The Vent and Rant Thread

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by issybird

...where it's implied that will on the part of the patient combined with treatment will of necessity result in a good outcome.

FWIW: the person of whom I speak in fact thought he was a goner. I mean, absolutely convinced. He believed that cancer is not, in fact, curable. He thought he was undergoing treatment to humor his family's insistence--you know what that's like, we all do. ("Do this and they'll shut up about it.") I'd say that the idea that "will" on the part of the patient had ANY role in the outcome seems to be completely gainsaid by his result.

Offered solely FWIW. Off to go bug some other folks now. Later, gang.

Hitch

[Deskisamess]

Thanks folks. Just finished a phone call with her. She is fairly up-beat and just wants to get the lumpectomy over with and find out for sure what she is facing. The ultrasound seems to show no lymph node involvement, but they will biopsy one or two of those under her arm at the same time as the lumpectomy. That happens next Monday.

Then the fight begins. She liked the surgeon she talked to. We live in an area with good medical care and good hospitals. I’m thankful she paid attention to something looking “not quite right” since at our age, funny looking boobs are normal.

[cromag]

Good luck, Deskisamess. We've had a few brushes with cancer in my family, as well -- including one very recent one. There has been a lot of medical progress in recent years but. even under the best of circumstances, it's a hard and scary road.

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

Thanks folks. Just finished a phone call with her. She is fairly up-beat and just wants to get the lumpectomy over with and find out for sure what she is facing. The ultrasound seems to show no lymph node involvement, but they will biopsy one or two of those under her arm at the same time as the lumpectomy. That happens next Monday.

Then the fight begins. She liked the surgeon she talked to. We live in an area with good medical care and good hospitals. I’m thankful she paid attention to something looking “not quite right” since at our age, funny looking boobs are normal.

Hugs. Hopefully your sister's treatment goes well.

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by Hitch

If your temp starts to rise, even though I know that happens with "infections," too, consider strep. Before you've ever had strep, when people talk about it, you think, "oh, yeah, just a bad sore throat," but if you ever get it--it's like trying to swallow razors, I kid thee not. PLUS, your temps can soar dangerously high--so, keep an eye on it.

And yes, IKEA, this time of year? Hell, you might as well lie down on the floor of a 1st grade. Germs EVERY-where.

Hitch

I'm already feeling better this morning than I did yesterday. I know the razor blade feeling, though I never had dangerously high temperatures. THB I was feeling a bit under the weather before going to the Ikea, so I'm blaming one of our own customers.

At the moment the biggest problem is a dry throat, which leads to an itchy throat. So I made a thermos of my favourite tea for work and I'm glad today I have the afternoon off. Mind you, the rest of the week will be crazy; with five or six shipments coming in.

[Lady Stardust]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

Thanks folks. Just finished a phone call with her. She is fairly up-beat and just wants to get the lumpectomy over with and find out for sure what she is facing. The ultrasound seems to show no lymph node involvement, but they will biopsy one or two of those under her arm at the same time as the lumpectomy. That happens next Monday.

Then the fight begins. She liked the surgeon she talked to. We live in an area with good medical care and good hospitals. I’m thankful she paid attention to something looking “not quite right” since at our age, funny looking boobs are normal.

I had breast cancer 12 years back, lymph nodes negative, done modified radical mastectomy and 6 cycles of chemo. I loved my chemo doctor, was very positive (but mainly because I was in love and had a feeling nothing can hurt me) and I was also rather radical (when I asked for second/third/fourth opinion, each doctor was recommending a bit or quite different procedure, so I went with the most radical one).
Same procedures and same medicine work differently on different people. I have a feeling that positivity does indeed play a role, so if it is there, I think it can only be an advantage.
All the best to your sister and if she feels like it, there are many websites where cancer patients exchange experience, as well as websites where she can get information on what she can expect every step of the way during various procedures. I felt better when I knew a lot.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

I'm already feeling better this morning than I did yesterday. I know the razor blade feeling, though I never had dangerously high temperatures. THB I was feeling a bit under the weather before going to the Ikea, so I'm blaming one of our own customers.

At the moment the biggest problem is a dry throat, which leads to an itchy throat. So I made a thermos of my favourite tea for work and I'm glad today I have the afternoon off. Mind you, the rest of the week will be crazy; with five or six shipments coming in.

Ricola is your friend! Seriously, they help with that dry, itchy throat one gets at this point.

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Ricola is your friend! Seriously, they help with that dry, itchy throat one gets at this point.

Thanks for the tip. I'm currently using Bronchostop, which is also made of herbs and it works quite well, though not too long. I drank a lot of tea this morning, so between and 2pm I had to go to the toilet 3 or 4 times.

I've currently progressed from the itchy throat stage to the sneezing and runny nose stage. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there will be no wheezy stage, that makes it hard for me to sleep.

There are some good things about having a cold. It's acceptable to have long steamy showers and have a double shot of Bailey's Irish Cream in the evening .

[wodin]

[vent]What the he!! good is free second day Prime shipping when they don't ship it for a week and counting?[/vent]

Spoiler:

Ordered on Nov 22, not shipped on Nov 29!

[CRussel]

Careful that it doesn't say "Free 2 Day Shipping When Available" (emphasis mine)

That's caught me a couple of times.

[wodin]

When I ordered it it said "In stock, Ships from and sold by Amazon" Now it says "This item is only available from third-party sellers". I guess they oversold their stock and are scrambling to catch up.

[PeterT]

I'm still a happy user of a Nexus 7 (2013). Earlier his year the USB port got wonky, meaning charging became hit or miss (more miss than hit). I found a place close to me that did repairs and they changed the port.

In the last few weeks it has started acting up again, and I was dreading the cost of getting it replaced again. I remembered that the Nexus supported wireless charging and picked up a cheap ($15 CDN) one on Amazon and it's fantastic! I just wish I had done that instead of replacing the port.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[cc_in_oh]

Originally Posted by PeterT

I'm still a happy user of a Nexus 7 (2013). Earlier his year the USB port got wonky, meaning charging became hit or miss (more miss than hit). I found a place close to me that did repairs and they changed the port.

In the last few weeks it has started acting up again, and I was dreading the cost of getting it replaced again. I remembered that the Nexus supported wireless charging and picked up a cheap ($15 CDN) one on Amazon and it's fantastic! I just wish I had done that instead of replacing the port.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Those micro USB ports are fragile - my HDX7 has the slanted port that you really have to be careful with. I thought everything would be Type C by now - much sturdier and can't plug the wrong way...

[issybird]

Originally Posted by PeterT

I'm still a happy user of a Nexus 7 (2013). Earlier his year the USB port got wonky, meaning charging became hit or miss (more miss than hit). I found a place close to me that did repairs and they changed the port.

In the last few weeks it has started acting up again, and I was dreading the cost of getting it replaced again. I remembered that the Nexus supported wireless charging and picked up a cheap ($15 CDN) one on Amazon and it's fantastic! I just wish I had done that instead of replacing the port.

Oh, great tip, thanks!

My 2013 Nexus 7 charges fine although I have to do it frequently these days, which has made it more of a stay-at-home device. It's nice to know there are options if something happens. I still love mine; it's in my pantheon of "Great Devices I Have Owned."

What's the opposite of pantheon; can I coin one? Pandiablon? Because I have one of them, too, for "Lousy Devices I Have Owned and Wish I Hadn't Spent the Money on."

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by issybird

Oh, great tip, thanks!

My 2013 Nexus 7 charges fine although I have to do it frequently these days, which has made it more of a stay-at-home device. It's nice to know there are options if something happens. I still love mine; it's in my pantheon of "Great Devices I Have Owned."

For me, the Nexus 4 phone is like that. I'm using it since (almost) the day of release. It's about to be 5 years old now. The battery still lasts 1,5 days with light use. Maybe I should replace it and see how long this phone can be used.

Because it was such an exceptionally powerful phone in its day, it still sits in the current day mid-range (at the lower end). I've only had 4 phones in the last 20 years:

1998 - 2001: Siemens S10. Replaced when I got my hands on...
2001 - 2009: A Siemens S35i. That one was so much smaller.
2009 - 2012: Motorola Milestone, Android 2.1. Replaced because my father dropped it. (The first and single device I've owned that broke because of dropping it, and I didn't even do it myself...)
2012 - now: Nexus 4... let's see when it will become unusable.

I also have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 1 (2012 - now), which is having problems with the battery. It lasts for only 4 hours, and if I'm using it and charging at the same time, it stays at the same power level; if the screen is too bright it'll actually slowly drop. Can't replace it, because I can't see any screws... the device seems to be glued shut.

I did upgrade it to Android 5.1.1 with a custom ROM because some applications were dropping support for Android 4.x... but now, some are dropping support for the actual CPU (such as Firefox, which I can't upgrade further than version 52.0.2 any more). Let's see how long it lasts yet.