And now what did you do TODAY?

[Dusty Chalk]

I got my car back today.  Finally (12 days later).

[shellylh]

I had one of those once -- Actually, I had an initial root canal where the resin did not fill the cavity completely and I got an infection in the end of it a year later. So they had to do another root canal through the first one. Required 3 3-hour sessions spread over 6 weeks to allow for swelling to recede. To make it worse, the initial root canal was through a crown, which had been put in place when a deep filling cracked.

 

 

In the initial root canal, the dentist had to do that. At one point the numbness had completely worn off, and he accidentally touched something with the tip of the needle -- I think I jumped 3 feet out of the chair -- hands down the worst thing I have ever felt.

 

 

Oh wow Doug, that sounds truly awful. 

[Emooze]

I am cringing so hard you can not even imagine. Dental work scares me more than any horror movie to date. I feel maybe a tenth of you Doug.

[Grahame]

Interesting consult with a Rheumatologist today regarding my embiggened knee. Physical Therapy, now started, is working well to improve range of motion (better numbers at end of session vs at start) plus I have some home torture exercises to work on. To date Orthopedic Surgeon has recommended Orthopedic Surgery (Quelle Surprise! )  Rheumatologist said runaway as fast as you can and mentioned some controlled trials that show no statistical differences in outcomes between surgery / placebo surgery and no surgery (maybe this, this, this or this?)Interesting fault finding/root cause analysis given site specific nature and lack of other joints affected ...  Meanwhile, direct injection of anti-inflammatory to the knee, and various blood test ordered. I counted 10 vials when they drew the blood. Lets see what next week and the results bring ....

[Voltron]

Is it safe?

 

Unlikely I will sleep tonight with visions of Josef Mengele, D.D.S., floating in my head.  That, plus Grahame's plumped up knee is enough to end all though of sleep.

[Torpedo]

Graham, you first need a diagnosis, once you know what you're dealing with, you can decide about the best treatment. You might need a biopsy of the articulation capsule, or the cartilage. Since afaik we don't have a diagnosis yet, I wouldn't go to any more invasive surgery than an endoscopic biopsy. But that's me, and what do I know.

[skullguise]

^^^ Smart man, that Antonio fella....  Try to get REAL root cause before jumping into anything drastic.....

 

Best of luck!!

[jvlgato]

I'd put off surgery until you're given a clear reason to need surgery. Agree, would be nice to know what's even wrong first!

[MexicanDragon]

Amputate and take step 1 towards becoming a cyborg. That's my recommendation.

**BRENT**

[Salt Peanuts]

Spent the last 4 hours cleaning the gutters and yards.  Now I'm going eat lunch and take a nap.

[Absorbine_Sr]

Gave the Weber Genesis a good cleaning after a full summer's use. Not retiring it for the winter, as I will grill even when the snow is falling. I just wanted to get it back in decent shape.

[Augsburger]

Actually this was yesterday but I intended to post this yesterday in which case it would have been current for this thread.

 

Took my youngest to a event called "For The Troops" as part of his community service project.  For those who don't know, For the Troops is a volunteer organization that collects personal goods, candy DVDs, books and a whole range of items to ship to service personnel deployed in Afganistan among other places.  For such a small store front they have managed to collect quite a haul--

 

.

This represents about one tenth of the boxes they had stacked in every corner and room. What my son and his classmates were tasked to do was to fill little shoe boxes with various items for each soldier, marine, sailor airman etc. While helping stuff a few boxes and envelopes I asked one of the volunteers there when they would be shipping out these boxes because soon they would be out of workspace.  Her answer was " We can't ship anything out yet, we have no money for postage"  WTF??? Really??   They are just now starting a fund raising campaign for postage but that could take a while.

 

So it makes sense to split the Head Case Bottle Breacher money between For The Troops to get the shipping ball rolling and the other half goes to the Naval Special Warfare Family Foundation.  So, there it is, something to think about when you crack open your beers.

 

Cheers all and thanks!!

Edited November 11, 2013 by Augsburger

[VPI]

Came back to Athens Georgia for the day.

 

 

About to head out to the Branded Butcher for some cocktails.

 

 

Then off to Trappeze Pub to prepare for Trampled by Turtles at the Georgia Theater.

Edited November 12, 2013 by VPI

[VPI]

Some pics from the show.

 

Openers

 

 

 

Trampled by Turtles

 

[Hopstretch]

Two more hours of adventures in extreme endodontry. If this tooth ever picks up a radio station, it better be fuckin' streaming 24/192.

[Aimless1]

Hope it goes better than expected!

[crappyjones123]

Julie went to Sears on Tuesday to get 2 tires changed. When she went out to the car to drive home, the door handle was broken. She went back in and complained and the assistant manager said he couldn't get to it the same day so she would need to leave the car over night. He told her that if it was something small they would take care of it but if it was expensive she would need to pay. I went over and he changed that statement to small charges coming out of pocket, big charges coming out of their 3rd party insurance. On Thursday evening I went to go pick up the car and while the door handle was fixed, the remote keyless entry no longer locked or unlocked the car. I left the car over night and Julie called the corporate office and filed a case with them. After a couple of phone calls corporate said that we would need to essentially need to deal with the local Sears car shop and she refused to give us the Store manager's name or contact information. Today the shop told Julie that they will get to the car whenever they can. The manager said he spoke with his mechanics and none of them broke it and that it must have broken on it's own between the time that the car was fixed and when I came to pick it up - the car was still in the repair area when I got there). He told me I would need to pay for any and all repairs this time around because they are not at fault. 

 

Suggestions? She needs to get to work and school so I gave her my car and now I haven't had one since Tuesday. They refused to pay for a rental as well since the door handle being broken was did not make the car unsafe to drive. I have missed all off campus hospital visits since Wednesday due to this. 

[tyrion]

Actually this was yesterday but I intended to post this yesterday in which case it would have been current for this thread.

 

Took my youngest to a event called "For The Troops" as part of his community service project.  For those who don't know, For the Troops is a volunteer organization that collects personal goods, candy DVDs, books and a whole range of items to ship to service personnel deployed in Afganistan among other places.  For such a small store front they have managed to collect quite a haul--

 

.

This represents about one tenth of the boxes they had stacked in every corner and room. What my son and his classmates were tasked to do was to fill little shoe boxes with various items for each soldier, marine, sailor airman etc. While helping stuff a few boxes and envelopes I asked one of the volunteers there when they would be shipping out these boxes because soon they would be out of workspace.  Her answer was " We can't ship anything out yet, we have no money for postage"  WTF??? Really??   They are just now starting a fund raising campaign for postage but that could take a while.

 

So it makes sense to split the Head Case Bottle Breacher money between For The Troops to get the shipping ball rolling and the other half goes to the Naval Special Warfare Family Foundation.  So, there it is, something to think about when you crack open your beers.

 

Cheers all and thanks!!

This is awesome Greg. Let me know where I can send a check to help with shipping.

[guzziguy]

Suggestions? She needs to get to work and school so I gave her my car and now I haven't had one since Tuesday. They refused to pay for a rental as well since the door handle being broken was did not make the car unsafe to drive. I have missed all off campus hospital visits since Wednesday due to this. 

 

Sorry for the problem, Crappy.  I have several suggestions:

 

1.  Don't take your car to a department store for maintenance.  I suspect that you've already figured that out.

 

2.  File a grievance with the local BBB.

 

3.  Find a local TV or radio news department that does consumer protection stories and tell them about it.

 

4.  Write a letter to the CEO of Sears describing the issue and how disappointed you are.  Mention that won't shop at Sears again and that you'll tell everybody you know about the problem and recommend they don't either.

 

5.  As a final resort, file in Small Claims Court.

[jvlgato]

What Ken said. Especially #1.

 

Although, you'd think for a few tires, it'd be ok. I like Sears for their Diehard batteries, but otherwise wouldn't do much else with them for cars. I like them for appliances, though.

[swt61]

Had dinner with Marc last night. Was a great time!

[Grahame]

Had more Physio, showing good improvement in reduced swelling, and pain free articulation. Will continue as we work on the quads and try to get all the forward extension back on the right leg. Rear extension is not a problem ( > 135^o)
 
Had a consult with rheumatologist now we have the results of the blood test back, and ...

 

I don't have TB, or Lyme Disease. I do have Normal Liver and Kidney Functions, Signs of inflammation (duh!) and ...

 

This is where the conversation turned interesting. How often have you had a conversation with a doctor where they asked you

 

"Are you a Creationist or an Evolutionist?" ....

 

Gave the obvious response, and we discussed genetic variation across populations and evolutionary factors  which led to the reveal

 

 

I have a genetic marker on my blood cells HLA B27 - that's my Northern European Genetic Heritage for you   

 

Which meant fitting this to the facts / symptoms that 

 

I likely have Reactive Arthritis ... or other possibilities are possible but unlikely.

 

This makes sense. There is the mystery trigger / initial infection - which was non obvious / I can't recall, 

but that would lead to the swelling being some kind of auto-immune response  ( high white cell count - but no infection in cultured effusion) 

 

Given that the swelling is going down and things are improving, recommendation is 

• avoid surgery
• continue physio while it helps / shows improvement 
• see if it clears up on its own (over next couple of months)
• only if things don't get better would he consider medical treatments ( which have side effects / risks) 

Better than "non specific inflammation", and recovery has the right trajectory at the moment.

 

I wonder how the conversation would have gone if I had said I was a creationist?

Edited November 16, 2013 by Grahame

[Dusty Chalk]

So glad you got found out!

[shellylh]

 

I wonder how the conversation would have gone if I has said I was a creationist?

 

Haha.  

 

Glad you are getting some answers Grahame.  Also, hope it gets better on its own (with physio).  

[CarlSeibert]

Somebody barfed a hairball in my Lazyboy.

Bonnie doesn't get hairballs. > Jazz doesn't spend any time in my chair. > So Enigma is the prime suspect.