zuzu said:Heads up, DOS



Everything in the Sandbox will be deleted. Please copy and paste anything you want to keep into a blog.

Zuzu,

Thank you VERY much for the warning!!!

I'm done with this thread now. I will start another soon for new posts. I've backed up what I need from this one. This one can be removed to recover/recycle storage space.

Good! Don't start the new one until April. I'm looking forward to it.

Zuzu,

Curious. Why April?

Because the cleanup will take place at the end of March, so anything you start before April will be deleted.

It seems that the rules have changed and the cleanup will now delete only the posts prior to 2016, so this whole thread might be safe.

zuzu,

Thank you for helping me to understand how the cleanup operation works. I'm thinking maybe this thread, which has served mostly a "Hello" thread, is reaching a natural ending now anyhow. I made copies of a few of the posts which relate to animal stories. Although I haven't found time to put them in a blog yet, I will probably do so. I'm seriously considering marking this thread as ended (soon) and then starting a new thread in April as you suggested (just to be safe). I think it might be good to give this thread up, so the site can benefit from reuse of the space while we move on to start a new conversation. (But preserve elsewhere those few posts which introduce stories to come.)

I should add...if there is a reason [anyone can think of] why it might be a bad idea to mark the thread as 'done' and give up the space now (in the next few days), please let me know. If there would be a benefit for allowing the thread to 'live' another month, please advise. I realize most of you have a much greater understanding of how things work here. My thinking is that this thread has already served its purpose and is not the kind of thread which contains a lot of useful information we might want to leave around for others to maybe find and read later.

Like I said, I kept copies of those few posts I will probably want to keep as the intro to my animal stories. I think I've pretty much already absorbed the information you guys gave me in this thread, but I should probably double check that now...

Message to ALL:

I want to thank everyone again for the incredibly warm welcome and for all of your advice and encouragement. Making that very 1st step to come here was a little scary as are all new ventures, but the kindness and warmth with which you greeted me quickly dissolved every shred of worry, and in an instant I found myself feeling as though I had always been here.

There's really no good reason to mark it done, DOS. It's a good thread. It's fun to read, and people might come along in the future to enjoy it or add their own stories. The threads that are in need of being cleaned out are mostly the long ones with thousands of responses or the short ones of little or no interest to most people. Let this one live for at least another year.

ZuZu - thank you for that bit of advice. I think Dream's stories are still interesting - for us older readers it is good to see them again and remember Heidi - after all raccoons are all around us still although I am not feeding them as I was back in NC (that was probably not a good idea, but I loved it). New folks are discovering them all over again. This is more like reading a book than just chatting. Thanks.

I also like the flexibility displayed by Admin.

Thank you, Zuzu

Thanks a lot for your advice. I will leave it then.

Thank You, stillwood,

Thank you for introducing the cat, dog, and raccoon stories back when I 1st started this thread. You managed that with the expertise of the gracious party host who swoops in to introduce (and rescue) new guests, and I don't believe I thanked you at the time.
It's also very good to hear that some who have already heard and lived the stories (in real time) still enjoy hearing them again.

Dream,
I'd go ahead and keep this thread for general chat, but maybe, when you want to start stories again, link to a new thread. A lot of times people see ''748 replies'' and think the thread is too far established to read or add to. Seeing ''12 replies'' is more encouraging.

DOS...get yourself to the "badge store" and buy a "Heidi" badge

Thank you, gingin!!!

Here I am sporting my new "Heidi" badge. How does it look on me? (It doesn't make my hips look too big, does it?)
I LOVE it. I wanted one from the 1st day I saw it. Like a kid eying sweets through the candy store window, I've been secretly wanting one ever since.

Song,
Laughing! You wear it well!

Yes, it looks positivly ravishing on you....Heidi would be proud

I must be missing something here..............

We are talking about my new badge, the raccoon badge. We are calling it a "Heidi" badge because Heidi was the name of the raccoon in my story. There were many other raccoons with other names in my story, too, but Heidi was THE raccoon, the top 'dog', and the one who started it all.

(I'm typing this in a cramped position while lying down, so please forgive any typos.)

I want to apologize for my failure to get back sooner and for not writing those animal stories yet. Sometimes life has plans of its own, plans which supersede our own, and so it was in this situation. Very sorry. Hopefully, I will be able to write those stories soon.

Right now, if you have a few spare minutes, I need your help with figuring out the logistics of my current [medical] dilemma. 1st, I'll need to give you a little info to understand the problem. I have a back problem, lumbar spinal stenosis and sciatica, the result of a car accident some years back. A few weeks back I got a little 'crazy' and spent a week cleaning and organizing my house. By mid week, my back had begun to hurt quite a bit, but I took pain meds & muscle relaxers and forced myself to keep working despite the pain. I was quite determined to get my house in decent shape before the visit of an old friend.

Even though I wasn't doing anything strenuous, at the end of that week of house cleaning, I awoke to find that I could not walk. I had a symptom I've never experienced before. I could not put weight on my left leg & thus could not take even a single step. I could stand, but any attempt to put weight on my left leg caused absolutely excruciating pain the likes of which I would never have thought possible. The pain was so great that I could not force myself to take even 1 step. The leg on which I could not put any weight is the same leg that is effected by my sciatica,. so I figured the pain was probably due to a pinched nerve (the result of swelling due to inflammation brought on by all that cleaning & organizing)..

I then spent a week or more flat of my back in bed to give my back a chance to rest and heal. The horrible leg pain never subsided completely, but it did lessen enough that by the end of the week I was able to walk around the house a bit to handle necessities.

A few days ago, I saw my Dr & discussed the excruciating pains I had experienced in my left leg. He said the leg pain might be due to my back but it might also be due to a potentially deadly blood clot in the leg. He said medical scanning would be needed to determine the cause. He was very adamant that I should go to the ER asap the next time I had the severe leg pain. I was still quite convinced that the pain was due to my sciatica, so I continued to ignore subsequent pain. I really didn't want to go to the ER. I can be stubborn (and foolish) about these things sometimes, I'm afraid.

Yesterday afternoon after a couple of weeks of mostly bed rest, I got up, took pain meds, and then washed some dishes and used the string trimmer to 'mow' a small area in the backyard. I really didn't work very hard, nor did I spend much time working. As before, it felt wonderful to be up doing things again. Still, last night my leg ached and throbbed quite a bit. This morning I awoke to find that, once again, I could not walk. This time the pain in my leg (when I try to put weight on it) is even worse that before. Even after taking 2 pain pills and a muscle relaxer, I am still unable to walk even a few steps. The pain in my left leg (when I try to put weight on it) is off the charts. (The leg doesn't hurt at all as long as I don't try to walk on it, btw.) So far I haven't been able to get to the door to feed the cats or to let my dog out for his business - or to get anything for my breakfast or lunch either. The pain when I try to put weight on the effected leg is so fierce this morning that I even considered trying to crawl on all 4's to handle necessities.

At this point, I'm thinking maybe I should follow my Dr's orders and go to the ER to have the leg checked out. I've never dealt with anything like this before and am really unsure how to proceed. This is where I need your help/advice. I need calm, detached, sensible advice from those outside the problem/situation. So here is the deal. I'm home alone. I have a car with which to drive to the ER but am not sure if I can get to the car (unless the pain eases up some when that 2nd pain pill kicks in). Also, if I drive to the ER, I can't drive myself up to the ER doors (like when someone else is driving), because I can't leave my car parked there (blocking emergency traffic). I would need to park my car in the huge hospital parking lot, which would almost certainly leave me with too far to walk to get inside the ER.(The parking situation would probably be much better, if I wait until the overnight hours to go.)

Bottom line, since the pain in my left leg is now considerably worse than ever, I'm thinking I really should go to the ER as per my Dr's instructions, except that I don't think I can get myself to the ER. On the other hand, this doesn't seem like a 911/ambulance kind of situation, or is it? I'm not in any kind of distress at the moment, at least not unless I try to walk. I guess I could maybe ask a friend to take me tonight (after work), but according to my Dr I should NOT wait. If the pain does turn out to be due to a blood clot, tic-toc, tic-toc, time may be of the essence, as a clot could break free at any moment and travel to the heart or lungs with serious and even fatal consequences.

What would you do in this situation? Thanks in advance for your views.