Patrick: glad to see you up and posting. I sent emails before trying to set up trade for double petaled bloodroot,lARGE flowering bellwort, trillium grandiflorum, and i too would be interested in lady slippers if you should ever get some to trade. see my trade list. also have a few other thing i can possibly add to the trade. please c-mail me so we can arrange a trade.

Yes, Kelly, great message! I don't know if you saw my earlier post about the tornado, but my friend's stepmother's sister was one of the fatalities in Joplin. After she was rescued and taken to the hospital, she died due to blood loss and lack of available blood. Suzie

I'm female, 5' 7", 125 lbs, my cholesterol levels are great, I eat healthy and work out at a gym daily. My BP was around 105/65 since I was in my twenties. Two years ago (at 52) I got a sore throat with swollen glands so I went to the doctor. My BP had gone up to 175/95 overnight! I know this because I check my heart rate and BP at the gym every day and it was my normal 105/65 the day before I got the sore throat. My throat culture came back positive for strep throat (which my doc said isn't too common among middle age folks) and I was put on antibiotics. The doctor wanted to wait until I'd finished the medication and the strep had cleared to see if my BP went back to normal. Unfortunately, it never did, and I had to be put on BP medication. My doctor thinks the strep throat somehow shocked my system and caused my BP to be permanently altered. On medication (the lowest dose possible) it hovers around my previous 105/65, but if she takes me off that low dose, it shoots right back up again. So I guess I'm on meds for life now. Just wanted to share that it's possible for BP to go haywire with a virus or bacterial infection and be unable to regulate itself back to normal afterwards.

Old school, Hyacinthina.