I began to notice that happening in my private IMs too shortly before I dropped off the forums after I ended up in the hospital for a stint of time after I caught the flu from my daughters (youngest & oldest). It developed into an infection where my specialists didn't feel comfortable with my being home, albeit isolated from the girls (well, not girls either as my oldest was in college & youngest was in the latter year of middle school - she got on & off the bus at their granny's house & brought home by her older sister after school or work, if she was working a shift at a respite center that night). I'd taken Tamiflu to offset catching the flu but it hit me like a ton of bricks & the last ppl any doctors want fighting the flu from home with infections are infants, elderly, & those with compromised immune systems. I'm in the latter group w/Lupus (SLE), Sjogren's Disease, Fibromyalgia, & Osteoarthritis; hwr, I also had vertigo, which if I fell again, I might have cracked my hip (again), broken my left leg in multiple places and/or torn ligaments/tendons (also did this before & spent all of 2007 & part of 2008 wheelchair bound in a cast that went from above my knee to my toes. I went into a boot but was still in the wheelchair when I took a tumble quite by accident & went back into another cast only this time I was in the cast for almost 5mos vs the previous 4-1/2). I don't get vertigo often but when it happens, it's usually during a period when I'm fighting off a head cold, water in my ears that causes inner ear infection, or for no reason at all that can be determined. I fell & cracked my hip once in the late night yrs ago & my husband had to pick me up full-weight from the floor b/c I fell in such a way I couldn't turn or roll to even slide myself close to anything to help me pull myself up; hwr, the neuropathy was already bad by then & the ulnar nerve damage in my right arm was full-blown & I'd lost most of my grip strength by then.
The only thing I did online afterward for a couple yrs was find the coupon codes I needed to buy my e-liquids, help my girls with their classwork/homework by giving them hints to whatever I wasn't able to remember, which is a lot thanks to Lupus & Fibro Fog when the diseases go into a flare. I did listen to movies & tv series a lot along with music. I can only watch tv series & movies for short periods of time b/c it causes far too much eye strain. However, I can say that other than the flu, which I'm predisposed to along with pneumonia due to the autoimmune diseases, I have not had the first case of bronchitis or chronic bronchitis since my analog-quit date & e-cig start date on July 7th, 2009. That is WONDERFUL! Before that time, I had bronchitis & chronic onset bronchitis like every month to every other month. It always turned into an infection, which left me on antibiotics & I felt like crap for weeks on end & then had to get over the soreness from feeling so badly and not being able to move about like I wanted out of fear of falling from the vertigo that most often came with it, despite the medication to control it.
After I finally went back to ECF, it wasn't the same place anymore. I barely knew anybody and most of the forums I used to visit frequently had basically gone dormant. I'm glad I found this forum, even though I don't post often. Much of the reason why is b/c my hands hurt frequently depending on the day, time of day, and even the weather. The VR programs cannot seem to pick up my Georgia accent even tho I haven't lived in Georgia since I was about 8-9yrs old or so, though I have been back to visit family & friends over the years. Everyone where I live says I don't sound like I'm from here, even though they have known me for the past 2+ decades or have been my neighbor for that long or worked with me before that. Even my youngest daughter has a strong Georgia accent! She's never lived in Georgia & has only rode thru the state where we stopped 1-2x a few times in her life. My oldest daughter has a blended mix of my Georgia accent but she also has the local accent, which thankfully is colored by my Georgia one. I worked from home before I got pregnant with my youngest then worked from home after she was about a year old.This is a large part as to why she has such a strong accent like mine & why family & friends, even those who know us well, cannot tell which of the 2 of us are on the phone & have to ask to make sure. If my oldest daughter comes home to visit, it is the same way. Friends & family have to ask who they are talking to in order to make sure b/c over the phone her Georgia accent sounds stronger than it is. But I digress...
Thanks for having me here. I'm glad I found this forum, even if I do lurk much of the time. I am thankful it is here.
It's my hope to make it to the VapeMania Convention in Winston-Salem, NC. That Friday we will be leaving to pick up my youngest from college for Labor Day Weekend. I'd love to go but I have so little money as it is and I know if I stop by and find something I really want to get (as of now, it's a Kanger Subox Mini b/c my ACE Mod is dying & doesn't have long before it quits)... I'll just say that SSDI barely pays the necessities in bills & leaves nothing for any extras, esp when I have to arrange transportation & fuel costs. Still, I have never been to a Vape Convention but I would need a sighted person to help me find my way around since I know nothing about the convention halls within that area. My guide dog is too old to work and I want to be with him when his time comes to 'Cross the Rainbow Bridge.' Still, relying on a cane alone leaves a lot to be desired.
Thanks for opening this forum. I agree that these forums need to be setup for adults. If they're not, then that just gives the other side the ammunition they need to proclaim that e-cig users are catering to children, which is farthest from the truth! My oldest daughter uses a Kanger Subox Plus; however, she is 27yrs old! I was so upset when I learned she picked up smoking but it was ultra-lights, which make it easier to switch to e-cigs before any real damage was done. My youngest is more than halfway past her 18th birthday so she is a young adult but thankfully has not picked up the habit. It's not easy to walk away from it when you are raised in/around tobacco country or worked on the tobacco farms from creating the saplings to planting them, top/suckering, cropping, stringing, then tossing-up-sticks till filling a barn & closing up to cure before it's time to take then down, remove from the tobacco sticks & off to market. (I was just growing out of barning tobacco in the traditional manner before the sewing machines & bulk barns came along but then again, I spent part of my summers working in the fields & the other part working on the ocean either on a trawling ship, free-diving/scuba diving for my own personal goals while waiting between checking nets & crab pots & making any repairs needed before selling my catch, & even diving for oysters & clams so we could cook them over a bonfire on the beach, and yes, the beer was always dropped off far enough off the point in a wired shut crab pot to keep it cold before one of us swam out or I took the Kodiak out to bring it back before we ate. (LOL!) I earned enough to practically cover every expense, including school clothes, supplies, lunch money, & meals when our birth mother went back to our birth father (if he even was our actual birth father b/c we have no clue) b/c if I didn't do these things, we wouldn't have had anything & often when she ran with us after going on a layoff where he beat on her for a chance rather than us, or more often me b/c I was fiercely protective of the sibling who became like a son, we often lost a lot of what I bought b/c it got left behind & was gone when she reconciled like some idiot, which went on & on throughout most of our childhood until I got us out when I was only a teen a few yrs myself. I worked as a waitress, bussed tables, worked as a barmaid, hunting with a bow during bow season & a rifle in regular season b4 giving up meat, w/exception to seafood.
I did a bit of it all but it also allowed me to take him sailing after I learned to take out the sailboat alone, to swim in general, and how to hunt while staying downwind of any game we were after. I moved & ended up 100mi inland by the time the girls came along so I wasn't able to share my love of the ocean with them or even my love of rock-climbing, but then again, their dad always was afraid of heights & couldn't handle getting out of sight of land without getting severely seasick. It's odd b/c the only time I never suffered with chronic insomnia was when I lived on a cabin cruiser a little bit north of where I live now only in a marina near the ocean and the houseboat when I lived just South of New Orleans & the Quarter. I even slept like a baby on that tiny 1-3 person sailboat & it was like kindling compared to some sailboats I've gone out with on runs. I love the ocean. More than many an older gentleman of Irish birth has teased me for being a selkie only I was good at hiding my true identity or I was never told as a youngster that I came from the sea. Of course this usually came up after several nips of Irish whiskey or several pints in at the local oceanside Irish pubs but they were sweet enough about it.
I truly miss being able to work like that, or even at all for the past 15yrs since I had to give up my last job working from home after I learned of the autoimmune diseases & how they were causing the pain that left me unable to keep up the minimum line counts to cont' working as an MT for a national MT company. I hated to resign but had no choice after my body began rebelling against me as it did.
Here is to wishing everyone a wonderful afternoon.
