Check out all the jokes at /fun/jokes/index.html. Send yours in today!

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Tina's Tips

Arthritis can affect your ability to do even the simplest of tasks. I've heard some people say, "Accept your limitations." I'm not sure accepting them is the way to go. I prefer to challenge those limitations, work around them, finding alternate ways of achieving the same goal. Every week I'll share some tips I've found to work around those annoying limitations and I hope all of you will send in your tips too. We may not be the next Martha Stewart, but sometimes the simplest things can help so much.

A great suggestion from Dorothy:

My humble suggestion for clothing to deal with casts, braces, and other dressing impediments is: take a pair of fleece "sweats", and cut side seam of the top from the bottom just above the ribbing (or if needed, through the ribbing) all the way up through the armhole and through the underarm seam and cuff. Measure this distance from start to finish, buy a plastic zipper at least 2 inches longer than the measurement and sew in the zipper with the bottom at your waist and the open end at your wrist. You can then close the zipper as much as the brace/cast/whatever will allow. You can dress with much less jarring and movement. If you need help with the zipper installation, probably a dry cleaners will be able to sew it in.

Check out more tips at /living/tips.html and send in yours today to Tina@arthritisinsight.com.

Hello again! Another week has come and gone. Here in Iowa, we have been having some unseasonably warm days. Up into the 90s a couple of times. It is time for fall. HEAT BEGONE!!! LOL It was worth a try.

Lets start cooking!

Have you ever bought the stuff they call "sandwich spread", at the grocery store? It is usually about $1 or more for a small tub of it. No need to pay those prices, it can be made very quickly and easily at home.

Get out your food processor or food grinder
In a food processor, pulse until all ingredients are very small. In a food grinder, just run everything through it.
For a small batch (makes about 10 sandwiches) 
You start with 1-12 oz package of hot dogs
1/2 medium onion
sweet pickles or sweet pickle relish (If you use pickles, either run through the grinder, or pulse in your processor with onion and hot dogs). (If using relish, about 1-2 heaping tablespoonfuls, according to your taste.)
Add just enough mayo type salad dressing or mayo, to make it all spreadable.
Great for those Saturday lunches when little Johnny has to be at soccer practice at 12:30 and Susie has to be at dance lessons clear across town at the same time, and you have had to spend the whole day, taking care of the cleaning and the laundry, and you have company coming for dinner tomorrow.

And here is a recipe for the company dinner on Sunday.

Crockpot Beef Stroganoff
2 lb. of lean beef cut into cubes
about 2 dozen small mushrooms or larger mushrooms sliced, or a couple small cans of sliced mushrooms.
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 16 oz carton of sour cream
3 oz of cream cheese
Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste
Place beef in bottom of Crockpot
Salt and pepper 
place soup on top of beef
place mushrooms on top of soup
add enough Worcestershire sauce to coat mushrooms
Cook on low for about 10 hrs.
Add sour cream and cream cheese during last 30 minutes
Add a couple tbs. of cornstarch mixed with just a little water, to thicken sauce during the last 30 minutes.
Serve over rice or noodles. Add a salad and dessert and dinner is ready!

If you have comments or suggestions, please send them to me at Char@arthritisinsight.com  

I am planning a special series of columns as the holidays approach. Please send me your favorite holiday recipes, decorating ideas, and entertaining ideas for the holidays. Remember, I can't do this without you.

FDA Approves Azulfidine EN-Tabs (Sulfasalazine) To Treat Rheumatoid
Arthritis In Children
Azulfindine EN-Tabs is now the only sulfasalazine that is FDA approved for treatment of both adult and childhood RA. The FDA approved Azulfidine for treatment of children who have five or more affected joints that did not respond well to normal NSAIDS.
http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/1ddfd2.htm 

Vioxx (Rofecoxib) Available In Canada In Oral Suspension 
There is now a new option in pain medication for people with swallowing difficulites. Up until now, Naprosyn was the only pain medication used for arthritis that came in liquid form. Since as many as 22% of people over 55 have difficulity swallowing, Doctors had a dilemma finding medication patients could take that would also help the pain.
http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/1d9d42.htm 

EULAR: Rofecoxib Associated With Greater Blood Pressure Increases And Oedema Than Celecoxib
All Cox-2 inhibitors are not the same, says new study. Patients taking both Vioxx and Celebrex were studied as a part of saftey comparison study. The study found that patients on Vioxx had significantly higher systolic blood pressure that those on Celebrex.
http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/1d922a.htm 

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Life and Laughter with Arthritis
(ron@arthritisinsight.com)

Another Tina story, this happened this week.

Saturday morning my husband looked at my car and told me I had not renewed my plates in August like I should have, so I was driving on expired plates. Knowing my luck I want to get it done ASAP!

We drove to the License Bureau with a half hour to spare. Then we wait in line for 20 minutes. While standing in line I notice this huge sign that says something like, "Writing of a bad check to this office is considered a felony and punishable by up to six months in prison and confiscation of your car." Yikes!

Then it's my turn. I had her my registration and wait for her to pull it up on the computer. She pushes a few buttons then gets a perplexed look on her face. "They have your account locked, you wrote a bad check last year." I DID WHAT? So now I am a felon!! Me! A felon! She gives me a number to call and tells me she cannot renew my plates. Of course, it is Saturday so the State office is not open.

I drive home on those expired plates, thinking the entire time that this was impossible. It was possible I wrote a bad check, accidents happen. BUT I certainly would have taken care of it, especially a check made out to the State!

So I spend the next day being called a felon by my family. Hubby calls me his "little outlaw." The kids ask if I am going to jail, and everyone gives me a quarter for that one phone call I will be allowed to make. A lawyer friend informs me that if I get pulled over for anything I will be handcuffed and taken to jail. I wonder if they have prednisone in prison? Or internet access? How will I survive??

I laugh good naturedly, but keep thinking that I must have had some serious brain fog last year-surely I would have taken care of a bad check to the State.

Monday morning I call the State BMV to find out what is going on. Prepared to settle a debt, I have my credit card ready. I explain who I am and give my license number. She says, "Your check didn't clear the bank?oh wait a minute?YES it did. Sometimes our computers just burp." BURP? Your computer BURPED and I could have been taken to jail???

That's the end of my ordeal, right? Wrong. I had planned on meeting fellow Arthritis Insight member Donna for lunch and decide to go get my plated renewed before I go. I go back to the license bureau, which of course is in the opposite direction. I go there and renew the plates without problems, it went right through this time. 

I get my sticker and decide I better put it on before I go to lunch or would surely get a ticket. I bend down in the parking lot to stick it on. OH no! I forgot my plates have a frame and cover. Not wanting to take the time to go home and get a screwdriver I head to the store across the street. Now do you suppose they sell one screwdriver? 

Of course not! My only option is a package of 6. So I buy six damn screw drivers and put the sticker on the plate, FINALLY.

Then I meet my pal Donna for lunch and of course she thinks it is all just hysterical and can't wait to tell the chatroom folks. And she didn't waste anytime in doing just that Monday evening!

Now stop laughing at me and send us your funny or embarrassing story!