Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

All,

Just an update here so you will know we're still here and doing OK.

I applied for social security earlier this week. I think I made the right decision to do so. Also, I am still looking for another tractor but haven't decided what to get. But I really miss the seat time on the tractor. There is so much that remains to be done.

I wanted to tell you folks about a book that my Beautiful Gal and I just finished reading, titled The Perfect Predator: A Scientist's Race to Save Her Husband From a Deadly Superbug: A Memoir by Steffanie Strathdee and Thomas Patterson. The book is about a man (Thomas) who contracts a drug-resistant bacterial infection, namely Acinectobacter Baumannii. During the man's treatment, the bacteria become completely resistant to all antibiotics. But his wife (Steffanie) learns of an almost unknown treatment to take on the bacteria, namely bacteriophages (often shortened to phages). Bacteriophages are viruses that attack bacteria. Once she learns of the treatment, she is able to locate and get the appropriate phages for use on her husband. The treatment, along with the antibiotics, finally kill the bacteria in her husband's body.

I mention this to everyone because you may be like me and have never heard of bacteriophages and their use in treating drug-resistant bacteria. It is also not commonly known among the US medical community, although known in other parts of the world like Belgium. (She explains the reasons why in the book.) Now that you know about them, you can do your own research and then should you or someone you know contract drug-resistant bacteria, you can recommend the phage treatment to your doctor to see if it is available.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[farmerjan]

There are many treatments for different things in European countries that are unheard of or put down by "modern medicine" here. If I had been aware of the prolotherapy, PRP, and the stem cell treatments years earlier, I may have had a chance to prevent the ankle replacement and the upcoming probable knee replacements. I am looking into something developed in Australia and just now "allowed" in the US as a possible alternative to knee replacement. Suggested by a member of one of the cattle forums I frequent. Hey, look at acupuncture.... it was considered VOODOO "forever" and now is quite well accepted. Yes, I have done it and think it did help a little to reduce some pain, and if does help to calm you if you are serious about believing it helps. Poo pooing it will not allow your mind to work with your body.... but I did find that it helped my anxiety level and pain when I first started the PRP treatments. I like what I can see, so it was a hard sell for me, but at the time I first tried it, I was hurting so from the PRP treatment that I was willing to try anything. Surprising to me, the acupuncture worked the best in the beginning. I would do it again if I felt that I could get some relief. Problem is, the place I went here local for a few treatments has closed and it is a long way to go now to find someone.
And no, I NEVER FELT the slightest twinge when they were inserting the needles.....

 

[Baymule]

@ farmerjan what is this treatment you are looking into? Care to expound further on that? As a future knee replacement patient, I am very interested. I just want to be able to ride my horse without excruciating pain. Walking, eh, I stagger along, but I sooooo miss riding!

 

[rachels.haven]

My aunt moved to australia and became a citizen to be with her aussie sweetheart AND for their health care, so I don't doubt it. They fixed up her cancer and I still haven't heard of her coming stateside yet, so my guess is she likes it there. I'm sure they've got something nice going on over there.

 

[farmerjan]

The thing I have heard about is called Orthocell. One of the Aussie members of one of the cattle forums said his friend has had it (?) been treated or whatever, and that after 10 years is raising his arm above his shoulder and using it like it was never a problem. What I have been able to find out so far is that it seems to be more for the ligaments/tendons, but the website I found also mentions cartilage . It is in the process or has recently been approved by the FDA. the place I found on the internet is in Washington State.... I think. I was looking into it before the ankle replacement and honestly haven't done much about it since then. I've been pre-occupied with the house thing.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

A brief update on what is happening here at STA Farm...

Last Saturday I went to Glenwood, Ar, about 3 hours from here, to look at a Massey Ferguson 1740M cab tractor. I really liked it compared to the other tractors I had looked at and test drove. He gave me a offer that was decent, and he offered me $5000 for my old tractor as trade-in. So when I left I was leaning toward buying the tractor. But over the weekend I started rethinking the whole deal, as I currently do not have enough cash in the checking account to pay cash and don't want to take more money out of my rollover IRA to pay cash, and I didn't want to take out a loan. Plus there were two things about the tractor that gave me pause: (1) it was 40 hp, compared to 48 hp for my current tractor, and (2) the hydraulic lines for the front end loader stick out to the side, compared to my current tractor, where they are close to the tractor body. Since I often get into brush and small and large trees, I feared the hydraulic lines would get torn off.

So when Monday morning came, I went to town and started asking around for places that could overhaul my tractor. (I had done that previously with no luck.) This time, someone suggested a place that may do that. So I went there and talked to them. They said that they could do it and the price, $4500, was a lot more reasonable than the prices I had been quoted in the past -- $10-15K from the dealer as well as an independent diesel repair place in Fort Smith. So on Tuesday I took the tractor over there. They said that they would call once they got it apart and could determine how much would need to be done to repair it. So that is where things stand regarding the tractor.

Also, I was mowing using my push mower around the places that are hard to reach with the ZTR mower. I got too close to the pallet folks I have lying on the ground next to all of the other tractor implements and hit one of the forks with the mower. It immediately died. But even worse, oil started coming out fairly fast of the bottom of the engine. So yesterday I took it a mower repair shop.

I hope the tractor and mower are not signs of things to come!

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I hope you've used up your quota of bad luck for awhile!

 

[thistlebloom]

Here's hoping they can repair your tractor reasonably! It pays to hunt around for advice on repair shops. Some of them are obscure and don't need to advertise because word of mouth business is so good. It's not always what you know, it's who you know.

 

[CntryBoy777]

It will probably be cheaper to replace the push mower....Joyce is a mower killer, so I tend to get the least expensive ones cause they don't usually hang around long before they are in the condition yours are in....she killed my mulching mower just a couple of months ago...

 

[thistlebloom]

It will probably be cheaper to replace the push mower....Joyce is a mower killer, so I tend to get the least expensive ones cause they don't usually hang around long before they are in the condition yours are in....she killed my mulching mower just a couple of months ago...

I think Joyce is trying to tell you something.