u/cecirdr

I got another email inviting me to create a “my social security” account. This is only 2 days after the original email wanting me to check my social security statement to stay up to date on my account balance.

Given how others on here got the first email too, I bet y’all got this second one also.

I hate that I can’t trust my government any more.

In the past I would have been happy to click on socialsecurity.gov. I’ve checked my account in the past so I could see my expected benefits. But now…eh…um…I don’t feel like I can trust government agencies anymore.

Am I being paranoid?

I’m 98% sure I’m going to get the Pirelli P Zero AS Plus 3. I currently have the PZero summer on my staggered m60. I’ve gotten 15.5k miles, but they’re getting down to the minimum. The all season look to be basically the same except maybe I’ll get a few more miles out of them than the stock summer tires.

Anyway, I thought about just taking them to Walmart for the install, but I wanted to make sure there’s nothing unique about an EV that could trip up tire installation and balancing.

Who installed your replacement tires?

I guess I’m remembering wrong. I thought there used to be more options for low calorie protein powder. The black appears to be a meal. Am I missing something? I only see three flavors, brownie, vanilla and strawberry.

I’m in the US if that makes a difference.

How much soluble fiber is in Huel protein bars, hot and savory meals and the protein powders...on average?

I have late onset esotropia that started when I was around 40. I'm 61 now and in the last 5 years, it's finally stabilized enough that I'm considering surgery. My doctor considers me a strong candidate to achieve fusion since I used to have fused vision in the past.

So for the other folks here with later onset strabismus, did you regain fused vision? Do you have binocular vision/depth perception now? How long post-surgery are you?

I’ve only used this for a couple of weeks. Today was my third patch and today was yet another mangled attempt to get the backing off.

I thought I was so clever. I got one side off and put it barely back on a small section off to the side. Then I got the other side completely off. woohoo! I thought this time it was going to work. Why wouldn’t it. Both plastic sides had come off once.

I applied the patch and went to get the last little bit off. Nope. It wouldn’t budge. I pulled, tugged, tried to bend it so it would release again. Nothing worked. It was now stretched out

I had to pull the patch off and try to get the backing removed. Nothing worked. I had to cut it off. I lost about 25% of the patch. What I did get on has a big stretched area. I don’t see this patch making it a week. The stretched area is not sticking well. Plus, the entire patch was reapplied.

This things are too danged expensive to throw away! I think in the future I’ll just pull both sides off before applying. Fingers be damned. I’ll hold it carefully. I stick it on my upper buttock, that is not the area to have a fight over adhesive from hell.

Rant off.

I’m starting climara pro as an adjunct to osteoporosis treatment. I’ve been over the terrible symptoms I went through during perimenopause and menopause. So I haven’t had hot flashes and heart palpitations for years.

I am on meds for anxiety (escitalopram), restless leg (pregabalin) and high cholesterol (atorvastatin). My weight is good (I’d love to lose 3-5 more pounds though) blood pressure and blood sugar are good too.

Maybe many of my issues are due to menopause. But as you can see, my doc opted to medicate me. All those meds are cheap and they’ve worked. I’m bummed that if I’d started HRT sooner, I might never have needed them and I might not have osteoporosis now.

That’s it for my wall of text. So I was wondering what I might expect from HRT other than helping with my osteoporosis somewhat? I started only a week ago and it made me bloat up instantly 6 pounds or so. I’m not liking that, so I’m weighting the cost/benefit for continuing.

So to those who started HRT later and are taking both estrogen and progesterone, what benefits did you see? What side effects and how long did those last?

Thx!

I'm 70% certain that a monofocal IOL would be best, but I want to do a bit more research since I have my first appointment June 4th. I have plenty of time to consider my options.

While I'd love to ditch glasses, I'm totally ok with continuing to have them. I really want to retain superb near focus ability for crafting hobbies that I hold close to my face to be able to see small details. It's not just sharpness I'm going for, it's the ability to have a large enough image size for the details to be relatively big, not just in focus.

So, with that being said, once you get used to the notion of a trifocal being inside your eye, how large are the focus zones? What I mean by that is if you're holding a cross stitch pattern 8 inches away from your face, do you see the full 6 inch hoop area in focus or just a band across the image?

I currently wear bifocals. When I look through the reading zone, I have a large area that is in focus. I see the distance zone out of focus above it, but the in focus area is still plenty large enough for a big working area.

Also, have you adapted to night halos? Do you find the loss of contrast in lower light/dusk to bother you?

Thx!

I’ve been post menopausal for approx 8 years. I just started climara pro as an adjunct for osteoporosis treatment. I still have my ovaries and uterus.

If you started well after menopause and particularly if you use climara pro, I’d love to hear if you had side effects or not, what they were and how long they lasted.

Thx!

Let me elaborate a bit. I'm 85% sure I'd like to get monofocal lenses because acuity and contrast are that important to me. I actually don't mind wearing glasses since I've been myopic since kindergarten. I spoke to an ophthalmologist and he was loathe to use monofocals "worse" than -2 and he really prefers plano with patients getting reading glasses for anything else.

So let's say that I go with plano. Can I see my shampoo bottle in the shower? See to shave my legs? I work in IT, so I code using multiple monitors for nearly 10 hours a day. Will I see crisply at 18-20 inches away? If I'm settling in to do cross stitch, talk to my spouse and watch TV in the evening, can I have bifocals with enough reading correction to let me hold the fabric where I prefer which is 8 inches away? (and with a magnifier...yeah, I like *really* close up work).

My current vision is -7.25 and -5.5. I use that myopia as my "superpower" to really dig into details when stitching. If I can't hold things really close and see those details, I think I'd be upset.

I was leaning toward -2.5 for my IOL and getting bifocals with blanks at the appropriate spot for driving or close up work. I figure I'd need pretty strong reading lenses to "return me to the myopia" that I prefer for close work. If I get better distance vision, that level of reader might not be easily possible. Is my calculus correct or am I misunderstanding things? I tried to ask these questions of my doc, but he was in too big a hurry and seemed to be giving me glib answers. (I've made an appt with a different doctor. I'm just not comfortable with the first one I went to)

Thx for any info!

So far, all I've been offered is alendronate or reclast for my osteo. I'm not bad. My lumbar spine is -2.7 and hip and femur are -2.1.

I'm not keen on the drugs that stop all osteoclast activity with bisphosphonates because the stay in your bones for years. It just seems like it makes your bones basically "dead". There's no new bone being built because that requires a signal from osteoclasts for osteoblasts to activate. I'd much rather have an anabolic builder like forteo or evenity, but insurance may not allow it for me. (I'm going to try to pull any levers that I can, I am small with low BMI and I've had a non-union fracture many years ago).

Anyway, I'm considering requesting to get on HRT, take up weight lifting (LIFTMOR), do jumps, and make sure to have enough protein, calcium, K2/D3 etc. Would I be short changing myself if I go that route and opt to not use alendronate?

Edit to add age. I'm 61. Post menopause for about 8 years.

I ended up in a cataract surgeon’s office because my strabismus surgeon said I needed to take care of any cataracts first. So he set me up inthe same hospital system as him, but the initial appt is 4 months out and the next strabismus appt is 5 months out. The timing didn’t look good to not have a delay. So off I go to try to find a cataract doc in my hometown.

During my appt today, I felt rushed and dismissed. I mentioned that I have spent my lifetime focusing super close and that my goal is acuity. So I felt I needed to stay near sighted at about -2.5. He said he doesn’t like to do worse than -2. I also said that I didn’t feel like I could handle reading in my lap since I spent a lifetime reading much closer. He replied “yes you will. That where things will be in focus”. It was as if I was taking to a wall!

So I’ve spent money on the strabismus doc only to have to go back in early October to another appt. It’s as if the first one didn’t count. Now I’m out the money for this appt. Excuse I feel like it need to try to find another doc for my cataracts.

I feel despondent. I’m just spinning my wheels. Don’t even get me started on the insurance stuff I’m dealing with for my osteoporosis diagnosis a coupe of weeks ago!

There’s nothing to say really. I just needed to vent into the internet void. Sigh…

I just got diagnosed with osteoporosis. I'm 61 and have probably been post menopausal for 8 years. Back when I was perimenopausal and suffering from crazy bleeding, insomnia, anxiety, hot flashes, and racing heart I was told, that I didn't need HRT. It would all stop soon. I told my doc that I could hardly work because the insomnia was so bad that I literally got just a few decent nights of sleep in a month. No go, he wouldn't prescribe it.

Later, at menopause, I asked because my sisters were getting bio-identical hormones. I was told no because I hadn't had children. More time goes by, I move and get a new doc. She never even suggests HRT. So here I am now...8 years after menopause. I'm on anxiety meds, atorvastatin for cholesterol, pregabalin for restless leg syndrome and now I'm trying to advocate for myself to get generic forteo for bone density treatment.

My sisters...no osteoporosis. I'm peeved. Why didn't my doc even suggest HRT instead of letting my anxiety, lipids, and bones have problems first? (not to mention my massive increase in restless leg syndrome so much so that she's put me on pregabalin...that I'm now physically addicted to!)

Now she just wants to put me on alendronate. Yeah, it's the easy first line treatment for osteoporosis, but there are issues with bisphosphonates muting responses to forteo if the Fosamax doesn't work. It's as if I'm talking to a wall. No one seems even the least bit concerned about doing the best for their patient, it's all about checking off boxes. She's unwilling to even *try* to champion for my health with my insurance company.

I'm hoping another doctor will champion for my health and be willing to try to convince insurance that I could qualify for forteo and HRT (former non-union fracture in my past). I live in AL, so that's probably the most I can hope for, but maybe, just maybe, if I need some testosterone, I can luck into finding here there too. I'm giving it my best shot....fighting the good fight. But it's hard to "fight" if you didn't even know you were supposed to.

Thank you for attending my rant.

I'm 61 and I have a t score of -2.7 in my lumbar spine and 2.1 in my hip and femoral head. I was hoping that I could start on the generic forteo first, then reclast to lock things in. But my doc gave me a scrip for alendronate and says that I don't qualify for forteo.

Am I misreading the studies? It seems like shutting down osteoclasts for years can be a problem if you need to take anabolic bone builders later because you didn't gain bone density on alendronate/fosamax. It causes you to not respond well to forteo/teriparatide. So the "proper" cycle is teriparatide first, then reclast later. Then take a break and see if you need to do anything else to maintain your gains.

I have BCBS (I'm in the US). Is this "reverso" method really the way we have to do things or should I be more assertive? I've contacted BCBS, but all they say is that teriparatide is authorized and part of their formulary, but they won't speak to what's required to qualify for it.

-2.7 in lumbar spine, -2.1 in femoral neck and total hip.

I'm going to be starting alendronate 1x per week.

I'm 61 and female. Up until a year and a half ago, I lifted weights and used an exercise bike 3-4x per week for about 9 years. Can one lose bone density that fast?

None of my doctors ever wanted to start me on HRT. So what's done is done. How fast can alendronate get my bone density back up? I guess I'll have to be on something for life? Or can certain exercises help me keep the density up once it's back to a certain point?

In the last few days, the app is snapping to the bottom or top of a page. In the main homepage feed, it’ll suddenly snap back to the top of the feed. When reading comments, it’ll snap to the bottom. In both cases, I have to manually scroll back to where I was reading and hope it doesn’t happen again.

Just an fyi. I hope the behavior is fixed soon. It’s frustrating enough to make me not want to use the app or read Reddit at all.