Hey Thipper!  Your troubles make mine look like a cakewalk.  I'm thinking
that you shouldn't wait until November to see your Doc.  It could be
something that makes a big difference if you get in sooner.  Like staying
out of the hospital.  Tell them you have severe abdominal pain.  

On a lighter note, I dug up a few of my own spuds today, just a small
patch of red ones, but the homegrown ones always taste better.  I will
toss them in olive oil with salt and pepper and roast them.  The weather
has turned cool enough to crank up the oven now, which I love.  There was
a skiff of snow on the high mountains outside my window last weekend! Its
one of my favorite sites of the year, that first snowfall.  The winters
here are brutal cold and gray, though,  but that will come later.  I'll
tell you all about it.  I'll also tell you about how we have to move into
the woodshop  when the power goes out because a snowstorm will take out
the neighbors tree which will take out our power line and the woodshop
will be the only warm place because it has an itty bitty woodstove.  We
will be burning my husbands projects.  I got out the Coleman stove and
lantern last weekend and cleaned them up.  I told my husband that all this
is going to happen, but he doesn't get it.  Call it a Ribavirin
premonition.

I have also been cleaning the garage, slowly.  I've been a packrat for
years - of "collectible" junk and am now getting alot of satisfaction from
hauling stuff down to the auction house for the annual antique auction.
This HCV Turning Point in my life has made me realize that I really dont
want all this Stuff and I long for simplicity.  "Thou shalt not cling".
At least some of it is worth a couple bucks.

Can you start the soc sec disability process?  I am just starting it.  I
feel like I have so many impairments that I could argue that the only
productive thing  i can do is wiggle my fingers and toes.  I've looked at
enough lit to know that this is going to be a long uphill battle that may
take years.  If I croak along the way, at least my husband will be
entitled to some fraction of the payout, and that is very important to me.
I do NOT, however, plan to croak any time soon.  I plan to live
substantially more years, hopefully collecting disability and not being a
financial burden on my husband.
I am still lacking the technology to get photos into an online format, but
when I do I will post some pictures of stuff in my life.  Not from ego, but
because I get such a kick out of seeing pics from others' in the newsgroup,
so they might get a kick out of seeing mine.  I don't know about posting a
picture of myself - this is such a small town so I'm thinking to stay
anonymous for a while.  The whole state has less than a million people.

I'm still on tx.  Approximately week 29.  I convinced my Doc to let me
stay with it after talking to the endocrinologist about my wild thyroid
numbers, and getting the Neupogen prescription fast.  I didn't expect it,
but I think the Neupogen is actually making me feel quite a bit better,
and less depressed.  Odd.  It does cause bone pain, but hey, who cares
about a little bone pain?

So that's the spud report from montana.  I'm cranky with the newsgroup,
but i'll get back to posting soon.  This will be a busy week for me - two
doc appointments and an appearance at the SSDI office
As Juanita would say, Call yo doctor.
Hugs and hearts for you, brave Lady
Kathy