Have a great New Year everyone! Stay safe!

Enjoying all the posts! :-)

judijunebugarizonazn8 I was on Prednisone for only 1 day in 2019, the 1st Prednisone pill made my skin-staph infection oozed TWICE MORE PUS. Right away I called the Immediate Care telling them than pus is oozing out faster with just 1 Prednisone pill. Another doc. immediately prescribed Bactrim-DS over the phone for staph infection.

Back then, I told my brother the doc. about it, and he told me TO STOP PREDNISONE IMMEDIATELY, since Prednisone SHOULD NOT BE PRESCRIBED with Staph infection (Prednison speeds up Staph infection). The D.O. at the Immediate Care center made a mistake to treat me for poison oak rash, rather than for staph infection.

I'm pretty sure the 3 strong antibiotics I took messed up my gut since I broke out in bright-red rash with Keflex antibiotics. An inflamed gut is always hungrier than normal.

Oatmeal is known to be soothing & healing for both the gut and the skin.

This past week of starting 1/2 cup dry oatmeal & 1/8 cup flax meal & lite salt nuked with 1 cup of water for 2 min. (then let it sit & covered for 2 more min). I'm NOT even hungry until many hours afterwards. In contrast, when I ate bran and walnut cereal & soy milk for breakfast, I was hungry 2 hours after breakfast !!

What's nice about breakfast with hot oatmeal plus a bit of salt: I can have some left-over meat along with that, plus a salad .. it's like a breakfast and lunch combined, and I don't have to eat until dinner time.

Immediate Care center of our HMO has an automated wait-time info. when we called. That way the less urgent people can wait until its less crowded to go there.

Back in early 1990's, I used to volunteer at the emergency room before I applied to Master degree in Physician Assistant .. one very quiet lady with tummy ache had to wait for 3 hours before she was seen by a doc. With Immediate Care, the longest wait was 20 min, as recorded by their automated phone-answering system.

Judi, yikkes yikes, I had the same thing. I hadnt had a migrain in several decades but it hit fast and hard Im sorry that you missed most of your visit. Glad that you are on the mend.

15 years ago I spent 4 days in the hospital having a hysterectomy. I came out up 4 pounds and that was after removing body parts lol I thought that it was a combination of fluids and drugs.

Kristine: My sister had a partial hysterectomy from endometriosis. My 21-year-old daughter is not drinking enough fluid, so I started her on peppermint tea daily. Her 34 days-period has become a bit longer, which is good.

From WebMD: "Peppermint‌ ‌is known for its antioxidant properties, which may help ease endometriosis symptoms. A 2016 study found that peppermint can reduce the severity of menstrual cramps."

About my 2 skin staph infection in late 2019: I researched and found that those who are deficient in vitamin A are more prone to staph-infection. I eat tons of carrots & sweet potatoes but I'm in the 45% population that cannot convert beta-carotene to vitamin A, so I have to take cod-liver oil or eat beef liver for healthy skin barrier.

Ever since I take Cod-liver oil daily for vitamin A, I killed several poison oak & poison ivy in my garden, but only had mild rash which did not spread with staph infection like before.

Kristine - that's a good thing to have...gives you some peace of mind and could save your life. :)

Judi - well, I'll make sure to be a squeaky wheel next time I'm in Emerg. An ectopic pregnancy...I'm glad that you made it through that. And it sounds like you had a terrible Christmas. Thank goodness you're better now.

Happy New Year to Gracie and you, Jim. :)

Straw - they gave you medication that sped up the problem. Yeesh. What?? We shouldn't be getting flu shots? That's so good to know.

Kristine, I’m sorry to hear you had the same nasty bug as well. I’m glad to hear you got better and I think your little gadget for keeping tabs on your heart sounds splendid. You are an inspiration to me with your story of taking such firm responsibility for your health and losing weight, etc. I know it isn’t easy. It’s too easy to make excuses and I don’t want to go down that trail in my life. Taking personal responsibility for our health and our choices is so important.

Thanks Judi, I guess my heart scare did it for me. I am 73 and Azalea is 5 so I have a bunch if years that I need to be here for her. I absolutely need more excercise so will he working on walking more.

Kristine - yes, she really needs you for the long haul, so good on you for making that happen. :) :)

Straw I know you have told me before, but I can't seem to find which Culturelle that you use to loose weight. I see they have one that says Weight Management that has several of the B vitamins in it..... I am hoping once again to loose weight this year. I have been walking my new (to me) German Shepard, a rescue, between 5 to 7 miles a day since May.... I have NOT lost one pound even though I have not increased my food intake.... I am eating healthy but it is not coming off.... wonder if there are other issues.... I was taking a different brand of probiotics maybe it was the one that caused weight gain... who knows.... Thanks for you help. I always appreciate you.

Sharon

sharon2079 Re-post the info. months ago when I tested the Culturelle Weight Management with B vitamins:

Culturelle weight loss probiotics with L. Rhamnosus GG and B. Animalis lactis CECT 8145 worked in reducing my hunger. It also has B12 and B6 added for more energy. Lost 2 lb. in one week (normally it takes me 1 month to lose 1 lb. at my age of 62, and I'm short at 4'11"). See below study:

"In abdominally obese individuals, consumption of Ba8145, both as viable and mainly as heat-killed cells, improves anthropometric adiposity biomarkers, particularly in women. An increase in the gut of good bacteria Akkermansia genus ... Our results support Ba8145 probiotic as a complementary strategy in obesity management."

MY NOTE: Akkermansia is a bacteria abundant in the gut of skinny people who exercise or eat high-fiber foods like navy beans, bamboo shoots, flaxseeds.

Foods to boost Akkermansia (bacteria for weight loss): Cranberries, Concord grapes Black tea Fish oil Bamboo shoots Flaxseeds and Getting 30g of fiber per day.

From the web: " You could boost your A. muciniphila abundance with probiotics or by including foods like walnuts, chili peppers, cranberries, grapes and flaxseeds. Another skinny gut bacteria is Christensenella minuta – To boost your Ch. mintua abundance, make sure to add legumes to your diet, as well as foods rich in Resveratrol, such as red grapes, cranberries, strawberries and blueberries. Also, stay away from refined sugars."

At 62 I stop drinking Kefir and eating yogurt since it gives me heartburn, and milk-sugar is NOT good for my family history of diabetes. Cut out lactose sugar in dairy products and my blood glucose dropped from 110 to 105, and hemoglobin A1c has improved from 5.7 down to 5.2 (safe blood-sugar range) .. tested 12/20/23 at doc's office.

I was skinnier with Kefir daily at 110 lb. to 118 lb. in the winter, versus 120.4 now. But Kefir UP my sweet tooth, so I cut out dairy and take probiotics daily instead.

My 67-year-old neighbor who lost 150 lb. with ZERO EXERCISE (due to bad knees & desk job & long commute) .. he's now skinny at 6'2" and 180 lb. and he DOES NOT EAT yogurt, but he has 1 oz. of cheese on his salads, along with a vinegar dressing. He takes a magnesium pill daily plus a probiotics pill. At 67, he's slender with a small waistline like a high school kid.

He eats zero sugar & zero flour (no wheat), zero dairy (except for 1 oz. of cheese on his salad for lunch).

For breakfast he eats hot oatmeal plus 3 eggs, for lunch he eats a BIG RAW salad with 1 oz. of cheese, and lean meat. For dinner he eats a piece of protein (fish or meat), plus the entire bag of frozen veggies like peas, corn, green beans, broccoli. He limits himself to occasionally 1 potato and 2 fruits per day. Also zero snacks between 3 fixed meals.

I tested at least a dozen brands of probiotics and I notice that the ones with L. Rhamnosus (like Culturelle) really help with deep sleep, thus help with weight loss.

ORGANIC Stonyfield yogurt with L. Rhamnosus was what kept me at 115 lb. when I was 9-month-pregnant at near 41 year-old.

Stonyfield Organic Yogurt is a yogurt that contains 6 active probiotic strains: Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus bifidus, Lactobacillus casei, and Lactobacillus rhamnosus.

Chobani yogurt DID NOT help me to lose weight, and I didn't gain weight either from it, but it was bad for my blood sugar. The probiotic strains that are found in Chobani yogurt are: Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Lactobacillus acidophilus,
Bifidobacterium (or Bifidus), Lactobacillus casei.

Thank you Straw. For some reason I can not search threads any more. I think Houzz changed it because for some reason it wants to search their sales sites and not the forums.

I did not realize that the different brand of yogurts had different probiotics in them.... I will try switching that out.... something has to be wrong.

I eat a lot of salad. I do put some of the hot pickled veggies on them... but it says it has zero calories. I use some spinach, sometimes iceberg (which I feel is tasteless and useless, but it is something that husband will eat). But I love to eat water cress and arugula. I thought they don't have much calories so I will normally eat two to three cups of them for dinner.

I normally drink 3 to 4 cups of coffee in the morning. I will normally eat breakfest only once a week at dunkin Donuts. I have their sausage wakeup wrap 14g total carbs, 13g net carbs, 17g fat, 12g protein, and 260 calories. I don't eat lunch and I have a regular dinner. Normaly a piece of low fat beef the size of a card deck, with my salad and veggies..... I normally microwave the veggies but I don't add anything to them except spices, salt and pepper. Sometimes I will eat 3 scrambled eggs and fried peppers and onions.... If I have dessert it is normally a half a cup of strawberries, blueberries or blackberries with less than 1 T of cream which is what Atkins recommends. I will try giving up the cream.... that will be hard, but I am willing to give it a go.

sharon2079 Farmers pump antibiotics in livestock to make them gain weight fast. While rescuing youth from suicides in Facebook, I mentor a young guy who's 23 year old. He used to be muscular 5'10" and 176 lb. until he got a tick-bite and got Alpha-Gal allergic reaction to red-meat and dairy. He can only eat chicken & fish & shrimp & eggs .. any tiny amount of dairy or red meat makes him vomit or with aphylactic shock.

He dropped weight down to 5'10" and 129 lb. just by cutting out dairy and red meat.

I always pay extra-money for ANTIBIOTICS free chicken and pork. It's hard to find beef with no antibiotics, but I can get GRASS-FED ground beef with no antibiotics cheap at Aldi for $5 per lb.

Chicken and pork do not have hormones, but beef has hormones pumped in them. Eating LESS beef and pork helps to lose weight. I always lose weight if I eat canned fish for lunch or dinner.

No antibiotics meat from the web: "

• Bell & Evans, Perdue, and Tyson are some companies that produce or serve meat raised without antibiotics.
• Progresso is using no-antibiotics chicken in all its chicken soup varieties.
• Applegate Farms and Coleman Natural produce no-antibiotics poultry, beef, and pork."

Straw - a tick bite. I always worry about those darn ticks...rightfully worry. Poor kid.

I am doing good strawchicago z5 ..Thanks for asking...

Gracie is 12 yrs old and getting Hip dysplasia so we walk every other day and shorter walks then before...

GRACIE is 12 years old today...Happy Birthday Gracie!

jim1961 Happy Birthday dearest Gracie , tail wags from Amara !

We used to buy Cosequin for our old dog, have you heard of it ?

I don't know if it worked but it made us feel better doing all we could .

Happy birthday, Gracie. You're part of the Rose Forum family to us. Have a short, fun walk with Dad. Nanadoll

Both my 10 and 8 year old labs get Cosequin daily. I do think it has helped

Jim - my Zephyr (standard poodle) will be 12 this February. He's pretty close in age to your Gracie. I give him Camelina oil (he loves it.) every day and you wouldn't know that he has problems...except for running up the stairs...which he's awkward at now. He can easily go for hour long walks. Anyways...Happy Birthday Gracie!!

Kristine - I don't know how you manage to eat so well. No beef or pork? Maaaan, that's tough. Forty pounds is amazing!!! You're my hero!!

No I never heard of Cosequin berrypiez6b ..Thank you for the suggestion...

I give Gracie Glucosamine Chondroitin Hip & Joint Dog Supplement...

Snowing here today we have about 5 inches and its still coming down!

Pic I took earlier today

What's all this stuff, says Gracie. Well, Gracie, it's coming down here, too. I think there's lots of snowing coming down across the country. I hope Gracie is enjoying the snow, Jim, and you, too. Nanadoll

Go Gracie, happy birthday snow is the best snow.

Carol, I eat lots of omeletts and soups .

Jim - I love the little ribbon in her hair. :) :)

Kristine - oh, soups are so healthy for you!! I'm not fond of soup. But, I did make French Onion soup today...that soup I love....soup with cheese!!

Whooo, french onion. One of my favorites. I will definitely make some. Thakks for the reminder. My favorite ( I which is off my diet ) is potato bacon cheese soup. Maybe some day for a real naughty treat I will make a small batch

Kristine - ooooh...that does sound good!!

My son and I had a discussion about healthy eating and exercise last night. He observed I sit doing computer way too many hours . This is day one of trying to be more active in the new year besides just moving my fingers.

We eat a lot of processed foods- boxes of fettuccine , canned chicken, and condiments...it will take some discipline creating a habit of cooking from scratch as much as possible.

Soup sounds terrific. I'm usually still hungry for something afterwards though. One or two dried dates or figs stuffed with a walnut is enough for my dessert. If I'm still hungry I tell myself I can wait until the next meal . Amara doesn't like to hear that either. Leaving the kitchen and starting a project is the best strategy to keep out of trouble.

Berrypie - I'm too sedentary too. It's hard to do more when I can't walk. Whereas in summer we're all so much more active. Oh, I do like dates stuffed with walnuts.

I caught some sunshine on Sat so did a bit of weeding. The sun didnt last long and neither did I but it as so nice to get outside

Like most of us we are expecting a giant wind storm( my least favorite weather ) with 60 mile per hour wind.

My heart is acting odd today, not sure why.

Kristine please take it easy!!!

Kristine - it's nice that you got some nice sunshine and could enjoy it. It sounds like you need to rest today as Oursteelers said. I hope it's nothing serious. :(

Kristine, that doesn’t sound good… your heart acting odd? Please be careful and get yourself checked out if needed.

I bought a Cardia moble that reads my heart and then telks you if you have normal rhythm or not also if you have AFib . By 11 it was reading normal so I am definetely watching it. I will call my cardiologist if it continues to he weird.

I'm glad your rhythm became normal. And that mobile Cardia sounds like a VERY wise investment.

Hey Straw, are you Ok? Hope your area has power. There were more than 174,000 customers lost power in Chicago area! It's super cold, hope everyone has a portable generator, a heater. It looks like most of them got their power back now!

summersrhythm_z6a yes, we have power. Thank you for thinking of me. I'm thinking of you too, what's your favorite tea now? I make Stash peppermint daily for my daughter and she's losing weight (she doesn't need to), I really should make some tea for myself too.

Over 6 inch. of snow today 1/12.

A few days ago my central gas heater was broke. I prayed for a good guy to fix our heater. I checked Nextdoor forum for the most recommended heating company, called them and they charged only $100 to fix my gas-heater. The problem was poor wiring installed in 2000. So he replaced the wire. Some other company tried to sell me a BRAND NEW gas heater for $5,000 over the phone !! It pays to shop around on Nextdoor forum. Gas heater can last for many decades.

God does answer prayers. I told husband we should donate some money to homeless shelter.

Straw - well done!!! That's a HUGE savings!! And I'm glad you're doing well in the storm. We're having really cold weather right now...-33C/-27F with wind chill of -47C/-53F. When it's that cold the snow has a squeaky crunchy sound when you walk on it. I've always loved that.

rosecanadian Wow !! that's really cold in your zone 4 at -27 F.

It's -10 degree today Jan 14 during the day with sunshine, and will drop lower at night.

My weight is at standstill at 120.4 to 120.6 lb., so I should get more exercise on my treadmill. News today: the amount of steps is 6,000 per day is best .. rather than 10K as previously thought.

Glad to hear you are ok, Straw! I havebeen wondering.

Carol, Yikes -27F to -53F those are crazy cold temps. Stay inside and stay safe!

Straw, glad you have power! The blizzard condition arrivals here tonight. I like chamomile tea and l lemon ginger tea. That’s super cheap for furnace repair. Here there is $100 charge just for a tech to come to your door, plus repair.

Carol, wow, that’s really cold!!! Mink coat might not work, you’d need coyote, fox coat to keep warm. We will have single digit temp next week, but nothing like yours. Stay warm.

We're going to have some awfully mad roses ! My son said the cold is because of climate exchange with the North Pole.

It's so bitter cold for homeless people to suffer even with the warming stations. The thought is agonizing.

I have trouble being outside in just the few minutes it takes to walk Amara . Last night was 12 below zero - she limped back to the house after just 5 minutes in the yard. I wish we would all be raptured .

Straw, I hope you're praying for Versigny. If it pulls through Winter it earns a hearty recommendation.

Straw - My side of the city is actually 3b...the south side is zone 4. :) That's pretty cold for zone 5!! -4F is -20C!! Brrr!! We had an emergency alert (province-wide) to shut off lights not in use, to not plug in electric cars, to shut off space heaters, etc. Our power grid isn't handling the cold very well. You're still getting a lot of steps. I'm trying to limit my exercise. I went to a physiotherapist and she said I have scar tissue all around my Achille's tendons and damage to my calf muscles. I'm supposed to go on the treadmill for 5 minutes twice a day. lol Not very much. Plus I have some exercises to do. I've lost 4 lbs so far in Jan. It's slow going...but you can only try again by putting one foot in front of the other and carry on. :)

Sultry - we're still venturing out to go swimming 3/week. It's amazinghow many people are at the Y in these temps.

Summer - yup, most of the time we're inside. :) I want spring to come.

Berrypie - Thankfully there are churches and other stations for people to sleep in. But, yeah, outrageously cold for the homeless.

strawchicago your kale floor cleaner story reminded me what my Grandmother said ; rhubarb cleans the blood. I never buy it because doctoring it with so much sugar to make it palatable is self defeating. Maybe rhubarb would clean the bathtub.

Good to know avocados are healthy, Doug keeps buying too many at a time, it's a challenge to eat them fast enough. Amara and I share yams, she really likes them as a topping on her dog food.

Exercise is what I need, diligent housekeeping is about the best . I have a good smelling grapefruit dish soap. It's interesting what's good for the body is good for cleaning with.

berrypiez6b Thank you for making me laugh. Yours and Carol's equally wicked sense of humor make it fun to post here. Rhubarb encourages the "skinny gut" bacteria.

One time I made a pork soup with rhubarb, but I put rhubarb's leaves in it .. I DID NOT know that rhubarb's leaves are poisonous. Ate that and I didn't die, so I'm pretty sure I have eternal life (just kidding).

I stop buying Avocados since they get rotten so fast.

I swear that bran cereal irritates my stomach and makes me hungrier. If I have bran cereal and soy milk, I'm hungry within 2 hours. If I have 1/2 cup of oatmeal and a touch of salt, I can go for 3 hours with no food.

If I have a sweet potato, I can go for 4 hours without being hungry. I had a sweet potato last night at 12 midnight, then 1 cup of carrots for breakfast, and I'm NOT even hungry at 2 pm, today 1/15/24.

My rhubarb plant in the garden is getting huge. In the spring, I'm going to cut slices of it and grind in a blender to make "sour" water. My hard-well tap-water is so alkaline that I go through 1 bag of lemons per week to make it sour to digest my food. The doc. told me to drink lots of lemon-juice (no sugar) to slash my risk of kidney stones.

From the web: "Raw rhubarb is perfectly safe to add to your smoothie. In fact, it can actually be quite beneficial. Raw rhubarb is loaded with vitamins and minerals, including vitamin C, potassium, and fiber."

To increase "skinny bacteria" or Akkermansia Muciniphila in your gut:

"Supplementation of B. animalis could also increase A. muciniphila. Metformin and antibiotics treatment (vancomycin) also significantly promote A. muciniphila abundance in the gut but these strategies are not suitable for general public. Rhubarb extract is promising but more research is needed to confirm its activity. Cranberry extract and Concord grape polyphenols are active but green tea and whole grape showed no effect."

Study on akkermansia muciniphila (skinny gut bacteria)

You ate rhubarb leaves and lived to tell the tale. :) :)

Hello everyone I hope everything is good with you all!

We had a mild winter up until the cold frigid winter air moved in to Pa...But we got alot of snow beforehand so the roots are well covered on every rose/shrub, plant..

Milder temps coming back soon! :-)

My deceased sister Angela son Johnny just got married...Here is a pic of Johnny, Amy, and baby Sophie

Wishing you all a great day!

What a lovely family!

I'm so happy for all of you Jim!

Jim, what a lovely family.

Thanks everyone... Have a great day!

Weather (temps) here are getting more back to the milder side...:-)

Same here, Jim...we had temps of 5C/41F!!! Tomorrow is 2C/36F...wonderful! I'm so impatient for rose season!