WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR AUGUST 2018

NY Karen thanks for the penguin pictures. I love penguins but have only seen them at the zoo.

I am in bed where I've been most of the time since I got home from the doctor. No prescription pain meds in over 24 hours. Constipation better. Weight down almost 3 pounds since yesterday morning. Cat in bed with me. Dogs together in dog bed on the floor. Jake gone all day for cancer treatment. Dog walking friend walked the dogs after breakfast but she is gone all day so I will take them out to pee at 11:00. Pain no worse without prescription meds.

Barbie, I’m so sorry. At least you have a diagnosis.

Michele, Peach Pass allows you to use the far left express lane on the interstate. We don’t have it and just stay out of that lane. Dave got another letter in the mail today. This violation had the exact same number as the other so he did not call again. I googled “can two states have the same license plate number” and found a story of a famous athlete in Pennsylvania who never bothered changing his out is state plates on his vehicle who racked up hundreds of dollars of fines for unpaid tolls, all of which went to a man who lived in Pennsylvania with the same license number. The article said it took a while to sort that one out. I hope it doesn’t turn into a hassle for Dave.

Barbara, just because we did ab ripper 200 doesn’t mean I kept up with it. I just hung in best I could. Lol.

My exercise class is going to have a Certified yoga instructor come and work with us on Mondays beginning in a September. Maybe I will soon be able to touch the floor with some of y’all.

Have we heard from Beth and her son’s surgery? Thinking of her.

I found out last night that one of my cousins died. She was younger than I by a few years, one of 12. I can’t keep their ages totally straight. Several of them have died young, and three more of them are currently battling cancer. It’s very sad. I am not close to any of them, but they are family. I will go to the service if there is one.

Sorry I haven't been around much! Now that I am at the farm, I have become the 6 AM coffee and sausage maker as well as lunch maker and packer and I cook supper and dish it up on plates because the guys generally don't come in until 10 to 10:30 at night! My 93-year-old mother in law is having me do everything that she has wanted to do since last year that has not been done. One of the things I have enjoyed most is picking apples and making crab apple bread with my mother-in-law. At her age she still can help out by cutting the very little apples into tiny pieces. I have also been taking my mother in law to and from doctor appointment, running into take my daughter to her doctor appointment, I'm way too busy! Not to mention from the farm to my daughters is a 6 Hour drive! Thinking of everyone on here but not hardly a spare moment to even read the posts!



Mary from Minnesota \ Arizona

Barbie: I am so sorry to hear that you have a compression fracture of L4 in your back. No wonder you've been feeling pain. The pain meds that didn't work seem to have increased your discomfort. I hope you feel better soon. At least you now have information that explains your symptoms and a bit of strategy to improve things. :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

Karen: The kids are off to a nearby city where DDIL has classes for the next couple of days. I am looking forward to resting today. My son seems convinced that I'm not competent to live without his supervision. I expect to have at least 8 uninterrupted hours of personal competence while they are gone. :grumble:

Wendy: I've noticed that horses are not fond of surprises, to put it mildly. Having a baby seal jump off a cliff in front of you would be a shy-worthy surprise. I'm glad no one was hurt.

Machka: I love the photos, too. Gorgeous!!!

Mary: I remember my mom reciting Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. I have never encountered him outside of a zoo. I hope my luck holds out indefinitely.

Barbie & Heather: I have improved my bone density, & this was verified with a bone density scan. I take once weekly med, alondrate. This is a generic version of fosamax. You can take a daily version, but I wouldn't care for that because you have to take the med, swallow a load of water, and sit or stand upright for half an hour every morning--before you have coffee, vitamins, or anything else. I can make myself do that once a week, but NOT every morning. It has been one part of my solution. Weight bearing exercise has been the other part. Walking is effective. I take yoga several times a week and that has been very good for me. Horseback riding has also been helpful. Being pounded at the trot helps bones get stronger. Mom used to say, "No pain, no gain." Any weight bearing exercise will do the job but things you enjoy doing are the best because they are fun and motivating all by themselves. Walking is a good choice because we all know how, and it is easy to get started. I know that Barbie has been a walker for years in addition to her dancing. I'm not sure how to restart while you are feeing pain. Perhaps there is someone connected with the doctor's office who can advise the best way to begin. :flowerforyou:


We have a day to ourselves while DS, DDIL and our sweet grandson are away for the day while DDIL takes a class. Right now we're enjoying the quiet time.


Katla in Beautiful NW Oregon

My Mom has been making a dollhouse for my granddaughter. She will be bring it with her tomorrow. I can’t wait to see it in person.

Hello ladies!

Barbie ... I'm so sorry you are dealing with back issues ...

Thank you for thinking of my son. There was a wrinkle in my son's surgery plans. Once his actual surgeon was involved, he decided to take a conservative and somewhat unorthodox approach (which has apparently confused most of the hospital staff) to my son's protruding pump. On the morning of the surgery, the pump became a certified open wound. As a result, the surgeon had to make the assumption that there was some type of infection, even though my son was showing no signs of infection. They pulled the internal pump out and left it outside the body, left the catheter attached to the pump and inside the body. So his internal pump is now where it was pushing to be ... outside. They have it stitched to a binder and sitting on the outside of his abdomen. They cleaned and stitched up the wound and put him on IV antibiotics. The surgeon found that the wound was becoming crystallized/infected?, but he does not believe that the pump or catheter were infiltrated by the infection. So we wait in the hospital for a week. Then next Tuesday or Wednesday, assuming things don't worsen, they will go back to surgery and observe if there is any internal infection. If none, then they will fully remove the old pump and place a new one in a different location. If there is infection, they'll yank it all. In the meantime they are slowly weaning him off the pump medication and giving him oral medication in the event everything has to go. His pump is for spasticity, so this is a somewhat painful process as oral meds don't come close to doing what the pump meds accomplished. And now we're dealing with a long hospital stay and all the problems it inherently brings ... Sigh. I only stayed overnight the first night and now I'm here at the hospital early morning until late at night taking care of him. I feed him, bathe (with some help), pretty much just reassure him that all will be well, make certain people don't do stupid stuff ... basically just being his mom. If you read all of that, thank you! Continued good thoughts/prayers that the infection heals and he can have the replacement pump next week would be greatly appreciated.

Ok. So I just checked to see if I could touch the floor. I'm 5'8 with very long legs, very short torso and very long arms! Shopping for clothes has been a nightmare. Anyways, yes, I can put my palms on the floor with some hamstring tightness. You know, I thought I could carry weight well, but when I look at old photos ... I was fooling myself.

I continue to lose weight. This not really from healthy measures at this point --but no time to go and eat. I'm trying to make certain I get some protein and fruit in and hopefully when things get back to normal I can maintain the weight loss.

Beth who is now in downtown Buffalo.

A note about bone density. Several doctors including a bone specialist said that what I've been doing was exactly what was prescribed for good bone density but my bone density wasn't responding. The medicine prescribed by the specialist didn't do enough so when this treatment is finished, my doctor is going to put me on Fosomax. I consume plenty of calcium and vitamin D, do strength training, walking, and dancing and consume a meatless alkaline diet and it wasn't enough. I did the best I could and it wasn't enough. Right now I am staying in the moment and warding of despair.

Barbie