Family Forum / Parenting / Step Parents / June 2004

Not silly at all. I wore light winter gloves last night, but the rash has
now spread to my hands and that won't work tonight as they made me sweat.
Oven mitts are the accessories for tonight.  It's about 10 years too late,
but do I ever empathize with our 2 youngers and their bouts with chicken
pox. Yikes!

Kardu

<snip>

Uh, Jane,

I think if I were covered in itchy rat urine, a long shower would be
the only thing that would help.  The longer the better.

I can't stand it--I'm laughing just too hard right now to even read
the rest of the post...

You're a good grandma to that rat.  Wear long sleeves and long pants
when you take it out of the cage and maybe you won't itch as much.  Can you
clip its little nails like you can with a cat?

Deb R.

That's just gorss Jane.
Love,
Melissa

"This virtual sand tastes just like real sand."
-Line from one of the cartoons SS watches.

Over here I've been helping Louise revise for her exams.  The last one is
this afternoon.  Then I'll be getting Madi ready for her trip to Normandy -
she leaves at 4 am on Monday.

Wendy

I think you've reached the height of dedication. Me? Talk to the rat would
be fine. Clean the rat's cage...OK. Handle the rat gingerly with pot
holders...maybe. Let him climb all over me and express his joy through his
urethra....no way!

Finally was able to fall asleep after 1ish this morning and slept with only
a few times of needing to scratch. Skin pigment is now the color of a mild
sunburn instead of the very alarming near-vermilion it had been yesterday. I
took another dose of Benadryl after an oatmeal bath and that relieved the
itch enough to sleep.

Kardu

Just confirmed by my Doc. DH is on his way back from the drug store with
calamine lotion and Lubriderm sensitive skin formula. In the mean time, I'm
drinking lots of fluids to help flush everything out. Thanks, Kathy!

Kardu

My brother and his family have had good luck with homeopaths in Washington
State. Here in the Chicago area, the one or two we tried a few years ago
were ineffective and, well, kinda weird. I understand that it's important to
treat the whole body, not simply one area, but if it's the one area that's
causing the rest of the body major trouble (ovarian cysts at the time), that
area really does need attention that might cause more problems for the body
until the situation resolves.

In re-reading my original post I realized I hadn't mentioned why I was on
antibiotics. (Two of them, from one of which I developed this lovely
reaction.) I was hospitalized last week with peritonitis. They thought a
cyst might have burst, but CT showed diverticulitis. None of the divertucula
had burst, but one might have 'micro perfed' and leaked a bit of stuff into
my abdominal cavity, causing excruciating pain. Instead of immediate
surgery, they opted to flood my blood with antibiotics. Even through the
worst of the itching (and I hope that was the worst) I have been thankful
that it's not post-surgery stuff I have to deal with right now.

Back now from the Doc and it will still be a few days before this clears
entirely. Areas that were painfully itchy yesterday are clearing, but have
new eruptions on my limbs. This is going to be a fun week.

Kardu

Ummm.. I realize that wheatgrass can be a great thing for people who don't
already have a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains,
*however*.....

even food can affect other medications you're taking.  I don't eat soy, or
raw broccoli, or cauliflower because they (like a number of other foods
known as goitrogens) would interfere with medication I'm taking.

Further, without knowing every medication Kardu is taking, it's kind of
irresponsible of you to state that she won't need to take them any more if
she takes this miracle juice. For example, if you told me the same thing,
and I followed your advice, it would eventually kill me. Not without making
me insane first, but hey, that's a small detail, right?

Yes, it's possible that the only meds that Kardu is on are the antibiotics.
But you don't *know* that. And it's possible that you only meant the
antibiotics. But someone reading your words might not realize that.

Adrienne

I talked to Doc and he said it might very well help detoxify, but suggested
waiting a bit before trying anything new internally until my digestive
system settles. Things are still a bit delicate on that front.

Thanks for making my itch crisis your first post!

Kardu

In a previous article, janelaw2001@aol.com (jane) said:

So did I, and everyone else in my family.

You mentioned a little politics, but I don't see that in Curious
Incident (which I liked, but didn't love).  The books by ... lemmee
see here... Alexander McCall Smith in the Ladies No. 1 Detective
Agency series are great.  ( http://tinyurl.com/yskcq )  They're about
a detective agency run by a traditional woman in Botswana, and
they're full of humor, gentle morality, cultural information and
engaging characters, written in a low-key, unobtrusive voice.  I've
read three, and I really should order _The Kalahari Typing School for
Men_.  No politics in these, though.

Vicki

Jane asked:

choose?>>

I know you said something set more in your lifetime, so  I'd pick "The Amataur
Marriage" by Anne Tyler.  It shows the inside a marriage and family life during
the last half of the 90's like nothing else I've ever read.  

I tend to love to escape to far places and times with my reading, so the books
I've read lately are in that catagory.  I loved "The Twentieth Wife" and the
sequel "The Feast of Roses" by Indu Sundaresan, about a woman in Mogul India
who becomes one of the wives of Emperor Jahangir of the Mughal Empire in
17th-century India.  Talk about family disfunction..

I also recommend "The Other Boleyn Girl" by Phillippa Gregory about Mary Tudor,
sister to Anne Boleyn.  It gave an amazing view into the family machinations of
the Boleyn clan.  I even learned new things about Henry VIII's reign, which
I've been facinated by since since I was about 10 and first saw the old PBS
special "The Six Wives of Henry III."

Another wonderful one was "Victorine" by Catherine Texier,  which is "a steely,
delicate fictional tale of unaccounted-for years in the life of her own
great-grandmother, Victorine, who was rumored to have run off with a customs
officer in the late 1890s, leaving behind her husband and two children in
Vendee, France." (Description taken from Amazon).

Also amazing: " Sarah Dunant's gorgeous and mesmerizing novel, Birth of Venus,
draws readers into a turbulent 15th-century Florence, a time when the lavish
city, steeped in years of Medici family luxury, is suddenly besieged by plague,
threat of invasion, and the righteous wrath of a fundamentalist monk. Dunant
masterfully blends fact and fiction, seamlessly interweaving Florentine history
with the coming-of-age story of a spirited 14-year-old girl." (description
again from Amazon)

As you can see, I read alot.  Good luck on the book club choice.  I love
sharing my favorite books with others.  

brenna

I vote for *My Antonia* out of those choices.  Willa Cather is always
good.  I loved *O Pioneers* (though I could not stand Jessica Lange's
movie version or her for that matter).

Al Franken = too shrill and only funny as Stuart Smalley.  I have one
of his original books about Rush Limbaugh that I bought and read back
in the year I was a Democrat.  So not worth it.

Two books I plan to buy in the next week:

*Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt
American Politics* (supposedly this book also has information on
getting back dues money from the union based on their political
contributions); *Michael Moore is a Big Fat Stupid White Man*, which
looks to be entertaining.

_In Country_.  Can't remember author right now to save my life as just
walked in the door from traveling.  Set during the 80's, lots of issues with
Vietnam and the main character's issues with her uncle who was a veteran and
her late father who died there before she was born.  Add also the chick's
independence and finding herself and her life etc. etc.  I loved that book.
I think they made it into a movie a long time ago.

I also like _The Awakening_ by Kate Chopin, though it is set in a different
era.  It was waay before it's time.  I also love anything by Faulkner.

Heather

I am leaving Garfield for SD's mother.  I did take her to see Raising
Helen last week and Mean Girls the week before that.

In a previous article, janelaw2001@aol.com (jane) said:

I want to see it because I like Bette Midler.  I don't think she's
that wonderful an actress (limited range; very good at one kind of
character, but don't ask her to stretch), but I love her music, and
I'll go just to see her.  I like Glenn Close too, actually.

Looking forward to this.

My children forced me to see the Harry Potter movie; it was OK, but I
liked pieces of the earlier movies better, although this one was,
overall, better.  The chess game in the first one was great, and the
troll in the first one would have been great if they hadn't done it
better in Lord of the Rings.  The HP movies are *very* linear, but
considering they were, after all, made for children, a certain
simplicity in construction is to be expected.

I want to see Terminal, too.  I love Tom Hanks.

V

None of those things mattered to me.  The clothes made the movie.
Also, it was very twisted - I like that in a movie.  Anyone going who
was expecting a remake of the original campy horror flick would be
disappointed, as well as anyone expecting it to be true to the book.

I will buy the DVD.

Thanks, but my point was that you can't tell which movie is better if you've
only seen one.  You're the big Dark Humor fan; you can't beat Michael Moore
there.  You might enjoy it.

jane