Roxie:

Something flew out of your closet??

I would have died!! It would have been over for me!!!!

I am phobic about two things in life and they are Dentists and Bugs. ESPECIALLY BIG BUGS.

Now I have a nice phobia guy who is my dentist. But I doubt I'll be meeting a bug guy any time soon.

Oh, you'll love this. Last month, Alan and I were in Kings Plaza Mall, and lo and behold, what do we see but an exhibition of Dead Bugs!!!! In the Mall. Hanging on plaques. FOR SALE!!!

I could not believe my eyes. Nor could my eyes believe the size of these things. I asked the guy where he got them from and he answered (and I kid you not), or we grow them!!!" And I couldn't help myself, I said "For god's sake why would you do such a thing". and he looked dead serious and he said "oh for learning purposes". I took one look at the 10 inch dead thing on the plaque (behind some sort of plexiglass) and I kept thinking "why would anyone want to study these things?" I know, they are called entomologists and god love them but really. UGH, and double UGH!!!!

You should have seen my husband's face when I made him look at something called a Stick Creature, It looks like a branch of a tree only it's real!! Like 12 inches long. This guy was charging from $35.00 to $100... FOR BUGS!!!!

He should have come in my bathroom!!!!

mel

Dalak,
I have learned a lot already and enjoying talking with all of you who know what I'm going through.
It does feel good to know what I 'have' even tho now I'm on the long road to getting it all figured out! Roxie

Oops mispelled your profile name Dahlek........at first I thought your name came from Dr. Who.....but that name is Delak if I remember right. Any Dr. Who fans out there??

I wouldn't want to see BIG bugs dead or alive! LOL Those things are nothing short of nasty!
Mike and I were at an Antique store over the weekend and they had BIG bugs in glass picture frames! They were HUGE and I told Mike "why would anyone want to put them in picture frames!?" Neither of us are bug lovers so we moved on quickly....only wanted a quick glance at all those bugs and they were $40 and up per frame!
I'm from Nebraska.....we don't have big bugs up there.....if they can't survive the cold winters they die! LOL

You will laugh your head off !!!!
 

I really believe that when we laugh, our endorphins kick in and boy did they kick in last night. I told Alan I'm communicating with you on this board and we are talking about bugs, I told him about the thing that flew out of your closet. The look on his face was priceless.

Then Alan and I were talking about the bug guy in Kings Plaza with all the LARGE dead bugs behind the glass.

Alan says to me "but honestly, Melody, what would you do if I bought one of those things home and put it on the wall". I said "I'd have you committed"

Alan then shook his head and said "do you think anyone actually bought one of those things?" I mean there was some kind of centipede that was 2 feet long. He was selling it for $100.00 Now who buys centipedes and keeps them in a display case?. For what purpose??

We laughed so hard over this, I noticed my feet had stopped burning. I said "Alan, my feet have stopped burning" and he said "yeah, it's the endorphins that kick in when we laugh"

I really hav to laugh more. It feels really good.

Melody

P.S. at 7 a.m. this morning, I go out to get the paper in front of my door. There are hundreds of ants on my steps. I went nuts. went inside and got the bottle of bleach. I don't want to see an ant, a waterbug, A FLY!!!!
Ugh. I hate summer. Especially what this crazy weather is doing to our neuropathy. One minute the weather decides to be sunny, then in 30 seconds, the rain clouds come and go. It's like my poor feet don't know which end is up. Alan just opened the door and said "what the hell is up with the weather?" I said "why"? and he goes "I need a jacket, it's cold outside".

Holy Moly. Global warming maybe???

Good Morning.....opps Almost afternoon!
That's harlarious about the you and Alan laughing so hard! LOL
We had sugar ants when we first moved over here and they were EVERYwhere! I sprayed and sprayed and got the ant traps. Every time we got a plate or glass we had to rewash it because there'd be ants on it! YUK!
Well I had a bad experience this morning at the clinic where I was suppose to get a pelvic Cat Scan. I had to drink the barrium and sit there for an hr before they started the test. Then the Lab tech put the IV in my arm so she could run the Iodine in me.....well I've had this done before and I know the procedure pretty well.....It hurt like hell when she put the needle in.....and missed the vein the first time.....then the 2nd time she said she got it in ok....but it was still really hurting, and I told her that. She flushed the line with saline and said it was ok....and that I should be tasting the Iodine in my mouth.....well I didn't....so I knew something was wrong. She'd started the machine and it made a few passes over me and by then my arm was feeling tight and hurting like crazy! So I yelled at her to come look at the IV, so she did. She said "oh the Iodine has infiltrated"..I'm thinking 'wonderful!' So she runs to get her boss and she comes back saying "we have to get the IV out and put heat packs on her arm right away!" So that's what they did. Taking the IV out was painful too! Now I have Iodine in my arm and it's swollen twice it's size!! They told me to keep heat on it all day today and by tomorrow the swelling should go down but it'll look really ugly and bruised. What a morning!!!!!! I'm totally wiped out. This lab is on the other side of Houston so I had a long drive home with a swollen arm! Has this ever happened to you?? I hope it doesn't cause any long term effect. I'm not having the test done again...I'm done with tests....except for a mamogram that I have to do next week......that's it! :( I have had SOOOOO many tests done in the past 3 months.....I feel like a pin cushion and tired of being poked and prodden! UGH!!!!! Do you ever feel like that?? Do you have to take insulin shots for your diabetes? I feel for you if you have to.....I just hate needles with a passion! I think that comes from when I was a little kid and I was always sick with ear infection and throat infection all the time. Our old time dr. always gave me a shot of penicillin in the butt and I'd fight like a wild cat trying not to get the shot. It would take the whole office staff and my mom to come in and hold me down to get the shot....and I still have that fear. Crazy huh?
Well I think I'm going to take a nap now and rest my swollen arm........Take care girl! Hope you are having a fun day! Roxie

HI Shiney Sue! Are you from TX? or been to TX? I'm in Houston and yep it's super hot here now.....it's summer even tho summer hasn't arrived yet officially. We are hoping for rain because it's very dry here. I have to cart water out to my flower gardens every other day so they don't die. Are you a 'flower person'? I love them and love growing cactus. I built a cactus garden in our front yard last summer and it's doing great this year.
Anyway....just thought I'd pop in and say hi! Roxie

Oh you poor thing, with your swollen arms. I had lots of blood tests and the veins would collapse and I'd be black and blue and swollen for weeks. But eventually it goes away.

And yes, I take an injection every morning of Lantus. I could do it in my sleep. It is absolutely nothing. Don't even feel it. An insulin syringe is a very small thin needle. I don't feel it when it goes in.

I'm doing this over 2 years now. Do you believe I have given myself over 725 insulin shots already. Jeez. Never thought of it that way!!! lol


It's really no big thing. As long as my sugar is under control, my mind says to itself "maybe someday, no more insulin" That's how I think.

And I take my B-12 methyl every single day.

Today was a crazy weather day so my feet burned. I just laid down and imagined myself in a snowbank.

So imagine yourself on the beach and you'll feel better in no time.

Take care,
Melody

HI! Yep still have a swollen arm here. I've been keeping a heat pack on it and have it elevated......but nothing has helped yet. It's not purple or anything but the nurse said it will be. UGH!
WOW that's a lot of insulin shots! I hope I never have to do those....gosh I'd cringe!
I hope the snow pile helped your burning feet. That must be awful when they burn. I dated a guy a few years ago who was diabetic and he had the burning feet.
A funny thing happened here today. We bought a bird feeder for outside our office window.....so we could watch the birds eat. Well we feed squirrels twice a day here (we are up to 20 now! I'm sure they are telling their friends and relatives where the good food is! LOL) So anyway....everytime we fill the feeder the squirrels will shimmy down the wire and hang on to the feeder and eat it all! So this morning Mike said...I have an idea! So he put an old record album on top of the feeder.....so the squirrels wouldn't be able to get to the feeder. The food was in the feeder when I laid down for a nap after he left for work....but an hr later when I woke up......the food was completely gone, again! LOL I can hardly wait to tell Mike his 'idea' didn't work! lol It's back to the drawing board for the feeder! lol Roxie

Well, you will laugh when you hear what I figured out to do last night. I was not able to go to sleep. All I could think of was THAT THING in the bathroom.

So I got a small dish, filled it up with lots of coin (we have a big coin jar), then I took a paper towell, folded it in half, put it over the bathtub drain, sprayed it with a bit of bug stuff, (never touching it), and then I clamped the dish of coins tightly over it.

Did the same with the bathroom sink. I mean, if I needed to use the sink, I'd just remove the dish with coins and use the sink, then it was quickly returned back. So the two drains in my bathroom were now covered up. Did that last night.

You should have heard Alan when he went into the bathroom!!!! I heard 'what the??????" I said "rather ingenious, don't you think"???

So when he got up to shower, he just removed the dish and when he finished he put it back.

Now all drains in house are covered up like that. I'll be doing this until winter.

I know me. When I'm fixated on fixing a problem, the problem gets fixed.

So, in two weeks, I killed the Grandpa, and the papa waterbug!!!

There better not be any Mama coming to town!!!

lol Melody

dont forget the overflow plate in the bathtub and the sink

Hey! Brilliant idea! You are truly death on this creatures! LOL They won't come to your house anymore! You are one mean mama!! LOL I say what ever it takes to keep those yukky things outside!
I've been sitting here with my arm in the air.....it's still swollen! If it looks like this in the morning I'm going to call the Diagnositic center again and *****! My insurance told me to get a copy of the report of the incidence....so will do that tomorrow. Anyway, we've been watching the 2 hr special of "Last Comic Standing", we love that show! Lots of great comics on there!
I hope you have a great evening Mel! Take care......love hearing from you! Roxie

It's amazing how those nasty critters can get in the smallest cracks and crevices!
Years ago I lived in an old farm house in Nebraska. It has lots of tiny cracks in the walls and mice would squeeze thru them.....gosh I hated mice!! I took lids from vegetable cans and nailed them over all the holes I could find! And got some cats and put out mouse traps. I really cut down on those critters in the house! Still gives me the willey's to think of them! Roxie

To HEYJOE::

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

I never thought of the overflow thing in the bathroom sink. I never even see it because it's never in my line of site, it's in the bottom front of the bathroom sink and if I didn't read your post, I never would have thought of that!!! Bless you!

I just sprayed in there and will tape it up. See, we never fill the sink with water, so we have no need for the overflow thing.

What would I do without you people???

Oh, now we are talking about mice.

Years ago, when I was 25 or so, and in my own apartment (by the way, I had never seen a live mouse in my life. I was in the bathroom which faced my hallway closet. I noticed something moving in the closet. Do you think I said "melody, there's something in your closet??" Of course not, My brain went into full denial mode.

Well, one morning, I opened up my front door (which led to a little foyer), and there, sitting all nice and comfy was this mouse.

Now imagine little old neurotic me, who hates bugs and dentists, and here I am staring down a creature the size of my thumb. Not only did I scream my head off, I took the broom and started banging him. He ran into a hole in the wall. I immediately got some steel wool or something and plugged the hole. That did it for that mouse. I didn't know there was another mouse in my house. I went out and bought mouse traps. I was told to put various stuff in the mouse traps, either peanut butter or bacon.

I came home from work. I put out the mouse traps behind the couch and went to bed. Well, around 3 oclock in the morning, I hear BAM!!! and you know what that sound meant, right??? I had caught the mouse.

Now how can a 25 year old young woman, who has never seen a mouse, (I was without a boyfriend at the time), how am I supposed to go and get rid of this dead mouse (he wasn't dead by the way).

I gingerly looked behind the couch and there he was, on top of the mouse trap. I said outloud AHA!!! gotcha!!! Well, I didn't GOTCHA!!! Now this was 3 a.m. and I had a landlord who was a baker and got up at 3 a.m..

All this happened in the space of 5 minutes. I bent down to retreive the dead mouse who I thought was caught in the trap. He jumps up at me and lands on my lazyboy recliner. Now imagine me seeing this, screaming my head off and the mouse is squealing. All I heard was one Squeal and I let out a scream that could have been heard around the globe.

My landlord comes running down and I led him in. I'm screaming, he thought I had a burglar and he's saying "where is he?, where is he?" and he goes to check my back door to the backyard. I said "I have a mouse'. He burst out laughing and said "okay, calm down, I'll have the exterminator tomorrow".

I did not get a bit of sleep, had circles under my eyes and had to go to work.

My boss thought I lost my mind. I thought I lost my mind. Over a mouse yet??

But the best was when my landlord's wife came down and said to me: "what's the big deal, we used to have a mouse that came out of the hole, and he would watch television with us". I looked at her as if she had bats in her belfry. Not the brightest bulb on the block.

The exterminator came and threw down these brick looking things and he said the mice would eat them and die. I never found another mouse and if I did, I would have probably died.

Why didn't I just get a boyfriend back then?? Would have been extremely useful!!!

Mice, waterbugs, anything that flies and crawls....UGH!!!!

Mel,
My ex husband set up to some type of poison for the mice to eat at our house in Nebraska. It did slow them down. One night I got up in the night to find a snack and was walking thru the kitchen and 'crunch', stepped on something I thought sounded like a cheetos snack. So I get to the other side of the kitchen to turn on the light.....and turned around to see what I'd stepped on.....about died right there on that spot! I screamed SO loud it's a wonder I didn't wake the neighborhood! It was a dead mouse! It looked as though he'd been dead quite a while......but he wasn't there when we'd gone to bed. So I'm figuring the cat had him stored somewhere in the house and brought him out to 'play' during the night! I couldn't believe I'd stepped on a 'crunchy' mouse with my bare feet! To this day it just grosses me out to think about it!
Well on a lighter note......my arm is almost back to reg. size now.....thank Goodness!! I've decided that I'm not going back to have that test done again by that young lab tech! She can poke someone else's arm and blow out their veins!
How are you doing tonight?? We're getting quite a thunderstorm right now...and we need the rain so I'm not complaining! I'm happy that I won't have to drag the hose out to water the plants tomorrow....YEAH!!!! Roxie

Oh, I'm good. And I'm glad your arm is going down.

For dinner tonight, I made Honey Chicken Teriyaki and sweet potato for Alan. I cannot understand why this man likes Sweet Potatoes. I can't stand them.

And he puts honey on them. Ugh.

Mel

P.S. No more mice. Just the thought of you "crunching them". jeez

LOL I can't say anything bad about sweet potatoes......I like them too.....but my husband hates them. He hates pumpkin too.......and I can't understand that! LOL You are a good wife to make him sweet potatoes though! You can come here and make Honey Chicken Teriyaki anytime though! Dang that sure does sound good! Would you share your recipe?? Thanks! Roxie

Sure, no problem.

Take boneless and skinless chicken cutlets. All fat removed.

Put them in a bowl, and add low-sodium teriyaki sauce, (just a little bit), just to change the color. Because even the low-sodium style has some sodium. But if you are not on a sodium reduced diet, then use a bit more. To this, I add a tablespoon of honey, some miced fresh parsley and a dash of worcester sauce. I also add a bit of minced garlic and a dash of freshly ground pepper. Mix all together and put in fridge for a few hours. So it marinates.

Then about twenty minutes before dinner time, I take out the frying pan and spray it with PAM. Then I add one tablespoon of Extra virgin olive oil.

When the pan gets hot, I layer the chicken. As each sides get nice and brown, I flip it over. The color is really great and it looks mouth-watering.

As the chicken is cooking, the juices come out and it gets moist but it turns a nice dark color. Looks like it's grilled but you did it in a frying pan.

Takes about 15 minutes. I microwave the sweet potato. After it's cooked, I split it and put on the honey.

Earlier, I made the veggie patties.

So I put it all on the plate. Alan goes nuts!!!

It's really yummy!!

And you must taste the samon I made for lunch. Glory Be.
Do you like salmon??

Mel

Roxie
 

Roxie,
Did you see the long post Liza Jane posted you a few days ago? She asked some questions and I was curious about the answers because I hadn't heard of Neuropathy Myopathy before. Can you tell us what it is?

Billye

HI Silverlady,
Gosh I'm sorry I must have missed the question.....Well all I know is.......I had a muscle/nerve biopsy and when the results came back my dr. said I have neuropathy myopathy. Here's what the biopsy report said:
1. Left peroneus brivis skeletal muscle biopsy:
-Neurogenic musclular atrophy
2. Left sural nerve biopsy:
-Mild loss of unmyelinated fibers
-Changes suggestive of mild axonal degeneration
3. Fascia, biopsy:
-Dense fibrous tissue, consistent with fascia, and attached fibroadipose tissue with no pathological diagnosis.
I guess you can make more sense of this than I can! lol Roxie

Roxxy,

Let us know how your hypnosis sessions go.

Rick

HI Rick!
I will! I'm excited about it.......tho I've always wondered if I could actually be hypnotized. I'm kinda scared. I hope it helps me with my pain. I take Lyrica but it doesn't cover the pain totally. :( Roxie

Mel,
Thanks for the yummy recipe! I might try making it this weekend. We eat lots of chicken here so we love finding new ways to cook it. Roxie

Not much more Roxie,
 

But some of the others will. I've just never heard of Neuropathy Myopathy and I can't find anything in Google about it.

It does look like you have some Axonal Neuropathy. I'm hoping Liza Jane sees this post of yours or GlennT. They will understand.

Billye

Good Morning Silverlady,
I too haven't been able to find out much about "Neuropathy Myopathy" so am going to talk to my Rheumatologist about it on my next appt.
My insuance has turned me down for the IV injections, tho I can put in an appeal for them. Seems like it's one thing after another with health issues!
Hope you are having a great day......and not getting the heavy rain here in Texas. There was some major flooding just a few miles from us last night, luckily we didn't get the brunt of that! Roxie

I think I mentioned this before--
 

--in another post that Roxie made, but "neuropathy" and "myopathy" are two seperate categories. The first refers to problems with nerves, the second to problems with muscle. The biopsy that Roxie had undoubtedly found pathology with both--something that is not uncommon with certain autoimmune diseases, toxic exposures, and vitamin/mineral deficiencies. There are also some infectious agents, such as Lyme, that can damage both types of tissues.

Given the long list of conditions she lists, and the fact that she had gastric bypass surgery, I'm wondering to what extent this may be due to nutrient deficiency and/or some ongoing autoimmune process.

It would be very good to go over the charts at www.lizajane.org and check out what tests have been done and what may still need to be done--while the charts were designed to be comprehensive as to causes of nerve damage, they're actually quite useful as work-ups across a wide variety of medical conditions (since neuropathy can be a symptom of so many medical pathologies).

HI Glenntaj!
I have wondered if my problem is autoimmune since I also have Interstatial Cystitis which many believe to be autoimmune.
I have had many tests, and have looked at lizajane's site...but I don't know the exact tests my dr. has done on me. I've had many MRI's, Cat Scan's, X-ray's and LOTS of blood work....and then the muscle nerve biopsy. I'm thinking about printing off Lizajanes charts and taking them to my dr. to see if he'll just mark off what I'm had done so far. He's Always in such a rush when he sees me I'm not sure he's take the time to do that or not. I do know that my Carnitine level was low in the begining of all this and I'm now taking Carnitine supplements and it's back up with in range. Roxie

Roxie,

If you don't already, I hope you will always get and keep copies of your test results.

rose

Rose, I have copies of most of my tests.....the MRI's and biopsy and blood work. Roxie