Tricks and Treats

 Because of all of urinary issues I've been going through I become very self-conscious about my appearance and odor. I think that may have been one of the reasons that I slept so poorly last night. I knew this morning I would have to get dressed and go out in public for breakfast with Mark Anthony. I really did want to lose track of time and sleep past the time I would need to get ready for the excursion so I just had intermittent sleep sessions all night long and finally got up around 5:35 AM in order to make sure I was ready by the 7:50 AM when I would leave to meet up with him at the restaurant. Oddly with all the items Dianne is supplied me with particularly the pads I'm feeling more comfortable about going out in public. I still did the really deloused my chair one of these first days but that may have to wait for another week. Mark Anthony indicated he would help me with this project stinky as it is an weird wash the cover and the cushion itself. Anyway, after a fine breakfast, we came back to the apartment Mark was focused on helping me try to get some ordered to this mess and he did by gosh. I was amazed at what we were able to do in such a short time. I bet we spent just an hour and a half working on various aspects of the apartment. Even just stacking all the papers and stacks and doing a good healthy throw a session we got large parts of the apartment taken care of. Looking forward to more of such events in the near future. One problem I had specifically that need to be cleaned was my screen that's to my computer it's actually a flat television screen but I've always used it as a monitor which I think works just fine but over the years is gotten a bit cruddy and today I had Mark Anthony wash it down. I'm lucky I asked him before I went out it with my bottle of Windex and long rag stick. Mark explained to me that the chemicals in Windex would've been harmful to the screen. So he just washed the screen with warm soapy water and it worked! We worked on a couple other projects and then I turned him loose to get on for he had to do for his Sunday. I just messed around little bit until I found a site I get back to my letter writing project in hopes to get my letters out by tomorrow afternoon. I don't know if that's possible at this point having lost the whole day but not a big deal. So about an hour so after market left I decided to jump into my project however when I turned on the PCU for some reason all I got on this monitor/screen was “No Signal”! I of course dropped right into my bag of superstitious behavior and did things like turn the computer on and off, numerous times, hoping the screen would pick up. I looked the wiring checked the wiring is much as I could, really difficult for me to try to monkey around my CPU. For some reason the signal wasn't getting from from the box to the screen. I of course called Mark Anthony since his last one to actually do anything with the whole computer system. I had not worked on the computer since he clean the screen. He of course tried the same things that I suggested I even monkeyed around got a picture of the back of the CPU which is a real trip. I was hoping he would come back over and fix it but that didn't seem to be in the the cards so I would need to find another solution. So I started looking at the problem again and this time I looked behind the screen/monitor and sure enough I found cord unhooked from the screen but there is no way I could get to it from my power chair. So I began wandering the halls of the apartment complex trying to find an able-bodied and actually one found me which I immediately dragged to the apartment and sure enough she plugged the cord in here we are. I'm glad Mark Anthony did not have to come in from Daybreak I think it's a long drive. I'd pretty much lost interest in writing anymore letters today so I just went out to the back and read my book enjoyed was the last warm days of the season… Happy Halloween!

Moster Toaster

 Honestly between the pads little bitty pads go right in your pants, the big pads ago on the bed and all of the scented, lotion infused clothes and fragrance “odors” eliminators I'm beginning to feel confident enough to go off and do something. The weather today is not bad very fall like and very warm. This morning I threw my toaster away which kind of shocked me. No! I didn't get shocked by the toaster but the fact that I threw it away with something which kind of astounded me. The electric socket on the wall which the toaster was plugged into had a so small red light illuminated. I don't know if this means anything specific but the toaster didn't work. So to try to check it out I have a multi-plug device on the other side of the stove that I plugged the toaster and that and still did not work. I was really focused on toast this morning and now that I can't have it I really want toast. So, I blamed the toaster unplugged it finally stuck it on my lap rolled out and tossed it in the dumpster. So I was focused them on replacing the device. I've been looking at toaster oven for a long time, well since last one I had here burnt up, I mean literally burst into flames luckily I was there holding with the wall douse the flames then threw it in the dumpster. Spent the next hour on the Internet looking at toaster ovens. I actually should just got the toaster low-end seven dollars. But I can just do so much more with the toaster oven. I eventually found something I was interested in and they had them up at Walmart which is just up the street from the apartments I made sure I was least smelly as possible, stuffed pads down my crotch grabbed by hook my black watch And took off. I should've taken the jacket but there was enough sunshine and a Windows warm enough that I did okay waiting for the bus. I was proud of myself that I went straight into the Walmart spent just a little bit of time trying to find the right toaster oven and eventually I settled on a device that has not only toaster oven capability – – four slices of toast at once – – but also has this error cooking feature that kind of “air – fries” food. I'm not sure how that works but I can do everything from cooking up my baking soda biscuits for biscuits and gravy, to all kinds of baking and warming things up like pizza without having to go through the microwave ='s slimy pizza. I don't mind the slimy pizza but crisp crunchy pizza would be nice just like when it's new. My big worry was how is going to get the toaster oven home. I was pleased when I finally grabbed the oven put on my lap that the toaster oven fit very nicely, I still would've liked a bungee cord or big plastic bag or something to ensure that didn't fall off my lap but now I could see I can basically get home as long I didn't drop it somewhere along the line. There's a bit of a trauma when I went to check out I couldn't find my credit card. Somehow the gun stuck at the bottom of the credit card slots I eventually found the plastic paid for the toaster oven and surprisingly enough was able to negotiate the trip to the bus stop, get on the bus and get back the apartment without dropping the toaster once. I have to bit I was kind of proud of myself. The toaster oven now sits in the space for the old toaster used to. The device is still boxed up I don't know whether I'll get the bet that are not. Tomorrow, I'll have breakfast with Mark Anthony at the D's down the street so I won't have to deal with morning toast quite yet but I'm getting excited about all the things you can do with the toaster oven…

Friday Night Thoughts

 

it's Friday night and here I sit in front of my computer screen updating my blog. I mean in other circumstances I probably would be doing just exactly the same thing but in different areas. Truth is I'm a pretty boring guy all things being equal. 25-30 years ago , when I would go out on a Friday night I wasn't much fun and quite often early on but start looking forward to being home in bed. Kind of crazy. I loved the illusion of some kind of “with it” kind of guy but knew how to party and be the life of the party. I wasn't. This is not a confession just a fact. That was when I was younger, had strength, and a vehicle. I had substance I was much more than just a facsimile of the American male. Tonight, besides writing this document, I'll be lucky to finish watching one of my Marvel movies are parts of them and then rolling into bed to do it all over tomorrow. Sometimes I really do feel like a character in the movie.

My home health person, Gloria, as indicated the last two weeks she was going to stop by and do some cleaning that has not happened yet. Tomorrow, supposedly, she'll be by the place around one or 2 PM after she finishes a weekend client to do some cleaning here. I really hope she shows up my place is in chaos. I live in a small apartment which means that it shouldn't take long to do a decent job. But I have all these boxes of skin support items cluttering up the house/apartment which may challenge the cleaner but I'm really willing to separate 20 to 40 bucks to see what she can do. I have great hopes.

Since almost 8:00 PM on a Friday night. When the putter around the apartment for a little bit longer maybe do some time on the Internet see if there's anything interesting happening out in Internet land tonight. If I didn't really motivated maybe I'll wander up to the second floor Coke machine and see what brand of carbonate I might like to ingest tonight. However I just remembered I have some tonic waters that I've had for some time that I've never gotten around to mixing gin and tonic. I have the gin and I have the tonic I just don't feel like I need to be gin rummy tonight but maybe a tonic might be okay. Anyway, happy Friday night everyone who puts your beginningto a great weekend

Procrastinator

See this mess under my rack? It's been there for about three weeks. My box of Cheerios, knock off Cheerios, got knocked from the rack and spilled on the floor. Other items fell off the rack at the same time and all of them are just eight on the floor irking me every time I looked at the mess. I don't know what is going on with me but I just couldn't bring myself to take the time and a broom to go over and sweep it up sort out the things I want to keep throwing thing else away. This would've been simple, it would be done and that would be it. I think secretly I'm trying to convince myself that I'm going to have a housekeeper who is going to come over and take care that mess. While obviously, the housekeeper has yet to materialize in the mess remains. I'm really hoping that my current home health care person is going to assist me with a little housekeeping services on the side. This is the last shot at private housekeeping services/provider the next step is to find some sort of upscale agency that provides these folks I know this will probably cost a fortune but maybe I can do little bits of the time. What I'm really hoping for some form of county or state systems that work with people disabilities are people who were seniors provide these desperately needed homemaker services. Actually full truth. This morning soon after getting up I grabbed a broom and went after the mess.And seriously took only a few minutes. I had my dustpan the long handle ready to go and sweep sweep sweep and everything was in the dustpan I sorted through the pens and pencils and chopsticks and a few electronic connecting cords in the space beneath the rack was clean and quite a respite for my eyes that I no longer had to look at everyday. This afternoon I actually made us trip to the new Dollar Store to find brushes to use to brush the dirt from the corners of my food prep area. I really do like to have a clean area to do my food prep. It's mostly dried-up food like the tops of pizzas, a lot of crust and when dried-up items like breadcrumbs, crushed crackers that just sort of get pushed to the side in the cracks that if I had a brush would make the job of cleaning up so much easier and look so much nicer. This afternoon I went to the store and found two great brushes that will do the trick came back brush them up and down the cracks and soon I'm ready to protect what's left with a damp cloth – – maybe I better soak the area for a few minutes or hours to make sure I get all the dried-up mess easier to deal with. I've been actually dealing with this issue for years but today in a few minutes at an all a dollar kind of place I got exactly what I needed. Why do I take so long? I wish I could say that I turned a new leaf I'm going to keep up this kind of housekeeping but I know I won't go to rely on that fantasy that someday I'm going to have a housekeeper will make all the difference…

More Stuff

 I just lost my complete blog for today! Rather than grind my teeth and do all kinds of mental gymnastics and ninja tech tricks to try to recover my last written document I find it easier just to let that the blog entry go and rewrite the whole thing. The trouble is the new entry is never as good as the last for the original. Remember last week maybe early this week that I was writing about “changes”. And so far one of those changes have been this urinary tract thing that I'm dealing with. I'm totally amazed at how quick the materials I needed to battle this problem. I'm not speaking about the paperwork that is piling up quickly and bloggers to fill the trees. Today I've done no less than two trips to the dumpster with Amazon boxes. Don't get me wrong I already cherish the items which came in the boxes. But I still have to get rid of the boxes. Luckily for me, as most of you know, the dumpster is just outside the back door which is just outside my apartment. This is actually kind of a new trait I've developed over the last year. I'm trying to break down and pulled up any boxes I receive and stuff them in the garbage or if the items are large enough just taking them directly to the dumpster. One of the best parts of having a significant other who is not only your ex-wife but also professional medical records expert, which means she's also an expert of research and loves to do research. She also has a bit of a philanthropic/altruistic side which is been providing me with all kinds of scented, medicated pads to deal with issues, secondary to urinary problems and most specifically pee oder. It's great to have exactly what one needs to combat the problems the only issue I have now is where to put these items. Luckily for me I have had all kinds of urinary product stuff like briefs and large bed pads. However, some of these pads are less viable than others. Still viable or not I have to store the big orange suckers somewhere. I have a whole blocks in the closet. I have another box on a shelf in my other closet in the bedroom plus more pads/briefs piled up behind my writing desk in the bedroom. I thought about stashing some of the items it came in today under the bed but if I do that then I have no place to put my lift when I'm trying to clean the bathroom.The answer of course is I need to stop hoarding which means I need to start getting rid of items I don't need like five or six pairs of sheets I have no use for which I keep thinking that one day I will have a use for. I brought home to sheets that are pretty nice from my recent trip to the ER. I didn't need any further sheets but now I have them. I just need to do some major pairing down. I can put all my supplies now on the shelves… As soon as I can make space

Gaining Control… Finally

 

I don't know if I'm healing because I don't know if you heal from spasmodic bladder neck whatever the hell I have but I think I'm beginning to feel I'm in more control than I have been. I've been getting pretty spooky over the last couple of days with the amount of urine I've spilled on the bed (be fully aware that I had numerous pads underneath me catching all this stuff) on my clothes etc. etc. perhaps one of the things that's freaked me out the most is feeling that completely covered with urine And I'm completely radiating the odor of dried uric acid. The senior bus rider smell. Also secondary to this battle with urine I'm currently going through is that many times in the morning I wake and the pads I'm using our saturated and I have to transfer from the bed and to my chair. Typically, I use the pads as a smooth sliding device to let me inched to the side of the bed swing my legs over and then tried to produce a guided fall into my chair. The problem with the wet pads is that their major friction devices that cause me difficulty of making this transfer to the point were a couple of times I thought is, go to the floor. I confided in Dianne some of these worries I've been having and of course in her best manner went right to work researching what I needed. She's found these great pads that holds up to 2 cups of liquid i.e. pee. I don't know if I completely believe that the holds enough to get me through some tight spots like running from apartments to the market and back again. And maybe just maybe, assist me with my sleep issues as far as trying to stay dry.

As you know this was all happening again yesterday afternoon. We spent some time visiting with Dianne sometime during the day chatting on the Internet in this morning hundred and four high-quality pads arrived at my door! Amazing! Just amazing. I'm still figuring out how to best use these new pads with the soon to be pretty effective with gives me great rise to hope. Now, I've also taken strides to make sure that I have transportation to my visit to the urologist the first part of November. Since that is the next step in trying to figure out what's going on with my poor bladder. I just hope it's not cancer since Lombardi ruled out infections. Now, I'm thinking maybe I will increase my home health visits so I did a shower every day. That's a lot of people in my life I really don't want to have. Three days a week is fine but seven… I just don't know. Still, I don't know how many times the fire department will come to pick me up off the floor. I'm going to contact Salt Lake County Senior services to see if there's a rumor programs that might be eligible for. I really doubt that there is but I keep hearing this verbal mirage that people are getting services just like me through these senior programs somewhere I think they'll be something that allow me to keep being as independent as I need to be in some degree of comfort…

Just Passing Through

 

I think I might be passing through one of those “defining” moments of life. You know something that changes how you live your life from that point on. In my case what's happening right now is not a exact moment in time so much as a group of moments in time showing me that I really am not a Superman and that, I'm as mortal as any man. I know, I hate to write that, because it certainly puts me in my place as a mortal being without a the great illusions of living eternally . So rather than a great lightning bolt which means change I'm passing through multiple gun salute and that might be as bright as it gets Where in the end will show me that I'm ready to enter another phase of mortal life (now don't have an go get upset about Mark talking about the endgame in life ending stuff) but entering into what I call the endgame that preparation. I guess we lucky ones get the tie off loose ends of ends the loose and everyone has loose ends the function of life. I'm not really any better right now that I've been all week I don't necessarily think I'm any worse but I also know, I am no better either things have to change. Today I made contact with Salt Lake County aging services which runs a van service for medical issues. Plus service aimed for senior Salt Lake County residents to meet some of the needs of the community. I did the whole process on the phone which I thought was great. I went through the whole intake process with “Julie”. And now I'm set as soon as I'm allowed in. I guess there's some guys don't make it .And I don't know yet until they call me which should be a couple of days. The big important thing about this is that I'll be able to use the transportation function which is a van service to medical and governmental appointments for senior citizens – – one of which am I. So provided that I am selected or approved then within two weeks notice of a medical appointment these guys will pick me up and take me to the appointment and then return me at its end.You know the whole government control thing that's okay” there it can be really beneficial to me as I get through this change. I'm not the young person I used to be climbing on buses, going to strikes and being generally obnoxious. Now I'm just generally old and obnoxious and that's okay to its all part of the change.

Not wobbling everything on this power chair with the issues that it has – – and I really believe this had something to do with my present situation. Because now on top of the issues with bladder control I'm struggling with the possibility of pressure sores or whatever. To make matters worse yesterday or maybe it was Saturday I look down and somehow I had done something dramatic to my big toe, on my right foot. Only reason I even noticed was the pool blood on the floor the bathroom and even then I couldn't find where I was bleeding – – that had to be me or my blood because I was the only one in the bathroom. I was the only one in the apartment for that matter. And then I've noticed last day or two a big black dot on my toll and I haven't paid much attention to it until this afternoon when I visited my friend Billie she indicated that it was infected which I really did not want to hear on top of everything else that's going wrong with me. But she said they looked infected in could be swollen I was in denial on both counts but I've been thinking about situation ever since since and Now I'm becoming a bit paranoid. Wouldn't it be weird to be taken out by a big toll it went septic? Happy face.

A Cookie Is Still A Cookie

There's nothing more charming and delightful then a real-life sugar cookie with hard red frosting. This is my belief. Sugar cookies come from grandmothers,Older sisters and sometimes younger sisters, room mothers (grade school you know?I like my sugar cookies hard not soggy nearly cooked pastries. I don't quite remember when soggy cookies became the fad certainly not my fad. Still a cookie is a cookie when you got love cookies regardless of their density and thoroughness of their baking. This morning I was surprised when Mark Anthony offered a cookie sent over from his wife Kristie for me. I was delighted. I realize this is one of the new modern type cookies sold for thickness and being partially cooked – – in all fairness I must say this cookie was well done well not well done but cooked all the way through the dough was a little bit flaky that's okay a cookie is a cookie. The icing was slathered on, a thick flaky icing not all like I enjoy maybe it's cause it's a poor man's icing if there is such a thing. That icing you whip up with powdered sugar and apply with anything from broad butter knives to spatulas and for me the best part is the icing hardens to as smooth as ice finish over the cookie. The second to realize his work howling cookies yes I know Halloween is now less than a week away as the holiday march continues.

Personal update – – because I know you really want to know – – I think I'm healing little by little my volume is still nothing to what it used to be hopefully they'll come with time. Mark Anthony worked late last night but I don't think he was really up to doing zoom around. I didn't sleep well either of course. So I called me this morning and early political know that I was really not feeling well enough to go out our brave enough to go out without a bathroom close. I did request that he come over and help me shower because I'd been in a urine soaked bed for so long. He complied wholeheartedly and did a really great job I was impressed. I have to go from Friday morning to Monday morning without a poop, you know that's a long time come around Sunday morning I'm beginning to feel a little uncomfortable, little scared that I might slip or my bowels might slip, just insecure. That would be the rest of my Sunday a lot better – – perhaps if I had a Saturday night shower/program note certainly free me up for the Sunday breakfast. I shall have to ponder this. I'm exit feeling pretty good right now, tonight, as I write this. Tomorrow, my home health person should be here. I elected not to use the medications they wrote for me day before yesterday. Both prescriptions may cause diarrhea side effect. Both times I used the revocation I woke up with a real spooky feeling as good a cream the bed. Luckily I barely missed the bullet and got off A-OK. Now I know this won't last forever and body number will come up so important time either in the privacy of my home are most likely out in public somewhere, on a bus, on a train or at a movie theater so I guess I should not complain if a bowel mistake happens in bed or at the house the least I won't be in public. I could sure go for two sugar cookies with dark red frosting and a cold glass of milk…

Saturday Night Delight

 

There is just something simplistically noble about a pepperoni pizza it's just so humble; whether you make it a home are ordered from dominoes, Pizza Hut or some other pizza franchise. It's just simply special. I visualize ancient families in Italy who made pizza as part of their lifestyle (I know I'm open myself up to a lot of weird speculation and silliness this pizza was probably developed here in USA bike everything else) anyway the family had just plain pizza mom addicted though fire the crust PIZZA SAUCE if there was pizza sauce probably more like just made a sauce whatever they get their hands on during the week and on Fridays well maybe not Fridays lest they just had anchovies but on Saturday night they went down to the basement pull down their reading of pepperoni or stick very sparingly sliced off very thin slices to decorate the pizza pie with. Remember earlier in the week I made a hamburger pizza which is one of my favorites – – brings back the old home feelings especially on Fridays or Saturday nights mom would make pizza. No round pizzas for us they were square pizzas from a cookie Pan with real homemade dough with pizza sauce, cheddar cheese, black olives of were lucky I don't think she ever put onions on – – but she could have. All I know is that she would make at least two pizzas more of my friends were spending the night. If had pizza during the week it was great because we always had left overs. This is probably where I picked up the habit of totally enjoying leftover pizza particularly if it's been left out and dries out a little bit. Maybe this was a survival technique I developed because nobody in my family really liked leftover pizza or pizza that are left out. That meant I had total enjoyment specials mornings when I had to streak out to the bus stop, no time for breakfast but I could grab a couple pieces of pizza to eat on the way to school that was wonderful.

Update on physical status I still am having challenges urinating. However, I did get the scripts filled today and we'll see how that works. Either seriously was going to try to get dressed and go over there to the market but I could barely do the wash this morning and that was just going for my apartment to the laundry going back and having to deal with urgencies all the way back and forth. Of note, I did find some pads like underpads likes underpants but there highly absorbent plus regular pads. I had the stuffed away in the closet in fact I give away I don't know how many packs of pads this last summer discounts I couldn't see how it would ever use them – – more stupidity on my part. Medication I got one should decrease the PAIN from the precieved urine build up and the other does something along the same line on the urinary level. All I know is one turns the pad yellow orange (see earlier post of the week). But I'm thinkingif I were a pair of the Pads to bed I might just sleep whole lot better and not risk urine burns on the body. – – I'm just a mess.

Subtle very Subtle

 

I'm exhausted tonight I've been up since at least 3:30 AM. Another night of suffering with an unresponsive urinary track. I guess it's a good deal that infection is been ruled out now, twice But we haven't really started any significant solutionary impact. I was really hoping with another night behind me that sleep would come better or at least easier… I was wrong. I was so tired when I went to bed that I tried to read a chapter out of my book and before I knew it I woke up an hour later my book in my hands just laying there. I quietly put the marker at the book book on the table bedside and tried to get some sleep. But again as before the bladder or whatever thinks it's full and sends out the appropriate messages but the bladder is essentially empty just a few milliliters of the most. Then the body game would start of make the brain think it's got a full bladder have the body get up and find the catheter lubricated insert only to find just a few drops. Fall back to the bed pull the covers up around and over in five or 10 minutes later the process starts again. Not only was body behavior inconvenient, frustratingIn the sleep deprivation is dangerous. I don't know what got me into the thought process or even wanting to but I was soon contemplating dialing 911 and going into the hospital.

And of course that's what I did. Called 911 who dispatched employees of United fire Federation . I was shocked at how provincial these guys active. In fact I almost got the impression they were little put out For having to get up and go out on the run so early in the morning. Long story short the guys brought in a gurney and lifted beyond to it leaving my power chair at home – – because there is no way to transport which is a big negative in my book. In all fairness was hostility was not directed at just the guy in a wheelchair is the got the feeling that it was for everything these guys had to do they weren't happy about doing it. It really reminded me of how they staffed the early ambulances. Really men who couldn't get work other areas ended up jockeying ambulances around cities. Similar to my theory on painters kind of paint your house, barn etc. etc. These guys can get jobs and many other venue except for going out picking up bodies. The experience today was the same experience I had yesterday actually. They pulled blood, took my pulse another vitals. Eventually they turn me loose with two prescriptions and medication to relax the bladder which should stop the spasms and added bonus turning my Urine bright orange– – How cool is that?

Finally around 9:00 AM they turn me loose which was a problem and of itself sense they took me without my power chair so there is really no way for me to get home except for contacting the ambulance boys to drive me back and set me in my chair. Luckily I didn't have to use Unified Fire to return home scripts home with me and I spent a good part of the afternoon Worrying about becoming more and more dependent. This having to rely on the ambulance jocks really brought that home. Without my power chair and everything it does for me I'm kind of loser. Right now I just want to get my life back as far as not having to think I have 2P all the time

Drip Drip Snip Snap

 

Another hard night of waking up to piss , numerous times, only to produce a few drops literally less than 10 mL of urine and then try to go back to sleep again in the whole process begins again less than 15 minutes. Finally, I did fall off into some semblance of sleep but then DD called at 5:15 AM. She was getting ready to leave for the airport is coming back to Utah today and want to know how I was faring. I told her what event happening with me bladder wise or UT wise. She of course, freaked out especially with the low amounts of urine production and the false urgencies. I've been wondering if I need to be acting more aggressive on the whole situation. I I have been kind of waiting around for the medical people to tell me what to do but getting anxious to the point of I should just go in I need started some rest. I assured her I was becoming extremely concerned. I wouldn't order an ambulance or even a cab for that matter and take the bus into the ER to get some movement on this issue. I don't know if you remember but today is also the day that I'm scheduled to go get the stitches taken out of my mouth from the tooth extraction last week But that's not until 2:10 PMAs well as coffee group and today Gloria and her friend Trina were going to come and actually start working on the apartment cleanup. Also they became very busy.

It was a bit challenging, this morning, getting dressed. Got a problem with the foot pedal is a long story is just say that it was difficult for me to keep my 1 foot on the pedal as I got dressed. Took me a while. I eventually got everything pulled on a couple pieces of cold pizza and a ripe banana and headed out. Luckily it's a beautiful day for traveling everything was working except my bladder or sphincter or something. Dianne really wanted me to call an ambulance or at least a taxi that I figured why waste the money when once I get on the bus I'm there few minutes and it have to wait around till the cab got here. I checked the schedule on my cell phone and had about 20 minutes to get things squared away. It was a clean fast trip. I have to admit I'm always excited that the ED (emergency department). It was a pretty decent experience I did not have to wait very long. My resident was efficient and very professional she actually cut it reminded me of the Black Widow for Marvel. Long story short I'm okay at least from what we found this morning. There's something definitely wrong somewhere with good take a very long trip out to the urologist to get a better look and diagnosis. But as far as the ER is concerned the kid is look good, my bladder looks good everything looks good but just don't know why things are working and I have nonproductive urine urge. This did give me a little comfort to know that I wasn't an immediate crisis I just can't seem to generate any urine nonproductive level. They have this really weird system which assigns patients to neurologists depending on the day they come into the ER each urologist has a separate day and all referrals that be from the ER go to the specific neurologist. Today I was lucky enough to get a Dr. Fisher whose office is way out in Sandy, 13^th East and 9600 S. I kind of put up a fight For All of us closer to my home and accessible by public transit but it seems, I have to go, to Sandy so let us pray for good weather.

The stitches came out easily. I just laid back in my chair and Cindy one of the dental techs just Snipped and tugged about it came. I was surprised but There was just one large suture. And now I'm back in my apartment with my heater on trying to stay awake and not piss myself…

Cry Baby Pizza

 

I know I sound like a broken record but it's “my party and I'll cry if I want to…”. I finally got the return call from my doctor or his representative today. I don't know if she was a position, resident or medical student which is certainly sounded proficient but she told me specifically that what they found on the long term cultural growth was that there was nothing there! Least at least there were no growths, there is no bacteria growing therefore no infection. This, at first sounds great, but then as the bloom slowly lets me down to earth I realize that if there is no infection what's going on? On top of this information I was told that the medication that was prescribed – – which is a really killer medication to the point where it had me beginning diarrhea would have no effect – – when asked if I no longer do you take it I couldn't see her shrug but I could tell up from her voice – – – yeah, it doesn't matter. Inasmuch as I really didn't want this heavy duty, diarrhea causing, medication I really felt that it was beginning to kick in. Even though sleeping is still difficult it's not as difficult as it was. Now, I get to stop taking the meds and hopefully the Diarrhea will cease. So tomorrow my main goal is to contact a urologist which I've been referred and start the next process of finding out what exactly is wrong. Again, I'm not try to be histrionic, I'm beginning to imagine the worst case scenarios and just what the physician might find maybe even worse the RX. It could have been just placebo effect but I really felt that my body was beginning to turn around from the medication I was taking. Multiple urine urges resulted in less than 10 mL of urine within a 10 to 15 minute time period seem to be extinguishing little bit by little bit. I been able to generate voiding accumulations of 400 mL which is usual for me. This morning I actually drain 700 mL from all-night! I'm trying to stay upbeat on the whole thing and am thankful that I am not suffering as much as I was a couple days ago. I'm getting more and more confidence of being able to go out without possible repercussions of urinary accident as well as bowel accident probably up there with the worst two things which could happen to a person in social settings – – both have happened to me and believe me it's not pleasant.

Couple nights ago I salvaged a package of one of those bags that had two pizza blanks inside you know a cooked pizza crust that all you have to do is put on the dressing and pop it in the oven which I did tonight. I'm not really sure how much I trust these crests but their free and I have just about everything I need for a decent pizza but I got more. I got real shredded pizza cheese, one can of mushrooms, one can of olives, I had a green pepper and I used the last of my onions and I went to town. I have a lot of ingredient I didn't realize the crusts were as small as they were the pizza turned out pretty good at least for me. The crusts are okay for pre-manufactured but I'm kind of anxious to throw another pizza crust it's been a while and it's relatively easy to make and do even for me the impetuous quad

I Can Do This!

It's not that I'm not grateful. After all I was able to get in and drop off my urine sample and get my medication started. The problem and I'm having is that the medication she sweet taken his time kicking in maybe even worse is that one of the slide effects is diarrhea! Diarrhea is not something that a person with limited function and who lives by themselves can deal with. I wish somebody, anybody would have advised me About the possible side effects of the medication. I really would've considered something different but like I said I'm grateful they got me and got me started so I have to be civilized.

 I was literally up all might long trying to ease my urgency problem – – feeling like you got ago but to not really producing anything. Finally about 3 AM I was able to get some sleep. I'm just praying tonight that I be able to get some rest without pooping the bed. This morning I just want to talk to a medical person about my situation and see what ideas they might have. By the way I missed my Assist, Inc. meeting today that I was so sick and tired. So I was up relatively early and advise the folks that I wasn't being able to come in for the meeting. They were pretty cool. Right afterwards I called my doc and of course I did not get past reception to promise they would have somebody get back with me. I went the whole day expecting to have someone contact me which never happened and so at 4:30 PM I made another call and reception just did the same indicating that the docs are busy and they'll get to their phone messages sooner or later. Really I'm hanging out here what do I do? This is watching the news and begin formulate a plan this afternoon/evening. I'm going to try to take some of my anti-diarrhea pills that I've had for ages. I got them years ago when sometimes it works I felt like I was a little diuretic. So I will try some of those and see what happens. Worst-case scenario plugs me up which I could deal with to get through this bladder infection. Maybe I'll get lucky and avoid a blowout and by tomorrow maybe the meds will kick in and get control bladder again. It looks like once again I'm headed for change Tristan my home health guy seems like he may be disappearing, there's always more to the story, but my home health people called this afternoon to let me know. On the bright side however the person that is replacing Tristan and who they feel will be a good fit will be able to do me at 6:30 AM which is perfect. In fact tomorrow she's coming at 5:30 AM which worries me a little bit but I would rather be early then waiting till 8:30 AM 9 AM or even later To start my day. Trying to stay upbeat on this urinary infection. I really want to believe that my life is going to go back to being like it was Maybe even for a couple years I don't want much.

Monday Night Moans

 

I was pleased when I noticed a message flash on my cell phone this morning that my description was ready to be picked up! I give myself up for an intense morning of communicating or trying to communicate with my physician's office in trying to run down the lab results for my urine sample from yesterday and then having the prescription sent over to my pharmacy. Imagine my relief when I got the message was all done. The morning started out dark and gloomy but luckily the real storm had not wandered in yet. Even though the outside looked dismal it was actually temperate and I actually dug out my red fluffy coat which I wear great deal of the time during the winter especially when the precipitation snow or rain. The red jacket was probably little overkill for today but it made me feel good to where it and to know that it was ready to go for the upcoming season.

I was proud of myself I pretty much stuck to my goal of just picking up the prescription and returned home. Remember yesterday I was talking about how I thought that I would be okay bladder infection lies because I was on amoxicillin for my tooth wear my pharmacist told me that the script that I picked up the day was super intense and was focused the work primarily in the urinary area. In fact the pharmacist told me to be sure to ingest The medication during meals because he said the body absorbs this medication better that way. I've taken the medication now it's probably been seven hours and maybe I'm expecting too much from the medication but it's hasn't really started doing anything yet. I'm still fairly symptomatic which means I have to catheterize every 20 or 30 minutes and only getting out 10 or 20 mL of urine. I'm sure it'll kick him. If I get real brave and actually look at what the medication as and how it works.

The positive message that I've had this morning first thing was kind of offset when my home health guide did not show up at 8:30 AM are at 9 AM at 9:30 AM I was getting really concerned I got a call from the agency that my guy had run into some family emergencies you had to take care of today and the agency was scrambling trying to find someone to handle me. They want to know what I wanted to do I told him I want my shower my poop and that was that. I told him that I didn't really want to get dressed have to undress and everything in the middle of the day so I'd wait till 10 AM and if nothing happens than will regroup then. 9:50 AM I hear knocking the door and Melanie walks in. For the faithful reader Melanie was my home health person before Tristan started who is the “substitute” provider. I found that Melanie has cancer in fact she's lost 40 pounds – – and this was a chick didn't have 40 pounds to lose – – in fact she was started her chemo regimen as soon as she finished with me and sadly Melanie did look like death warmed over.Melanie does even have a car right now and one of the management guys drove her over. Jeff could've more than done the job himself I don't know why didn't it was a shame to put Melanie through this. I hope she makes it but I don't hold out much hope which is really too bad.I spent the rest of the day just focused on trying to feel better and keep myself from totally getting wet from a leaking Dick. I did cook and actual dinner tonight hamburger patties one of my favorites not just hamburger patties but mini meatloaf patties nights where the old days. I even had mashed potatoes and gravy feels like a Monday night

Traveling Man

 

Each day is a gift – – I know this And I try to practice this go to the end concept. All I don't go marching around preaching the concept are trying to witnesses like a born-again but I like to practice the news each day as the gift it is to me. Sadly and I try not to dwell on it, that my gifts or days are going to end at some point in time relatively soon. That's okay I've got a lot of gifts many of which are stored in my memories. This is good.

Today my gift came early waking at four clock or something like that and not being able to get back to sleep which is okay because it's Sunday and we have breakfast on Sundays over at the restaurant. I actually slept relatively well considering I'm battling disinfection of whatever it is. My goal however was to somehow get over to a clinic with a urine sample and and if I have some kind of super bladder infection I want to get medication that will knock the disease out. Great breakfast with Mark Anthony and Jasmine and later Mark took Jasmine home and returned with his scooter to help clean up around my apartment which I greatly appreciated. While he did that we found the Insta care clinic that I go to to see if they were opened day for urine samples we found such a facility at the great I HC facility in Murray Utah. The only problem is we had to get the urine sample over there which basically meant a trip on public transit The only problem is on Sundays transit moves slowly. I mean what are usually half an hour pickup times turn into one of our pickup times if not longer. So Mark Anthony suggested that we just drive over there in a power chair and on his scooter. I didn't think that a great idea but Mark talked me into the challenge. I really didn't think my chair would make such a trip on a battery charge that Mark convinced me that we often go as far as what the computer said the distance was from my apartment to the medical center. Aside from the bladder issue which is making me feel like I have to urinate there are half an hour or so and my butt feeling pretty much okay for such a trip I figured let's give it a shot.

To beautiful day, clear with lots of sunshine and fairly warm temperatures preceding a storm rolling in later today. We truly went over Hillandale's traveling in the street on the sidewalks and sometimes down some alleys on our trek. I was totally impressed at how well my body held up to this challenge. Aside from being a bit bumpy and having to place a spasmodic leg onto the foot pedal two or three times I did okay. I got my specimen handed them and it's good to bus back to the apartments. I was filled with great anticipation that the physician would actually send in my script to the pharmacy. Is working with this on-call doc name Ricin it was okay but the little aloof. He was to give me a call for directions once he had the specimen looked at initially I guess the still going to try to grow cultures. Of course I did not have my phone immediately available when he called and I missed it mirrors a 45 minute search for the answers service to contact him and call me again and then he pretty much told me that he left a message on my phone answering service which he did but basically told me that he called the information into my “My Chart” software. I hate this kind of stuff! I'm sure everything is there but I was in no mood to try to get a hold of ricin again and he didn't want to hear from me. I spent an hour trying to get into my chart. Of course it needs names and passwords I have long forgotten and didn't seem to have any luck in establishing new passwords in such. So getting any medication today is a no go. So, tomorrow after my program all call my doc and see if I can get them to open up my “My Chart” or maybe just give me the information about whether or not they've sent a prescription and and then find out just what the hell is going on with my body.

The last part was, the downer I know but when I got home I had logged 6.1 miles on my chair I'd gone all the way from my apartment there and basically got back again and the chair did not feel me once I was and still impressed it was a pretty good day…

The Next Morning After

 

There's something going on with me I don't know what it is got me a little spooked but not enough to really go the next step which would be to get myself over to the Insta care and see if I've got a major raging bladder infection. I should've gone to day but I didn't. I don't know if I just too lazy, did more weight than the buses because it was Saturday and the wait times a longer or I just didn't get going in time. What really throws me is that I'm on this antibiotic which should take care of anything is happening to me right now shouldn't it?

What makes me think it's a bladder infection is that all night long I kept waking up every hour or so having to piss and each time I would only produce about 100 mL liquid which is very much at all. In the past when I've had bladder infections I've been plagued with the “urgency” syndrome which is thinking that one has a full bladder and feeling the urgency to get to the bathroom to unload the bladder and then draining very little if any urine at all. And it seems like I've had secondary symptoms as well which I don't really remember but usually at least a fever or something but I don't feel bad at all really except frustrated at feeling ill at ease or not confident of being out in public on my own. It's not like I'm not producing urine I think of doing that just fine it's just that I'm not being able to store my usual 400 mL before I start feeling the urgency to get to a toilet. I mean last night was a trip I kept waking up thinking that I have to piss and then produce hardly anything and try to get back to sleep which oddly I was able to do. I was so tired there were times when I drop my equipment to cath and I would actually fall asleep with the catheter in my hand. If I didn't cath – – knowing that there was not enough liquid of my bladder to produce more than a few mLS . I guess I wasn't afraid of what he myself since it only been an hour or so since the last time I tried to drain so I didn't have time to really produce a lot of urine. This is even make sense to anyone?. Like I said this leads me to the thought that what I do have some kind of a bladder infection.

Mark Anthony is already called and wants to do breakfast again tomorrow which is all right with me he also wants to do the Russian broadcast and he wants to go zooming. I don't know if I'll be able to do the zooming part for reasons I've just outlined. Maybe tomorrow I may just have to consider jumping the bus regardless of the wait time head over to Insta care to see if they Any ideas and possible solutions to my problem. I'm sure they well. Like I said, however, I'm just a little confused because I thought the antibiotic that I'm taking would be knock something like A bladder infection out. It wouldn't surprise me my w life , I'm is going pretty well right due for a sucker punch…

Morning After

 

I'm too exhausted to put in an image

I am kind of surprised. Even though I feel like I've been a major fight and lost not feeling that bad physically speaking. Granted my jaw is tender with a tooth was extracted and the three stitches feel strange to my probing tongue whenever it wanders over to that area of the mouth I feel pretty good. There are times during the day when I have a bit of a headache which I know is a direct result from the trauma and I feel extremely tired even though I slept till almost 7:15 AM , which never happens, I think again it was the stress and trauma of the three hours up to and during the extraction process. I even thought about going out and doing something today like possibly taking a couple movies but when I got the directions about taking it easy, no stress, I figured well of got everything I need here to stay home. I didn't even do my arm bike today because I think that would fall under the stress category. I'm even eating semi-solid foods. However I did have a issue with a Fritos corn chip that a piece snuck over from my right hand slide over to the wound side and just barely touched the end of the trauma area. I swear had I not been signaled in the my power chair out of gotten up and walked around the room.

For breakfast I had the rest of my mashed potatoes and gravy that went over pretty easy and tasted quite good. Coffee and orange juice rounded out the beverage component. Are quite limited as to how much I can open my mouth or how wide. So I'm ingesting small pieces of food whether they be broken up pieces of chocolate cake donuts or small Spoonfuls of tamale pie casserole with cottage cheese. I still have some small cups of butterscotch pudding available and tubs of yogurt for a few I need something. I also have some cups of ice cream in the freezer that need to be used up. At this point everything is oral.

This afternoon my wheelchair mechanic/Alan showed up to repair my arm on my power chair. He had to get a new part we figured out a way to do it under the chairs warranty so it's not been a cost me boy

do I appreciate that. I asked him what he planned to do this weekend what were big plans Alan said It would be watching BYU and Baylor University football game. I held my tongue and supported him in his choice of a wonderful weekend. I'm just glad to have a chair that works again and allows me the chance to be as independent as I possibly can. I'm a fast healer tomorrow should be better than today and Sunday even better than that. Temperatures again will be in the upper 50s and lower 60s with plenty of sunshine. I don't plan to overdo anything maybe sit in the sun covered in blankets and read my novel…

Open Wide

 

Every once in a while I do something fairly smart, it's not often but I do come through… Every once in a while. Today it was having the wherewithal to run over to the market and get a half pound of mashed potatoes and gravy for dinner tonight. I didn't know really want to expect except for I knew that I wasn't going to want to do much masticating. I was scheduled for 3 o'clock extraction of the last remaining wisdom tooth on the lower left side of my mouth. That had temporary crown on that tooth or what's left of it for the past four years but I've written about this before. I also just bananas was at the market which I figure will also be easy to eat in the next couple of days.

I just really finished draining my bladder a little after 2 o'clock and rinsing my mouth for the event

when I got a phone call from the dentist's office that they were ready for me if I could come then which is more than happy to oblige. I can't say that I was anxious but I really do enjoy hanging out with the staff at this little dentist office. Immediately took me up to the nitrous oxide and I began to deep breathe in hopes of lifting my psyche of far away from what was going to happen is possible. Finally with all the preliminaries out of the way the good doctor began to numb up my mouth. For the next 45 minutes if not a bit longer the good Dr. Anderson shot syringe after syringe of novocaine or whatever into my mouth. I don't know if it was me or I was I being over cautious but I want to make sure my mouth is good and dead as did the doctor. They got to the point that the doctors begin to wonder if maybe I wasn't going to numb up enough because he obviously had not hit the right nerve. He said that he didn't dare use anymore analgesic We may have food for the whole session and come back tomorrow. I really didn't have a problem with that solution except for I did want to get this out of the way. Finally he checked my mouth one last time and I didn't feel the pinprick or even the pressure he applied to the area. He figures I was under Enough. I mean seriously how did people do this kind of oral stuff before modern technology?! I mean it would've been brutal, brutal is not the word. I was afraid this was going to be a world-class torturous event but also not heard “we got out Mark” I think Dr. Anderson was as surprised as I was. I was still maximum tensed up and almost did not believe I've heard correctly. The doctor said the tooth site was super infected with Two pus sacks. He did a lot of scraping and eventually did three stitches which will come out in the week. I'm usually not one for pain pills and such but I took one while ago remember going to take another Before I go to bed which is shortly– – But I'm not hungry because I planned ahead with mashed potatoes and gravy…

Losing The Crown

Today's snow on Salt Lake bench is

My tooth has stopped aching. I'm not sure what that means except that the pain I was experiencing the first of the week and all of last week now has subsided to almost nothing. And the reason I bring this up is that tomorrow at 3 PM I'm scheduled to have my tooth extracted. The molar with the temporary, spending by its lonesome in the back of my mouth on the lower left side. I think we stuck the temporary On their at least three years ago, possibly four and I never got around to getting the real/permanent crown and then the doctor and I sort of sort of “in this gave a chicken about how long that temporary crown would last. As I it's been acting up the last week and a half. I've been living on Tylenol and ibuprofen to get through the days of the nights. Now yesterday or maybe day before miraculously the pain is all but stopped in the molar as well as the teeth above it. I think the teeth above the molar are okay and what I've been experiencing with them is just referred pain from the temporary crown. My knee-jerk reaction is to call the doctor's office to cancel the extraction but that stupid because the pain is going to come back. Perhaps the pain stop because I've been faithfully taking the amoxicillin or whatever cillin three times a day. Maybe the drug has stopped the abscess and whatever else is happening in my mouth. I need to put on my big boy pants and roll over there at 3 o'clock tomorrow afternoon and do the extraction. If I don't I'm sure I'm going to be sorry. There was a time Not so long ago that I would be freaking out even contemplating tomorrow's extraction having to develop these incredible mind games to get me through the time until the procedure. Now it's like shrug my shoulders and say let's do it and get through it. I had another quasi-medical procedure this morning – – I don't know if to nail clippings count as such but it's done by a trained medical person. The procedure was straightforward enough was really challenging is the weather is taken a dreadful turn to the cold. I know I'm still wearing my shorts which I will continue to do. I just have to become acclimated to the new temperatures. This will happen. The I'm on track for yet a new housekeeper. It seems my one temporary home health delivery person, Gloria has a friend who does housecleaning. On a little cautious because this was the same friend that Gloria had some emotional issues with last week when Gloria was going through some trauma of her own. Not that I'm desperate, but I kind of am. If nothing else the experience could be very interesting and maybe on the positive side, be the development of a real positive resource for me and helping somebody else out of the same time… As well as helping myself out. Again, I'm not that altruistic as much as I'm selfish and want to feel good about my living environment. I just have to keep my fingers crossed…

Tuesday Night Delight

 

It really wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be. Dinner that is. For the past couple weeks I've been coveting a good tamale pie. I like the almost instant variety of tamale pie which is basically a canned chili in the saucepan covered with cheese and then covered with Frito corn chips. All the things I really like. My stove/oven had been kind of inaccessible for the last couple weeks. Maybe the other not so much as the rest of the kitchen which really sort of put me off wanting to put together anything semi-complicated. But today with the rain and the wind in the cold weather I felt like I wanted to do something somewhat robust and what's more robust than tamale pie? Last week I picked up three cans of Hormel tamales and already had cans of chili. I do have a can of Hormel chili and I should've used it instead of I used a can of chili that I got from the sharing shelf which may not of been that great idea The Did not even have beans in the chili.

Went to work to bring everything into my casserole dish made sure it took the papers off the tamales the can. The cover them with the can of Chili beans which looked disgusting but I was committed. The canned chili with no beans was a pretty much gelatinous mess so I decided to add the canned Hormel chili which seemed to help a lot as far as the visual went as a good bit of shredded cheese on top of that a nice cheddar I been purchasing of already shredded them cover the top with Fritos corn chips. I should've put a can of all lives in the mess as well as some jalapeno peppers but quite frankly by that point in the game I was pretty tired and just want to have some dinner. The news was on as I put the mess in the oven space and let it cook for 35 minutes. It's really difficult for me to get things into and out of the oven I slop a lot. But at the 45 minute mark I opened the of and pulled out the casserole and dished up my dinner leaving the mother lode in the hotbox. Like I said as I started the dinner was not as good as I'd anticipated. I did have a couple of jalapeno peppers in the table scooter to a cottage cheese on top that made an okay dinner and I have a lot of leftovers which should stretch for the end of the week. I'll toss in the refrigerator letter congeal up a little bit then carve Out bowls full for the rest of the week. I had spent last night and this morning cleaning the kitchen are trying to. It was great getting back in and cooking. I have a pound of hamburger defrosted for just think of going to form a meatloaf very soon. Thursday I have a tooth extraction and meatloaf and mashed potatoes and gravy sounds like a survivable dinner…

Less Then A Mile

 

Would

I should worry about myself. I'm becoming a bit of a hermit. Today I've only gone 8/10 of a mile partially because I didn't have anywhere else to go, partially because overture storm is bearing down on the Wasatch front and partially I was trying to survive my reality as it is right now. But good things come out of the day I'm totally amazed at how things go.

I was a bit worried starting out because Tristan, my home health person, who was a stand-in for Melanie who has disappeared into some form of long-term hospital care. Tristan, has become my go to person but Kristen is young and seems to travel a lot especially on weekends. I cannot be mad at Tristan, because that's what young people do, that's what people should do especially after the psychological trauma he's been through the last couple weeks as long as I'm covered that's all I care. Well, the stress would've been a lot less significant had my temporary for Tristan been my usual temporary for Kristen who was/is Gloria and if my possible cleaning person hadn't chosen to data be her first day. I was promised by the agency that was ever substituting for Gloria/Tristan would be at my place at 7:30 AM which I figured I could work with because Sunflower, the possible cleaning person, had I didn't kid she could be here at 9 AM this morning. I was a little concerned about having her come in with me being butt naked hanging from my slaying being given my enema. I did not know what to expect. Welcomes I didn't matter because by 7:30 AM home health first didn't show up tell a little after 9 AM and Sunflower informed me that this would not be a good day to be doing any cleaning because she was exhausted. However, she indicated she would or could drop by just to scout out the premise and the demands that it might place on her timewise and otherwise.

It all worked out kind of. Sunflower is a very high strung individual who really does not have the organizational skills I might need in a housekeeper. I think my place freaked her out to be honest with you. She was going to visit with my son (who referred her to my needs) after I visit with Mark Anthony about whether or not to engage her as a housekeeper. She volunteered to do regular cleaning type things like sweeping, mopping cleanup service counters etc. but the counters must be exposed first. I think she has potential to do some housekeeping for me but not what I was really looking at or hoping for. I think Gloria's if I can get her to work as a housekeeper for me Gloria might work out If she can. However, Gloria is also going through a ton of personal issues and I don't know if she can break free. So I'm kind of back to square one. More to come for sure…

I called my trusty go to person Alan who works for the wheelchair shop/Intermountain healthcare systems to see if he can put the restraint belt back under my chair which is taken off last Thursday was trying to fix the left arm of my chair. He asked to stop by later on in the afternoon and fixed my restraint but also he listened to my complaints about how problematic this chair is been and he indicated that he could push the warranty – – was nobody else had and I really didn't have skill sets to do that – – I didn't really believe in but let them talk later in the day he called back after he got back to his office and called the factory and sure enough many the problems I'm having will be covered under warranty but I've got a go through my guy Alan and not through IHC wheelchair shop who tries to push it through as an insurance payment – – which the insurance people will not touch because my chair is So new. Leave it to Alan he's got my back you know what that's exactly what I'm going to do. He's been in contact with the local quantum people, quantum is the make in my chair or ;, who are shipping out a piece that I need and should be able to have it fixed by Thursday before my extraction takes place. I'm just amazed sometimes about holiday turns out…

To Russia With Love

One of the participants in the Sunday morning Zoom session

From Russia

Sunday Remember, I started this project with Mark Anthony earlier this summer where we began going out to breakfast Sunday mornings at 8 AM. Sometimes the granddaughter, Jasmine joins us but not today she had homecoming prom last night. It's so weird thinking of grandchildren to spare you homecoming events. Seems so long ago… For me. It was a little chilly heading up to the restaurant this morning but there was no rain. As usual I there before Mark Anthony and secured a table and coffee cups. This morning's discussion focused on his work and successes at work. I like to hear about people and their jobs and how they perform them especially when your kids Are doing good works and being acknowledged by leadership. Anyway, that was this morning's conversation and because of some issues of having with my power chair as well as having a bit of a tender tush I elected not to zoom around the neighborhood session. Instead we did what is becoming a regular part of our morning rituals and that is hosting a – – not sure what to call it a Zoom-session with a group of individuals in Russia various cities. This is something Mark Anthony's put together by himself with his infatuation of the whole Russian experience. Realize when I say “Russian or Russia” I'm Talking about the complete territory which is to be the Soviet Union, that huge expense made up of many smaller countries that once made the huge Soviet bloc. Somehow Mark Anthony has put together this whole little group of 7 to 14 people or something that tend to meet every Sunday about nine or 10:00 AM our time which is about 8 PM the next day in Russia. We use Zoom software of course which means we mostly are doing visual chat with a few folks who do texting. It's amazing how I assume these people come together to try out there English language skills and Mark Anthony has put together a platform for that to happen. He of course wants to strengthen his Russian speaking skills but I think they're getting the best deal. There's about five or six regulars and oddly I begin to feel a long-distance bond for these folks. We all pretty much know me as “Mark's dad” I'm clearly the oldest person in the group. I think everyone did the group is a little cautious and I suspect particularly those in the Old Soviet bloc where you never knew who was listening in or who you can trust. Interesting in today's discussion they feel the same way about people in America. They're concerned about what they might say and if what they say will get Mark Anthony into trouble politically speaking. Mark tried to put their concerns to rest but I think I could tell from some of their expressions that it quite buy it. But it's kind of fun and it's fun to have something to look forward to every Sunday. I don't know how long this Russian romance will go on but until the guys of black hats in black suits breakdown my door I guess we keep signing on every Sunday morning with English with Mark.

Med-Run

 

Seriously and really today was the day I was going to stay in and do some creative stuff maybe even clean up the apartment (which is gone around the corner from message the chaotic). The Weather forecast indicated there be a drop the temperature With moments of torrential rain's. There was some rain which is fairly significant but I would hardly call it torrential. Anyway I was happy to stay in the apartment away from the elements until I remembered that I no longer had any atorvastatin or Lipitor's! I have to take responsibility I really let my prescription run out. I kind of thought that my main pharmaceutical company that I use via the mail was on top of it and was going to send it out on time but I guess they need to have a new prescription sign for my doc. Once again I anticipated they would make reach outs for such business which they did and my doc's somehow did not reply. Not that I'd think this is becoming routine that has happened before it's what's really puts the onus on me to make sure my prescriptions are up-to-date and that I have them in time. I found all this out when I realized I had about four Lipitor is left and I called express scripts and they indicated that there were waiting for the doc to respond with the new prescription. That's okay I felt I can survive that except for the receptionist/operator that was given me this information really wanted me to stay on the line to talk of that one of their pharmacists to advise me of the risk this was going to be on me which is like a giant red flag. I was figuring I could go a couple days with not a problem but to have the pharmacy Guy on the phone's expressed to me his concern. I saw he was just covered the bases to make sure that family members who survive me would have someone to sue because they screwed up its. So anyway I called my local pharmacy yesterday's and asked them for something to hold me over (because the other thing they express script had told me was that I could go to my local pharmacy and it's good enough to carry me over, that is if my doc would send the prescription to my pharmacy. So, I did call my doc office and requested them to send the prescription over to the pharmacy, yesterday afternoon about 4:45 PM. I wasn't sure if any of that had been done and then completely forgot about the whole thing until this afternoon about 4 o'clock.

The rain cleared off by 3 o'clock, who said that be a break between three at about six between storms. Like I said I had no desire to go out in the elements but now I desperately needed the Lipitor. It was then just by chance I heard some signal from my cell phone (I'm just begin to learn that it's certain signals mean certain things like new messages on my Facebook account or other social media accounts. I noticed than that it's there was a posting on my messenger which said my script was ready I can pick it up anytime before 7 PM. Did I tell you that I got my booster shot yesterday? Anyway I'm using as excuse to relay about how sleepy or tired I am. But still I had to go pick this stuff up or else. I didn't put shoes on this morning because I didn't plan on going out. When I did go out to test the atmosphere it actually was pretty warm and there was no rain so I figured I would make a run for it. Which I did. It's a picked up a script for 30 days and some other items for Saturday night TV and my Saturday night delight. Oh, did I even mentioned that for some reason I didn't even shave this morning and I never go without shaving. I hate going without shaving I feel so scuzzy. So I'm in my shorts, unshaven, no choose and wearing a black stocking watch-cap. So everything is done, Saturday night, I got an order of chicken fingers and mashed potatoes and gravy from the store deli and fresh grapes I'm set for the weekend. I can't believe I did it…

Friday Night In Who-Ville

 

It's Friday night in Who-Ville. When the best parts about autumn/winter is the fact that at 7 PM feels like 12 midnight because of the darkness. You know dark crawls in early in the evenings now we get a bit of reprieve to go to standard time but still after 6 PM you might as well kiss the daylight goodbye. So with that in mind I figured it was time to put the shades down in the bedroom. Typically I don't have the shades down because my arm bike faces out the window and I love to watch the park as I pumped my bike endless hours during the week seems.

It's not that I'm terribly immodest, though I am kind of are basically that I don't really care who sees me naked but I know that's not universal sad to say. So, I figured with the darkness outside anything illuminated on the inside to show out for the world to see and since the rules not ready for nudity and specifically my nudity… Yet I figure it's best that I exercise a little self-control and seemingly modesty. Of course, that's easier said than done in the world we live in. The world we live in is designed and made for people who are able-bodied people the kind of physical limitations is another matter entirely. A great case in point is that the apartment that I live in, which I loved by the way totally, is a “wheelchair accessible” unit. What this really means is that there's a roll in shower and the sinks might be raised a little bit in the bathroom and the cabinetry the kitchen is a bit lower than the other units. That's about it. With the exception that I did get them to take out the carpet in my unit and now I have hard floors that if I had access to my legs I'd slide across in sock feet like Tom Cruise from Risky Business to Bob Seger's Old Time Rock n'[ Roll .I of course would've use that as the video clip for this posting if I weren't banned from YouTube. Oh well such as the price of freedom. So the point that I'm laboring to make is that I need to bring the shades down in my bedroom relics spend a lot of my time especially after dark. You'll notice from the image that I did post that I have typical blinds, cheap apartment blinds on my window. These blinds of course or operated by cords on each side of the window that have little bitty bulbs on the end of the cord that a person with able hands could easily pull and work the shades the lower and whatever operation is ran bby the door the pulling of cords a certain way in a certain order . It's bad enough that to access these cords I have to rearrange my whole workout station but I also have to be able to get to that station me I have to move my backup power chair out of the way totally to access the cords on one side and then use one of my sticks that has a hook on the end to grab the pulls to operate the blinds. Now I've been able to manage access the pulls but without sufficient grip it's hard to pull these things hard enough or figure out and which order I need to pull to bring the whole mess down then be able to use the other side to open or close the shades – – if that makes any sense at all is driving me crazy. I sort of got them to move but each time I try to really poll on the cords the knob slides right through my fingers such as the issues facing folks with limited grasp. Anyway, I've given up on the project for tonight and luckily I do have an area that will grant me enough privacy that I get back and forth to the bed from the bathroom and back again and whatever else I might need to be a who in Who-Ville on a Friday night…