What's Up With µ?

[tp4tissue]

My mother's got thyroid problems too.. All the doctors assure us that it's not a big deal because even if she does get thyroid cancer (eventually), the survival rates are much much higher than other cancers.. All the best..

Thanks.

She was spotted very late. Full Stage IV cancer here. After a month in hospital, she is back home now but there's still a lot to do. A recent X-ray showed why she's having trouble swallowing with her new esophagus. Still to hear what they'll do about that. It's important it's working well for her next treatment where she takes radioactive iodine for her lung cancer.

Always better to treat early. How was your mother's spotted?

For my mother it was swelling.. she's had that periodically throughout her life.. probably hormone imbalance is what the docs are saying..

Also, likely because my mother is completely sedentary.. though she is not fat.. the human body is not meant for long term relaxation..

So if we look at what the body is designed for, the largest trigger for integral repair is movement and exercise.. to stimulate proper hormone cycles..

When the body doesn't move much for years and years.. cars, elevators, internet,.. the imbalances and plight of affluence take over..

[Muirium]

Yeah, that should have been the case with my mum too. But she is overweight, which made it harder to spot, and her doc was overly cautious about elevating things. Only when she happened to see another doctor to her usual did things suddenly escalate until she had a consultant and a devastating diagnosis, right around Christmas. Intense.

[tp4tissue]

Yeah, that should have been the case with my mum too. But she is overweight, which made it harder to spot, and her doc was overly cautious about elevating things. Only when she happened to see another doctor to her usual did things suddenly escalate until she had a consultant and a devastating diagnosis, right around Christmas. Intense.

It's a good thing we don't really need the thyroid..

[Muirium]

Complimications.

My Mum's been bounced in and out of hospital quite a bit lately as she's having trouble eating and drinking. The new esophagus they hooked up for her is tight or outright twisted, deep down, where it's hard to access. Right now she's home again, hooked up to a nasal feeding machine. Not the most comfortable way to wait for your round of radiotherapy — she still has lung cancer — but better than a drip. We're taking turns watching her at home for the meantime, until her next planned procedure: an endoscopy where she'll get a balloon inflated deep down at the narrowing, briefly, to see if they can widen it. At least a while.

See, the radiotherapy she's due is in liquid form: radioactive iodine. They prefer to administer it as a pill, as the stuff is so active that spills are a major hazard for the staff as well as the patient. But in her case they may have to resort to the riskier unbound liquid form. Depends on what tube she needs at the time. Which depends on the coming endoscopy.

So yeah, she's busy and we're busy. Lots and lots of travelling involved — the NHS has its facilities for her various needs scattered across the Lothians, not just here in Edinburgh — and lots of spending time with her while she's enduring this. Patience getting tried aplenty all round! But that's cancer. Best avoided, if you can!

[chzel]

Crap... I wish you and Mum all the best, as you've said she's a fighter, she'll pull through! Chemo is quite a bitch...
Good thing NHS wasn't decided for in a referendum...

[Muirium]

Oh, it was. The Leave campaigners are thoroughly anti-NHS. If I were English, I'd be worried very deeply indeed.

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk ... hs-mistake

Doubly fortunately, my Mum's not getting chemo. It's technically radiotherapy instead. So no hair loss and most of the other brutal symptoms. Still a struggle, but something she's up and ready for.

[cookie]

I am very sorry to hear that, wish you and your mum all the best!

[elecplus]

Wishing you and your mom lots of patience, and all the best.

[Muirium]

Thanks, as always, to you guys too. I've been keeping several people waiting for bloody months with my (ultimately very poorly timed) GBs. Chaos is a bugger!

[seebart]

Thanks, as always, to you guys too. I've been keeping several people waiting for bloody months with my (ultimately very poorly timed) GBs. Chaos is a bugger!

Don't worry about it, the priorities are clear in your situation.

[HzFaq]

Some things are more important than keyboards dude.

Not much, honestly, but I think this qualifies .

All the best mate, hang in there.

[cookie]

Some things are more important than keyboards dude.

This right here!

[DanielT]

Wish you and your Mom all the best. I know how you must feel, too well.

[webwit]

I was already worrying how your mom was doing.

Your posting frequency betrays you

[Muirium]

To those who are writing to me, worrying where the hell I've gone, fear not. I'm still in the land of the living, as indeed is my mum. She's bouncing in and out of hospital quite a bit, as the esophageal issue resists what's been thrown at it so far. What, 8 months since diagnosis?, we still don't know if all the cancer's gone and she's still having to eat and drink very slowly indeed. It's not great. Could be a lot worse, though.

Besides spending time with her through all this, I've had a bit of a farce of a summer. My bodged old 2006 model Mac Pro crapped out again, leaving me in a mess. I haven't got the money to replace it. Besides, Apple doesn't even sell a comparable computer these days. (The horror. The abandoned dinky trash can horror.) Then, just to dial things up to truly Inspector Clueso level slapstick, when I sat down this evening to write this, my favourite chair of 14 years snapped and fell apart and dumped me on my jacksie! After a month on a diet of all things! (Cheap and good for my tightening expenses.) So there's another item on the shopping list. Both my standing desk and sitting desk are now denied. I'm tapping this, cursing my luck, with fingers on an iPhone.

Vintage year this. I'm glad old Trumpey's having just the good time he deserves, or I'd swear I've incensed a Sumerian god, in a script by a lousy screenwriter. Bleck! May Enki laugh at our misfortunes, the cheeky beardy bass…

Anyway, guess I need a direct attached storage array or whatever the jargon is for a way to hook up all my big hard drives to my MacBook Pro without reformatting / juggling all my meticulously badly archived data etc., and a new chair. Dang it.

Anyway 2: an iPhone is not a wise place to write at length. And I wish I could say something more positive than the lame "yeah well hopefully we're most of the way through it now and I'll be back to my usual soon" that has comprised most of my posts in this thread until now. But I can't.

[webwit]

Sell your Kishsaver!

P.S. Good to see you.

[fohat]

P.S. Good to see you.

Same here. I was getting a bit worried about you and/or your mother.

[elecplus]

Good to see you are still with us! Best of luck to your mom

[kbdfr]

Hi µ, glad to see you

[chzel]

Hey μ! Nice to see an update! Pretty shitty 2016...Best wishes to you and your mum!

[cookie]

The imaginary scene where Mu's chair snapped made me smile, good to see you

[webwit]

Et tu, sella?

[Muirium]

Naturally, my chair is no longer made today. Bollocks! So now I'm starting from scratch with the Chair Oracle and asking for something kewl with those sweet "blues" everyone's talking about. And wireless uplighting. Plus a sweet braided weave.

Any suggestions, Chairthority? As a grown man, furniture shopping icks me out.

(Also: Webwit: is there something different to the site code in the last few months? Post composition boxes do not scroll horizontally while I'm typing on iPhone Safari. Which is absolutely crazy making. Haven't encountered this anywhere else but DT.)

[Hypersphere]

Muirium, It is so good to hear from you again. DT just isn't the same without your contributions.

As for shopping (for everything except keyboards), I decided long ago that if it isn't available through Amazon, it either doesn't exist or I don't need it.

[Muirium]

I'm very wary of Amazon. So much fraud on there around here nowadays. Lots of Chinese clones products listed as "fulfilled by Amazon" but actually no more trustworthy than random eBay shenanigans. Amazon's meant to be getting investigated by the government, but with a new Tory in charge I suspect no such thing that couldn't be settled by a Manila envelope.

Better stop typing. I'm going mental just panning around trying to fix all the God decreed touchscreen mistakes. This is torturous!

[fohat]

I'm going mental just panning around trying to fix all the God decreed touchscreen mistakes. This is torturous!

Won't most smart phones accept keyboard input?

I have never tried it, but with my ham-handed fumble-fingers I would lose it trying to type an entire paragraph on my Galaxy.

edit - Sorry to get your hopes up. Apparently the Apple Diety has decreed against you.

I borrowed my son's "OTG" (female USB-A to male micro-USB pigtail cable) and plugged my Model F-122/Soarer's/Teensy into my Galaxy and instantly started typing with no other drama whatsoever.

TL;DR - Don't buy Apple products.

[ohaimark]

Good to hear from you. It's also good to hear that I'm not the only one who had a chair snap underneath him...

Once upon a time in middle school I was giving a presentation-skit to my Spanish class. All 80 pounds of me sat down in a chair quickly at an angle. The welds on one of the legs snapped and unceremoniously dumped me in front of 20some younglings, who started laughing uproariously. I wasn't embarrassed, though. I was in tears... From laughing so hard.

The teacher didn't make me finish the presentation because everyone was too wound up from the unintentional comedy routine.

[Muirium]

Unintended comedy is nature's true comedy!

@Fohat: I can plug my Phosphorglow powered USB SSK into my iPhone, too. But the whole point of a phone is to be somewhat more mobile than toting a slab of IBM everywhere you go. Right now I'm seldom at my desk, which is what's similarly keeping me away from DT. These recent posts come from hospital corridors and the waiting line at a store. (Not for furniture.) I can type reasonably fast with fingers on glass, by necessity. There's no way I could do the work I do if I had to sit down after the fact to type. But copy/pasting out of Notes just to workaround this oddball new behaviour I'm seeing here is making me twitch, and not in a good way.

Also: what chairs don't suck? I've got a horrible feeling about this. I know nothing about chairs, but have a very high need for a good one. Plus no money. (And no car. Yay…)

[fohat]

Also: what chairs don't suck? I've got a horrible feeling about this. I know nothing about chairs, but have a very high need for a good one. Plus no money. (And no car. Yay…)

2nd-hand stores around here usually have chairs. Perhaps buy the best bad choice at a really cheap price, and keep your eyes open to upgrade in coming weeks or months.

For me, a good thick gel cushion can improve even a mediocre chair considerably. I have one that is at least 10 years old and is only recently in need of replacement.

[chzel]

I've been using an IKEA Markus for several years now (the leather one) and it's quite comfortable and durable. Only issue is that the headrest and the rest of the back trim is flaking, but it's been like 10 years of everyday multi-hour use. It's 130 GBP, so not dead cheap but not crazy expensive either.