Harry
 

On 10/9/2013 10:37 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:


"Charlemagne" wrote in message ...


Poor woman across the street got it and it lasted for weeks. After a
week or so she was so bad they put her on Oxycontin and it didn't
work so after another week or so she just quit cold turkey, almost
killed her the withdrawls... She thought she was having a heart
attack and went off in the Ambulance... Be careful. Don't live in
misery.. That's just dumb in this day and age but talk to your doctor
a lot about the pain control meds, especially if you are bad enough
to need dope.... Know what to expect, and more importantly, have an
exit strategy worked out well in advance with him... or her....



The doc asked me if I wanted something for pain. I said no. He said
if I change my mind, just give him or his office a call.
I don't like pain but I can tolerate it. My wife says I have a "high"
pain threshold. I am not sure there is such a thing, but I don't like
strong painkillers either.

I am somewhat of an old fashioned curmudgeon about medical related
things I think. It's probably because I've been very fortunate to have
been very healthy throughout my life without over doing the doctor
thing, so why take chances that may screw it up? I don't go to the
doctor nearly enough as is recommended, sometimes for many years at a
time. The receptionist at my doctor's office claims that I have the
skinniest medical file of any of their long term clients. I know it's
stupid but old habits die hard.

When I went to the eye clinic today, it was the first time I've seen an
eye doctor since I left the Navy in 1978. Part of the exam included a
standard eye chart test with equipment that looked out of Star Wars to
me. My right eye was 20/25. The eye affected by shingles, being all
swollen and inflamed was 20/30 but the doc said it would be better
again, once the inflammation and swelling is gone. That's not too shabby
for a 64 year old. I could probably still qualify (sight wise) for
F-18 fighter training, except I'd probably throw up on take off.

The eye doctor nurse had to take my medical history, since I was a "new"
patient. Here's how it went. Kinda funny:

Nurse: Any major surgeries?
Me: Tonsils when I was 12, appendix when I was 22 and a hernia repair
in my 40’s.
Nurse: That’s it? Nothing more recent?
Me: That’s it.
Nurse: Any history of diabetes, heart disease, cancer or pneumonia?
Me: Nope.
Nurse: High blood pressure?
Me: Used to be a little high but it’s fine now.

(I don’t think she believed me, so she took my blood pressure. It was
122/80 she said was excellent for my age.

Nurse: What kind of medications to you take regularly?

(They must assume anyone over 60 *must* be walking around with a pill
box in their pocket)

Me: None.
Nurse: You don’t take any kind of medication?
Me: Oh, well, yeah ... aspirin.
Nurse: Ok ... do you take the baby aspirin, the 350 milligram or the
500 milligram?
Me: I guess the regular 500 milligram. Usually take two.
Nurse: (looking up at me) You take *two* 500 milligram aspirins a day?
Me: Hell no. I take two once in a while if I have a headache.
Nurse: So you aren’t on a daily aspirin regiment?
Me: What’s that?

Hey, it's worked so far.



All I am saying is in this day and age, there is no real reason to
suffer with pain in a situation like this... I don't know how bad it is
for you guys, but when Mrs got it, sometimes I could hear
her moaning across the street and she is 75 year that grew up on the
streets of Chicago as a young black girl... Tough as nails, this thing
took her to her knees.... It was heartbreaking...

Harry
 

"Califbill" wrote in message
...

"Mr. Luddite" nowayalso.jose.com wrote:
"Hank©" wrote in message
eb.com...


O'Bamacare's got you covered.
When you recover from this, go get that colonoscpy that's overdue.

--------------------------

Right now I'd trade a colonoscopy a week for the next two months
for this.

Just noticed something that's almost funny. The doc said that
because
the shingles virus follows nerve paths, you will only get it on one
side
of your body at a time.

It's only my left eye and left side of my face that are affected,
but I
have a bunch of blisters on the top of my scalp (under my remaining,
thinning hair).

I just ran my fingers over them and realized that they all start
from the
centerline and go leftward. The right side is fine. Weird.

You realize that Shingles is a version of Chicken Pox. If you did not
have
CP as a kid, likely not to have Shingles.


separator

I knew that but it's about all I knew about shingles. Here's some
things I learned today:

My age group (and probably several others here) were of the pre-
childhood inoculation era.
We were expected to go through the normal chickenpox, measles, mumps
thing like a right of passage.

At some point childhood disease inoculations started. I am not sure
when, but I know all our kids were inoculated and never had any of the
childhood diseases.

Contrary to myth, shingles is not contagious. Someone with active
shingles *cannot* infect someone else. The only exception is that
someone with active shingles *can* infect a person who has never had
chickenpox *and* was never inoculated for chickenpox. In this case,
it is possible to transfer the virus from someone with active shingles
to the other person, except he/se won't develop shingles. They will
develop chickenpox. This is very rare.

Shingles hits people of all ages. Many have developed it in their
20s, 30s and upward. It's not an "old person" virus. It ranges from
very mild to very severe and life threatening. Many people have had
very mild bouts of shingles and never knew it. If they even noticed,
they assumed it was just an allergy based rash that might be itchy but
is painless and eventually goes away. Then there are cases like
mine that are more severe and you *know* you have something. Even
still, I originally thought it was a fiberglass allergy reaction. A
nurse said it was pink eye which is a bacteria based infection. The
anti-biotic eye drops she prescribed and I was initially using is
worthless against a viral infection. The eye doc told me to throw it
away.

But the two doctors I saw confirmed it was shingles. The clue is the
only affecting one side thing, because it's a viral infection that
follows nerve paths. You won't get shingles on both sides of your
body (face, scalp, chest, back, etc.) at the same time because each
side of your body has separate nerve pathways. That blew my mind.
The left side of my face, my left eye and the left side of my scalp
are affected. The right sides of each are clear and unaffected. It's
painful but so far nothing I can't tolerate.

As Harry mentioned, a vaccine was released for shingles in 2006.
It's currently about 60 percent effective in preventing a break out or
repeat break out. If it doesn't prevent a breakout, it will
typically minimize the severity and duration. I'll be signing up for
it as soon as this episode is over. Doc said now is not the time.

Harry
 

On Wed, 9 Oct 2013 22:37:27 -0400, "Mr. Luddite" nowayalso.jose.com wrote:



"Charlemagne" wrote in message ...


Poor woman across the street got it and it lasted for weeks. After a
week or so she was so bad they put her on Oxycontin and it didn't
work so after another week or so she just quit cold turkey, almost
killed her the withdrawls... She thought she was having a heart
attack and went off in the Ambulance... Be careful. Don't live in
misery.. That's just dumb in this day and age but talk to your
doctor a lot about the pain control meds, especially if you are bad
enough to need dope.... Know what to expect, and more importantly,
have an exit strategy worked out well in advance with him... or
her....



The doc asked me if I wanted something for pain. I said no. He said
if I change my mind, just give him or his office a call.
I don't like pain but I can tolerate it. My wife says I have a
"high" pain threshold. I am not sure there is such a thing, but I
don't like strong painkillers either.

I am somewhat of an old fashioned curmudgeon about medical related
things I think. It's probably because I've been very fortunate to
have been very healthy throughout my life without over doing the
doctor thing, so why take chances that may screw it up? I don't go
to the doctor nearly enough as is recommended, sometimes for many
years at a time. The receptionist at my doctor's office claims that I
have the skinniest medical file of any of their long term clients. I
know it's stupid but old habits die hard.

When I went to the eye clinic today, it was the first time I've seen
an eye doctor since I left the Navy in 1978. Part of the exam
included a standard eye chart test with equipment that looked out of
Star Wars to me. My right eye was 20/25. The eye affected by
shingles, being all swollen and inflamed was 20/30 but the doc said
it would be better again, once the inflammation and swelling is gone.
That's not too shabby for a 64 year old. I could probably still
qualify (sight wise) for F-18 fighter training, except I'd probably
throw up on take off.

The eye doctor nurse had to take my medical history, since I was a
"new" patient. Here's how it went. Kinda funny:

Nurse: Any major surgeries?
Me: Tonsils when I was 12, appendix when I was 22 and a hernia
repair in my 40’s.
Nurse: That’s it? Nothing more recent?
Me: That’s it.
Nurse: Any history of diabetes, heart disease, cancer or pneumonia?
Me: Nope.
Nurse: High blood pressure?
Me: Used to be a little high but it’s fine now.

(I don’t think she believed me, so she took my blood pressure. It was
122/80 she said was excellent for my age.

Nurse: What kind of medications to you take regularly?

(They must assume anyone over 60 *must* be walking around with a pill
box in their pocket)

Me: None.
Nurse: You don’t take any kind of medication?
Me: Oh, well, yeah ... aspirin.
Nurse: Ok ... do you take the baby aspirin, the 350 milligram or the
500 milligram?
Me: I guess the regular 500 milligram. Usually take two.
Nurse: (looking up at me) You take *two* 500 milligram aspirins a
day?
Me: Hell no. I take two once in a while if I have a headache.
Nurse: So you aren’t on a daily aspirin regiment?
Me: What’s that?

Hey, it's worked so far.


I take a cholesterol pill and a baby aspirin. Heart disease runs in the family - both sides. Smoked
for 39+ years. Doc says the heart risk is too high not to keep the cholesterol down. The aspirin is
a safety measure.

But, I'll be 70 in a few months. The LDL cholesterol is down in the 70's, with the Lipitor. That's a
good thing.

You're at the age I was when I started with the meds. Doctor had been pushing for a couple years.
Golf got the cholesterol from 136 down to 100, but the doc wanted it lower.

Don't fight the docs too long, and start getting the annual physical.
--

John H.

Hope you're having a great day!

Harry
 

On Wed, 9 Oct 2013 22:39:24 -0400, "Mr. Luddite" nowayalso.jose.com wrote:



"Califbill" wrote in message
...

"Mr. Luddite" nowayalso.jose.com wrote:
"Hank©" wrote in message
eb.com...

On 10/9/2013 2:25 PM, John H wrote:

I can't understand something. Perhaps it's my news reader. When I
hit
the Reply button for almost
any message, the message to which I'm responding is quoted.
However,
this is not the case with your
messages. The only way my reply quotes you is if I copy and paste
your
message in the reply.

Any ideas?

Greg - if you read this - you got any ideas?


The dashes he uses as a separator causes newsreaders to treat his
response as a sig line.
Sig lines usually aren't included in a reply. Maybe he wants it that
way.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Didn't realize that. Does the upward arrows used in this reply as a
separator work? I use a separator because the most recent post to
which I am usually replying to does not have the traditional,
single,
double, triple right facing arrows that identify a previously posted
quote.

On my ipad the dash separator makes the following look like the sig
line,
where the new separator has dark print.

It's reading it in html. I post in text only. I am not sure what to
change, so I'll leave things alone.

It's not your separator alone. I think it's your separator in conjunction with mine, and when I try
to get rid of mine Agent says a 'persona' of 'none' won't work.

I'm not wild about this new, to me, Agent.
--

John H.

Hope you're having a great day!

Harry
 

"John H" wrote in message
...

On Wed, 9 Oct 2013 22:39:24 -0400, "Mr. Luddite" nowayalso.jose.com
wrote:


It's reading it in html. I post in text only. I am not sure what
to
change, so I'll leave things alone.

It's not your separator alone. I think it's your separator in
conjunction with mine, and when I try
to get rid of mine Agent says a 'persona' of 'none' won't work.

I'm not wild about this new, to me, Agent.
--

John H.

Hope you're having a great day!

separator

I tried "Agent" and "Thunderbird" years ago in their earlier
versions. I never saw any big benefit over the standard newsreader
that came with the various Windows mail and newsgroup packages.

I use "Windows Mail" on my Vista machine and "Windows Live Mail" on
the Windows 7 computer (this one). I have no problem reading
newsgroups and emails, I can filter by "Handle" or email address ...
or create custom filters. I see all the previous exchanges in a
thread and can delete or add anything to them. I can also sort the
treads by date, poster, conversation (which I use because it keeps all
posts on a subject together) or subject and can display in ascending
or decending mode by date. There are options to hide all read
messages, display all messages (including previously viewed ones)
and much more, including text only or html modes. I use text only
for newsgroups and html for email. . Once I determined the settings
I liked, reading newsgroups is as easy as reading emails.

I don't see any reason to use a "real" newsgroup reader like you hear
so many people talk about. Oh ... and I don't use a web based forum
like "Google" groups to read newsgroups.

Harry
 

On 10/10/2013 7:09 AM, John H wrote:
On Wed, 9 Oct 2013 22:37:27 -0400, "Mr. Luddite" nowayalso.jose.com wrote:



"Charlemagne" wrote in message ...


Poor woman across the street got it and it lasted for weeks. After a
week or so she was so bad they put her on Oxycontin and it didn't
work so after another week or so she just quit cold turkey, almost
killed her the withdrawls... She thought she was having a heart
attack and went off in the Ambulance... Be careful. Don't live in
misery.. That's just dumb in this day and age but talk to your
doctor a lot about the pain control meds, especially if you are bad
enough to need dope.... Know what to expect, and more importantly,
have an exit strategy worked out well in advance with him... or
her....



The doc asked me if I wanted something for pain. I said no. He said
if I change my mind, just give him or his office a call.
I don't like pain but I can tolerate it. My wife says I have a
"high" pain threshold. I am not sure there is such a thing, but I
don't like strong painkillers either.

I am somewhat of an old fashioned curmudgeon about medical related
things I think. It's probably because I've been very fortunate to
have been very healthy throughout my life without over doing the
doctor thing, so why take chances that may screw it up? I don't go
to the doctor nearly enough as is recommended, sometimes for many
years at a time. The receptionist at my doctor's office claims that I
have the skinniest medical file of any of their long term clients. I
know it's stupid but old habits die hard.

When I went to the eye clinic today, it was the first time I've seen
an eye doctor since I left the Navy in 1978. Part of the exam
included a standard eye chart test with equipment that looked out of
Star Wars to me. My right eye was 20/25. The eye affected by
shingles, being all swollen and inflamed was 20/30 but the doc said
it would be better again, once the inflammation and swelling is gone.
That's not too shabby for a 64 year old. I could probably still
qualify (sight wise) for F-18 fighter training, except I'd probably
throw up on take off.

The eye doctor nurse had to take my medical history, since I was a
"new" patient. Here's how it went. Kinda funny:

Nurse: Any major surgeries?
Me: Tonsils when I was 12, appendix when I was 22 and a hernia
repair in my 40’s.
Nurse: That’s it? Nothing more recent?
Me: That’s it.
Nurse: Any history of diabetes, heart disease, cancer or pneumonia?
Me: Nope.
Nurse: High blood pressure?
Me: Used to be a little high but it’s fine now.

(I don’t think she believed me, so she took my blood pressure. It was
122/80 she said was excellent for my age.

Nurse: What kind of medications to you take regularly?

(They must assume anyone over 60 *must* be walking around with a pill
box in their pocket)

Me: None.
Nurse: You don’t take any kind of medication?
Me: Oh, well, yeah ... aspirin.
Nurse: Ok ... do you take the baby aspirin, the 350 milligram or the
500 milligram?
Me: I guess the regular 500 milligram. Usually take two.
Nurse: (looking up at me) You take *two* 500 milligram aspirins a
day?
Me: Hell no. I take two once in a while if I have a headache.
Nurse: So you aren’t on a daily aspirin regiment?
Me: What’s that?

Hey, it's worked so far.


I take a cholesterol pill and a baby aspirin. Heart disease runs in the family - both sides. Smoked
for 39+ years. Doc says the heart risk is too high not to keep the cholesterol down. The aspirin is
a safety measure.

But, I'll be 70 in a few months. The LDL cholesterol is down in the 70's, with the Lipitor. That's a
good thing.

You're at the age I was when I started with the meds. Doctor had been pushing for a couple years.
Golf got the cholesterol from 136 down to 100, but the doc wanted it lower.

Don't fight the docs too long, and start getting the annual physical.


I was able to distinguish Luddite's post from your reply without no
Steeenkin "separator". Who did what to make that happen?

Harry
 

On 10/10/2013 7:52 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:


"John H" wrote in message
...

On Wed, 9 Oct 2013 22:39:24 -0400, "Mr. Luddite" nowayalso.jose.com
wrote:


It's reading it in html. I post in text only. I am not sure what to
change, so I'll leave things alone.

It's not your separator alone. I think it's your separator in
conjunction with mine, and when I try
to get rid of mine Agent says a 'persona' of 'none' won't work.

I'm not wild about this new, to me, Agent.

This time your entire reply, including "separator" looked like it was
part of John's sig line. That is why it was automatically removed from
the quote I replied to.

Harry
 

"Hank©" wrote in message
eb.com...


I was able to distinguish Luddite's post from your reply without no
Steeenkin "separator". Who did what to make that happen?


I left his whole signature line in my reply. I usually cut them
because some people here like to make big political statements over
and over again using their signature line as the vehicle.

Harry
 

In article , "Mr. Luddite" says...

"Hank©" wrote in message
eb.com...


O'Bamacare's got you covered.
When you recover from this, go get that colonoscpy that's overdue.

--------------------------

Right now I'd trade a colonoscopy a week for the next two months for
this.

Just noticed something that's almost funny. The doc said that
because the shingles virus follows nerve paths, you will only get it
on one side of your body at a time.

It's only my left eye and left side of my face that are affected, but
I have a bunch of blisters on the top of my scalp (under my remaining,
thinning hair).

I just ran my fingers over them and realized that they all start from
the centerline and go leftward. The right side is fine. Weird.

I wish you a speedy recovery.

Harry
 

On 10/10/2013 8:51 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:


"Hank©" wrote in message
eb.com...


I was able to distinguish Luddite's post from your reply without no
Steeenkin "separator". Who did what to make that happen?


I left his whole signature line in my reply. I usually cut them
because some people here like to make big political statements over and
over again using their signature line as the vehicle.

I didn't notice whether or not his sig got stripped. Your news reader
should be able to automatically strip sigs. Maybe there's a setting you
need to set to make that happen.