I'm so sorry. This is awful.

I will add my voice to @GoVanGogh--my doctor has also given enthusiastic okays to take much more than the recommended amount while on antibiotics.

Sometimes it's best to rest, especially if tea and birdwatching is involved.

I took a short walk yesterday. Unfortunately walks will have to be short until I get my pesky knee sorted, probably next year. Today I hit the gym first thing for weights and core. Awesome.

I've been in similar situations--I think overthinking and nervousness are a normal response. I really hope it goes well for you.

YES. I, too, find a ton of relief from a warm soak. Even better when I can get access to a friend's tub with amazing seats with multiple jets--she's a 15-hour drive away, though, so her tub is a once or twice a year luxury.

This, especially the magnesium. I would also suggest accepting that you need a massage somewhat regularly for a little while. I do not tolerate medications well, especially NSAIDS. When I was at my peak pain + weakness I found that a massage would help a ton. For a while I got a massage once a month, and I yearned to be able to do it twice a month. When I have a bad flareup, I'll do a couple (2-3) over two weeks to break it up. A regular doctor would also suggest taking muscle relaxer pills. I find that magnesium is almost as effective. Another option is electric stimulation. I have a small stim machine that was prescribed for me, but I think you can buy them on the internet fairly easily. Re your joints having a ton of "give"--that is the case for me as well, and I have a formal hypermobility diagnosis. The laxity in connective tissue means that there are times I can stretch and the join will move but the muscle will stay tight. If that's happening, then the stretching will not help. Consider instead breaking up the muscle knots with pressure points (someone pushing hard on a knot), with massage using a roller or a ball or a rolling pin, and with creams will you sleep (Biofreeze or liniment, etc.). Also when the joints have a lot of laxity, it's essential to focus on strength training. The muscles knot and harden to try to compensate for what the connective tissue is not doing. The stronger the muscles, the better they can work to hold the joints in place. Also you will find that the joint laxity does improve over time with strength training combined with gentle movement like biking or water exercises.

I went with our teen to Planet Fitness today and was overjoyed to discover that in the years since I was a member they have added an arm bike to the mix. It’s sooooo good for back and neck. I will be going more regularly with teen for access to the arm bike. (Teen has the membership, so I can go as teen’s guest. I am a member elsewhere.) I also rode the recumbent bike for a longer time and my knee seems to be tolerating it, so that’s good news as well.

Lucy Maud Montgomery (author of Anne of Green Gables) wrote a collection of scary stories.

I’m so sorry for your loss.

There's also Willis Tower. Don't bother going unless you buy tickets IN ADVANCE. Weekend lines can be hours long. A similar experience is to eat at a restaurant in the Hancock building. It's a bit out of the way, though, but the views are just as incredible as in Willis Tower.

Native Chicagoan here. There is sooooo much to do in Chicago, especially in summer. River tours are wonderful. We like the ones that include both the river and a swing out onto the lake. I adore the Art Institute with every fiber of my being. The other museums are fabulous as well. The beach is wonderful. Zoos--We love Lincoln Park Zoo best, but there's also Brookfield. If you go to Lincoln Park Zoo, head OUT of the zoo near the rhinos and walk over to the conservatory. Then go back into the zoo to finish the loop around. End the day with some time on the beach which is right there as well. Grab pizza or dinner somewhere in the neighborhood. Catch a show. Blue Man Group is hysterical. There are always plays at one of the theaters or at Lyric Opera. Chicago Shakespeare theater has both Shakespeare and other stuff. There are also comedy clubs. Take a walking tour. Small, quick sights include the mosaics at the Chicago Cultural Center, the Picasso statue, Buckingham Fountain. It's also fun to walk through Millenium Park and Grant Park. Chicago Botanic Garden or Cantigny (a little further out from the city) Make sure you eat a proper, loaded Chicago hot dog (dno ketchup!!!) and/or an Italian beef sandwich (dipped!). Another option is deep dish pizza. There is a wonderful breakfast place called Orange that is worth the wait.

I have a terrible time on steroids also. Between that and my connective tissue condition I no longer take steroids. Personally though I don’t like being so sleepy, I do much better with muscle relaxers and painkillers (acetaminophen or ibuprofen or naproxen). If you tolerate the NSAIDS it might work to boost the dosage and rely on that with muscle relaxers. When I was dealing with a pinched nerve I took muscle relaxers and gabapentin. Perhaps ask about that? I found that I slept nearly constantly for the first 3-4 days on gabapentin but then adjusted and wasn’t so sleepy. I know people who take gabapentin for years just fine. My standard disclaimer is that gabapentin affects everyone differently of course. I tend to react big time to lots of things. It’s the metabolism I have, so I tend to take half-doses or child-size doses of medications in general. So take this with a grain of salt. In my case the smallest dose of gabapentin made me slooooow way down. I lost pockets of time due to just being spacey and there were times I had a hard time formulating/finding words. However, I have a couple friends who take larger doses than me with no such effects. I would say it’s worth a try and easy to wean off of (MUST be a slow taper down) if you don’t benefit from it.

A friend of mine found that she felt fine but had no desire to eat. She found the lack of desire overwhelming, like cutting off one of her senses. It took quite a lot of the pleasure out of eating. You would think that’s a good thing, but it was not.

An xray will not show disc issues or soft tissue. Most ERs and doctors will do xray first as required by insurance and only refer for an MRI if there are repeated or persistent issues. This is an extremely flawed approach—there is emphatically more soft tissue than bone. My dh suffered with repeated back issues over two years before I threw a temper tantrum and demanded an MRI. Lo and behold he had a fully herniated disc with a fragment impinging on the spinal cord as well as a few bulging discs. None of that was visible on an xray. Knowing what the actual problem was and where specifically changed the whole approach. Surgery would have been appropriate for the herniated disc fragment but dh chose a longer, slower road with extensive physical therapy. I also have back issues, so I have had to learn both when to push for better diagnostics but also have had to learn what’s “normal” for me.

I will also mention that I have gotten significant back relief from a tilt table. I will go from limping due to disc compression and bulging discs to walking fine and pain free within the space of ten minutes of hanging on the tilt table.

Scarlett, seriously, the whole bunch should pay for him to go somewhere else. It's often the only way to move people on who really have very few options to begin with. This guy is very, very good at being more stubborn than other people and seeing only the reality he wants to see. He will outlast you and it will not end until lots of ugliness happens. I have had to do this. I have two friends who are landlords who have had to do this. It's cheaper than any of the long legal options and it's an investment in peaceful relationships within the family.

I’m so sorry you’re in such pain. If this doesn’t ease up quickly, insist on an MRI. You may have a herniated disc.

Dawn, I am horrified with you. This is absolutely unacceptable and you are doing the right thing. You keep shouting about this from the rooftops. Tell everyone you possibly can. Don’t back down.

Hit the gym first thing this morning. No inhaler. It’s good to be on the upswing.

For me, the drama was the appearance of the sun. The black center with the corona and a red dot on the bottom was startling and so completely different than all the minutes before and after. It did get dark in those moments, but more like sudden twilight. A silvery dim kind of atmosphere for just a couple minutes. If I hadn’t been specifically looking and tracking the eclipse, it wouldn’t have impacted me the same way at all. Your perspective makes sense because you didn’t look at the totality. Not to beat a dead horse, but just to clarify.

We do so for pools, so why not for guns?

Swinging back in with this thought. I was not in any way offended by your thread title. And I have had similar thoughts in past about eclipses--is this really that big a deal? I even posted my own thread, originally titled something like Is it worth it to drive to totality? (I don't remember the exact wording of the title, but my original post and my update are still live.) I posted here in your thread because I did not know before this eclipse how different 100% totality is. I didn't know the huge gulf of difference between 99% and 100%. That was new information for me as of Monday. My opinion about eclipses being overblown changed drastically based on that. So I shared that information here in this thread, because I know how skeptical I was before and how my own opinion changed. I figured it's relevant information.

I have been puzzling through your options. I have had to do a fair amount of puzzling on this myself in the last two years as dh is job hunting and I have had to face some changes in direction as well. We’re a bit younger than you, but the crossroads forced on us by dh’s job and our desire to move back to the Chicago area has put us squarely in the middle of asking questions about retirement and work. It comes down to how much you want a career adventure versus other adventures. If the new position has things to do that seem genuinely appealing and interesting, something you’d spend time on gladly, then do it. But if you’ll have the same questions about retiring in either role (how long until retirement), then put your focus on accessing what you want (retirement).

This is exactly what I want to do, too. Just go live somewhere for a bit, do some sightseeing but mostly catch the rhythms of the place.