ALICIA7B HI! After ALL these comments, and posts, that went WAY off the track, to what YOU posted, asked for, ...did you EVER find any of the OLD/ANTIQUE/ORIGINAL Christmas Cactus from anyone? I was sent THIS post, to look at.... I have just put up my own post, looking for cuttings of the plant myself. My original one, that was over 150yo!! The last of it JUST died, and it is weeks before X-mas now. Nice gift:( I was the one in the family to be entrusted to keep it alive, I am the gardener in the family. But after 3.5 decades in south Fla. after living in Conn. all its life, and mine, it died. I got some cuttings of the ORIGINAL cactus after mine started to rot and die slowly over a period of years, from some very nice people, like 5 years ago. But THOSE plants just gave out on me, after a super HOT summer, and Hurricane Irma coming through my city, it just got to stressed, I assume, and it finally died. Did YOU ever get any cuttings/stems from someone with a huge specimen...and maybe might be willing to part with a few more? IF you even see this reply to your post....I am hoping you do....maybe you can tell me who to ask. Thank you. ******* I see a picture of a HUGE pot of the X-Mas cactus, you got it from someone. You got A LOT of cuttings from someone!!! Wow! THAT is the one I am desperate to get. I can see a few other pics. But they are not the same thing. This is an old post, so the pictures are not showing up. I dont see how a cactus that is over 150yo,...mine was,...can be a 'hybrid'. It is the one that all the others came from! I cant read ALL these posts, but i read a few, and someone said it was a hybrid. All i know is that THIS is the one i would like to find. I hope YOU or someone sees this, and can help me out. THIS was my 150+ yo specimen. Maybe YOU can help me out? That one you have is huge, and now 6 years later, it must be much bigger...??? Care to share????

What wonderful help from special KT friends! Thank you! DH was discharged yesterday afternoon. Told to schedule a nerve conduction study (sensors on the skin). This is not the invasive nerve study where electrodes are inserted into the muscles. The Hospital Primary handling the discharge cautioned that the hospital will always do a zillion tests and pursue every little abnormality -- so he should discard some of the long, lonesome trails that could follow up on those. (A nodule on his liver, for instance.) She said we could try the B12 and the ALC; it couldn't harm him. They want him to continue with sodium cholride 1000MG tabs twice daily for a while (none available at the pharmacy until Tuesday, so I wonder what we could do with plain table salt.) She gave him Baclofen 5MG (muscle relaxant) to take before dinner. This morning I finally reacted to the stress with shingles -- a forgone conclusion for me. It's just on my left temple. Had it on right temple 15 years ago. I took two of the 500MG Valcyclovir that I'd been issued when I stared infusions for my Multiple Myeloma and called the cancer center. The doctor on call gave me 21 more Valcyclovir, and I'm confident this will ease the problem as it progresses. I'll be better if we can help DH...and once the Monogram tech comes Wednesday to repair our fridge -- freezer works/refrigerator side is at 50F. DS brought be a little fridge he's used at flip houses...a lifesaver, but *so tiny*! When I picked up the Valcyclovir I got DH some sublingual B12 5000MG lozenges. The pharmacist didn't know anything about ALAcid, but I'll look on Amazon. Raven -- With help from our own Jasdip, we bought an electronic muscle stimulator (Creliver is the brand). It has foot pads and pairs of stimulator pads for use on the body. We're just learning to use it, putting the power to 30 and trying various 'modes' of current patterns. We haven't tried the pads yet. I see you use something like this at night; DH says he'll try the foot pads tonight. He's also taking CALM, a magnesium and melatonin powder, at night. I can't tell you how much it means to me to have your help and support! Thank you.

Adermatoglyphia is 'no fingerprints'. It is not due to your work, chemicals, age. You are born without fingerprints and usually much lesser toe/foot prints. It means you are one of 5 families from Sweden area. This makes sense for me as my mother/her family were from Limburg Germany. Would like to meet others with same genetics as we would be relatives. I am not fond of DNA companies as they are bought/sold and public results can change.

Thanks for all of the input. Part of my concern is that my only "risk" factors are a slender build and drinking one cup of coffee a day, so there is nothing to cut out. I've been taking 2000 mg of D3 for about a dozen years in addition to my daily multivitamin. I walk an average of 4 miles a day, much of it carrying groceries. After finding out about osteopenia in my neck, I've changed my daily headstands to handstands. I do seated and supine exercises wearing my rollerskates which weigh 3 1/2 pounds each. Maybe I need to move into actual gym weights and add calcium + magnesium to my vitamin program. I eat dark, leafy greens, but I can always eat more. And maybe I just say, hey, I'm 66 and this is the reality of getting older. Up until a few years ago, I had an insurance policy with a $10,000 deductible. I went to the doctor when I got sick, paid out of pocket and the only tests I got were when I was a volunteer research subject. I never even knew I had this problem until I got that dexa scan test. Maybe I've had it for years. All I know is that I don't want to spend even three weeks feeling as emotionally distraught as I felt on that drug.