Hi guys ....

Why so much computer time. I’ve been self employed as a headhunter (recruiter) in industrial sales for 33 years. My knowledge base has always been on computer (since 1981).

My entire industry has been on the downfall for several years. Maybe as much as 70% of the people in my business have gone out of business in the last 5-6 years.

It hit me even harder since my target customer is a manufacturer of industrial products. With all the manufacturing being shipped out of the USA into the Asian countries .................

Four years ago - right after I got the unexpected dump (long time wife) I started to dig in for ........ one last stand. I began to do research on the oldest hardest hit of all American industry - metalworking. The entire metalworking (think machine shops and the items they use) is on the ropes ..... I chose that section of industrial because I personally like it.

The entire research project ended up taking me two years longer than expected - even with 18 hours a day - seven days a week. I now have at least some information on 73,000 companies.

I needed to go at this BIG TIME and serious. My plan is to become a big fish in a small pond. A pond that everyone in my business has given up on.

I’ve worked from a home office for over 20 years. Living alone plus my burning desire to make a comeback - against all odds has ......... kept me at it.

I’ve been saying this for two years now but ..... I am FINALLY ready to start working with all this information more as a job - more as 8-9-12 hours a day vs 18-20 hours a day. I have ALWAYS spent too much time on the computer working with my files but ..... for the last few years - there was nothing else for me but ....... work.

I doubt I have monitor problems - (these are those Apple [Mac guy and always have been Apple] high end flat monitors) are causing me any problems. I actually type less than people could imagine due to the fact I have thousands of scripts that help cut down on repetitive typing. I have no doubt that some of the minor pains I get in my hands sometimes have something to do with it but.

Just while ago I started think about potential dehydration. I am in a bad habit of drinking lots of coffee - little water - and 5 or so large (14oz) cups of coffee - and I wiz a lot. The first two (large cups) pot in the morning is 50/50 decaf - the rest is decaf - until recently it had risen to about 50/50 (because decaf cost so much more) but I am back to mostly decaf - which still has caffeine.

> could being somewhat dehydrated - or the over use of coffee cause some of these “hits” (something on my left hand goes numb bad bad numb) then recovers in about 10 minutes.

> could some milder forms of carpal tunnel - cause some of these hits?

I doubt it is PN related - but I was tested (the electronic EMC or what ever it is called) and told “yes you have PN and we have no reasons for it) that was a couple of years ago. My left side was worse than the right side. It has since been moving up my leg on the left side - ALL of the hits are on my left side - the bells palsy was also on my left side.

I turned 62 on the 10th and suppose to get my first SS check on Feb 20th.

Too young for medicare - have more than 995 dollars in assets - am a while male (the cause of all that is wrong in the world) and medicaid told me - NOPE NOPE NOPE. You have an old car and that is an asset - good bye.

I am mobile but I don’t leave the house very much. I put 1200 on my van in two years and maybe 1000 on my motorcycle in that two years. Not overweight - not diabetic - blood work seems normal to all etc. BP is not very high maybe 145 if I stopped the meds all together - 120/74 mostly with the small amount of meds I take. I keep my protein down to about 58g a day - calories about 2000 ( I track it all everyday on a database).

I am actually pretty healthy (minus the PN) - I walk good - exercise some (not enough) and yes - spend a lot of time on my business files.

On Dec 10 .... all of this stuff started hitting me. I have had at least four today - with the onset (strong onset) on numbness then it goes away. Two three times first finger left hand (all has been on the left) then my upper lip went totally numb (left side) recovered in about 10 minutes.

It is scaring the pants off of me. I know the first one was a REAL stroke/TIA - the now 7 - 10 since then I am not sure they are stroke/TIA.

It took nine hours for the first one to totally be gone - with 90% of it gone in 15 minutes.

All of them since the first one - are gone in 15 minutes. (so far at least).