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Small Talk: The Prayer Closet


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To crazycatlady58 and Arwen Evenstar, thanks for asking. I'm good. Just been busy taking care of things I put off while dealing with medical things and getting my niece back into her house after what we now refer to as the Great Flood of 2016 here in Louisiana. One of her three dogs that she literally swam out of her house with to reach a rescue boat has had some medical problems too so it was a long haul, but she is settled  now. We tend to cringe now when the rain lasts too long. Hoping the rest of 2017 is better for everybody.

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@jjane - we moved away before the great flood and some of our  friends still aren't back in their houses - what a mess. The house we sold didn't flood but that doesn't take away the feelings of misery for those who did. Hoping all continues to go in a positive direction.  And yes the rain. I text with my friends during heavy rains as they worry. 

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Hello, everyone, long time no see.  Well, I've read (and posted a couple of times) on some of the other threads, but for the most part, I just felt too overwhelmed to say a whole lot.

I'm sorry for all the health issues some of you have been experiencing, but glad that it's all going well.  I'm seeing my doctor on Tuesday to request a new anti-depressant.  My father died in March, and there were some other things that happened (my son's four-month-old marriage imploded (not his fault), but I can't talk about it because there will eventually be a court case) that have left me seriously depressed.  I cry all the time, and nothing seems to help.  I started seeing a therapist again just to try to vent some of the feelings of anger and hatred I've been experiencing.  She's diagnosed me with PTSD from my traumatic childhood, which is confirmation of the same diagnosis I got from a different therapist 30 years ago, but my father's death and my mother's subsequent behavior brought it all up fresh again.  

Meanwhile, I'm trying to keep busy.  I'm on shortened hours for the summer, so money is tight, but I am using my time on other things.  I've been listing lots of items on my shop on etsy, decluttering my house (I have hoarder tendencies), and writing a YA novel that is about 2/3 finished.  I have ideas for a couple more YA novels, and some other writing things churning around in my head, so it's been a surprisingly fertile time for me in that sense.  (And I write better on my novel than my posts here would indicate.)  I've also just taken on the role of stage manager for a play that goes up in September, and will be auditioning for a couple of plays in the next week or so.  I had been cast in a play (a musical about a local hospital for criminals--I was playing a social worker), but after going through two lead actors, the director cancelled the production.

Even when I don't post, I find great comfort from all of your posts, as Aja said.  I laugh and cry with you, and pray for you, too.

I have a kind of ironic funeral story to go along with those that were posted a while back.  My brother died when I was 15, and a lot of people came out for the funeral, including people we hadn't seen for a while.  One of those was my brother's godmother--she and my mother had had a falling out, so we hadn't seen her for years.  Anyway, I had taken a break from sitting by the casket, so I was standing by the door when she came in.  She greeted me and asked me where my sister and brother were.  I told her my sister was in the back with her friends and my brother was---and then we looked at each other and realized what a ridiculous thing she had just asked me, because my brother was in the casket.  Talk about feeling like you'd just swallowed a frog!  She was mortified.  It makes me laugh now, but at the time, it was surreal.

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{{{HUGS}}} everyone.

Our electricity went out for three hours last night on the hottest day of the year so far. It came on for a few minutes after a hour, but it went back out again. I guess the side where I live must have more heathens because across the street and other areas had they power back on within a hour, or maybe the three or four power company guys were big time heathens because it took them longer to get our power back up and running. We did go outside since our house was like a sauna. Poor Tia got sick due to no air conditioners and fans running, but Sassy loved being able to go outside to explore and chase butterflies. The sunset and stars were beautiful to look at. I should have been reading the bible to my fellow neighbors and animals, but my eyes were bothering me, so I decided to follow my heathen ways. It was cute when one of the neighborhood dogs got loose, and his owners were trying to catch him. He was having fun before he was finally caught.

@lookyloo, I'm the only one of my family in the area that didn't flood. Two were in condos and could live upstairs once the downstairs was gutted, although with no kitchens. The bedrooms and baths were upstairs. My niece was near the Amite river and lost everything. Everybody in her subdivision kept saying they didn't flood in the last really big one and by the time the backwater flooding started it was too late to leave. Cell service was spotty and we couldn't get through to her. The neighbor next door was airlifted and told them to check on her but she had too many mature trees and they could  not get close enough to get her. She, her daughter, and three dogs got out on  inflatable  rafts and were rescued by people in boats. She could write a book about her adventures after that. It included people living on the roof of the Dollar General, army trucks that broke down, more boats, more trucks, and finally being picked up by us in Gonzales. I think I may have told everyone here that my brother who flooded spent most of the time after the flood in the hospital then died of heart failure about the time he would have been able to move downstairs. All in all, a bad time for so many people.  So many neighborhoods are still not rebuilt and a lot of people simply never had the resources to rebuild. I will say, though, that the outpouring of help from ordinary people was extraordinary. The churches were giving away clothes, cleaning supplies, water, everything you could need.  A caravan of Amish people came down and cooked onsite at a church in Denham Springs every day and they had the most delicious food. We went and picked some up for the people helping with the niece's house and it was so good. Fresh and flavorful. Churches  were feeding people every single day.  Not to downgrade the Red Cross and other organizations, but the assistance from the churches  and regular people who wanted to help was sometimes  easier to access no questions asked.  In fact, we asked the people at a church near my niece's house if we could take food for the people in the neighborhood who had  no way to get there and they sent someone out with us to check on  people and did a round there every day for two weeks to make sure these people got fed until they were able to get a place to be safe. This is why I have such a problem with people like the Duggars wanting to isolate themselves from the evil outside world. Most of us just want to live our lives and help people when we can. 

Sorry for the book. I could write for days about how kind people can be.

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18 hours ago, Jynnan tonnix said:

Well with all the baby talk on this site in general today, let me add one more...My daughter & son-in-law came over today to celebrate her 30th birthday, and also dropped the  news that they are expecting their first baby (and my first grandbaby!!!!). Since it's only very, very early days (like, less than 3 weeks in, LOL), they made me promise I wouldn't spread the news yet, but I figure this is a good place to vent my excitement without risk of letting any real-life friends/acquaintances in on what could still be premature news. 

That is the best and most exciting news, @Jynnan tonnix. There is nothing like being a grandparent! Wishing her a smooth and easy pregnancy.

15 hours ago, Sew Sumi said:

That fire is on my route to work through the outskirts of downtown, but I'm off for summer break. The wind blew southeast that day (which is why it made it down to Livermore). Being due north, we didn't get any smoke here, although we are less than two miles from ground zero. The helicopters flying over were what actually woke me up that morning. They were relentless for hours! 

Stay safe, @Sew Sumi. That is really too close. Hope they get it and all the other fires under control.

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33 minutes ago, jjane said:

@lookyloo, I'm the only one of my family in the area that didn't flood. Two were in condos and could live upstairs once the downstairs was gutted, although with no kitchens. The bedrooms and baths were upstairs. My niece was near the Amite river and lost everything. Everybody in her subdivision kept saying they didn't flood in the last really big one and by the time the backwater flooding started it was too late to leave. Cell service was spotty and we couldn't get through to her. The neighbor next door was airlifted and told them to check on her but she had too many mature trees and they could  not get close enough to get her. She, her daughter, and three dogs got out on  inflatable  rafts and were rescued by people in boats. She could write a book about her adventures after that. It included people living on the roof of the Dollar General, army trucks that broke down, more boats, more trucks, and finally being picked up by us in Gonzales. I think I may have told everyone here that my brother who flooded spent most of the time after the flood in the hospital then died of heart failure about the time he would have been able to move downstairs. All in all, a bad time for so many people.  So many neighborhoods are still not rebuilt and a lot of people simply never had the resources to rebuild. I will say, though, that the outpouring of help from ordinary people was extraordinary. The churches were giving away clothes, cleaning supplies, water, everything you could need.  A caravan of Amish people came down and cooked onsite at a church in Denham Springs every day and they had the most delicious food. We went and picked some up for the people helping with the niece's house and it was so good. Fresh and flavorful. Churches  were feeding people every single day.  Not to downgrade the Red Cross and other organizations, but the assistance from the churches  and regular people who wanted to help was sometimes  easier to access no questions asked.  In fact, we asked the people at a church near my niece's house if we could take food for the people in the neighborhood who had  no way to get there and they sent someone out with us to check on  people and did a round there every day for two weeks to make sure these people got fed until they were able to get a place to be safe. This is why I have such a problem with people like the Duggars wanting to isolate themselves from the evil outside world. Most of us just want to live our lives and help people when we can. 

Sorry for the book. I could write for days about how kind people can be.

wow, I guess I missed the part about your brother!  So sorry about that.  One of my dear friends whose house flooded was the last one on her block to get water.  It stopped inside her house.  She has lived there over 32 years with no problems.  I am a quilter and lots of the BR and surrounding area quilters (one of whom I took some classes from) lost everything so the guilds put together a way for folks to donate extra supplies and machines.  I sent $$ - more practical - the kindness is overwhelming.  And we still ask "did you flood?" when we reconnect with someone.  And I agree about the Duggars.  There are so many ways to help people in this country, in their state and in their local community.  Bah!!

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@lookeyloo, thanks for the kind words. It was something we all expected, but sudden as well, if that makes sense. The really sad part was that the wonderful man who rebuilt his condo really liked him and went out of his way to make sure he stretched his insurance money to make sure he had what he needed.  When the insurance balked at replacing the upstairs AC unit as well as the one outside, he went to bat and made sure they paid for it. He handmade his light fixture in the kitchen to replace the ugly fluorescent that was there out of hammered metal and it was really nice. He told me once he wanted to  make it more masculine for him, it still had some of the outdated wallpaper from the late eighties. He encouraged him  to pick darker woods and more modern finishes and it was really beautiful.  My brother had lost part of a foot because of diabetes and didn't drive much so  he also took him to pick out appliances himself and told me if I bought his groceries and supplies over during the day he or his crew would make sure they got them upstairs.  Not to mention he was the one who went to the church on the corner to get him hot food  when he was not in the hospital at first. His being there and helping him out during the day  meant we could concentrate on rebuilding for  my niece who had no insurance and a child to worry about. It was a huge weight off our shoulders and we will be eternally grateful that he was in Greg's life and ours for a time. Out of all the stories of people being taken advantage of, at least he had a good experience with the rebuilding and was excited about his new living space when he died. Without getting too religious, I think people are put in our lives for a reason, whether they are angels or not, I don't know.

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Someone had brought up Rosemary Kennedy in another thread. She was not slow or developmentally disabled. The poor woman suffered with severe depression to the point she was in a lot of emotional and physical pain. She acted out because she did not get the proper diagnosis and treatment. Her father thought she was an embarrassment to the precious family name, so he had the one doctor give her a lobotomy to control her, and this is how she ended up developmentally disabled. She was dumped in a hospital, and the family was not allowed to talk about her or visit her. Her father reminds me a lot of a certain father who shall remain nameless on here who is more concerned about the family name and wants to control all of his children, and is in deep denial about the mental and physical well being of his own children.

Hi y'all.   Brief update.  Last first line treatment scheduled for July 18th. Been laid up and under house arrest due to low counts.  Took 4 treatments for me to present low counts, but now I'm relegated to being both s hermit and an invalid. Checking me again tomorrow to see if my blood booster drug kicked in enough to  have acceptable numbers.  Hoping to avoid the expense and all day aggro of another transfusion.  Started medication last week to help with neuropathy 

ive added neuropathy to My List of Things I'd Never Wish on Anyone.  My heart goes out to anyone who has to deal with it on a permanent basis.  Mine is supposed to go away eventually once I stop these drugs.

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(edited)
5 hours ago, emma675 said:

Arwen, hang in there, you're doing awesome!! How far through treatments are you now?

 The treatment on July 18 will be the sixth of six for my first line of treatment. Then 7 to 10 days later they'll be a PET or CT scan to assess my progress. After three treatments the larger masses in my abdomen hadn't shrunk much so they don't expect them to shrink fully based on what they've seen thus far. But as long as they keep shrinking them that's a good thing. I get 6 to 8 weeks of a break and then they want to start me on an oral regimen of a new drug called a PARP inhibitor .  

It's not chemotherapy but it's what they call target therapy where it attacks the DNA of cancer cells for specific types of cancer.  In March the FDA approved three different drugs of this class to target varying responses to ovarian cancer first-line and later line therapy. This is really exciting considering that not too much in the way of new drugs has come out for the treatment of ovarian cancer. 

Thanks to all for all the love and encouragement and full frontal hug's.

Edited by Arwen Evenstar
Voice recognition doesn't always work.
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22 minutes ago, Arwen Evenstar said:

 The treatment on July 18 will be the sixth of six for my first line of treatment. Then 7 to 10 days later they'll be a PET or CT scan to assess my progress. After three treatments the larger masses in my abdomen hadn't shrunk much so they don't expect them to shrink fully based on what they've seen thus far. But as long as they keep shrinking them that's a good thing. I get 6 to 8 weeks of a break and then they want to start me on an oral regimen of a new drug called a PARP inhibitor .  

It's not chemotherapy but it's what they call target therapy where it attacks the DNA of cancer cells for specific types of cancer.  In March the FDA approved three different drugs of this class to target varying responses to ovarian cancer first-line and later line therapy. This is really exciting considering that not too much in the way of new drugs has come out for the treatment of ovarian cancer. 

Thanks to all for all the love and encouragement and full frontal hug's.

Arwen, that's such wonderful news about the new medication!  Fair warning, cancer, Arwen is gunning for you. You just better clear out while you can. 

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Arwen, , so sorry to hear about your results. I hope you can go forward on the 18th. Also, neuropathy sucks, but I hope it is a short term thing for you. I know the pace of new treatments for cancer is slow but maybe this new stuff will be what you need. You're a fighter, even when you don't think so. Sending full frontal hugs, prayers, good wishes, and admiration for your attitude and strength in the face of this. We all believe in you. Much Love.

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15 minutes ago, jjane said:

Arwen, , so sorry to hear about your results. I hope you can go forward on the 18th. Also, neuropathy sucks, but I hope it is a short term thing for you. I know the pace of new treatments for cancer is slow but maybe this new stuff will be what you need. You're a fighter, even when you don't think so. Sending full frontal hugs, prayers, good wishes, and admiration for your attitude and strength in the face of this. We all believe in you. Much Love.

Much love to you, too.  You got me misty eyed. If Mr E wasn't still asleep, I'd probably start bawling.

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(edited)
On 7/13/2017 at 8:43 PM, Arwen Evenstar said:

@magpye29, thanks for sharing your story. So sad you lost one of your precious babies.  Can only imagine how harrowing that experience was, as well as the difficulties you had with your other pregnancies and deliveries.

Thank YOU Arwen for the kind words.  I have been praying for you and sending positive thoughts and energy your way.  

It was the best thing for my baby that he died because his issues were so multiple and severe that he would have had no quality of life and would not have been able to come home from the hospital.  They actually use his case as a teaching tool at BAMC now because his condition was so rare (they thought he had CHARGE Syndrome, but he only had four of the five markers required for that).  Anyway, I bargained my way with God through the whole sixteen days of my son's life until the best deal God could give us was that my son died an easy, peaceful death, and you know what?  That was a pretty good gift when all was said and done.

So I have some wonderful news to share.  My daughter got engaged on Thursday!  Her boyfriend proposed to her in front of the Eiffel tower with his brother and her brother (my son) both there to witness and take pictures!  My daughter has always loved the Eiffel tower, so when I found out that part of their European trip was going to be in Paris, I was truly hoping that this would happen.  The joy on her face in all the pictures and on our video chat has just been so wonderful to see.  I am so happy for the two of them, and I've been smiling for three days now!

I always feel kind of funny when I post stuff here because I have had a very interesting and remarkable life adventure, and I worry that people will think I'm making stuff up, but some of our sharper friends here (I'm looking at you, Sew Sumi) could easily track me down online and verify my info.  It's just so funny on this forum about professional grifters that we tend to worry that others here will see us in that same light.

Edited by magpye29
left out an "and"
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(edited)

That's our Pissing Preacher. 

Story: I was with my nephew touring ASU, which is maybe 3/4 of a mile away. We found some old groundskeeper who gave us a tour of the weight and locker rooms of the football team and got us on the field. Not bad. Then I asked my nephew how far it was to that address. He said down the street. pretty much. 

He dared me to knock. I told him that as a man, PP would respond to him better. That checked him out in a hot second, so we took pics and ran. 

Edited by Sew Sumi
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I had a Duggar dream or should I say a nightmare this morning. Jill and Derick were in it, and I think I was calling them out on a few things. I did not hear my alarm clock this morning, but I did wake up on time to make to my appointment this morning with ten minutes to spare. My hyperthyroidism was kicking in so I had my husband drive me. Darn those Duggars for making me dream about them.

Message added by Scarlett45

This is a reminder that the Politics Policy is still in effect.

I understand with recent current events there may be a desire to discuss political social media posts of those in the Duggar realm- this is not the place for those discussions. If you believe someone has violated forum rules, report them, do not respond or engage.

Political discussion is not allowed in this forum- this includes Small Talk topics. Please stay in the spirit of the policy- I have noticed a tendency for some to follow the letter but not the spirit.

Guest

While we understand the frustration (change is never easy), please keep in mind that not everyone feels the same way and that for those members who don't, the ongoing conversation about other forums and chat options can equally be a cause of frustration.

Out of respect for your fellow posters, we kindly ask that you continue any discussion about alternatives via PM or the Technically Speaking: Bugs, Questions, & Suggestions area.

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