Royal Caribbean Cruisers -- How Are Things Where You Are? (was "Routine" ​ 😁 ​day in lockdown... how was yours?)

[Coralc]

5 minutes ago, ReneeFLL said:

 

I would think that the sooner aka younger the better, before any more health issues pop up. Not saying any more will, but that’s my thought about the sooner the better.

True. But they advise you to wait. At least with hips. Because they sometimes don't last forever. But my wonderful surgeon, mentioned quality of life (which was true). He said to do them and worry about a possible revision in the future. 

[mets07]

We went to the New York Islanders playoff game a couple nights ago that they lost.  We enjoyed it despite the loss. Playoff games have such a great atmosphere. My husband grew up on Long Island. I grew up in Queens. We now live in New Jersey.

 

I am a bit more of a New York Rangers fan because one of our sons went to Boston College as did one of the Rangers' stars.... Chris Kreider.  But I will root for any of the local hockey teams. 

 

Our seats (purchased on StubHub) were much higher up (ha) than @A&L_Ont's, however they were centrally located and UBS Arena offers great views.

 

 

 

[A&L_Ont]

14 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

@A&L_Ont needs to put on your rally caps otherwise you guys are going to pull an O-fer !!😎

They are going to have a big period. 

[A&L_Ont]

The ushers asked Lisa if she wanted to join us. So she did. Our auditor sent me a text. 
 

[firefly333]

12 minutes ago, Coralc said:

True. But they advise you to wait. At least with hips. Because they sometimes don't last forever. But my wonderful surgeon, mentioned quality of life (which was true). He said to do them and worry about a possible revision in the future. 

That's my thinking on cataract surgery. There are constant upgrades to the lens they insert. We did my dads and later the new lens were so much better later on than he got. My surgeon said last 10 to 15 years great advances.

[cruiselvr04]

7 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

I have never been to Key West. I really want to visit.

We spent 2 weeks in the Keys during covid when cruising was shut down.  We stayed for a week at a B and B in Key West and another week at a resort half way through the keys.  The water was beautiful.  Dry Tortuga was great. We spent time at several beaches, it was a super relaxing trip.  I doubt we could afford it now, the deals for lodging were unheard of at the time due to covid.  They just wanted people to come. We did a sunset sail and another during the day.  Visited no name bar. Sloppy Joes. We saw some beautiful sunsets. Great memories! 

[CrzLvr2]

10 hours ago, George C said:

We watch cbs morning show every Saturday, one of the things we like is they show restaurants around the world and lots in New York City, todays show featured Oceana cruises , all the food looked outstanding, lots of caviar , they also said there French restaurants have a French chef , Italian has a Italian chef etc , might need to take a serious look at them. 

@George C Thanks for mentioning this, George! 😀 I was able to pull up the show "on demand" and watch the segment. 🥳 Now my DH and I are even more excited about our first cruise with Oceania on the Insignia in July 2025. 

[Coralc]

@Jimbo IW on the Radiance thread booked Quantum, departing on the 29th from Vancouver to Alaska. So she is still going.  For some odd reason, her post about it and mine were removed. CC works in mysterious ways sometimes. 

[ReneeFLL]

53 minutes ago, Coralc said:

True. But they advise you to wait. At least with hips. Because they sometimes don't last forever. But my wonderful surgeon, mentioned quality of life (which was true). He said to do them and worry about a possible revision in the future. 

I would think that as much pain as Graham sounds to be in it wouldn’t be worth waiting. When I found out what my pain was from I didn’t want to wait and had it done quickly. 

[CrzLvr2]

10 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

 

We watch every Saturday too. Love the musical guests. We did watch the piece on Oceana and their chef. Both Linda and I said wow that food looks amazing. We might need to consider them in the future. I’m sure it’s not cheap.

 

@Sea Dog I think you might be pleasantly surprised by their fares, Greg! I know we were.

I think it was "Schooner" who mentioned booking with Oceania back in the fall. We looked into it in December and found that Oceania was still having the promotion with 2 for1 fares. Considering all the included perks, it really is a great deal. The NYC departure is perfect for us since we live in New England. We can choose to drive, fly, take the train, or use a limo service. You should call/text your TA. 😉

[Sea Dog]

40 minutes ago, CrzLvr2 said:

@Sea Dog I think you might be pleasantly surprised by their fares, Greg! I know we were.

I think it was "Schooner" who mentioned booking with Oceania back in the fall. We looked into it in December and found that Oceania was still having the promotion with 2 for1 fares. Considering all the included perks, it really is a great deal. The NYC departure is perfect for us since we live in New England. We can choose to drive, fly, take the train, or use a limo service. You should call/text your TA. 😉

 

Agreed. I went to their website and looked at some of their cruises. Very reasonable. We will strongly look at cruising with them in the future.

[CrzLvr2]

13 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

 

Agreed. I went to their website and looked at some of their cruises. Very reasonable. We will strongly look at cruising with them in the future.

I think @George C was also going to look at them. 😊

He and his DW could combine an Oceania sail with one of their trips back to New York. 😊

Edited April 28 by CrzLvr2

[George C]

8 minutes ago, CrzLvr2 said:

I think @George C was also going to look at them. He and his DW could combine an Oceania sail with one of their trips back to New York. 😊

Love sailing from  New York City haven’t done it recently, both Oceania  and now MSC yacht club are two great choices for our future cruises from New York. 

[grapau27]

Good morning.

It is raining and 45°F here.

I hope everyone is in good health and safe.

Best wishes to all on here for an enjoyable day.

[brillohead]

On 4/10/2024 at 10:27 AM, BonTexasNY said:

I'm asking again if anyone saw @brillohead Debbi post recently?  She's been MIA for the longest time.

 

 

Bonnie, you are so sweet to ask after me!

I got behind on posts, then felt bad about it (because I like to read ALL the posts so I know what's going on with all my friends here), so I kept putting off coming back until I had time to read ALLLLLLL the pages I had missed and then it snowballed to the point that it would be physically impossible to catch up.  (I have a tiny bit of OCD about certain things, and this is one of them.)

So I finally told myself to suck it up, and I came back today and only read back about the last fifteen pages. (Yes, my OCD is kinda twitching right now, but I'm powering through!  I know I have missed so much!!!!!) 

So to anyone who posted something sad, I'm sending you positive juju, and anyone who posted something happy, I'm sending you congrats.  

I'm glad to be back amongst you all again, and I'll try not to let my OCDish tendencies get in the way of posting here again in the future!

[brillohead]

On 4/26/2024 at 8:22 PM, helen haywood said:

all surgeons who thought they were gods…. To meet medical professionals who treat you like a friend was so nice especially when you’re scared and in pain.

I'm so glad you were treated well and are feeling better now!

Do you know the difference between a surgeon and God???

God doesn't think he's a surgeon!   🤣

 

With that being said, one of the things I like about working in my teeny-tiny rural hospital is the lack of arrogance of most of the staff here.  Both of our general surgeons have the least "surgeony" attitude / personality I've ever seen!  They are very approachable, happy to answer any questions, and will even ask for advice on how to enter something into the computer (we have an antiquated software program that is EXTREMELY un-user-friendly).  

I ran into one of our OB/GYNs in the hallway the other morning -- she was coming in, and I was headed to a staff meeting, and I'd had her patient overnight.  I stopped and told her that I "did the best I could" (patient had a VERY unique presentation, and the doc hadn't seen her in person yet, just via phone/text with the ER doc in the middle of the night).  The OB/GYN literally said, "DUDE, look at what I woke up to in the middle of the night!!!!" and proceeded to whip out her phone and pull up our HIPAA-compliant encrypted texting program to show me the photo that the ER doc had sent her.   She had heard her notification go off and opened the text all bleary-eyed at 2am and WHAMMO! -- a picture nobody wants to see at any time of day or night!  🫣

Finding a doctor or "provider" (wink to @Ocean Boy) who acts like a human being with common human decency is such a rarity these days... I'm glad you had a good experience!

[brillohead]

23 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Thank you Sue.

Because of my heart medication Ibuprofen the arthritis anti inflammatory medication recommended I can not take as it reacts with the heart medication so they just say paracetamol which isn't much good.

I have had steroid injections in my knee which helps and I try to do exercises for my hip arthritis because doctor said steroid injections won't help the hips.

 

My birthfather is going through this right now.  He had been taking Celebrex daily (an NSAID), and ended up in the hospital with a GI bleed last fall, so now he's prohibited from taking any NSAID medication going forward.  His arthritis is now hurting him so badly that he sometimes has trouble even getting out of bed in the morning... and this is a man who is still laying carpet for people at 78yo, so not a lazy person at all!

I might send him a bottle of the Instaflex Advanced that @George C mentioned here -- it looks to contain turmeric plus other joint-friendly supplements, without any NSAIDs to interact with other conditions/medications.  It's not cheap by any means, but if it improves his quality of life, it's worth it to me!  

 

My own knee/hip pain has improved a bit, partially because I've lost some weight, and partially because I'm not working in the ER anymore (less walking on the inpatient side of the hospital, more time sitting and charting incessantly).  I still have a LOT more weight to lose, but just in the bit I've lost so far, I've noticed an improvement in my pain level.

 

[brillohead]

11 hours ago, Keksie said:

I am so in love with the 5 baby coyotes at the refuge.  They are growing so fast they will probably be weaned before I get back.  They are already growling and play fighting.  They had their first solid food yesterday.  

 

I don't know how you rehabbers do it.  I would be the WORST rehabber, because I'd want to snuggle and cuddle and pet and baby-talk all the critters, which would make them impossible to return to the wild after imprinting on a human!

Bless you and your colleagues who do what others of us can't for the most helpless of our creatures!

[rrraydon]

8 hours ago, cruiselvr04 said:

We spent 2 weeks in the Keys during covid when cruising was shut down.  We stayed for a week at a B and B in Key West and another week at a resort half way through the keys.  The water was beautiful.  Dry Tortuga was great. We spent time at several beaches, it was a super relaxing trip.  I doubt we could afford it now, the deals for lodging were unheard of at the time due to covid.  They just wanted people to come. We did a sunset sail and another during the day.  Visited no name bar. Sloppy Joes. We saw some beautiful sunsets. Great memories! 

We did a week in Aruba at an Airbnb during covid. You are correct, it was dirt cheap....so were the flights. We had a fantastic time, we felt like we had the beaches to ourselves. Definitely one of our most favorite vacations! 

Edited April 28 by rrraydon

[brillohead]

On 4/24/2024 at 10:31 PM, Coralc said:

So. Armchair physicians. ☺️ Why does a half to three quarters of an inch lesion require a FOUR INCH incision, with many, many stitches? I will ask when I go to have them removed. And I am thankful that it was removed. And it is horizontal on my thigh, not vertical. So that is good. 

 

I am just curious at this point, how the perimeters are determined. They still send it off to the lab to see if enough was removed. It just seems a little excessive. And since I couldn't watch, I was kind of surprised. ☺️

 

In addition to clear margins, which has already been mentioned, a lot of it has to do with how they're going to close the hole.  

 

Think of it like sewing....

You have a hole that is 1.25 inches in diameter that you need to sew together.  You want to sew the edges together, not just covering the gap with thread, like you'd do when darning a sock.

If you just sew all the edges together, you'd end up with a puckering in the fabric all the way around the hole (like a drawstring purse), with additional stress on the fabric in all directions.  On skin, this would make an UGLY bumpy scar, plus increase the risk of the stitches getting ripped out because of the excess pressure/stretching on the skin as your body moves.

Instead, you would want to make the incision longer on each side of the circle -- basically, it's going to look like a drawing of an eye (apologies, I am not artistic, and even less so with a mouse!):

 

So now when you sew the purple edges together, the fabric won't all bunch up and pucker in the middle, because the loss of fabric will be spread out along a greater amount of fabric.  Similarly, the stress that is put on the sewn edges is shared along the entire length of the incision instead of all focused in one area, so the stitches are less likely to rip out, and with less stress on the area, scarring will also be minimized.  

 

I hope this makes sense... I know what I'm trying to say, but I'm not sure if it makes sense the way I said it.

 

 

Okay, I wasn't happy with my drawing, so I found an actual lesion excision on YouTube and took some screenshots (no gory pics, in case some have a weak stomach). 

To remove this mole, you can see that the surgeon drew the "eyeball" elliptical edges extending beyond the mole on both sides:




Then when it was stitched back together, it made for a smoother incision without the puckering:

 

 

The larger the area that needs to be removed, the farther out the incision needs to go in both directions in order to prevent puckering.  

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

Edited to add:  I absolutely LOVE Aquaphor for scar prevention.  It's basically Vaseline with a few additional skin-friendly ingredients.  If you want to reduce scarring, try to prevent the area from forming a scab -- you should keep it moisturized at all times to prevent the tissues from drying into a scab,
 

 

Edited April 28 by brillohead

[rrraydon]

4 minutes ago, brillohead said:

 

In addition to clear margins, which has already been mentioned, a lot of it has to do with how they're going to close the hole.  

 

Think of it like sewing....

You have a hole that is 1.25 inches in diameter that you need to sew together.  You want to sew the edges together, not just covering the gap with thread, like you'd do when darning a sock.

If you just sew all the edges together, you'd end up with a puckering in the fabric all the way around the hole (like a drawstring purse), with additional stress on the fabric in all directions.  On skin, this would make an UGLY bumpy scar, plus increase the risk of the stitches getting ripped out because of the excess pressure/stretching on the skin as your body moves.

Instead, you would want to make the incision longer on each side of the circle -- basically, it's going to look like a drawing of an eye (apologies, I am not artistic, and even less so with a mouse!):

 

So now when you sew the purple edges together, the fabric won't all bunch up and pucker in the middle, because the loss of fabric will be spread out along a greater amount of fabric.  Similarly, the stress that is put on the sewn edges is shared along the entire length of the incision instead of all focused in one area, so the stitches are less likely to rip out, and with less stress on the area, scarring will also be minimized.  

 

I hope this makes sense... I know what I'm trying to say, but I'm not sure if it makes sense the way I said it.

 

 

Okay, I wasn't happy with my drawing, so I found an actual lesion excision on YouTube and took some screenshots (no gory pics, in case some have a weak stomach). 

To remove this mole, you can see that the surgeon drew the "eyeball" elliptical edges extending beyond the mole on both sides:




Then when it was stitched back together, it made for a smoother incision without the puckering:

 

 

The larger the area that needs to be removed, the farther out the incision needs to go in both directions in order to prevent puckering.  

 

Hope this helps!
 

 

Excellent description, I like it. 🙂

[brillohead]

On 4/25/2024 at 10:49 AM, Ozark_Kid said:

We had frost concerns here a few days ago.  It dropped to 36⁰. Forcast shows no more below 50⁰ Sharon got the plants covered. 

Kenzie helped her clean it up.

 

I was thinking of you and your garden the other day.  I had a coworker from the ER as a patient, and when I went to hang her IV antibiotic, she saw the "piggyback hook" that I was throwing away (it's a plastic hook that comes with the secondary IV tubing, but we don't need it because our pumps do the piggyback portion of it for us).  

In the ER, they only ever use an IV pump for critical fluids, like blood or pressors or similar, and they never bother to run their antibiotics as a secondary line, so she wasn't used to the piggyback hook because she never uses that kind of tubing. 

 

She grabbed the hook and asked if she could keep it, b/c she could use it in her garden to hold stuff up.  (That's what made me think of you and your huge garden!)  I told her I could get her a whole bunch of them... so all three of the RNs working that night saved our hooks for her, and I gave her a whole bag full of them on my way out of work the next morning!

The double-sided hook on the left is what I'm talking about.  It comes folded in half in the packaging, and you can straighten it out to get the full length.  


 

[grapau27]

Good afternoon.

After church today we had lunch at Wynyard Hall gardens cafe.

[Keksie]

2 hours ago, brillohead said:

 

I don't know how you rehabbers do it.  I would be the WORST rehabber, because I'd want to snuggle and cuddle and pet and baby-talk all the critters, which would make them impossible to return to the wild after imprinting on a human!

Bless you and your colleagues who do what others of us can't for the most helpless of our creatures!

It is hard not to cuddle these guys.  Right now they only get human interaction to clean their kennel and feed them.  Once they are weaned they will go outside to our 100 foot pen and only see humans when we deliver their food.  We will hide food around the pen to encourage hunting and at some point a live prey test. The hardest not to imprint with are the bigger birds when they come in as babies.  We have mirrors and puppets for them.

[Keksie]

4 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Good afternoon.

After church today we had lunch at Wynyard Hall gardens cafe.

Yummy.  Nice picture of you too.