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[lenniel]

I felt much healthier after the ice cream!  Actually, I eat the Edys 1/2 fat kind which is really quite good.  I'm lactose intolerant so I go easy, but it is tasty and then I don't feel whiny and deprived.

Threadkiller, I'm sorry also about your loss.  It makes the end of the year so much harder.  I hope your doctor is now taking you seriously, as the symptoms you mention sound terrible.  My mother's first doctor - she now has a great one - decided her symptoms were in her head (silly females, always making stuff up).  Turns out she had diabetes that went undiagnosed, osteoarthritis and some other stuff.  Now, she has really bad sleep apnea but has the machine and is doing better.  Poor thing.  It is infuriating, and one has to be one's best advocate so often these days.

Thank you for the info on housekeeping, elsie - I will set one up for mom and hopefully she will go for it.  It is a pride thing, I think, but she is also a 3rd degree, black belt slob.  I am a neat freak.  Just call me Felix. 

How is everyone feeling today?  I made it to NY to see the better half and the cats, tests tomorrow.  I am feeling sort of icky, but probably stress and bad sushi.  Coffee will cure me!

Hope everyone is doing okay!

[dept_geek]

Threadkiller, I'm so sorry to hear about your friend. Take the time to mourn and make sure you take the time for you.

Lenniel - I'm glad your mom got the OSA diagnosed. It's an amazing thing when you can get thru an entire morning without a nap. :-)  Good luck with your tests tomorrow.


So.. a nasty thunderstorm is making it's way thru - and I hurt everywhere. Sitting still hurts, walking hurts.  I don't want to deal with being seeing people.  Any suggestions for getting thru weather related pain on top of a flare and still be able to function around people?

I feel like a wimp - getting felled by a lower pressure system. Sheesh.

[threadkiller]

Thanks, all.  Once I get my grades in I am going to work on getting back into a healthier lifestyle.  Right now I am just focusing on making sure I take my meds when I am supposed to! I have been on and off them for 6 years now, you would think I could remember to take them regularly.

Hope everyone else is taking care of themselves.

[claragold]

I felt much healthier after the ice cream!

there is nothing like good ice-cream!

Threadkiller, I'm sorry also about your loss.

me too

How is everyone feeling today? 

I felt better this morning, so I did several tests with my new Kodak camera, I bought it trying to find a solution to scan books and papers faster than my scanner/printer. So far though, if the text isn't aligned very properly in the picture frame, like if one page is slanting because of perspective, then the OCR flops. So that was frustrating. And I found no option to shorten the obligatory delay of quite a few seconds (or so it seems) between taking two pictures. So you have to stand there waiting, waiting, until the camera is ready again to take the picture of the next page. Not good.

Yesterday I was feeling so sick I couldn't read. I had to give up after not being able to read even one page. So I went to do other things.

Today the entire day the sun has been bright and warm, with an enormous blue sky. That's always nice.

[iomhaigh]

minor hijack:

Claragold, my camera used to do that long pause as well, but there is a way to change it on mine:  go into the menu that controls how long the photo you just took is displayed on the screen on the back and change it to zero (or 1 sec).  The delay (as least on models I've played with) is because the camera gives you time to look at the photo you just took and decide if you like it.

They also make table-top camera-holders (not really a tripod -- the camera hangs over the document).  There's a name for these, but my brain is so fried that I can't think of it right now.

minor hijack over.

[gourmetless]

Just sat through graduation, 10 am on Mother's Day.  My back, arms, butt, and legs HURT due to the hard folding chairs.  They moved it indoors due to rain and wind.

I seem ready to go home, take another painkiller, and put on fluffy jammies and lay in bed for a few hours. 

Be well, all.

[anon4now]

Hi, all,
I've been in the hospital this week after a bad flare; I.V. steroids to the rescue, once again (but all of you in the lupus/Rheumatoid arthritis family know that coming off them is no picnic either--pardon my crazy buzz here, you all know what it's like. No skin crawling at the moment, so that's good.).

Here's why I'm posting: to say hi & wish all of s good cheer, but also to tell that, when I flared so badly, it was the day grades were due; I'm at one of these schools that fines people and sends their names to the provost and academic deans if you turn in late, so late was not an option. Since I always keep an "emergency hospital admissions" kit in the car, I was ready to go as soon as the doc confirmed my flare-fears and said "straight to the hospital with you, lady; do not pass go"etc (This has happened before, of course; I am single and don't want to ask friends/colleagues/neighbors to go into my house to get stuff for me, so I keep my hospital kit in the car.)  If this happens to you, I recommend such a kit: it has not only soft jammies and slippers and extra toothbrush/toiletries, but my healthcare power of attorney/living will/advance directives; other important documents, emergency numbers, back up medical file info, and a little light reading and extra walkman and CDs.

Here is the cool thing and why I write: I also just happened to have my laptop with me that day.  At admissions I asked for a room with wireless; they couldn't do that, but they put me on a floor where the lounge area at the end of the hall has wireless. So, when I got to the floor and they had gotten my IV going, I asked one of the nurses for a mobile IV (the kind with rolling stand) and rolled myself down there wth laptop draped over my other shoulder, to get online and post grades from BB.  Posted---in time!  Then set up an auto-out-of-office reply on my email, rolled myself back to the room, collapsed, and stayed that way for the next four days.

As I said before, technology is our friend.

Got through this one, this time. My SO, who lives 6 hrs away, also in his finals week, could not come then, but came as soon as he could, and is right now out getting groceries for us.  What would I do without him? (I was single and got through a 6 month course of chemo with no help from anyone at all, so I know it is possible; but I hope never to have such an experience again, and would not wish it on my worst enemy.)

One point from a couple of posts above---social life in the department is one of the things I cut in my ruthless stay-alive prioritizing (I don't enjoy dept socializing anyway, and it drains my energy tremendously).  But this puts people like us at a serious disadvantage, and it's not one we can put a finger on---many & subtle things depend on how you're perceived in a dept---and no one asks why I never socialize, they just assume I am a snoot or a misfit; I say "Well, I have the flu" or "I am going out of town" or "I have houseguests" or "I have plans, thank you for asking" and am as nice as I can be---but after a year of that, people get miffed & stop asking. I am glad they stop asking, but I hate the feelings and attitudes that go along with that.

It is so very unfair that we are judged on what takes place outside of work hours. "Collegiality" ought to mean "does a good job, is polite nad respectful of all, pulls her weight, does not harm others"---instead, too often, it means "hail fellow well met" or "we relaly LIKE him"or "socializes with the right dept cliques" or "gives good parties."
 
Best to all of us---we are heroes to get through another year, you know.

[hegemony]

Threadkiller, I'm sorry to hear about your loss.  Anon4now, yikes about your illness!  And having to get those grades in!

I just finished a big conference.  I made it to my own session (early on the first day), and then slept for two and a half days, basically getting up for dinner on the last day.  It's not the ideal way to go to a conference.  But if I'd canceled altogether, my department wouldn't have reimbursed the $1000+ it cost to go.  So I'm grateful I made it at all.  In a way it's unwise to plan conferences when you have unpredictable health, but I find it maddening to forgo all the parts of academia I enjoy, while the grading never gets omitted!

[dept_geek]

Anon4now - glad you are back. Sorry to hear about your week.

[elsie]

I know the departmental socialization suffers when you have a chronic illness, but remember these are people who can help you when you have a flare-up. Make a couple of trusted friends, have lunch or coffee (something you can manage) with them, and allow yourself the connections. You never know when you might need to ask someone to sub for your class or to do some other favor for you.

[msparticularity]

Wow - I'm sorry to hear about the really rough times so many are having! The end of the year just really is a b!tch for all of us with chronic conditions, let alone losing a loved one or having to endure a major flare and hospitalization. And yeah, Anon4now, I sympathize on the steroids; even though I've never had to go the IV route, I periodically have to take them orally to combat asthma exacerbations on top of the rheumatoid stuff.

I also know about the isolation. MrP has fibromyalgia, so both of us tend to wear out pretty quickly - to want to come home and put on our jammies as opposed to going out and being sociable. Last week we had a bunch of the usual end-of-semester stuff, including award receptions and so on (one that I was in charge of) and truly, we were almost completely unable to function after just a few days of it.

I'm still working my way through piles of grading, and trying to put eating well and sleeping ahead of everything else. I also find it helpful to be sure I get some exercise nearly every day. Sometimes it's incredibly pathetic - just a walk a little way down the block - but even that tiny bit seems to help keep me more active overall, which really helps with the pain.   

[gourmetless]

Get better, anon.  Hate those hospital visits.  At least grades are in.  The rest of it can wait until you recover.  I agree about the conference thing, Hegemony.  So often, I end up bonking, especially if I am by myself.  When SO comes along, I manage much better. 

Keep up with the exercises, MsP.  Even a little goes a lonnggggg way.  I finally started water aerobics (after years of rheumatologist nagging) and I cannot believe how much it helps with the achiness.

Slept most of the day after graduation.  It is nice to be able to have the time to do so!  ANOTHER YEAR SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED!

This week will be about cleaning up from the semester and making work plans/schedule for the summer.

Be well, all.  Let the ole brain and bod and muscles and synaptic whatevers re-boot and refresh.

[lenniel]

I'm so sorry to hear about your struggles, anon4now, and hopefully it will just get better from here.  The end of the term is always tough, even for the healthy, and I always get to the end wondering how I got here in one piece...

I have only one thing left to finish - a paper - and then I can sluff off for a few days.  Looking forward to being a slob for a bit, plus have some household chores to do for my mother.

I was supposed to have a bunch of tests yesterday, but the machine was broken so I got a stay on that.  Part of me was disappointed - I rushed through the end of semester to drive 7 hours to appointment - the other relieved.  I'll be able to do them in early June, so just a little while longer. 

Stay healthy, all, and focus on self care.  I'm convinced that the secret to health and happiness is good food and good sleep, and especially the latter.  Exercise is also great, no matter how little it seems.  I'm at loose ends without my daily walk, and now that the weather is finally nice, it is a real treat.

[anon4now]

Thanks so much, everyone.  One thing I just realized again, somethign I always forget, is how stressful hospitalizations are; how I have to come home and recover from what was supposed to be a healing experience...back to bed now... Usually my thoughts on this are, "well, I'll feel like cra* whether I am in bed or at the desk or doing errands--might as well keep living"; and usually that thought works and helps me take mind off pain and put it on other things, meanwhile getting stuff done; but today there is just no way around the disease but through. So through I go. Will try to do mental work while lying in bed; planning, imagining, jotting brief notes of what to do when well-er.
Hope we all sleep well, eat well, keep steady. I appreciate youze guyz and your encouragement a whole lot.

[gourmetless]

One thing I have done is get a large pillow that allows to sit up comfortably while in bed.  I end up grading while resting, and it makes my body feel so much better.

Just a thought I had.