Hi Janis,

 JK> Hi Ruth,

>> Hopefully your weather over there has been good to you this week.. I

 JK> > I'm surviving, but glad we have central air conditioning.

 JK> That is definitely a good thing.  We haven't had to use A/C yet....
 JK> The evenings cool off quite a bit right now.. Come late July and
 JK> August, that will probably change..

Probably so; I know there were days I really wished we'd had A/C when I
was growing up. My parents bought a window unit for my brother's bedroom
because they both had bad hay fever--don't know if it helped that much
but they took advantage of having a cool room.

>> was so ill finally starting last Friday night I think, I barely was

 JK> > Not a good time at all! I had a scheduled appointment yesterday with
 JK> a > hand specialist and have to see my cardiologist on Thursday.
 JK> That's a > routine 6 month check up; the other was follow up on a
 JK> severe arthritis > flare up I had a couple of months ago in the thumb
 JK> joint.

 JK> I hope all went well with that, and your checkup was positive.   I

As I was skimming for notes to me and this one popped up, I got a call
from the office. The appointment had to be put off until next week as
the doctor was called over to the hospital for something that they
anticipated would take some time to resolve.


 JK> know also how bad arthritis can get.. darn years of high doses of
 JK> Prednisone for MS really did a number on my knees and some to my hands
 JK> (though I'm sure not as bad as you suffer).  Do you do thumb exercises

Mine is from the broken wrists and general overall use of the hands in
so many things over the years--sewing, keyboarding, ASL............


 JK> for that arthritis in your thumb?  I have one excercise my mom showed
 JK> me that helps a lot.. You bend your thumb over to your pinky, then
 JK> move over to the base of the next finger in line, then then after the
 JK> 4th finger, you extend the thumb far and wide.. Works for me to keep
 JK> things "loose".

Hmmmmmmmmmm, have to give it a try. It might help.


>> Still no signs of tomatoes yet but plants are doing really well..
>> That's not unusual for NY though as I'm sure you remember.. Boy do I

 JK> > We were given our plants in April with blossoms already on them.
 JK> That > was a big jump start for us; we usually get them a few weeks
 JK> less
 JK> > mature. Tonight's supper was BLTs with home grown T on home made
 JK> whole > wheat (which we ground the berries to make the flour for)
 JK> bread.

 JK> Over here, when the night chill comes I've found that many blossoms
 JK> from plants bought in that state fall off.. not always, but ofen
 JK> enough. I think some eggplant flowers "continued" quite well one year,
 JK> but I think that might have been due to warmer evenings that year :)

Our tomatoes were probably started at that "just right' time. They do
taste good. (G)

>> > I usually dry, then freeze it.

>> Seems to work better for me if I freeze it given the kind of cooking I
>> do.. I do have some dried though for when the frozen parsley runs out,
>> it is handy no doubt. :)

 JK> > And, conversly, the cooking I do, the dry works well.

 JK> Understand :)

That's the way it works. (G)

>> travelling.. Originally we thought about about a trip to Yellow Stone
>> park.. but I'd really rather get some things done in the kitchen. :)

 JK> > We'll be heading north for Steve's high school class reunion & the
 JK> > picnic next month.

 JK> That sounds nice!  Unfortunately so far it looks like we'll be unable
 JK> to attend the picnic since my daughter has a work meeting in
 JK> California that week, and we'll be keeping the grandboys :)

Sigh! Too bad you can't come for just a day, like Saturday, with them.


 JK> >In August we're going back to VT with the mission
 JK> > team to do VBS again. Steve and I are going separate from the team
 JK> so we > can do some visiting of friends and relatives; we plan to get
 JK> to VT
 JK> > ahead of the rest of the team to do the grocery shopping and have
 JK> supper > ready for them. Have trailer, will travel. (G)

 JK> Lol, that is nice, no doubt.. If we traveled as much as you do, that
 JK> would be the way to do it for us I think.. :)

We just got it last year; our older daughter put a "bug" in her dad's
ear and he ran with the idea. All the improvements he has done on it
over the last few months have given him something to do too. Right now
he's adding several inches to the bottom 2 drawers in the kitchen area;
I'll have a bit more room to stow stuff then.

>> swollen so badly she insisted on giving me a stronger one than
>> doxyclycline.  I understand where she was coming from.. That was
>> Sunday by the time I decided I had to get to that emergency clinic for
>> the swelled left side of my face..

 JK> > I think I would have put my foot down on that one.

 JK> Well, doxyclycline wouldn't have helped the infection much (some drugs
 JK> are specific for certain infections and don't work so well on
 JK> "others").  It might have held me over until I got to my GP though, so
 JK> you're probably right.

I've learned the hard way, that if I'm not feeling good, then it's
better to get to a doctor sooner, rather than later. Saves a lot of
hurting.


 JK> >Unfortunately Monday morning the RIGHT side of my face also blew up
>> like balloon from the new antibiotic, and I really couldn't see out of
>> either eye much because of the swelling.  I realized through some
>> brief clarity of brain (lol) that I had to get to my GP because he
>> really knows all the meds I take for MS, and all the allergies I have

 JK> > Too bad you couldn't have gotten in to see your GP initially. Does
 JK> he do > phone consults?

 JK> Anytime I've had to see him, if it was weekday he'd get me in ASAP.  I
 JK> remember he's called me back on the phone a few times as well, so
 JK> that's good.

Yes, my GP is good about getting back with me too. I've had a few after
hours phone calls from him as well.


 JK> > Mine has a portal on the computer where I can e-mail him
 JK> > questions, get test results, etc.

 JK> Right.. same with my GP.

That is a big help.


 JK> >Haven't tried doing so, but I suspect,
 JK> > if I needed antibiotics, I might be able to get them thru that (and
 JK> a > local pharmacy) if we were travelling.

 JK> If I call his office with a request like that, the first thing he
 JK> generally would say is "Come in" .. He'll call in an antibiotic for
 JK> things like a UTI, but for something like this very bad infection he
 JK> wouldn't.  He also wanted to get a good history of what happened, I
 JK> think.. made sense to me.

Sounds logical.


>> to so many drugs.  The new one that my GP
>> presrcibed worked (yay, another one I _can_ tolerate!), and my GP also
>> put me on prednisone to reduce the inflammation.


>> CONTINUED IN NEXT MESSAGE <<

---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net  FIDO 1:396/45.28


... Gone crazy, be back later. leave a message at the Beep!

--- PPoint 3.01