The Farmville Life

I’ve been busy building a plantation in Farmville.  It’s a Facebook application that I told myself I wouldn’t get involved with because I’m a very, very busy person who has absolutely no time for such nonsense.  That was two weeks ago.

I am now the owner of  TWO houses, a collection of animals, trees, crops, a barn, farming equipment, a lake, flowers, a groundhog, a dairy, a golden troll, various topiaries, and heaven only knows what else.  And I’m just a BEGINNER.  The object of this game (at least I think there’s an object here somewhere) is to grow crops, fertilize your neighbor’s farms, give them presents, and earn money to grow more crops, buy buildings and animals, and expand your farm.  You can win ribbons and magic eggs!  It’s a never-ending cycle.

In order to play Farmville, you  need neighbors.  Lots of neighbors.  I have friends who were already playing this game, so I started off with a few.  But if you want to get anywhere, you find more Farmville friends.  So you go hunting for neighbors.  It’s like a dating referral service … sort of.  Now I have neighbors from all over the world.  But I can always use more.

Honestly, I don’t know how I was swept up into this virtual universe, but here I am.  Checking to see when I can harvest my tomatoes or pumpkins.  Collecting  eggs in the chicken coop.

Before you go dissing this insipid pastime, think about this.  Over the weekend, my sister was snowed in with 10 inches of the white stuff.  Her city was hit hard and nobody was plowing, shoveling or digging.  My sister’s kids, neighbors, and friends were not available to shovel her driveway, clean off her car, etc.  She was stuck.  And she had plans to go out of town to celebrate our brother’s 50th birthday.  Obviously, she couldn’t go anywhere.  HOWEVER …. I have a friend on Farmville, who is also a real-life friend and lives a couple miles from my sister.  We were chatting on-line about our farms Saturday morning when she mentioned that her driveway just got plowed.  I told her about my sister’s unfortunate situation and the next thing I know, My FARMVILLE NEIGHBOR sends her snowplow guys over to my sister’s house!  See how wonderful Farmville is?  Sort of?

If nothing else, it’s an eternity away from dealing with lupus and medication.  For me, that’s a good thing.

So far, I’m keeping up with household chores, paying bills, and running errands.  I haven’t totally lost my mind in Farmville … yet.

And if you want to be my neighbor, let me know.

Stopping Steroids … Finally

For the past 10 years or so, I’ve been on prednisone.  Most people that have autoimmune disease wind up taking steroids.  The lucky ones can be on them for short periods of time.  The not-so-lucky … like me … require high doses for long periods of time to keep their immune system in check.  Sometimes, I’ve been on 80 mg a day for months and months, and months.  Ick.  My hair gets brittle, my skin thins out like tissue paper, I develop bruises everywhere, and worst of all, I get a little crazy.  Can’t sleep.  As a bonus, I get this voracious desire to eat anything that isn’t tied down or locked up.  But the best is the paranoia that is known to set in with high doses. You could call me a little nutty because occasionally, I am certifiable.

I’ve finally … FINALLY … taped completely off these evil little pills.  At this point in my disease, other medications, most likely the IVIG infusions I get every three weeks, are taking the lead and keeping most flare ups at bay.

Stopping steroids isn’t easy.  If you taper too quickly  (as I have done more than once), you can easily find yourself dealing with adrenal insufficiency.  Basically, it feels like you’re having a heart attack and are about to die.  If you stop completely (which I have not attempted) you can go into adrenal crisis, which can be life threatening.  My taper regimen took about three months, once I got the go-ahead from my rheumatologist.

Long term use of steroids can cause all sorts of damage.  It can cause permanent bone loss, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, thinning of the skin, and what is nonscientifically referred to as a ‘camel hump’ of a fat deposit on the back of the neck. It also likes to settle in the abdomen for a permanent little pad of tummy fat.  There are no exercises in the world that will get rid of them.

I know deep down in my steroid-damaged bones, that someday there will be a cure for this crummy disease.

In the meantime, I’m off steroids and I’m doing my happy dance!

Perpetuate the Happy

The other day I received this nice award from S. Le at I Feel Unusual.  Many thanks, sweetie for the award and your great blog that is so much fun to read!

So, in order to perpetuate the happy, I’m following the rules attached to receiving this award.  The rules are …

1.     List 5 things that make you happy.

2.    Try to do at least one thing on the list today.

3.    List 5 bloggers who brighten your day.  Pass it on to five friends.  (Let them know they received the award by a comment or email.)

4.    Those of you to whom I give this award are to link back to my blog and perpetuate the happy with your own list and recipients and whatnot.

Okey dokey?

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Five things that make me happy:

1.    Singing when my voice cooperates

2.    Gardening

3.    Charlie and Tigger, my  BFFs  (best furry friends)

4.    Family and friends dear to my heart

5.    Photography.  Most of the photos on this blog are pics I’ve taken

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Five blogs I really enjoy that perhaps other people haven’t discovered yet … in no particular order:

1.    The Letter T

2.    Functional Shmunctional

3.    On The Curb

4.    The Singing Patient

5.   Smoke and Mirrors

Thanks to all who take the time to read and write!

Great News For LupusRanting

The other day I received an email with some outstanding news.  LupusRanting was approved as a new member of the Healthcare Blogger Code of Ethics network.  Whoo Hoo!!

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The Code was established in 2007 to provide bloggers and their readers with clear standards in five specific areas:

Perspective: The blog author’s perspective should be clearly established.

Confidentiality: Patient identity is respected.

Disclosure: Bloggers must clearly disclose whether they are paid to pitch products.

Reliability: Sources for information should be cited.

Courtesy: Personal attacks should not be permitted.

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About the Code: The Healthcare Blogger Code of Ethics was designed in response to problems experienced by medical bloggers.  The goal of this Code is twofold:

1.  To give readers of a medical blogger a clear idea of the standards by which the blog is maintained.

2.  To give bloggers (especially anonymous ones) a clear set of guidelines they can show employers, patients, or other concerned parties as to the nature of the blogging.

“Since healthcare blogging is sometimes dealing with extremely sensitive information, it is important that these blogs maintain a high level of integrity.”

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LupusRanting is grateful to the team at HBCE and other members who do their best to make healthcare blogs a valuable resource for patients, caregivers and others interested in fighting specific medical conditions, or improving health care in general.  I’m proud to display the HBCE logo in my sidebar and will continue to work hard to maintain the standards promoted by the Code.

I know it’s not the People’s Choice Award, an Emmy or an Oscar, but I’m thrilled to be on the short list of bloggers who have received this honor.  Many thanks to all of you who take the time to read and comment on my posts!!

Snow Day

We had our first big snow of the year here in River City.  Sometimes it’s best just to stay home.

To Do List – 2010

I’ve been searching for a topic to write about when I ran across a great post from Organised Chaos, who borrowed her idea from Kelly.  I’m passing it on to this side of the hemisphere/blogosphere and heaven only knows where it will go from here.  Feel free to write your own list (or not) and if you have time, mention where it originated.

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Writing down a list of Things To Do always helps me stay organized and focused.  However,  these are not resolutions!  I love the promise that comes with a new year, so here’s hoping 2010 will be a fantastic one for us all!

In no particular order …..

**   Wean completely off prednisone. Started at 80 mg seven years ago and am down to 2 mg today.

**   Eat breakfast each and every day and not skip meals.  So for I’ve stayed on track.  Yay me.

**   Play my guitar on a regular basis.  It’s a lovely instrument (Martin 1972 D-18) and I’ve neglected it too long.

**   I’m getting a tattoo come hell or high water.  Probably hell.

**  Think about getting another kitty.  The key word here is think.

**  Download more songs from iTunes.  It never gets boring.

**  Keep painting.  I might be famous one day.  Or not.

**  Be more mysterious and less serious.  I’ll let you know if this works in my favor.

Now get going and have a fun,  crazy, healthy and happy 2010!!!