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Really concerned about my oldest daughter. She has been suffering with Crohn’s disease for a long time. She also has diabetes.

We don’t know a lot about her health history. The adoption agency didn’t give us too much information.

Anyway, as you probably know Crohn’s disease is difficult to manage and I fear that one day she will have to have a colonoscopy. She goes in and out of the hospital so often.

She’s having complications and they are discussing surgery. She’s been through so much during this struggle.

It’s heartbreaking watching our children suffer with medical issues.
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The temps are going up to near 80 here today in northern Virginia. Come on, Mother Nature, get with the program, give us at least one ground covering of snow !!

I was looking as past photos of snow storms we use to have. I just miss seeing how beautiful the snow can be, especially when the sun is out.
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ButTerf1y - glad you are making it easier for yourself

Ann - I am so sorry. Can you arrange some respite for yourself, or is it time to place mum in a facility?

Buddysgirl1 - can you let most of his calls go to voice mail? Seeing them decline is so hard.

My whine - even colder this morning - minus 35. Winter's last hurrah, I think, and here I am sitting in a 19C (66F) house drinking my green tea willing my brown fat cells to activate. Two hours at 19C is my objective. Apparently that stimulates the brown fat as does green tea. There are two ways to feel warmer, one is external - dress warmer and turn up the thermostat and one is internal - get your own inner furnace working better. I am so tired of feeling cold even when the room temp is normal, so I am working on my inner furnace. Exercise will help too but with CFS/FM I am limited in that. 4 cups of green tea is doable. ☕☕☕☕. Sitting in the cold is harder. 🥶
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I never thought I would hate seeing Dad calling me. But when all he ever calls for is help with his imaginary problems (going to jail usually), and he's already called six times, I dread seeing his name on my phone .
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Ann: So sorry to read that you and your mother are in a dark place. I hope that you can see the light soon.
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Mom has dementia and a few days ago she started crying, whining, howling. Starting in the afternoon and continues towards midnight, until i give her a pill that was prescribed for sundowning. And she spits at me with her saliva, or her water or her food. I'm in a dark place, so is she.
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My mom doesn't like to eat that much so I fix snack meals for the most part so she eats 4 to 6 times just smaller. I do get tired of potates as thats her favorite. Give yourself a break they have healthy frozen meals that I use once a week on free from cooking night every wednesday.
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Golden,

I hate cold weather too.
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Nasty cold today with weather warning. minus 33C (minus 26 F) with wind chill minus 41 about the same C and F. Supposed to be the same tomorrow and of course I have an appointment down town. Think I will reschedule. 🧊🥶🧊
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Me: Mom why are you up so early?

Mom: It's not that early.

Me: It's still dark.

Mom: No it isn't still dark. It's not that early. I just got out of bed and couldn't see anything, so I walked to the door and looked down the hall and still couldn't see anything. So I went in the living room and sat down until I could see something. I don't know what's going on.

Me: :|
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Noticed that Alva!

However, cannot comment, I know nothing!
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Usually that's because those questions have been posted on the site's Facebook or Twitter pages.
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I have a question. Does it seem like our Questions section is undergoing a change in the last week or few weeks. It is as tho a whole BUNCH of old questions are showing up. I know they will show if someone answers and that resets them, but this is like old old questions with 40 or 50 answers already appear and are months old. A whole big number of Feb 9 questions showed up the other day. They all had a ton of answers and here was I about to answer AGAIN questions I already answered. It is almost like there is some automatic shuffler algorithm thingy or something. Maybe it is just me?
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Thanks, RR. My mistake. I am relieved she didn't have more time of suffering than she did. My friend who just passed at 71 had a short time between her diagnosis and her death at home on hospice, as well.
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Alva, my mom's was a cancerous tumor that caused the blockage. No doubt some lesions in there.

She probably had some diverticulitis, she ate processed garbage most of her life.
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Thanks Alva. I am pretty sure it is the ileocecal valve. It's always in the same place - right where the valve is and massage gets it opened. I can feel and hear the gurgling and get relief from the pain. Ginger helps too. I never have any of the other symptoms of diverticulosis with that pain. Considering the great majority of CFS sufferers have it I am a prime candidate.

At times I have had other gut symptoms which may be inflamed diverticula, which sort themselves out. At my age colonoscopies aren't recommended so I watch my diet - probiotics, prebiotics, anti-inflammatories and my bowel habits. If they return to normal quickly after a bout of D or C and any discomfort is gone then I consider all is well..

Yeah, we plod on and try a little of this and a little of that...
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Alva, Golden, Cwillie,
So grateful for your expert experienced advice!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Apple Cider vinegar it is!
Freezing ginger root when I buy some.
And tea-have it on hand!

That is a good start for me!

💖💖💖
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I keep my ginger root in a jar the freezer too, it's easy to grate exactly what I need for any recipe (no peeling necessary)
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send - I use a sprinkle of ground ginger, as in the spice, in tea or coffee, or make a tea with a little fresh ginger shaved or grated from the root and lemon juice if you like for flavour. I keep ginger root in the freezer. You can grate or shave it frozen. Very handy. I have to play around with the quantities to not over do it.

I look up individual supplements and the research done on them. I don't know of a webpage that covers them all.

from the internet

"And you don't have to consume a megadose to feel the results either—experts, including integrative medicine pioneer Andrew Weil, M.D, recommend consuming around 2 grams of ginger per day, which works out to about 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger, or 3/4 teaspoon powdered ginger."

Ginger Tea

Measure 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger into a heat proof mug or glass and pour 1 cup of boiling water over it. Cover with a saucer and let sit until cool enough to drink before straining. (I line a fine mesh strainer with a coffee filter to do so.) Sweeten with honey or sugar as desired.
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Send, Eliminate the cranberry. It can be really very irritating to the bladder and give that shedding of the leukocytes and urgency, urethral pain. Try to take something to make the urine a bit more alkaline for a bit. A teaspoon of apple cider vinegar (not regular) or some such. Eliminate the vit. C. for just a bit. You can take the biotin again and see again, as it did for me, if it causes the pain. They mention it online if you look up biotin and stomach spasm.
Golden, if you get this in same area and it comes and goes think in terms of diverticulitis. We almost all have diverticuli at a certain time after age 50. Mine got bad and is in the transverse colon where they almost didn't find it on CT scan. But finally did. And when it acts up it is an odd sort of stabbing pain, not awful but like a toothache above the belly button. When it calms down is gone. I hate them, the diverticuli as occ. one will bust through and then there you are. I think likely what happened with RealyReal's Mom?
Anyway, on we plod with a little of this and a little of that and some stuff that helps and some that hurts, actually. What can I say.
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Wow, Golden and Alva!
Your comments have been very helpful to me today.
Just started my dH on Biotin, and I tried some. Yes, stomach spasms.

The cranberry and Vit C do not help-Yes, a high leukocyte count, no bladder infection, but urgency, pain. Will continue the D-Mannose-hope that is not doing something.

I want to look into the website that explains any side effects of supplements.

Recently, I have used non-alcoholic ginger beer and that has significantly decreased any need for Prilosec or Nexium. But there is too much sugar in it.
Now I feel gerd can be cured the alternative medicine way, somehow. Searching out a better ginger source, and good to know one can take too much.

Thanks for sharing!
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Thanks, glad, llama and catskie. Got rid of it for now. Massage and ginger helps, and a heating pad. Haven't had it for quite a while and hope I won't have it again.

Alva - it's pain in the appendix area, similar to what I felt years ago as ovary pain. I had an ultrasound and ovaries etc. down there are fine. It's very localized in the area where the ileocecal valve is and can be a very sharp muscle spasm type pain or at least a nagging pain or a twinge. lasts for hours and is worse at night. No other symptoms with it. I have had bouts of it off and on for years sometimes going months and months between attacks. I can't remember when I had the previous one. I had no idea what it was once my ovaries showed up fine, then read in a blog for CFS/FM that ileocecal pain, such as I have, is found in I think it was about 80% of CFS sufferers. Bingo! The gut is definitely affected in CFS - stomach emptying is slower than normal, bloating, IBS like symptoms and so on. I always research very thoroughly ( I mean hours and hours of reading) any supplements I take for benefits and side effects and monitor myself very carefully the first while I take a new one for any differences in how I feel. And if there are problems I do what you did - check by going off it and see what happens and then try it again.

I don't bother talking to the doctor about stuff like this as I usually can figure out a solution and I don't want to go through all kinds of tests just to be advised what I already know and offered solutions I don't want to take.. Alternative medicine recommends a number of things including massaging that and other areas - which works, and general lifestyle stuff, gut health, turmeric, ginger, peppermint and so on. I find ginger very helpful in the right amounts. Too much and I empty out.

So yesterday I was sore and tired and today much better and the pain and soreness have nearly gone. I have to catch it, if there is a next time, earlier with ginger and massage. Sometimes I find that if I get mad enough at something like this it doesn't come back and I am getting pretty pissed off at my ileocecal valve. It better behave itself!!!!

Glad you found the reason and solution for your pain and your daughter did too. Thank you for sharing. I actually don' take many vitamins - just Vit D - but rather supplements to make up deficits in things like CoQ10, and acetyl l carnitine that are deficient in CFS and also anti-inflammatories for the brain inflammation.

Re the thinning hair - minoxidil and laser light combs work to stimulate the follicles. My hair is better than It has been for years from using those, and also now adding regular hot oil treatments. Those seem to act like a volumizer on my hair.

I don't like using gloves in the garden either - the feel of the soil and the plants is awesome!!! A good nail strengthener and nail polish help my nails and lots of good lotion/cream. Gel nails are great for keeping them strong, but I haven't had them for a while as covid changed the services at the salon I go to.

Anyway, thank you again. I am always interested to find what works for someone else. Today is a new day, and things are looking good. 😊
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Golden,
How does an ileocecal spasm feel?
Reason I ask is:
I recently started taking biotin. I took it for the usual old age thinning hair and for the fact I won't wear gardening gloves as I should--was getting some splitting in the nails, and my daughter told me she had the answer. Biotin. Started taking it in August.
THEN I started having these weird spasms. Felt like it was STOMACH, and not the gut, that is not the bowel. As I have a history of IBS I thought somehow just related. Often happened at night and awakened me, not involved with eating, and can only describe it as a spasm that started dull and felt like it slowly tightened and tightened, almost like a band of steel around just under the breasts, high stomach. Eventually I thought "Wonder if this is heart?" At 80 I kind of hoped so.
As is my wont I just ignored this. For months. It would come, last maybe 5" and go.
All of a sudden I am reading about vitamin reactions and see stomach spasm mentioned for biotin. I stopped the biotin and within four days the spasming began to lighten. Then was gone. I couldn't believe it. So I started on the biotin again. And yup. Spasms.
Recently my daughter was told that likely it was her vitamin C and cranberry tablet irritating her bladder. She stopped them and sure enough, what she thought was interstitial cystitis, bladder and urethral pain with no UTI but positive for leukocytes, went away.
We always look on vitamins as benign. But, they say, not so much. I had seen vit D reactions in ER. Scared patients. But hadn't thought of my own pills. Alas.
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Golden I hope you feel better soon. ♡
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Dearest golden: Feel better.💛
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Feel better, Golden.
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Blasted ileocecal valve spasms!!! Courtesy of CFS. I finally got back to sleep and slept till nearly 2 pm. Wiped today. Had to look up the alternative health methods for dealing with it again. Should be calmed down in a few days - I hope.
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Carolyn,

So happy that you’re feeling better. Hugs!
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Favegirl, I don't have enough experience yet to respond to your situation with your relatives. I just wanted to say that I think that it's wonderful that you're going into animal care. That is a true measure of a person's character. And I have great respect for that. Kudos to you, and thank you for venting, for your own health, and helping me in my learning. Good luck on your path!
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Update: After venting here my desire for food has diminished. Thank goodness! I find venting very therapeutic. It moves me forward. Expressing my feelings about what's going on with me helps to clear the path. Thank you everyone for responding. Hoping you have a better day today than yesterday. Sincerely...
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