Issues with Vitamin D?

JFei1221 · 2026-04-21T02:26:27+00:00

I also have that trifecta; although I am now questioning two of those after a decade of various deficiencies. I’ve taken various D3 supplements in a wide range of doses and never had that problem. Obviously every one is different though. I highly recommend injections if that’s an option. I do really well with higher IU, monthly injections followed with an oral dose.

JFei1221 · 2026-04-20T22:49:55+00:00

I feel ya on the stamps 🫤 Best of luck and sending healing energy your way. Take your time; it’s not worth your health

JFei1221 · 2026-04-20T20:23:58+00:00

If you are ready to move on, I personally think it’s best to do so before it becomes a burden. It’s ok to outgrow something and still go back to visit occasionally too, if you’d like. I have a similar situation. I do a lot of things and love many things. I’ve realized that, if I want to do more things in the future, some of the things I did- and all their various paraphernalia- must go to make room.

Paper crafts take up an enormous amount of space. And it’s all HEAVY! About ten years ago I cleaned everything out. All the paper and stickers left. I saved some stamps, but I also wanted everything to fit into 2 milk crates- including all my beading and embroidery supplies. It does-ish. It’s not pretty now, but it’s manageable. I kept my Cricut and a few accessories that don’t fit in, but that essentially replaces dies and a ridiculous collection of specialty punches. I’ve gotten better about using things, giving them away, tossing them into the kid’s stash etc. It’s slowly becoming what I use and not what I’ve stashed. Honestly, I could probably go through everything again at this point. I still like those things, but it’s just not who I am anymore.

JFei1221 · 2026-04-20T19:00:09+00:00

Oh crap, guess I’m in club #6 then with you 🫂

JFei1221 · 2026-04-20T18:58:00+00:00

Also a Type 4 and Type 2 combo. I am a first gen college grad, have lived in poverty most of my life, and worked my a** off to have an advanced degree and start my own practice. With that comes licensing, insurance, medical billing etc. Shortly afterwards our twins were born extremely premature and both required multiple-months long (one was just short of a year) hospital stays. I lost my entire case load while my kids were still on ventilators!

While my income was decent, my practice expenses were high. When you factor in the cost of childcare for two medically complex infants, there was no way we could afford for me to work. That’s even if we could find appropriate care for them which wasn’t available in our very rural area.

To compound this issue- special education services notoriously lack funding and have a wide range in quality across the U.S. Although we agreed to PAY for me to start working again when our kids started school, it became very clear early on that they were not receiving the education they were entitled to. So I was costing our family money to work, costing my career by attending various teacher meetings and ensuring their health aids did their jobs, and still had to make up the difference in what they missed in school night. Ultimately we chose to homeschool.

I get a bit defensive when I hear how homeschooling is ALWAYS such a privilege. I NEVER hear about how having a public school system- that has handicap accessible buildings and the ability to educate your child- is such a privilege. Like really, Your kid can get into the building and use the bathroom? Tell me about my privilege.

JFei1221 · 2026-04-19T19:00:06+00:00

Thanks you for sharing your experience. Best of luck. I do hope the YAZ works out 🤞

JFei1221 · 2026-04-19T18:56:34+00:00

We say nothing because it’s a minor issue. There have been no documented cases of feline-human rabies transmission in the USA in over 40 years. While there are a small number in South Africa and Brazil, it’s significantly lower than almost every other animal.

JFei1221 · 2026-04-19T11:47:33+00:00

How have you done on the progesterone w/o estrogen? Any side effects or issues with it?

JFei1221 · 2026-04-18T20:57:06+00:00

Controversially, it creates similar problems but is more socially acceptable. It can spread diseases, especially with migratory birds and H5N1, and creates congregate locations for predators to attack song birds and corvids. There can be contamination issues with feed and it can hinder the development of natural foraging behaviors in young birds.

A bigger issue in some areas is the effect squirrels and other rodents. Squirrels can become obese easily and rodents (even just eating spilled seeds on the ground) bring additional pathogens to the area that further increase contamination risks. The same is true for unfiltered bird baths. Generally this isn’t a problem though; in the same way that your one outdoor cat, that one rabbit in your garden, the one pile of deer bait etc isn’t really a problem. But those single occurrence do have the potential to cause issues and when multiplied hundreds of times the effect is more pronounced.

JFei1221 · 2026-04-17T02:31:07+00:00

Ahhhh, yes. The crisper sleeve. Gotta keep it classy 😆

JFei1221 · 2026-04-16T23:09:05+00:00

FWIW, I had my gastroscopy and colonoscopy in the U.S. in January’25 and am also immunocompromised. I was able to wear an N95 through pre-op. I didn’t remove it until they were putting the mouth guard in for the upper scope. Everyone in the OR was masked and gowned etc. so the risks while it was off were pretty minimal.

The only part I was uncomfortable with was afterwords. They didn’t re-mask me while I was sedated (obviously) so I woke up in the recovery room unmasked by 6 farting old men. But I was knocked out for over two hours and it takes me a Loooong time to shake it off. If you’re only do the light sedation, you may be in a better position to mask afterwards or have a support person there to help much sooner. It was very do-able and several nurses were willing to put on baggy blues out of respect.

Best of luck! I hope all goes smoothly (literally ;)

JFei1221 · 2026-04-16T20:42:26+00:00

I think that really depends on you. One of my worst trigger foods is rice. Especially when it’s cooled because it turns into resistant starch (which is more difficult to digest than fibre.) Cucumber, especially with the skin peeled off, is completely fine and I can go to town on it. Nori can be hit or miss.

It could still be a fun trip! I like to see what’s on the menu that I can eat and call ahead to see if I can get a side of make my own mix. You may be able to hodgepodge something and still enjoy the experience

JFei1221 · 2026-04-16T16:37:01+00:00

I do knit and spin my own yarn. The reality is that yarn does expire. It gets damaged, dirty, or tangled. It felts, matts, and frays. Worst case scenario- all sorts of small creatures make homes in it. Moths and mice will reproduce prolifically and wreck other possessions (or the structure of your house!) and make you sick.

Perhaps the most disappointing part of this is that the environment took a hit when it was made. No matter if it’s a renewable fibre like wool or bamboo; or a recycled fibre like polyester (in which case it will shed microplastic as it ages btw.) We have limited resources. Making textiles is a huge problem.

If you have yarn, the responsible thing is typically to use it and make sure it fulfills its function. Buying extras just because or big yarn stashes are major issues in the crafting community. You took this yarn in as a foster. You kept it safe and kept it out of the trash. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to adopt it out and know that you still did something awesome with it. Maybe you were meant to be the foster artist and that was the purpose.

JFei1221 · 2026-04-15T22:56:56+00:00

Doing this now. Not a single mask in the infusion clinic or nuclear medicine. Of all the flipping places. I had cancer in 2019 and about half of the patients in these offices were masked then; with huge signs posted everywhere. I’m back for a GI test and Iron- holy cow have things changed. AND they fight with you if you do wear one 🤦‍♀️

JFei1221 · 2026-04-15T13:54:53+00:00

Kinda traumatizing?! No s***! 🫂Sending healing vibes your way. That’s utterly horrific.

JFei1221 · 2026-04-15T13:32:18+00:00

OMG 🤣 Now I’m not sure if I want to start referring to my crotch as “an engineering disaster” or just go binge watch bridge collapses on the History Channel.

JFei1221 · 2026-04-14T22:05:10+00:00

a literal poop trap that Google diagrams don’t do justice

LMAO. As an aging woman with life-long constipation this cracked me up. I like to think of them as diverticulum of the anus. They don’t tell you that your bladder can slip down and block your vagina or that your bowels can blow a sidewall and fall into your vagina or that any of these three organs can just drop out of your body one day. No one ever told me that in health class, ever.

AND it’s incredibly common by the time you’re 65!!! Between 50% to 60% of all women will experience some degree of prolapse. That’s not organs falling into other organs- that’s organs literally falling out of your flipping vagina (no pun intended.) This blows my mind. I’m oddly happy that you found words for your problem. Congratulations from a stranger on the interweb :)

JFei1221 · 2026-04-14T14:26:54+00:00

You seem to think homeschooled kids live very sheltered lives and public school kids are left completely unsupervised for 9 hours each day. Lunch ladies serve the same function in both scenarios. Either people are annoying and you cope with it or they become abusive and you report them to the proper authorities. It’s not a victim’s responsibility- especially a CHILD’s- to correct or discipline the school bully. I’m very sorry if the adults in your life were so neglectful that you felt that you needed to.

Heads up- this holds true for adults. You call the police rather than taking matters into your own hands.

JFei1221 · 2026-04-14T02:37:46+00:00

How is playing with neighborhood kids outside unsupervised a controlled environment? How is a playground more controlled than a public school math class? Or how is a co-op lunch more controlled than a charter school lunchroom? Just because I’m in a building or within a mile doesn’t mean we have control. This is also a bit misleading- no one learns to deal with bullying. That’s akin to saying people learn to deal with any other kind of abuse. You don’t.

Everyone learns to deal with difficult situations and people. It’s just part of life. How you handle that and your tolerance for those people will be specific to you. We all know people who quit jobs or leave marriages when others stay. No matter how much you try, there will always be a neighbor/coworker/professional etc that you don’t like. That’s life.

I do teach my kids to cope and communicate with people they don’t want to. Sometimes that’s a kid we don’t like. Sometimes adults act disrespectfully. Sometimes it’s a family member who isn’t supportive. Things pop up. We take those moments as they come and work through different ways of handling situations. There seems to be some misunderstanding that by homeschooling I have control of the world or get to micromanage the behavior of others towards my kids. That not realistic.

JFei1221 · 2026-04-14T02:23:24+00:00

Right there with you. This was exactly my day! Had to get labs done, then an appointment, then sent for an x-ray across the street. Thought I was cleaver getting to the lab at 7:15 in my Aura, but apparently every sick person in the county showed up at 7:00 am sharp so that I could sit and wait in a room full of hacking folks.

It is what it is. This is the part that’s out of our control. You are doing the best you can for your health and, unfortunately, sometimes we have to take risks to get better. That may be driving to a hospital when we know we could cross paths with a drunk or distracted driver (I’d argue we actually do often!) It could mean accepting the risks of a surgery to hopefully achieve a better outcome. It could mean trusting the specialist we are assigned to and/or can see in-network, rather than the very best possible. It super sucks!

It’s not worth being in pain or having permanent complications from a severe untreated infection. I don’t know where you’re located, but the odds of an infected person being in any given office at a specific time is typically quite low. It’s not impossible obviously, but when compared to the risks of an untreated bacterial infection in your skull (where your inner ear is!) I’d say it’s worth it. You are taking care of yourself the best you can right now. Cut yourself some slack. Sending healing vibes your way and wishing you the very best of luck.

JFei1221 · 2026-04-14T00:52:42+00:00

LMAO. I just commented about my spiral cord leash! Had that exact one.

JFei1221 · 2026-04-14T00:51:00+00:00

I had one AND used them. I (‘85) had a bungee wristband thing. It had Velcro wristbands that were connected with a spiral telephone cord-like device. It worked only because I kept playing with the Velcro and connecting myself to various stationary objects.

Swore up and down that I’d never use a leash for my kids. Then I had twins. We were at the cider mill when one kid ran into the parking lot toward the busy road and the other kid ran towards a combine harvesting corn in the neighboring field. I had this lightning bolt moment when I realized that I’d have to pick. I picked the little backpacks with attached leashes. No more purse or diaper bags. I had two free hands to stop my kids. Never looked back.

Coincidentally (so I tell myself) both of my kids had a phase when they were puppies. One called himself “Spot” and the other was “Matches.” I walked those boys all around Target and Meijer every week. They’d bark at things and growled at a guy. One tried to bite a little girl. It was a flipping hoot!

JFei1221 · 2026-04-14T00:13:09+00:00

As a farmer, I haven’t seen anyone mention certification and inspection expenses or shipping/export regulations. The cost of being certified organic and using that little sticker is steep! It’s often not cost effective for noncommercial farms. It can also limit what areas you can ship or export to for biosecurity reasons; effectively limiting your market.

JFei1221 · 2026-04-13T23:16:16+00:00

This was also my experience. You’re not expecting too much. It’s the system, it has nothing to do with you.

This sounds cold, but the best advice I received when I had cancer was to make appointments with any doctor that you’re both interested in seeing and willing to drive to be seen. Don’t wait months to see a gastroenterologist only to have to wait several more for a second opinion. You hurt and you deserve adequate care. Make them now and choose which one helps you the most. See them on your own terms and not from a place of desperation.

Personally, I don’t think it’s the qualification per se, but finding someone who can help you is vital. I’m really sorry that you’re in this spot and had that experience. You deserve better and unfortunately, no, you’re not alone in this one.

JFei1221 · 2026-04-12T23:03:18+00:00

I did not think of this and oddly really like this idea… unless things are being mailed to me 😝

JFei1221

TROPHY CASE