Predisione

Mrsmop - it doesn't rain inside...

Tills - I don't iron the bottom sheet (they're stretchy ones) but I do have to iron my duvet covers as they are pure cotton of the cheap variety but I love them. However - only have 2 single size ones! Doubles are an invention of the devil and by having 2 x single he can't steal mine anyway... ;-) It all started 20 years ago when he had cancer - he was frozen in a very hot July. The easy answer was one winter, one summer duvet - and so it remained.

You're making excellent progess!

I just want to second what Tilly said about the great information with the wonderful humour thrown in. I love the English expressions. I'm a Grandma now myself but my Grandma was English and some of the conversation sounds just like her.

Eileen such good advice about accepting that we are not always feeling well and that we must listen to our bodies. When we don't we often pay for it dearly. I am so lucky to have a healthy and understanding husband who helps out. I have trouble sleeping and when I get so tired I can't stand myself I do take a sleeping pill. I am careful not to take them too often.

I also feel fortunate that I can navigate the internet and found out about PMR and asked my Dr. About it. She first suggested I take anti inflammatories but when that didn't work after a week decided to let me try prednisone because I was in horrible pain and could barely move. My first symptoms were in Nov 2012. I am now down to 4mg. My GP, although I love her for starting me on the pred. had me reduce too quickly so had some problems. At that point I had my appt. with my Rhuemy and he had me start again at 20mg and reduce 2.5mg at a time till I got to 5 and had a few minor flares. He wants me to stay on the samedose for 2 months, alternate using dose 1mg lower & old dose for one month then go to lower dose for 2 months and on we go. Since I don't seem to be as sensitive to lowering my dose I'm going to try it because we are going away for 2 or 3 months and it's a little easier to follow than the method Eileen gave us (although I definitely think that is abetter way to go). Will let you know how that works, lol

Eileen, where do you live that it is dusty? "Dusty" makes me thinkof somewhere hot...

Ms Mac,

Pay attention now.

It is dusty 'cos she doesn't dust!!! LOL.

Tilly

Seriously Mrs Mac,

You are quite right about the support and information we get here.

We are so fortunate to have this site as we would be even further up the creek if we had to rely on our doctors - wonderful though some of them are- to impart enough information about PMR in the seven minutes they have for a consultation.

Best advice? Don't dust!

I live part way up a mountain the north of Italy :-) I'd give you a link but that's just complicated on here so just google kronplatz south tirol - the dot com site is about the best. There is an English version, loads of photos and info. I live at the foot of the mountain on the north side.

It is usually very dry - air humidity of below 40 per cent except when it snows in winter and we don't get much rain most of the summer - and as soon as it stops the sun comes out and in a couple of days: dust! It's better than it's been since our flats were built 8 years ago, they have FINALLY replaced the dirt track across the meadows with a proper tarmacked road.

Oh Eileen,

I have just Googled Kronplatz and it looks so beautiful. What a lucky lady you are to live in such a picturesque place.

Apologies for the terrible joke about dust! LOL.

Tilly

I am lucky - and grateful every day of life that we were able to do it! It's like living in the UK 40 years ago but with all mod cons!

You were right though! The flat is dusty 'cos I don't dust - but I don't care until the dust bunnies appear ;-) Then I do something. That's a downside of not having carpets in one way - but when you see the dust that accumulates you wonder what was hiding in those carpets :-(

Staying off subject here a bit, but in what way is Kronplatz like living in the UK 40 years ago... could you share?

I'm in India right now and I'd say the same about that – more like 60 years ago – but it never occurred to me that Europe could also be.

And how does Italy have such a German name? You must be close to the Austrian border perhaps?

The people are less rushed, less possession-orientated, generally more laid back. There are still elderly people living in their family homes with kitchens from the 50s/60s. It isn't assumed to be essential to be totally high tech - there is plenty of technology but although everyone nearly has a mobile phone only young ones have smartphones. It's helped by household electricity supplies being charged according to power - if you chose to manage with a lower power its cheaper. I can't run the electric kettle and my hairdryer or iron at the same time, it flips the fuse! Our village of 1500 souls has a baker, a butcher, a doctor, a post office, two banks and 3 restaurants! And the medical services work!

It is changing - but relatively slowly. Much is still undertaken by Vereine - the clubs who provide part of the ambulance service and fire service as well as a lot of other things.

The South Tirol region was north of the front in the First World war, it ran through the middle of our mountains. It was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, the naughty boys blamed for starting WWI. At the end the Italians claimed they didn't know whether the ceasefire was at midnight last night or midnight tonight - and very cleverly kept going until they arrived in Innsbruck. Subsequently the Italian border was decided to be at the top of the Brenner Pass, south of Innsbruck.

At the Versailles conference the Allies rewarded Italy by handing over South Tirol to their jurisdiction and a region of Germanic people was taken over by Fascist Italy - as it was becoming. German was proscribed, people from the north sent to Sicily as soldiers, the police replaced by southern Italians so they'd eradicate the "foreigners" who didn't speak and didn't want to speak German. It laid part of the reason for WWII. Then Hitler put his oar in - many Germanic South Tiroleans were sent off to war for Hitler - not that they wanted that either. The mess got even bigger in many ways.

In the 50s and 60s nationalists fought like Eta in Spain, the IRA in Ireland, to be given their autonomy - many would still actually like to be part of Austria - they never killed people though - they bombed things to make life difficult for the Italians. They simply don't feel Italian - the region has much that is good of Italy with the orderliness of the Germanics and the locals here work VERY hard. They are desperately waiting for Scotland to get independence - then they will sue for it too! Here where I live there are fewer than 10% who claim Italian as their mother tongue. The rest are German or Ladin speaking. Further south there are more Italian speakers but they are overall a minority. Italian holidaymakers get very stroppy at how many people here speak no Italian - I understand and speak more than many locals and my Italian is rubbish!

We live here because we are fluent German speakers - and German is as much an official language here as Italian - easy peasy for us. We lived in Germany for 10 years when the children were small - we are all fluent - but when we retired we didn't want to go back to Germany, it changed so much after the Wall came down. And the weather is MUCH better here!

So there you are - a potted and very inadequate modern history of Suedtirol! But it s lovely holiday destination all year round if you can't manage to live here :-)

Eileen

I had just written a potted history of South Tirol - the site claims I'd included something I shouldn't have like a link. I assume there was a full stop I missed putting a space after! Last time it was because I had written a word the computer picked up as naughty! It will arrive eventually.

Moderators - is there any way you can give us the facility to check a post you decide to reject? There is no post-posting edit facility for the writer - this is the only forum I use where this is missing. Had I had a warning there was something dodgy I'd have looked at it more closely.

Eileen

Hi Eileen,

Sorry about that, post now approved. There are changes coming to the forums which will help with this. In this case it wasn't the full stop issue but the rules to try and stop spammers posting as per the PM I sent you last time this happened. It is difficult to get the balance right to stop spammers while not reporting real posts which will happen on the odd occasion but there will be changes to improve on this.

I will let you know more about these changes when they are finalised.

Regards,

Alan

Eileen,

I am so pleased that your post arrived - eventually - as it is a fascinating insight into life in Suedtirol. Thank you for taking the time to write it.

Life sounds as though it goes at the pace I move at just now! LOL.

Tilly

Not entirely slow - it still leaves me behind at times! Mainly the ski season. This year the weather has been rubbish so, although I did get the gear out, I didn't go. Next year - provided the weather is good enough to see the view. I only ski in sun and water skiing isn't my metier...

Alan,

It blows my mind that there are some who have lives so narrow and pathetic that they could be bothered to spam on a medical forum which simply tries to help those who are ill.

I know that there are some weirdoes out there but it beggars belief that they would target this forum.

Sad . . .

Tilly

Some pose as patients. One forum has had to ban a few who had such narrow agendas about woo therapies or their beliefs about PMR/GCA that you can only wonder about their personalities. That forum has some amazing admin who dispose of the viagra staff long before I as a moderator am up in the morning to see it! Sometimes I feel cheated... ;-)