sephia Know this is old news but you can be sure NIH is still using animals for testing and find it inhumane in any day and age. If you no longer care to participate, perhaps someone else still worries as do I. Thanks for your comment.

Joanie-we have tried every avenue we can think of about the neighbor. Unfortunately our County Code is very lax. We are literally one block away from City limits and their Code Enforcement is strict! But the County just doesn't have it written in code, so they have no teeth. I'm considering a run for County Commissioner when I retire so I can get some changes made to that code. But by then we'll probably be annexed into the City!

I am unsure how these posts work - if any of you will see this - but I can't help myself but ask if any of you have read Virginia Evans' fine novel "The Correspondent?" I think my mother and Sybil Van Antwerp would be kindred spirits. My brother and I found reading it eerie! And multple people who knew her mentioned the same. This book has done incredibly well and I understand it was optioned to become a movie starring Jane Fonda. To think I was sitting on this content - and it went unused. If only I could write!? Cheers to you all - Sarah Robbins

Plllog wrote: “They are supposed to be passed on through families.” I don’t think directly. There are some (?) haplotypes that seem to suggest that a person with certain ones may have a greater risk of acquiring certain autoimmune conditions. For example, the B27 human leukocyte antigen is often associated with some autoimmune conditions. The HLA B8 is another. As I ”understand” it, the presence of these or other HLAs doesn’t indicate a diagnosis, but some antagens or genetic components may be found more frequently in associate with autoimmune diseases. Some autoimmune syndrome or diseases seem to frequently (can frequently) overlap. As I understand it, a person with Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or Lupus (SLE) may also have Sjogren’s Syndrome or Raynaud’s (or other). And,I suspect that because of the varying degrees of severity and the complex array of other autoimmune conditions, and the lack of some clear cut diagnostic tests and results, that some conditions don’t get noticed. And maybe some patients don’t report various symptoms. I used to get this odd phenomenon (?phenomena) where a certain section of my forearm, close to or over a vein, would be painful or feel fiery. I could run my finger along the arm over the vein and it would cause pain there and nowhere else. I'd get this off and on for years, but never said anything. One gets to detect how reporting or even commenting on these things might get perceived. It was not a show stopper, so I didn’t feel it was worthwhile to comment about it. I’ve also had my feet turn blue-purple, but never to the extreme of out and out Raynaud’s. I just tried to keep my feet warm and so on. It’s not as though there was any remedy for any of these mild or fleeting phenom. Plllog, I’m sorry to hear that you have several AI related conditions and hope that your comfortable and managing.