Some thoughts on peripheral neuralgia
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Posted:Jun 27, 2012 6:23 pm
Last Updated:Jul 5, 2012 12:10 pm
2688 Views
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Back in 2000 when my peripheral neuralgia was first diagnosed, I was told that there were no treatments for it. I was also told that it was not likely to change very much. Over the intervening years, I heard that vitamin B12 had been known to help, then I heard that vitamin B6 was good for peripheral neuralgia. I started taking these vitamins, and, when I had found my weight had climbed to 165lbs, I started working out in the weight room, swimming, cycling, and running. In ten months my body told me, "this is what it was when I was a dancer 30 years ago" I had lost not 30, but 48lbs. I was 117. The symptom of my twitching big right toe had shifted to the little toe.
It was also during this time that my body started producing much less of the suite of hormones, and I began to worry just a little about bone density loss. So I began to think about the hormone replacement schemas that have been made popular since the Sex and The City actresses had aged. I really started to get interested in the details of this when I was elected to the board of the Women's Centre at Dalhousie, and made the chair of the Trans Inclusion Committee. It would seem that trans women use the same set of hormones that aging women use for hormone replacement therapy. It was while I was doing research for both of these that I stumbled across an article written by a collection of endocrinologist that was focused upon the multiple functions of progesterone. Progesterone, this article proclaimed in one spot, played a key role in neuro-regeneration, and re-myelination of nerves. One of the authors even went so far as to say that studies should be targeted on the question of progesterone's efficacy in ameliorating peripheral neuropathy.
That got me excited about the possibility of finally doing something about this peripheral neuropathy. So when I receive it tomorrow. I will start keeping a log of my symptoms to see if I can detect any reductions.
I sure hope it works! So far it is the only thing that holds any promise at all.
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At Last! I have a prescription for progesterone!!
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Posted:Jun 26, 2012 6:19 pm
Last Updated:Jun 27, 2012 11:47 am
2660 Views
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After my last visit with the doctor at the Dalhousie Medical Clinic, she asked me to write a time-line of my peripheral neuralgia. The time-line I turned in last week, and at that time made an appointment for today to see the doctor again. So when I finally got to see her, she asked a couple of probing questions about my peripheral neuralgia symptoms. Then we talked about progesterone as a therapy for it. After discussing these matters for a few minutes she asked me what I had hoped to get out of the visit.
I told her that I expected she could not prescribe progesterone without reference to new neurological measurements of my neuralgia. But she did! I now have a prescription for prometrium in 100mg tablets. I told her that I would grind the tablets and make a cream out of it. I believe she is going to make an appointment for me with one of the neurologists who use the EMG test. We will see how it has changed since the 2000 test I had. It certainly has changed in the way it feels since then. Even so, it does not prevent me from doing things like bicycling to Kentville or swimming a kilometer, or going for a 1k run.
I should be getting my prescription on Thursday. Tomorrow I’ll have the prescription faxed in to InHouse Pharmacy so that I can receive it on Thursday afternoon. I am sure that I will not be able to discern any effect for weeks or months. But I will try to keep daily logs.
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Rejected Again, and a new friend
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Posted:Jun 25, 2012 6:33 pm
Last Updated:Jun 27, 2012 7:12 am
3018 Views
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On my way to Kentville I made pretty good time. By the time I got to Mount Uniack I had passed the half-way mark, and thought I might make the entire trip in as little as five hours. But by the time I had gotten to Windsor I had strained my Achilles tendon again. So it took me 8 hours, including meal, drink, and pee breaks. Not bad really. But because of the Achilles tendon, I had to take the bus back. It turned out to be a pretty expensive trip.
I received the call on Friday; they turned me down. I really should have told them my entire history with PC repair dating all the way back to the Intel 4004. Oh well.
At least I made a new friend. She had come across this blog and sent me a message. She is a newly proclaimed lesbian, and a soccer mom. We finally met this morning (Sunday). We talked, sharing food and drink for the entire morning. She presented me with the rare opportunity to talk science in the form of biochemistry.
On Monday I will be seeing a doctor at the clinic on campus about my peripheral neuralgia. And I also want to take a trip to my bank to start a business account.
I had hoped to put up another picture tonight, but I cannot find my camera card dongle.
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Rejected Again, and a new friend
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Posted:Jun 24, 2012 6:25 pm
Last Updated:May 25, 2024 1:54 pm
2573 Views
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On my way to Kentville I made pretty good time. By the time I got to Mount Uniack I had passed the half-way mark, and thought I might make the entire trip in as little as five hours. But by the time I had gotten to Windsor I had strained my Achilles tendon again. So it took me 8 hours, including meal, drink, and pee breaks. Not bad really. But because of the Achilles tendon, I had to take the bus back. It turned out to be a pretty expensive trip.
I received the call on Friday; they turned me down. I really should have told them my entire history with PC repair dating all the way back to the Intel 4004. Oh well.
At least I made a new friend. She had come across this blog and sent me a message. She is a newly proclaimed lesbian, and a soccer mom. We finally met this morning (Sunday). We talked, sharing food and drink for the entire morning. She presented me with the rare opportunity to talk science in the form of biochemistry.
On Monday I will be seeing a doctor at the clinic on campus about my peripheral neuralgia. And I also want to take a trip to my bank to start a business account.
I had hoped to put up another picture tonight, but I cannot find my camera card dongle.
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Interview in Kentville
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Posted:Jun 17, 2012 6:57 pm
Last Updated:Jun 21, 2012 6:36 pm
2805 Views
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Well on Tuesday, I have a job interview in Kentville for an IT position with the Annapolis Valley Health Authority. So I have decided to ride my bicycle along the Evangeline trail. It will be approximately a 100K ride. My plan is to leave first thing in the morning, and I am anticipating that it will take about 8 hours. That should allow me time enough to find someone who can put me up for the evening. I cannot afford to rent a room for the night. This will be a nice practice run for my trip across Canada 13 years from now.
The interview is at 10 in the morning. I will return to Halifax right away after that. That will be 200k in two days.
I am really looking forward to this!
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Damn! Rejected again
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Posted:Jun 14, 2012 6:32 pm
Last Updated:May 25, 2024 1:54 pm
2389 Views
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I received an email from CEED today. They rejected my business proposal. So now I have to launch my business as soon as I possibly can.
So tomorrow I will go to my bank and take my business and GST numbers with me and start up a business account. And I will also have to get to work on my own website as an example of the kind of dynamic programming that web sites should be down with these days.
A new friend of mine that I met through the Occupy Nova Scotia group told me about a website she makes money by writing and submitting it to . It is called Elance. I'll see how that turns out. I think I should also put some effort into my resume too.
I have enough money to last me through July, and that is it. So I'd better be making some money soon.
Oh, and if I haven't said it before, my business name is Bay Laurel Information Solutions
Wish me luck!
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guy who says he loves me
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Posted:Jun 14, 2012 6:07 pm
Last Updated:Jun 15, 2012 5:00 am
2573 Views
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I just arrived home, and am doing some laundry. And it is about a half hour before I have to get ready for bed.
He is a nice enough looking younger fellow, but as I have said here before. I am only interested in women. Or possibly a trans-man.
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Facebook guy who says he loves me
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Posted:Jun 13, 2012 6:28 pm
Last Updated:May 25, 2024 1:54 pm
2278 Views
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I just arrived home, and am doing some laundry. And it is about a half hour before I have to get ready for bed.
As the title suggests, there is this fellow on facebook who has declared his love for me. Too bad for him, I am a lesbian. I told him I could be his friend. He offered me $6000 to come down to Washington to visit him. Nearly as I can figure he is no less than 15 years younger than me. He just sent me a message a little while ago asking if I had room to put him up if he came to stay for two days, or if there was a rooming place he could go to.
He is a nice enough looking younger fellow, but as I have said here before. I am only interested in women. Or possibly a trans-man.
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New Apartment
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Posted:Jun 10, 2012 6:42 pm
Last Updated:Jun 11, 2012 6:13 pm
2033 Views
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This will have to be quick since it is close to my bedtime.
One of the coordinators at the women's centre invited me over to meet her roommate. So I went over tonight.
The other woman is pretty, younger than me, quite intelligent, and works out. She gets up in the morning quite early to work out – she figured out that working out in the morning is better. True; I am aware of that but I can’t get up that early. Well, I do have my half-hour bike ride into campus. I will be able to move in either the first of July, or the end of July. I can’t wait to move in! She is a lovely woman who doesn’t smoke, and eats very sensibly.
On another note, I sure hope my business takes off. Nearly everyone I describe it to thinks it is a good idea.
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Business concept proposal, and other matters
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Posted:May 30, 2012 6:43 pm
Last Updated:May 31, 2012 1:54 pm
2021 Views
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Let's see. It has been a while since my last post, and much has happened.
Today I finished with my Business Concept Proposal. Yesterday I went to the Trans Union office to get a credit report. Since I never renewed my driver's license, I lacked an ID that showed my current address. Nonetheless, I managed to find a combination of official documents to allow the woman to get started. She came back a little while later, and asked me if I'd given the correct SIN number. She then asked for my SIN card. I did not find it in time to take it back to her yesterday, so I did this morning.
I took my SIN card in this morning, and found out that she had to wait for a tech. So I finally got my report this afternoon. By 6PM I had my Proposal completely packaged and ready to go.
Yesterday I was talking to one of the coordinators at the women's centre about trans folk, and some ideas that had come into my head since adopting the role of the chair of the trans inclusion committee. Neither one of us had any idea why none of the trans women ever come into the Women's Centre, but we do get a number of trans men. In fact one of the trans men is on the board. He also works for NSPirg. As a matter of fact I asked him about a job he'd posted on facebook. Seems it is right up my alley. They want a researcher who can interact with people, and also design a website. I have my fingers crossed!
Last weekend I spoke at the Outgrow Patriarchy Rally. I was the first speaker. I have been posting it on the Dal Gender and Women's Study wordpress site. I spoke, referring to 7 cards I had annotated with notes from the scads of notes I had taken from about 8 articles I had read concerning Ecofeminism. After giving the speech, I received a painting from a young mother who is an artist and an active organizer and activist. It is taking a while for me to reconstruct the speech. I think the written one is turning out better. I had to take a break from it while I produced my Business Concept Proposal.
If you want the address of the wordpress site with the speech, message me and I'll send it to you.
Well it is time for me to get to bed now
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Meetings, a cold, and shingles
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Posted:May 13, 2012 6:59 pm
Last Updated:May 20, 2012 4:18 pm
2450 Views
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This last week I went to a meeting sponsored by the government, and CEED for entrepreneurs. I learned there a number of useful things. For instance, the sections of the business plan template that contained projections of earnings, market conditions, and other financial considerations are all derived from Stats-Can data that is freely available on the net. This will be really helpful to me for filling out the Business Plan.
I got rained on pretty good one day this week. My shoes got pretty wet, my tights were wet, and my coat got heavy with water. It was not terribly unpleasant. Still, sunshine, warm evenings, and the moon are much more desirable.
Last night we had a teleconference board meeting for the Centre. I was a little late joining because I had not anticipated the problems in getting my iPhone to work with the telephone number I had to dial to join the meeting. It turned out to be an unusually short meeting; telephones just do not allow the closeness of personal meetings.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention, last weekend I had a little cold. I really mean little. It started with one tiny spot on the side of my throat. I took advil, a slightly larger dose that recommended. The next day it moved into my lungs, but only one tiny spot in my left lung; I coughed twice. The third day it moved to my nasal passages and I woke to blow my nose only once in the night. The next day I went for a swim, and for the first time in years, I swam for a whole kilometer. When I mentioned that fact to one of the co-ordinators the next day, she suggested I try doing a triathlon. Of course the Dalplex has decided to resurface the running track now, so I have no particular way of gauging distance run. I don't really want to run on the sidewalks; the pavement may not be kind to these 50+ year old bones and joints. Of course triathlons are often run on precisely city streets. This week I will alternate swimming, weight lifting, and running. I cycle a fair distance everyday just to get there and back again. But the day after my swim I felt a crawling, peculiar, almost painful sensation on the skin of my left thigh at the hip. By Tuesday, red spots started showing. A quick google search turned up a list of 61 possible causes of red spots, so I went to the medical clinic. Turns out it was shingles and I've been taking Famciclovir, an anti-retroviral for it. The spots got bigger and angrier since then. Today they seemed to be vestigial and will now be healing. It will likely take a couple of weeks
I wasted a bit of time watching the second season of Lost Girl. I enjoyed it, but it is not what I would call high entertainment. Still it had its moving moments.
Today, a group showed up at the Centre saying they had made arrangements for a meeting. One of the women was a woman who is part of the bath house group I am a member of. I gave her some of the leftover hash that I made. She had seen me cooking it. It had sweet potato, potatoes, yellow peppers, onions, mushrooms, herbs and spices, and finally mixed in with whipped eggs, and topped off with cheese melted on top. It is very tasty.
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HotTimeHalifax BathHouse and other news
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Posted:May 5, 2012 6:37 pm
Last Updated:May 6, 2012 9:36 am
2182 Views
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We had our first BathHouse event. It was an excellent evening with practically every gender across the new non-binomial gender spectrum present. It was well attended, and the talk afterwards about it was good, and hopeful that there would be another. I asked several of the women there what kind of bathhouse they would build if they had any budget imaginable. Mostly it took a little prompting, but generally all agreed that plants, a tropical microcosm would be much desired. Of course one of the rules of the this bath house event was that whatever is said in the bath house, stays in the bath house. Therefore I'll not be telling any tales of any others. That said there were events planned that were supposed to break the ice. All in all, it was quite fun.
I wore one of my new bathing suits. Nobody I spoke to had the space, or the freedom to put me up for the night, except one girl who lived quite a ways off in the wrong direction. Perhaps I should have taken her up on it; I might have gotten in to bed earlier than 3.
I missed a networking event in the morning because I could not get up early enough for it.
We had a meeting about the bath house event, rather informally, just discussing some of the things that had gone on in the bath house. Earlier that day, one of the women had brought her laptop to me, and asked me to fix it. It was only lightly infected, but there was a wireless issue that only went away after I went into safe mode. She gave me $30.
After the meeting I went across the street to he CoHo. There was a benefit event for Avalon House for battered women. I had no money to donate, but I did give my card to one of the board member saying I could donate my services. I drank too much, and got home latish. I got up early the next morning but went back to bed after bathing. It was nearly noon by the time I got in to the centre. In mid-afternoon I went for a walk down Spring Garden Road. I met the Greek woman who sold my my purse, and has given me earrings last year. She was about to go home because she hadn't sold anything. I bought two pairs of earrings from her. One pair matched the peach colours I was wearing. Further down the street, past the park where the artisans like my friend all hang their wares on the fence, I came to the section where the businesses are clustered. I went to the mall, and saw The Avengers. It was enjoyable. Even so I was lackluster from the night before.
Today, when I woke, I felt a little scratchy, tickle in my throat. When I got to the Centre, I had some advil to combat the inflammation. I walked down to see another movie today. Arriving back later at the centre, I decided to go for a swim. I put my suit on and when down to the pool, and found they still had the swim-meet on. So I went back, had a bite to eat, and then checked out the Centennial pool online. I headed over there, and got there just before the desk closed. I found out that a party had rented it for 8, so I thought I had a half hour to swim. I had the pool entirely to myself. But I was asked to leave by about 10 minutes till 8.
So I am home early and decided to write this up.
Oh, I just realized that I had written my last blog entry on Saturday last week. On Sunday I had the first organizing meeting for the Dyke and Trans March. On the way there I had a bike accident. There was a fair bit of blood. A young woman suggested I lock my bike up, and she gave me a ride to the meeting. The girls at the meeting led me to the bathroom so I could clean up, took my white hoodie sweatshirt and cleaned the blood out of it, and then washed and dried it. After the meeting one of the girls gave me a ride back to my bike. I then went back to the centre, and opened up for the Goddess meeting. The young woman who leads that group gave me a ride to the hospital, and so, two hours after the accident, I finally went to emergency. I was seen very quickly. When the vascular surgeon stepped into the room, he looked at me and said, "you look fit!" That was gratifying.
I just a couple of minutes ago received an email that directed all the recipients to invite anyone else to the next planning meeting. So here it is: Contact me if you would like to attend the planning meeting next thursday evening.
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Barbecue and drinks with geeks, and dancing late night at a club
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Posted:Apr 28, 2012 8:35 pm
Last Updated:Apr 28, 2012 8:47 pm
2004 Views
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Last night as I was preparing to go to the last of the geek events of the winter term, a woman called wanting advice about a breach of confidence issue relating to her application here at Dal. After talking for a short space of time, I suggested she come here when one of the coordinators was in. She then said that she would be right down if I didn't mind. I had just come back from a swim, and was about to go off to the barbecue. I'd reasoned that talking to her in her upset was more important than me going off for a couple of beers and a burger. She arrived a few minutes later.
She was more or less my age, thin, with longish straight brown hair. She told me she was turkish; she had the faintest of accents. She was very upset, but not loud in her anger. I asked questions sparingly, letting her talk. She had claimed that certain officials in the registrar's office were actively attempting to bar her access to the university. After we had talked for about a half an hour, I suggested she walk with me. We walked and talked on the way to security where I had to turn in the key to the Centre. She was angry and afraid, but gradually I realized that her real goal was to attend here to upgrade her nursing credentials. In some of her talk I noted that she ascribed pernicious motives to the people who seemed to stand in the way of her access to educational services here. I told her that her focus on breach of confidence was a deviation from her true path. I reminded her about how the brain consumes most of the calories that we eat, and then told her that anger, jealousy, and the like are a waste of the food we eat. She got the point immediately. She accompanied me to the barbecue, but declined to eat or drink anything. We sat and talked at a table beyond the big speakers that were playing the music for the event. I told her she was beautiful. She really was. When she finally left me, she was much calmer, and very thoughtful. She had said kind things to me, and praised my patience and wisdom. She had said that she felt that I was speaking from a higher plane. I told her it was not higher, but just a different place. I hugged her just before she left, and I walked her to the door.
After that, I got another beer, and started talking to this pretty young girl who always seemed to brighten when she saw me at these events. For a brief time we danced; that was really unusual for one of these geek events. For a change I stayed to closing. The girl, and her boyfriend, and another friend of theirs all asked me if I wanted to go with them to The Palace. I went along.
We did not have to wait in line very long to get in. I bought a beer and joined them on the dance floor. This girl is a strikingly beautiful young lady with long thick black hair, and deep brown eyes, generous breasts and hips and a thin waist. She liked to dance up close. We bumped hips to the rhythm of the music, we pressed pelvis to pelvis. The guys were there dancing too, but they just didn't have the same rhythmic expression. There was another girl on the floor who started dancing with me, up close, chest to chest, and she reached for the beer in my hand so smoothly that I let her have it. Then she lost her balance and dropped it. She was very drunk. I bought another beer. I am not sure what happened to her.
The group decided to go to another venue. The line there was longer, and it was cold out. I decided it was time to head for bed, and had a coolish walk back.
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To link to this blog (LaurelTreeGal) use [blog LaurelTreeGal] in your messages.
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