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

[Flynn MacCallister]

Citric acid isn't vitamin C. Vitamin C is L-ascorbic acid.

As vitamin C is water soluble, you should indeed be able to get the powder -- or even powder some tablets -- and dissolve them, and drink it.

[rovingjack]

sorry didn't get much sleep. citric acid is for disolving copper for plating  . I did find it interesting that equal portions (100 grams) of spinach and lime have the same Vit C content.

oranges have more than lemons, and rose hip has vastly more than almost anything else. in fact 50 times more.

I knew it was a high source and I've known a few remedies to include it, but that's a big differance.

[Flynn MacCallister]

Ooh, yeah. That's quite an impressive difference!

A lot of people genuinely don't know the difference between ascorbic and citric acids. *Shrugs.*

As far as I am concerned, citric acid is for making sherbert, and salycilate-free lemonade!

[Nikola Tesla]

You ought to be able to powder most of the cheaper Vit C tablets with a mortar and pestle.  If you don't already own one of these useful tools, they can be bought from herbal supply shops (or Web sites) or even your local co-op if they're of the right mindset.  The heavier the set you get, the easier it is to powder things.

You could try adding it to tea.  While it won't taste exactly like lemon, it has the acid-sour and might taste somewhat like that.

From your description I commend you on being able to eat at all!  I also understand the difficulty in getting medical care - I too suffer under the U.S. system of "rationing care by default" - in many medical disciplines only the crappy ones take the cheaper insurance, which if you're lucky enough to have employer provided insurance at all is likely what you get.  If you have a rare or difficult to treat disease you're pretty much out of luck.  I don't know how that last compares to other parts of the world, though.

Lately, as readers of this thread will know, my biggest issues are dental.  I sure would like one of those systems where everyone has access to basic dental care relatively cheaply, rather than the current one where one either (a) pays a large generally out-of-pocket sum for dental care that is focused on cosmetic issues, (b) goes without dental care at all or hits the local dental school and hopes for the best, or (c) waits forever and how for a dentist who is in one's woefully inadequate "plan" to have an appointment free.  I don't have a lot of money and don't really give a rodent's posterior what it looks like so long as it's strong and I can chew, so I've been opting for (c).

[rovingjack]

y

You ought to be able to powder most of the cheaper Vit C tablets with a mortar and pestle.  If you don't already own one of these useful tools, they can be bought from herbal supply shops (or Web sites) or even your local co-op if they're of the right mindset.  The heavier the set you get, the easier it is to powder things.

You could try adding it to tea.  While it won't taste exactly like lemon, it has the acid-sour and might taste somewhat like that.

From your description I commend you on being able to eat at all!  I also understand the difficulty in getting medical care - I too suffer under the U.S. system of "rationing care by default" - in many medical disciplines only the crappy ones take the cheaper insurance, which if you're lucky enough to have employer provided insurance at all is likely what you get.  If you have a rare or difficult to treat disease you're pretty much out of luck.  I don't know how that last compares to other parts of the world, though.

Lately, as readers of this thread will know, my biggest issues are dental.  I sure would like one of those systems where everyone has access to basic dental care relatively cheaply, rather than the current one where one either (a) pays a large generally out-of-pocket sum for dental care that is focused on cosmetic issues, (b) goes without dental care at all or hits the local dental school and hopes for the best, or (c) waits forever and how for a dentist who is in one's woefully inadequate "plan" to have an appointment free.  I don't have a lot of money and don't really give a rodent's posterior what it looks like so long as it's strong and I can chew, so I've been opting for (c).

yes, well I lost 164 pounds of weight in seven months (80 pounds in the first month and a half) of my illness. I was in chronic pain and knew I likely had an electrolytic imbalance  while my doctors said it was probably Iritable bowl. Hmm, do you think we might check the $#!+ that can kill me if not properly treated before we decide it's a relatively harmless condition whith no standard course of treatment? Then One day my bosses told my that my particular shade of grey was scary and I really aught to go to the emergency room.

A simple IV of saline made a massive amount of differance. for one I wouldn't get random moments that felt as if somebody had punched my in the chest. I still wonder sometimes if there was perminant scarring to my heart caused by the potasium deficiancy. I can occasionally get dizzy when tired and standing too quickly.

After that it was simply thinking, well I got sick five months ago, and every time I eat I spend an hour in pain purging my system of the food. So what havn't I eatten in 6 months. something soft and simple and cheap. Salmon and peas. so I ate salmon and peas for a week and did better. So I ate nothing but salmon and peas for three months and my symptom almost entirely went away.

By that time the doctors thought I might be sick and test indicated I might have had a massive flare of crohn's that looked like it was going into remission. They told me that it just happens naturally sometimes but diet cannot do it, and I should take these golden nuggets- no wait these pills that cost $100 per pill thrice daily, indeffinately to maintain remission.

upon further reading those pills make 63% of crohn's patients worse, and have side effects that match my symptom at their worst, all the way up to liver damage, kidney failure and heart stoppage. I decided to pass.

I then Tried rice added to the meals, and promptly went back to full flair for a week. So dietary adjustments it was. Stick with a safe base diet, add something new once and wait a week for the results. If it passes You put it back on the food rotation list. If it fails your sick for a week to a month and a half. It's slow going to find viable foods, and sometimes the company and or brands mean the differance between sick and healthy.

[Flynn MacCallister]

yes, well I lost 164 pounds of weight in seven months (80 pounds in the first month and a half) of my illness. I was in chronic pain and knew I likely had an electrolytic imbalance  while my doctors said it was probably Iritable bowl. Hmm, do you think we might check the $#!+ that can kill me if not properly treated before we decide it's a relatively harmless condition whith no standard course of treatment? Then One day my bosses told my that my particular shade of grey was scary and I really aught to go to the emergency room.

Hey, hold up, IBS can also result in death by malnutrition. It's a very general (read: cop-out) diagnosis that covers a very wide range of things, some of them symptomatically very similar to Crohn's. You can't really dismiss it as "a relatively harmless condition." Sure, for a lot of people, it's no more than a pest, but for some, it's on a par with Crohn's. (In which case, the diagnosis usually goes as "it looks and acts a fair bit like Crohn's, but it doesn't have the same cause as Crohn's... Hm, right, IBS. You'll do.)

[rovingjack]

yes, well I lost 164 pounds of weight in seven months (80 pounds in the first month and a half) of my illness. I was in chronic pain and knew I likely had an electrolytic imbalance  while my doctors said it was probably Iritable bowl. Hmm, do you think we might check the $#!+ that can kill me if not properly treated before we decide it's a relatively harmless condition whith no standard course of treatment? Then One day my bosses told my that my particular shade of grey was scary and I really aught to go to the emergency room.

Hey, hold up, IBS can also result in death by malnutrition. It's a very general (read: cop-out) diagnosis that covers a very wide range of things, some of them symptomatically very similar to Crohn's. You can't really dismiss it as "a relatively harmless condition." Sure, for a lot of people, it's no more than a pest, but for some, it's on a par with Crohn's. (In which case, the diagnosis usually goes as "it looks and acts a fair bit like Crohn's, but it doesn't have the same cause as Crohn's... Hm, right, IBS. You'll do.)

"relatively harmless condition whith no standard course of treatment? " was really more a description of the brush off they gave me before they stopped taking my calls about what to do next. IBS ranks in my mind with fibromialgia. Can destroy a persons ability to function and quality of life, but has no link to increased risk of bleeding and cancer, strictures or tears, fistulas of toxic problems. It''s not intended to be taken lightly but as you said they used it as a copout. telling me to drink peppermint tea and reduce my stress.

I was well known as a very laid back individual until that time. and peppermin inan open wound like my digestive tract...

The reason it was so angering is at that time, many months in they hadn't run a single test beyond checking my blodd pressure and my temperature.. Threw out the IBS and recommended peppermint and stress reduction.

No look into cancer, or anything like that, not even a look into giardiasis or gluten intolerance, and not even looking into the things like eletralytic imbalances that can occur with five months of this type of illness.

It still took me a year to pay off all their bills though.

[Alptraum]

yes, well I lost 164 pounds of weight in seven months (80 pounds in the first month and a half) of my illness. I was in chronic pain and knew I likely had an electrolytic imbalance  while my doctors said it was probably Iritable bowl. Hmm, do you think we might check the $#!+ that can kill me if not properly treated before we decide it's a relatively harmless condition whith no standard course of treatment? Then One day my bosses told my that my particular shade of grey was scary and I really aught to go to the emergency room.

Hey, hold up, IBS can also result in death by malnutrition. It's a very general (read: cop-out) diagnosis that covers a very wide range of things, some of them symptomatically very similar to Crohn's. You can't really dismiss it as "a relatively harmless condition." Sure, for a lot of people, it's no more than a pest, but for some, it's on a par with Crohn's. (In which case, the diagnosis usually goes as "it looks and acts a fair bit like Crohn's, but it doesn't have the same cause as Crohn's... Hm, right, IBS. You'll do.)

And that's why I don't like the American healthcare system.

Side GAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!! is that since my passport has expired, but I only realised today, and I'm travelling in 4 weeks, I can't use their normal service because that's a 3 week turnaround without delivery. Thus, I have to pay £40 more to have it done within 1 week. Bastards.

[darkshines]

My current GAAAAAAH is that there is a teenage chav doing laps of the city centre on a very, VERY rough sounding moped. It literally sounds like a jet engine, and he keeps revving it. Why would this annoy me? I live on one of the main roads through town. Hes been down at least a dozen times so far!

[Auntie Ludmilla]

Catapult, Darkshines. Use him for target practise.

[darkshines]

He should consider himself lucky I am not currently in the pocession of Mr C's steam cannon......

[Kaljaia]

A good stout clothesline at hip level should solve that one, Darkshine.

[darkshines]

Ah, he's stopped now, only to be replaced with an seemingly endless stream of drunken, football loving chavs. I hate living on the footpath side of my building.....

[phang]

Amazing that some of us over here still bemoan the cruising laws...

[Nikola Tesla]

By that time the doctors thought I might be sick Roll Eyes and test indicated I might have had a massive flare of crohn's that looked like it was going into remission. They told me that it just happens naturally sometimes but diet cannot do it, and I should take these golden nuggets- no wait these pills that cost $100 per pill thrice daily, indeffinately to maintain remission.

upon further reading those pills make 63% of crohn's patients worse, and have side effects that match my symptom at their worst, all the way up to liver damage, kidney failure and heart stoppage. I decided to pass.

Years ago I would have assumed that the price of the drug had nothing to do with the recommendation, but now I'm not so sure.  This is not the first time I have heard of someone with a mysterious or difficult illness being pressured into the most expensive of the possible diagnoses and/or treatments, often with rather little analysis.  You hear stories about drug company sponsored parties for doctors, and of kickbacks, thought I thought those were technically illegal...it's very disconcerting to think of one's physician as being as much marketer as healer.  It's made me very suspicious of medicine in general, and at middle age, right when I'm likely to start really needing it.

If those guys are hanging around making noise, darkshines, you could consider leaving something very stinky out there to make it less "hospitable".  Of course if you need your windows open this strategy could backfire.

[Flynn MacCallister]

yes, well I lost 164 pounds of weight in seven months (80 pounds in the first month and a half) of my illness. I was in chronic pain and knew I likely had an electrolytic imbalance  while my doctors said it was probably Iritable bowl. Hmm, do you think we might check the $#!+ that can kill me if not properly treated before we decide it's a relatively harmless condition whith no standard course of treatment? Then One day my bosses told my that my particular shade of grey was scary and I really aught to go to the emergency room.

Hey, hold up, IBS can also result in death by malnutrition. It's a very general (read: cop-out) diagnosis that covers a very wide range of things, some of them symptomatically very similar to Crohn's. You can't really dismiss it as "a relatively harmless condition." Sure, for a lot of people, it's no more than a pest, but for some, it's on a par with Crohn's. (In which case, the diagnosis usually goes as "it looks and acts a fair bit like Crohn's, but it doesn't have the same cause as Crohn's... Hm, right, IBS. You'll do.)

"relatively harmless condition whith no standard course of treatment? " was really more a description of the brush off they gave me before they stopped taking my calls about what to do next. IBS ranks in my mind with fibromialgia. Can destroy a persons ability to function and quality of life, but has no link to increased risk of bleeding and cancer, strictures or tears, fistulas of toxic problems. It''s not intended to be taken lightly but as you said they used it as a copout. telling me to drink peppermint tea and reduce my stress.

I was well known as a very laid back individual until that time. and peppermin inan open wound like my digestive tract...

The reason it was so angering is at that time, many months in they hadn't run a single test beyond checking my blodd pressure and my temperature.. Threw out the IBS and recommended peppermint and stress reduction.

No look into cancer, or anything like that, not even a look into giardiasis or gluten intolerance, and not even looking into the things like eletralytic imbalances that can occur with five months of this type of illness.

It still took me a year to pay off all their bills though.

Argh. IBS is what you diagnose when everything else has been definitively ruled out. That's not a cop-out in the sense I meant (which is there are so many different things that can go wrong with a digestive tract that they don't even bother to name and characterise most of them, and lump them together in this stupid general IBS heading), that's just plain failure.

Hey... I was leafing through Prof Jelinek's book on using a special diet for the treatment of MS, (mum has it, and the diet seems to be working for her... and she's trying to get me to take it up, too... just in case) and he does mention that this diet is meant to help with various autoimmune diseases, including possibly Crohn's (which he considers an autoimmune disease. I know that's still a bit up in the air)... and I thought of you. (Professor Jelinek is a professor of emergency medicine holding positions at UWA, University of Melbourne and Monash. http://www.takingcontrolofmultiplesclerosis.org/ )

The diet is simply "no terrestrial animal products, and no heat-processed oils." So, you can have whatever veggies you want (or can handle), and seafood, extra-virgin, cold pressed oils, but no milk, butter, non-seafood meat, margarine, any oils that aren't cold-pressed, etc. You're also not meant to fry anything, because of heating the oil. You're meant to try to get as much fish oil into you as you can, too.

I'm not saying "ohmigosh, you should do this!" It's just something else that's out there that you mightn't know about yet.

The idea behind it is, as I understand it and in very oversimplified terms for the sake of brevity, animal fats are inflammatory. Autoimmune diseases are, by definition, inflammatory diseases. If you remove the animal fats from your diet, (and in the case of MS, therefore eventually alter the fat profile of the sheaths around your nerves) the inflammatory response should be diminished. Basically.

[Thor]

Things that make me go Gah... how about people who never want to make a decision on anything?  I really don't like to have to make every decision.  If I ask for your input, give it to me!  Don't say "Oh, anything, I don't mind, it's up to you."  If I'm asking for your opinion, that means it matters enough that I want to take it into consideration when making a decision.

"Okay, so what movie would you like to see?"
"Oh, anything, really, I don't mind"
"Well, what type of movies do you like?"
*blank stare*
"Are there any movies you really don't want to watch?"
"Anything, really"
"What about horror?  Do you like horror?"
"Oh, no, I can't watch horror movies..."
THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SO WHEN I ASKED SPECIFICALLY???!?!

[rovingjack]

Things that make me go Gah... how about people who never want to make a decision on anything?  I really don't like to have to make every decision.  If I ask for your input, give it to me!  Don't say "Oh, anything, I don't mind, it's up to you."  If I'm asking for your opinion, that means it matters enough that I want to take it into consideration when making a decision.

"Okay, so what movie would you like to see?"
"Oh, anything, really, I don't mind"
"Well, what type of movies do you like?"
*blank stare*
"Are there any movies you really don't want to watch?"
"Anything, really"
"What about horror?  Do you like horror?"
"Oh, no, I can't watch horror movies..."
THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SO WHEN I ASKED SPECIFICALLY???!?!

because she is trying to see if you've taken notice of little things about her, and really understand her. While also conveying the concepts that it's not the activity she is there for but the company and that wants you to know she isn't pushy or manipulative.

Oddly even she probably doesn't know half of that herself but it doesn't make it less true.

[darkshines]

I live about 100 metres away from the main street full of pubs and clubs in the town centre, and the Millenium Stadium, so its usually noisy anyway. Its bad enough the road I live on is part of the red light district, and there are usually drug deallers, pimps and prostitutes around. But I really, REALLY hate living next to a bridge! If I had 1p for every idiot who has walked under that bridge and made a ghost noise, or screamed, or shouted EN-GER-LAND, or howled like a wolf, I would be very rich! Its like people don't realise they are walking past peoples houses where, at 3am, we would be SLEEPING?!

Urgh, I swear, my next flat is going to be somewhere QUIET.

[Thor]

because she is trying to see if you've taken notice of little things about her, and really understand her. While also conveying the concepts that it's not the activity she is there for but the company and that wants you to know she isn't pushy or manipulative.

Oddly even she probably doesn't know half of that herself but it doesn't make it less true.

That would be fine but we don't really know each other that well yet, and I'm trying to figure out her likes and dislikes, but if she doesn't tell me what she likes and doesn't, I have no way of knowing!


New GAH... the people that have been ringing me all night (luckily my phone was on silent for once) and half of the morning.  It's clearly a wrong number (based on the texts I've also received), but they can't seem to grasp the fact I don't want to talk to them.  They just called me on a landline number.  It went pretty much like this:
Me: "Hello?"
"Hello, can I speak to Hayat please?"
"I'm sorry, you've got the wrong number."
"...are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure, my name is Chris.  Goodbye."

Seriously, AM I SURE?!?  Maybe she was thinking I'd answer and say "Oh, you got me, I'm Hayat really!  You saw through my cunning ruse of not answering the phone at 2am, or the repeated times you've called this morning, and I've hung up the phone!  Now what were you saying about a job?"

[rovingjack]

I live about 100 metres away from the main street full of pubs and clubs in the town centre, and the Millenium Stadium, so its usually noisy anyway. Its bad enough the road I live on is part of the red light district, and there are usually drug deallers, pimps and prostitutes around. But I really, REALLY hate living next to a bridge! If I had 1p for every idiot who has walked under that bridge and made a ghost noise, or screamed, or shouted EN-GER-LAND, or howled like a wolf, I would be very rich! Its like people don't realise they are walking past peoples houses where, at 3am, we would be SLEEPING?!

Urgh, I swear, my next flat is going to be somewhere QUIET.

hm there's a thought, sit out with a sign that say's "1p charged to all who make noise under the bridge." Maybe you'll get enough by the end of the week to buy a better place. 

yes, well I lost 164 pounds of weight in seven months (80 pounds in the first month and a half) of my illness. I was in chronic pain and knew I likely had an electrolytic imbalance  while my doctors said it was probably Iritable bowl. Hmm, do you think we might check the $#!+ that can kill me if not properly treated before we decide it's a relatively harmless condition whith no standard course of treatment? Then One day my bosses told my that my particular shade of grey was scary and I really aught to go to the emergency room.

Hey, hold up, IBS can also result in death by malnutrition. It's a very general (read: cop-out) diagnosis that covers a very wide range of things, some of them symptomatically very similar to Crohn's. You can't really dismiss it as "a relatively harmless condition." Sure, for a lot of people, it's no more than a pest, but for some, it's on a par with Crohn's. (In which case, the diagnosis usually goes as "it looks and acts a fair bit like Crohn's, but it doesn't have the same cause as Crohn's... Hm, right, IBS. You'll do.)

"relatively harmless condition whith no standard course of treatment? " was really more a description of the brush off they gave me before they stopped taking my calls about what to do next. IBS ranks in my mind with fibromialgia. Can destroy a persons ability to function and quality of life, but has no link to increased risk of bleeding and cancer, strictures or tears, fistulas of toxic problems. It''s not intended to be taken lightly but as you said they used it as a copout. telling me to drink peppermint tea and reduce my stress.

I was well known as a very laid back individual until that time. and peppermin inan open wound like my digestive tract...

The reason it was so angering is at that time, many months in they hadn't run a single test beyond checking my blodd pressure and my temperature.. Threw out the IBS and recommended peppermint and stress reduction.

No look into cancer, or anything like that, not even a look into giardiasis or gluten intolerance, and not even looking into the things like eletralytic imbalances that can occur with five months of this type of illness.

It still took me a year to pay off all their bills though.

Argh. IBS is what you diagnose when everything else has been definitively ruled out. That's not a cop-out in the sense I meant (which is there are so many different things that can go wrong with a digestive tract that they don't even bother to name and characterise most of them, and lump them together in this stupid general IBS heading), that's just plain failure.

Hey... I was leafing through Prof Jelinek's book on using a special diet for the treatment of MS, (mum has it, and the diet seems to be working for her... and she's trying to get me to take it up, too... just in case) and he does mention that this diet is meant to help with various autoimmune diseases, including possibly Crohn's (which he considers an autoimmune disease. I know that's still a bit up in the air)... and I thought of you. (Professor Jelinek is a professor of emergency medicine holding positions at UWA, University of Melbourne and Monash. http://www.takingcontrolofmultiplesclerosis.org/ )

The diet is simply "no terrestrial animal products, and no heat-processed oils." So, you can have whatever veggies you want (or can handle), and seafood, extra-virgin, cold pressed oils, but no milk, butter, non-seafood meat, margarine, any oils that aren't cold-pressed, etc. You're also not meant to fry anything, because of heating the oil. You're meant to try to get as much fish oil into you as you can, too.

I'm not saying "ohmigosh, you should do this!" It's just something else that's out there that you mightn't know about yet.

The idea behind it is, as I understand it and in very oversimplified terms for the sake of brevity, animal fats are inflammatory. Autoimmune diseases are, by definition, inflammatory diseases. If you remove the animal fats from your diet, (and in the case of MS, therefore eventually alter the fat profile of the sheaths around your nerves) the inflammatory response should be diminished. Basically.

sounds like a plan for MS but personal experiance with all the grains  and many starches points to not an option to even try. The foundations of my approach got reinforced by a diet called the specific carbohydrate diet.

The basic premise being that the damage  to the digestive tract prevents the little fingers that break ones food (villi) become swollen and incapable of performing their function. so foods that should break down can't and it feeds irregular bacterial growth that become toxic and damage the villi so the can't break food up and cause irregular bacterial growth... so to stop the cycle, you stick to simple foods with high nutrient values and easily absorbed makeups. With that as a starting point you test your personal tolerances, as it seems the location of the inflamation varies and differing section absorb differant types of food.

[darkshines]

hm there's a thought, sit out with a sign that say's "1p charged to all who make noise under the bridge." Maybe you'll get enough by the end of the week to buy a better place. 

The annoying thing is, I could do a lot better with my money, I could have an apartment down in the harbour with an ocean view, spa in the basement and 24 hour security for the amount I pay to live in this craphole.....

[jesuisbienseule]

My current GAAAAAH is the fact that if the amount of shouting footie fans keeping me awake lastnight is anything to go by, then I am destined not to sleep at all should we actually win or lose a match :S

[The Kernel]

My current GAAAAAH is the fact that if the amount of shouting footie fans keeping me awake lastnight is anything to go by, then I am destined not to sleep at all should we actually win or lose a match :S

I had the same problem at 1am, a protracted discussion taking place outside my house at high volume by my neighbours who were returning from the pub.

Revenge though is mine!

I've just been round to one of them to help me remove the 100kg granite flower pot from the back of my Land-Rover, give him his due, he dressed and helped with the muscle work, but he did look sorry for himself

[Alptraum]

My brand new acrylic for contact juggling already has a bloody scratch on it (the grippy stuff on the surface of my balance board is basically sandpaper..)!!!! Anyone know how to get scratches out of an acrylic!? They're not too deep, but noticeable sometimes, which kinda spoils the effect.