Steph! Quick question: my doctor is suspecting I may have trouble absorbing some B vitamin (details r lost, folate, I think) and I wonder if something like Align might help with that nutrient-absorbtion problem? Any ideas?

Some GI problems definitely can fuck up absorption of nutrients. I don't know if the answer is probiotics -- or, that's not how I want to say it.

I'm not sure what the right steps are, and in what order, to heal an unhappy gut. (Leaky Gut syndrome, for instance, is real, and it definitely makes you not absorb nutrients as well as someone whose (semi)colon is healthy.) There might be something you would need to do *before* you take probiotics, but I don't know what that might be. But my feeling is, probiotics are generally a good thing. (Well, if you took too many at one time, you might get gnarly diarrhea, but it's not like OD-ing on painkillers or something.)

Do you have GI problems?

Also, I am not ditching you, but I'm trying to stick to my plan of going to bed early until this cold is gone, so I'm folding up the laptop for the night. (Unless I wake up at 4 a.m. and can't fall back asleep, like I did last night.)

That would suck if you'd developed an allergy, but I agree with Steph that it can happen. I had no allergy to cats when I was younger but now I do.

erika, I very much approve of your long-range vocational goal, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. Or get an interview for your company.

The doctor who refused me a 'flu shot because I didn't have the "right" chronic illness is On My List in such a serious way. I'm up at 4am with hacking cough and raging fever. I'm supposed to be going on a protest in the morning. Bet I'll be banned from spending six hours in the rain outside Downing Street now.

I'm sorry the doctor refused you the vaccine, Seska. That sucks.

Steph, thanks for the info! I do have mild GI problems. I think I'll give the probiotics a try. I'll probably take a round of olive leaf first, though, to clear away any excess candida. That's worked for me before. (And by "worked", I mean, it did what I expected and I felt better. Objective data, I have little of it.)

Just for the record, I went to bed early too. I was awake at 3am. I fear this strategy for getting more sleep doesn't work so well...

Seska, you should wait until your symptoms are full-blown and go hang out outside that doctor's office, and sneeze on him when he walks by. Then when he gets mad, ask him if HE got a shot.

Zenkitty, I'd so love to do that. More-sleep~ma to you!

I have, as I suspected, been banned from protesting. To be fair, I can't stand up or see straight, so I probably wouldn't be a lot of use at the protest. I have a Girl taking care of me, so that's good.

I'm sorry, Seska. It doesn't sound like you're in any state to be kettled for hours, though. I hope you feel better soon.

I was quite looking forward to being the second person in a week that the police dragged out of a wheelchair at a protest, but you can't have everything in life.

Thanks, Seska, thought you'd like that! Of course, in a perfect world, I'd be hot like Sophie, too, but as the philosopher Jagger said, " You can't always get what you want."(of course now her name isn't Sophie, but it suits her, in my opinion.) Protesting: Most thankless job: Able-bodied ally. They run their butts off and, in my experience, get blamed for everything by 5-0.(We couldn't think of it all ourselves; someone must have put the idea in our heads.)