Things that make you go... GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!! Mk. II

[Alptraum]

The fact that it is now acceptable to 'harvest' beef.

[Kiltar]

Odd thing: I think it's in more things in the US than here.

You can get diet soft drinks that are caffeine free (Sprite, Solo, tonic water, etc).

Caffeine-free coca-cola is pretty normal -- it's the one in the gold can.

Decaf coffee -- and often decaf tea -- are available everywhere. We're REALLY big on our coffee, and so many people drink decaf that most of the time, you can't tell it's decaf by taste alone, just by lack of buzz afterward.

Oh, and everyone drinks fruit juice, too. Freshly squeezed has slightly less sugar than fizzy drinks... ;p

Analgesics with caffeine? Nope. Only specific OTC migraine medicines.

Wow as an Aussie Ex-Pat of only 10 months you are making me feel mighty homesick right about now Flynn! I *really* miss Aussie coffee as served in basically any cafe you walk into in Sydney (my old stomping ground!) Sadly the thing that makes me go "Gaaaaaahhh" at the moment is proabably tea - the most British drink in existance! I'm just not really a fan and when the coffee in rural North Wales is a bit...mmm "rough" shall we say, I find myself drinking a lot of fruit juice when out and about!

K

[arcwelder]

The fact that it is now acceptable to 'harvest' beef.

Someone's making transgenic plants which grow beef? Or are you talking about an old-fashioned stockyard (making the "now" part somewhat confusing)?

[Nikola Tesla]

The fact that it is now acceptable to 'harvest' beef.

Someone's making transgenic plants which grow beef? Or are you talking about an old-fashioned stockyard (making the "now" part somewhat confusing)?

I don't know about Alptraum, but I was talking about a full-scale slaughter plant that I visited this morning; I was whinging about the euphemism.  Courtesy is great, but I'm not too fond of euphemisms.  I like meat, I know it comes from slaughter, I don't know why people can't just deal with it.  Especially if they make their money in that industry.  (It has varied in the past but these days the regulators tend to say "slaughter" and the people in the business "harvest"; though usually, "harvest" will refer to when you take a particular organ or product out of the animal, "slaughter" to the actual killing part.  So - why can they say "kill floor" but not "slaughterhouse"?  It says nothing about this in the guidebook I received up on the mothership...)

Now, at risk of making some of our readers go "gaaaah!", I'll cut this post short.

[rovingjack]

the unexplained pain in my big toe joint of my left foot.

I've handled molten hot glue, and dental drilling before the numbing agent took affect (stuff never seemed to deaden the nerves properly) and just sort of dealt with it... but this really hurts.

I mean breathe near it wrong and I get lightheaded from the pain, and then I get weak a get the shivers.

[Nikola Tesla]

You might have broken it and not realized it at the time.  Seriously, that can happen.  If it's swollen or you can't move it, that is especially likely, though neither of these things has to be true for a broken toe.

If so, you might try simply taping it to the next one for a couple of weeks, though if it's the big toe that might not work.  I've done that for the second toe and it did - saving me a couple hundred dollars to hear a doctor say it - but the big one might be different, I don't know.

[Pike]

Something is wrong with my left shoe and the side of my foot is sore the entire time I'm wearing it.  This just started happening yesterday and I have no idea why.  

[arcwelder]

Something is wrong with my left shoe and the side of my foot is sore the entire time I'm wearing it.  This just started happening yesterday and I have no idea why.  

Ben Gay Patent Ultra Strength Pain Relieving Cream. It even sounds steampunk. Why let the elderly have all the comforts?

[Alptraum]

The fact that it is now acceptable to 'harvest' beef.

Someone's making transgenic plants which grow beef? Or are you talking about an old-fashioned stockyard (making the "now" part somewhat confusing)?

I don't know about Alptraum, but I was talking about a full-scale slaughter plant that I visited this morning; I was whinging about the euphemism.  Courtesy is great, but I'm not too fond of euphemisms.  I like meat, I know it comes from slaughter, I don't know why people can't just deal with it.  Especially if they make their money in that industry.  (It has varied in the past but these days the regulators tend to say "slaughter" and the people in the business "harvest"; though usually, "harvest" will refer to when you take a particular organ or product out of the animal, "slaughter" to the actual killing part.  So - why can they say "kill floor" but not "slaughterhouse"?  It says nothing about this in the guidebook I received up on the mothership...)

Now, at risk of making some of our readers go "gaaaah!", I'll cut this post short.

No, I was whinging about the dodging around the truth as well... It's a bloody massive cow. You don't harvest it, you harvest grain and other plants by chopping them out of the ground. You slaughter a frigging cow by shoving a bolt through it's brain. They feel no pain, it's too quick for that, but still everyone shies away from saying anything that will actually be frank with the consumer.

Then again, it's hardly good for sales if you put something on the pack which says "This slab of meat came from a cow who had a good life and spent it's time happily munching grass with all the other cows, until we decided to stick a steel bolt between its eyes."

I eat meat, and know full well where it comes from and exactly how; why can't people just deal with it?!

<headexplode></rant>

[rovingjack]

You might have broken it and not realized it at the time.  Seriously, that can happen.  If it's swollen or you can't move it, that is especially likely, though neither of these things has to be true for a broken toe.

If so, you might try simply taping it to the next one for a couple of weeks, though if it's the big toe that might not work.  I've done that for the second toe and it did - saving me a couple hundred dollars to hear a doctor say it - but the big one might be different, I don't know.

the blasted worst part is the inability to take anything for it. Unless I want to be sick enough to run to the loo every hour, risk internal hemorage, and further confine myself to the house for a while recovering from it.

Frelling krohns disease. pills go through like broken glass, the binders in them cause what amounts to food poisoning on a horrible scale and Nsaids can not be used; period.


I fear things like gout (as the med might kill me, and the only things I can eat already are chicken, peas, carrots and honey), and osteoperosis (sp?) due to a tightly restricted diet and compromised ability to absorb certain nutrients.

[Miss Romwell]

Why do some online retailers find it so hard to send a confirmation email after a purchase? Do they think their customers enjoy the air of mystery or something?

[Pike]

Something is wrong with my left shoe and the side of my foot is sore the entire time I'm wearing it.  This just started happening yesterday and I have no idea why.  

Ben Gay Patent Ultra Strength Pain Relieving Cream. It even sounds steampunk. Why let the elderly have all the comforts?

Hmm, I may have to look into that.  Thank you!

My rant today: It is snowing.  In June.  And I don't even have a good excuse like "living in the Southern Hemisphere".

[ForestB]

Having to go to the emergency room last night to get my wedding ring cut off my finger, due to a wasp sting on said finger the day before... Not fun!!

[qui est in literis]

People who move to Texas from elsewhere (~cough~Maine~cough~) and never realise that they look stupid in a Stetson and boots, when everyone knows they're white-collar workers living in the suburbs. We have cowboys. Wearing a hat does not make you a cowboy. Buying a Ford F-250 does not make you a cowboy, and when you live in the suburbs and have to park it on the street because it won't fit in your garage, you just look silly. Affecting a Texan dialect does not help you fit in, and when you do it in a frankly stereotyped and largely incorrect way, it is offensive. Believe it or not, our dialect does have a set of rules, same as yours. "Y'all" is not singular in Texas (though I have heard that it is in some places in Georgia), and I will not respond when you address me with it. Especially when you've just informed me that Dr Pepper is not a coke, and criticised my usage of the word "ain't". Coke is anything carbonated, down here. Deal with it. "Ain't" is a real word, if you'll check the OED. In fact, it is a contraction derived from "amn't", or "am not" and predates the use of the word "isn't" by more than two hundred years.
And by the way, "suckerrod" is not an insult; it's the bit of the windmill that draws the water up.

(New neighbours. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.)

[arcwelder]

Having to go to the emergency room last night to get my wedding ring cut off my finger, due to a wasp sting on said finger the day before... Not fun!!

Ick, sorry about that.

[Flynn MacCallister]

Odd thing: I think it's in more things in the US than here.

You can get diet soft drinks that are caffeine free (Sprite, Solo, tonic water, etc).

Caffeine-free coca-cola is pretty normal -- it's the one in the gold can.

Decaf coffee -- and often decaf tea -- are available everywhere. We're REALLY big on our coffee, and so many people drink decaf that most of the time, you can't tell it's decaf by taste alone, just by lack of buzz afterward.

Oh, and everyone drinks fruit juice, too. Freshly squeezed has slightly less sugar than fizzy drinks... ;p

Analgesics with caffeine? Nope. Only specific OTC migraine medicines.

Wow as an Aussie Ex-Pat of only 10 months you are making me feel mighty homesick right about now Flynn! I *really* miss Aussie coffee as served in basically any cafe you walk into in Sydney (my old stomping ground!) Sadly the thing that makes me go "Gaaaaaahhh" at the moment is proabably tea - the most British drink in existance! I'm just not really a fan and when the coffee in rural North Wales is a bit...mmm "rough" shall we say, I find myself drinking a lot of fruit juice when out and about!

K

Aaw, *hugs*. Could be worse; you could be in the US! ;p

I have a friend who recently moved back to the US (he's Malaysian-Chinese or something along those lines, moved to Melbourne when he was about ten, and grew up there, but his career has been sort of split between Sydney and San Fran. After a long spell in Sydney, he's back in San Fran... and awfully depressed about the coffee! He hasn't even been able to find beans he likes, let alone a finished coffee...

[Flynn MacCallister]

You might have broken it and not realized it at the time.  Seriously, that can happen.  If it's swollen or you can't move it, that is especially likely, though neither of these things has to be true for a broken toe.

If so, you might try simply taping it to the next one for a couple of weeks, though if it's the big toe that might not work.  I've done that for the second toe and it did - saving me a couple hundred dollars to hear a doctor say it - but the big one might be different, I don't know.

the blasted worst part is the inability to take anything for it. Unless I want to be sick enough to run to the loo every hour, risk internal hemorage, and further confine myself to the house for a while recovering from it.

Frelling krohns disease. pills go through like broken glass, the binders in them cause what amounts to food poisoning on a horrible scale and Nsaids can not be used; period.


I fear things like gout (as the med might kill me, and the only things I can eat already are chicken, peas, carrots and honey), and osteoperosis (sp?) due to a tightly restricted diet and compromised ability to absorb certain nutrients.

Can you at least use a topical anti-inflammatory? Like Voltaren or something?

[The Nordic One]

Finding out that my gay "friends" (or whatever category they really are) are ashamed to be seen with me because of my Goth/Victorian/Steampunk tendencies...

[Alptraum]

Finding out that my gay "friends" (or whatever category they really are) are ashamed to be seen with me because of my Goth/Victorian/Steampunk tendencies...

Ouch. In return, if they're the stereotypical flamboyant gays, take the piss out of them. Either everyone laughs and gets over themselves, or your friendship self destructs. I reckon that they'll get that it's a joke and get over it. If not, then you've just lost some disloyal friends (as proven by their not understanding that you've gotten over hanging out with some flamboyant gays (I'm assuming you're straight, sorry if I'm wrong, so the possible social stigma for simply being friends with gays is huge); by the same token, why can't they get over someone who dresses differently?); it's win-win for you.

[rovingjack]

 

You might have broken it and not realized it at the time.  Seriously, that can happen.  If it's swollen or you can't move it, that is especially likely, though neither of these things has to be true for a broken toe.

If so, you might try simply taping it to the next one for a couple of weeks, though if it's the big toe that might not work.  I've done that for the second toe and it did - saving me a couple hundred dollars to hear a doctor say it - but the big one might be different, I don't know.

the blasted worst part is the inability to take anything for it. Unless I want to be sick enough to run to the loo every hour, risk internal hemorage, and further confine myself to the house for a while recovering from it.

Frelling krohns disease. pills go through like broken glass, the binders in them cause what amounts to food poisoning on a horrible scale and Nsaids can not be used; period.


I fear things like gout (as the med might kill me, and the only things I can eat already are chicken, peas, carrots and honey), and osteoperosis (sp?) due to a tightly restricted diet and compromised ability to absorb certain nutrients.

Can you at least use a topical anti-inflammatory? Like Voltaren or something?

I really don't know what I can and can't do topically , most doctors I've talked to can't agree on what a person should and shouldn't do.

The vector of the problem for nsaids is unclear. Is it the binders, the cox2 enzyme inhabition, the irritation of tissue by highly concentrated chemicals, thinning of blood, vascular dilation.

I have iced it and kept it elevated and it helps immensley. We will be getting some aspercreame and icy hot because a little of each might help some and the risk of problems are much reduced. Icy hot is casiacin and menthol I believe and shouldn't give me trouble (though mint concumption is a problem) and the asperecream is based on theeffective ingrediant in white willow, but bypasses the digestive system. So small quanties of aspercream in icyhot should relieve a fair amount of pain.

One house mate said he'd see if anybody he knows has a spare crutch.

The really bad pain last night was partly my own fault though. I've got too much to do to be sitting around. and I just hobbled around all night running important errands.

I'm off it today, but tomorrow I've got to be moving around again. Hopefully with a crutch.

another possabilty for a cause, ironically enough is scurvy. With a chronic inflamatory illness I need more vit C then most. I'm under fed by most standards and for five of the last six months existed alomst exclusively on chicken thighs, peas and honey. I cannot take fruits, or most veg. Peppers are too rough on my system to comsume a entire one in less than a week.

My primary source of Vit C in the past has beencarrots and cucumbers. Which went missing from my diet for several months.

[The Nordic One]

Finding out that my gay "friends" (or whatever category they really are) are ashamed to be seen with me because of my Goth/Victorian/Steampunk tendencies...

Ouch. In return, if they're the stereotypical flamboyant gays, take the piss out of them. Either everyone laughs and gets over themselves, or your friendship self destructs. I reckon that they'll get that it's a joke and get over it. If not, then you've just lost some disloyal friends (as proven by their not understanding that you've gotten over hanging out with some flamboyant gays (I'm assuming you're straight, sorry if I'm wrong, so the possible social stigma for simply being friends with gays is huge); by the same token, why can't they get over someone who dresses differently?); it's win-win for you.

Well, a good hearty round of laughs would be good, were they to actually WANT to be near me, which they don't (you find these things out via text msg).. they're not that flamboyant; they shop at J.Crew, A&F and Hollister.

[Flynn MacCallister]

You might have broken it and not realized it at the time.  Seriously, that can happen.  If it's swollen or you can't move it, that is especially likely, though neither of these things has to be true for a broken toe.

If so, you might try simply taping it to the next one for a couple of weeks, though if it's the big toe that might not work.  I've done that for the second toe and it did - saving me a couple hundred dollars to hear a doctor say it - but the big one might be different, I don't know.

the blasted worst part is the inability to take anything for it. Unless I want to be sick enough to run to the loo every hour, risk internal hemorage, and further confine myself to the house for a while recovering from it.

Frelling krohns disease. pills go through like broken glass, the binders in them cause what amounts to food poisoning on a horrible scale and Nsaids can not be used; period.


I fear things like gout (as the med might kill me, and the only things I can eat already are chicken, peas, carrots and honey), and osteoperosis (sp?) due to a tightly restricted diet and compromised ability to absorb certain nutrients.

Can you at least use a topical anti-inflammatory? Like Voltaren or something?

I really don't know what I can and can't do topically , most doctors I've talked to can't agree on what a person should and shouldn't do.

The vector of the problem for nsaids is unclear. Is it the binders, the cox2 enzyme inhabition, the irritation of tissue by highly concentrated chemicals, thinning of blood, vascular dilation.

I have iced it and kept it elevated and it helps immensley. We will be getting some aspercreame and icy hot because a little of each might help some and the risk of problems are much reduced. Icy hot is casiacin and menthol I believe and shouldn't give me trouble (though mint concumption is a problem) and the asperecream is based on theeffective ingrediant in white willow, but bypasses the digestive system. So small quanties of aspercream in icyhot should relieve a fair amount of pain.

One house mate said he'd see if anybody he knows has a spare crutch.

The really bad pain last night was partly my own fault though. I've got too much to do to be sitting around. and I just hobbled around all night running important errands.

I'm off it today, but tomorrow I've got to be moving around again. Hopefully with a crutch.

another possabilty for a cause, ironically enough is scurvy. With a chronic inflamatory illness I need more vit C then most. I'm under fed by most standards and for five of the last six months existed alomst exclusively on chicken thighs, peas and honey. I cannot take fruits, or most veg. Peppers are too rough on my system to comsume a entire one in less than a week.

My primary source of Vit C in the past has beencarrots and cucumbers. Which went missing from my diet for several months.

Can you eat potatoes?

Mum's got completely different dietary problems (severe amine, salycilate, glutamate and preservative intolerances), but the net effect is similar. Sometimes for fairly long periods, she has to eat an extremely restricted diet -- usually it's very fresh baked "naked" white fish, taters, cabbage, and brussels sprouts. Boring, but between the potatoes and the sprouts, there's enough vitamins to get by...

(Oh, also, on the better days when she's having problems, very, very ripe Packham pears. Or tinned pears in syrup, not juice. They're extremely low in most of the things that are likely to irritate a stomach and bowel...)

[Alptraum]

Finding out that my gay "friends" (or whatever category they really are) are ashamed to be seen with me because of my Goth/Victorian/Steampunk tendencies...

Ouch. In return, if they're the stereotypical flamboyant gays, take the piss out of them. Either everyone laughs and gets over themselves, or your friendship self destructs. I reckon that they'll get that it's a joke and get over it. If not, then you've just lost some disloyal friends (as proven by their not understanding that you've gotten over hanging out with some flamboyant gays (I'm assuming you're straight, sorry if I'm wrong, so the possible social stigma for simply being friends with gays is huge); by the same token, why can't they get over someone who dresses differently?); it's win-win for you.

Well, a good hearty round of laughs would be good, were they to actually WANT to be near me, which they don't (you find these things out via text msg).. they're not that flamboyant; they shop at J.Crew, A&F and Hollister.

Ditch them and never look back.

[Nikola Tesla]

...but still everyone shies away from saying anything that will actually be frank with the consumer.

Then again, it's hardly good for sales if you put something on the pack which says "This slab of meat came from a cow who had a good life and spent it's time happily munching grass with all the other cows, until we decided to stick a steel bolt between its eyes."

It goes further than shying away from saying anything...the meat industry is well aware of its PR problem (spanning hundreds of years, mind you; in many parts of the world slaughterhouse workers are or were "ritually unclean" and had to live in segregated housing).  Most of these plants will not allow cameras or phones inside (I've had to turn in my cell phone at the door, because of the crummy little camera in it) and needless to say the "curious" (are there any of those?) are not getting in for a casual visit.  Partly it's that they're worried about some of the animal rights groups, partly it's security issues revolving around food safety (contamination from outside and/or terrorism), partly it's because wandering around these plants is frikkin' dangerous, what with the blades and the conveyor lines whizzing by and the slippery floors and all.  You wouldn't let a school group in there even if you weren't trying to pretty up everyone's idea of meat.  (Oh, and the animals of course in most cases had nothing like a good life.  Those concentrated feedlots are in fact the only place where I have a problem with the industry.  They are breeding grounds for disease, necessitating a lot of the antibiotics use we have in the modern world, and thus increase the chances of some nasty resistant bug developing.  They smell appalling, far worse than the slaughter places, letting everyone in a five mile radius be aware of their environmental cost.  And that's before you even get to any concerns about kindness to animals, which I admit are low on my list:  let's see if we can treat our own species with some fairness and decency first.  But, about the feedlots, I don't know how we can feed everybody otherwise, so...)

Then again, maybe the "hiding" of the process is exactly why so many can't deal with where meat comes from:  they've never had the chance to come to terms with it.  Thus whenever they do see it, they freak.  People who have grown up on farms or in and around the meat industry often are starkly different from others in this respect.

rovingjack, scurvy can in fact mess up your joints but good.  If that is the cause, you should do something immediately before you suffer permanent damage.  Does your digestive illness preclude taking the Vitamin C supplements?  They're cheap.  If it does, maybe your doctor can suggest something?  And if the medical personnel where you are aren't too shy about taking X-rays, maybe you should get one just to see if the toe is broken or if it's more likely something else.

[rovingjack]

Potatos are a huuuge no no.

Suppliments are tricky.

Basically if it's hard or cruchy it will go through my system like gravel or tree bark, tareing everything up on the way through. If it contains corn syrup or glucoses of any kind I react like a lactose intolerant given a bowl of chease tortellini alfredo and a glass of milk before the icecream dessert.

Any starches (potatos, grains, ect), gums (gum arabic, guar gum...) are long chain carbohydrates that my system can no longer break down and so it does everything it can to eject it within the first 30-90 mins.

Too much fibre (broccoli, celery,), acid (vinigar, fruits...) or anything spicy hurt and make me sick.

Also too salty and it really hurts. Think of it like having hundreds of paper cuts on your hands, if you couldn't rub your hands through it without severe pain or irritation then I can't eat it without getting sick. and it also means that like the papercut hand, if you do too much (eat too much) it hurts and makes me sick. Conversely if I don't eat it upsets it.

Even too much water (as my swollen tract has impaired ability to absorb things through the lining) can make me sick enough to dehydrate my in an hour.

So anything that goes into my body has to be analysed for any and all risk factors and completely understood.

I've looked a bit and it looks like there are some pure citric acid powders that can be bought. If I mix itto a super dilute portion and sip it through the day I might be able to get away with it. It might actuall be nice to sprinkle a bit on food for a new taste.

I'm also looking at sources of b12, as I don't get much of that now either.
It looks like salmon might be doable. I'll have to try clams too.

Coconut oil is good, and I'll have to go carefully with bananas an avacados. both have to be verging on rotten to assure the starches have broken down, but the have potassium, and vit c as well aas a few other harder to place nutrients.

that's for starters and it will have to be slow and gentle to not upset my system and do more harm than good.

Trying to do it all on my own mostly too. as Doctors and healthcare in general in the US are a joke. I'd already be dead if I'd listened to the ones I was allowed to see.

I've also got some tea steeping balls that I can put fresh and dried herbs and spices in and make a brew I can cook some food in and therby get some vitamins and helful effects that way. Luckily I know some about that topic and I know a fair number of herbal practitioners... so I should be abole to sidestep thinks that would go badly for me.