Your story has really helped us come to peace with the idea of staying put as long as possible. We just aren't up to these kind of crazy shenanigans. Plus my middle dd is going back to college (to get a degree in Graphic Design which she should have got in the first place) and will be moving back home again for the next three years so the house will be full again for the foreseeable future and my health is looking better than expected so I should be able to manage the stairs for awhile longer. This will give us a long period of time to fix the few things that need fixing and do some updates and then once all the kids are gone we can downsize to a much smaller (and hopefully cheaper) house.

About two weeks ago he came down with this flu that the whole family had. Then this past Sunday my dd informed us that he had been laying on the floor for ten hours straight and couldn't even get up to go to the bathroom. So we called an ambulance and he has been in the hospital ever since. His blood pressure is very low, he has a fever, his WBC is very high. He is in a lot of pain which they cannot adequately treat because his blood pressure is so low. He has vegetation in his heart. He is not able to walk and hasn't really been eating either. They have him on gabapentin for the pain and very strong anti-biotics. The infectious disease specialist says that he will be in the hospital for at least a few more days and will probably come home with an IV. He is meeting with a physical therapist tomorrow to work on getting him moving again. He is grumpy and miserable. My dd is exhausted. He doesn't have medical insurance so they are stressed about that. Luckily, they live with us so we will be able to help take care of them and I have been through all of this before so I have some understanding of what he is going through. It would be really nice to have a year without any crazy shit going on though.

I get cysts in that general area fairly often. They started well after menopause. They are very painful. It hurts to even wipe. When they first show up they are not even visible but slowly come to a head over a week or so. I never thought to do anything about them until I happened to get one while I was in the hospital. They gave me Bactracin ointment and that helps clear them up much more quickly. I have no idea what changed after menopause to cause these but I don't shave or wax so probably not an ingrown hair, I usually wear loose pjs or a robe with boxer style undies so probably not caused by friction. Nothing else has really changed so not sure why I get them now but I was basically told it was no big deal and that I didn't need to be overly concerned about it.

I like to look on Pinterest for wardrobe ideas. Also, check out betabrand pants. Very comfortable but nice looking as well.

Places like Cracker Barrell, Benny's or IHOP are usually open on holidays plus many chinese restaurants.

In my experience they have been thrown away.

A cat's placement is always correct.

I also tried Abilify as an add on and I loved it. It was like a miracle pill. I felt great on it. Unfortunately, once I reached a certain dosage it caused a side effect that I can't remember the name of but it was like restless leg syndrome but all over my entire body so I had to stop taking it. I think if I had stayed below that dosage threshold I would have been ok but once the side effect started lowering the dose didn't help. So I would recommend it but I would start with the lowest dose possible and progress very slowly and only as needed. I originally sought treatment for bipolar but I also have OCD and ADD. I found that once we managed to bring the bipolar under control then everything else fell in line. At this point, I am basically taking one bipolar med plus I have anti-anxiety meds and sleep meds that I take as needed. If I had a real need to concentrate (as if I went back to college or something) I would probably have to add back my Adderall but I really don't see that happening. I am telling you this because it has been found that anxiety exacerbates OCD so it is possible that if your dd is able to lower her anxiety with a different med it may also have a positive effect on her OCD. I would also recommend that you start a journal of meds she takes and the effects that they have and if you have to stop taking them, why because that will help with decisions in the future.

Lamictal is a mood stabiliser primarily used to treat Bipolar Disorder. It is known to work better on depressive symptoms than manic ones. Almost all mood stabilisers can have weird mood side effects but that is pretty rare. When dealing with mood issues you often have to try many different meds to find what works best for you. I have never heard of its use in treating OCD but I haven't taken that in a very long time. I did used to take it but it was not managing my mania well enough and it caused a rare side effect of intense sleepiness without the ability to actually fall asleep (I think this was the beginning of my intense insomnia).

Ok, I agree. 🙃

I have twice in the past few years had very low counts due to my hiatal hernia (which they have since fixed). The first time my count was 5.9 and they decided to treat it orally. I was taking three different irons and it resolved the issue in about a month. The second time my count was closer to 5 and they did a transfusion. I was told that if you anemia came on slowly with the numbers getting lower over a long period of time it is safer to treat orally than if you suddenly lost a large amount of blood at one time. Since they treated my hernia and low B12 mu numbers have been great for almost a year now.

I also just learned that they have proven that the 300 mg XL generic Wellbutrin is not BE and that they are starting to find a few other known drugs with these kinds of problems.

You get your grandchildren to give you the flu and then you spend at least a week in bed without eating anything and only managing the occasional sip of water. I am not better yet so who knows I might lose another ten this week.

Every year I ask for books and every year my family informs me that books are a boring gift. I have no idea where they came from.

One of my dds was born 9/5 and her SO on 9/13. My brother and his dd were born on 9/4.

We have also noticed a shortage of Pharmacists. Sometimes the head pharmacist is the only person working in our pharmacy at any given time and it is a pretty busy pharmacy. We have noticed the same thing in other pharmacies. I had a week delay on getting my meds this past week on a med that has never been a problem.

I want a good assortment of basic colors. All the ones on Amazon have tons of metallic, neon, pastel, glitter, swirled, etc with just a few basic colors. I already have a set of all those fancy inks so I really don't need anymore. I am looking for maybe 30 or so plain colors preferably with a .8 to 1.0 mm tip, a rubber grip and retractable if at all possible. I really like the Pilot G-2 pens but they don't have a wide enough variety of colors but I am looking for something like that. Pens with caps would be alright as well. Doesn't seem like too much to ask for but I am not finding any.

Love the avatar and the name is kinda catchy too even if you aren't the one causing the drama.

Thank you so much. I found a set.

I have BF in many states and another country in public since 1983 and I have never received any dirty looks or unkind statements. Two of my dds have done the same and not had any problems either and we all BF until two or three. I can spot a BF at 50 yards and I have very rarely seen any problems.

I remember having to learn to walk all over again and the incredible sense of accomplishment from just being able to something so seemingly simple. Good for you. Glad to hear some positive news.

Well I wasn't aware that was necessary until very recently but now that I know I will certainly try

Yeah, I have been Libertarian and voting that way for almost 40 years now. Most of that time I have been used to most people not really paying us much attention or really knowing much about us. Then it was like we were co-opted by an outside group and dragged into a mess not of our making and then being blamed for it by another group of people. Very frustrating. Things seemed to be improving for our party though and we are starting to make progress especially at the state and local levels.

So I am still feeling kind of manic and I went to the doc today. Instead of bumping my meds a little like I was (and which obviously weren't helping) he had me double them for awhile. So I just took them and am hoping to crash soon.

Yeah, one of my dds has that as well but I don't know what app it is. The program I used to use no longer exists. I will try asking my night sky loving dd.