Shir, it's unlikely, but would that have anything to do with the Jewish story about the man whose rabbi advises him to move his goats into his house? The Girl likes that story. When we get overwhelmed, we talk about "too many goats."

Have any of you had severe pancreatitis and/or a feeding tube that bypasses the pancreas? Email me if so. I'm trying to help Drew cope.

Different spelling. Nora(h) (private name) is נורה, nora(h) (adj.) is נורא.

Are they pronounced differently?

Shir, congratulations on the DJ gig. How cool.

Drew, if you get enough feeding tubes coming out of your nose you can probably go as Cthulu for Halloween.

Sorry, that's all the silver lining I have. I do hope your body rallies and disinfects quickly. This must be so hard on both of you.

Pix--My uncle had cancer of the esophagus a couple of years ago and had a nasal feeding tube. After the first day, he said it stopped being really noticeable. I know they had to take it out once a day and flush it out with carbonated water. And my mom, who is literally the klutziest person on earth, was able to do it so I know it is manageable.

And my mom, who is literally the klutziest person on earth

Did she ever sit on a knife that stuck out of her ass cheek?

Hm. The tube he has has to be placed by a specialist because it goes all the way to the small intestine, so I doubt I'll be taking that out and putting it back in on my own.

Tube~ma to Drew and Pix.

Who was it yesterday who suggested I cut out wheat for my joint pain? Thank you. I was googling today instead of working and the sypmtoms - joint pain, mouth ulcers, trapped wind, diarrhoea, tiredness? My husband just said "Those symptoms describe your whole life!"

So yeah, I'll be trying the wheat free diet for a little while, I think.

I have a severe fear that people don't actually like me or want to be around me, so asking people if they want to do things with me is almost undoable

I was never like this before, but thanks to the unbelievably painful stuff I went through over the last year (stuff that made four years living with Shari look like a picnic), I am like this now. I have a very hard time believing that people (even people I've known for a very long time) actually like me, or want to spend time with me.

I don't trust anybody any more. I don't believe anybody really likes me or is being honest with me. I feel like everybody I know is just waiting for the most hurtful possible moment to stab me in the back.

So yeah, I'll be trying the wheat free diet for a little while, I think.

If you cut out the obvious candidates and still feel crappy, gluten-free might be a better search term than wheat-free (I have a couple of friends with celiac disease and you'd be amazed at the sorts of things that have gluten in them).