Running Late-BBQ-Pain Doc

I'm running late posting today.  No excuses, I just forgot.  Seems that is happening a lot more lately.  Maybe the old brain is overworked.  Well that's my story...

I got an Amazon Fire Stick the other day.  I never really wanted one since I already have a Smart TV and all the apps I wanted.  However, this TV is several years old, not sure exactly how old, at least 5, probably more.  It seems Samsung in all their wisdom has quit updating it and there are quite a few apps that I don't have access to that I am interested in.  Some will require a subscription, some are free.  I've messed around with it a little.  It will need some tweaking.  It runs darker on the screen than I have the TV set for and there are no adjustments within the app to lighten it.  My very tech savy Son has clued me in on how to adjust it, I may try that today.  

This coming Sunday the family will be here to hunt Easter Eggs if that rabbit doesn't get chased off by the pups.  I will BBQ some baby back ribs andcook a pot of pintos.  Other sides will have to be brought by the others.  Pork Ribs are the most cost effective way to feed the whole crew and it solves the 'no beef' person issue easily.  I get asked to cook ribs pretty often.  They are not my favorite, actually any pork is just ok to me, preferring beef.  That's the main reason I don't cook then often.  But I have been told by quite a few, they have never tasted any better.  So I don't really mind cooking them and they are pretty easy.  I will try a different rub this time.  I'm going more for an 'al pastor' style pork.  

I have my echo cardiogram this coming Friday.  Nothing exciting is expected to be found.  It's just to confirm the cardiologists conclusions on my heart murmur, that there is nothing to worry about.

I also need to go see my pain doc again.  It seems the ablation of my neck nerves that should have lasted 1-2 years has failed.  I am experiencing some of the worst neck pain I have had in the past.  I am not sure I want to go through all that again with it lasting only 2-3 months.  It took almost 2 months of pain for it to actually work and the procedure was extremely unpleasant.  I will just have to visit with him and see what would be his next step.  I guess it would be a referal to a surgeon.  Something that I am now considering as very possible.  But I want my primary care doc to weigh in first.  Lots of things for me to think about in the near future.  

Happy Trails

Dental and Taxes

Paying Taxes like pulling teeth or vice versa.

I've been dealing with a cracked tooth for just over a year.  Dentist hadn't been able to see it with or without X-Rays.  It just wasn't big enough to detect.  I wasn't real sure which tooth it was for sure.  When it hurt, it hurt mostly all over that side of my mouth.  Back in December I must have broken a chip off of it because I could feel a roughness where there wasn't before and any pain I had when I bit down was centered on one tooth.  At my visit for cleaning back in February I brought that to his attention again.  He could actually see it this time.  Got me scheduled for a crown.  The initial visit for that was last Wednesday.  I never had a crown before, unless oyou call an implant a crown.  I knew there would have to be grinding, but with and angle grinder?!?  JK.  I'm not gonna lie, I was nervous for this visit and I don't get nervous about things like this usually.  Of course it wasn't as bad as I had imagiined and he got it done pretty quickly.  Less than 45 mins.  Now I have a temporary crown and will get the premanent one on April 1.  Glad I got most of it done.  It already has stopped bothering me.  I am so glad to have found this dentist.  

I also got my taxes for 2023 done.  I have been using Turbotax for years and still do.  This time I just filed for the standard deduction.  We haven't been able to file using itemized since 'K' lost her job back in 2008, except when she had major surgery.  I was able to finish filing in less than an hour this time instead of stretching it out over a couple days.  Less hair pulling and getting aggravated.  We still have to pay.  

When you use Turbo Tax they give you your pecentage of tax you paid.  It always shocks me how low ours is.  A flat 10% tax rate would more than double what we have to pay.  And again, we have no deductions, we just use the standard deduction.  Not complaining.

Happy trails

Over Worked and a Few Other Things.

We got the two bedrooms swapped around by the time the new bed arrived Friday.  'K' did most of it due to me still not being able to get much done due to my rib injury.  However I had to step in Thursday and Friday to move a few things.  One being taking down our old bed and moving it to the other room.  We set itup the next day to spit up the burden.  Today I am paying the price even though it wasn't that big of job.  

Part of the package of our new bed purchase included set up.  I can't tell you how much I am glad it did.  That bed is super heavy.  We got a bed with a mototized frame in order to raise the head.  Now that we are getting so much older we will be needing that.  And I have needed that already with my injury.

This bed is pretty cool.  It's a Smart Bed.  We can adjust the firmness and it keeps track of how you sleep and sends that info to an app on your phone.  It can tell when you wake up and are restless and when you get out of bed.  I asked if they installed cameras to be able to tell that.  They thought it funnier than it sounds here. And when you get out of bed it has a motion detector that turns on an LED light under the bed.  That light is really helpful in our super dark room.  It stays on until you get back in bed.  Oh and none of that is free.  It's a Sleep Number brand, it's what we had and moved to the other room.  There should be less adjustment to a new bed than there was last time.  First night wasn't what I had hoped for.

We met up at our favorite taco shop Saturday morning with an old friend that now lives in Amarillo.  Spent a couple hours catching up and getting to know her new husband.  It appears they are well matched.  She deserves it.  It was very emotional for her and 'K.'  It was a great visit.

I am back on duty at church.  I am not sure I remember if I mentioned what I do there every Sunday.  Suffice it to say, I am a 'Greeter.'  Standing and moving around for three hours amd opening doors for everyone can be hard for an old man with messed up ribs.  I have eased back into it gradually.  Last Sunday we had a young man or older teen riding a bicycle through our parking lot taking photos of the church and of our sign with times on it.  I got hyper alert and alerted the others due to all the attacks on churches, and a couple recently.  The way he was dressed, especially his 'head cover' and other things made my alarm bells go off.  I challenged him, he didn't answer and rode off a little faster.  I wasn't the only one that noticed.  Nothing we could really do since he broke no laws.  But that wasn't enough for one lady.  Me telling her we were aware didn't phase her.  She needed to tell everyone on the team what she saw and how creepy it was.  Who else she told I don't know.  Bothering our PD would not be fruitful.  We don't want to worry a lot of people needlessly but I can sympathise with her.   Needless to say I will be even more alert in the near future.

Happy Trails

More Doctors, More Honey Do's and more

During my hospital stay back in January the attending physician was concerned about a heart murmur.  I have known about it since 1996 when they discovered I had diabetes.  The cardiologist at the time said it was so small that my primary care physicians probably could not hear it.  So I never worried about it nor did any of my other doctors.  Apparently it has gotten bigger/louder.  So, Tuesday I have an appointment with a cardiologist, supposedly to get some sort of test to detemine which valve it is.  My primary care doctor wasn't worried about it but agreed to refer me.  Last Monday I got a random message about my blood pressure from my primary.  What?  I don't really check it much as it is usually rather low normal.  My pressure reading were pretty high with those requested checks, nothing dangerous but high none the less.  So, now I expect the cardiologist will run more tests etc. 

We, (K mostly) is preparing for a new bed we bought.  This will entail getting rid of one and moving another into the other room.  It will move into 'K's' craft room.  It's full of her stuff.  This is an opprtune time to remove the carpet and replace it with flooring we have installed ourselves in two other rooms.  Plus the moving of all her junk and 5 plus book cases out of and back in the smallest room we have.  Well I am not able at this time in my reovery to lift and move furniture or get on my knees and install flooring.  She is working at getting things sorted.  But the flooring will have to wait and get it done a piece at a time.  I won't bore you with the 'how' we have agreed on.  It's going to be a 'fun' time I'm sure.  

Snickers is doing great it seems and doesn't seem to have any effects from the meds he is taking.  We will take him in for monthly blood tests on his liver to see how it is healing and adjustment of meds.  I am not sure if the blood tests will ease over time or if this is a monthly thing long term...$$

OK, this is getting long so I will shut up now

Happy Trails

What Else is Coming This Year?

While I was down with my fractured ribs we also had to have a biopsy on one if our pups, Snickers.  

 

Last year we had some blood tests run during his annual visit.  They noted some odd numbers with his liver.  But they said things like this can happen with young dogs but they would want to watch it.  So we get the tests done again during this years visit.  Same thing, some not good numbers with his liver.  They said they should do a biopsy ($$) in order to really find out what was going on.  It was an all day affair for the little guy.  While examining him during the biopsy they found his spleen was 4 times the size it should be and it had calcifications.  They had some ideas but really needed the results of the biopsy to be sure,  The results just came back, not good news.  They had guessed Chagas disease along with something else I don't remember.  It turns out that he has hepatitis and this is what affected his spleen and has caused an autoimmune disease.  So he will be taking a couple meds daily until the the inflammation recedes.  It will take some adjusting of meds until they find the right balance.  This will be a lifelong thing for him.  He will be more susceptible to infection.  But the vet is confident that this was the best outcome they could have hoped for.    So we are going with that outlook.  

This year has started out pretty rough.  But 'it ain't no hill for a stepper' as my grandmother used to say.

Happy Trails

4 Weeks

I am up and around a bit more since my fall.  Went to church for the first time in over a month.  That was great and good for my outlook.  Didn't try to make the entire 3 hours, figured that would be way too much for my ribs to tolerate.  The pews, I find, are much too uncomfortable for me normally and certainly would be with a bunch of hurt ribs.  I was able to tolerate the main service pretty well.

While I was in the hospital 'K' was running the show by herself.  Her CRV started dying on her

at every stop light.  It had been running a little rough for awhile and we ignored it.  She didn't even bother me with it.  I guess being in so much pain she knew I couldn't try to work on it and it would just worry me.  So she managed to get it to a garage and get it fixed up.  It wasn't cheap but now it runs like a new car.  While it was there I told her to have them replace the spark plugs that I had tried to do once but passed on when I saw how Honda does them.  Probably spent about half what the car costs but it's paid for and we can keep on driving it without adding a new car expense.  We were looking at a Tacoma until we saw that the dealers are adding 5k to the sticker price.  NOPE!  I can't imagine anyone would pay that.  

I may try to cut the grass in the back yard this week.  The winter grasses (weeds) have exploded with all the rain we have had and it looks pretty nasty.  We almost can't see the dogs when they are out there LOL.  I don't anticipate any trouble doing that with my ribs, they are doing pretty well.  

I don't have much else.

Happy Trails

Three Weeks

Today marks three weeks since I broke myself.  Three weeks of near constant pain.  Pain that is now getting to be much more manageable thankfully.  This morning is the best morning that I have had since I fell.  I even made breakfast for us both but that wore me out.  After being virtually off my feet for those three weeks I have zero stamina.  I hope to start trying to get some of that back this week by walking a bit down the street and back.  Nothing stupid that's for sure.  I may try to get 'K' to drive me around a bit just to get out of the house and see something different than the cieling and the TV.  My appetite is starting to return a little too.  This is all much earlier than the doc preditcted, 4-6 weeks.  I am thankful.  I am not off all pain relievers.  Tylenol and Ibuprofen are around the clock for the most part.  I haven't taken any of the narco stuff in a couple days or more.  I do have a muscle relaxer I take at bedtime and that helps with the sleep.  All in all encouraging progress.

My thoughts have been turning to this blog of late.  Even with all this time on my hands I have struggled to write about anything other than my injury.  I started this blog almost ten years ago to document my for myself my battle with prostate cancer.  I posted nearly every day at the start and now I struggle to get once a week up.  This December will mark the 10th anniversary of my cancer surgery that literally cured me.  I will have another appointment with the urologist this July.  It appears they will release me then.  One less doctor appointment.  But he did caution me to have my PSA checked annually anyway.  Which may seem strange since I have no prostate, why would I need that test?  The cancer also produces whatever that test detects and would signal a possible return of the cancer.  As you can see, even though they say I am cured, they will NOT say it won't return.  It is less likely to this far into the game now and will be less likely each year but never say never.

Oh, and as far as my intentions with the blog.  I will probably cease writing it soon.  No set date, I am still attached to it I guess and can't say goodbye yet but it will probably happen this year.  I will let you know when it does, I won't leave you hanging.  

Happy Trails