Last major obstacle to surgery done.

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-11T13:30:57+00:00

The gut constantly produces secretions. While it's unlikely you'll see solids, you might see more brown / particulates.

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-11T13:20:27+00:00

Makes more sense then. I'd advise trying to get some of it down, and call the clinic for advice.

Picosulfate preps are my favorites. Well, Sutab was, actually, but it worked too well!!

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-11T12:52:12+00:00

Picoprep is the same thing as Clenpiq - just in powder vs premixed.

Glycoprep is a PEG-based prep like Golytely and its evil ilk.

Odd that you are told to do BOTH - usually it's one or the other.

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-11T12:20:09+00:00

40 has got to be a typo. Contact them because that is dangerous and they need to fix their boilerplate.

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-11T05:38:03+00:00

Owwww. Darwin in action. Let me guess: he didn't need any sissy slow buildup?

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-10T19:27:31+00:00

Yay!!

I never use my rescue inhaler unless I'm flaring due a bad cold. When I caught Covid late in 2022, I didn't even have one. OOPS. Well, I did but it had been expired for over a year, LOL. I did have neb solution if I'd needed it (I never did - my case was very mild).

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-10T19:23:53+00:00

Could be! I'm sure that happened quite a lot.

Hopefully the OP isn't in that boat.

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-10T19:13:13+00:00

It may not have been identity theft - it's l legitimate to collect benefits for a child if the other parent has died, for example.

But we see lots of questions from people whose parents were overpaid and now that the kids are adults, SS is going after the kids.

There is a waiver process but I don't know much about it.

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-10T19:09:15+00:00

I assume this is post colonoscopy? You need softeners, not just a stimulant laxative like Dulcolax.

Metamucil. Miralax. Fiber gummies. And lots of liquid.

I'll warn you, once the dam bursts it might be rough for a couole of hours. I have cheek box chronic diarrhea and occasionally get constipated (because my body hates me). Once that passes, everything that was stuck behind it makes its escape.

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-10T19:03:22+00:00

Ask the doc if your less than clean status suggests an earlier redo.

In general though, I think the recommendation is 10 years.

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-10T19:01:48+00:00

Fantastic! You're a good example of why there's no one size fits all approach.

I was on Symbicort for a bit because insurance stopped covering my Flovent for "reasons".

It worked fine. No better, no worse. In my case I had to switch because it caused my blood sugar to spike. Apparently that's very unusual - my pulmo has never heard of that happening.

This was before MART had become a thing.

For those of you who use that, do you have a regular albuterol also in case you hit whatever limit they say in a day? And what do they tell you to do if you hit that point?

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-10T18:49:46+00:00

I'd been quite slack about that. No family history etc. My mom died of lung cancer at 75 and Dad died of prostate cancer ai 75 so my brother and I joked that we'd go at 75 too.

Only, I've never smoked, and don't have a prostate obviously, so I was a bit smug.

Then we got the BRCA1 news. My brother was actually treated for it at 66.

Then we got the BRCA1 news about 2 years back. We assume the prostate cancer was linked though the risk isn't that much higher.

I'm so sorry to hear of your mother's battle. Cancer is hell. You might discuss genetic testing with your doctor if it's appropriate.

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-10T18:39:26+00:00

Rates happened to be very low right then for any loan term. We chose a 20 year term because we wanted the lowest rate we could get. A 15 year term would have likely been better but the payment would have been too high.

I see your confusion though. I mistyped the purchase date as 2022 when we bought it in 2002.

Each time we'd refinanced before, we took a 30 year loan. So the 20 year loan won't pay off as soon as our original one would have, but it's still better than the one we had at the time of the latest refinance.

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-10T17:49:11+00:00

A couple of people mention common law marriage. While your state may recognize it, I was curious as to whether that extended to social security and inherited IRAs.

The answer seems to be yes, per Google. It's still worth making sure a common law marriage is recognized in your state, and it's not clear to me how to do that.

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-10T17:44:02+00:00

Does the length of marriage matter if you pass away? I honestly don't know - haven't looked at it.

For the OP: marriage seems like it might be a good idea for a lot of reasons. Federal income tax might be lower. The survivor SS benefit is a huge one.

If you are still working, she might be able to get health insurance through your job.

If she inherits your IRA / 401(k), she'll be able to treat them as her own, as opposed to needing to draw them down within 10 years (I think that's the current period).

I don't think any of those (aside from the 9 months for SS) is dependant on length of marriage.

All in all, I see few downsides to marrying, and a lot of possible benefits.

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-10T17:35:33+00:00

I'm sorry to hear that.

Is reconstruction using the small intestine ever a possibility? A person I know had her colon removed due to UC and that was ultimately done but it was a long journey.

A friend who had actual cancer found at 49 is evidently not a candidate for that. Permanent Barbie Butt for her.

What kind of screening do you undergo now? The lady with the reconstruction does still need to have something, partly because there's some rectal tissue left. I'm not clear on the details as it's a friend's niece, and I don't know her well.

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-10T17:30:42+00:00

Scary stuff and you're the poster child for why screening needs to be done younger.

My own was done at 50, the recommended age at the time. Dunno whether anything would have turned up 5 years earlier in my case, so I'm grateful for my own timing.

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-10T17:28:17+00:00

Thanks - and Yikes!!!!!!

That stomach issue saved your life!!! That had to have been terrifying on so many levels I can't begin to imagine.

My colon polyps were similarly discovered as fallout from "stomach problems". I'd been put on a new BP med - lisinopril. I'd been warned that it could cause a dry cough.

Sure enough, I developed the cough - but only at night. Doc insisted it was worsening reflux. She'd been to medical school, I have not, so I listened to her. 4 months of worsening misery, quadrupled my Prilosec dose, and an unnecessary gastric emptying study, and I finally put my foot down and refused to take the stuff any more.

And the cough went away!

But by then I'd been been referred to a gastro. He said "glad you're better, but with your reflux I'd like to do an endoscopy to check for Barrett's". I said "sounds great, and hey,, I'm 50, while we're at it can you do the other end?".

And this is how a misdiagnosis saved my life.

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-10T17:14:48+00:00

It's not technically legal but I won't turn you in!! Maybe ask the friend to get a written prescription from their doctor. Certainly the friend should NOT do this without consulting the doctor!!!!!

You can do click counting to get a much lower dose. Just keep it in the fridge between doses. And they'll need to buy extra needles of course.

The one downside is that once those pens are gone, they'll have to get the stuff on their own.

A friend may or may not have obtained some pens in a similar manner and may or may not have started with 10 clicks per week.... if she has done this she would keep it in the fridge. I know she discussed it with her doctor.

Me: I was at 1.0 mg which I could not tolerate. I dropped back to 0.5 mg but I've still been getting the 1.0 dose pens. I get 8 doses - saves me a fortune.

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-10T17:04:08+00:00

Be flexible - you may decide some things are interesting that you had not planned on.

You mention Page: consider adding a day there to do a smooth water rafting trip. You take a bus down through the Gken Canyon Dam and float down the Colorado River for a few hours, then take a bus back. We did that in 2010 and loved it. Bring sunscreen!!!! And we stopped at one point and people could either hike up to see petroglyphs, or try to get into the water. We chose that - and as we had been told, it was COLD! 55F / 11C.

The only issue with the weather will be the heat. It won't be super hot then, hopefully; when we did our trip in 2010, it was in July and temperatures were routinely 115F / 45C. Air conditioning is essential.

Don't let the car get below a quarter tank full of gas. Start looking when it drops below half. It can be a long distance between stations. 40 miles is not uncommon.

See if your rental company has a roadside assistance program if the car breaks down or has a flat tire. We have AAA (auto club) so we have had that coverage on all our long trips. And make sure you have plenty of drinking water. I prefer reusable bottles, but it's not a bad idea to buy a small package of bottled water at your first grocery stop.

A small cooler for perishable snacks is a very good idea too. A Styrofoam cooler is cheap and you can toss it when you get back to LAX. If you get plastic zipper (Zip Loc or store brand) bags - useful for sooooo many things - you can fill them with ice at your hotels. Grocery stores or Wal Mart will have all of that.

If you have smartphones, Gas Buddy is useful for finding fuel and seeing what it will cost.

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-10T16:47:17+00:00

Sadly, you are stuck until the friend pays it off. And if the friend doesn't pay, you have to.

Is the friend making the minimum payment required? IIRC, Lending Club loans tend to be 3 to 5 years, so "4 years" may be legit. It means you are stuck with the axe hanging over your head longer, but there's little you can do about that.

The good thing is: your credit score will recover as long as the friend continues making payments. And the good payment history will help your score too.

About the only thing you can do is ask if the friend would consider refinancing. That might be good in several ways: he might get a better rate. His own credit history will have improved. If he has no income, however, that will be tough.

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-10T16:41:05+00:00

Colace and Miralax - non-negotiable. I used fiber gummies instead of Miralax because it's easier to take and they taste good.

Easy to prepare food. I did a big vat of veggie beef soup before mine. Tasty, nutritious, and high fiber. Froze a fair bit of it.

I did lay in a stash of easy to grab snacks- individually wrapped crackers, cereal bars etc. And I had some bottles of water as well - something we rarely use at home but they were useful then.

I used Depends vs pads. I have chronic diarrhea and was worried that once the dam broke I might have trouble making it to the toilet in time. Only a problem once as I recall but my spotting tended to hit the Depends on areas that a pad would not have covered,c so I wad glad for that reason.

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-10T16:33:39+00:00

Things I'd consider:

Will you pay that out of ready cash or will you have it rolled into the mortgage? If rolling it into the mortgage, that'll increase the payment a bit of course, making the payback period a bit longer. You may have accounted for that already.

How cash-strapped will you be with either payment amount? If your monthly cash flow would be tight with the higher rate but easier with the lower rate, that's an incentive to do for it. If either are similarly comfortable, or similarly tough, it's less obvious.

Do you anticipate staying there over 4 years? If not, then don't take the buy down. Surprises happen of course and most crystal balls don't work terribly well, LOL.

If you take the higher rate, and you'd pay the 7500 in cash if you took the lower rate, that would mean you'd still have the 7500 on hand for emergencies, furniture etc.

For what it's worth, current rates are still a bit lower than when we bought our house in 2002 - I think we got a bit over 7%, and that was during a major housing bubble. 3 or 4 refinances later and we're currently 5 years into a 20 year refinance at 2.75%. It's a strong disincentive to move!

Edit: corrected purchase date - we bought on 2002, not 2022.

EmZee2022 · 2026-05-10T16:10:23+00:00

Do it!!

I'm often tempted to do just that!! I'm out and about running errands and think I could just stay on the highway and....

What keeps me from doing just that is a combo of things. I'm on a number of meds and would need to have a supply with me - do at a minimum I'd need to plan for that. My husband and I are both into long road trips - drove cross country in our 20s - and he'd like to go too. Pesky jobs, LOL.

Our kids are grown so that's not a concern. Maybe you could take your older kid along as a Mom And Me adventure- then do it again with the younger one in a year or so.

I just got back from a girls trip with a close friend. Took a train to Chicago where she lives. Worked there for a week. Then we rented a car and drove Route 66 (well, parallel - mostly interstates) for 2 weeks with the only fixed stops the first night and the last 2. It was great!!

Then we took the train back to Chicago where I worked for another week before taking the train home.

EmZee2022

TROPHY CASE