James had dialysis two days in a row this week. Since Christmas fell on a Wednesday this year, and they obviously didn't want to take the dialysis patients away from their own celebrations, they scheduled James for Monday and Tuesday dialysis. Monday went fine. I bought last minute foods at Kroger and made gravy with boneless pork ribs for Christmas Eve dinner. James watched Landman and Battlebots on his tablet.

Tuesday seemed to go as well. James had dialysis. I did some last-minute grocery shopping. We had spaghetti and pork ribs and watched The Homecoming and some of Midnight Mass.

We had plans with friends for Christmas which went down the drain on Wednesday morning. After making and eating breakfast and post gift opening, James suddenly got lightheaded and giddy. It happened twice. His blood pressure was something like 83 over 45. I looked it up and this often happens after consecutive dialysis sessions. So we rustled the emergency turkey out of the freezer, paired it with Yukon Gold potatoes, and a cucumber salad, and had a Christmas dinner on our own after giving James some salt and more liquid, and we both had a nap. Then we watched this year's Call the Midwife special, which was fabulous; there were several intertwined plotlines, including a tense but sweet incident involving Reggie, the young man with Down Syndrome.

Before bed, it was time for The House Without a Christmas Tree. A quiet ending to a quiet day.

Thursday we had a better day: James was feeling much better and we drove out to Books-a-Million and then had lunch at Brooklyn Joe's. We got a large pizza and once again brought half home. [Later: We had it as another meal several days later.] On the way home we stopped at Barnes & Noble.

Early Friday morning we got a call from DaVita. They were shortstaffed and couldn't accommodate James at Bellemeade that day. They had found a seat for James either that afternoon in Hiram at three or Saturday in Douglasville at 10:15. We chose Hiram even though it was a chilly, wet day because Douglasville was just too far to drive. However, getting there at three meant James wouldn't be out any earlier than 6:30. It's only fourteen miles, but it would be in the dark. I wasn't driving back that distance in the dark. Driving the two miles to the one near the house had been bad enough. So I basically packed up the laptop and planned to spend most of my time in the lobby waiting for James.

We got there and they were slammed. Two ambulances delivered patients that they weren't ready for yet. One of the ambulances would have to wait until 3:45 and they were expected in Douglasville at 4 p.m. and the driver was fit to be tied. Anyway, after 45 minutes they finally called James back.

I took the truck back down a mile and gassed up at Sam's Club. I have never seen that Sam's gas station when it wasn't five to eight cars deep at each pump! Today, only ones and twos--maybe the damp, chilly weather? Next I went to the next shopping center over, got some candy and a cool gift at Five Below, then went to Michael's.

If you're not looking for anything on clearance after Christmas, Michael's has to be the most depressing place on earth. I did get James a storage box. Went next door to PetsMart to get cheered up only to find all their budgies gone and one poor little lone conure left; I feel bad that I didn't stay longer and keep him company.

Finally I bit the bullet and went to Walmart because I was out of yogurt soon, then went back to DaVita. The Hiram location is in an area with all doctors' and dentists' offices (except for a gym) and parking was wide open.

The waiting area at the Hiram DaVita had a lot comfier chairs, at least (Bellemeade has nasty bucket chairs). They had a sofa, but there was no electrical plug at either end, and my laptop is old enough that the battery only lasts about an hour. There was a plug at a chair next to the Christmas tree, so I sat there. (No one turned on the Christmas tree, either, so I did that, too!)

James got home way after seven, at which time it was raining lightly. We stopped by Dragon 168 and had Chinese for dinner.

On Saturday we didn't do a blessed thing except I made a meat sauce so we could have spaghetti for dinner and Tucker got his two daily walks. Watched season one of Law & Order on Hulu (this began on December 16 and I've been looking forward to it, because as many times as I've seen the show on USA, WEtv, Pop, BBC America, and Sundance, I've never seen them in order and, indeed, have actually never seen some episodes at all, as first season proved), and then the final three episodes of Bull. I liked this series pretty well; it was enjoyable watching most of the characters grow and change, especially Chunk and Dani and Taylor. Jason Bull himself wasn't the most likeable character, but Michael Weatherly made him fun to watch. My absolute favorite character in the series was Geneva Carr's Marissa Morgan. It was nice to see her get her due in the final episode of the series.

On Sunday we found out that Jimmy Carter had passed away. Of all the presidents, I think he has had the most notable post-presidential career, and was just all around Good Folks. God bless, President Carter. You're back with Rosalynn at last.

Labels: Christmas, errands, events, food, health, outings, sickness, television, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:52:00 PM

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Sigh. James' restless legs have done it again. Now he's torn a hole through the dark blue sheets. So I had to go to Walmart on Monday to buy new sheets because I needed a bottom sheet, and had to change the bed again, although I just changed it yesterday. Plus Walmart's "hotel quality" sheets aren't as good as when I bought the first two sets a couple of years ago: they now have a satin quality that, even with the deep corners and thick elastic band on the bottom sheet, makes the sheet slips on the mattress (and I can't find my sheet "garters," even though I know I still have them). Plus they no longer label the "top/bottom" on the bottom sheet so you know the short end from the long end. Faugh.

On Tuesday we were thinking of going to Canton, but we simply just went to Woodstock and had breakfast at the IHOP. Do you know they no longer have silver dollar pancakes for adults anymore? You can only get them on the children's menu now! The waitress was really sweet and said she would say I was ordering a short stack, but ask the cook to make me silver dollars instead. Except the cook didn't and I got the short stack, but the waitress talked to the manager and they gave me a complementary order of silver dollar pancakes! We tipped her really well and, as I could barely get through the short stack, brought the silver dollars home. [Later: We had them for breakfast Christmas Day!]

Wednesday I finally gave Tucker a bath. He was overdue for one when he got so sick last month.

On Thursday something baffling happened. We went to see Dr. Ahmad at the Doctors Building at Emory St. Joseph. This was basically a waste of our time as we had already seen Drs. Hobson and Keel; all he said was that he concurred with their diagnosis. (Well, if we could, we'd get it done, because now Dr. Keel is saying James needs a current echocardiogram because he hasn't had one since 2022. That is bullshit because he had one in the hospital in June when his kidneys failed and another either in July or in August. [Later: it was August.])

Anyway, when we left the Emory garage, the power chair was fine. The back was folded down. We left the garage, paid the attendant, the barrier came up, and we were on our way. We made the mistake of going to the Trader Joe's on Roswell Road rather than our usual Trader Joe's at Market Square. There was intense road construction right before Roswell, and we had to inch along for what seemed like ages. I went in by myself to get more orange chicken and other Christmas goodies that will disappear on December 26. This is a big open parking lot, no overhangs. Then we went to Kaiser Cumberland to pick up some prescriptions for James. Again, big open parking lot, no overhangs.

When we got home, the head rest of the power chair (remember, the back of the chair was folded down so it was over the seat) was bent 45 degrees. This headrest support is made from steel.

All James can figure is that when we went through the exit gate at Emory, it somehow caught on the head rest and bent it. How? We don't know. Why wasn't the rest of the chair damaged? Dunno, but thank goodness it wasn't!

Saturday we were planning to go out, but James didn't sleep during the night, so we slept late and had Zaxby's for supper and watched Christmas stories. Sunday we did go out, then went to Big Lots because we heard they were going out of business. The line was very long, but the two cashiers were very efficient. We got some cool bargains.

I'm bummed with Big Lots going out of business, though. Where will I get my shampoo now?

Labels: chores, Christmas, doctors, events, food, health, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:43:00 PM

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Tucker did have the ultrasound to make sure he had nothing nasty going on inside him on Monday. He passed with flying colors.

Next day and on Wednesday James had doctors' appointments, podiatry on Tuesday and cardiologist on Wednesday.

We had a dinner invitation for Thanksgiving Day, but it was across town and we would have to drive home in the dark. Instead we spent Thanksgiving on our own; we made extra turkey so we could have leftovers (and indeed, we ended up eating turkey for weeks). With carrots and stuffing it was a sufficient dinner, and we watched most of the Macy's parade and the National Dog Show.

At night we got a treat: Lower Decks! Alas, the final season.

We were able to go to Second Thanksgiving, as we call it, at Alice's house. Juanita made a killer turkey and Kayla brought an even more killer ham. The company was even better than the food, even if I've been suffering from a lack of sleep.

All this was beside the point. We had gotten a call from James' sister some days ago. Her husband had been cleaning up some debris left over from Hurricane Helene and hurt himself. He was taken to the hospital to get checked out. The doctors found a virulent cancer throughout his body and gave him days to live.

He died on November 27.

They told my sister-in-law that the cancer was so aggressive that if they had taken the same tests in September, it would not have shown up.

Today I put up the outdoor lights and the candoliers, but I hardly feel like Christmas this year. I'd prefer to crawl under a blanket and forget about it.

Labels: Christmas, Christmas decorations, death, dogs, family, food, friends, pets, Thanksgiving

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:00:00 PM

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There was no warning. It began fine: I had bought James a new duffle bag for our anniversary to take to dialysis (the old bag was falling apart). It has a separate compartment intended for gym shoes or a wet towel/swimsuit, and we have put his blanket in there. He doesn't really needed it, because now that he's on dialysis, he's not cold all the time. There's a compartment for his sugar-free mints, one for his snacks and visor, one for his water bottle and a juice box, one for his TV schedule, and then the inner compartment has a pocket into which he has two paperback books. The central compartment now just holds his noise-cancelling headphones (dialysis clinics are loud), his neck pillow, and his tablet (charged daily so he can watch Battlebots and whatever that Sylvester Stallone show is).

Tuesday was a disaster. James twisted, thrashed, and kicked because he was in pain all night. Needless to say I didn't sleep, and we went to Hanger to get his back brace fitted in very ill tempers. As we pulled out of the driveway a car stopped in front of us and the driver got out.

I've talked many times about Tucker's adversarial relationship with Max, the German Shepherd on the corner. I don't know how much I've mentioned his relationship with Champion, the German Shepherd down at the end of the street. His people rent a house in the lower cul-de-sac. I watched Champion from when he was a young dog. He has always approached Tucker with curiosity--"Oh, look, what a cute little dog!"--and Tucker approached him back with his head up and his tail wagging obligingly. It was obvious they both wanted to play together, but of course his person was walking him one way, and I was walking Tucker the other.

It was Champion's owner who stopped to talk to us: Champion DIED on Monday; he said they didn't know why.

We couldn't go home afterwards because James was scheduled for the bone scan at Kaiser, so we spent about a half-hour in Barnes & Noble before heading to Townpark. I was quite woozy and sick; we were going to stop at Walmart for yogurt and I was so sick we didn't. I did manage to get us a couple of treats in Bernhard's Bakery.

I was feeling better Wednesday, so after finishing the Lidl/Publix/Kroger grocery route, stopped at Walmart on the way home for the yogurt. In the evening I finally bit the bullet and ordered new phones. My current cell reboots at odd times and loses connection on local streets, and it's beginning to eat battery. I got James a desert tan color and I got a red one. Maybe it will be easier to find.

Then...out of nowhere, James got up Thursday morning, went out to make breakfast, and found out Tucker had vomited on the floor. Sometimes he does just get an upset stomach and vomit. But Wednesday he only ate one dog biscuit and a mouthful of rice in beef stock. He was listless and his eyes were tragic and he'd only drink if he licked it off my hands during the day. He drank more at night and ate a couple more dog biscuits. By afternoon I called Riverview and made him an appointment for the next day.

Thursday Tucker wouldn't even walk down the stairs voluntarily. I scooped him up and carried him on his back in his blanket and he just lay there. He hates being held upside down. His breath was raspy.

He stayed at the vet the rest of the day and overnight. He had a high fever (105℉!) and diarrhea and had IVs getting antibiotics into him and helping his dehydration.

We went to pick him up but he was limp and listless on Friday. I had to feed him with Hill's Urgent Care soft food with a syringe, and this was the only time he struggled. He has a dangerously low level of white blood cells in his body, can't go near other dogs and we have to watch him because he's susceptible to sepsis. It was so bad Saturday night I had a meltdown. This is too fucking much. First it was Oliver, then James in the hospital, then James at home, then the falls, and now it's poor Tucker. I felt totally helpless.

Sunday was a little better, as I did get some stuff done, but a real struggle to feed Tucker via syringe (I mean, I get it! I would hate it, too!).

Labels: dogs, food, health, pets, shopping, sickness, smartphones, technology

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 3:30:00 PM

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James has finally seen the spinal doctor at Emory!

Not that it did him much good.

The appointment was wayyyyy over at the old Executive Park complex which used to be a rabbit warren of little buildings, many of them rented by CDC. I had attended meetings and classes at Executive Park; the plus of going there was that it was near a plaza that was filled with restaurants, including a Chinese place we were very fond of going to for Friday lunch.

All of the buildings are now gone. In its place are the big Arthur Blank Hospital, part of Children's Hospital of Atlanta, a bunch of construction, and the Emory Muskoskeletal and Spinal Center, which was us. The building is shiny new, with a very nice-smelling cafe at the entrance. They have an interesting system of elevators, too. When you get there you register, and they give you a ticket telling you where to go: Level 4, for example, and then Aisle E. Then you go to the elevator bay which has a central panel. You tell the elevator you're going to Level 4, and it tells you what elevator to take. There are no buttons in the elevator; it's kinda spooky.

Anyway, we saw Dr. Hobson, but nothing was done that Thursday; she wanted a battery of tests first: a complete spinal CT scan, a complete MRI of the spine, and a bone density test. She doesn't want to start a treatment for his lower back that will screw up his upper back. She also prescribed a back brace, which we'll get from Hangar Orthotics, and hydrotherapy. When we got home we tried to set up the CT and MRI immediately, but the orders weren't in the system yet; they did not go in until Wednesday and James made appointments on Saturday evening the 9th at Townpark, but he couldn't get the bone scan until the following Tuesday. But it will be done quickly, so we can hopefully get James some pain relief.

This wasn't our only appointment this week; we also went to see Dr. Coyle. The fistula still isn't "ripe." You know, we were told, both times, that this thing would be "ripe" in six weeks. Now they tell us six weeks to three months!

In happier trips, we drove out to the Costco in Paulding County again. We got supplies, but there was no ScotTissue! We also stopped at the Walmart out there and I was able to find twelve cans of the recently discontinued Harvest Tomato soup, which I use to make chicken cacciatore. I think this is the only big haul I'm going to be able to get. I now have 20 cans, and then we will need to find something else. I'm very sad.

James had already filled in his mail-in ballot, and I did mine on Wednesday. When we left dialysis, we drove past the Smyrna community center where they were having early voting. This year they did allow me to deposit James' ballot along with mine; last year they insisted he do it himself.

I put up the outside Thanksgiving decorations on Friday only to discover I had no Thanksgiving flag! I ordered one immediately, a very beautiful surround of autumn leaves surrounding the word "thankful." Then I drove out to the Walmart near Roswell Road and Cobb Parkway in hope of finding more Harvest Tomato soup. No luck there, but they did have slip-on canvas shoes that I use for dog-walking at night. And just in time, too, because when I got home and swapped out the inserts in my old dog-walking shoes, I discovered the soles of both shoes were cracked!

This Walmart is next to Sam's Club, so I went in for ScotTissue. Thank goodness, they did have some! They also had—oh, my ears and whiskers!—poultry gravy. It has been like pulling teeth to find containers of poultry gravy; you can get brown gravy all the time, but not poultry. I ended up paying something like fifteen dollars to get a canister of McCormick poultry gravy mix from Amazon, and there they were at Sam's Club for $5 each. So I bought three!

Uploaded a new fanfic as well: "Haunted."

Labels: change, clothing, food, health, shopping, sickness, writing

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:37:00 PM

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This week's high even had a disappointing low. On Sunday we went to the Apple Festival and, while it was nice to walk the fairgrounds, it was very tiring and I was suffering from lack of sleep, and feeling very woozy and out of it.

We made a short stop at Panorama Orchards for the necessities of life: fresh Granny Smith apples, blackberry spread, the tea sold in little wooden crates (but they quit making the ginger peach), sugar-free taffy, and a few other things. Then we decided to stop in Canton to eat, hoping to go to the Thai place, but they are closed Sunday and Monday. Brooklyn Joe's was slammed, so we went to Cheeseburger Bobby's. This was really good: you got enough meat in the burger and the onion rings were excellent! It was pretty expensive, though.

Stopped at Books-a-Million briefly, then got stuck in traffic on the way home. ::sigh::

The week started badly because we had to see Dr. Coyle on short notice. They noticed at dialysis that his fistula incision was weeping and had been giving him IV antibiotics on his last two visits. She said she didn't want him having that much vancomycin. She put him on oral antibiotics and told me to put Betadyne on the incision and keep it covered. [The Betadyne did do the trick eventually, but we can't figure out what happened in the first place as we followed all her instructions on caring for the wound to the letter.]

Just chores for the rest of the week, including cleaning out decrepit emergency toilet-flushing water bottles from the garage.

Labels: chores, events, food, health, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:41:00 PM

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...that we may have to break it into parts.

Might as well get the nastiness out of the way first. Hurricane Helene was in the news a lot starting September 24. Supposedly this monster was due to gather a lot of strength and not lose it after it crossed the Florida/Georgia line. I immediately began gathering every small power supply we had in the house just in case we lost power for more than an hour, as our internet and main computers are already on APC power supplies, as is the television and Roku, but they would be needed for emergencies. On Wednesday it poured and we took the rollator to dialysis because the power chair isn't supposed to get wet. On Thursday we heard that a 15-20 foot storm surge would probably hit Tallahassee when Helene made landfall, and then the damn fool thing was going to come directly up I-75 and hit Atlanta head on with 75 mph winds. These were the conditions predicted when we went to bed on Thursday night. Instead, we slept almost soundlessly until five, when rain lashed at the windows and we could hear the wind raging outside. By the time we got up it was sprinkling, and then partly cloudy, with some very blue sky visible. Just south of us the storm had turned east, so Atlanta and Chattanooga were marked "safe" except for some downed trees around town.

Instead Helene barrelled into western North Carolina like a gigantic watery freight train. All the beautiful towns and villages there were lashed and pounded. The "Rainbow Bridge," a little tribute place where you could fasten a memory of a beloved pet, was washed away. The gatehouse at Biltmore Estates was 2/3 covered in water. The little town of Chimney Rock was completely washed away. Big chunks of the freeway in eastern Tennessee and western NC are gone, as well as smaller roads. The Blue Ridge Parkway has been chewed up in many places. In fact so many roads are out that they cannot bring in supplies to many places and are resorting to helicopters, small planes, and, in one case, a mule train! Mountain Mule Trackers have been using their mules to get supplies into that part of the state. Fall is the time when much of western NC and eastern TN make money due to leaf peepers. They'll have no business this year. Dolly Parton personally donated a million dollars to recover efforts.

James' sister, in Gaffney, South Carolina, lost power, but they are in the country and have a generator. [They only had power restored on October 6, thanks to tree cutters shipped in all the way from St. Louis, Missouri, followed by the local linemen. Electrical linemen are the GOAT. These folks need to be paid more money, not overstuffed politicians and performers.]

So while Nature was doing her damnest, we were able to carry on: I cleaned out under the bathroom sinks and used shelves to get extra storage space; we stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home from James' surgical followup and found lots of fall goodies; Thursday it was cool enough for me to go for a full walk!; on Saturday after Hair Day we drove out to the Costco in Paulding county, gassed up my car, and found more Belgian chocolate mousse in the handy little glass containers as well as lamb chops for $5.99/pound; and stopped at the local Walmart and finally found some of my yogurt! I bought two weeks' worth and need to check the local Wally Worlds for more.

In James news, Dr. Coyle seemed pleased with his fistula so far, even though he complains he cannot feel what they call "the thrill," the buzzing that a successful fistula makes. I can feel it plain as day, it vibrates like a purring cat. The skin around the surgical area has also swollen up like it's supposed to, which the original fistula did not do. Oddly, his blood pressure was rather low on the visit, but she did not seem concerned. And Friday he got lucky and got an early chair at dialysis!

Sunday he got the nicest surprise of all. His best friend J.P. called ... um, from wherever he and his wife are living now; I've totally forgotten. You should have heard them on the phone exchanging their health challenges. Apparently J.P. also twitches in his sleep and has been diagnosed with narcolepsy.

We had some of the lamb chops tonight, in the air fryer, with mint jelly. So good!

Labels: chores, errands, food, friends, health, local, relatives, sadness, shopping, sickness, storms, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:26:00 PM

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Emotionally, it's been a bummer of a week.

The saddest part was finding out a friend had died. I met Rose Marie Badgett on my first trip to a convention with friends rather than with my mother. There were six of us sharing a room: Rosie (from Kentucky), Alice and Maggi from Georgia, Mary from Massachusetts, and Gail and I from Rhode Island. We had a wilder weekend than we expected than at a Star Trek convention because all of us were supposed to leave on Monday, but Sunday night a big snowstorm blew into New York City, flights were suspended, Amtrak was running about twelve hours behind...and the hotel offered us another night at the con rate. We had a room party and James Doohan showed up, except we missed it because Gail and Rosie had gone out to dinner, and the other four of us were in Holly's room, Mary and Maggi because they wanted some quiet, and Alice and I were watching Backstairs at the White House.

Rosie was one of the Space: 1999 fans in the bunch and I saw her twice a year until she moved to California and then I moved to Georgia. I think I saw her last in person in 1985. But we reconnected on Facebook. Apparently she had been ill for a while and passed away on Sunday.

My consolation is that she and Lin have probably found each other by now and are telling tales to each other.

Less hurtful but still mournful was the fact that we made our monthly trip to Canton on Thursday and Uncle Maddio's Pizza Joint was no more. They must have closed right after we went last month. So we made our monthly pilgrimage to Books-a-Million, then ate at a pizza place called Brooklyn Joe's. It was very good, but they don't make personal pizzas; however, they will make half a pizza one way and half another, so I got my usual bacon/black olive/no cheese and James got all the cheese and onion and mushrooms and burger he wanted on his half. Next time we will get a medium, though; we brought half of it home and had it for a meal a few days later.

Sunday we also sort of "don't care"'d and didn't go to the Yellow Daisy Festival, either. Just not the same for me since the Country Pick'ns folks retired. We already had maple barbecue sauce anyway. I would have liked to have looked at the opal rings again and gotten James a new glass nail file (the one I bought him last year was broken and the "replacement" I got from Amazon is terrible—you have to saw at your nails to file them).

Got some useful things done this week anyway: James had his preop for his new fistula surgery on Tuesday, I backed up the hard drive on the desktop, got gas for my car, picked up a prescription at Kaiser.

Did you know there's a "lost" episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent? There is; fortunately it's a Nichols and Wheeler episode...I do dream about them finding a "lost" Goren and Eames! This one was about favoritism in picking out an Olympic site and apparently the Brazilians didn't like it, so it's neither on the DVD set nor in reruns. Someone recorded it when it was first broadcast, though, and that's what I saw. It was an underwhelming effort anyway. Jeff Goldblum overacted terribly in an interrogation scene with the female suspect. The best parts were insights into the ongoing Major Case storylines at the time: Megan Wheeler being interrogated by the FBI due to her fiance's involvement in money laundering and then throwing out her wedding invitations (very sad scene), Ross and Nichols arguing over the latter's decision to go see Breakfast at Tiffany's for insights into the case, and Nichols learning Wheeler's likes and dislikes.

On Saturday we had fun at Taste of Smyrna; this time we went early (1) when it was cool and (2) James could have a meal before his club meeting afterward. We tasted the usual "drunken pork" and creamy grits, rice balls, elk and bison meatballs (I was disappointed; they were quite bland), and a very sweet bread pudding. No Asian food at all this year.

Labels: books, conventions, errands, events, food, friends, loss, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:35:00 PM

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Labels: dogs, DragonCon, dreams, emotions, events, exercise, family, food, friends, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:55:00 PM

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Went to Kroger this afternoon as has become my habit since James started dialysis to find the dairy cases completely rearranged and my favorite flavor of yogurt nowhere to be seen, and no more space for it on the shelf. First it's disappeared from Publix and now it's gone from Kroger. After I came home, I checked Chobani's website to see that they still do make the flavor, then called Publix hoping I could order it. The manager said he would look into it for me.

Tuesday we had to go back to Kaiser Townpark for James to get the examination on his eyes to see if the Plaquinel is affecting them (it's not, so far). We discussed the computer glasses and were told that his distance glasses—the ones with the transitional lenses that "have to be trained"—are the ones he should be using for the computer.

Wednesday was another dialysis day, and then, success on Thursday! I finally found the rub-ons I need for the porch. They were in the same places I had already looked a couple of times. Perhaps it's the little blue guys again. In the afternoon we went back to Townpark so James could have a new echocardiogram. We had lunch at Pacific Buffet and I bought some books at Barnes & Noble.

James bought a DragonCon streaming membership and we were able to see a little bit of the convention this afternoon: a Star Trek: the Next Generation reunion panel and then the John Cleese panel. I believe Cleese is here for the entire convention, but he is only doing one panel, and this was it.

Sunday has its own entry...

Labels: conventions, crafts, food, health, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:23:00 PM

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This week we had a new wrinkle: James' pulse has been slow. We called up Kaiser and they got us an appointment on Tuesday with a Dr. Carpenter. We thought for sure he would ship us off to Urgent Care, which was, providentially, empty, but he ordered an X-ray and a blood test, and then took an EKG. He said because we were going to see James' cardiologist the next day, he felt safe just doing that. And so we did; Dr. Shash said that dialysis needs to take more fluid off of James. Both he and Dr. Carpenter think he should be on some kind of diuretic to help him shed fluid, but DaVita doesn't think so. They did take him off his high blood pressure meds, which they thought might have been the cause of the low pulse. He really doesn't need the medication anymore due to the dialysis.

I hate that DaVita and Kaiser don't talk to each other. It's Kaiser I'm paying for medical service and to keep James healthy, and I don't like DaVita sticking their fingers in the pie.

In happier news, we went downtown on Thursday and wandered about, visiting the new Italian grocery and goodies store, the candy store for sugar-free candy, and the Corner Shop (the British store).

The only other notable event was a horrific thunderstorm on Sunday; everything got dark, the wind whipped up and the rain lashed down. But it cleared up in time to reveal a beautiful full moon!

Labels: errands, food, health, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:25:00 PM

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It was an okay week, although we are worried that James' lungs may be accumulated fluid again. When we saw Dr. Salazar on Friday we asked him to listen to his heart and lungs. He said they sounded okay, so we're going to leave it to DaVita to take the proper amount of fluid off him per day.

We did have a couple of fun excursions this week. On Tuesday we went to Ollie's discount outlet to get new vinyl bungie cords for the big trunk we keep in the back of the truck. The sun rots them after awhile and we have to buy a new set. We bought two sets, so we'll have a spare next time when the new ones get broken and can go looking for another set while still having a usable set. We also got a new bungie cord to go around the tarp cover for the power chair. The last one rotted out.

On Thursday we drove out to Canton, went to Books-a-Million, had dinner at Uncle Maddio's, and finally stopped at BJs for fruit cups, maple syrup, and also AAA batteries. Remember when everything took double As? Now it's almost always triples.

Friday we got a call that the infectious disease doctor at Urgent Care thought Augmentin wasn't good enough for James' UTI. They want him on Fosfomax again. Sigh. The Augmentin was doing well, too. I could tell the the Fosfomax isn't going to work. It will kill the UTI for a week and then things will start up all over again.

I spent Sunday looking for the damn rub-on letters I need for the signs on the front porch ("Dog loose in house" and "No sales or solicitors"). I'm getting so tired of those fripping roofers knocking on the door at least once a week. Still can't find them.

Labels: annoyances, excursions, food, health, shopping, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:08:00 PM

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Well, now I know I'm depressed between James' medical troubles and Oliver being sick: I took about an hour to myself on Monday, since I had to go to Kaiser after dropping James off at dialysis to pick up some meds for him, to go to Barnes & Noble to cheer up. It didn't work. I was totally miserable walking around, even though I did buy Leather and Lark and Ashley Poston's new book. If going to a bookstore can't cheer me up, how will I manage?

Something very odd happened Monday night. We buy snack cakes for desserts; you know, Hostess cupcakes, things like that. We had a box of Ding Dongs which we had already eaten two of the cakes. When I opened one for dessert and took a small bite of it, a terrible chemical smell came out of the cake, like...I don't know, like some kind of floor or counter cleaner. I opened the cake I was about to give to James and it had the same smell! I threw them both away, and Tuesday I was terribly sick, sleepy and nauseated and burping all day, so I just threw the rest of the box away, too. So glad I didn't ignore the smell and eat the whole thing, or let James eat it.

We had leftover turkey and rice for supper on Friday, and a good thing because dialysis caused us to be ready just in time for Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. Bon spectacle on the Seine for sure, although some stuff was just bizarre, like the decapitated Marie Antoinette projections. We were surprised at all the furor about "the Last Supper" because we watched the whole thing and never interpreted what happened in that manner. Later they explained this was a tribute to pagan gods or whatever? Ah, well, they're French after all. (Just kidding.) Anyway, I loved that they rang the bells of Notre Dame for the first time since the fire! Also the wonderful light show from the Eiffel Tower and the fact that the Olympic torch is actually a balloon in honor of the Montgolfier brothers! Enjoyed the fact that the countries' teams got to ride in boats down the Seine as well, but felt bad for everyone being drenched with rain.

I had no idea why Snoop Dogg was getting all this attention and Lady Gaga performing was okay, but Celine Dion singing was quite beautiful. I looked up the "stiff person" disease that she has and the symptoms sound gruesome, and even loud sounds can trigger an attack. I hope she was okay after the performance.

Saturday James got his new glasses. Finally! Costco was a mess to navigate on a Saturday.

I don't see any improvement in poor Oliver. He's asleep most of the time although he has been eating, and I've been vaporizing him every day. Sometimes I can get him to eat fruit or some oatmeal, but he is letting me cuddle him more and more, not because, I think, that he is getting used to me and likes it, but because he's just too worn out to fight back.

Labels: birds, books, budgies, food, Olympics, shopping, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:18:00 PM

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We prepped for Urgent Care Monday morning, but we never made it. James made it down the stairs okay, but when he got to the door to the garage, he got one foot down, and could not get the other foot out the door. Then his knees began to fail. Luckily we had a shower chair in the garage that we had bought for his sister Candy and never got to give her. I shifted it under him and he was able to sit. Then I called 911.

The paramedics came and his vitals were okay, but he definitely couldn't walk anymore. They called for an ambulance, but there was an hour's wait. Instead they helped me get him in the car and we went to the emergency room at St. Joseph's. He wasn't in triage ten minutes when they said he "was the sickest person in the emergency room" and we went right back.

To sum up, his bloodwork was terrible; his creatitine was sky high, his BUN 175, his GFR down to 8, and he had much too much potassium in his system. Right before I had to leave to get the animals to bed, he was assigned a room, 508.

I woke up about four feeling uneasy. I noticed Kaiser had called me three times and the phone hadn't rung, even though I disabled Do Not Disturb. I called the hospital and James wasn't in 508 anymore; he was in 207, in Intensive Care. I promptly had hysterics. The switchboard at the hospital was very nice and got me in touch with his floor, where the nurse assured me he was fine. His potassium was still high, so they had transferred him into ICU.

This was a grubby little room with the toilet behind a shower curtain and nowhere for me to sit, so I sat on the toilet, and later on a folding chair which I would recommend as a torture device. I had bought Zaxby's wings for lunch/supper and felt guilty because no one would let James eat because "we don't have the doctor's permission." The doctor wandered in about four and said, "But I gave orders that he could eat." Sigh. This became a lietmotif for the week: he would need something, but it would need a doctor's approval, but the nurse never got it, like having his sleeping pill at night. He went 72 hours without sleep because they wouldn't give him one except the first night. He also never got miconozole powder for the fungal infection he had on his lower abdomen, and the skin was all cracked and red.

They had, I learned, stuck a tube in his neck and had to dialyze him in the middle of the night. They took two liters of fluid off him.

So the time had finally come, the thing we have been fighting off for six years. He's on kidney dialysis for good now.

Wednesday I was going to pick up a meal at Tin Drum, but the line was out the door. I grabbed a burger and fries instead and was starving all day. I did check out the cafeteria: they had ... shudder ... fried haddock or something spicy chicken. Gross. They also moved James back to the fifth floor (502), he'd had dialysis, and was dead bored. You know it's dull when there's nothing on but Law & Order: SVU.

I did get my Tin Drum on Thursday, but I wouldn't eat until they took James downstairs (several hours late) to get a permacath put in. Why a permacath, you ask? Didn't James have fistula surgery last August because Dr. Kongara knew the dialysis was coming because his BUN was rising? Yes he did. And the surgeon told James that the fistula was fine. But the hospital wouldn't use it because the port area "wasn't big enough." (They gave him two ultrasounds on the arm. We never did hear how they came out.)

We were so bored we watched, James at the hospital, me at home, the debate tonight. It is pathetic that, in this huge country, these are the best two candidates for President we have. Daniel Webster, Charles Sumner, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, and other statesmen are turning in their graves.

By Friday, James still hadn't had any sleep. I got Zaxby's again because it was just easier, only to arrive and discover they were sending him home. Of course, that took hours and ... surprise! ... they sent him home at rush hour. They had a whole bunch of plans for at home physical therapy and arranged for us to have dialysis at the DaVita center two miles from our house in the Smyrna Kroger shopping center, and they said he was well enough, but when we got home he didn't have enough strength to get up the four steps to the foyer where the lift chair is.

Oh, Dr. Austin waltzed in before I showed up on Friday. His first words to James were, "I hear you almost died the other night." What the heck??? Yes, his potassium was so high that, if I hadn't taken him to the emergency room on Monday, his heart probably would have stopped by Wednesday!

So, for the second time this week, we called the fire department. God bless them!

With a bunch of sleep James was feeling better next day; he even cooked breakfast. I did chores on Saturday and we were both sick on Sunday (food poisoning?).

Monday I hope he will be strong enough to get down and up those four steps, because he has to go to dialysis.

In other news, I finally found an avian vet for Oliver (who is indeed an Oliver and not an Olivia). I took him to Riverview Animal Hospital where we used to take Leia so long ago. It turns out Oliver has an infection in his air sacs (sort of like bird pneumonia). I think he may have gotten it when he boarded in March. I have to give him medicine twice a day, and he has to stay in a hospital cage (surrounded with a blanket except in front) and I'm to eat with him to make him eat more. I had him in the spare bedroom while James was in the hospital. He hates taking the meds and the fact that I had his wings clipped so he wouldn't get away from me, and I feel like such a heel.

Labels: budgies, food, health, pets, politics, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:57:00 PM

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James' back continued to hurt as the week crept on. We got an interesting little call from Kaiser saying that James' UTI was complicated by several different bacteria and perhaps it would be prudent to change his medication. We were seeing Dr. Jacobs on Tuesday and we said we would discuss that with him.

Dr. Jacobs was an older man who put us at ease. He said he was the one who had hired our doctor, Mobley. We discussed the antibiotic and he wanted to be cautious and let James finish the cephalexin and then be retested to see if he needed further antibiotics rather than "changing horses midstream." We agreed. He also said a short course of high dose steroids might relax his back, so he put him on 60mg for three days, 40 for three days, and then 20 for five days.

We also got the lift back, my savings account considerably poorer.

Steroids usually make James lose weight. Well, it didn't this time. Taking one torsemide is certainly making him gain. I finally got frightened enough on Friday to give him a second one.

We tried to go out on Friday: ate at the South Cobb diner, which is the sister restaurant of the West Cobb Diner with better parking. Alas, they don't have the cucumber salad anymore, and they have changed the turkey dinner stuffing; it's more cornbready and tastes, frankly, like Stove Top. On the way home we stopped at Ollie's Discount Store.

James continued to deteriorate over the weekend. His back still hurt badly, and now he was complaining of feeling weak, and he is acting distracted. When he took a shower on Saturday night, there were dozens of little bumps on his abdomen that look like he is accumulating fluid there, and his skin is irritated.

We were supposed to be at Libertycon this weekend, but we cancelled the hotel reservation on Wednesday right before the cutoff time, and James talked the Libertycon people into rolling over our membership till next year.

Labels: conventions, food, health, shopping, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:28:00 PM

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I finally picked up my new glasses on Tuesday! They were actually ready on the 14th, but no one called. As I said, this is a totally new prescription; usually my eyes change very little in two years, but in one year I've changed from a 4.25 to a 3.50, so I was worried that I wouldn't be able to see. But I can, quite well, which explains why I was having trouble seeing with the old ones; they were now overcompensating.

Tried the computer glasses out when I got home, and they were also a treat. Maybe I can now work on my web pages again.

Thursday was also a good day for James: stitches are out of his toe and he doesn't have to wear that plastic bag on his right leg any longer! This is great because he slipped on the damn thing a couple of days ago and now has a rainbow of bruises on his back because he did kind of a controlled slide to the bathroom floor. Unfortunately we had to call the firemen to get him back up.

We were able to go to Books-a-Million on Sunday (last time I got a bunch of them there, this time none), ate at Uncle Maddio's, and went to BJs for maple syrup and fruit cups.

The week also had its annoyances. I have been fruitlessly looking for a vet for Oliver, because he just doesn't act right. He's used to being here now and he should be more lively, but he isn't. Also, his droppings are very loose and wet, and it looks as if there's a lump behind his legs. I called every "avian vet" I could find on Google. One Google said was in the "Atlanta area" was over an hour's drive. Our own vet said to take him to Athens to the University vet clinic! The place I liked close by, near Douglasville, isn't taking new customers, and they sounded so nice. Riverview, down the road from us, has an avian vet again, but she was gone until the 31st.

I finally called the breeder back and they said they usually take their birds to For Pet's Sake, all the way in Decatur, but, if I wanted, I could take Oliver to see them, to see what they thought. So on Friday we drove out to Norcross to Fancy Feathers. One of the owners, Irene, looked at Oliver...and believes he might be an Olivia, and the lump is an unlaid egg. She gave us some coconut oil to give him, and told me to make sure to keep his bottom clean.

Giving him the coconut has almost restored the droppings. and the wet spots aren't as bad, but now he...or she...is getting fussy about his seed. Sigh.

I need to call Riverside eventually...

Labels: birds, books, food, health, injuries, shopping, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:21:00 PM

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Well, at least the chair lift on the truck is working properly. We had it checked out at Mobility Works on Tuesday—I followed James over there in Butch just in case they needed to keep it—and they gave it a thorough vetting and also some lubrication (you should hear it squeal in the wintertime when it's wet). We stopped by Sam's Club on the way home and gassed up both cars and got some great-looking sirloin steaks.

We had kind of a quirk over at Kaiser on Wednesday; they took James' usual biweekly blood test and came up with the wrong results! Nevertheless, they allowed him to get his Procrit shot on Thursday, and we had an appointment with the podiatrist as well. James' toe looks great, even to me, and I'm hoping the stitches will come out next week because he's going lame in those surgical sandals.

Also annoyed to discover that the Smyrna Publix has ceased to carry my favorite flavor of yogurt.

My largest accomplishment this week was cleaning out in the spare bedroom and finally posting the final chapter in my latest fanfic. The story eventually ran to 43,000 words! I thought when I started it that it would top out at about half that amount, but things just happened...LOL.

Labels: chores, food, health, shopping, writing

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:35:00 PM

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Yay! The grass is cut for the next two weeks and the pine pollen seems to be gone, so it's time for me—something I didn't do last year—to get the hose and rinse down the front porch, which is no longer brick colored, but yellowish. Alas, every single gasket on the hose and nozzle is shot, which means I got as wet as the porch in front (my capris were still damp around the waistband two days later).

We started out the week with one doctor's appointment and ended up with three: Wednesday it was James' physiotherapy followed by the rheumatologist. Dr. Salazar upped James' steroids to 7 1/2 milligrams since he's still in a lot of pain. Later we had supper from Tin Drum, which, to my sorrow, was less than sterling for me.

For years now Tin Drum's teriyaki bowl (under different names) has been my go-to treat. I would go there once a month, especially after I retired, and treat myself to lunch and racked up so many points I had lots of free meals. Over those years they made tiny tweaks to the dish (like adding a lime), but it was always okay.

This time it was disappointing. Instead of just adding a meat now, you have several choices. I got the thin-sliced beef. It was greasy, and at the same time there wasn't enough sauce to cover the rice, and they seemed to have put a little bit of pepper in the sauce (either that or it was grilled after something spicy without the grill having been wiped). It was blah instead of rah. Sigh.

Thursday was James' Procrit shot. Bruce, the nurse who practically bounces off walls, was telling us they are remodeling the Cumberland office, and they want to send nephrology, rheumatology, and a few other things, to Glenlake (and move cardiology and optometry to Cumberland), which means we would have to drive to Glenlake every two weeks for Procrit shots! Bruce is going to see if he can get permission for James to give himself the shots; we would just need to stop by Cumberland to pick up the dosage every two weeks (since the dosage is variable depending on his blood test that week). You give the shot the same way you give yourself an insulin shot, so it's something James can do.

Finally Friday James had a urology checkup. We talked with the PA instead of Dr. Jefferson, which was nice.

Saturday I exposed myself to temptation. James wanted to look for an SSD for his laptop. I have been suffering with envy watching people creating art on iPads because their stylus and art programs are so good. MicroCenter had some discount iPads, and I was very tempted. I'm also looking at new phones because I know the batteries give out after a couple of years.

But...we'll see.

Labels: chores, computers, food, health, yard

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:00:00 PM

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After we saw the total eclipse in 2017, both our minds turned toward this year's event. Since Evansville, Indiana, would be in the path of totality, and was just a short drive over the Ohio River from Owensboro, Kentucky, where we stayed in 2008 to see the Remember WENN play (and met Jen Payne!), we had toyed with the idea of staying in Owensboro—and hopefully being able to eat at that terrific barbecue buffet again if it was still in business!—then driving over the border early in the morning to see totality.

Unfortunately, the last seven years have been...well, a fat bitch. A TURP, four hospital stays in 2022, UTIs and falls...James was in poor shape physically and mentally I wasn't a barrel of laughs. So we made no plans. And watching ABC's "Eclipse Across America" segment later in the week was depressing as well as thrilling. But, can't be helped. Instead on Monday we watched what Atlanta had of a partial eclipse (about 85 percent) from our driveway. It never got dark, or dusky, but the light, to me, had this silvery cast, and the temperature did noticeably drop and the wind picked up.

My favorite part of the eclipse was past peak: about ten minutes after what we got of totality, the mail lady came by. She said "Can I see? Can I see?" and I said yes and she stopped the mail truck in the middle of the street, jumped out, and I let her use my glasses!

Kept busy this week: Tuesday I shelved books in the library, returned all the fannish things I dragged out of the closet looking for the eclipse glasses to the closet and concatenated all our vacation souvenirs in one drawer in the spare room (where I found the eclipse glasses).

Wednesday James had a stellar workout at PT, and then we went to Barnes & Noble, which I suppose was a bad idea because I bought two books (but...they were history books and one was half off...) and the SVU magazine.

A victory on Thursdays: no more followup trips to the dermatologist! James' nose is now well enough to take the daily Band-Aid off. We also had an appointment with the sleep doctor—he's gonna see if he can get James a new C-PAP unit, but James will probably still need the sleep study first—which I had to leave early because I had my checkup scheduled for late this afternoon. As usual Dr. Mobley was over an hour late; thank goodness I had someone to chat with (thanks, Vanessa!) since James was stuck out in the waiting room.

Friday we went out to the Costco David (therapist) recommended to us, out where Macland Road intersects with Charles Hardy Parkway (which turns out to be the other end of Dallas Highway; it changes name when you hit the Paulding County line). In fact, we went through Dallas Highway and stopped at their Walmart first—nicely kept, but their sugar-free candy assortment isn't much; we did find more mushroom-flavored rice sides (but, horrors, they're on clearance! mushroom rice goes with everything). The Costco was not quite so empty as David described, but we walked around and picked up a couple of things.

Even though I do not "redd up" the house in summer, I did get some lawn decorations this week. There's nothing like neighbors having cookie-cutter bland front yards to inspire you to put up more decorations. I got a butterfly, bird, and blue flower, a rainbow pinwheel, and a tiny bunny to go between two mushrooms (do those garden decorators actually know what those fly agaric mushrooms are? LOL). I put them up on Sunday and trimmed the nandina, which was starting to look like it stuck a root in an electrical socket.

Labels: books, chores, decorations, events, food, health, magazines, nature, science, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 6:58:00 PM

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Sort of an interesting Holy Week in making some old progress. Back in 2022, I stopped listening to the Colonial Williamsburg podcasts (I was busy writing, and I can't write and pay attention at the same time). I had caught up on all the Gretchen Rubin podcasts, and need to catch up on "A Way With Words," but wanted to get to the Williamsburg ones, too. This week I started listening to them again and hope to keep up with Rubin and catch up with both the others.

Most of the opening of the week was chores. James did have an MRI on his toe on Wednesday. His right baby toe, the one that showed up with a sore in January, is still not healed. It doesn't look infected, but skin isn't growing on top of it and healing it up, so the doctor wants to make sure the bone isn't infected. (Got the report later in the week; it's not.)

Thursday James' Procrit shot was scheduled early, although we tried to change it. So we went by Lidl on the way home, and I got both chicken drumsticks on sale and some boneless pork ribs, so I made cacciatore for supper and also made gravy for later. And we had a nap, too!

It was a quiet Good Friday: we had to run out to pick up meds, but I did listen to the BBC Lent Talks.

On Saturday while our low-sodium ham was marinating in pineapple, we went to Barnes & Noble and to Hobby Lobby. In the evening I watched the spooky movie Stir of Echoes. Kathryn Erbe is in it, just before she did Criminal Intent. It was pretty creepy, but turned out to be a little of a murder mystery, too.

And Easter was quiet. Unfortunately I had to wash towels since we were out of facecloths. I watched my two Easter favorites, Here Comes Peter Cottontail and The Easter Promise, and we had ham and potatoes for dinner, and then...dark chocolate Lindt bunnies! Yay!

Labels: Easter, food, Good Friday, health, holidays, movies, podcasts, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:59:00 PM

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