Text 10742, 120 rader
Skriven 2008-07-18 13:11:40 av Janis Kracht (1:261/38)
  Kommentar till text 10727 av Nancy Backus (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: summer gardens in ny
============================
Hi Nancy!

>> leg which is outrageous only in that a drug that was supposed to stop
>> spasticity in my legs made everything else about 100X worse.. Oh well..
>> it's the third or fourth one they've tried on me, and they all do the
>> same type thing - it's just this one was the worst!  But it's how they
>> work.. they make your muscles weak to stop the spasticity.. too bad you
>> can't walk like that (bg).[...]

> My friend who has CP has spasticity problems, too...  At one point they
> were prescribing Flexeril for her... that mostly just made everything
> limp and even less controllable.

That sounds about right.. so far they've tried Baclofen, xanafex (pretty nasty
one too) and this last lovely one, Topamax.. Baclofen was the least nasty but
constipated me so badly it was ridiculous.  I got the sense he knew the topamax
might be trouble since when I told him what was going on, and he saw how I
walked in.. he said, 'get off it if you're not tolerating it well' .. I said,
no kidding haha..

> Thankfully she's off that now.  She

Yes, I've heard that flexoril is another nasty one.. never had that one though.
I sure am not going to mention it to him (bg)

> still takes Neurontin and Valium for the spasms... they seem to work for
> her, and we've been tapering down the latter a bit lately.

Yes, Neurontin is another one of those 'treat everything' drugs.. they give it
so many people for so many things.  Glad her doc is tapering down the valium..
it can be trouble or was for me. The docs early on precribed that and antivert
for the vertigo I get (the antivert can't work when you're tense about seeing
everything 'normally', but sensing that it's upside down :) I got addicted to
the valium, but once I found I was addicted to it, I took myself off it -
slowly..  It was actually my aunt also a nurse like my mom, who said to me,
"you're addicted to this, get off it".. and she was right.  Sometimes it takes
a further eye than a close relative or yourself to see those things :)

So as far as the spasticity goes, I'm just upping the vitamins and aspirin and
some re-started some health-store supplements that have helped me in the past
like Evening Primrose Oil, and Spirulina. They've helped in the past.

>> the NEXT year..  Oh well.. :) Finally though, we decided to move back
>> to NY - it was the best decision given the way the heat was getting to
>> me in Louisville. That turned out worse for me, than the allergies.

> My cousin-in-law had severe food allergies (I think maybe they aren't as
> bad anymore, BICBW)... He and my cousin found that he could eat only one
> or two foods for months at a time, and then he'd get allergic to those

They can come back with a passion.. they did for my daughter.  Now though since
she's taken dairy out completely she doesn't seem to have as much of a problem
with them. But in general, that's how it was for my daughter as well when she
was young.. she had allergies to just about all foods and dairy. She could
tolerate them if I didn't give them to her every day.  I knew there were some
safe foods, so we'd trade off on those every couple days (she couldn't go a
month, though).  She was drinking soy formula for milk until she went to
kindergarten - Finally when she went to school, I'd give her a thermos of cow's
milk diluted with water about 1:2. It was funny one day when the principal of
her school took me aside in the lunch room.. "Mrs. K, please tell us if you are
having trouble affording milk for your children, we can help!' All of the
teachers Sisters of Charity at her school - I had to explain, that no, my
daughter's diluted milk was for her health, not for $$ :) :)  They were really
neat sisters though :)

> and would have to rotate to a couple of other foods for a while... and
> so on...

I have a feeling my daughter still does that - but I'm not sure.  It would make
sense.

> I snipped a lot of lovely conversation about gardens... it was making me
> jealous!  (G)   If only I had the time, energy AND useable space for a
> garden... but, alas, I haven't any of the three...  ;(

I can undersand that one - it can be rough trying to find the time to do get a
garden going.. sometimes you're better off finding a good vegetable stand or
farmer's market and buying them there :)

>   Some years ago,
> I tried tomatoes in cages in front of the line of peonies along the
> driveway, but they were only so-so, and only became less productive each
> succeeding year.  Had rhubarb once, too... but I guess it wasn't quite
> enough of a weed to survive me...  (The friend who gave it to me from
> her garden described them as practically weeds... -g- )

hehe.. :)  Ok, if you want to use the same spot for your vegetables of any
kind, you need to either add to the soil about every 2nd or third year, and
rotate the kinds of plants you're planting... The pests don't notice the plants
the first year (most likely), but they will the second year.. and by the third
year, the dirt is mostly depleted of nutrients, and the pests would have
decided this spot is a haven <vbg>.  Most gardeners probably wouldn't leave the
veg. in the same spot for 2 years in a row.. I don't.  I move them from bed to
bed, and I add new soil and peat moss about every three  or four years.  Now
obviously you can't rotate where you put them, but you can add to the soil and
that will help.

How big is the spot where you are planting the tomatoes?  like 2'X2', etc?
Whatever it is, this fall go to your local farm supply store like Agway, or
even Loews hardware store.. get a  bag of top soil (I'm figuring your spot is
small) and if you can find a small bag of peat moss, that would be great..
sadly most peatmoss is sold in huge bundles that would be too big for your
small area but I've seen small bags too. Dig up the place this fall where the
tomatoes were and dump that soil and peat moss on it.. if you can dig it in
with a shovel, that's best (grin). In the spring, plant your tomatoes with some
plant food and you should have tons of tomatoes :)  This would be good for at
least 3 years if you remember to give the plants plant food every year when you
plant them.. then in three or four years, you would probably want to add more
peat moss at least in the fall again, possibly more top soil. :)

The nice thing is, if you can get to the dirt stuff in the fall perhaps when
you have a slow moment in life, and the spot is all ready in the spring, then
you can just buy some tomato plants in the spring and stick them in it with
some plant food.. much less time consuming than dealing with seeds, etc.

Take care,
Janis

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