Monday, October 27th, was my check-up with Dr. Fine, the podiatrist. By now he was to have the ultrasound results to test blood flow in my legs that was done in July and the nerve tests done on Tuesday, October 15th as well as the blood tests drawn at Georgetown Hospital the previous Wednesday. Well, that isn't what happened. Dr. Fine had the request made for blood tests but no results. He also had the results from St. Joseph Neurology but he felt they were incomplete. This would end up being one of my most frustrating doctor visits in my 75 years of visiting doctors. I am sure it felt that way because all of this was started in July with the expectation I would have answers before our trip to Greece.
Dr. Fine asked the nurse to get the blood test results from Georgetown Hospital. She thought he was asking for something else and got the something else and then had to go back to get the blood test results. In the meantime, I have an app that gives me results from things done at Georgetown Hospital. I found the login and brought it up on my phone and gave that to Dr. Fine to review. The nurse brought in the faxed blood test results. Dr. Fine could not find the test for Vitamin D. He told me to go back to the pharmacy and see if they did all the tests they were requested to do. Ugh!!
Dr. Fine also wanted to have the St. Joseph Neurology report from Dr. Everman. These results were from Kristina Cassmeyer, APRN. He felt I had not even seen Dr. Everman. I clarified for him that two people did the nerve conduction test first. Then Dr. Everman came in and did the EMG (electromyogram) to test the muscles in my leg. Dr. Everman did review the results of both tests and told me what she saw before sending me to Kristina Cassmeyer for the final physical tests (walking, etc.) The results were that all large nerves and muscles were in excellent shape for a 75 year old lady so the only thing left was SNF (small fiber neuropathy).
I found an interesting word, well, many interesting words, in the printed report Dr. Fine gave me a copy of. It was 'claudication'. I took a picture of that word and sent it in a text to Claude, my dear hubby. The AI definitions is: Claudication is a medical term for muscle pain or cramping that occurs during exercise and is relieved by rest. It typically affects the legs and is a hallmark symptom of peripheral artery disease (PAD), a condition caused by narrowed arteries.
The report also stated that 50-75% stenosis in the anterior tibial artery in both legs. The left is worse than the right. Ugh! Stenosis is narrowing or blockage of the artery. Not good. However, I do have blood flow and things are still working okay.
Bottom line is Dr. Fine is referring me to a vascular surgeon at Lexington Surgery. They will call me at some point and make and appointment. Hope this doesn't take as long as getting the nerve test did.
Needless to say, this influx of new vocabulary (at one point I had to remind Dr. Fine I did not have a medical degree and did not understand all the words he was tossing at me) left me overwhelmed a bit. It didn't feel like, after going through all the test over a long period of time, that I truly knew what was going on. I think as I got home and retold Claude what I knew and Googled some more of the terms again that I began to grasp what was happening. It is all good and will be dealt with.
The rest of my Monday was not productive. I went to Sandiland to work on finishing my weekly Blog. I ended up talking with Laura, my BFF, and totally enjoying that time. Claude made beans and rice for dinner, yum!!
Tuesday, October 28th, we had a wet, cold day. Claude trudged out in it to get groceries. I stayed home to get laptop things accomplished. Katelyn would call.
Wednesday, October 29th, with approval received from Jenessa Dymock, our Relief Society president, I was able to distribute the November Relief Society newsletter and get our announcements for November to Jennifer Barber for the November Sunday bulletins.
This day I spent and inordinate amount of time looking a Facebook. Hurricane Melissa passed over Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane. Claude and I went there on a cruise. We took a bus shore excursion to the top of the mountain at Ocho Rios, Jamaica. I have never forgotten the poverty that most of the people in the countryside lived in. Many of the homes were merely wooden stakes in the ground with aluminum sheets stapled to them. As I had listened to the weather reports about the Melissa, these memories came to mind and I knew a lot of the people of Jamaica would not have shelter that would survive this storm. All weather reports were dire. Melissa made landfall on Tuesday. Some said they should make a Category 6 because of the intensity of this storm. It was like no other. By Tuesday afternoon little clips were posted on Facebook of the wind and damage as it happened. By Wednesday, people were able to get out and survey the damage. I will post these pictures of 'before' and 'after' in Black River, Jamaica. It really was almost totally leveled.
One person posted a plea to travelers. He said he knew they had planned their vacations and that Jamaica depended a great deal on tourism for income. However, he asked for people to consider changing their plans for a while so that Jamaica can try to regroup before tourism comes again. I think that is fair.
We have Tithing Settlement each year. It is a time for families to meet with our bishop for a few minutes. Claude and I scheduled ourselves for 6:10pm this day. We went to Cattlemen's Roadhouse for a wonderful dinner first. We had a table by the fake fireplace. It was really nice.
Thursday, October 30th, we stayed up way late, or way early in the morning. So, we took the opportunity to sleep in a bit to make up for that lack of sleep. This is one of the nice things about being retired. I was able to do my Christmas shopping on-line. The hope is that by the end of next week, all Christmas presents will be purchased and wrapped and ready to go. We will not have time to do any of this in December. I must be done before Thanksgiving. I watched another episode of Northern Disclosure. I also printed the school pictures of the great grands for my refrigerator.
Friday, October 31st, was Halloween. Claude and I decided a week or so before that we were not going to purchase candy to distribute. We decided this morning to make this a holiday for us. We started our morning with a trip to Frank's for donuts. Then it was home for a Halloween MovieFest. We would watch all the Ghostbuster movies. A round to popcorn would take us through the Men in Black movies. Claude would make hamburgers and potato salad and we finished our day with some Castles episodes. what a very, very, very lazy day. We did stop the movie watching when Jessie Carter wanted to call and chat. Love her sweet heart.
Saturday, November 1st, we started our morning at Chick-filA. We went through the drive-thru and took our breakfast to Cracker Barrell to eat. I will just state for the record that sitting in the back parking lot of Cracker Barrel is a very busy place. The big travel trailers park there, the fire department brought two big fire trucks there, clearly realtors are meeting clients and leaving a car there while they check out properties, dogs are walked, etc. It is a happing place for sure.
My goal today was to clear out some things in Sandiland. One of which was finished my crocheted pumpkin which I started at the October Relief Society activity on October 9th. I am slow, but I gradually get there. Claude pronounced this one cute.
edging.
Dinner was a drive-thru Taco Bell. These were the messiest Crunch Wrap Supremes we have ever ordered. I was sure I was going to have to get a spoon and eat mine out of the wrappings! It was good but it was messy.
In the evening, we recorded the first episode of the second season of Harry Potter's Wizards of Baking. I sent Bailey a text to let her know it was recording. Can't wait to see what they come up with this year. Last year's show was phenominal.
Sunday, November 2nd, I had a bad night getting into Sunday. I was up most of the night. I had sharp pains running up my neck into my head while I was trying to sleep. This is very concerning to me. When I sat in my recliner for a while, I reached around and realized I had a hard lump on the back of my neck about the size of a ping-pong ball. It felt feverish and very sensitive to the touch. I read and tried to relax in my chair. About 6am I went back to bed. When our alarm went off to get up and ready for church, I told Claude I was not going. I was going to try and sleep a bit more. I would end up spending this day in my recliner. The sharp pains went away but the fever and lump stayed on my neck.
Monday, November 3rd, I had one goal to accomplish. I awoke to a lump in my neck still but only sensitive to the touch, no fever feeling and no pain radiating into my head. I decided to attack my goal and take it slowly through the day to get it accomplished. I would cut back all the liriope, hostas, turtle plants and peonies in the yard. I also trimmed back the columbines on either side of the back yard by the gates. It took me all day with rest stops between, but I got it done! Yeah me!!
I chose Burger King for dinner.
Most of my Christmas presents ordered through Amazon arrived. One more to come and some gift cards. Then I can wrap all of the presents and will be ready for that part of Christmas. Whew!!
Katelyn posted this sweet picture of Ramon (their exchange student) with Emelia sitting on his lap coloring. This is soooo sweet.
Tuesday, November 4th, Claude had us scheduled for oil changes in each car. He left early and went to Chick-filA to pick up breakfast. I left a bit later and met him at the tire place where the work would be done. It was good to get this done on both cars. We were amazed at the difference in cost for oil changes. We could remember when it was $25 for the oil change. They may have rotated the tires. It was a bit out of the budget but both cars are ready for winter driving.
I stopped at the church on the way home to practice the organ. I will pay for Sacrament meeting on Sunday. I haven't done this in about two years. It all came back to me. The organ is new and I had to select the stops but they are close to the same as the old organ. The things that is most difficult is turning the pages in the prelude book. I have to reach quickly with my right arm and have may fingers separate the page and flip the page. My arm is clearly not like it once was. It can do this motion but it not a friendly one to do. Since that are is all put together in reverse order, there are some things that will be a bit of a struggle for the rest of my life. But there is nothing to complain about. It will be good to do this exercise with that arm.
In the evening, we went to the Louisville Kentucky Temple. We stopped at Chick-filA in Frankfort for a drive-thru dinner and ate in a parking spot facing the main highway. Across the highway was a store named PopShelf. We each weighed in on what we thought it sold. Claude was sure it was a store that sold shelving you popped together. I was sure it was a store that sold and kinds and flavors of Soda Pop. We were both wrong. I did a Google search and found this description. "PopShelf is a division of Dollar General, but targets a higher-end shopper." I did not know Dollar General had degrees of shoppers! I found this extremely amusing.
On to the temple we went and enjoyed a wonderful endowment session. As we were getting to the Snyder to get on it, both our phones had really loud alerts. It seems a plane had crashed at the Louisville airport. It was a UPS plane. They did not want anyone in a 5-mile radius of the place. We were further away then that and got on to I-64 to head north toward home. As I record this it is Wednesday. There death count is up to 9 with the probability of more. They have not identified all the missing. These are valid pictures I found on Facebook.
What a week! Well, a little over a week of posting. I still haven't heard from the vascular surgeon. Who knows when that will happen. I am grateful for our little home and that sanctuary it is from life. We are richly blessed.
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