NELG

Oh, darn, I have no clue why. Sorry.

I blame Trump's wall

Step 1: Block all blogs ever
Step 2: Block websites with anyone from Mexico on them
Step 3: Actually build the wall

My reumatologist called me with some bad news.Blood tests show that I probalbynhave myositis. Imwill need more tests and the expertise for this (rare) condition is in Utrecht, the university hospital. I will have to be admited for a few days on a very short notice. I feel ambiguous about it. I do feel sad because this is something that will not heal, on the other hand, I feel like we are finally getting somewhere with a diagnose.

Sorry Lalou , you're going through so much

Today this white girl got mail from a cool girl.

Very busy day today for me in hospital. Six tests and four people to see me. Dietician, pharmacist, reumatologist and a social worker. I'm tired now.

GreatZot wrote:A friend of mine lost his government job on Friday, so yesterday I had lunch with him and his family and spent the afternoon with him as a mild distraction. Then yesterday evening another friend of mine was having an odd existential anxiety attack, so I spent the evening at his place talking about life, the Universe, the good old days,
etc.

You're truly a good friend, Zot. Of my friends that have anxiety and whatnot, and having talked to them about it from their perspective, literally the best thing you can do for them when they are having an anxiety attack is to just talk about stuff.
Maybe you talk about stuff related to the attack, maybe you don't, but just being there to talk to them while they are going through it usually means the world to them.
Especially because there are a lot of people who are like "Oooh they are having a weird anxiety attack, I better leave them alone for now", and don't get me wrong, there are times when they just want to be left alone, and in that case, at least making sure they know you are there if they decide they do want to talk about something.

The worst thing about anxiety is that a lot of people don't take it seriously and think you are blowing things out of proportion for no reason.. But they don't realise that, in that moment, whether it's something petty or not, in that moment, what they are anxious about suddenly takes priority of what's going on in their mind, and when everyone looks at them and says "Nah, they are just being weird over something dumb" It's like kicking them while they are down, because now they are having an attack and suddenly can feel generally unimportant on top of that. --to be fair though, anxiety does effect different people differently. There are people where sometimes it just takes over, and there are people that almost never get it, but sometimes it just happens, ya know?

---

Now to make my post my own::
Right now my work union is working on a deal, which apparently surprisingly looks like it will pass, where, this year, we will get a 2% raise, and next year a 2.5% raise, on top of that, better dental insurance, lower deductibles, among other things. Me and my dad were looking at it thinking "How the hell did they manage that?"
It's all tied to the state budget, and me and him think that it's probably the democratic legislature trying to stick it to the republicans before they take over the legislature... Either way, This year I'm going to get a 2% raise on top of my 6 month and 12 month raise, and next year I'll get a 2.5% raise on top of my 18 month raise. That's a lot of fricken raises!
Like, normally these things happen like "Hey, you'll get this, but you lose that" or "you wanted all this, how about we give you these few things out of what you wanted" --like, apparently a few years ago, our union gave up our ability to strike, meaning, our union will literally never go on strike.

Potentially going to only have a 3 day workweek this week (Would be 4, but I get the 4th off).
My typical weeks are 6 days on, 2 off, blah blah blah..
The tradeoff to having a 3 day workweek as opposed to my normal week though would be an 8 day workweek next week.

Two days ago I came back from the hospital, where Imwas for 13 days. I finally have a diagnosis,or actually three.
I seem to have myositis, which breaks down my muscles, Sjögren syndrom, which causes my mouth and eyes to be dry, and aspects of sclerodermia, which doesmweird stuff to my skin. All three are auto immune diseases, and all three have effect on my lungs. Treatment involves calming down my inmmune system with high doses of prednisone, for instant effect, and for the long term a sort of chemo therapy. This sounds heavy, but I get a much lower dose, in a much lower quantity and a much lower amount of doses as for cancer patients. I only get it once a month for six months and the first one exceeded expectation. I did not get sick, or nausiated, but the day after I had no appetite, which has already returned. I do have to remember to drink a lot of water though.

That's great Lalou - glad they were finally able to figure it out, hope your treatments and recovery go well

I'm so glad you have answers and a plan!

We just won 12,500 euro in the lottery.

LaLou wrote:We just won 12,500 euro in the lottery.

$18502.56 Canadian!! Congrats Lalou!!! That's seriously amazing after all the stuff you been going through, have fun with it!