In pursuit of who, what, how, and why: Meet @pb50

Your motto gave me a chuckle but also food for thought this morning 😊. Thanks for sharing. It’s hard not getting anxious or frustrated with medical problems sometimes, especially when you’re in the treatment of “let’s wait until it grows or you get worse”; then when it happens you wonder why we were waiting. But attitude is important, as is faith!

We miss you on the PMR forum! I still think there is much we can learn from the experience people have treating RA and living with RA. Things in the PMR world are starting to change. Prednisone isn't the "only option" anymore. I am happy to say that I haven't needed prednisone for almost 5 years while still being treated for PMR.

It is nice to learn more about you. What did you do in the Marines? I was in the Air Force for 4 years. I had it easy in the Air Force and wouldn't trade my 4 years for anything. I have great respect for the Marines!

I just try to go after it just like I would have gone after a corporate result. I don’t always feel I have the tools or skills I need, but i always have attitude and fight. Just stay after it - whatever that means on any given day!

Everyone has it easy in the Air Force 😁

I fixed radios in the Marines. Not exactly a career path but I loved it.

I remember you had migrated to a Biologic as I recall? I am glad you are beyond Prednisone. I have some on hand but in my locked cabinet that is rarely unlocked. I love the damn stuff but the good Lord gave me a brain - and I know Prednisone doesn't love me. 🙄

But you are still the smartest dude I know about how Prednisone does what it does and how to manage your way off if you waited too long.

Good to hear from you. Be well.

Works wonders after you get the butt cheek ones

Then. It stops working

Then. You wonder whats going on

When that happens go seek "sciatica" specialist

"I fixed radios in the Marines. Not exactly a career path but I loved it."
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During my 4 years in the Air Force, I was an Electronic Warfare Systems Specialist otherwise called Electronic CounterMeasures (ECM). Sometimes it was called ECCM for Electronic Counter-CounterMeasures.

We jammed radars and did other cool stuff that was secret at the time. It was fascinating in the early 1970s. Some of the electronic equipment cost millions of dollars. We hung big heavy pods under the wing of an F-4 Phantom II. In a pinch, the pilots were authorized to jettison those pods so they could escape at faster speeds.

I was an 18 year old kid when I enlisted in the Air Force. I was only armed with a Jeweler's screwdriver and tweaked things most of the time. It didn't translate to the civilian world but I could have become a radio repairman.

Yea I think my MOS was titled Electronic Communication specialist. The Marines really really didn’t want women, were the last branch to accept us and many never made an attempt to be fair. I was attached to the 3rd Air Wing - where the big egos lived 🙂 So I spent my time in a little building fixing radios the army had left behind when they upgraded. And still I loved it 🙂 I have always seen it as a win if I get an opportunity to add my footprint where women didn’t walk before. Even in a room the size of a storage shed repairing outdated and shot up radios 🙂

Nixon used to park AF1 at El Toro and take a helicopter to San Clemente.

Teresa, I just completed the information to join the Connect and then saw your post. The first thing I noticed was that your photo reminded me of a sunny morning. Next I read the "Lead Dog" comment. Together they said that you are a person who lives unafraid to go unafraid into the world of people, willing to help and befriend anyone you meet. The world needs people like you. Thanks for being so helpful. WOH

"I have always seen it as a win if I get an opportunity to add my footprint where women didn’t walk before."
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As a man ... that was how I felt about nursing. I was pushed and pulled in another direction though. I liked the patients and the bedside care the most. The life and death stuff was more exciting. It put things into perspective because I only had an autoimmune disorder.

I wanted to be assigned to any patient on corticosteroids when most of the nurses didn't want to take care of those patients. The nurses I worked with knew I took prednisone and said if I ever needed to be hospitalized they wouldn't take care of me. They weren't serious but they knew prednisone wasn't good for me. They always wanted to know how much prednisone I was taking.

Some doctors would rather that I crunched numbers for their medical research. I couldn't tell the doctors that I mostly felt that the data they collected was garbage because the nurses didn't follow the research protocol precisely. I was caught in an in-between world of medical research and patient care.

Some of the research projects were downright dangerous to the patients. I had to recruit those patients so I felt responsible for them. The research needs to happen though ... otherwise nothing changes.

I also did some managed care for an insurance company for a year or two. That wasn't a nice world because all they cared about was the cost of medical care.

When years later I had transitioned to Neurophysiology diagnostics (EEGs, EMGs, Evoked Potential), I always had to bite my lip when clueless people would ask my male nurse friends why they didn't do med school.