August 24 through 27

[chochiyo_sama]

Wednesday, August 24

 I got up early enough to take a shower and do my morning routine before Lily arrived to pick me up at 7:30.  Much to my displeasure, the same battle axe nurse took my blood pressure.  She was a bit more upbeat this time.  She took my blood pressure several times with different techniques and it was always quite high—like danger zone high.  She told me they could not let me leave with my blood pressure that high (174/161—pulse 120-- and 123/130—pulse 132).  Finally, she called my primary doctor and had a chat with her.  She told the nurse to take it manually, which turned out much better (148/100—pulse 92)—still high, but not dangerously high as in enough to make me stroke out.  Since I have an appointment to see the cardiologist on Friday, they released me.

I do seriously question how they intended to force me to stay.  If I make up my mind I’m leaving, I AM leaving. 

Battle Axe took me to the lab where the blood draw was quick, easy, and relatively painless.  The tech a the lab took me to the entry, and I called Lily to tell her I was ready to be picked up.  She was at Fleet Farm investigating cat things.

I had a chat with an elderly lady who was waiting for her husband.  She had some sort of procedure—probably an MRI as they told her it would take two hours, but it only took half an hour.  She kept trying to call her husband, but he did not answer the house phone or the cell.  Then a guy came in on a motorized scooter and struck up a chat with us. He talked a lot about his dog.  He seemed like he might be on the spectrum as he was a bit “off,” but he was very nice and friendly.  He thought someone was supposed to come to the entry to escort him inside the clinic, so we told him he had to go to the desk inside.  So off he went.  The older lady toddled off to the bathroom, and I was all alone. 

I saw Lily pull up, so I waddled out to her car.  I felt exhausted after all the rig-a-ma-roll, but Lily kind of wanted to go to Walmart.  We had a near miss on the way out of the clinic parking lot.  Lily was in the turn lane to go left, but she always goes right to go to Walmart.  So she just went the wrong way.  She did not realize there was a car in the right turn lane.  That driver was far enough back that Lily did not hit her, but I am sure it terrified her. 

We turned by the eye clinic, and suddenly there were flashing lights behind us.  A cop pulled us over and Lily instantly said, “I was only going 40 mph!  What did I do?”  So the cop explained to her that he had seen her turn right from the left turn lane and nearly hit the car that was there. 

The cop was very friendly and nice to her, asked her where we were going, and asked each of us what we were shopping for in Walmart.  I had my arm all bound up with gauze wrap which was clearly visible.  I told him I was going to buy some totes to put stuff in since I am cleaning out a bunch of stuff in my house.  He said he was doing the same thing in his house. 

I told him we’d been throw some stressful times lately.  Lily was definitely on stress overload.  So, he let us off with a warning, and we cheerfully went on our way.  At Walmart, I bought some vitamins that I am almost out of, 2 new cat toys in the shape of an elephant and a rhino, 4 of the large, flat white Corelle soup bowls, two large totes, a package of sliced Swiss cheese, a loaf of pumpernickel bread, a box of mixed young spring greens, Constellation assorted grape tomatoes, and a carton of deviled egg potato salad.  I enjoyed being in a store and being able to pick out a few things on my own. 

I was exhausted when I got home—mainly from the stress of being in the clinic and being threatened with being “detained” there.  Ugh.  I hate that place.

I ate some of the left over pizza from the other day for lunch and sampled the potato salad.  Jason had texted me to see if I wanted him to come and finish the living room painting.  I told him I was pretty burnt out and if he had other projects to do, I’d rather have him come tomorrow.  But if he really was set on coming today, that would be fine too.  He decided to come tomorrow.  He was working on his truck anyhow. 

After I ate, I just sat in my recliner and stared into space for a while.  Then I decided to catch up with my DW entries.  We had a nice rain in the afternoon.  I did a little clutter control and put away all my new purchases.

Tonight I saw what I thought was a hair on my computer screen.  When I tried to brush it off, I discovered it is a pretty large crack on the screen.  Closer inspection revealed that there are two more really long diagonal cracks and another small one.  I have no idea how this happened.  The computer has not been dropped or anything.  It is still working fine, but how much longer can it be functional with all these cracks in the screen?  I am gutted about this as I have tons of work on this computer and a lot of pictures.  I need to buy at least a new laptop as soon as possible so I can get all of this information transferred over.  I’ve really been wanting to get a new desktop computer too—I haven’t had one in years.  But.  I have spent all my savings on the work in my house and other stuff.  I paid off the last of my hospital bill from my stay in May ($550) and have pretty much decimated my savings for now.  Sigh. 

I guess I will be taking out a signature loan from my credit union for a new laptop.  I will have to put the desk top on hold for the foreseeable future.  Sigh.  It’s always something.

I spent a lot of time thinking about my mortality, all my health issues, and what my future holds—if I have a future at all.  Finally, I gave up and went to bed.

 

Thursday, August 25

I slept pretty good last night despite my racing thoughts and feelings of impending doom.  I woke up feeling motivated to be productive, so I packed up my Chatty Cathy and Wellie Wisher dolls along with the Kissy and the nun doll.  I bagged up and dragged my garbage and recycling to the breezeway and set it by the door.  I wanted to take it out to the bins, but it was very wet outside, and I wasn’t wearing shoes—only socks. I hate the feeling of wearing wet socks.  In the breezeway, I cleaned the litter boxes (which were filthy), added more clean litter to the boxes, swept the breezeway, and headed into the kitchen to do the dishes. 

Lily called to tell me she was exhausted and had decided to stay home and rest rather than go to Haylie’s to take care of little Ellie.  Cora is a big girl and goes to daycare now.  Did I tell you guys about her announcement one day when her daddy took her to day care?  He took her into the play area and started to say good bye to her.  She had no patience for that.  She dashed into the playroom amongst her friends, loudly proclaiming, “I AM THE PUMPKIN KING!”  LOL.  She is indeed pumpkin royalty.

Jason came over at about 11:30 and took down the long shelf over my couch as well as the portrait of Cousin Mary which is over 100 years old and the two metal side pieces from Home Interior which sort of match the ornate frame of the picture.  The side pieces are made of a gold colored metal and features flowers and butterflies. They look nice next to Cousin Mary. 

I called my mother and asked her if I could borrow her laptop until I could get a new one—just in case mine gives up the ghost.  I could not deal with life without my computer.  It is where I get 99% of my social interactions.  She said I could and expressed a desire to come and see how my living room looks.    Lily called and wanted to know if I would like her to bring over some ice cream bars for me and Jason.  She also said she had bought a crate of peaches today.  Earlier we had discussed splitting a crate.  I asked her if she would stop and bring my mother over with her as she wanted to see the new paint job, and I have a bag of stuff to give her along with the Schwan’s stuff she had me order for her.  Lily said that would be fine.

So, they came over.  I gave mom three of my peaches (and Lily also gave her three of hers) and I gave Jason two.  While they were here, Jason finished painting the wall behind the couch—and ran out of paint.  Ugh.  We discussed it a bit, and I decided to just get another gallon of paint for the tiny bit of wall on the south side of the room.  With what is left of it, we will paint the breezeway with the same color.  That room is white, so it should take the paint very well.  This Sherwin Williams paint is really nice stuff.  The walls of my living room were very dark brownish/copper color and avocado green.  Dark and hideous.  ONE coat actually covered that dark shit very nicely.  We gave it two coats anyhow, and it looks marvelous.  He was willing to run to Owatonna and pick up another gallon right then and there, but I could see he was tired, so I told him it was too late—we could finish it tomorrow when he was rested.  So we ate the ice cream bars that Lily had bought and just chatted for quite a while. 

Mom loved the color.  She liked how it brightened up the room.  She and Lily both think I should replace the vertical blinds, but I hate them.  I am going to investigate just finding an appropriate valance to use in the big window and the smaller window on the north side.  I never pull the blinds anyhow.  I hardly ever dance naked in front of the picture window, so what is the point of having blinds?

After they all left, David Lassahn came and mowed my yard.  It is the last time he will mow in August, and I pay monthly.  I was able to catch him and give him a check.  I am looking forward to the first frost so I will free up some money for other uses when the grass no longer needs to be mowed.  However, the snow fall season is not far behind the end of grass mowing season—and it costs me $25-30 each time Sequoia plows the driveway and cleans off the deck and steps. 

I got a text from Hope tonight telling me that she would be able to clean this week and that she will check with her boss and let me know when she is available to come.  I told her I have a doctor’s appointment on Thursday, but every other day I am open.  I am hoping she will be able to help Jason carry in the bookshelves as my brother Jack is under the weather—I am having dangerously high blood pressure, and he is having very low blood pressure.  We are all a mess around here.  At least my sister Joni is doing better.  She has had to have fluid sucked out of her several times, but other than that, she is doing so much better.

 

Friday, August 26

 I got up early enough to take a shower—appointment with the cardiologist at 3 pm, so I have to be clean and sweet smelling, do my morning routine, and move stuff around so that Jason could paint the last wall.  I polished the shelf for above the couch with Orange Glow and cleaned the curved glass of Cousin Mary’s portrait.  I had to use water as my Windex has disappeared.  Then I polished the ornate frame with Orange Glow, so it really shines.  Then I polished each little flower and butterfly on the side pieces.  They were covered in dust and tufts of cat hair.  Now they look beautiful. 

Then I worked on the cabinet that the Yankoviak boys had built for me in woodshop back in the late 1980s.  I love that cabinet.  I polished every inch of it and took everything out so I could see what was in there, get rid of some of the stuff, and put stuff back in a more organized way.  I also got the DVD shelves polished at least partially.  Later, I will take all the DVDs off the shelves, polish the shelves themselves, and dust each of the DVD cases.  I moved everything away from the wall Jason will paint next.  The plan was that he would come when I got done at the clinic.  My appointment was at 3 pm, and it was supposed to be 45 minutes, so I figured I would be home no later than 5:30.

Well.  That did not happen.

Lily drove me to the clinic again.  My appointment was with Adam Brandl.  Lily sees him about her heart as well, and she told me I would love him.  “Love” is a little premature, but I did like him.  He was kind, professional, and respectful.  He asked me a lot of questions about my previous heart issues and described everything that is currently going on.  Apparently my current issues with rapid heartbeat and extremely high blood pressure is a result of some medicine changes fairly recently.  The meds I had previously been on had been controlling all of that stuff.  My primary put me on some extended release stuff because I had seen her a few times without having taken my medication before the appointment. 

I explained to him that it wasn’t that I did not take my meds AT ALL.  It was that my morning meds were making me have multiple episodes of frequent, urgent, explosive, uncontrollable diarrhea.  I explained that I did not know which med was causing it, but I KNEW it was the meds because the diarrhea was rampant for four hours after I took them in the morning.  I said, “I did not want to crap my pants at the clinic, so I just did not take the meds until I got home.”   He said, “Nobody wants that!”

Then I told him that the effects had turned out to be related to metformin.  Now that the metformin has been completely discontinued, the diarrhea issue has been pretty much concluded.  However, now my diabetes is a lot higher than it should be.  Everything is fucked up.

So, he went over all the drugs with their strong and weak points and side effects.  He said the cough caused by the lisinopril was not damaging—just annoying.  I said I was worried about the side effect of making the body get too much potassium, as that has happened to me before.  Also, the cough prevents me from sleeping at night and also makes me cough until I puke.  And that is not fun.  His response was that there are many meds for us to consider.

We discussed them all.  Finally we agreed on me going back on the metroprolol tartrate (which had controlled my blood pressure to begin with) and a new med called losartan (which should get my pulse back to where it was before).  I will also have to have another blood test in a week, and another EKG and an echocardiogram.  I asked if I would be able to do the final one in Owatonna as I hate the clinic in Rochester with the burning hate of a million volcanoes.  He said it could be done in Owatonna, which was a relief to me.

We talked about the issues I had had with my heart after/during the appendix issues, and when he mentioned the heart failure and enlarged heart issues, I asked if the enlarged heart ever got better or if it was enlarged forever.  He said that my heart had gotten better after than, grew stronger, and that there was no reason to believe that it couldn’t get better again.  He talked about a lot of other things, including the possibility of ablation or a pacemaker being put in.  I don’t really want either one of those things.  Through it all, he was nice to me.  He laughed at my humorous comments.  He made me feel comfortable—at least as much as possible for me in a Mayo medical facility.

At about 5:15 Lily called and wanted to know if I was still in there.  I told her yes, I was still with Adam.  She said to call her when I was done.  It was nearly 5:30 when we finished, and his nurse came to wheel me down to the door.  I was just about to call Lily as she wheeled me into the waiting room—and there she was.  She had to pee, so she came in to the clinic and then decided to just come up and wait for me.  The entire clinic was deserted.  Since he had ordered new prescriptions, we had to go to Walmart to pick them up.  We waited in the car in the parking lot for quite a while, then she went in and still had to wait a very long time for them to fill the prescription. 

Mom had complained that she needed eggs as she only had one egg left.  So Lily picked up a dozen eggs for her.  I didn’t need anything.  While I waited, I talked to Jack then Tammy on the phone.  Before going home, we stopped at Hardees where I got a cheeseburger and onion rings and an iced tea.  I got hot ham and cheeses for Mom and Lily.  Mom has been saying she is hungry for one, and Lily really wanted a ham and cheese.  But she thought it would be a grilled ham and cheese.  So she was not happy about that.  They had hot peach and cream cheese fried pies, so I got each of us one of those as well.  My hamburger was huge.  I could hardly eat it all—but I did.  Lily and I shared the onion rings and there were still a few left for mom.  We dropped that stuff off at her house, got my mail, and finally I got home again.  I was exhausted.  I had texted Jason that it was way too late for him to come over and work, since it was 7:30 before I got home.  I had no idea it would be this late when I got home. 

 

Saturday, August 27

I was up till 2 am fretting last night.  When I finally went to bed, I slept pretty well.  I woke up at a fairly decent hour, did my morning routine, and worked on the living room for a while.  Jason hung the portrait of Cousin Mary back on the wall along with the two metal side pieces and the wooden shelf back above the couch. 

Early this morning, we had a raucous thunderstorm.  Lots of thunder and lightning.  I love a good thunderstorm.

Mom called and told me she had talked to Jolie Johnson—she had been at the bingo tent at the Steele Country fair and heard some man just screaming and ranting at an elderly lady.  He was telling her she was a horrible mother and he hated her and he never wanted her to speak to him again.  Apparently, this frail little lady was shrinking into herself and looking like she wanted the earth to swallow her. 

I am shocked that no one intervened, but no one did. 

Someone asked who that horrible man was—and GUESS WHO it was.  None other than my sister Joni’s miserable prick husband who was screaming at his mother who has dementia so bad that she doesn’t know who she is half the time.  Yes, she was a cruel, abusive, and horrible mother.  But now she is an old, sick, mentally incapacitated lady.  He is such a dick.

He treats Joni like shit too.

Ack.  Well, that’s all I have the heart for today. 

 

Comments

[the_godiva]

They only way they can force you to stay would be to declare you mentally incompetent, which of course they've laid the groundwork for. Either that, or you have a heart attack right there and then.

Lily got very lucky with the cop. That's how my license got suspended. Write a ticket, then fill out a DMV form declaring the old lady isn't fit to drive and that's it.

There really isn't any reason to own a desktop any more if you have a laptop. I haven't had one for years. It just takes up precious desk space and isn't portable. I do need a laptop though because there are still some things an iPad or iPhone cannot do.

If I had witnessed Jeff abusing his Mother I would have called the cops and had him arrested for elder abuse. Of course, I would have already contacted the school district about his alcoholism and drinking while on duty driving little children in a school bus. At the very least, urged them to do random drug tests on him.