Re: Rheumy appt / Saturday pool party CHAT ROOM

[Guest guest]

Carol,

I hope your mom considers moving. My parents are my neighbors and it is

wonderful. My mom and I shop together, which is very helpful to me as well

as having great company. We didn¹t get to spend much time together when she

was working, but now she is retired, we go everywhere together.

I¹m still behind on email so I¹m not sure if your anemia question was

answered. I have had anemia since childhood, and often wondered if it had

any bearing on me developing RA. I now take lecithen that I get from Walton

Foods. It¹s cheap and also has the calcium I need for OP. It also has all

22 essential amino acids and 9 non essential. 1 TBS contains 80% of the RDA

of calcium and 25% RDA of iron. In the health food stores, it was extremely

expensive, but at walton foods, it was much cheaper. I originally bought it

as a dough enhancer for my bread baking, but after reading the can, I

started adding it to my foods.

http://waltonfeed.com/self/labels/lecithin.html

I am so happy for you that the remicade is helping. I hope you get the

insurance issue straightened out. I¹d call a few insurance brokers and see

if you can find one that writes policies for small businesses.

The chat room is always available

/chat

Unfortunately it isn¹t compatible with Macintosh computers, but if I know

anyone is there, I can fire up the old PC and use the chat room. I¹ve

mentioned scheduling regular chats, but didn¹t get any interested responses.

Maybe a cyber pool party is a great way to break in the chat room?

I was on trazadone for 2 years and didn¹t notice any appetite increase.

Hope you have a great day,

Hugs,

a

> Hi Friends. I hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday. The volume of

> email is unusually light today, and I'm hoping that's because many are out

> having fun today.

>

> I'm having a rough day since my family has gone home. I miss them so much!

> I'm trying very hard to talk my Mom into moving here. It makes no sense for

> her to live 8 hours away. She's by my brother, but he really doesn't have

> much time for her. He has a small daughter, and a little boy due next

> month. I just have the one adult " son " (my husband). It's even worse for

> me today because my family's gone, and Stan's been gone 9 days and isn't

> home yet. I miss everyone today!

>

> Last Thursday I had a rheumy appt, and something new came up. My hemoglobin

> is a little low, and my red blood count has been off at times in the past

> couple of months, as well. He wants me to have an iron test done, as well

> as a test to make sure there's no blood in my stool. He said anemia is

> common in RA, which I didn't realize. I was just wondering how many of you

> have this symptom? If you do, what do you take for it? I certainly don't

> want to be excluded from the Remicade study because I'm anemic. I go in for

> my second infusion on Tuesday, and I'm eating beef and taking multivitamins

> to try to " strengthen " my blood. Is there anything else I can do?

>

> He was encouraged by my results thus far with the Remicade, and was happy

> for me. He said I need to be on a biologic even when the study ends, and

> that I need to get health insurance. He said if I do it through our

> business (as a group policy) they will probably cover me with a one year

> waiting period. He kind of read me the riot act about it, and told me to

> seriously discuss it with Stan. If my results continue to be this good, I

> don't think it will be a hard sell with Stan, though. Stan has been really

> encouraged to see me feeling better. If anyone has a good recommendation

> regarding purchasing a group plan for a small business, let me know. I need

> a PPO, not an HMO, because I wouldn't be willing to change either of my

> Dr's. They're top notch.

>

> One other question for anyone taking Trazodone. I'm really getting a good

> night's sleep with the Trazodone, and I'm very happy with it. The only

> problem I can see is that I've been ravenous this past week. Could that be

> from the Trazodone? I'm only taking 50 mg at bedtime. I also just started

> the Remicade, of course, and we changed my Armour Thyroid to Synthroid.

> I've also been really active this week. It could be from any of these

> things, I suppose. I was just curious if anyone else noticed an increase in

> appetite.

>

> Someone congratulated and a on what a great job they've done with

> the group, and I'd like to echo that sentiment. This really is an

> extraordinary group of people, and it's a help to everyone who is a part of

> it. My thanks to you both.

>

> Now, we really need to arrange a virtual Saturday night pool party sometime.

> Lucy can be in charge of entertainment, of course, since she's got the

> cabana boys (and Al's cabana girl, I think). We can each come in the outfit

> of our choice and bring something that we think the party needs. Since we

> can't see it, we'll have to do some creative writing. Are we able to

> schedule a time for a group chat on the RA-Support page at ?

> It would be fun to do tonight, but it may not be enough notice. Maybe

> another day, if not today. Is anyone interested? We could even upload our

> favorite party songs to the files area, and access and play music on our

> individual computers as we chat (if there is enough file space). This

> would in NO WAY replace our plans for our fall trip, but I figure in the

> meantime it's a way we can have fun without Big Al having to worry about

> bail money. ;-)

>

> I hope everyone is having a blast today!

>

> Love and hugs,

> Ethel aka one of the gruesome twosome

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