Just have to write this to get this out:

Spotlight Stealers...  I wish I could say "Hey, can you delete that last post of yours so mine right before that can matter even a smidge?"

Fireflights, Shadoprism, I know the feeling.

Justing looking for friends, maybe some fun ^.^, but for now the idea of getting married again is definitely a no.

Tired of being lied to as well. Bleh.

I am getting quite frustrated with a series of horrendous GMs I've had. It's getting really annoying. I generally joinig adult games because I figure that the participants will be more mature, not less!

Working two part time jobs to be able to afford to rent a room in someone's house.  Trying to make payments on debts that I can't legally fight, despite them not being my fault.  (Long story, but that's not the point.). Now, my work pants just ripped and I need to buy a new pair one one of my precious half days off.  Now I have to put my bedroom back together after an exterminator sprayed for ants.  Looks like another night of less than six hours of sleep.

Truth is, however, that I feel pretty blessed.  Things could easily have been much worse.  So, while I soak my feet, I raise a glass to my fellow RPoLers.  May your home always be too small to hold all of your friends!

Great.... my glasses just broke, and my eyesite is not good enough to fix the problem.

In reply to Merevel (msg # 134):

I have been right there where you are, friend :3

Really what we need is a gamer retirement home so we can all support each other >.>

Spent the end of last week scrambling with some coworkers to get everything prepared to help one of the other women escape an abusive domestic relationship.  She had a place to go where she could live indefinitely rent- and utilities-free, we'd haul her stuff out with my trailer for free, and we had all the paperwork for her to set up protective orders to safeguard herself and her kids.  Her husband was out of state and I had the police alerted to what was going down in case someone got word to him and he arrived home early.  All she had to do was walk out the door with her kids and let us get everything packed for her.

She bailed on us half an hour before we were due to arrive at her house.

Every woman that was helping her had been in an abusive relationship in the past.  We all know how hard it can be to get out, but none of us had this kind of help to do it.  This woman has everything someone in her position could want -- financial, emotional, social, and legal support -- and she won't take that step.  We can't make her do it, 'cuz then we'd be just as big of bullies as her husband, but it is taking all my restraint not to smack her one upside the back of the head to knock some sense into her.

In reply to Evil Empryss (msg # 137):

Yeah, I can Totally see where your coming from there. Some people just seem to need that extra little push from time to time.

In reply to Evil Empryss (msg # 137):

It's a very difficult situation.   I'm so glad you tried, though.

Sadly, you can't help those who aren't willing to help themselves.

In reply to Evil Empryss (msg # 137):

:-/

I know a few women like that. Part of my bad luck with women lol. Anyhoots I know one that took a gun being pointed at her face to leave the relationship.

Wow I have to lean in close >.<

*sigh*  My daughter's pushing for me to get a walker or similar support.  She wants me to go out walking, and I can't do it unsupported for any distance now.  But I'm pretty sure once I start using anything I'll lose all my sense of balance and have trouble even getting around here without support.  I know that's one reason why the chiropractor didn't want me using a cane even years ago, the way I would become dependant on it.  But I understand what she wants too, she wants me to go out more, she thinks this will put off deterioration a bit longer, and in other ways that may be true.  I guess I'll ask the doctor, but he's never been much help before, just prescribes pain killers instead of ordering the tests that might find what else is wrong and how to treat it.

At twenty-eight years old I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and some funky-sounding problem with both knees that causes a lot of pain on a daily basis. I fought the use of a cane or walker for years, and now I feel stupid for being pigheaded about my health. I wasn't better for not using it, I wasn't tougher, and it didn't make me worse when I finally gave in. On the contrary, because I have them available when I need them, I can go further and do more with my family than I could when I was toughing out the pain. I can actually make it thru a shopping trip, or to the zoo, something I cannot do unaided on my good days, much less my bad days.

I don't know what your specific problems are, but people don't generally "become dependent on" assistive technology, they just realize they needed it all along and it makes their lives easier to live. I highly recommend you give it a shot. You may find it a big improvement and nowhere near the trauma you imagine.

I have problems with most of my joints, but especially my hips.  People have no idea how much they use their hip joints for balance until they don't work properly!  But I think my balance issues are more than that.  I get around in places like the grocery store with the support of the cart, but I have to be careful to stand straight as much as I can else I end up with issues with my back and shoulders.  I watch people with walkers; they tend to lean into them, in fact there doesn't seem to be any other way to use them, since the basket and seat seem to prevent any other way.  I know when my mother and aunt started using walkers, they very quickly lost the ability to walk properly without one.  I expect to some extent this was an extension of the problems that caused them to use on in the first place, but the change seemed more dramatic than that.

I know what you're talking about, seeing people hunched over walkers.  From what my RN sister tells me, that's usually caused by one of two things: something wrong with the spine that won't let them stand or (more commonly, I think) poor education on walker use.  You need to have the walker properly sized to you and learn to use it properly.  Don't get the one with the basket under the seat: it forces you to stand farther back from the handles and your means of support (which causes you to lean).  I use the Dolomite Legacy 600 (it's a pretty blue), and when I stand in it, I look like this:  http://www.phc-online.com/v/vs.../images/dol_seat.jpg

I use a four-wheeled walker with the brakes in the handles (kinda like a bicycle hand brake).  The basket being positioned in the front is removable, and the seat folds up completely out of the way.  In my opinion, it is a much better setup than the under-the-seat basket models.  When I use mine, I fit between the handles easily with my elbows only slightly bent.  If I straighten my arms, I can bring almost all the weight off my legs and still be safely balanced between the handles.  My fibro pain tends to hit worst in my lower back and hips, so the best part is that I have a seat on mine, and a basket in the front, so I can do a little shopping and then sit down while waiting in line.  The ability to sit while waiting has been the greatest benefit of the walker over the cane.

The handles also need to be set so that they aren't too high or too low for you.  I actually have to change the position of mine based off the height of the shoes I'm wearing that day: it can make that big a difference in how I feel.

Oh, and a fun little fact that many people don't know: a four-wheeled walker is a blast to use with a pair of heelies -- those sneakers with wheels in the heels.  I can cruise through the mall with ease with a pair of those and my walker as stability and external brakes.  Just don't get going too fast and hit the brakes, or you'll go apples-over-teakettle over the front of it.  I know this from hilarious experience.  I am so glad my husband didn't have his phone out that day, or I'd be a YouTube star.  ^_^

Gods I wish I could use a walker or cane, but my shoulders are to damaged to allow it. (broke both in a car accident years ago)
Got arthritis in my knee's and lower back, before the accident I really relied on my canes, now I can't take the strain on my shoulders.
IF you can use either one do so. Like Empryss said, they are a great help.

In reply to Evil Empryss (msg # 145):

*takes detailed notes*

Chondromalacia Patella? Funkiest name I know for knees. Also, probably the only one.

EDIT: Fun fact: I spelled that right the first time from memory. :)
This message was last edited by the user at 00:27, Tue 29 Sept 2015.

Close!  Bilateral Chondromalagia.  ^_^

Which is basically a fancy way of saying "your knees hurt, but we have no real clue why despite running every test under the sun".

Maybe they just didn't add the "patella" part.
This message was last edited by the user at 00:27, Tue 29 Sept 2015.

According to the Internets, we're talking about the same thing. Except you have it in both knees by name :p

In reply to Evil Empryss (msg # 149):

It goes with 'plantar fascitis' (you have a foot pain, we don't know what it is).  The Patella bilateral chondromalagia, to me is a fancy way for a Doctor to say 'shin splints', which is also a pain they have no idea what causes it.  You know I'd be more impressed with a doctor that if he cannot identify it or the source to just say...I have no idea what it is.  And save me the fee of having to go through 4 more visits

Part of the problem is insurance companies: they don't like docs racking up fees for tests and not finding anything.  Give something a name and they can get paid for all the work of making sure it's not something that's going to kill you outright.

In reply to pitademon (msg # 151):

I also have plantar fascitis, mostly under control though.  Unlike most people who have that, I have to wear shoes with a heel, even when I'm sitting, 1 3/4" seems to be optimal but almost impossible to find something that works with the other problems with my feet (and my very limited budget.  I don't know why you say they don't know what it is though, it's a shortening of the tendons in the bottom of your feet.  I have a stretching exercise I used to have to do every morning, now only when I feel a flair-up coming on.

Empryss:  I don't know if that kind of walker is available here, have to see.  And then figure out how to pay for it.  *sigh*  Still the issue of balance though, if I learn to depend on anything other than myself, I will surely lose some ability.  I still also have trouble picturing myself going out for a walk; even the idea makes me feel very vulnerable.  Like what if I fall, for instance?

I dropped my brand new phone just a bit ago, shattered the screen.
Just got it monday, and now got to pay $50 to get it replaced :((
Cost me $150 to get it originally. So my new phone now runs me $200. (fell out of my pocket when I bent over to put the cat food down. Landed glass side down.)
Phone still works, but swiping the screen is a tad painful now.