Southern NY, Dutchess county and below

[ChickenAl]

Quote:
Wow, you had a close call there. Proactive is the name of the game. Doctors, like the rest of us, are not perfect and can always be second guessed. A big reason to always get second and even third opinions. Glad you got the right doctors and are doing well now.

The internet is one of the scariest places to get information. In the case of my wife's cancer, it basically had her dead and buried and not to be hopeful at all. Because it was such a rare cancer, most of the info was outdated. It almost made me stop looking.

Thank God for the internet! I research the heck out of everything because nowadays you have to be your own health care advocate. Doctors are just to busy with to many patients and insurance limits them to certain tests etc.

Lets not forget also that doctors are only "practicing" medicine, they don't quite have it down to a science yet

You are 100% right. We expect doctors to have all the answers, and most good ones know they don't. I had the privilege to sit in on a cancer workshop at the National Institutes of Health. After it was over, the doctor who is a specialist in my wife's form of cancer asked me what I thought. I told him I was surprised how little doctors do know about this form of cancer, and he agreed. There are so many complexities to diseases it takes years of research just to get to square one. and there is no majic bullet locked up in some safe somewhere. Just a lot of doctors working on cures and better therapies. Hopefully all the mysteries will get unraveled one day.

Got to get ready for the doctor appt. Talk to you all later.

 

[stoopid]

Oh, and everyone out there, tomorrow is the Sussex County show, if you need anything picked up, or maybe if you have an open day, I can promise you, it will be a blast!!

 

[stoopid]

Nah, too busy talking about chickens!. I used to feel guilty, but when all the kids are doing it, and us old folks are working, and they make the same salary (or more) as us... well, let's just say I've become a product of my environment.

Quote:
So, Didya buy anything today? LOL.

 

[smkchick]

At school, they block ebay and a lot of other stuff. But not BYC! (Or amazon.com, for that matter...) Where there's a will, there's a way.

I came home to check on the girls. Aggie is terrified of the froofroo dog. I took her out on a leash (the dog, not Agatha) and Agatha ran to the woodpile to hide. We'll get there...

Anyway, the chicks must have had an escape from their "brooder". There were little piles of chicken poop everywhere and they were looking innocently at me like, "What? We're right here in our box." hmmmm....

 

[stoopid]

Is anything going on with just one side of your face? And I'm not thinking stroke, I'm thinking Lyme disease.
Bells palsy comes to mind, I have lyme, and similar symptoms. Have to see many Drs all the time, and even though my body is controlled, it's not getting much better. Found a new rheum, he put me on quinine, actually for malaria, it has been helping for inflammation, but after a few months, it has gone flat, and not improving. Might have to try something else. AGAIN.
Quote:
I have had symptoms that are varying in that I get arthritic type pain that comes and goes, hands are tight when waking and then sometimes throughout the day. Had a lot of trigger finger recently, and last night my ring finger locked closed until I was able to pry it open this morning. The symptoms are kind of like fibromyalgia, but it is pretty rare in men. All of this on top of the double vision, which is new. We'll see what the rheumatologist says today.

 

[ChickenAl]

Quote:
I have had symptoms that are varying in that I get arthritic type pain that comes and goes, hands are tight when waking and then sometimes throughout the day. Had a lot of trigger finger recently, and last night my ring finger locked closed until I was able to pry it open this morning. The symptoms are kind of like fibromyalgia, but it is pretty rare in men. All of this on top of the double vision, which is new. We'll see what the rheumatologist says today.


Roberta, sorry to hear you have been suffering with this. Lyme is a nasty disease. I hope you can get relief.

The rheumatological stuff was going on before the sinuses and when I went to the doctor he looked at my hands that were stiff and swollen and sent me to the rheumatologist. I went there today and the diagnosis is psoriatic arthritis. Almost like rheumatoid arthritis in that it is immuno related disease. Goes along with my type2 diabetes.

I have to go to the neurologist next Thursday to see what is up what the eyes. It may be Lyme disease that has been hidden. I have been tested so many times for it and it always comes up negative. I was even tested for the new one which is prevelant on Long Island. It is Called Babesios, if I remember, and it is almost exactly like malaria. Is that possibly what you have?

I had Bell's Palsy last year on my left side. No clue yet if this is a similar problem, but it seems to be in my right eye mostly and it is like it can't keep up with the left in focus or depth of field. It may also turn up to be Graves disease because I have images one over the other and that is a sign of it. Not life threatening, though.

Along with this crap I have to go back to the infectious disease doctor to go on antibiotics for 9 months to get rid of Latent Tuberculosis, which means I was exposed to I but don't have it. When I take the immunosuppressive drugs for the psoriatic arthritis I could develop full blow TB. What a life! I feel like I should be crying, but I can't get overly worked up anymore. It does no good to try and overthink it. I am just going to go along with the program until I can get this all resolved, or at least under control.

 

[magsrags]

e


Quote:

 

[stoopid]

Al, remember this is the crap they call the golden years. Hopefully, everyone has health insurance. My Neurologist explained to me there are many different tests for the many different types of lyme. Yippee.
Hope they find out what's going on with you. Get a few more chickens, I know that's how I deal with it!

 

[smkchick]

Al, just take it one day at a time. It helps to remain as stress-free as possible. Stress does so much hidden damage to our bodies. Listen to yourself. I found myself at an endocrinologist because I was having these terrible blood-sugar drops that were sudden, without warning and totally debilitating. She put me on metforman because she said it would stabilize my blood sugar. Well, the drugs upset my stomach, etc. etc. I realized that when I eat a high protein, low-carbohydrate diet I don't have these issues, so that's what I try to do. I just feel better when I eat that way. I'd rather give up the carbs than have to be on meds. I'm not saying I stay low-carb all the time, but when I eat carbs I feel like you-know-what. I need to learn to listen to my body!

On the chicken front, when I came out to go back to school, Gladys and Aggie had come out of hiding from the dog and were waiting for me. I guess they figured it would be prudent to make themselves scarce while Clara (the dog) was around. I feel like I'm running a home for old ladies: Clara, Gladys, Agatha, Wanda, Shirley and Aretha.

I just sat on the patio in my chicken chair (by the back door) and watched as the two girls marched themselves into the coop, up the ladder and onto their roosts for the night. LOVE IT!!!

 

[stoopid]

Yay!