Now I really did it :((

[junebug17]

Hi everyone!

Missy, I love those pics of Francesca, what a pretty and sweet thing she is! I think you're right, she's probably really wiped out from all she's been through these past few days. These kinds of things just seem to be really stressful for kitties. Hope she's doing ok and slowly getting back to normal. We ended up having a nice and relaxing day, unfortunately my husband's team lost so no Super Bowl for them lol. Then the poor guy had to leave for a business trip right after the game - not a good day for dh!

Ovi, hugs to you sweetie, so sorry to hear you are feeling sad about your mother leaving - it is really wonderful that you are so close to her and the two of you have such a strong bond. Relationships are complicated and it sounds like the love you feel for each other gets you through the times when things don't go quite so smoothly!

Calliecake, that's a shame that your shopping trip fell through! You were looking forward to it. I'm sorry you had such a bad day, I hope it wasn't anything super serious and you're feeling better and things are looking up a little. That whole episode of someone being in your house must have been so frightening! It had to have been the builder.

Kristie, good luck with the weight loss! I'm having a terrible time right now, my appetite seems to be out of control and I'm craving and eating bad stuff. I was doing pretty well there for a while and fell off the rails during the holidays. My dh is the same as Bob, he just watched what he eats for a week and loses 5 pounds!

Marcy, sounds like you had a good weekend! It must be hard with Marty traveling for such long periods of time. I hope he can come home sooner rather than later! My husband travels a lot too, although his trips aren't as long as Marty's. It's funny how you just kind of learn to adapt and make the best of things, isn't it? I'm glad you're able to keep yourself busy and do things you enjoy. And you always have us for company lol! Sounds like you are slowly but surely getting over being sick. Sometimes those coughs can linger for a long time.

LLJsmom, wow, I'm impressed with the lengths of your runs! Amazing! I'm with you on the rock-climbing, I think my knees would buckle and I'd end up falling off the darn wall, wouldn't that be attractive How exciting that your daughter is becoming a green belt! You must be so proud of her!

Take care all, have a good night and I'll see you mañana!

 

[missy]

Hi Missy! I follow your thread every few days and just wanted you to know how delighted I am that you've been released by your surgeon! I know it has been a long journey and you will probably still be progressing for quite a while but so glad that you are feeling better and contemplating returning to work. In the long days of summer, I know you thought this day would never come!

Congrats on your hard work and perseverance. I wish you the best and brightest for the New Year!!

Thank you so much MissGotRocks! I want you to know how much I appreciate your support and encouragement over these last 7 (can you believe it 7 months already!) months. Your posts were always comforting and encouraging and helped me persevere. For all of that thank you so much and thank you for continuing to check in on me.

I wish you and your family all the best as well and a very happy and healthy New Year!

 

[missy]

Marcy, how are you feeling this morning? Have you heard from Marty about when he might be back? I am sorry you didn't win the new iPad. That would have been sweet. I am thinking of getting an iPad (my very first!) but hesitating because while I know I will love it the question is how will it improve my current situation. That is will I use it over my macbook air or will it remain largely unused? Greg has been wanting to get me the iPad 2 air 64 GB but I have been dragging my heels. Also not sure if I should just get the wifi because I don't want to add another data charge to our monthly (and exorbitant IMO) bill. But when I return to work we don't have wifi so would not be able to use it there but then again I will not have time to use it at work anyway so I think getting the 4G might be a waste and if I get the iPad I should just go for the less expensive wifi option.

Did you watch any good movies yesterday? I don't know if you have this on your cable provider menu but we have categories we can search like best movies of 2014. golden globe winners, best dramas, etc so you can narrow your search and see what options you have for movie watching.

It's funny how you write you get bored easily but never have a lack of things to do...I am the same way. So many activities and enjoyable things to do but sometimes I am just so restless and cannot concentrate on anything. I know the loss of your parents is still fresh in your mind and sometimes the months seem like minutes. Biggest hugs to you Marcy and well you know I (and all the other girls here too of course) am always here for you.

That was nice of you to let the builders give those people a tour of your home and I hope you enjoyed the pizza and the football and Malbec yesterday.

Callie, that would have freaked me out regarding the home visit! OMG thank goodness that happened a long time ago. Truly freaky and if the realtor did show your home and then deny it like that he is a real piece of work. I am glad that was your home from a long time ago and that is over and done with.

Haha no worries. I am not starting rock climbing anytime soon. Victor told me I had to get my toe tendonitis resolved anyway before I could even contemplate rock climbing lol. I canceled PT today (I called Saturday to let them know so they had plenty of notice) as Greg and I don't think it is very necessary right now and today it is rainy and I just don't feel like going very much anymore. I think I am motivated enough to do everything I need to do to keep up the exercises. So not sure how I am going to proceed from here. Truthfully while I like Victor and going to PT I don't feel like it is helping me improve further so the time (and money) is better spent on doing the PT exercises myself I think. We'll see. Still not sure what I want to do regarding PT. If it wasn't so cold out I might be more motivated to go out to PT but it's winter weather around here.

And you already know how I feel about what you have been going through. You are not certifiable in any way shape or form! Seriously you deserve a medal of honor for all you put up with so stop that crazy talk right now please. I hope you are feeling better this morning and I might add pics later of my new purchase from yesterday if I have the energy. If you think it would cheer you up and motivate you to perhaps get a pair for yourself. These are perfect for you IMO because they are shorter on the calf by about 2 inches I think so for a more petite person like yourself Callie they would fall to the perfect leg height IMO.

I do realize how lucky I am to have Greg. And you know how lucky you are to have your amazing dh too I know. They are gems of the most valuable caliber. I do love that he sews and cooks and all the other many many things he can do well but most of all I love his incredible support and love and this past year has shown me the extent of his love which for once leaves me speechless (it takes a lot to leave me speechless lol).


Kristie, I am with you in not allowing unfettered access to our home when we sell. When we sold our other homes the realtor had to make appointments with us and we had control over when. I hate having strangers traipse through our home I really do but it is a necessary evil when you want to sell. The best we can do is control what we can to make sure nothing bad happens. I hate the way they push open houses and we are not going to do one in our NY home. I refuse. We didn't do it when we sold our other co-op and I don't plan on allowing one when we sell our current co-op. Whenever that might be...

That is a very generous offer Kristie and I would only take you up on it if you promise to visit us here so the ball is in your court... Most importantly have fun at the gem show. So excited for you! Now that I am more mobile I want to attend something similar if there is one in NYC soon.

I hear you on wanting to eat the carpet when you are restricting carbs from your diet LOL. It is very hard to do that and the body rebels at first and sometimes for a while too. Between the hours of 2-5 can you get out take a walk or do some other activity to get your mind off food? I find when I occupy myself with other activities the craving passes after a while. Go outside, go shopping, make a phone call, take a bike ride (without those damn clipless pedals that is haha!!!!) anything to get out of the house away from those bad carbs. Once you break the cycle of craving the simple carbs it is easier. Hope it is going well.

Oh yes it is totally unfair how our guys can just stop drinking beer and the lbs melt off. Sigh. But the tradeoff isn't worth it. Meaning I like being a girl so the guys can have their easier weight loss and I will stick with all the good girl stuff we get to have and do.

Ovi, I totally understand how you feel re sleeping with the kitties. We had to kick them out of our bedroom many years ago because both Greg (more severe allergies to them than I have though) and I are allergic but since he has been getting the allergy shots for more than a decade and doing well we relented and allow only Francesca to sleep with us though in the morning we let all the cats join us on the bed for coffee in bed. We seem OK with this arrangement allergy wise though Greg has been taking his inhaler more frequently and even I had to take a puff last night. Non steroid though as I know steroid inhalers can exacerbate POD. The kitties seem good with the arrangement to. Compromise on all parts and they are not jealous of Frankie sleeping with us since they get to join us every morning. At least that's my perspective and I am sticking to it.

I am so glad your visit went well and sorry you are missing your mom already. Hope your day is going well and remember you can call her whenever you want to so no need to go without your chats.

Junebug, sorry your dh's team lost and that he had to go on a business trip immediately after. That sucks. I hope he will be home soon though so you don't miss him too much. Do you have any special activities planned with girlfriends or family while he is away?

Francesca seems to be doing fine. Thank you all for asking. Just a bit more subdued than usual and Greg and I just gave her the meds without too much trouble. I watched her for a while afterwards to make sure she didn't spit them out because these cats are sneaky. I still am not 100% sure she didn't but I cannot find any evidence and I did watch her for a long time so hopefully the meds are in her system working their magic for her speedy recovery.

 

[azstonie]

Good idea re activity during the DANGER ZONE of 2-5 PM. Out of the house activity is even better, I'll go for a walk this afternoon.

I lost 2 pounds last week so I'm feeling good about the Tucson shows

When Bob and I sold our house in Anchorage, it was December and I thought no one would be buying homes. So I interviewed several real estate agents rather than doing a FSBO. Went with the top agent for our area, this really cool woman. I gave her my parameters for showing and she jumped up and clapped when I said: No open houses. They just make your house look tired, ruin the carpets, and they don't result in sales. She spiffed me 0.5% off the sales commission because she did not have to have open house/s for us or persuade us of a realistic sales price. She sold our house in 5 days. Everyone came out ahead, lol.

How is Francesca doing this morning?

 

[marcy]

Hi ladies!

Ovi, I think when are minds are busy processing things reading requires too much concentration. I still find it difficult sometimes. Finding your movie may be difficult since it’s French. I love a good comedy though. That is quite the temperature drop; and wind gusts aren’t any fun. I hope the storm has blown through by now and it warmed up again. My pizza wasn’t good; you wouldn’t have enjoyed it. I used the canned Pillsbury pizza dough. It was awful. It must be crescent roll dough or something; it’s sweet. I was not a fan. I’ll have to order in a real pizza this weekend!

Callie, I am sorry you had a bad day. I hope you are feeling better today. Hugs to you! I definitely will try to catch some chick flicks over the next couple of weeks. That is UTTERLY terrifying the builder brought someone in your house without permission. It is really the only thing that makes sense though. I would have been scared too. When they were building our house they had a generic lock on the front door that all the contractors had access to; but they put in our door with new locks the last week when we were closing. I never gave it a thought until now that someone may have a key to our place. I understand about having people in our house, everyone I’ve told including Marty seem quite surprised I said okay. Last night I heard something that I couldn’t find what it was and tonight I heard sounds outside. Now I’m getting paranoid. My alarm system works good though. My mom had some crystal perfume bottles; some of my nieces took most of them when we were cleaning out their house. Those babies were dusty but pretty.

Kristie, I would have been made about finding the windows open and the gate stuck open from snow. What was the builder thinking? Plus not asking you? Grr. Your neighbor that’s a real estate agent must be related to the agent we had. She only showed up (usually 2 hours late) if it involved money for her. She was awful! When someone asks for a good real estate agent I have no recommendations but I tell them NOT to use her. Yay for losing 2 pounds last week!

Junebug, my team lost their playoff game too. Tell your husband I sympathize with him. I hope his trip is quicker and closer than Marty’s. Yes, we do learn to adapt to them being gone for work. Not much else we can do though, huh? It’s nice to keep company with your ladies here. I swear this crud will never go away but I am not as tired as I was at first.

Missy, it doesn’t seem like it’s been 7 months but probably it seems longer than that to you. I have both an iPad and an iPad mini. I take my mini to work on Monday and leave it in the office all week. I carry it around with me for emails, notes and meetings. I use my iPad at home for reading, internet and emails. I use my laptop for doing my club newsletter, finances and Pricescope. Marty thinks I should just carry my iPad back and forth to work but I don’t like carrying it in my purse everyday. All the notes and info sync through wifi or the cloud so having both iPads works great for me. I honestly use my iPad as much as my laptop but I know most people eventually prefer one more than the other. Our iPads are wifi only and that works fine for us. We can get our email off them when we are away from home using hotspots off our cell phones. I can search by type and criteria on our TV; good idea. I have not watched any movies yet but I will! I am just like you, I have lots to do but sometimes I am just restless and nothing appeals to me. I am finding this month difficult because I am kind of reliving the last few weeks before my dad had his heart attack. I have too good of a memory! I think you are dedicated and motivated enough that you’ll do PT faithfully at home. Glad to hear Francesca is doing better today.

I talked to Marty on FaceTime yesterday and naturally that completely made my day. I said something about him being gone for weeks already and he reminded me he’d only been gone 6 days so far. I said well it seems longer! He still doesn’t know if he is staying through early February.

A friend of mine picked us up take-up for supper and came over here. After we ate I helped her make some washcloth animals and wrapped up some plastic utensils and napkins with bows. She is giving a baby shower Saturday so I offered to help her make the decorations.

My gas and light bill was $340 and I never ran my fireplace except briefly this week. That baby is coming back on! If the cold is going to run up my bill anyway what difference does it make if I add to it running the fireplace? A girl’s got to keep the house warm, right?

Laters,
Marcy

 

[azstonie]

Hey Marcy, my electric bill is $250/month (I average so I don't get a ginormous bill May-Oct) and my gas bill the ladt couple months is in the $90-range so total, you and I have about the same utilities costs. Callie, when do you turn your AC on? I keep my house thermostats set at 77 the minute it gets hot, can't stand a hot house.

I cut the cable tv out, too costly for what we use. Got an HD antenna and TIVO + Netflix and I'm Amazon Prime too so I get pretty much everything except sports channels. If cable companies didn't have all the sports channels no one would have it.

 

[missy]

Kristie, Francesca is becoming more energetic and like herself with each passing day. She was sort of a lump yesterday morning but became a bit more lively in the evening when it was time to get ready for bed. She started playing her hide and seek game with us and had quite a bit of fun doing so. She is more lethargic again this morning but hopefully as the day progresses she will start becoming more active and alert again. She is probably in some discomfort still so that has to affect her mood. I know it does mine.

Woohoo in losing those 2 lbs!!! Way to go!!! You are almost there!

Marcy, thanks for the detailed descriptions of how you use your iPad, mini and laptop. I think I would enjoy having the iPad but will think about it some more.

I am so glad you got some face time with Marty yesterday and that it lifted your spirits. I hope he can come home sooner than February but I know that even if he can't you will find time to face chat with him and hopefully the time will pass quickly though I know it would be nicer if he can get home sooner.

That was very sweet of you to help your friend with her baby shower decorations.

Is it bad I have no clue what our monthly gas and electric bill is? All I know is our cable bill is at least a hundred dollars too much per month and I am so tempted to do what Kristie is doing or at least switch to FIOS but have been lazy in that regard. The FIOS crew will be here all day as an apartment building is complicated when installing these things and the FIOS people told us to count on an all day installation. Also I do not look forward to the inevitable bugginess that comes with a new installation so I have been putting it off.

I have a dermatologist appointment today. I am not expecting miracles as I think he has done all he can do but I am going anyway because I feel lost right now concerning this POD. Face still about the same though it does fluctuate a bit but for the most part looks terrible and I have an almost constant stinging sensation which is unpleasant. And to make matters worse I woke up with 3 huge pimples? papules? in the middle of my cheek. LOL it looks like I have some variant form of the measles. It's good I still have a sense of humor about this but even that is wearing a bit thin these days.

Kristie I have been washing my face with Avene thermal water since we have not yet been able to test the tap water here so I took that out of the equation for now but am definitely taking your recommendation (thank you!) when I can about getting the water tested. We were thinking of getting a reverse osmosis under the sink water filter for my bathroom so I can wash with non fluorinated tap water but it is so bulky and not practical so I think washing with Avene thermal water is the way to go right now. In the shower I am very careful not to get my face wet though of course it is impossible to avoid that altogether.

I have been moisturizing with hemp oil for the last few weeks (I keep it in the fridge) as someone with similar skin issues highly recommended that to me as it is good for sensitive skin. I thought it was helping but now with those huge paps/pimples I don't know. It is complex trying to figure out what causes what.

All I know is I cannot tolerate conventional moisturizers anymore. I seem to be sensitive to parabens, fragrances, sulfates, petroleum, propylene glycol and even glycerin etc. because even when I try CeraVe, Vanicream, Epiceram, they all sting terribly. The hemp oil does not sting but not sure applying oil is good for POD since I read that oils can aggravate POD. This same person also recommended adding pure shea butter to the hemp oil to moisturize which I am hesitant to do since my first diagnosis (which I *think* was wrong) was seborrheic dermatitis and shea butter will aggravate that. So just in case the first diagnosis wasn't totally wrong I am avoiding shea but might just try it soon to see if it helps with moisture. I will ask my derm today if the seborrheic dermatitis diagnosis was wrong or if he thinks I have that too. Sigh.

Sorry for the lengthy post re my skin. I wasn't planning to write all that but once I got started.

Callie, Ovi, Junebug, LLJsmom, hope you had a good day yesterday!

 

[azstonie]

Hey Missy, glad to hear little Francesca is mending well! My mouth usually hurts for a few days after a big dental procedure PLUS having one's jaw ranked open for a long amount of time (the time of the procedure) can really hurt your face, so there's that on top of the extraction. Francesca is a kitty trooper!

Re utility bill, LOL, if you live in a locale with extreme weather your TOTALLY know your bill amount I hate a hot house so we pay for the privilege of coolness and being able to sleep. PLUS I don't The Westies miserable, they wear fur coats yanno? I'm way past the age of padding around the house naked, I need clothing now!

Re the hemp oil, there are two aspects to it: The product itself and the purity of the manufacturing process of that product. Everything I read on POD says no moisturizers at all and you have to expect it to flare even a little more before it goes quiescent. Given the papules on your poor cheek, I would say stop the hemp and I know your dermatologist told you that too probably.

We have an RO on our kitchen sink. When I worked for the Alaska Dept of Env Conservation one of my jobs there was in the Drinking Water Div/writing those regulations. I would NEVER go without an RO in the kitchen knowing what I know about drinking water throughout the US. The systems are bulky, that's for sure, but Bob was able to install it and we ran the line to the fridge for ice/water. You could install one in your kitchen sink area and then take water from there to the bathroom if you wash your face and to brush your teeth. The other quick and easy for this is use bottled water in your bathroom for your face/teeth.

Okay, go with me here even if it sounds cra cra okay?

We take both Westies to the canine dermatologist/allergist as Westies famously have terrible terrible allergies that manifest in skin horrors. Both take Zyrtec daily for the skin itch. Maggie is on allergy immunotherapy, Bob gives her a shot weekly. If we forget the shot, she has skin problems just like seb derm with papules/bumps on her body. We bathe them once to twice weekly with a shampoo (Douxos) specially formulated to provide a moisturizing skin barrier to fungi and bacteria and yeast and it kills any of the same that might be there.

Maggie has 0 skin problems under the Zyrtec/immunotherapy/bathing scenario.

So for you, a human , what could we apply from Maggie?

You have to hit the skin issue from the inside and the outside.

The pain/stinging in your face, are you absolutely positively sure you aren't having a shingles outbreak? Interestingly, dermatologists are not the best diagnose-er of shingles---ER physicians are because they see it pretty much every day. Shingles can be very different looking and be found in all kinds of crazy locations (dermatomes). I have heard patients characterize shingles on their face as an acne outbreak that hurt, stung and would not go away.

Most dermatologists do a diagnosis by exclusion thing with skin problems AND a shotgun approach to treatment. Why not try some Zyrtec for the itch and sting and I'm going to confirm that the Douxos we bathe Maggie with is human grade---it may sound WILD but if you're putting hemp oil on your face why not try the bathing solution from a pharm company with QA/QC controls and purity testing? You could start by putting a tiny tiny dilute amount on say a patch on the forehead or under your chin and see if you get a bad reaction.

Back shortly, reading Douxos information.....

Okay, back now. Douxo makes solutions to calm seb irritated skin and solutions to moisturize/kill gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, yeasts and fungi. Both the calming solution and the latter come in many forms: Gels, sprays, pads, shampoos.

So I know that canine treatment follows human treatment, where are the dermatology for people versions of these?

 

[azstonie]

So this has a couple of components:

Diagnosis: Is it seb derm/POD? Is there a cause that can be identified?

Treatment: Does an exact diagnosis matter--->are the treatments that are out there diagnosis specific or is it more a question of Try This One And See What We Get. If this, have you tried everything available for dermatitis?

Pain/Itch Control: What are you doing for this? Zyrtec? Atarax? What?

Covering/Masking it when out in public: Can/should this be done?

 

[Calliecake]

H Girls, I have missed you. No one has arrived in white coats to take me to a padded cell. Does anyone have any advice for not letting family get to you? I'm a little concerned about my furbaby. She wasn't acting like herself last night and seems a little under the weather. She is eating and drinking normally so I hope she perks up today. She also doesn't feel warm. I know it seems strange but I have been able to tell in the past when she was running a fever. She is sound a sleep in my lap as I type this.

Missy, I'm sending lots of dust your way hoping for a good visit with your doctor today. It sounds like Francesca is on the road to recovery. We just have to get you on the same road now. Hugs, hugs, hugs!

Regarding the IPad, I fought my husband tooth and nail about buying me one. He came home with one anyway. I am the one who is now addicted to the darn thing. I haven't used the computer since the iPad was placed in my hands. The iPad, rarely leaves my hands. If you get one, you will love it!

Marcy, I'm so sorry about your dad. Often the anniversaries of traumatic events are extremely painful as all the memories come flooding back. Please be kind to yourself. I'm glad you get together with your girlfriends when Marty is out of town. I know how much that can really help. Please know we are here if you need to talk. If you lived near me I would be happy to take you out for pizza. Chicago has some great pizza! It's my favorite food! We also have a great diamond district....have I told you that before Marcy!

Kristie, I certainly here on reaching the age where there is no need to walk around the house naked. You crack me up!! I kerp telling myself to not be too hard on myself as it is only going to get worse the older I get. I figure once I hit 65 every mirror will be removed from the house. I also can not stand a hot house. Are you sitting down? I keep the temperature at 68 during the day all summer long and 65 at night. The air usually goes on sometime in May. During the winter I have the heat set at anywhere from 62 to 65 degrees during the day and around 56 at night. My husband would prefer it much warmer but does put up with it. Although I get told all the time that it is so cold in here at night he can see his breath. I have been really hot at night for years. I swear infertility drugs did something to my body because that is when everything changed regarding temperature.

OV, I hope you are having a good day!

Junebug, I hope all us well with you. Our husbands and their football! Don't feel bad, mine is the same way. Heaven forbid he miss a game. I'm just glad he gets over losses quickly.

 

[azstonie]

Callie, we can totally HANG, I love the temp of your house! If you come to AZ to visit in the summer I'll jack that puppy right on down, no probs! Although I recommend you show up in the winter when all the other peeps come to AZ, we do have fabulous weather in the wintertime.

Bob and I argue every November about the thermostat in the house for the nighttime. He likes 65 and for me that is too hot. He sleeps with a heavy cotton blanket and flannel sheets at that time. I go sleep in the guest room and I have flannel sheets with no blanket, I learned to just take a second top sheet and use that instead.

I would love to see my breath at night! The sleep experts say your house should be C.O.L.D. at night to achieve sleep and maintain it.

 

[Calliecake]

Callie, we can totally HANG, I love the temp of your house! If you come to AZ to visit in the summer I'll jack that puppy right on down, no probs! Although I recommend you show up in the winter when all the other peeps come to AZ, we do have fabulous weather in the wintertime.

Bob and I argue every November about the thermostat in the house for the nighttime. He likes 65 and for me that is too hot. He sleeps with a heavy cotton blanket and flannel sheets at that time. I go sleep in the guest room and I have flannel sheets with no blanket, I learned to just take a second top sheet and use that instead.

I would love to see my breath at night! The sleep experts say your house should be C.O.L.D. at night to achieve sleep and maintain it.

I always knew we were long lost sisters Kristie!!!

I like it when he travels because I can keep it even colder night. I do feel sorry for my husband. He says our next house will have a heated bathroom floor. He says the cold tile at 5:30 AM is brutal! It doesn't bother me at all.

 

[missy]

Hi girls, I am back from the dermatologist. And it continues.

So this has a couple of components:

Diagnosis: Is it seb derm/POD? Is there a cause that can be identified?

Treatment: Does an exact diagnosis matter--->are the treatments that are out there diagnosis specific or is it more a question of Try This One And See What We Get. If this, have you tried everything available for dermatitis?

Pain/Itch Control: What are you doing for this? Zyrtec? Atarax? What?

Covering/Masking it when out in public: Can/should this be done?

Hi Kristie thanks for your brainstorming. I appreciate that.

According to David my dermatologist (and he's top in the field so not questioning his diagnoses) I have basically Rosacea with Perioral dermatitis being part of that diagnosis as they are in the same family and seborrheic dermatitis. He is prescribing Fluconazole to be taken orally for 5 days to wipe out (his words not mine) the seb derm and to continue with the Oracea (doxycycline) for my rosacea and POD.


And even though my face cannot tolerate topical meds he wants me to mix Protopic with the hemp oil I am using for moisturizing my face in the evening and apply that to the POD. He said it will make it worse before it gets better and I am very hesitant to add Protopic to the mix.

He doesn't want me to moisturize with mineral oil (which is in many moisturizers including the Avene moisturizers) so he is OK with hemp though oil is not generally recommended for POD. Another problem is because I have not washed with anything but water my skin is very rough as the dead skin cells are just building up and I am not getting rid of them (lovely right?) so he wants me to cleanse with hemp too (sort of a modified OCM) as a kind of safe exfoliation without exfoliating. He does NOT want me exfoliating my face because it is way too sensitive and knows that will make everything worse.

He said it takes time and he knows my skin and I will get better. So he was trying to reassure me but I have to say I am not as confident this time because of all the diagnoses and that just makes everything more difficult to control. He also said this is not something I can control the way I want to control it so I just need to let the meds work and he also said that it probably has some hormonal component being I have not had my period in a long while. He thinks some hormones are holding on though causing this to be a problem but truthfully at that point I think I lost my concentration on what he was saying so not sure of his point but I am sure about how he wants me to treat this and it has nothing to do with hormones. As for makeup in public he wants me to use that minimally when necessary and truthfully I need it to feel comfortable returning to work so not sure how badly applying makeup will exacerbate my skin problems.

Kristie, not sure I addressed everything you wrote about but did want to add that I am taking Allegra every morning and Chlor trimeton every evening because I have high histamine levels in my body.

Not sure what Douxos is but I will look it up. I appreciate all your input and I dismiss nothing you recommend. It is not shingles though so no worries there. Been there done that and in fact David was the doctor to diagnose my shingles last January from phone pics I sent him in the predawn hours that morning I found out I had shingles.

I am washing with Avene thermal water though according to David I am perfectly safe to use tap water no issues there and that we simply (according to David) do not have enough fluoride in our water to be a problem for POD or anything for that matter. But never mind as I will continue with the bottled water or Avene for washing and at some point down the road look into the RO water filter. And the hemp oil I am using is from Whole Foods and is cold pressed hemp oil and nothing added.


Callie, what is going on with your sweet furbaby?! Please don't worry and call your vet if there is any concern whatsoever. I am so sorry she isn't feeling 100% and will be sending her healing vibes! Francesca is sending them to her too with lots of kitty kisses and hugs.

Kristie and Callie, I hear you on the temps at night. I prefer cold and Greg prefers normal (i.e. 65 like Bob lol) we compromise. I choose. Seriously when I first got my rosacea diagnosis I kept it way colder because I absolutely could not tolerate anything not cold at night. Greg slept with pjs a sweatshirt and wool hat and socks LOLOL. Those days are over thankfully but I still like it nippy in the bedroom.

Ovi, thinking of you dear and hoping things are working themselves out. I am keeping you in my thoughts and know we are all here for you.

 

[missy]

Callie, we can totally HANG, I love the temp of your house! If you come to AZ to visit in the summer I'll jack that puppy right on down, no probs! Although I recommend you show up in the winter when all the other peeps come to AZ, we do have fabulous weather in the wintertime.

Bob and I argue every November about the thermostat in the house for the nighttime. He likes 65 and for me that is too hot. He sleeps with a heavy cotton blanket and flannel sheets at that time. I go sleep in the guest room and I have flannel sheets with no blanket, I learned to just take a second top sheet and use that instead.

I would love to see my breath at night! The sleep experts say your house should be C.O.L.D. at night to achieve sleep and maintain it.

I always knew we were long lost sisters Kristie!!!

I like it when he travels because I can keep it even colder night. I do feel sorry for my husband. He says our next house will have a heated bathroom floor. He says the cold tile at 5:30 AM is brutal! It doesn't bother me at all.

First of all what is with our men? Maybe they should all sleep together in one room and we can keep it nice and cold in our bedroom LOL.

OMG I would love to have radiant heat in the bathroom floors. We had that at our last house and I miss it so much. It does make life a little bit better those cold winter mornings! At least I think it does.

 

[azstonie]

We had the radiant floor heat in Alaska. Bob loved it. Me, meh. Very expensive. If I'm going to spend THAT kind of $ I'd rather have a whole-house humidifier/heater and quit fiddling around with the room specific humidifiers.

The only times I felt really cold in Juneau or Anchorage were if my feet got wet. Then, you get cold and you get cold fast. If you can keep your feet dry and warm, you're fine. I used to just suffer in silence in offices there, people would not dress for the real winter weather (basically wear their summer clothes with a parka thrown on to go outside) and they'd put the thermostat way up at 80 degrees. I'd be wearing beautiful wool suits, even wool gabardine/light fabric and I'd just DIE. The highest ranking staff person in our office was a perimenopausal woman so she won the thermostat wars for us hotties but when she was on vacay, 80 degrees!!!

 

[Calliecake]

Callie, we can totally HANG, I love the temp of your house! If you come to AZ to visit in the summer I'll jack that puppy right on down, no probs! Although I recommend you show up in the winter when all the other peeps come to AZ, we do have fabulous weather in the wintertime.

Bob and I argue every November about the thermostat in the house for the nighttime. He likes 65 and for me that is too hot. He sleeps with a heavy cotton blanket and flannel sheets at that time. I go sleep in the guest room and I have flannel sheets with no blanket, I learned to just take a second top sheet and use that instead.

I would love to see my breath at night! The sleep experts say your house should be C.O.L.D. at night to achieve sleep and maintain it.

I always knew we were long lost sisters Kristie!!!

I like it when he travels because I can keep it even colder night. I do feel sorry for my husband. He says our next house will have a heated bathroom floor. He says the cold tile at 5:30 AM is brutal! It doesn't bother me at all.

First of all what is with our men? Maybe they should all sleep together in one room and we can keep it nice and cold in our bedroom LOL.

OMG I would love to have radiant heat in the bathroom floors. We had that at our last house and I miss it so much. It does make life a little bit better those cold winter mornings! At least I think it does.

I wish I would have thought of having radiant heat when we were bulding our home. It never even entered my mind. I know it would have made my husbands mornings a little more enjoyable!

 

[missy]

We had the radiant floor heat in Alaska. Bob loved it. Me, meh. Very expensive. If I'm going to spend THAT kind of $ I'd rather have a whole-house humidifier/heater and quit fiddling around with the room specific humidifiers.

The only times I felt really cold in Juneau or Anchorage were if my feet got wet. Then, you get cold and you get cold fast. If you can keep your feet dry and warm, you're fine. I used to just suffer in silence in offices there, people would not dress for the real winter weather (basically wear their summer clothes with a parka thrown on to go outside) and they'd put the thermostat way up at 80 degrees. I'd be wearing beautiful wool suits, even wool gabardine/light fabric and I'd just DIE. The highest ranking staff person in our office was a perimenopausal woman so she won the thermostat wars for us hotties but when she was on vacay, 80 degrees!!!

That is another concern of mine returning to work. It is freezing in my office in the winter. I mean under 60 degrees freezing during the day when I am examining my patients. And the head of the clinic refuses to allow space heaters and it is not so much my body is cold but it exacerbates my rosacea and my raynauds and I cannot function at work with gloves on yanno? Ugh honestly with everything I am dealing with ATM I almost feel like just NOT returning to work if my face doesn't clear up to an acceptable point. However having already committed it would not be nice of me to turn around and say never mind. I guess...

 

[missy]

Callie, we can totally HANG, I love the temp of your house! If you come to AZ to visit in the summer I'll jack that puppy right on down, no probs! Although I recommend you show up in the winter when all the other peeps come to AZ, we do have fabulous weather in the wintertime.

Bob and I argue every November about the thermostat in the house for the nighttime. He likes 65 and for me that is too hot. He sleeps with a heavy cotton blanket and flannel sheets at that time. I go sleep in the guest room and I have flannel sheets with no blanket, I learned to just take a second top sheet and use that instead.

I would love to see my breath at night! The sleep experts say your house should be C.O.L.D. at night to achieve sleep and maintain it.

I always knew we were long lost sisters Kristie!!!

I like it when he travels because I can keep it even colder night. I do feel sorry for my husband. He says our next house will have a heated bathroom floor. He says the cold tile at 5:30 AM is brutal! It doesn't bother me at all.

First of all what is with our men? Maybe they should all sleep together in one room and we can keep it nice and cold in our bedroom LOL.

OMG I would love to have radiant heat in the bathroom floors. We had that at our last house and I miss it so much. It does make life a little bit better those cold winter mornings! At least I think it does.

I wish I would have thought of having radiant heat when we were bulding our home. It never even entered my mind. I know it would have made my husbands mornings a little more enjoyable!

I am pretty sure you can retrofit the radiant floor heating if you really want it Callie. I know I do and when we move full time to the beach house I am getting those radiant heated floors in my bathroom!

 

[Calliecake]

We had the radiant floor heat in Alaska. Bob loved it. Me, meh. Very expensive. If I'm going to spend THAT kind of $ I'd rather have a whole-house humidifier/heater and quit fiddling around with the room specific humidifiers.

The only times I felt really cold in Juneau or Anchorage were if my feet got wet. Then, you get cold and you get cold fast. If you can keep your feet dry and warm, you're fine. I used to just suffer in silence in offices there, people would not dress for the real winter weather (basically wear their summer clothes with a parka thrown on to go outside) and they'd put the thermostat way up at 80 degrees. I'd be wearing beautiful wool suits, even wool gabardine/light fabric and I'd just DIE. The highest ranking staff person in our office was a perimenopausal woman so she won the thermostat wars for us hotties but when she was on vacay, 80 degrees!!!

You gotta love a peri menopausal woman. When I was going thru that I would fall asleep with ice packs my husband found me. They were supposed to be used for sports injuries. They were filled with some sort of jell that really stayed frozen for a long time. I remember going to work with freeze burns on my arm because the cover came off and I fell a sleep on the darn thing. I tell my husband all the time those ice packs were the best gift he ever give me.

I'll get the heated floors in our next home Missy!

 

[azstonie]

Missy, how can your clinic keep the heat nonexistant--what about the patients? 60 degrees, I would think the patients would be very unhappy and vocal.

OTOH, there's your excuse if you don't want to go back after the first 2 weeks, LOL. Your Raynaud's can't take the temps any more and neither can your pins/plates in the leg.

Missy, use the pins/plates in the leg for ANY REASON you need now, BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

[missy]

Missy, how can your clinic keep the heat nonexistant--what about the patients? 60 degrees, I would think the patients would be very unhappy and vocal.

OTOH, there's your excuse if you don't want to go back after the first 2 weeks, LOL. Your Raynaud's can't take the temps any more and neither can your pins/plates in the leg.

Missy, use the pins/plates in the leg for ANY REASON you need now, BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Haha LOVE that thanks Kristie! I will totally use that if necessary.
Oh no need to worry about the patients. The waiting room is on a different heat and a/c zone so they are comfy cozy. Have I mentioned that I melt there in the summers? My room is on the extra warm and extra cold zone. Winter extra cold and summer extra hot. Seriously.

Callie, perhaps if we move to Hawaii or southern California we won't need those heated floors! Just a thought. Kristie, Callie, are you in? Junebug how about you?

 

[Calliecake]

I'm in Baby! Where should we start looking, How does San Diego sound? What are you thinking Kristie and Junebug? I love LaJolla. I will probably have to live in a garage with what there housing costs are!

 

[missy]

I'm in Baby! Where should we start looking, How does San Diego sound? What are you thinking Kristie and Junebug? I love LaJolla. I will probably have to live in a garage with what there housing costs are!

I'm good with all of those choices though I do have a soft spot for Malibu and I need to be on the water. Non negotiable. Let's start working on that now girls.

 

[azstonie]

http://beachterraceinn.com/

Okay, this is the BEST place to stay in/around San Diego. This is a family owned hotel right.on.the.sand of the cleanest longest beach around, Carlsbad. Bob and I get there, we park the car, and we don't get back in for a couple of days, we walk to dine, walk the beach for exercise, fun shopping 2 blocks away including estate antiques and jewelry. There is a Coaster station (Amtrak) 2 blocks away and we take it to San Diego to go to Seaport Village for seafood/swordfish at The Fish Market and the shops around the pier. We get a taxi to the Amtrak station when we're done and head back to Carlsbad.

There is a great street in Solana Beach, just a few miles south, called Cedros Ave and it has the best shops including Muttropolis, which has a great website. Maggie likes ALL their dog toys! We can take the Coaster to Cedros Ave or we can drive, one Christmastime I bought a fountain for the back patio that was a Zen Kermit (Kermit in Lotus Position, water through his mouth) and it was a good thing we had the Tundra with us.

I highly recommend this hotel.

Also in this area is The Collector, Bill Larson's jewelry retail operation and also his website HQ. For my 50th, Bob bought me a lovely rhodie garnet ring in 18 kt yg from Germany.

ALso in the area is The Oceanview Mine for you hardy sorts, its a tailings dig in the wonderful mountains of SD County. Bob and I did the dig one Saturday. I lasted about 90 minutes on my screen but Bob made it the whole day. I had a great trashy novel, a box lunch of smoked salmon on croissant with a small bottle of champagne. I had no problem smelling the orange blossom air, reading my book and sipping my champers. (The other people doing the dig partook of the hot dogs provided by the dig---most of them sidled up to me, saying "Where'd ya get THAT?" {I had the cook at Rancho Santa Fe prepare them for Bob and me.}

Also in SD is Gemfix, Andrew and Laura Gulij. Lovely people. We could have fun there, Andrew has branched into jewelry now alongside his colored stones.

What do ya say girls? Early December or mid-October is the best time to be there! Who's in?

 

[missy]

Haha Kristie! You misunderstood... Or maybe I said it wrong which is more likely the case. I want to MOVE there!!! As in forever and permanently have lovely lovely lovely weather!!! Pretty please. It is so unfair my family was born here and never left because now we are stuck...cannot afford to move to California now.

Now having said that I would love a trip there too but probably cannot commit to any kind of plane travel trip for a long while and certainly not till I get (if I ever get) my skin issues under control. When I meet you girls for the first time IRL I do not want to look like a freak.

Though my offer of having you come here to visit supersedes my appearance. If you make the trip here I will just suck it up. And perhaps serve you lots of alcohol so you won't even remember my appearance haha.

 

[azstonie]

I'm from San Francisco (LLJs, you're in the Bay Area?) and went to college in Los Angeles. I left CA for Alaska in 1992. I go back to visit but I could never live there UNLESS I was obscenely wealthy (most likely not going to happen) and even then its hard to mitigate the traffic, crime and crumbling infrastructure.

It breaks my heart, I never thought I'd live anywhere else.

We're looking ahead to retirement (Im 56, Bob 51) and we are having a really hard time coming up with a location we could both live with. Oregon is great but rainy and gray in winter. I love Seattle, Portland, the Pacific Northwest. I have friends, Callie, who will retire in Chicago. Some coworkers are saying North and South Carolina are great but all that weather? And the South, I don't know if I would fit in there (a liberal Democrat and all). New Mexico is out, Nevada is out, Bob would never think of going back to Wyoming (snow). We're visiting Idaho in 2015 to see friends who retired near Sandpoint/Couer D'Alene, to see if we would like it there...

 

[missy]

And that is the million dollar question. Where to retire. Where the weather is good enough and where it is affordable enough to live with a nice quality of life. That is why California is not going to happen for us as it is too expensive for many reasons. We are close in age to you. I am 49 (50 this summer) and Greg is 56.

I also want to be around like minded people where I am OK and fit in if that makes sense. Growing up where I did it's easy to get lulled into a false sense of security that everyone will accept you anywhere. That's just not true and we could never live in a place where religion is critical i.e. belonging to a church to make friends etc.

My guess is we will end up at the jersey shore like we planned to all those years ago despite it being expensive. Property taxes are up there and living expenses are high but it's what we know and close to Manhattan and culture. Though the weather leaves much to be desired at least we have seasons and change of leaves and activities we know we enjoy. But I sure would love being able to move someplace more temperate in climate and with a lower cost of living but similar in everything else.

We considered N and S Carolina too but Greg doesn't think I would like living there plus there are those storms because I do want to be on the water. I really do.

 

[azstonie]

My old boss just moved to Missouri at 70 years of age and she is an ATHEIST so I don't think she is going to fit in AT ALL . I think of the south as a church-going location and where you go to church defines you and who you know and what you do.

I know what you mean about fitting in, Missy. When I lived in Juneau it was a liberal college educated place (still is), average level of education a Master's. NPR. Everyone voted and worked on community issues. We moved to Anchorage and it was high school grads if that, home schooling, BIG OIL and gun toting hunters and Republicans and profit at all costs!

(I have lots and lots of Republican friends and I allow them to tout me as their Democrat friend!)

 

[azstonie]

The Jersey Shore, not just a TV show? HAHAHA.

Seriously, it sounds ideal for retirement. Close to world class medical, universities, art/music, dining, you name it.

I think you and Greg have your spot.

Re taxes, one of my friends from Alaska, her nephew is on a top TV series right now. He's making um good money. He just bought a house in Studio City (nothing special) and his monthly property taxes are in excess of $2500 per month. That's not including the HOUSE payment.

OMG. Missy, I bet New York/Manhattan is like that, right?

 

[Calliecake]

Hi Girls,

Kristie that hotel looks wonderful. OMG that view!!!! I'm in for later in year!

Missy, FYI..... I think you are beautiful no matter what's is going on with your skin.

As far as Sourthern California goes, my husband and I have loved it there for years. Unfortunately like I said before we could probably only afford a garage. It would be a real nice garage, but still a garage. I just can't picture myself being happy living in a garage. I can't imagine anyine wanting to retire to Chicago. The weather is brutal and our taxes are high. We have been considering North and South Carolina. Missy, I don't think I would evr leave your beach house. I would retire there in a heartbeat. Can you find me a nice place nearby? If so, I have to log off Procescope. I have to start packing!

I have never given religion a thought when thinking of places to retire. Having always lived in the Chicago area I have worked and lived around people from all religions. My husband has made the comments Kristie made about living in the south and everything coming down to which church you belong to. Is that really true? I seriously thought he was joking.

One of my friends moved to Texas and was very concerned about living with republicans. She has never been one to keep her opinions to herself. She found a great group of friends and she's doing fine. She made a pact with her new republican friends not to discuss politics.