"Chirstmas Eve 2007" written by Paul on estrip.org

12/25/07 11:25 - 30ºF - ID#42642

Chirstmas Eve 2007

It was nice to spend time with the family at my Aunt's house. It was weird to not be able to stuff myself full or eat chocolate or nuts but I am thankful that I could at least eat when some people don't even have food. So basically, what I am trying to say is that I didn't take pictures of the food. I think I am going to just stop with that.

I miss (e:terry) - I can't wait for him to come home.

My cousin Christina now had a fourth child named Nathan. He is really cute. That is Santa Claus in the back with my Aunt, their Grandmother. I wonder how my cousin does it - it must be so hectic having four little kids. She always seems so put together as do the kids. Her husband had nine brothers and sisters so I guess it is doable. I guess my grandparents both had a large amount of brothers and sisters too but they both kind of lived the farm life with lots of work to do and lots of space to do it on - which is a little different

I didn't get (e:mike) the name you own star thing because everyone thinks it is a scam and I agree. One astronomer said, "Its like selling name your own air particle." No one really owns it. Then I thought why not start a site to sell other things you can't really buy and give people fancy certificates. I am kind of thinking it might be worth it. What about a piece of elmwoodstrip in a test tube like they did with the Berlin wall. Just fill it up with some street rubble from elmwood? I think I have a winner!

Paul

Permalink: Chirstmas_Eve_2007.html
Words: 299
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: food

12/23/07 07:07 - 33ºF - ID#42627

Elmwood Winter Farmer's Marke

I was reading on Buffalo Rising

that the Elmwood Farmers market found a winter home in the presbyterian church on Elmwood. Isn't that Drew's church?

I am happy to announce that many of the vendors from the Elmwood-Bidwell Farmers Market, along with a few others, will kick off the opening of the Wintermarket on Elmwood on January 13th. Located inside the Presbyterian Church at the corner of Lafayette and Elmwood, it will be open on Sundays from 1 - 4PM until the Elmwood-Bidwell Market re-opens in May.

Permalink: Elmwood_Winter_Farmer_s_Marke.html
Words: 96
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: holidays

12/23/07 04:28 - 43ºF - ID#42624

Christmas in Japan

I was reading this site about some Christmas urban legend which later told of some real holiday trivia from Japanese adoption of western holidays. The Buffalo News is even featured as a source on this article in snopes.

As you'd expect in a country where less than 1% of the population is Christian (the rest is primarily Shinto or Buddhist), Christmas is a purely secular occasion, with shops and businesses remaining open for the day ... The elimination of the religious aspects of Christmas and its hyper-commercialization have led to some unique (and, to us, bizarre) ways of celebrating it ... What we do find unusual is a custom of young couples exchanging presents of expensive jewelry, heading out to high-priced hotels, and being directed by scantily-clad female elves to rooms complete with Christmas trees, where the lovebirds spend their Christmas Eve in romantic bliss. The co-optation of familiar Christmas figures - both secular and religious - in the service of mass merchandising has produced some rather curious blendings: Colonel Sanders dressed in a Santa suit (as KFC tried strenuously to promote fried chicken as the "traditional" Christmas meal) ... Santa in a graveyard accompanied by the Virgin Mary on broomstick, elves plastered on sake, and a Christmas revue featuring "stripping nuns and three lecherous Wise Men."

Permalink: Christmas_in_Japan.html
Words: 221
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: health

12/23/07 11:19 - 50ºF - ID#42621

Bye Bye Tooth Peice

I slept though it pretty much the whole thing. I just thought if I kept on sleeping I wouldnt have to deal with he stomach drama, which kind of, a tiny bit, improved.

Bye bye, little tooth part
Then this morning I woke up after a 20 hour nap because my back was starting to hurt from sleeping and was brushing my teeth when a part of my tooth fell out on a sunday. Now there is a hole in the tooth and new
little pieces keep falling out.

I just hope it can hold off until tomorrow before it really falls apart because no dentist seems to be open today. You can see from the picture that not much of the tooth is real. Most of it is the white filling. I had all my amalgam metal fillings taken out and replaced with the white ones in 1997 in Canada. They said it had a 5-10 year life span so I guess I am about to have a dental emergency considering I had 12 fillings replaced at that time. Maybe I should have just kept the freakin metal ones but I couldn't get over the idea of mercury getting into my body.

It's all my fault for the amount of candy I ate as a child. Like I used to (pre-stomach thing) eat a lot of candy as an adult - but it was way worse as a child.

Permalink: Bye_Bye_Tooth_Peice.html
Words: 241
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: buffalo

12/19/07 10:26 - 34ºF - ID#42591

WNY hazardous waste

Where should the chemicals go?
What does everyone else do with all their chemicals? When we bought the house we inherited tons of chemicals, half empty, rusted crap, etc. I tried to put them all together in two places of the garage and basement but really it seems dangerous. Especially the one in the garage, I took them all and put them in two plastic totes.

I kept meaning to deal with it. Once we actually brought them with us to the dump but they didn't take them there. So I searched and found this erie county government site

that isn't very up to date. Apparently, the next scheduled drop off day is Sept 8th, 2007. I am going to call tomorrow and find out about the next one.

Radon Gas
While I was on the site I found info about radon

. I am uploading their education video to youtube so that it is a badnwidth friendly more acessible version instead of the 85Mb mpeg on the erie county site. I will post it here when it is done.

Did you know that radon is common in NYS and in Western New York.

It is an odorless, colorless gas that comes out of the soil and into your house. Luckily, in the city

it looks like it isn't much of a problem but way out in some suburbs and rural areas it looks dangerous. Especially, marilla - I mean I wouldn't even want to live in East Aurora.

Permalink: WNY_hazardous_waste.html
Words: 275
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: health

12/19/07 02:36 - 37ºF - ID#42583

This getting ridiculous

So I call the doctors office again and get to talk to the secretary again. She tells me they are going to put me on Asacol

3 pills/3 times a day. So I call back and ask if I could also take a gluten or lactose intolerance test and she says, "Oh we don't do that here" So I ask her where and she doesn't know. So I call my "primary care" physician and he says there is no way they could have cme up with IBS from a CAT scan. SO SOMEONE IS FUCKING LYING - WHO IS IT?

He suggests I go to see the GI doctor. Which is exactly who I was looking for when I called the first doctor (a colon /rectal specialist) and asked him for a referal. He told me to just come to him and thats how I ended up in CT scan land. Now I have an appointment set for Feb 5th. By then I should be dead or crazy.

I guess I will just take the medicine and see if it helps. (e:terry) says it doesn't seem dangerous.

leetee writes at 08:27:25 12/19/07 - Comment #29474: I am so happy you HAVE health insurance, Paul... think of how shitty this would be without it.

I have had the same kind of issues you have had. The only thing that seemed to help me (i have no insurance, i have to self medicate) was keeping to bland foods and taking enzymes.

Good luck with this all... i really do hope that things aren't serious and that the pain doesn't continue!!

james writes at 07:36:54 12/19/07 - Comment #29472: and people complain about countries with socialized medicine making people wait...

imk2 writes at 06:31:27 12/19/07 - Comment #29466: you should tell them that you are in a lot of pain and that there is no way that you can wait that long. they leave spots open for cases like this. you have to be more assertive paul, you cant let these doctors walk all over you. i would call the office back and say "listen, i am in pain, i have been in pain for so long i am going to go crazy, you need to fit me in in the next week or so because there is no way that i can wait another month and a half to see a doctor, and then go through test and then wait for results. they will make room to see you, i gurantee you. do you want me to call for you and get this done?

ladycroft writes at 03:44:38 12/19/07 - Comment #29459: It took a long while for me to get diagnosed with IBS. Lots of tests later...would you believe it was actually my CHIROPRACTOR that made the discovery of my mega allergy to cow milk??? He was really into holistic healing and said he wanted to run blood tests for food allergies due ot my presenting symptoms. Crazy!

paul writes at 02:53:49 12/19/07 - Comment #29458: So I called the GI associates of Buffalo :::link::: and they said I was already a patient of Dr. Bartolone back in 1998. I really don't remember that. Maybe I just don't remember 1998. He looks like he speaks english at least. Right now that is still my only pre-requisite for a doctor. So I guess we will see feb 5th.

Permalink: This_getting_ridiculous.html
Words: 194
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: health

12/19/07 12:19 - 35ºF - ID#42581

What the hell kind of answer is this

Well good news is they didn't say it was cancer but it is IBS

or irritable bowel syndrome. What the fuck does that really mean. We don't know what is causing it but you bowel is irritated. No fucking surprise considering I have been complaining about that for about a month straight.

My favorite part of the wiki article

Misdiagnosis
Anecdotal accounts exist of poor patient outcomes due to treatable causes of diarrhea being mis-diagnosed as IBS. Common examples include infectious diseases, celiac disease,[5] and lactose intolerance.[6]

None of which I have been tested for. Still no stool sample, no bloodwork, no lactose intolelrance test, no test for celliac.

I guess I will go on one of those crazy nothing but rice and vegetable diets and adds stuff back into my diet to see if it help. Right now basically everything I eat goes right through me after getting a little bit bloody somewhere. Ya, gross I know. There is no consistency to anything I eat and everything makes my stomach ache.

I seriously am going to go crazy. And the lack of sufficient bathroom facilities at my work make it way worse.

I am thinking it is time to switch to a natural doctor for a bit and see how that goes. At this point I am willing to try anything to make it stop.

The molson ice hot water 40oz
Last night I made a hot water bottle for my stomach out of a molson 40oz beer bottle. It really helped. Maybe I should market them with little beer cozies?

paul writes at 11:50:35 12/20/07 - Comment #29493: I talked to the secretary again today and she affirmed IBD.

paul writes at 06:57:30 12/19/07 - Comment #29468: Seriously, it is not in my head. There is blood in the frickin diahrea that I have like 5+ times a day and everything hurts from my kidneys to my intestines. Pretty much all the time.

paul writes at 06:54:04 12/19/07 - Comment #29467: Its weird on our first conversation she said IBS but then she said IBD later and then said the medication was for ulcerative colitis. So who the fuck knows, I gues sthat is what I get for never getting to talk to a real doctor.

jenks writes at 06:30:56 12/19/07 - Comment #29465: wait, IBS, or IBD?
IBD - inflammatory bowel disease (i.e. crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis).
asacol is for IBD.

IBS, on the other hand, is (in my book) like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. I.e. more psych than anything else.
(I know that statement offends people, I'm sorry.)

If they said IBS, it probably just means all their tests have been negative. That's what it is. A diagnosis of exclusion. "you're having a problem but we can't find anything wrong with you."

I would have thought they'd send you to a GI guy before a colorectal guy...

I'm sorry for the way you're getting strung along. I hope they get to the bottom of it.

paul writes at 02:37:46 12/19/07 - Comment #29457: I have told them, every freakin' time and no one does it. During this whole thing I only saw a real doctor for about 5 minutes 3 weeks ago. Since then it has all been assistants and secretaries.

imk2 writes at 02:17:45 12/19/07 - Comment #29455: so you were passing blood in your stool? you should change doctors. my family doctor, sadiqa karim, is very good and will do all of the necessary tests to get your stuff diagnosed properly. you should tell the doctor that you feel they should do more like stool samples, blood tests, etc. often times they will listen to you. you have to advocate for yourself when you feel they are not doing their job.

seriously though, i would totally recommend that you go see her. she is on transit, has a tiny office, so the wait is not long. she works by herself, so you'll never see a nurse practitioner or another doctor instead. she'll sit down and talk to you and she'll definitely order tests. she loves doing those. her number is 683-5600.

paul writes at 01:31:57 12/19/07 - Comment #29454: Seriously, I don't drink, I thought I ate pretty healthy - I guess I have stress but not an inordinate amount. I seriously would at least like to talk with the doctor instead of his secretary before taking medicine.

drew writes at 01:13:22 12/19/07 - Comment #29453: Sorry this is so frustrating. Thanks for the reason to keep a 40 in the house though!

hodown writes at 12:59:11 12/19/07 - Comment #29451: They said I had that in college.

lilho writes at 12:24:19 12/19/07 - Comment #29450: wow, thanx to terry for that 40!

Permalink: What_the_hell_kind_of_answer_is_this.html
Words: 271
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: healthcare

12/18/07 01:37 - 31ºF - ID#42570

Barium Cocktail

I can believe I am drinking Barium Sulfite - and out of a styrofoam cup. It is some weird fruity and spicy flavor. I had to drink two jars of it.

leetee writes at 08:29:26 12/19/07 - Comment #29475: he did indeed, (e:Imk2) ... gotta love the Canadian health care system... come here for "free" slow medical care from people who think of patients as burgers needing flipping.

imk2 writes at 02:21:29 12/19/07 - Comment #29456: seriously lee? he told you to shut the fuck up!?

leetee writes at 08:35:10 12/19/07 - Comment #29444: How'd it go, Paul? I hope they find out what it is and it is simple and easy to fix!!

I had to drink that shit once. When i told the tech i was going to barf up the icky pink stuff, he told me to shut the fuck up and lay still. So, i made sure i puked on his nice white jacket. Passive agressive? Who? Me?

paul writes at 06:28:35 12/19/07 - Comment #29442: Please jenks, access it from anywhere. I would love for you to look at it.

pyrcedgrrl writes at 03:20:11 12/19/07 - Comment #29441: Guh! I finally got around to signing in (working swing shift and finishing up a semester is not fun), and read about all the problems you've been having!! I hope your CAT scan goes well and they find out what's going on in the tummy!
I had tummy issues a couple of Christmases ago that ended up being a common bile duct stone. I wasn't even able to keep water down for 4 days and was sent home each day by St. Mary's Hospital in Lewiston. I finally went to sisters and they admitted me immediately. I had jaundice so bad that my eyes were yellow. Apparently that is not enough of a sign for St. Mary's. lol!
Anyway, I hope all goes well! Good luck and feel better soon!

jenks writes at 11:32:00 12/18/07 - Comment #29439: yeah really.... you'd think they could flavor it a little better.

hey! I wonder if I can access it from home...

but i won't.

without your permission.

joshua writes at 09:55:23 12/18/07 - Comment #29430: There is a Lake Success, NY? Obviously this is not upstate... ba doom *crash*

paul writes at 04:05:45 12/18/07 - Comment #29421: From the way I feel about the medical systems right now I would assume probably next June.

jim writes at 03:52:02 12/18/07 - Comment #29419: How long do you have to wait for results?

drew writes at 03:14:28 12/18/07 - Comment #29415: better down than up!

mrdeadlier writes at 03:05:12 12/18/07 - Comment #29413: mrmike, that's exactly what i thought

jim writes at 02:52:08 12/18/07 - Comment #29412: Good luck, Paul!

james writes at 02:21:56 12/18/07 - Comment #29409: a drink? A DRINK?

kids today have it so easy

mrmike writes at 01:52:48 12/18/07 - Comment #29407: Love the illustration on the bottle. Like we didn't know the point was to be Drano for Humans

Permalink: Barium_Cocktail.html
Words: 37
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: health

12/18/07 11:04 - 25ºF - ID#42566

The CT scan

So at 3PM I get the CT scan at Buffalo general. I have to go there at 1PM though. I am so excited on one hand about finding anything out and so scared on the other hand about finding anything out and so scared on yet another hand about the radiation.

Permalink: The_CT_scan.html
Words: 51
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: health

12/18/07 09:51 - 24ºF - ID#42565

I am so angry/sick

So my abdominal area just keeps getting worse and I am really sick to my stomach. It is not normal to have to go to the bathroom like 5 times during the night.

I got up at 8:45 to schedule the abdominal CT, as at this point I would do anything to find out what is wrong. They told me they had two locations. Buffalo General and one in Wiliamville. I told her Buffalo general was better and she said she would call me back when she schedules. At 9:20 I still had n word so I called the doctors office back and said I would gladly drive to Williamsville if it was faster,easier I could get in sooner because my stomach is killing. She said she would call me back. Here we are one hour later, still no freakin' word.

I seriously, cannot believe how this is going for. In the mean time i don't know if I should try and eat anything or not because what if you need to have an empty stomach for it and it is today and then I have to reschedule. I wish it would render me unconscious at this point.

And then there is some unreasonable deadline at work that I am working against which normally is fun for me, but this time it is making me crazy because I am sick.

Now what I really want is a test for celiac disease just to rule that out in case and what about the blood and stool tests. Why none of them yet? Looks like for me they are going to skip to step 5.

Diagnostic Tests for Crohn's disease

Test for Crohn's disease

* Physical examination
* Complete blood count - for anemia and white blood cell counts
* Stool sample analysis
* Upper GI series - barium X-rays
* Lower GI series - barium X-rays