Friday Fun Question

[DonnaBoll]

Anyone still keep in contact with a best friend from school?

[nan1012]

I have been in touch for awhile with one of my closest friends from school on Facebook. I live in Arkansas, where we grew up, she is in California. In late March she and her younger sister came to our town and visited for several days. Another friend from nearby in Memphis, Tennessee was able to join us one day, and a couple of days later we all met for lunch in Memphis. It was wonderful!! We talked for hours catching up and got in plenty of hugs and laughter. What a blessing!!

[DonnaBoll Administrator in reply to nan1012]

What a wonderful reply to my question! You are blessed indeed - and I have no doubt you all feel the same way. My best friend from high school and nursing school ( some 60 years ago ) lives in Munich. We chat every single day with each other thru messenger. I'm not sure if I've already asked you this or not..... I have a good friend who lives in Fayetteville. Any where close to you? I love when you meet someone you haven't seen in awhile and you just seem to pick up the conversation.

[chrisj]

Didn't have many friends and the one I thought might be a long life one didn't want to know when were teenagers. Met up years later down the line but it wasn't the same we both had families by then.

My mother said the friends I did know were fair weather friends, they moved on when something better came along. I stopped trusting people so no, no friends from school or anywhere else for that matter. You might say I'm friendless.

[DonnaBoll Administrator in reply to chrisj]

Chris, this makes me so sad to read this. Having even one person who you can tell anything to can be such a wonderful part of our lives. I hope you feel some of us are friends with you. Can I ask where you live? I have friends I've made thru my other support group that might just live near you. Please feel free to reach out anytime to me - even in a private 'chat'.

[chrisj in reply to DonnaBoll]

Hi Donna. I'm so sorry I don't think my reply was a good idea having seen this was a fun friday post.

I'm in Sheffield and for a while met up with a group once a month for a meal. Since then the lady that organised it has been poorly, eventually the meet was cancelled. Most of the ladies don't live here and they seemed happy to cancel....as far as I know.

[DonnaBoll Administrator in reply to chrisj]

Don't ever apologize for sharing anything. Do you belong to The PBC Foundation and receive the Bear Facts newsletter? That has all the meetings/events in the area.

[chrisj in reply to DonnaBoll]

No I'm not familiar with that

[DonnaBoll Administrator in reply to chrisj]

Your reply of no I take that to mean you don't belong to The PBC Foundation. Please join! It's free.They have so much to offer in the way of education, research, and events they hold every week with experts. The Bear Facts is a newsletter members get that has all the events of local areas there in the UK. Reaching out to just one person can change your life. Take the time to look thru their website as well - so much there.

pbdfoundation.org.uk

[chrisj in reply to DonnaBoll]

Thanks. I've seen the name bandied about in here but I don't really know what PBC stands for.

I've used google mostly and various medical web sites for information about the health problems I've had for such a long time and thats been very useful.

I'll check the "Bear Facts" although I'm not sure what that is either, I googled it and nothing made much sense. I'm just a tired 77 year old who's experience of friendship hasn't ben a good one.

[DonnaBoll Administrator in reply to chrisj]

First of all, I too am a tired 74 year old. We have to stick together. 😊 Thank you for admitting what likely others don't know either. PBC stands for Primary Biliary (of the bile ducts) Cholangitis (inflammation).PBC is a disease that causes inflammation and often damage to the bile ducts that carry bile made by our body to the liver. When the bile ducts aren't 'heathy', the liver doesn't function as well either. In the search bar of your computer just type in pbcfoundation.org.uk This will take you to their website. Take your time. Look at just a few of what's there at a time. You will see where it says 'join'. Click there. When you join the PBC Foundation you should start receiving their newsletter called The Bear Facts. I am so glad you answered back, Chris. Please know you can ask anything here anytime. You are also welcome to reach out to me thru a private 'chat' - up in the right hand corner of the page. First thing is to join The PBC Foundation. If you have trouble, PLEASE just ask. Thank you again for being brave enough to ask about what you don't know or understand.

[chrisj]

Thanks for the link Donna and a better understanding of the illness. I see its another autoimmune one🤒 and a liver problem. Its a very good site.

I'm not diagnosed with it but a blood test some time ago showed an "overactive" liver...again never heard of such a thing and I was prescribed folic acid for a while . Itching was a bit of a problem, still is at times but nothing has shown up in bloods since then.

So much to learn for people with conditions associated with the immune system. I haven't joined yet as SLE, Sjogrens, asthma and OA are the things I'm diagnosed with.

[DonnaBoll Administrator in reply to chrisj]

Chris, have you had your liver enzymes drawn? Were they elevated? specifically the result of the alk phos being elevated....

[chrisj in reply to DonnaBoll]

Hi Donna....not that I know of. No ones suggested anything other than an overactive liver. I took the folic acids for about a month and that was that. I don't ask a lot of questions in appointments, I tend to come home and search on the net. Had to google "liver enzymes drawn" which is a blood test.

It was bloods for other things that showed the overactive problem I assume once the folic acid supplement was done that was it, I heard no more about it. I looked for the paperwork at home but can't find it.

[DonnaBoll Administrator in reply to chrisj]

I'm not really sure what an 'overactive liver' means. I would strongly suggest that you at least get a liver panel blood test drawn just to make sure none of your liver enzymes are elevated. The itching can happen to someone who does have elevated liver enzymes. I would hate to think he is missing something, especially in view of your having other autoimmune diseases. When you feel it's the right time for you, please consider joining some of the support groups for these health conditions. It might be helpful to know others who have similar issues. If you do 'google' for any of these conditions, please use reputable websites like Sjogrens Foundation, Arthritis Foundation, American Liver Foundation. Do you belong to The PBC Foundation? I might have already asked you that... pbcfoundation.org.uk It's free. They have so much to offer in the way of support, education, and events. Please consider having that liver panel lab work drawn just to use as a baseline for any future lab work that might done. Let me know if I can do anything else to help .....

[Zippydoodah]

The headmaster... Still bossy

[DonnaBoll Administrator in reply to Zippydoodah]

some folks never change,I guess....