Friday, November 04, 2011

Anybody home?

15 comments:

  1. DEAN is First!

    listener, people who spit up most of what they eat *do not* take food to eat on trips.

    Gosh, puddle, I thought the reason you were pureeing everything is that you could then keep most of it down! I didn't know it's mostly still coming up. That gives me much concern. It's a really good thing your treatment is moving forward. I hope the procedure does more than test, but actually brings you some relief.

    =HUGS=

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  2. Oops! Didn't mean for that to sound harsh -- I was laughing as I wrote it. More *is* staying down than is coming back up.
    But pretty much everything they do is to "improve" the beginning position. No hope of ever getting back to *normal*. . . .

    This is from an article about esophageal strictures (of all types):
    She points out that patients usually do not experience symptoms of dysphagia until their stricture diameter is 13 mm or less. “The normal esophageal diameter should be two to three centimeters, so they can have quite a stricture before they're symptomatic.”


    Info:
    3 centimeters = 1.18110236 inches
    3 centimeters = 30 millimeters

    Mine was, before the endoscopy, about 5mm. Asked her yesterday how much they'd dilated during the endscopy: 15mm. . . And clearly has been shrinking since. I did myself the most damage when I quit smoking for six days. Which seemed to return me to pre-procedure situation. (Nicotine is *good* for Achalasia, lol!) I've regained most of that since I started again. The quiting is going to have to wait till the rest gets fixed -- not going to risk it again.

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  3. There are nicotine patches (or chewing gum) that will give you the nicotine without all the tars and particulates that cause so many problems in the lungs. I've been writing a lot about COPD lately.

    The patches are sold as aids to quitting, but there's nothing that says you can't use them permanently.

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  4. Can't use patches = I'm allergic to the adhesive, lol! There's gum and there's also lozenges, both of which I've used. Catch: they cost twice to three times what smoking does. I think partly because some insurance will pay for them. Welbutrin, generic, costs about $60/month (or did when I was using it); Zyban, which is *exactly* the same medicine, same dose, etc., but used exclusively for quitting smoking costs $120/month.

    It's almost been amusing to watch the doctors be so disappointed that they can't find that smoking is in any way damaging my health (although it likely is). I get the sense they'd be greatly relieved (and triumphant) if I showed up with cancer, COPD, Emphysema or some such.

    While back, the cigarette companies came up with a smokeless cigarette: basically, a cotton wad soaked in nicotine and a paper tube. Packaged 20 to a pack, and costing the same as real cigarettes. Pharma fought it tooth and toenail because THEY had the same product, packaged at five or ten per prescription, and costing about $40 per fill. . . . My friend who worked in a pharmacy said everyone they filled the prescription for quit. But lay you odds, they had insurance, which I didn't.

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  5. Smoking is also just about a topical application of the medication, in your case. But I'll sure be glad when you have enough relief by other means to quit and stay quitted.

    No worries about your earlier presentation. It simply made me understand better what you've been dealing with. Being one who does NOT do nausea and barfing well, I am all the more amazed at your pluck in working out excellent recipes!

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  6. Funny thing about this is NO nausea, and it's certainly not vomiting. I tend to think of it and describe it to doctors as "back swallowing". . . . (May be that "reverse swallowing" would describe it better.) But it DOES redeliver what you've just eaten very effectively, lol! REswallowing doesn't work, either. The ONE good thing about it is that since nothing gets to the stomach there's NO acid involved. Which seems to be what the docs don't really understand. GERD is such a big problem for so many today, they can't seem to sidle away from it. . . .

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  7. Good news.

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  8. I heard about that smokeless cigarette. What most people don't realize is just how much it costs to prove a drug is actually safe and effective. The cigarette companies were trying to slide around that. And if they'd done the required research, the cigarette would have ended up costing as much as the other nicotine delivery methods.

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  9. Just found out on Facebook that my father-in-law was attacked and is in the hospital. I'm speechless.

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  10. Oh, my! If it's not one thing it's another.

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  11. Nooo! What injuries?! Is he going to be okay? Please tell Demetrius I am holding him and his dad in the Light. Sooo sad to hear this!!! =HUGS=

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  12. (What a way to find out!)

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  13. Yeah. It was in the middle of "family time" (where the kids have to sit in the room with both of us and we watch something or play a game or whatever.) Normally, I don't do anything on the computer at that time, but I slept most of the day after my (8 a.m.) class, and knew I'd be ready to sleep pretty soon. I still wanted to finish a movie I was watching with Demetrius. Anyway, I just happened to be on Facebook when I saw this update from Demetrius brother, Carlando...

    "Just found out my father was attacked last night in Roseland and he's in Christ Hospital awaiting surgery. :-("

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  14. Unholy Moly!! Just disgusted that this happened and so relieved he'll be okay!!!

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