Where My Health Stands Today

Besides the "best" efforts of my previous PCP(aka Primary Care Physican)to do me in, here is where my health stands today.

My Right Heart Catheterization Procedure showed normal pressure levels in my heart, which is excellent news.
The cardiologist took me off of the oxygen 24/7.  He still wants me for now to be on oxygen support while sleeping, but instead of 3 litres, I am on 1 litre, the lowest you can go.
I got my BiPAP(bi-level Positive Air Pressure)Machine 2 weeks ago this coming Monday and have been using it nightly during sleep.  I meant to show y'all my new toy but it's upstairs and I kept forgetting to take the camera up at night to snap a photo.  It's black, sleek and yes sexy, since it helps me get the rest I need, so I can get better. ;-)

I've been taken off some meds, gone on others, but overall the amount has decreased.

The weight has plateaued....sigh....partly due to changed meds and they took me off of the one that was helping me lose weight.  I haven't been able to get the exercise program going yet, which I need to do to get the metabolism kicked up a notch.  It's hard to exercise beyond a slow pace when your lungs don't allow you to get enough oxygen saturation.
I had a lung function test a couple of weeks ago and it shows decreased functioning and I have some permanent lung issues.  I'm breathing better but not up to snuff.

The cardiologist wants me to consider bariatric surgery.  He feels that is the only way I am going to get enough weight off in the time frame I need to have it gone.  He says I am lucky that the heart cath shows normal heart function because if it had come back abnormal, along with my breathing problems, that no surgeon would have considered doing general anesthesia surgery on me.

The PCP is of both minds on this bariatric surgery subject....mostly due to it's extreme nature.  I have so many other problems that surgery and the changes this surgery will entail will be difficult to balance with all the other meds and conditions.
Of course, if I have the surgery and get the weight off, some of these conditions will go away or lessen to a great extent.
I went down this bariatric surgery road once before in 2006 or so.  I got to the psychological evaluation process after 6 months of appts. with this surgeon's nutritionist/caseworker(which insurance did NOT pay a penny for)when this doctor decided to stop performing bariatric procedures totally.  He decided that it was NOT a permanent solution for weight reduction, as all his patients were regaining the weight 5 years out or so.  So instead of committing to do surgery on the patients still in the process, he just walked away without even a "Sorry folks".....
So basically I was left paying OOP a goodly sum and was at the end of the line.  I would have had to start from the beginning again with a new doctor which we could have done financially but psychologically and emotionally I was not prepared to do.

Hubs and I are mulling over whether to go down this road again.  I know techniques have improved so I am not as reticent due to the possibility of a botched procedure that could affect my life for whatever is left of it.  Maybe the lap band procedure(which is not as extreme and fully reversible)may be my compromise.  I just don't know what to do at this point.

I am currently having all those routine female tests done and they want me to schedule the big "You are over 50 now, let's dig around in your colon" Test. 
The Nurse Practitioner ordered the test because she did a sample and it came back positive for blood.  I think it was due to my hemorrhoids but better to be safe than sorry.
Yes, Sluggy has hemorrhoids.
TMI for sure..... ;-)

My blood pressure is good.
My blood sugars are good.
My cholesterol is a little high.
My sleep apnea is MUCH improved.

So I am still here and kicking and look to be here for the foreseeable future.
I am going with the program and taking the tests and pills as ordered, sticking to my low sodium diet and trying though it seems lately in vain, to get some weight off.
And this is all in my spare time.....LOLOL
Not really, it pretty much has taken over and has become my life.

So I should be around to bother the crap out of everyone for a long time still.
Aren't you glad? 8-)

Sluggy



 

Another Reason Not to Shop at Walmart

Well, you should stay out of my local Walmart.....

 

Sluggy

Organizing Work...Boring but Necessary

Nothing much exciting to talk about today.

I took a ride out to visit "Joshua" at the cemetery in St. Johns PA yesterday.
Actually, I went to snap some photos of headstones, both photo requests on F.A.G. and just random stones to put up memorials for on F.A.G.
And Joshua snubbed me....humph!  He must have been up late partying the night before.

I found at least 9 headstones for requests(I may have found more but I need to go through and edit my photos first).  I also found some relatives of the requests who didn't have memorials up on F.A.G. yet, which may make the people who requested photos happier still, as they be long lost relations.

A few of the headstones were very worn and all the details aren't readily readable.  I found this video of a guy who uses flour to bring out the etching in old unreadable headstones....

 

If you read the lengthy list of comments on that video you'll see the flour method has pros and cons and it's use is not widely recommended.  I may have to get a blacklight or laser flashlight to keep in the car as those doesn't seem to harm the headstones and can aid in reading the markers.  It doesn't help that my eyes are old and getting weaker too.

Anyway, today I'm editing photos and uploading them to F.A.G.

I also found an interesting real estate property on the road to the cemetery that is for sale.
Check it out HERE.  It needs gutting basically but it's a nice piece of property in a low tax area and it's right across the road from a creek and it's going for pennies.....mostly because it needs a whole house redo.
But we could buy it for cash and work on it at our leisure.  Of course that would mean retiring up here in the snowbelt but then there is always RV living out-of-state for the winter months.
It's a moot point unless I can get an agent to SHOW us the house!....which no one seems to want to do.  You would think with the housing/real estate market depressed as it is, agents would be returning my calls without haste to get me inside this house, huh?
Not so.
I guess the commission on a $40K property just isn't worth their effort.....

I also cleaned out my Yahoo mailbox earlier this week.  1500+ emails gone!
I unsubbed from many email firms there and dumped a bunch of spam and unwanted mails.
Then I set up some new folders and moved about 300 emails worth keeping.
I am left with 10 emails to deal with in the old inbox.
Go me! lol

I don't access my Yahoo mail much anymore.  I don't remember what led me over there to my inbox but I'm glad I went because I found out something interesting.

Yah see, when I got this new computer with Windows 8(STILL hate W8!), the Hubs couldn't sent up my email server into the Windows program so that my incoming mail goes into my inbox.  He had to sent up a folder in the email program for my server addy and all my incoming mail from my server comes into that folder, not my inbox. (We have a "pop" email account and W8 doesn't support that any longer?)  It's too confusing for me to explain better or even to understand.....I just know that it "ain't right".

Over the last couple of months, since being on this new machine, I've sent out emails to folks.  Now there is still a feature on this machine, through Windows 8, that hooks to my yahoo email account.  I just discovered, by going into my yahoo inbox, I have replies to emails I sent out that I never got responses to in my reg. email server account I use...which is where I thought I had sent these emails from.  Somehow, it seems, when I sent emails on this machine to these persons, the computer used my yahoo email account, thus the replied to the yahoo email.

One such person I never got a response from was Tanner....well she DID respond but I never saw the response as it went to my Yahoo inbox.
Evidently, I hit something on my computer and instead of sending some emails out through my regular server it brought up a blank email form through the yahoo account.
So I apologize if I never responded to your response to me, especially to Tanner.
I'll be emailing you later Tanner about what we were corresponding about....I haven't forgotten you! ;-)

It truly sucks being a technology halfwit and have I told y'all how much I detest Windows 8 yet?? 8-))

Speaking of Yahoo, some day I'll have to tell y'all the story about my Siamese twin Asian email sister on Yahoo.
It's a hoot of a story.

Oh!!!
One more thing to say.......
I got my testing kit yesterday in the mail.

 

I'll be brushing the inside of my cheeks today and sending off my dna to be analyzed tomorrow.
I'm so excited to see what comes up as far as matches(if any)and what it says about my ancestry.
Knowing my luck, it will tell me I am descended from Nordic ancestors and Monkeys, none of which is correct......that I know of.......!

Has anyone else out there taken the first step into the Wide World of Genetic Testing for Ancestry?

Sluggy

The "Good" Doctor

In the continuing saga of my ex-primary doctor.......

Well the week of April 29th-May 3rd was a great week for my ex-doctor.
He was such the popular fellow that there was an article in the local newspaper about him and his tale of woe every day that week.
Impressive!

The Times Leader site won't let me pull up the article from April 29th but here are the others from the competing newspaper.....

APRIL 30th
MAY 1st
MAY 2nd
MAY 3rd

Plus I found this tidbits on the Times Leader online site....

The state Board of Osteopathic Medicine reports that:
• Mark Gonsky, of Luzerne County, was ordered to attend a course in prescribing controlled substances in 2012, institute contracts for the management of any chronic pain patients and engage a professional office management company to review his documentation practices and then re-evaluate the documentation practices six months later because he failed to maintain complete records for his patient.

Things have been kind of low key in the news media for him lately.  THIS is the latest article I could find on him this morning.

I do feel some compassion for the man but I am still very very angry.....

Sluggy

I'm A Cheap Dinner Date

Here's what I did with the leftover Fajita filling I had.
I took a page out of Alex M.'s playbook.
I whipped up a pie crust dough and made quasi Tex/Mex Empanadas.
The weather was rainy and cool enough to consider running the oven today.

Circle of dough, put filling on half, sprinkle some cheddar cheeses on top, fold over and seal/crimp with a fork.
Then I placed on a spray oil coated foiled cookie sheet and sprayed more oil on top of each.  Bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

The burnt stuff is filling that leaked out and stayed on the foil.  the fajita filling was juicy enough that it didn't need a sauce put inside these.

Each was really too big for one meal, so I cut mine in half and the other piece will be lunch or dinner tomorrow.

some leftover corn and a big dollop of sour cream finished off my plate.

Hubs preferred his with hot sauce and a can of chili.....

Of course he dumped all the chili on it before realizing he couldn't eat the whole thing in one sitting.
Well, he could of eaten the whole thing in one sitting but he thought that wouldn't be wise....lol

The costs of this leftover meal?
.33¢ for the box of Jif pie crust mix and $1.00 for the can of chili(both bought ahead on sale) and pennies(let's say 5¢) for my dollop of sour cream.
$1.38 plus we have enough left for another meal.

I spent $61.95 at the grocery store yesterday and it really wasn't a lot of food.  $19.49 of that was for #2 Son's requested foods that I won't be eating, so $42.46 for fruit, juice, meat, lettuce, tomato sauce, onion rolls.  $92.74 worth of food all totaled.
I still need to get more fruit, salad greens, milk and half & half tomorrow and I am done spending this week.
If the weather cooperates tomorrow, I'll bake off 2 quiches(1 for the freezer)and make spaghetti sauce and the bulk of cooking for week will be complete.

Sluggy