There is a strange ritual that I find with fellow Crohnies, that I have not witnessed in other contexts. This isn't to say that it doesn't happen in other places, but I find it's often the second or third question that we ask each other upon finding that commonality is some variant of "what medications are you taking?"
It is weird. I can't think of many other contexts where a disease or condition is revealed and that is part of the conversation almost immediately, outside of a medical environment, of course. But we do that. Even with other folks with ostomies, what system/brand/products do you use tends to be a fair bit lower down the list of priority in the conversation. There's a curiosity quotient out there for others suffering silently with the same disease. Everyone's Crohn's or ulcerative colitis is unique to them, with what foods and situations their body is sensitive to, but that is a place where we tend to come together nicely, where it's easy to compare notes and get a few small ideas as to other options that might be out there for ourselves.
Here's a big thing to understand about Crohn's: there is no cure. But there are ways to become asymptomatic. This is something that I have alluded to before, though it is worth stating plainly. Crohn's is a chronic disease. It is never cured. Symptoms are at their worst when we are in flare-up state, where, per the name, inflammation is high, thus driving a lot of symptoms in the body. However, a flare-up can be calmed, putting the body back into remission where there are comparatively few symptoms. How difficult it is to bring a flare-up to heel depends on the flare-up--how deep does it go? How long has it been going? What areas is it affecting? In any case, one does not go from hardcore flare-up to remission in a week. It is possible to curb a flare-up before it gets too terrible. That question of when another flare-up will happen is always over my head. Always.
What causes a flare-up?
Great question. Glad you asked. In order to find treatment, it's good to have an idea of what can cause the problem in trying to better it. There are a number of different things that can contribute, but no magic switch that I can strategically avoid. Too much stress could do it. Alcohol could do it. Certain foods could trigger it. NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) can cause a number of issues--ibuprofen is anti-inflammatory everywhere EXCEPT your gut, where it can cause a significant range of digestive issues. Smoking can definitely cause it (lots of documentation on that one). But what foods and how much alcohol and how much stress? It is different by person, but there are some common threads that are bordering on consensus territory.
That stress point. It's a terrible cycle to have your inner critic demanding that you stop stressing because it might make everything else worse by having your body collapse in the middle of whatever the original stressor was. Initially, I totally went the bottling, denial route, putting aside a great number of things that need processing. I remember very clearly my father telling me one night in the bathroom to get angry, that he didn't want me to be happy if I wasn't, but to then channel that anger into getting better or, in other words, packaging it so I could let it go. That's been a process, to have enough self-compassion to allow myself to feel what I need to feel in the moment, rather than insist that I shouldn't feel something in the misguided idea of preventing my body from disease. It's a protective impulse; it is also fully counterproductive. I'm not great at asking for external compassion, but at least I have better tools to give some of it to myself.
So what are some different treatments for Crohn's?
There's a great deal that are about managing symptoms. For example, if you've had diarrhea, some Imodium and possibly some wet bathroom wipes, Epsom salt baths, or Desitin/Calmoseptine on that raw anus can help quite a bit. Whatever helps you when you feel nauseous, when you have a stomachache, if you have sores in your mouth, etc. falls into this camp. Getting more rest and reigning in your stress are only going to help. But that is symptom management.
There are a few major classes of treatment, including steroids, biologics, immunosuppressants, and surgery.
We tend to think of steroids colloquially in terms of building muscle. The idea is similar, that the steroids are giving your body some extra ammunition in rebuilding areas that are under attack from your immune system, giving you more pieces to wait out the barrage long enough. The big dog in this camp tends to be Prednisone. It's used in other contexts, maybe alongside your antibiotic if your bronchitis isn't responding enough to just the antibiotic alone. There are a TON of different side effects to Prednisone, including but not limited to the following: voracious appetite, heat flashes, night sweats, puffy "moon face" with other body swelling, brittle veins/bruising, and irritability. When I'm on a large dose for any duration of time, I find myself agitated and ready to lash out at anyone, where in addition to feeling out of control of my body I now also feel out of control of my mind. Long term doses can make your bones more brittle, too, which is why after being on a dose (primarily a rather low one) for about two and a half years, I asked for a bone density scan just to be cautious. Coming off of them can be interesting to, since going cold turkey from a high dose can literally kill you. More than once I have struggled through weaning off of the medication after being on an extended dose with a flavor of withdrawal that was, while not life threatening, a frustrating experience to say the least. The flip side is that steroids work almost immediately and they work well. By the next day, I tend to feel a difference. They work, but I know I'm sick if I'm asking to be put back on it.
Immunosuppressants probably make the most obvious sense out of the medicinal side of things. If your immune system is overzealous, take away some of its firepower. However, finding the right balance is imperative. Too far, and a cold is never just a cold. Too little and you're in the same place you started. At Mayos once, I recall asking what all of my options were in reining in a rather persistent flare-up, and the final option, when all else had failed, was a series of medications for those who have received organ transplants, to keep the body from rejecting the "not-me" tissue. When on any kind of balance of immunosuppressants, there are a few other rules and conditions, such as not taking any live variants of vaccinations (e.g. the nasal swab version of the flu shot is usually a weakened live strain vs the actual shot which is suggested for me). For any vaccination that does not have a non-live variant, we depend on the people that can take it to protect us with herd immunity. Get your damn flu shots, folks, if not for yourself but for people that cannot.
Biologics are a class of medications that have some kind of organic origin. A common example of this is insulin. We used to take it from pigs or cows, until we engineered bacteria to produce it and thereby harvest it for persons that need it. For other products in this category, the proteins, sugars, whathaveyou were derived from somewhere, then often reconstituted into a serum. I have had a slew of these for Crohn's, since I was eighteen, to be precise. These have included Remicade (infliximab), Cimzia (centrolizumab), Humira (adalimumab), and my current friend, Entyvio (vedolizumab). Both Remicade and Entyvio are IV infusions, performed either at the hospital or at my doctor's office. Cimzia comes in autoinjector pens (think Epi-Pen) and shots--I gave myself shots for the duration of my usage of this one. Humira I had the autoinjector pens once a week, and it stung every time. I'm not sad to get an IV for my Entyvio now, since I find it easier to let someone else do the sticking and I don't have to keep a supply in a drawer of my refrigerator, figuring out how to take it on family trips and such.
And then there's surgery. This may never be necessary for some folks with Crohn's. I had mine for ten years before surgery was ever floated, actually. It depends on where your disease rests, which areas become too scarred or angry to function any longer, or if it ever gets quite to that point. I happened to be in some severe, long-term flare-ups; there were parts of my colon that were not absorbing water or nutrients to the capacity that they should be, also painfully restricting the movement of fecal matter through the track. To put it bluntly, I was not passing anything wider than a dime, because of how narrowed these areas were. from layers of scar tissue It looked like goose poop. And it hurt like hell. Scarred colon simply doesn't stretch like healthy colon does. And with surgery, of course there are other complications and side effects that come with the territory.
And remember, there is no cure at this time (though I know bone marrow transplants are being tested) for Crohn's--the goal is to get the body out of a flare-up and otherwise keep up with maintenance to ensure it doesn't veer into one. I refer to my infusions sometimes as going in for maintenance and confess I do enjoy the occasional look of confusion.
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
Larissa P, Still Very Amatuer Plumber
I did tackle that faucet. This was a fun and interesting step forward, definitely a riskier element than a toilet flusher thingy. I found one video that included everything from taking out the drain, removing the old faucet, and setting in the new with a few other weird "well there are some situations that you might need X or Y" which did turn out to explain, for example, why there was an extension on the drain and why I still needed that to make my P-trap function correctly. Yeah, if you don't know what a P-trap is, I didn't either until a week or two ago, but it's the bendy bit of the tubes under the sink, the one that dips down and back up. Evidently, this helps keep sewer gas from coming up the drain pipe. The more I delve into it, the more amazed I am with how simple and elegant plumbing can be--gravity does a lot of the work, basic physics shape a lot of the design of these different elements. In other words, it's not fancy, necessarily, but it is clever and elegant.
So, the faucet. Step one was to turn the water off.
Then, we had to take off supply lines and remove that old faucet. I elected to replace the supply lines as well, since they appeared to be a little corroded on the inside, or at least had some kind of white gunk that did not look like fresh metal hoses. I mean, if I could scrape something off or shake something out, it definitely wasn't new at the very least. It seemed like the other parts were just peachy, though. Since I was replacing the drain, I also had to take off the P-trap, which led to a cup or two of water coming out, thankfully into a container I had nearby explicitly for that purpose. Okay. So far so good, with everything being within the realm of the instructions.
It was a little difficult to get the supply lines off of the faucet itself underneath the sink, but not too bad so far. It was tricky to bet back there more than anything else, but I could at least manage to work those pieces enough to get those pieces loose. But the nuts holding the faucet to the sink, that was a different story. Any video so far that I had found recommended a basin wrench or a basin buddy attachment for a socket wrench. After about an hour struggling to get the pieces loosened in the confined space without this tool, I finally conceded that maybe this was stronger than a suggestion. There was no way that I was going to make my monkey wrench or channel locks (the kind of wrench with a "jaw" that moves up and down to make it wider but isn't a monkey wrench) both grab what they needed to AND make an effective turn.
I started working on the drain instead for the meanwhile, since at least that was at an angle I could manage to get to loosen. That was gross when it came out, gunky and gross.
I borrowed a basin wrench from a friend (thanks, Dale!) and picked up some WD 40 and a couple new supply lines. Not sure what a basin wrench is? It's a long stick with a head at the end that has a head that can either go left to right or flip it over and it goes right to left, depending on what angle and what purpose you're intending. The top of the wrench, in addition to flipping 180 degrees, also has a flexible piece, as though the top of your average wrench could be stretched out on a spring, meaning that it could fit around most anything, get a good grip, and by turning the long pole that was mounted on, you didn't have to have your hands right up against it in the tiny space, staying about a foot underneath it with this beautiful thing called leverage. Boy, that made all of the difference. Need a visual? It's in the picture from the last plumbing adventure.
The old faucet and drain were gone! But it had been a lot of work getting those pieces off, particularly with stopping in the middle to get the right tools. The areas were scoured and ready for the next step. But I wasn't. It was enough for one day.
Consensus was out whether that was the hard or the easy part. I put off the project for a day or three, wanting to ensure that I had enough time to finish the rest in one go, just in case. I also wanted to have Andy watch the new faucet while I was tightening that piece, to ensure that it was centered and he ended up tightening the last of it for me while I held it, which meant I had to work around his schedule.
When I brought Andy in, he ended up under the sink instead of me, since he could give it that one more tighter twist. Shortly after, I attached the supply lines and placed the new drain. That part was blessedly easy, settling it down and screwing it tight. Under the sink, the end of the drain needed that extension still, too, according to the instructions from the video, where things should settle. I was glad to have had that work already done for me. All else seemed to be working well!
...but (particularly with that purple arrow) there was a piece missing. Yep, premature thumbs up and all the frustration that implies. That pin-thingy at the back of the sink, that makes the plunger part of the drain go up and down, that was sitting next to the sink. I had left it out intentionally, because I was SPECIFICALLY following instructions, which had this pin going in as the second to last step, then connecting to the pieces underneath. But with how close the sink was to the back of the wall, I could not slide it into place. Ugh. There was a throwing up of the hands and leaving the room at that one. Better to leave than to flip the table.
About four days later, we loosened the faucet just enough to put the pin through. The faucet complete, the "No" post-it note change to a "Yes!" post-it next to the sink. Success! Faucet changed and looking dapper in its new spot. Huzzah!
Time to move on to a new room and a new project, with some interesting new skills and understanding. It's great to have that kind of ownership of my own home and to see our own little touches start to shine out of our space.
So, the faucet. Step one was to turn the water off.
 |
| Hooray! That was easy enough! |
It was a little difficult to get the supply lines off of the faucet itself underneath the sink, but not too bad so far. It was tricky to bet back there more than anything else, but I could at least manage to work those pieces enough to get those pieces loose. But the nuts holding the faucet to the sink, that was a different story. Any video so far that I had found recommended a basin wrench or a basin buddy attachment for a socket wrench. After about an hour struggling to get the pieces loosened in the confined space without this tool, I finally conceded that maybe this was stronger than a suggestion. There was no way that I was going to make my monkey wrench or channel locks (the kind of wrench with a "jaw" that moves up and down to make it wider but isn't a monkey wrench) both grab what they needed to AND make an effective turn.
I started working on the drain instead for the meanwhile, since at least that was at an angle I could manage to get to loosen. That was gross when it came out, gunky and gross.
 |
| Ew. |
 |
| Complete with reminder note that the sink wasn't working, in case it wasn't obvious |
Consensus was out whether that was the hard or the easy part. I put off the project for a day or three, wanting to ensure that I had enough time to finish the rest in one go, just in case. I also wanted to have Andy watch the new faucet while I was tightening that piece, to ensure that it was centered and he ended up tightening the last of it for me while I held it, which meant I had to work around his schedule.
When I brought Andy in, he ended up under the sink instead of me, since he could give it that one more tighter twist. Shortly after, I attached the supply lines and placed the new drain. That part was blessedly easy, settling it down and screwing it tight. Under the sink, the end of the drain needed that extension still, too, according to the instructions from the video, where things should settle. I was glad to have had that work already done for me. All else seemed to be working well!
 |
| Water back on and NO LEAKS!! |
About four days later, we loosened the faucet just enough to put the pin through. The faucet complete, the "No" post-it note change to a "Yes!" post-it next to the sink. Success! Faucet changed and looking dapper in its new spot. Huzzah!
Time to move on to a new room and a new project, with some interesting new skills and understanding. It's great to have that kind of ownership of my own home and to see our own little touches start to shine out of our space.
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Melvin & Me, Part 22: Crohn's 102, Tests and Procedures
I was diagnosed with Crohn's when I was twelve. I remember having to drink a lot of barium for a couple of different x-rays that they wanted to do, which was absolutely miserable when I didn't want to eat or drink anything, let alone a liter of chalky sludge. There was a fair bit of bloodwork thrown in there, a colonoscopy, biopsies from the colonoscopy, and, to eliminate the possibility, my appendix was removed (on my twelfth birthday no less, true story).
This stage, the place of not-knowing, it freakin' sucks. When you're running tests and tests and meeting with several different doctors and languishing in the meanwhile, it's a vastly frustrating stretch of limbo that I would not wish on anyone. In the same breath, it's a necessary kind of purgatory--we don't know what to treat until we know what it is, steadily eliminating possibilities until we're left with a reasonable answer to start testing treatments. Sometimes this is stretched over months and years. It may not sound like it, but sometimes that stretching is a good thing--you're not immediately dying if there is time for a casual stroll through tests and appointments, as compared to the pace of discovery for someone brought into the hospital unresponsive and steadily declining. All states of this limbo--immediate danger and when it feels like you're the only one urgent to find answers--are emotionally taxing in a very specific and devastating manner. Not-knowing is waiting. Not-knowing feels stagnant. Not-knowing is fear. Once you have some kind of answer, there is a path, some kind of outline as to what might come next. In other words, in some ways I would rather have cancer than be in the process of running tests to find out if what I'm experiencing is cancer. I can work with a disease or condition; I cannot work with or emotionally process a shapeless, nameless problem.
What are some of the tests and procedures one might expect in diagnosing the disease?
Colonoscopy immediately comes to mind. They're not just for people over fifty. I'm pretty sure that I have had more myself than the rest of my work office combined--I'm definitely in the double-digits, getting closer to twenty than I would like. More about the specifics of that through this link. Inflammation tends to make normally happy, pink tissue look red/yellow/black and a flavor of ANGRY. A colonoscopy, then, uses a flexible camera up your bum to take a look at your colon and see if there are any areas that are obviously irritated. Biopsies are often taken at this time to run for cancer screenings and other abnormalities.
An endoscopy goes through the other end, looking down ones throat/esophagus to ensure that those paths are clear and healthy.
There is also a swallowable camera that can take pictures as it makes its way through your entire digestive tract. I've not experienced this, but I cannot imagine that retrieving the camera is any kind of fun.
Other procedures can be various x-ray procedures, such as CT scans. Here the radiologist would be checking to see how a radiopaque substance (something that the x-rays do not go through as well) looks as it goes through various systems. In my case, I had to drink a lot of barium and they were able to track it through my small intestine and the like to make sure that areas seemed to be functioning correctly, where areas might be narrow, if there were any leaks, etc.
With many tests, the prep tends to be worse than the procedure itself--either something needs to be swallowed, you cannot eat for a certain period of time, or you have to clear out your digestive tract with a series of laxatives starting the day before. It's pretty miserable. The procedures are pretty simple--I will sometimes look forward to a colonoscopy first off because I like to see the resulting pictures to track the progress for myself and also because I'll get a nice nap in that day--for themselves, but everything is at least a little extra frustrating when you haven't eaten for fifteen hours. Navigating the insurance components, too, is interesting on occasion; for example, my insurance has my doctor in network but my doctor's outpatient endoscopy center that they prefer to use is out of network, meaning that my insurance would prefer I go through the hospital instead, for whatever reason.
What does the bloodwork look for?
Bloodwork are looking for a few different things: if your red blood cell count is low, you might need a transfusion to replace some of what was lost. If hemocrit is low and you're edging toward anemic, trying to get some iron back in there to perk you up that way can help. The presences of certain white blood cells over others can indicate what kind of infection the body might be fighting--a parasite infection is different from an allergic reaction or a bacterial infection in terms of what kinds of white blood cells are elevated. For Crohn's, we're looking for additional inflammation markers like C Reactive Protein (SED rate used to be a big one, too, but has had some new research to indicate it is not as helpful as previously thought, as I understand it) and vitamin D. vitamin D is kind of an interesting one, in that it is not currently clear whether a lack of vitamin D causes a flare-up (meaning a significant increase of symptoms) or whether a flare-up causes a lack of vitamin D. The consensus at this time, then, seems to lean toward supplementing vitamin D.
What's the difference in a diagnosis of Crohn's and ulcerative colitis?
The word "histology" will be tossed around in this discussion, which basically means that some deeper study into the tissues is needed to make the final distinction.
Ulcerative colitis tends to hang out almost entirely in the large intestine, the "col" of "colitis" meaning colon, literally "inflammation of the colon." Colon and large intestine are interchangeable terms. There are a couple of facets where the liver are affected, but essentially if the colon is removed, there is no more colitis, just adjusting to living without a large intestine. Ulcerative colitis, too, tends to be closer to the surface, that the disease doesn't penetrate into the tissue too deeply, compared to Crohn's. There are a lot of facets that Crohn's and UC will share, including tests and treatments, but there will be some paths and ideas that are specific to their own disease.
Crohn's can cover the entire digestive tract. In my case, mine likes to hang out primarily in my colon, hence Crohn's colitis. But I've also had severe mouth sores and a few other symptoms that have not strictly stayed in place. Why I am diagnosed with Crohn's instead of UC, though, is how deep the disease goes in the tissue--it goes Crohn's kind of deep. This is not to say that Crohn's is inherently more severe than UC, understanding that there is a lot of personal chemistry and situation floating in there and that it's not a contest to see who is suffering worse than the other, but Crohn's can be interestingly insidious when it goes deep enough.
They are separate conditions. Someone's UC does not develop into Crohn's if left untreated or anything of that ilk--they will simply have severe UC symptoms, which again will closely overlap with Crohn's symptoms but it does not become Crohn's or spread outside of that area. The approach in how they're treated will be different and their responses to treatment will be different, even if they are sometimes using the same dosage and medication.
But more on treatment in the next of this series.
This stage, the place of not-knowing, it freakin' sucks. When you're running tests and tests and meeting with several different doctors and languishing in the meanwhile, it's a vastly frustrating stretch of limbo that I would not wish on anyone. In the same breath, it's a necessary kind of purgatory--we don't know what to treat until we know what it is, steadily eliminating possibilities until we're left with a reasonable answer to start testing treatments. Sometimes this is stretched over months and years. It may not sound like it, but sometimes that stretching is a good thing--you're not immediately dying if there is time for a casual stroll through tests and appointments, as compared to the pace of discovery for someone brought into the hospital unresponsive and steadily declining. All states of this limbo--immediate danger and when it feels like you're the only one urgent to find answers--are emotionally taxing in a very specific and devastating manner. Not-knowing is waiting. Not-knowing feels stagnant. Not-knowing is fear. Once you have some kind of answer, there is a path, some kind of outline as to what might come next. In other words, in some ways I would rather have cancer than be in the process of running tests to find out if what I'm experiencing is cancer. I can work with a disease or condition; I cannot work with or emotionally process a shapeless, nameless problem.
What are some of the tests and procedures one might expect in diagnosing the disease?
Colonoscopy immediately comes to mind. They're not just for people over fifty. I'm pretty sure that I have had more myself than the rest of my work office combined--I'm definitely in the double-digits, getting closer to twenty than I would like. More about the specifics of that through this link. Inflammation tends to make normally happy, pink tissue look red/yellow/black and a flavor of ANGRY. A colonoscopy, then, uses a flexible camera up your bum to take a look at your colon and see if there are any areas that are obviously irritated. Biopsies are often taken at this time to run for cancer screenings and other abnormalities.
An endoscopy goes through the other end, looking down ones throat/esophagus to ensure that those paths are clear and healthy.
There is also a swallowable camera that can take pictures as it makes its way through your entire digestive tract. I've not experienced this, but I cannot imagine that retrieving the camera is any kind of fun.
Other procedures can be various x-ray procedures, such as CT scans. Here the radiologist would be checking to see how a radiopaque substance (something that the x-rays do not go through as well) looks as it goes through various systems. In my case, I had to drink a lot of barium and they were able to track it through my small intestine and the like to make sure that areas seemed to be functioning correctly, where areas might be narrow, if there were any leaks, etc.
With many tests, the prep tends to be worse than the procedure itself--either something needs to be swallowed, you cannot eat for a certain period of time, or you have to clear out your digestive tract with a series of laxatives starting the day before. It's pretty miserable. The procedures are pretty simple--I will sometimes look forward to a colonoscopy first off because I like to see the resulting pictures to track the progress for myself and also because I'll get a nice nap in that day--for themselves, but everything is at least a little extra frustrating when you haven't eaten for fifteen hours. Navigating the insurance components, too, is interesting on occasion; for example, my insurance has my doctor in network but my doctor's outpatient endoscopy center that they prefer to use is out of network, meaning that my insurance would prefer I go through the hospital instead, for whatever reason.
What does the bloodwork look for?
Bloodwork are looking for a few different things: if your red blood cell count is low, you might need a transfusion to replace some of what was lost. If hemocrit is low and you're edging toward anemic, trying to get some iron back in there to perk you up that way can help. The presences of certain white blood cells over others can indicate what kind of infection the body might be fighting--a parasite infection is different from an allergic reaction or a bacterial infection in terms of what kinds of white blood cells are elevated. For Crohn's, we're looking for additional inflammation markers like C Reactive Protein (SED rate used to be a big one, too, but has had some new research to indicate it is not as helpful as previously thought, as I understand it) and vitamin D. vitamin D is kind of an interesting one, in that it is not currently clear whether a lack of vitamin D causes a flare-up (meaning a significant increase of symptoms) or whether a flare-up causes a lack of vitamin D. The consensus at this time, then, seems to lean toward supplementing vitamin D.
What's the difference in a diagnosis of Crohn's and ulcerative colitis?
The word "histology" will be tossed around in this discussion, which basically means that some deeper study into the tissues is needed to make the final distinction.
Ulcerative colitis tends to hang out almost entirely in the large intestine, the "col" of "colitis" meaning colon, literally "inflammation of the colon." Colon and large intestine are interchangeable terms. There are a couple of facets where the liver are affected, but essentially if the colon is removed, there is no more colitis, just adjusting to living without a large intestine. Ulcerative colitis, too, tends to be closer to the surface, that the disease doesn't penetrate into the tissue too deeply, compared to Crohn's. There are a lot of facets that Crohn's and UC will share, including tests and treatments, but there will be some paths and ideas that are specific to their own disease.
Crohn's can cover the entire digestive tract. In my case, mine likes to hang out primarily in my colon, hence Crohn's colitis. But I've also had severe mouth sores and a few other symptoms that have not strictly stayed in place. Why I am diagnosed with Crohn's instead of UC, though, is how deep the disease goes in the tissue--it goes Crohn's kind of deep. This is not to say that Crohn's is inherently more severe than UC, understanding that there is a lot of personal chemistry and situation floating in there and that it's not a contest to see who is suffering worse than the other, but Crohn's can be interestingly insidious when it goes deep enough.
They are separate conditions. Someone's UC does not develop into Crohn's if left untreated or anything of that ilk--they will simply have severe UC symptoms, which again will closely overlap with Crohn's symptoms but it does not become Crohn's or spread outside of that area. The approach in how they're treated will be different and their responses to treatment will be different, even if they are sometimes using the same dosage and medication.
But more on treatment in the next of this series.
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Larissa P, Amatuer Plumber
I came into our new home with a small pool of ideas. I had to start small, as once I started exploring out further, I found myself paralyzed with options. There is still a lot of sifting yet into what we can do compared to what we want to do and what we have available means for. So I tried to focus on a few pieces at a time, understanding those would naturally evolve into a few more pieces as I got my feet underneath me.
Some of those ideas centered around one of our bathrooms. It is important to me to have a comfortable and welcoming bathroom space--my life mandates that I spend a little more time in the bathroom than the average bear, and I am determined that it not be worse than it has to be. So, I found a few décor pieces for that room, including a rather fierce looking toilet paper holder and some properly quirky artwork. Andy pointed out that we could make a small but significant difference in changing out all of the handles on the cabinet drawer--eight chrome knobs in all. We were able to replace these with an oiled brass look, matching the shower curtain rings I had already found, and it stands out lovely against the white cabinets. Sure enough, it was a small difference but a significant one. I started eyeing the silver, chrome towel ring on the wall more thoughtfully, and then cast a significant eye at the chrome sink fixture.
One successful trip to Home Depot later and we had a new faucet, drain, towel ring, and toilet flusher lever thingy.
The towel ring seemed the most familiar in terms of actual procedure--get the old one off somehow, drill, drill again, slide the ring over, profit. This would take at least a half hour, I figured, with figuring out how to get the old one off and measuring where we wanted the other one to set. The toilet paper lever, though, that I was told should take less than ten minutes. What a good way to cut my teeth.
One thing that I absolutely love about the world we live in now is that if I want to know how to do something, I can often find a YouTube tutorial that is breaking it down step-by-step for me. I found two, both less than five minutes long. Seemed simple enough--I was confident I could figure something out.
I pulled the lever parts out of the package before the videos, to get an idea of what I had to work with. I lifted the lid off of the tank and checked the parts there. One of the screws holding the old lever in place had a bit of corrosion, but everything still turned pretty neatly when persuaded with a wrench, if necessary. I accidently flushed the toilet about two and a half times trying to unhook the chain from the bar, the part that lifts up the cover to then let new water fill the bowl, but it was just a little water. I thought to myself that maybe it was encouraging that it was a little difficult to get the chain off of the bar--that maybe meant that it was not going to fall off later without a fight. My previous experience to toilets was a couple that had loose chains, where a quick pull directly in the tank worked better than relying on a lever that wasn't actually connected anymore. On this one, though, apart from a momentary frustration with the corroded screw, I managed to fish it through the hole and off of the toilet entirely in about four minutes (eight if you count finding a flathead screwdriver).
Success! I am a master of my own home!
Then, I went to slide the other piece through the hole--all of the pieces were WAY too big. I took the extension off the bar, the part that would be negotiated around to connect to the chain. The next pieces were also too wide for the hole cut into the ceramic. Sitting backwards on the toilet, I stared at the pieces and referred back to the video. Their unit they easily fished through the hole. Inspecting the piece in my hand, I checked to see what parts would come off. A-HAH, it could be broken down into its bare pieces, eventually, I managed to align the parts that needed to be outside of the hole and the parts that needed to be inside the whole, my single piece item broken into about nine by this point. I found what rubber parts and plastic nuts needed to be on which side and had managed to affix the main unit.
Okay, minor roadblock but you've got this. The rest should be easy! You can do the thing!
I stil had three or four pieces left in my hand. Now, I had to figure out how to negotiate the lever arm around the existing parts in the tank. The extension in question was made to be tilted and then tightened into position, both vertically and horizontally based on how I tightened and placed a few pieces. This took a fair bit of finagling.
No one is going to be able to flush this toilet again. What have I done?
By this point, I had accidentally flushed the toilet about eight times, jumping each time I bopped something. In retrospect, I absolutely could have shut the water off, but it was not part of either tutorial because this was supposed to be the easy thing. Well, my toilet tank was shaped oddly for the kind of bar that I got, feeling rather claustrophobic and noting that my fingers on one hand were rather wrinkled by this point. At one point, I set the arm too high, where it would have been pushed down by the tank lid. This meant removing two pieces to get back to the one I needed to and about three more accidental flushings.
Finally, I found a position that seemed to work and not disturb any of the other parts of the tank that it wasn't supposed to with the right depth and angle for a successful resting position and flushing position. All that was left was to reaffix the chain to the arm and we were golden. My damp fingers did not manage that clip very well, which lead to the realization that I had managed to put that arm back on upside-down, which only mattered in trying to put the chain through one of these tiny holes, that the tiny holes were closer and less blocked by other parts of the arm. Took that off, flipped it over, and I attached the chain first this time, before affixing it to the rest of the bar, patting myself on the back for that bit of foresight. A little more fighting and just a few more accidental flushes later, and I was ready to give a test flush. Success! I put the lid of the tank back on and gave it one more test flush. Success again!
I am amazing. ...or at least capable of following simple instructions and troubleshooting without complete panic.
I have found a few videos to learn about how to replace the faucet next and have already found that using the right tools is very helpful. (Yes, I will make sure that I turn off the water first this time.) More to come on that soon!
 |
| *Insert Action Pose Here* |
One successful trip to Home Depot later and we had a new faucet, drain, towel ring, and toilet flusher lever thingy.
The towel ring seemed the most familiar in terms of actual procedure--get the old one off somehow, drill, drill again, slide the ring over, profit. This would take at least a half hour, I figured, with figuring out how to get the old one off and measuring where we wanted the other one to set. The toilet paper lever, though, that I was told should take less than ten minutes. What a good way to cut my teeth.
One thing that I absolutely love about the world we live in now is that if I want to know how to do something, I can often find a YouTube tutorial that is breaking it down step-by-step for me. I found two, both less than five minutes long. Seemed simple enough--I was confident I could figure something out.
I pulled the lever parts out of the package before the videos, to get an idea of what I had to work with. I lifted the lid off of the tank and checked the parts there. One of the screws holding the old lever in place had a bit of corrosion, but everything still turned pretty neatly when persuaded with a wrench, if necessary. I accidently flushed the toilet about two and a half times trying to unhook the chain from the bar, the part that lifts up the cover to then let new water fill the bowl, but it was just a little water. I thought to myself that maybe it was encouraging that it was a little difficult to get the chain off of the bar--that maybe meant that it was not going to fall off later without a fight. My previous experience to toilets was a couple that had loose chains, where a quick pull directly in the tank worked better than relying on a lever that wasn't actually connected anymore. On this one, though, apart from a momentary frustration with the corroded screw, I managed to fish it through the hole and off of the toilet entirely in about four minutes (eight if you count finding a flathead screwdriver).
Success! I am a master of my own home!
Then, I went to slide the other piece through the hole--all of the pieces were WAY too big. I took the extension off the bar, the part that would be negotiated around to connect to the chain. The next pieces were also too wide for the hole cut into the ceramic. Sitting backwards on the toilet, I stared at the pieces and referred back to the video. Their unit they easily fished through the hole. Inspecting the piece in my hand, I checked to see what parts would come off. A-HAH, it could be broken down into its bare pieces, eventually, I managed to align the parts that needed to be outside of the hole and the parts that needed to be inside the whole, my single piece item broken into about nine by this point. I found what rubber parts and plastic nuts needed to be on which side and had managed to affix the main unit.
Okay, minor roadblock but you've got this. The rest should be easy! You can do the thing!
I stil had three or four pieces left in my hand. Now, I had to figure out how to negotiate the lever arm around the existing parts in the tank. The extension in question was made to be tilted and then tightened into position, both vertically and horizontally based on how I tightened and placed a few pieces. This took a fair bit of finagling.
No one is going to be able to flush this toilet again. What have I done?
By this point, I had accidentally flushed the toilet about eight times, jumping each time I bopped something. In retrospect, I absolutely could have shut the water off, but it was not part of either tutorial because this was supposed to be the easy thing. Well, my toilet tank was shaped oddly for the kind of bar that I got, feeling rather claustrophobic and noting that my fingers on one hand were rather wrinkled by this point. At one point, I set the arm too high, where it would have been pushed down by the tank lid. This meant removing two pieces to get back to the one I needed to and about three more accidental flushings.
Finally, I found a position that seemed to work and not disturb any of the other parts of the tank that it wasn't supposed to with the right depth and angle for a successful resting position and flushing position. All that was left was to reaffix the chain to the arm and we were golden. My damp fingers did not manage that clip very well, which lead to the realization that I had managed to put that arm back on upside-down, which only mattered in trying to put the chain through one of these tiny holes, that the tiny holes were closer and less blocked by other parts of the arm. Took that off, flipped it over, and I attached the chain first this time, before affixing it to the rest of the bar, patting myself on the back for that bit of foresight. A little more fighting and just a few more accidental flushes later, and I was ready to give a test flush. Success! I put the lid of the tank back on and gave it one more test flush. Success again!
I have found a few videos to learn about how to replace the faucet next and have already found that using the right tools is very helpful. (Yes, I will make sure that I turn off the water first this time.) More to come on that soon!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)