OOC Sword of Valor, Wrath of the Righteous AP by MLeibrock and Scotley

Scotley · Jun 27, 2019

Leif said:
What happened to continuing? If you need an infusion of new blood, I can always make a new character.

Feel free to bring some new blood. I am serious about continuing.

Scotley · Jun 27, 2019

Lou said:
Trying to get life back to normal, if there is such a thing after 11 months of being ill with double pneumonia. My understanding of living with chronic illness has reached a new level. My cardiologist has changed my meds--he's not happy with my BP, and my blood work is moving the wrong way overall. If this change doesn't work (I'm at max dosage), he'll have to start stacking drugs. My liver likes to eat drugs, so we may just have to deal with high BP. I've lost 10 lbs recently, but I'm still, what, 30 lbs overweight. Wife and I started lifting again. I find that twice a week is what it takes to work on my overall fitness. About a month ago, I fell with a chainsaw in my hands. I managed to drop it right, but I fell left over some elevated landscape bricks with rough edges. I will have scars over my left knee from the deep scrapes. They only bled for 4 hours. I am working on my paperwork backlog. I hope to be caught up by the time school starts in the fall.

What others said is true on the stress front. If you are doing what you can with meds and exercise, stress and diet are what's left. Are you keeping your salt intake low and your potassium, magnesium and calcium high? Not everyone with hpb is sensitive to sodium. If you go super low on sodium for two weeks and your numbers don't change you don't have to worry as much about sodium. But if it does drop with greatly reduced sodium eating extra potassium and magnesium can help your body get rid of the excess sodium. Look into the DASH diet which is specifically targeted and lowering blood pressure.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-...ealthy-eating/in-depth/dash-diet/art-20048456

How much caffeine intake do you average? That can spike bp too.

There are several vitamins and supplements that have some research supporting them for lowering. My personal opinion, and I'm not a doc or a chemist, is that the reason the research is not stronger is that we all get different levels of these vitamins and minerals in our diet so when they do a study they don't control for how much of the substance in question a person has already been eating. So some people in the study benefit from adding and others who already eat plenty don't. The only way to know which ones will work for you is to try them and see what happens. The research is further compromised by the fact that there is relatively little money to be made from things that can't be patented, so there is less money to do serious research.

Some are safer than others. Potassium can be particularly effective, but also dangerous, especially in combination with some drugs. Magnesium, Calcium and CoQ10 are all fairly safe and have some research to back them up. Omega 3 oils and garlic are also promising, but they are natural blood thinners, so use with caution if you are going to keep playing with chain saws. There are several others worth looking at as well. Cocoa, green tea, B-vitamins, Vitamins E and C, Melatonin, CLA, L-Arginine, red rice yeast and even olive oil. Most of these are going to result in small improvements at best, but that may be enough.

Anyway, hope you'll get caught up enough to join us.

Lou · Jun 27, 2019

I was really surprised how stressful teaching public school is. You cannot leave the classroom, even to run to the rest room. You have a strict schedule and many small non-teaching assignments that add to the work load.

Leif · Jun 28, 2019

Scotley said:
Feel free to bring some new food. I am serious about continuing.

Oh!!! Are we due to fight some cannibals next?

I'm leaning towards playing a druid. (I'm just about to finish my second read through all of the Iron Druid books that I have been able to find since last Christmas.) How many toes will I trample with that?

Leif · Jun 28, 2019

Lou said:
The wife wants me to inactivate my law license. I'm resisting. One of my buddies was just elected President-Elect of the State Bar. I may be asked to serve on a committee.

Based on my experience with committees of the Arkansas Bar Association, such service is a joke and not worth your time. There are a few committees that do some helpful work, but mostly it's stuff like planning next year's bar association convention and crap like that. And even if you do helpful work, you're not likely to be paid for it.

MetaVoid · Jun 28, 2019

Leif said:
Oh!!! Are we due to fight some cannibals next?

I'm leaning towards playing a druid. (I'm just about to finish my second read through all of the Iron Druid books that I have been able to find since last Christmas.) How many toes will I trample with that?

No problem with the druid

Scott DeWar · Jun 30, 2019

Lou said:
Trying to get life back to normal, if there is such a thing after 11 months of being ill with double pneumonia.

OMG! Dude, that was one of the many things I battled in 2011! I still have the trach scar when I was on a ventilator!!

MetaVoid said:
.. .. .. .. .. I'm glad you got better from pneumonia (what is double pneumonia?!) - .. .. .. .. ..

that is pneumonia bacterium in both lungs. It is so bad because of just how much fluid builds/ how little O2 is taken in.

Leif · Jun 30, 2019

Ok, Scotley, I looked at the RG to refresh my memory somewhat. I guess I can probably find everything I need to make a Druid there and in the old Recruiting thread. Actually, my old character could be made very playable with some minor changes, but I don't know, I think I'd still rather try-out the Druid, although a druid seems just about as out-of-place in this game as a sorcerer. I was thinking about a druid whose defense of nature makes him seek out and destroy aberrations and monsters from the lower planes. I don't have a lot of specific plans or ideas yet, but I'm willing to consider suggestions, but I may not follow them all, or, heck, any of them.

Leif · Jun 30, 2019

Hang in there [MENTION=51567]Lou[/MENTION]. When I had my pneumonia, it was secondary or even tertiary to my other injuries. And I didn't even know I had it because I was in a coma. So it's not really fair that I didn't suffer with it at all. But you can beat this thing.