Making it thrugh another year, '24-'25

[aigheadish]

Well we each have our own perceptions and for each of us, our perceptions are our own reality

I took a ride on a coworkers Can-Am trike yesterday and he took a picture of me on it, making me realize how fat my belly area has gotten. The shirt I had on wasn't terribly flattering, but eek.

I like the idea of smaller orders.

@Peter Drouin I think Doc mentioned Tums somewhere.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yes Pete, Austin is correct. About 5-6 years ago I was having bad leg cramp issues and from woods work and pushing the mill. Doc Recommended taking 3 or 4 tums when it happened or before. I was doing that pretty regular every night before bed. Eventually my leg muscles caught up with the work load and it is now an occasional thing. They work really well and pretty quick. If I get caught with a leg cramp in the middle of the night and pop a couple of tums, I can get back to sleep pretty quick.
 Good luck with your issue and I hope this helps you.

[doc henderson]

Yup!

[Peter Drouin]

Thanks for the info, I will give them a try.

[doc henderson]

Calcium carbonate is an antacid, and it relaxes and stabilized muscle fibers.  We use it for cardiac and potassium emergencies.  If you have kidney stones, you might just use it when needed.  most everyone can use more calcium.  If you have young women in your lives like teenagers, they should build up calcium in bone like a retirement saving account.  It will serve them well when they are older,...like us.

[SwampDonkey]

My grandmother used a pinch of salt for Charlie horses. Swore by it. But there was always lots of tums or Rolaids in the house, grandfather was always chewing on one for heartburn. 

[doc henderson]

Rolaids used to have aluminum in them.  I think they are reformulated but caused dementia.  tums are fairly benign.  salt will help if you are out in the heat and dehydrated.  calcium is used no matter what.  we did NaCl tabs in the summer at scout camp.  for weakness and nausea in the worst heat.  It is funny but you get acclimated after a while.

[WV Sawmiller]

Happy Constitution Day Birthday Tom.

[Peter Drouin]

I was thinking I was low on Potassium, that will cramp things up too, I think.

[doc henderson]

low potassium will make you very weak.  normal is about 3,5 to 5.  3.3 will not make a difference but at 1.8 you will barely be ale lift your legs off a bed.  Lasix makes you lose potassium, and spironolactone makes you hold on to it.  called potassium sparing.  renal failure or insufficiency will make you accumulate potassium as it is the kidney that regulate it.  some big antibiotics, antifungals and chemotherapy can make you lose it.  this is why some cancer patients get into trouble with it.  IV potassium is used to stop the heart in death penalty operations.  oral is forgiving unless you are on meds that make you hold on to it and you take a bunch.  It may be prescribed by your doc if you need it and should be monitored.  If something is making you lose it and you are replacing it, you have to be careful if the medication is stopped, or your kidneys begin to function/hold on again.  You can die from too much potassium from taking oral and not able to get rid of it.  this is usually old folks (defined as older than me) that are on many medications and have variable renal function.     "and that is all I have to say about that!"  Forest Gump.  

[doc henderson]

Salt substitute is KCL (potassium chloride) so you could take K+ unknowingly.  regular salt is NaCl.  (sodium chloride).  There are certain ethnicities that can eat too many carbs and drive the potassium into the cell from the serum.  I think Mediterranean ancestry.  One Italian man in a big city used to eat Sunday dinner at his mom's house.  He would go home and not be able to move.  He finally reported to the police that he thought his mom was trying to poison him.  It was figured out, but Sunday dinner was never the same.     

[doc henderson]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypokalemic_periodic_paralysis

[SwampDonkey]

Heard on the news, first case of a patient (infant) being administered gene therapy to treat genetic disorder called carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase. I wonder if it will fix it or if something else develops? Time will tell.

[doc henderson]

lots of genetic material is imported into our cells via viruses or by plasmids incorporating it into our DNA.  this disease is rare but can be fatal if severe, and infants have to be on a low protein diet.  That can interfere with development.  Even at Wesley, these kids would be transported to children Mercy pediatric hospital in KC.  There are many of diseases.  I had a newborn in Hays whose older brother died of a fatal genetic mutation affecting a critical enzyme also in the mitochondria.  I had never heard of it and called Harvard.  got the genetic fellow who faxed me the info from a 4-volume set on genetic and metabolic disease.  It was half a page.  It told me the test to send off.  It was positive.  a 1 in 4 chance.  We withdrew active care, and he died at 4 days old in his parent's arms.  I ended up buying the 4-volume set and it only got used a few times, but we did not have the extensive data online that we have now.

[Old Greenhorn]

Geez, I leave town for one lousy day and this thread sure took a dark turn.   Maybe I will et this go another day or two in case it cheers up, then do my annual new thread.

 And thank you Howard.

[Peter Drouin]

Geez, I leave town for one lousy day and this thread sure took a dark turn.  Maybe I will et this go another day or two in case it cheers up, then do my annual new thread.

 And thank you Howard.

Sorry, I started a dark turn here.

[Old Greenhorn]

No sweat Pete, that's how it goes in our little world here, all good.

But I think I will close out this thread with a quick recap of yesterday, boring though it might be. The annual Grey Fox spring senior staff meeting on site. As mentioned before, I have little idea why I am invited to these because I am not a crew chief and although my current job is working alone, I still do technically have a boss that i 'report to'. But it's just an organizational arrangement. He only sees me when we cross paths, and he gives me information, but no direction. I am on my own. We do ask each other for help from time to time. This is just a fill-in position for me as I cover for a staff member who has done this job for years, but has a 2 year old child with very special medical needs and they are rearranging their lives around this challenge and waiting until she is able to withstand the travel and camping/weather situation. Hopefully next year he is back.
 In addition to just doing the job during the festival, in the off months as I follow the artists on my own and run into people, I occasionally have one of those epiphanies that Howard has been getting lately. So every year or two I make a suggestion on getting certain artists to the festival, or arranging certain combinations and collaborations between what might seem to be disparate artists, that can create something totally new and fresh and fun for the artists. Once in a while, these things turn out to be pretty epic for everyone involved and the management appreciates these suggestions. They tell me that's why I get invited to these things, plus other reasons they do not detail.
 I arrived at the farm around 9:30am and there was almost nobody there. They were all down the road at a group brunch. The only guy I found was our site manager working on putting in a new grey water drain from the farm house. SO I got down in the trench with him and helped him grade and lay the pipe, then figure out how we would handle the winter/summer configuration change. This little old house only gets used for the festival weeks and serves as the offices and laundry. The yard behind where we were working also serves as the food service area for 2-3 weeks before the festival and for a week after. So that drain is used for the kitchen sink during those periods, then it gets capped and forgotten until the next year. So we laid the pipe in and back filled it.


 I finished up the job making the various caps and doing the final glue work after sending the boss off to do more important stuff. He set off with a group that was now arriving to survey some tent locations and changes. We have detailed survey maps of the entire farm indicating exactly where each stage, structure, public tent, road, and all the other infrastructure goes. We bury markers just under the grade to be found in successive years. When we are not having the festival, this is a 80 acre working hayfield and it has to produce. So we take a lot of care to make sure it can be worked easily when we are not there. We do a pretty good job.


If I take that same photo as above, in July during the festival you won't be able to see much grass at all, if any. In this photo, all the field you see is recrossed with buried water lines, seasonal roads. cable tunnels and other stuff, but right now, it's just growing hay.

 The rest of the day was spent in one formal meeting and dozens of small informal ones. This year there is an effort to set up our handicapped access at at venues and other aspects around the festival to improve it over past years. This is no small challenge on a rough hay field but we have some solid improvements coming for this year and we now have a person specifically dedicated to that job at the management level.

 When I got home last night I sent an email to an artist friend of mine in Belgium updating him on some of the new details I learned regarding his session at the festival this year. I'm looking forward to another great year.
 Today I will either do some milling at home or take down a tree on the front lawn. It's grey and solid overcast and damp. This evening We are going out to dinner with my daughter and SIL for my birthday. Not supposed to cross 65° today.
 I think I'll close this thread out with this post and open a new thread with my next post. It's long enough, and Howard will just keep giving me grief if I don't start a new one.
 It's a new day.

[beenthere]

Had some very good practical information from Doc Henderson. The "why" we will take some otc things that work to cure the ailment (such as Tums for cramps) is helpful, and precautions when it may not always work for everyone. Thanks doc. 

[Old Greenhorn]

Always good info from the Doc! We are lucky he takes the time to explain things as well as he does.

 For those interested, the continuation of this thread takes place HERE.