How are you? Really. [8]?

Pretty good, although I came down with a cold early yesterday morning, and have been slamming Zinc and Vitamin C ever since.

But I am generally healthy for a man my age. I am employed at a good job. I have two kids who bring me much joy. I have a girlfriend who I love very much and she loves me.

@zenvelo That’s good to hear.

I am pretty good despite being disabled 14 years. A few bumps recently along the way but although my pride is wounded I think I am taking it like a man. This summer, I fell off my lawnmower a couple of times and the Doctor has grounded me from grass cutting; something I’ve loved since my youth. That included power equipment such as weed whacking, hedge trimming, edging, and snow blowing. All of this can be farmed out, but it was something of a kick to the groin. I still drive short distances and will continue despite any doctor’s recommendations.

Our home is larger than we need, and our son is graduated from college. Mama and I are in our early empty nest years. She can’t retire for another 15 years or so. I enjoy my time alone, but do get lonely sometimes. I’ve found some other friends who are freshly retired so we go on adventures every other week for Lunch. It’s pretty OK being retired.

@majorrich Thank you so much for sharing with us. We’re glad to know you’re coping with your new restrictions. That’s not fun. I know. I understand loneliness very well. It’s difficult being home alone all day. I found joy volunteering at the library. It was good to get out and work with people for a few hours each week. It helped me.

Meh. Today is the anniversary of my mother’s death. 5 years.

Sending you a hug @tinyfaery. I know how that feels.

Well I’m feeling a bit mixed. I’ve reached a natural break in a very busy period at work, so I’m going to take the weekend off and my husband have planned a night away. I’m really looking forward to just doing nothing for 48 hours. However, my dogs are very old so I feel a bit guilty about leaving them. They hate it when we go away (and we’re going to stay in a hotel overnight). However, our wedding anniversary was messed up because of work, I had toothache and just bad planning on our part, so we want to have a second go and just have some fun.

On top of that, my toothache is back. I had a temporary filling put in and I need to have root canal work, but it started causing me pain late this week and I went back to the docs last week and they did another temporary filling and told me to get the root canal done next week. So now I’m in pain again, smell of oil of cloves and I’m a bit cranky. I hate toothache!

Thank you for asking @Hawaii_Jake. A hug for you for being such a big-hearted man.

@tinyfaery ((hugs))

@Earthbound_Misfit I hate it when I get a toothache. It’s the worst. I hope you can feel better very soon.

Fine. But that answer is of course both relative and temporary. Hope for the best. Expect the worst.

@stanleybmanly Be prepared. Were you a boy scout?

Yes back in the days of wooden toys and rotary telephones.

I’m eating better. I get 14 hours of good nightmare less sleep every day. I’m happy that my credit score is 771/850. The doctor says that I am improving.

Well, I died tomorrow and it is really quite inconvenient.

Currently, I’m feeling pretty good. It’s been a nice day so far. I found one of my favorite sweatshirts that I’ve been missing for several months and my phone is working well. Gonna go for a night drive in town tonight, should be fun.

Buuuut…the worries I have about my future are always in the back of my mind. I’m scared. Next September I’ll be living on my own for the first time in my whole life. I have no idea where to go or what to do. My sister is my best friend and I probably won’t see her every single day like I usually do. My dog is getting old, it’s probably only a matter of a year or two before she dies.
This isnt one of my major worries but I had thought for some time that my ex-boyfriend and I might get back together eventually but this is my last year of high school so I’m guessing I won’t see him again after I graduate.

This is a great question, thanks for asking how we all are.

@RedDeerGuy1 Sleep is important. I’m glad you’re getting a lot of it, and there are no nightmares.

@ragingloli So sad.

@CunningFox Thank you so much for sharing with us. I hope you can learn to love the present and not worry about the future.

Doing great! Very involved with my Unitarian meeting house which is a good center for me, painting is going well, and work is part time and not intrusive. Relationship with my sons is great after a rocky time with one of them. Having fun being the official groupie for my friend’s band and having fun hanging out with him at gigs. Enough money to feel secure.

@janbb Thank you for sharing your good news. We like to hear it.

It’s neither the best of times nor the worst, but it is the most compressed of times, and I’m finding that really odd. The pace of things is relentless right now, and I’m involved with people and projects that I absolutely do not need, but somehow cannot say no to. (Actually I did say no a number of times, but I only had to relent once.)

Separately, work is good, but I was promoted to near the limit of my ability, so I am constantly playing catch up.

I recently moved back into my house after renting it out for 8 years, and it is in need of repairs. My distractions above are putting any progress on the back burner.

I pretty much need to watch my eating like a hawk in order to not gain, but I’ve been off the rails for months. Again, I can’t give it my attention because my time is spoken for for another couple of weeks.

All that said, what is different now from a few years ago Is my resilience. I seem to be unflappable and can just grit through it all and not worry too much about anything. I credit my meditation practice, which is so habitual now that it’s probably the most frequent thing I do all day.

Eh, my marketplace insurance got effed up and so I’ve been off my high blood pressure meds for a few weeks – that doesn’t feel so great.

I’m as blue as blood before the blood turns red. (Quote stolen from Lady Lamb the Beekeeper)

I am trying to write a book and get it published. Wish me luck.

I’m as happy & content as a pig in shit.

I’m OK. I’m on antibiotics for an infected tooth, and just came to a dead end in the saga of Seek vs. The Mystery Joint Pain. I’ll go answerless until I can find a doctor that gives a crap.

I am excited about the coming Thanksgiving holidays. This weekend we’ll visit my husband’s grandmother, and next weekend we’ll have friends’ Nopesgiving and our family Thanksgiving dinner.

And I will be able to get the desired holiday gifts for my kid.

I’m uncharasterically looking forward to the winter holidays this year.

Two days after Christmas I’ll turn 30. That’s a weird feeling.

I’m feeling pretty crappy right now. I don’t know if it’s the fact that it’s snowing outside or I’m just hitting a low mood. I got started on a new medicine but it will take a few weeks to see if it starts to work. I shouldn’t feel bad though, fall break just started today, and after that I have 15 days of public high school left because I’m leaving early and doing the rest online.

I’m pretty ok. Only problem is sleeping next to my husband. He likes it when I go to bed next to him but lately I don’t want to sleep in the same bed. I have a hard enough time going to bed before 3 as it is and his jerking movements as he sleeps keeps waking me up. He’s either snoring or making the bed move. Last night, I spent 2 hours in bed waiting for sleep to claim me again. Everytime I started to doze off his arm or leg would jerk and move the bed or tap me. It was so frustrating. I would’ve stormed out but I was too tired. When I fall asleep on the couch, I blame the tv because I don’t want to hurt his feelings. As for the snoring, I happily hurt his feelings because if he rinses his sinuses before bed time, he doesn’t snore. But he still gets that wounded look, even though he could help that. I just want some proper sleep. When my sleep is interrupted several times during the night, I’ll get a bunch of crappy dreams and wake up irritated. I do still get 7–8 hours sleep. But if it was 11 to 7 or 12 to 8, I would feel much better during the day.

But I’m actually pretty good about everything else. Even though the world is getting crappier I couldn’t help but get a strange feeling that things are going to change in a major way, but in a good way. I can’t explain it. I had this feeling as I listened to the horrible news in Paris. It was like a quiet peaceful feeling. I think seeing the Parisians come together and decide to battle terrorist with love just confirmed to me that the feeling was right.

I wish I knew how my wife puts up with my snoring. Apparently its pretty epic. We had it checked out at the sleep clinic and it seems to be mechanical rather than apnea. So I snore even when I sleep on my belly. I will try the neti pot thing, maybe that will help. I found sleeping with sleep phones keeps me from going to deeply asleep and it reduces my snoring.

I have terrible nightmares due to PTSD. I accidentally struck her whilst thrashing around one night. I felt awful.

Bless you for putting up with a roaring bear like me.

I’ll be happy when my husband can get answers for his health problems and at least get some relief from the daily pain he deals with.

I’m looking forward to having him home for four days over Thanksgiving. He really needs the rest.

@majorrich, do try the sinus rinses. It may take a few days before it helps if you have your sinuses swollen, but it does help. At least it should minimize the snoring if nothing else. He also takes zertec daily. He uses NeilMed Sinus rinse packets and you can purchase the NeilMed Sinus Rinse bottle that is like a squeeze bottle. Which is great because you can force the water up your nose instead of having to hold your head back and feel like your drowning yourself. LOL He did it twice a day at first but now he only needs to do it once.

Has anyone noticed that LadyInRed has been “crafting a response” for some 20 hours ? Such things always set me to wondering if someday I will be discovered dead somewhere intriguing, say on the toilet with the cell phone on the tiles suspended at fluther.

@stanleybmanly LOL. I’ve done that. Got interrupted mid thought and hours later, I will come back and forget what I was typing and then sign off. Usually happens around dinner time.

Yeah, I do that a lot, too. Get distracted mid-response then wander off, go shopping, do the laundry, come back the next day and say “Whoops!”

Since you asked here it is…When I graduated college 30 years ago I set achieve a certain income by the time I was 50 and I hit that goal and then some and I never expected any of it to turn out this way in the least. That said, 5 years ago, I was offered the opportunity to buy the company I was working for and jumped on it. Just imagine that opportunity being akin to grabbing the dorsal fin of a hammerhead shark and going for a ride. So far things there were going great until I got a call from a competitor back in May that someone was taking material out the back door and selling it on the street for cash. Long story short it turned out to be my partner and I finally caught him red handed and had to fire him in July. Since then it has been a legal nightmare but once it is settled I will own 95% of the company and now have 100% control and things at work have never been better and we are on a record pace this year.

A year ago we purchased a dream lake front house in Wisconsin that is only 90 mins from where I live and is simply heaven on earth.

The wife and kids are doing great and appear healthy and happy, the dawg is sleeping on her bed with the sun beaming through the window. I still play my guitar every day…occasionally the piano, taking pottery lessons and absolutely love to cook. Right now staring out the window at 10” of snow thanking God for my life and praying for good health for all of us.

I have a good job, my health (although I fell off the weight loss bandwagon and need to get back on), am financially secure and independent, but far from rich. I describe my financial situation as “if I want something, I can buy it.”

My job is political, so if my boss doesn’t get re-elected in a year and a half I’ll keep the job but go to another position. The job itself is easy but there’s a lot of bickering among the players, which is disheartening.

I bought a new Honda CRV about six months ago and it just got its second oil change yesterday. I drive a lot. It has about 19k miles on it already (it takes synthetic oil so it doesn’t need oil changes as often as a car that takes regular oil).

A little blip lately, my daughter’s best friend is now in a different classroom and got a new best friend, to the point where they exclude my daughter. It caused some heartache for my daughter, and you know no parent wants to see their kid upset. This too shall pass. She’s 8 and this is what happens with kids. I’m friends with the girl’s mother, so it used to be like us moms would hang and the daughters would hang, but now I don’t think that’s going to happen too often.

I don’t believe the holidays and winter are right around the corner. Santa bought all that Santa needs to buy, but I need to get cracking with the other gifts. My daughter has 3 teachers that I need to get gifts for, and I have some ideas but they require time (the idea is a basket with real maple syrup, pancake mix and jelly or hot chocolate mix). That’s very ambitious, and it’s just as likely I’ll go out to the department stores and happen upon something wonderful on a shelf. I get these big ideas but reality hits haha.

After Christmas, we’re taking a little trip to Boston (about 3–4 hours away) for a few days. We’ll see The Nutcracker at the Boston Ballet and we’ll enjoy walking around and hanging out. It’s a great city (I’ve been there many times) and I know we’ll see lots of Christmas decorations.

I have a bad cold right now so it’s been affecting my sleep. Up for many hours in the night, back to sleep at sunup. I have a great neighbor who is a professional cook and she just gave me some applesauce that she made.

I’m horrible. Absolutely horrible. I’ve been manic for weeks now with very little respite. I started hallucinating last week. And they started up again today. I started having suicidal thoughts today and that can wipe anyone out.

I haven’t called my doctor yet because I don’t want to be on anti-psychotics again! I also wanted to deal with it myself. But if I don’t want to land in a psych ward I need to call my doctor.

Very little hope or light right now. But I’ll make it. I always do.

I have a mental illness, too. I understand. I suggest you call your doctor today.

I’m quite upset and depressed and I should be. As many of you know, my s/o jumped up from a bed after his thyroid removal and broke his femur. He has no memory of this but he obviously wasn’t being watched every second . If i had been allowed up there this would not have happened and he’d be walking. But now he’s on a scooter, a walker with a physical therapist briefly, and I am terrified he’ll fall in the shower. He’s saying he’s taking a shower today and I’m a nervous wreck. The first day he was home he turned the front wheel of the scooter too fast , it fell over and so did he, and he landed on the floor up against the wall, I screamed really loudly and called 911 . He continued to fall at night every other day for ten days ; paramedics came each time to pick him up. Now he has learned how to ride the scooter slowly and hasn’t fallen in two weeks. The mental picture of him lying down in the shower in pain is so horrible and stressful I need some kind of drug or my ulcer will begin bleeding again. I was in the hospital for three days in February with it. In no way would he ever wait on me hand and foot like this.

@Aster: Can your insurance or Medicare or Medicaid or whatever you have provide him with a personal care aide for a few hours per day, to help with bathing and stuff like that?

@jca yes; we have nurses and physical therapists several days a week paid for by Medicare and insurance. They say. The “bathing person” is off for 2 weeks.

@Aster: That’s bullshit. You should call the agency and tell them they need to send someone else. You can’t wait two weeks because someone is out.

Speak to the supervisor or Manager or owner if you have to. Write down the names and dates of people you spoke to.

You have to be demanding and advocate for yourself. Ask the people if they would like it if they couldn’t take a bath for two weeks. Tell them about the paramedics having to come. Speak up for yourself. Don’t take no for an answer.

The RN home health nurse just called. She’s coming out in 2 hours and might help him with a shower. But of course I would prefer a weightlifter! He’s a big guy!
I get tired of little ladies coming out here. I want huge, strong men!

It sounds like the scooter might not be the best solution for mobility, although they are much lighter and easier to disassemble and take to the store or whatnot. A motorized chair (the kind with the big wheel in the center) may be more stable and far less likely to capsize. The downside is they are very heavy. But they can be fitted better to elevate the broken femur, and have a much tighter turning radius. For me, I went with the scooter because I was always out at the Scout Camp or doing stuff that required me to transport it.

He has, at this point, no desire to go anywhere and neither one of us could ever lift this electric scooter.
I do the grocery shopping and neither one would consider the mall. I think that, eventually, he’ll want to visit a restaurant. I try not to think about it. This femur he broke was , in my opinion, fractured many times but he didn’t complain of pain. When he’d step out of the golf cart onto the left leg it began hurting. The next year he began falling and fell three or four times. Then in September was when he lept up from a hospital bed and it finally broke.
The scooter has only fallen once. There’s a dent in the wall. He learned to turn the handles very slowly as it has a tiny turning radius (or however you’d say it ).

Mine comes apart into 6 pieces and will fit into the trunk of only one of my cars. (Forget about the Miata, Ain’t happenin)

I’ll be happier when the next three weeks are done and dusted!