WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR JULY 2020

The word program on my computer quit earlier and I’ve been getting help from my son to put it back together. At this point, I can type and that is a good thing. I can even choose my own font and size. I’m not sure we’re done with this, but I have hope. I really don’t like using my phone to post but it will work if needed.

Katla in beautiful NW Oregon

kevrit wrote: »

Nose I had polyps removed about 20 years ago which helped me breathe easily for a few years then forever stuffy came back. I have a deviated septum and lots of allergies and am afraid of having the septum fixed.

Have a great day!
RV Rita

I had a deviated septum and enlarged turbinates.

This picture shows a straight septum and normal turbinates.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/a_to_z/deviated-septum-a-to-z


My situation was more like this:



The reasons I decided to have the surgery done were:

1) Exercise. I have struggled with breathing during cycling, running, climbing stairs, hiking, and anything that required extra air intake. While others were topping hills looking cool, calm and collected, I was struggling up hills looking like a steam engine having a hot flash. OK, granted, others may have been in better shape or better at climbing hills or something, but even when I was in my best shape in about 2004 (cycled 14,000 km that year plus hiking, walking and all sorts), I still struggled with breathing.

In 2013, we moved to hilly Tasmania and I couldn't even complete the long distance rides I used to be able to do. In 2015, I lost a lot of weight and in 2016, I ramped up my cycling and other activity and worked on climbing hills so that it was a bit easier but I still struggled with breathing.

Because I would like to get back into long distance cycling again and because I would like to run another half marathon or maybe a full marathon, I decided to get this done!


2) Sleep. I had to sleep on my right side which was the most closed off side. I could only sleep on my left side for a short time or my left nostril would block up and then I couldn't breathe out of either nostril. I don't mind sleeping on my right side but I think it has resulted in right side neck and shoulder pain.

Also, I often woke up choking in the night. Plus apparently I snored like a chainsaw. So my sleep was disturbed and I was often waking up in the night.


3) Medical. Constant sinus headaches. Constant post nasal drip. Sinus infections each time I got a cold. Allergies. Inferior sense of smell.

I've been through allergy desensitisation for dust mites and still have to take allergy medication every day for all the other things I'm apparently allergic to. I dust, vacuum, clean, and got rid of my feather pillows and doona. Periodically I go through and wash all my clothes and everything that can be washed and yet there still isn't much change.

Everyone else gets a cold that lasts a few days, maybe a week ... I get this monster thing where I finally end up getting antibiotics because it has morphed into a sinus and/or bronchial infection. It takes me out of work for a good 2 weeks and makes me feel miserable. And the number of antibiotics I can take keeps diminishing because my body has decided that what would be fun is to be allergic to half of them.

trucker743 wrote: »

Machka, my husband also had almost no sense of taste or smell until he had the same operation you had. At least for the last 10 years of his life, he could wake up and smell the roses - if we had any in the house. He wasn’t very good at identifying flowers. There were roses, daffodils, tulips and California poppies in his world and not much else. Oh! There was “that little blue things”, and “you know - that one with thorns”.

Sharon, naked, Near Seattle/b]

I haven't really missed the sense of smell. I don't know when it might have dropped out on me or if I ever had it.

I have always been able to pick up the smells of mold, mildew or when things are "off". I can walk into the produce section of a grocery store and know that something is rotting in one of the bins.

But right now it's a little bit weird because there will be nothing for a while, and then all of a sudden it's like someone has thrown a bucket of smell over my head. I'm finding that with my coffee in particular. And then there's nothing again for a bit. It may start becoming more consistent as I heal.



So even though I'm in a lot of pain right now and this isn't pleasant, I'm hoping that eventually it will improve the three situations above.

---

TV - I mentioned earlier that we've only got a small selection of what to watch because we've got free TV here. I don't know if there is cable or satellite. I do know that some people get Netflix and choose one series to watch but so far that doesn't interest us.

We don't watch TV at all during the day. Much rather listen to music and get stuff done.

If the evening selection runs dry as it does sometimes, we might watch a movie or a TV series that I've purchased in DVD.

But I like to be doing something else while watching TV. I've never been one to just sit and watch.



Machka in Oz

Machka, wow! no wonder you had trouble breathing! Wishing you a speedy recovery and a successful outcome!
Katla, microsoft and its issues - grrrrr....
TV, internet, phone.... We moved 3 years ago and decided to give up our land line. My parents were both gone and MIL was headed for care. About the only people that ever called us were trying to help us spend our money - we don't really need help for that! lol Now, hubby has his phone, with data and we pay usually just over $100 per month. Mine has no data, but I can get on the internet anywhere that there's free wifi, so home and work are covered and that's really the only places I need to be surfing the net. I pay just over $50, which is quite a bit, but I do get free talk and text to anywhere in Canada, and since younger son is a few provinces away, it works for me. Then for home internet and tv, it costs us almost $200 per month. Internet is very fast, which is important as hubby does a lot of gaming, so needs the lightning fast speed, I'm just impatient and want whatever site I'm trying to get to to come up NOW! I would get rid of some of our optional tv channels, but hubby likes them, so.... There used to be a song, something about "57 channels and there's nothing on", I think it was Bruce Springsteen. Anyway, now that song should be "570 channels" etc.... We don't get nearly that many, of course, but so often there is nothing on that is worth watching. Or nothing that I consider worth watching! We also have Netflix, and I have enjoyed a few series on there, some stuff that was exclusive to netflix and right now I'm watching Grey's Anatomy, which for some reason, I never watched when it first started on regular tv. Not sure why not, I'm quite enjoying it now!
Our Y is opening back up, starting tomorrow, we have to reserve a spot in any classes and for the fitness room (regular gym set up, cardio machines, weights etc). The change rooms are not open, and we are limited to one hour. It's kind of amusing, there is a "choose duration" button, but when I clicked on it the only time that came up was 60 min. Oh well, I will just have to make those minutes count!
Yesterday was official wi day. I am down 1.4 lbs! Just goes to show that if I don't graze my way thru the kitchen at night I can actually lose weight! (Novel concept, right? lol)
I have started a garden project. My bulbs have been decimated by squirrels, and I have been trying to figure out ways to keep them out. I started with simple stuff, tried sprinkling hot pepper flakes, chili powder, some sort of tex mex spice, on the garden, they seemed to quite love it. On to the next plan.... Now I have put chicken wire in the garden, basically planted it. So I have a layer of dirt, the bulbs, then the wire and then more dirt. I had to cut out parts of the wire to plant other stuff that I had in there, and I won't be able to plant anything else, because the wire will make it a pain for me to dig in there, but we'll see what happens. If this doesn't work, then I'm out of ideas and the squirrels will win. I made sure to place the bulbs so that they will be able to grow up directly thru a hole in the wire, but I'm hoping that it will discourage those hairy little rats enough that they'll leave it alone. My flower beds are on two sides of a stairway, the side closest to our forest, where the squirrels live, hardly had any bulbs left in it! I know I planted a LOT more daffs and tulips there than what I dug out! My irises have also taken a beating, not sure what I'm going to do about them just yet, maybe planters. The critters haven't seemed to bother the planters much.
I am officially on holiday right now, two whole weeks! Yay! I'm sort of kitty sitting for our son, and daughter in law. They have the cutest little black kitten, not unlike Machka's Rhody (sp? sorry!) but a little younger. He's only about 4 mos, and just so tiny! Anyway, they are going camping for a few days, so I'm just going to look in on him once a day. I may have to stay and play/cuddle him for awhile too.... I can't bring him here, hubby is allergic and is really enjoying our home without a litter box in it. I have to say, I don't miss the litter box either! I also don't want to confuse the cat, they just brought him home a few weeks ago, so don't want to introduce him to a new place. And they're only gone for a few days, so popping over there to check on him won't be too bad, they do live fairly close.
That's it for me for now! Sorry about the novel.....
Hugs to those who need them, congrats to those celebrating and welcome to the newbies!
Evelyn, Vancouver Island

Snowflake, you live in a beautiful place. I love the photos you shared. ❤️

Heather - I am so incredibly proud of them, happy for them and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit envious too.

This place suits them and I think it’s a great place for them.

HI, yikes I've been off for 2 weeks. Even skimming 39 pages is daunting. I used to weigh daily but haven't for weeks.This is my weight for past year. Less good than a year ago. Better than April at least.
I've just been going for strolls in city, not fast walks. Not making much of an effort in WL I admit. Kind of giving up.I'm 136 pounds that's very high for me. For much of past years I was a low of 115 and a high of 124. The highest I've ever been is 144, and only very briefly (less than a year) and I was very athletic then, doing hours of sports daily, but also really eating a lot back then. BMI 24.9 today!

After some socialisation for a few weeks. A meeting and meeting a few people at cafés and stuff. Now everyone is going away for summer little by little. It feels a bit lonely. Complicated year for vacations. I wanted to slip away to the sea, but it was totally booked nearby for Bastille day long weekend...I need to get organised and plan but also am in a bit of a rush to get all finished before schools close. One closing tomorrow, the others next week.

Yesterday my lawyer finished a case for one of the cases we have been working on. Basically the school hired us as if we were occasional visitors or speakers: a pay system than can be used if people are doing a 1 week intensive class or giving conferences maybe half a dozen times a year max or so. But we have been teaching several classes every week for over a decade. They sent only half my contracts to the court and seem to have lost half of my contracts, (I also checked my file at the school and they are missing and the school doesn't answer when I ask them to put them back and confirm they have done so), but I have copies of them, and over a decade of monthly pay slips. Regular vs occasional worker can make a big difference in terms of conditions, pay, and ... retirement. The occasional workers get no retirement, no workers rights, no pay raises, etc. etc. It's disheartening cause this RH guy, rather young, is very friendly and smiley, and used to (pre-covid) always come by and chat and kiss me on the cheek, and he was lying horribly to me/us for years, saying he was supporting us and sending info that we had no diplomas (false) that we were doing informal classes w no writing (false and he knows and we have discussed this and he pretended to agree with me...). How duplicitous people can be... It seems that many of the state schools function the same way. The laws don't permit the current treatment. Many years ago it was determined that regular workers could not be treated as occasional workers. But that costs much more to treat some as regular workers. So they just lie and do all sorts of twisted things.

We started a tract which became a petition. Now 300 out of about 2000 teachers in 20 out of 20 schools have signed, and it has appeared in the press. And we have only sent it through our relations. We were 2 but now are 14 in a collective, writing to unions, senators, etc., with a prominent and very effective president (he has little time but is a hard worker and what he does is very efficient and he writes great letters) in our collective.

I had to work too hard last weeks since some other core people were not very free, so I'm letting others do work these weeks. I was a bit burnt out.

I heard one director said he doesn't think we will get anything, and another heard (in a similar case) the decision makers they thought workers would do nothing very disturbing, so they would do nothing (and I think in that case they were right).

I'm gonna jump in an catch up as I go along.

SNOWFLAKE: nice house !

Greetings one and all.

Wow, I could not catch up yesterday and when I logged in found there were over 100 posts! We are a really busy group!

Electrical Update – After explaining what had happened to the repair company owner he feels the fixture in the powder room is probably the cause of the issue. I will find out later today when he sends over one of his workers. Note here – the circuit breaker installed in this development were “experimental”. They were designed to be smaller and to have two circuits piggyback (non-technical term here) off of the one below/above it just in case a circuit blew. Over the years it has been found this is not the best way to circuit electricity and each circuit should be independent from each other. Since these units have been phased out it is very difficult to find circuits to replace blown circuits. It is also not advisable, if one can find a replacement circuit, to just pull it out and replace it because the wiring “pairing” the circuits might have burned out and be in need of replacement. Since I did not smell anything oily (this is the smell of the wires burning) I do not think it’s the circuit, but the fixture in the powder room. We will know definitively by the end of the day.

Update on Friend’s Visit – Originally Mari was going to be driven down by a long-time family friend. Well, one of her son’s friends who travels between north and south Florida for work. The trip then changed due to his schedule and her daughter was planning on driving down to visit her in-laws and some friends. Her daughter’s trip was then cancelled and Mari decided she would fly down. After hearing the news yesterday that Miami (I am 45 miles north) is now the world’s epicenter and both airports she would be flying from and to are international we both decided the universe is sending us a message and we should delay the visit. I was OK with her driving down but flying is a different story even if it’s only a 45 minute flight. Both airports are way too busy and one has to be too vigilant in planning, sanitation, social distancing etc. The airlines are actually stating one should clean every surface around their seats and to buy the seat next to them if they can afford to do so. If this trip was meant to be the planning would not be so difficult. We both agreed to see what pans out over the next few weeks and make a decision then. I did not tell her as I did not want to add to the disappointment but with the current situation I feel Florida will be back in lock down and things will not improve until the end of this year. I will continue to call frequently and lend my ear as needed.

Heather – I love those cleaning out the refrigerator meals. What I do not enjoy is the inability to recreate. It seems those meals are always delicious but when planned, not so much!

Carol – No, not a master gardener. I am the gardener who takes the path of least resistance. I try to stick with native plants and/or plants whose habitat is sub-tropical. And, am fortunate to live in SFL where it is very easy to grow things.

Karen – Squirrels are funny creatures (rodents). I think they are just helping you by adding rocks to the bird bath. Oh, no attic here so little chance those bast—ds are chewing through the wires. LOL! Oh, and I forgot to mention bromeliads just love to jump out and injure me. Any time I am working with them I wear long sleeves and gloves. And, any time I forget to do so they just love to tear me up.

Sharon – I love your Teamster story!

Kim – I am so sorry for you and your friend’s loss. And, although there was no physical visit I do believe our angels guide us on our journey so we are not truly alone. Many hospitals here are using video chats for those situations. I agree there should be a way to suit up at least one family member but with the shortages of PPE for our frontline workers it’s probably not always practical especially within states with high hospitalizations.

Beth – I have been seeing these online. I am actually thinking about buying a few because I think so much is lost not being able to see someone’s facial expressions. And, after reading your posts I think they just make good sense.


Rebecca – Athena is walking! Yeah!

Barbara – The bromeliad’s name is Aechemea. Practical jokes can be fun if done in the spirit of fun and not nastiness. There is a very fine line there and one must be careful of who is on the receiving end. I tend to shy away from those types of jokes because they can be very hurtful.


Flea – I was so saddened by the news of Grant’s passing.

Sarah – Sending prayers and positive thoughts to your son.

Pip – It’s getting really real! So happy for you.

Machka – Glad you are on the mend and listening to your body.

Karen VT – WTG!!!!! Keep up the great work. What an accomplishment.

Rita – I love the wedding story. Too bad you did not see or I think we would have gotten some “spoiler” pictures!

Tracey – Love the new home/property. It looks like a very peaceful place. I love the “coffee pot” box.

It’s off to a new day for me. Two more working days and then five off! I am so excited even though I have to log in for a mandatory call on Wednesday.

Hugs to all,
SuziQ - SFL

Love that image, Machka.

Did Michelle Dozois’ Peak Fit Cardio Strength DVD. The plan for tomorrow is to do a 20-40-60 workout on the treadmill.

Went in the pool yesterday. The water was 91

Sarah – Hope your son is better fast and things start looking up for you

Katla – how wonderful of you to make that donation!

Evelyn – do you have to reserve an elliptical or a treadmill? You have to reserve a spot in a class at the Y in FL but I don’t know how or if you need to reserve an elliptical or treadmill. Do you have to? If you don’t, what happens when there’s a full house? When I talked to my friend in Ohio, she said that their Y is open but the bathrooms aren’t. I don’t know if I could go to a gym and NOT use the bathroom. I like that – “important contents…coffee pot”

Tracey – loved the pics of the house. What a great find

SuziQ – you made the right decision with your friend.

Michele NC

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Machka: I am impressed by the potluck offering. It would be an excellent strategy for avoiding future potluck parties. I think my dad would have loved it.

(((SuzoQ))): I would worry about your circuit situation because I lack electrical skills. Can you have your own unit fixed or does the whole building need to be fixed? :huh: Regarding the Florida Covid situation—be careful and stay safe. Get or make face masks in the event you have to go out. The photo you shared is a nice example, especially for those who are deaf and need to see a person’s mouth moving to gain information.

Barbie: We are also intentional shoppers. We have more than one grocery store and shop in both of them for different foods. We haven’t bought any kitchen gadgets from the net in a while. The Instant Pot that DH bought a couple of years ago is the last kitchen appliance we’ve purchased. My own preference is cast iron.

Michele: We’ve been donating empty beverage cans to various causes for a long time. Our state passed a bottle bill years ago to reduce garbage in landfills. Beverage cans currently carry a value of 10 cents per can. You pay this fee when you buy the beverage. The can itself can be redeemed for the 10 cents, and is eventually recycled into more cans or other aluminum items. Plastic beverage bottles also carry this fee and can be recycled. This time we donated cans to projects that improve county parks. We’ve also made donations to the food bank in the past and will likely do so again. The food bank uses the beverage can money to buy things for their clients that aren’t as easily available for people who struggle to put food on the table. Most of the foods they have to offer are produce donations. Eggs are sought after, and egg cartons help the clients get their eggs home in one piece. We are always thanked for donating empty egg cartons.

JazzyJewel: Welcome! :flowerforyou:

Heather: You are so lucky to see your grandchildren live and in person. We have to be satisfied with facetime and zoom. I’m more than a little bit envious.


Yesterday I had a lovely telephone chat with my cousin, John, who lives on the other side of the state. He and the family are doing well. Their area has been a recent Covid 19 hotbed as migrant workers have come in to the area to work in agricultural situations. In addition, residents of Idaho visit their town in Oregon to buy legal marijuana. My cousin was concerned because the out-of-staters don’t wear masks or adhere to safe social distancing.

We’re having a quiet day at home today. I’m enjoying being less busy for a little while.

Katla in Beautiful NW Oregon.

Machka you describe my symptoms exactly. Guess I should look into it and my insurance to see if I can breath and sleep better too! Sleep, allergies, choking at night, sinus infection and headaches; you described my problems exactly! Hope my insurance will pay for it here in US!

RvRita