It is terrible. I can't imagine at this point that they'll find any more survivors.

Hugs, @Tap. That's a whole lot.

One of our cats had to stay at the vet's a few nights for testing and treatment for IBD. When I went to pick her up there was an unusually long wait. Finally the vet came out and said "I think maybe you should come back here and get her." She was totally done with being handled by them and was letting them know it rather emphatically. Thankfully she calmed down enough when she saw me that I was able to pick her up.

One is perfect. It is a little confusing -- a higher TSH indicates hypothyroidism (low thyroid). TSH is a hormone produced by the pituitary gland. A doc explained it to me like this -- TSH is essentially a measure how loudly your pituitary gland is having to yell at your thyroid to get it to do its job. A higher TSH (louder yelling by the pituitary gland) means the thyroid isn't working properly.

I don't understand this, but perhaps it just illustrates how we all think differently. I would never, ever in a thousand years expect a foreigner to know what the typical weather is in my particular locale at any given time of the year, nor would I expect a foreigner to have knowledge of American sick leave policies. It would be incredibly egotistical (to me) to expect a foreigner to have that kind of knowledge. I'd think it much more unusual for someone from a different country to know those things than to not know them.

I think the pressure on vets has to be immense. They spend a ton on education for a career that's relatively low paying in comparison. And it's a heartbreaking profession--not only due to the need for euthanasia, but because so many owners are negligent. Too often a pet isn't brought to a vet until it's too late for effective treatment, or until the pet's condition has deteriorated so much that it's cost prohibitive for the owner to treat the pet. And too often the vet gets blamed for the owner's negligence. Too often vets get blamed for what they have to charge to stay in business, even though when you compare (for example) a vet's office visit charge to a truck charge or hourly rate for a plumber or electrician (who require much less costly and time consuming education than a vet) the office fees are generally downright reasonable. And the takeover of so many private vet practices by corporations and private equity firms has made the situation much worse. They push vets to see ever more patients (spending less time with each one--the same thing we see in human medicine) and to push tests that are expensive and often not needed. OTOH I'm sure it's still a dream career for the people who are called to it.

Maybe all of that's true, and maybe (probably?) it's stuff people who follow them would actually know. I don't follow them (to the point that I didn't even remember they had three kids, let alone what their names are), so all I know is that the picture was posted by major, reputable news outlets whose reporting on serious events I usually respect, then retracted as manipulated, and then everybody was talking about it. It doesn't make sense to me that they would have pulled it from her personal Instagram page and posted it. Reputable media outlets don't typically do that, I don't think, or at least w/o a bunch of disclaimers. And I don't recall seeing any of those types of disclaimers with this picture, but I only started paying some attention after it was retracted. At that point I had to go find it on the sleazier (IMHO) sites, since it was no longer on the reputable ones. I have no idea what kind of paparazzi or social media crap she was dealing with before the publication of The Picture, but from where I'm sitting, based on what I know, it seems to me that the increased interest following that was totally self inflicted, and I totally do not get the blaming and shaming of people who are curious because of that incident.

It caught my attention exactly because it wasn’t a photoshopped picture on FB, a blogging site, or hanging on someone’s wall. It was a photo supposedly released by the royal family’s PR people and posted by the world’s most reputable news outlets. And then retracted by those outlets. Which certainly isn’t a common occurrence. That seems plenty enough to make people like me who wouldn’t otherwise waste two seconds of their time on the royal family start to wonder what the heck was really going on.

Mostly I eat very simply. Over the years I've figured out what foods I can tolerate in what amounts, and what foods I need to completely avoid. My main issues are with fructans and GOS. I prefer to eat vegetarian, but over the years have become increasingly intolerant to even small amounts of legumes, and I don't like tofu (and more than a moderate portion of it is high FODMAP), so I've had to incorporate small amounts of meat back into my diet. Breakfast is overnight oats with a dash of cinnamon and either a small amount (10 grams) of raisins or a handful of blueberries, almond milk. Lunch is almost always a large salad--lettuce/spinach, carrots, cuke, a small amount of red bell pepper (high FODMAP), a small amount of good fermented sauerkraut (high FODMAP but an excellent source of probiotics), some olives, pepitas, about 50 grams of cottage cheese. For a dressing I only ever use balsamic vinegar, typically no more than 15 grams. Dinner is usually soup or a casserole with fairly safe ingredients. It's the trickiest meal because I also need to feed DH and DS. So mostly I prepare something they'll eat as a main dish and just watch my portion if it contains high FODMAP ingredients. I eat lots of turnip or collard greens (the southern girl in me 😉), steamed green beans or other safe veggies. Rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes are all safe foods (sweet potatoes do have some mannitol, one of the FODMAPs, but it doesn't bother me). I make sourdough bread and tolerate it fine, so if I need something to round out a meal I'll have some of that. Popcorn is good for snacking. The most common things that I would like to eat but need to avoid or limit are lactose, legumes, onions and garlic, rye flour, nuts, and certain fruits.

For this specific thing -- unless you're talking about large, bulky, or heavy items then you don't do a hundred individual trips, you put lots of small, light things in a basket and carry them upstairs in one trip. Conservation of energy (or if you're familiar with spoon theory--protecting your spoons) is something you need to learn if your condition is going to be chronic. Which I hope it isn't, but even so I think with normal aging most people have to learn to live with limited "spoons." So learning to be as efficient as possible is helpful.

I hope you won't go. There seems to have been an unusual amount of snarkiness and silliness on this thread But it's the Hive, and along with the (many) good things about this forum . . sometimes threads like this happen. Ignoring the silliness and sticking with Kate's health -- I do think it's likely good news that cancer was only found after her surgery. Hopefully it was just a few rogue cells, and this is a situation where chemo is being done "just in case" and once that's behind her she'll have a complete recovery.

This. Disclosure--to children (young or adult), other family members, employers, etc. is an often discussed topic on the cancer support board I belong to. The overwhelming consensus from professionals, patients and caregivers is that it's much more likely for children to be harmed by NOT talking about cancer (or any serious diagnosis) than it is for them to be harmed by the knowledge that a parent has it.

Breaking news on CBS (they just interrupted the basketball game for a special report) -- Kate Middleton made a video statement announcing that she has cancer and is taking "preventative" chemotherapy. In the portion of the statement that CBS just aired no mention was made of what type of cancer.

I've eaten low FODMAP for close to fifteen years, but I don't have any actual meals planned out. I just make sure to limit/avoid high FODMAP ingredients overall. But it really sounds to me like your MIL needs some more testing. IBS is a diagnosis of exclusion. You rule out everything else first, not jump right to it. So that this doc jumped right to it with zero testing sends up all sorts of warning bells. Unfortunately, some docs are quick to blow off elderly people (and IME elderly women in particular). One thing she might try is IBGard. My problem is IBS-C, but those little pills are like magic for calming down my GI tract when it starts cramping and screaming. And as you can see, the reviews are very good for IBS-D. I always keep some on hand. Do be very careful with fiber. It can help or it can be horrendous. If she chooses to try any fiber supplement my advice is to research thoroughly first, start low, and increase very, very slowly.

Biz or Zout, or a drop or two of Dawn for grease stains.

Yes, you should be able to. You can adjust the zone that's covered, the sensitivity, and how often the camera records. Those give you lots of flexibility for getting video as a person is approaching. That's assuming there's a good line of sight to your door.

We have the Ring doorbell 4, which we bought during Prime Days in 2022. I do remember there was a very good sale on all the Ring devices then, and they were also on sale during Prime Days last year.

A pen? I feel like in the digital age people don't always carry pens like they used to. And a very small pair of scissors. A small tube of Aquaphor. Age and AI issues means I have perpetually dry skin. Aquaphor works for hands and lips. I'm never far from a tube (or tub) of it. I think tissues? I'm using a lot of them right now (thank you, spring pollen) but generally I don't use many at all. Or hard candy. I don't use much of that, but like to have some in the event of a coughing spell. I carry a lightweight sweater (folded into a gallon zippy bag) during the summers, when restaurants often have their AC blasting. I'm starting to wonder if I should go ahead and add that back in. We're in unpredictable weather time here. I don't carry one most of the time. If I'm out for quick, simple errands I just grab my phone, card wallet and keys. I usually only take the purse when going out to eat or something that's prolonged/not a common thing.

I'd err on the side of caution and skip it.

Less hair everywhere except my chin and upper lip (sigh).

DH does ours with Turbo Tax. I just nod and approve.

I would assume it's supposed to be a drawn out version of yeah. Kind of like if someone typed "yeeessss." But it doesn't seem very Irish!

I was thinking that, too.

Yes. Mine stayed home alone for short periods of time when they were significantly younger than that.

Almost ten year old zombie thread.