The General Chat Thread (2016-2022)

Status
Not open for further replies.
morning glory said:
- I think its to do with the spine or something.
Click to expand...
Yep, it's why were regularly measured. If you're height drops too much, you'll find your dr will want to get your spine xrayed.

I'm measured frequently because I have known issues with my spine. It's the discs. As they give up and as you get older (or both) they lose water and hence height... if they give up on you they can come out from between your vertebrae and press against your spinal cord which is what happened to me last year with 2 of them in my neck. They compressed my spinal cord by more than 75% (visible on an MRI) and left me without the strength in my arms to even lift half a plastic glass to my lips using both hands. I was exceptionally lucky though because at the height mine failed, it could easily have left me doubly incontinent, paralysed from the neck down, stopped my breathing or worse. It's why they had to operate very quickly, before symptoms became worse or permanent. They don't know how I was still able to walk but my life expectancy was put at less than 6 months without surgery.

I've dropped from 168cm (5' 6") to 166.5cm and now back up to 167cm after surgery.
 
TastyReuben said:
No, that's our house. My wife likes to eat outside quite a bit, but I don't, so we compromise and do so a couple of times a week, either on the front porch or the back deck.

We'll be going into the city for a museum visit on Friday and have our picnic in a nearby city park.
Click to expand...

What a beautiful picture. You are so lucky to have a place like that. It COULD be the park.
 
cookieee said:
What a beautiful picture. You are so lucky to have a place like that. It COULD be the park.
Click to expand...
Thank you. It's probably the picture that makes it look bigger than it is. It's a very modest one-level house, and the biggest reason we bought it was because all the lots were fairly large (two acres).
 
rascal said:
One month of winter left, high of nine today but at least the suns out. Can't wait for spring.

Russ
Click to expand...
Enter stars here for replacement word.

It was bleeding cold this morning. Very wide spread frost, very damp with very high humidity and feels considerably colder than the 0°C my outdoor thermometer claimed. Yeh. And the fire went out overnight. Bed is currently the warmest place only my back is telling me not to lie down its been much colder in reality but it doesn't feel like it. None of the perishing -8°C we got ever winter in our old place (3 of them). Freezing fog in the valleys as well. Luckily we're above all that, looks beautiful but.
 
I think we are just above sea level so we get frosts a lot. Still predicting snow, they got plenty within an hour from me.
Man it was cold yesterday. 1st of August here so all horses birthdays. 10 yo granddaughter was 10 yesterday, we were hoping she would be born on 1st of August, just a day out,lol.

Russ
 
One thing that you might find funny, or downright odd, is that when Polly was cremated I had a mobile phone sealed in the casket with her (it could not be cremated for safety reasons because the battery is sealed in and cannot be removed). I have posted on my Facebook page all her shenanigans with my phone including texting people on legitimate numbers that are not in my contacts or call history. This phone has no SIM but can connect to the internet and could be used for VoIP calls. I keep getting messages left on my voicemail but with no number to return the call and no option to delete them. My service provider has confirmed that I am not going mad and that no number is given. They are however able to confirm that they are VoIP calls. The only way they could be deleted was by the service provider clearing all my saved messages, which they have now done.
Twice now I have found the TV unplugged - the socket is behind a cabinet where the dog and the other cats cannot get to. I can only reach it with great difficulty unless I pull the cabinet further away from the wall. Polly often used to put the TV, the Sky box and the BT TV box and could swap between them quicker than I could. This morning, when I got up, the cards from the funeral home were missing, and a photo of my granddaughters had been moved and left face down. They were on the mantelpiece - one of Polly's favourite places to sit, and she always used to knock everything in her way flying.....
 
Last edited:
Elawin said:
One thing that you might find funny, or downright odd, is that when Polly was cremated I had a mobile phone sealed in the casket with her (it could not be cremated for safety reasons because the battery is sealed in and cannot be removed). I have posted on my Facebook page all her shenanigans with my phone including texting people on legitimate numbers that are not in my contacts or call history. This phone has no SIM but can connect to the internet and could be used for VoIP calls. I keep getting messages left on my voicemail but with no number to return the call and no option to delete them. My service provider has confirmed that I am not going mad and that no number is given. They are however able to confirm that they are VoIP calls. The only way they could be deleted was by the service provider clearing all my saved messages, which they have now done. This morning, when I got up, the cards from the funeral home were missing, and a photo of my granddaughters had been moved and left face down. They were on the mantelpiece - one of Polly's favourite places to sit, and she always used to knock everything in her way flying.....
Click to expand...

I've missed the polly thing??
Sorry if it was a person?

Russ
 
Elawin said:
See post #8179 in this thread
Click to expand...

Sorry, I missed that, 22 s a great age, sorry for your loss. Our last cat, Minnie, died about 15 or 16, she was cremated and her ashes are scattered on the garden where she used to sleep during the day. She was a real character, followed me everywhere, even the toilet. I used to get home from work and she would always be at the front door waiting for me. Again dory for your loss.

Russ
 
rascal said:
Sorry, I missed that, 22 s a great age, sorry for your loss. Our last cat, Minnie, died about 15 or 16, she was cremated and her ashes are scattered on the garden where she used to sleep during the day. She was a real character, followed me everywhere, even the toilet. I used to get home from work and she would always be at the front door waiting for me. Again dory for your loss.

Russ
Click to expand...
It's got even spookier now. I went to let the dog out into the garden. Both the other cats were curled up asleep, one on the window ledge and one of the back of the sofa. When I came back in, neither cat had moved, yet my handbag was in the middle of the floor - another thing Polly liked to play with. The dog wouldn't come back in, and even when I enticed him in with some treats, he went straight back to the back door when he'd eaten them.
 
morning glory said:
I used to be 5ft 8 and a half (so quite tall for a woman) but over the years I seem to have lost height - I think its to do with the spine or something.
Click to expand...
and @SatNavSaysStraightOn
I've lost a couple of inches; I'm only 5 ft now. I have osteoporosis as a result of the radiotherapy after my op. I also have problems with my spinal cord - it's flat like a ribbon with hardly any liquid to cushion it. The neurologists say they could operate on it to try and relieve pressure in the worst places, but one false move could paralyse me. Their advice was simply to avoid putting any more pressure on or injuring my back in any way. If it gets any worse, then I should be re-referred, by which time surgical procedures may have advanced enough for them to be able to do something.
 
Elawin said:
then I should be re-referred, by which time surgical procedures may have advanced enough for them to be able to do something.
Click to expand...
When I asked my back surgeon about going to Australia after having had one op on my back where he fused l5-s1 (right leg was already partially paralysed so I had little to lose and tbh, it was the best thing I could have had done. My back was so much more comfortable after the op). He replied that the best place I could move to was Australia for any possible further issues with my back or spine in general.

He was right. The technology here is much further advanced and the spinal fusion I had done in the UK (think of scaffolding) even though it was done privately, it considered to be old tech and out of date, almost archaic! Tbe surgery i had on my neck fusing 2 joints (3 vertebra in total) is so much more advanced. Its hard to explain the implant, hang on....

Not great pictures because I'm holding the xray film with one hand, the phone with the other and trying to tap the button to take the picture with a not so spare finger...

In the one where the two meet and are off centre, that's because that centre vertebra had to be removed and partially reconstructed.

Side on
20190801_131351.jpg

Front on.
20190801_131306.jpg

Compare that to the old style scaffolding... I'll try to find a generic one...

Something similar, rods and screws is the technical term for the old style scaffolding used for fusion.

images.jpeg
 
Last edited:
The idea of this (potentially having been) in my neck is terrifying...
images-1.jpeg

So glad my neurosurgeon is at the forefront of technology. No pain except for occasional muscle twinges that comes from my head being 5mm higher than before and the muscles being this stretched and needing to adapt.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom