras parade. I'd love to see the Mardi Gras parade. We were there for the St. Patrick's Day parades a few years ago and that was fun.

Shuf,  Enjoy your kids , grandkids and your Super Bowl gathering

Linda, I hope you are feeling better

Ritajean, this move will be a permanent move. We will travel to Philadelphia and Illinois a few times a year, probably for longer periods during the summer months since our children are in those areas. The closer it gets the more worried I am if this is the right thing to do but we have talked about it for years for when we retire.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday to all

Sandy, you had almost sold me on Eugene until the last part of your post!

Termite, if you're building your retirement house in a desirable area, you are making a good investment and can always change your mind about living in FL if that plan doesn't work out the way you thought it would.

I sometimes think longingly about living in a less humid climate but we have roots here in south Louisiana and there's much that we do like. We enjoy MN in the summer but I wouldn't want to live there in the winter. It seems that every place has drawbacks and weather dangers.

DH's brother seemed to enjoy the Endymion parade. We collected two shopping bags full of beads and other throws. He will be taking one bag home with him when he leaves tomorrow.

I am so NOT a late-night person at this stage of my life. We got home about 10:30 last night, poured some glasses of wine and watched Saturday Night Live, which had some funny political spoofing. It was after midnight before I got to sleep and I'm dragging today.

Sandy, are you in Evanston? I took my nursing at Evanston Hospital in the 60's. Great place. Changed a lot since I was a student. My Grandparents lived in Wilmette, walking distance up on Central, from the train station. Memories! Jean

We watched the Super Bowl with friends at their home. Drove home in a ground blizzard, the interstate was icy so we stayed on city streets, and even those were hard to see the road with all the blowing snow. Still very windy today and it's tempting to stay in the house all day, but after all the food I ate last night I really need to get to the Y!

Happy Lundi Gras to everyone. In years past, Lundi/Monday before Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras, was a quiet day with no parades but that has changed. There are parades today, too, but the gusting wind today may present some problems for the floats..

DH's brother, who lives in North Aurora, IL, departed this morning. Those of you familiar with the Chicago area will know where he lives. We haven't been to his house there. He used to live in Orland. He was an easy guest but it's still nice to be "home alone" again. DH and I saw him off and then went to the gym, which will be closed tomorrow, so we wouldn't be able to get in our Tues. workout.

Puffin, I looked through our Peterson Field Guide for Eastern Birds and I think the pretty bird visiting our window feeder is a rufous-sided towhee. I have seen a similar bird in the winter time before. I hope this one comes back so I can get a good look at the head and beak.

Jean, I'm in Edgewater on Chicago's far North Side--about 7 min. s. of the Evanston city line. When you were a student at Evanston Hospital. it was probably still affiliated with NW Memorial and the Northwestern Medical School. (I had my first knee replacement down at NWM in '12). About 5 yrs. ago they parted company, it became the flagship of the NorthShore Health System; and despite its proximity to NU is now affiliated with U of C's Pritzker School of Medicine and the Mayo Clinic. (Had my other knee replaced in '13 by the same surgeon at NorthShore Skokie Hospital, which used to be a dinky little community hospital called Skokie Valley, lampooned by docs at other hospitals as “Death Valley." In the interim it became affiliated with the Rush-Pres-St. Luke's system as Rush North Shore, which was when it began to be revamped and expanded. Best hospital where I'd ever been an inpatient--was like a luxury hotel with great drugs).

Carole, so sorry about the loss of your b-i-l. Prayers for your and DH's comfort.

I know I’m not supposed to eat them, but I sorta hope one of Bob’s patients brings in some paczki tonight like she always does on Lundi Gras. I carbed it a bit too much yesterday, albeit having burned a lot of it off on my 2+ miles of walking.

Yesterday was a good day--great walking weather, We won $125 (each $50 on our squares and $25 from the “Sack-sack pull"--you signed a dollar bill, put it into the grocery bag, and if your dollar was drawn when a QB was sacked you won the contents of the bag. Poor Cam Newton made for several rounds of sack-pulls). And I had the best fried chicken (brined in pickle juice) I ever ate! It was also part of a “good-LE-weekend."

Gonna don my compression now just in case, though. Got the call from one of the guitar shops that both my Taylors have been fixed and are ready for pickups, and those hardshell cases (necessary for proper humidification & other protection in storage) are HEAVY. Hope it doesn't spur questions like “what happened to your hand?" since I'm tired of explaining.

Jean, small world! I used to be an AnchorHMO patient, so Gordy was born at Rush (yup, an “Anchor baby” whose parents are both native-born citizens....sorry, couldn’t resist). Also said b’bye to my gallbladder and had my shattered rt. leg glued and pinned back together there. Good times. Little Company is one of Bob’s three hospitals--the other two being Holy Cross in Marquette Park and Advocate Christ in Oak Lawn. Since Mt. Sinai bought Holy Cross, he has privileges at Sinai now too, but never goes. We just attend its Black Tie Gala From Hell, because they hold it at Cinespace Chicago, where they shoot the “Chicago Fire/PD/Med” trifecta as well as “Empire” and the old “Boss”.

Trivia--the firehouse for “Chicago Fire” is a real one (at least the exterior shots) a few blocks from Mt. Sinai. And the exteriors for “Chicago Med” are shot at Rush. The three shows are set all over the city but shot mostly on the near-to-mid S. Side: Bridgeport, Canaryville, the area around Sinai (Ogden Blvd. stands in for lots of different thoroughfares). Occasionally, they venture north to Wicker Park & Bucktown (which sometimes stands in for Lakeview). The first year they actually took over Metropolis Coffee up here in Edgewater to shoot a meeting between two characters--but rearranged the layout so that the counter and menu boards, which are directly in front of the vestibule that has no seating, would be the backdrop for the characters’ table. Drove the shop’s staff nuts, because the <one-minute scene took all day to set up & shoot. There are also a lot of filler shots of upper Wacker. A recent episode had a tornado hitting West Lawn--where Bob has his main office. I have to laugh about all the bogus addresses (many of which would be in the middle of the lake, some of them quite clearly in a different part of town from what the street signs & house numbers--which Continuity often forgets to blur or Photoshop--indicate). And they have Firehouse 51 making calls all over the city (and to one address that is actually in Skokie), when everyone here knows that no two firehouses are more than a half-mile apart! “ER” also was loaded with geographical inaccuracies--but in its first year, it used the actual ambulance bay at UIC Hospital as “County General’s” emergency entrance. During his residency, on his on-call nights Bob & I used to sit on the bay’s loading dock drinking terrible coffee...out of paper specimen cups (not recycled).

ChiSandy, I must be guilty of miscommunication. BIL just went home after a visit. He didn't die, thank goodness.

I've just been looking up last night's news about the connection between reflux meds and kidney disease. As usual the Nightly News Anchors over-simplified a study. It was an observational study, not a causal study, though not to be ignored. The people in the study who developed kidney disease may have developed it even if they didn't take reflux meds. I take Prilosec and am concerned since my last two blood work results raised a flag on kidney function. As Rosanna Dana said, It's ALWAYS something!

We're planning to visit my brother in Tulsa this next weekend so I probably will just keep taking the Prilosec until we return. Then I may conduct my own experiment to see if I can make some diet changes and manage the heart burn without the med. I read about some natural remedies that I can try.

It's a pretty, cold day here. All the local network channels on tv are covering Mardi Gras parades. So it will be a boring day for my mother without her soaps. I plan to go to her house for a visit today.

Happy Tuesday to all.

"Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness but because you deserve peace." ~ Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Carole, you are such a wonderful daughter. Your mother is so lucky to have you!

Good morning to all on this sunny, beautiful Ash Wed. I went to the gym this morning to get some exercise before we take off on a road trip to Tulsa, OK, tomorrow to visit my youngest brother and his wife. Their daughter is grown up and lives in GA so we won't get to see her. We'll take two days to get there rather than try to drive 12 hours. There was a time when our bodies and minds would endure 12 or 13 hours on the road but not any more.

I'm doing laundry today and will pack my suitcase with comfortable, casual clothes.

Wishing everyone a good day.