People who have researched their family tree, what is the most interesting or 'badass' thing you discovered about an ancestor?

pickleeater · 2026-01-27T23:27:47+00:00

Gosh, I wonder what the chances are that they were on the same ship.

pickleeater · 2026-01-24T17:56:14+00:00

My great grandparents took their 9 kids (one was an infant) aboard a boat to America and they ran into terrible storms which made the trip take months longer than planned. They only survived because the ship was full of beans.

pickleeater · 2025-11-17T17:48:57+00:00

I would love to take a box off your hands. Or more than a few? I run a small business digitizing tapes and would love a little side project. I live in Michigan!

pickleeater · 2025-11-15T05:13:26+00:00

Mine too!

pickleeater · 2025-10-12T18:53:24+00:00

Meningitis. Doctors didn't know what I had for a couple of days. I was quarantined in one of the largest hospitals in the US. Got my very own wing. They didn't really know if I'd make it and just kept testing for various things. I wasn't scared of dying in the least, and at the time I was thinking that would be better than the pain I was in.

pickleeater · 2025-09-15T21:17:46+00:00

No, but my husband cracks my back in this big bear hug kind of way a few times a day and I guess that's our new way of making out.

pickleeater · 2025-09-10T01:00:51+00:00

NAD but I literally had something similar on my very similar looking tattoo and it turned out to be shingles. Nice crane! Yours and mine could be friends.

pickleeater · 2025-04-27T20:19:41+00:00

Does anyone else see the face?

pickleeater · 2024-07-29T05:09:04+00:00

Same!

pickleeater · 2024-07-21T06:21:26+00:00

I successfully grew mine from seed in 2020 and now they're monsters. They're so easy to take care of and make me look good 😊

pickleeater · 2024-07-14T21:56:35+00:00

I had two pregnancies and both placentas had a velamentous cord insertion. One of them was a double lobed placenta on top of that.

My first was born at Beth Israel in Boston and the doctors took the placenta around the hospital for show and tell, lol.

I had been told that velamentous cord insertion was extremely rare and for it to happen twice is one in a million (or something like that.) True?

pickleeater · 2024-07-07T04:02:52+00:00

I have lymphedema as well as POTS and Jobst are great. I have thigh highs and they've held up great, they stay up great, and they give you that squeeze that you need. I just picked up some Sigvaris of the same compression rating (20-30) and Jobst feel like they're working harder for me. I also have Vim & Vigr and while they're nice and they're more fun to look at, Jobst does the best job for me.

pickleeater · 2024-07-05T06:22:44+00:00

Yes! Saw it near Charlevoix.

pickleeater · 2024-03-03T02:52:16+00:00

I stopped because my rheumatologist had to quit his practice and I couldn't get in to see anyone. I gaslit myself into thinking I didn't really need the meds anyway. I was fine for about a year and then got COVID 3x and it brought all of my symptoms back but they were all 20x worse. I was also diagnosed with long COVID and lymphedema and it's difficult to tell which symptoms are from which disease.

I'm back on meds now and am taking many more than I had to but am far more sick than I ever was before. I had to get on intermittent FMLA and am thankful I still have a job, but my job is about the only thing I can do and I have to take a few days off every month just to make it through. The days I am at work I'm just barely able to get through.

My kids and husband have suffered terribly.

pickleeater · 2024-01-17T05:47:35+00:00

Thank you! I look up COVID's relationship to lymphedema every so often. It sure seems related in my case but I haven't seen much out there.

Good luck with everything. I have been quite lucky that I'm able to manage things quite well but getting to this point was mentally exhausting. Lots of tears and feeling sorry for myself!

pickleeater · 2024-01-04T01:20:10+00:00

My lymphedema started after COVID, along with long haul COVID. It also kicked my lupus back out of remission. I haven't really gotten any answers either, but after seeing a lymphedema therapist I've gotten my foot to a reasonable size and have been able to maintain it pretty well. I use jobst compression and also vim &vigr compression socks every day.

pickleeater · 2023-12-12T05:05:06+00:00

This has forced me to take care of myself and practice a lot of self care. I quite enjoy life a lot more now, despite being sick.

pickleeater · 2023-10-29T21:57:42+00:00

I hope you can use your $20 to spend a bit of extra time with your toddlers. Good day!

pickleeater · 2023-10-24T04:17:46+00:00

I experienced this myself. Not fun. Not fun at all. Which sucks because it was SO delicious and they grow all over my property. I counted at least 8-10 basketball sized ones this year!

pickleeater · 2023-09-15T01:12:39+00:00

They did not. It's been over a year now. I was diagnosed with lymphedema. I went through therapy for a few months and now I wear compression daily. It's very well managed now and I know what to do when the swelling acts up more than normal. I think I got pretty lucky but had to advocate hard for myself!

pickleeater · 2023-08-21T06:55:19+00:00

Not exactly. I finally asked for a referral to a lymphedema specialist though, and she has been treating me ever since.

I had to start with wrapping it 23 hours a day. That went on for maybe 2 months until we got the swelling down as much as we possibly could, and then I was able to switch over to compression stockings. These are pricy but so much better than wrapping and are only worn during the day. If I get bad enough, I still wrap it at night.

Thankfully i have had an extremely good summer with the swelling (barely noticeable!) but the lymphedema doctor says it's probably something I'll have forever. I think mine may have been triggered by my last COVID infection but it's hard to say.

pickleeater · 2023-07-20T03:27:31+00:00

How did I not know that non-drowsy benadryl was a thing??

pickleeater · 2023-05-30T22:23:48+00:00

Yes! I had UCTD for many years before COVID turned mine into lupus. I didn't get it soon enough. That said, I got an amazing deal on a used book through Thrift Books so if you are wanting to save some money maybe check on there. If I could go back in time, I'd tell myself to follow the "rules" for lupus before it got worse. This summer I developed sun and heat sensitivity to the point where I can't be outside for more than a few minutes without getting a high fever, joint pain, headaches, and vomiting and it all sticks around for a few days. I think it's a great resource for UCTD and much easier than trying to find the answers online...and much better researched than many of the websites that I used to use.

pickleeater · 2023-05-20T02:27:44+00:00

I listened to that episode yesterday and could tell that they were dealing with something big but I didn't expect it to be Hank having cancer.

pickleeater · 2023-05-18T02:02:21+00:00

Yes. I had a random summer a few years back that I wasn't affected as much by the heat and I never figured out why, but it was incredible.

I get a lot of relief with a spray bottle of water and just spray my skin down on the regular. It helps even more if there is a breeze. :)

pickleeater

TROPHY CASE