Dinners, Nominations, Election Time

 You are probably looking at that Post title and thinking I have finally lost it. The Elections aren't until November! Well, not in the world of the VFW. Our fiscal year runs June-May, and our elections are held in May for Officers in the following year. More on that later, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Tonight is our monthly Rides Dinner. Have 5five volunteers for making soups, but one backed out last night as he is unable to attend due to other reasons. Too bad, he was making the Cabbage soup that I liked last time. So I am down to a Bacon Cheeseburger, Chicken & Rice, Stew, Korean Pork & Potato, and Sinigang. I'll bring some saltines, and the Post reached out to me the other day, as they have some rolls that need to be used up. I offered to take two bags (about 24) off their hands. I'll heat those up just before the start of dinner tonight. No idea who will help with anything, Aside from the one that signed up, but that seems par for the course lately.

Elections. I am so not looking forward to this. So, last night I was talking with T, our Sr Vice of Aux, and she happened to mention that I was being sought out for the 3-year Trustee position. It's not full of duties - meet a couple times a year to go over our financial figures and make sure we are in agreement (two other trustees and myself). So I admitted I would accept the nomination when made in May. That'll make me a titled position holder in all the groups I am working with at the Post. The Riders. Oy. Over the last year, the VFWRG has been working on becoming its own group within the VFW sphere, rather than being a sub-committee for the Post. There will be many bylaw changes once we are ready to vote on this topic, which I don't forsee happening for closer to another year yet, if not longer. So I figure we are going to run with the current bylaws for now. That means I have three electable positions that need to 1) retain the seat, 2) vote in replacement, or 3) Leave empty. All three must be Comrades (Veterans) and two must actively ride cycles. With our participation numbers so low, and the current requirements, I really hope everyone just retains the seat they hold, and we fill the one open position we have. That is my hope.

So all that coming up in the next couple months. Preliminary appointments with Mayo Clinic start the 23rd of this month, and though only last about a week, I am not sure how much longer it would be to get some answers finally, like: Where am I on the list? What's the typical wait time? Should we do the TIPPS prior to since we have no clue how long it will be before a liver is available.... Things I never would have guessed myself asking 54 years ago.

Anyways, I need to get out and get some errands done before heading to the Post. My 'special prescription' should be ready for pick-up at CVS. Need to go by the bank to provide cashbox change for tonight. Need to grab something to eat. Kind of in that order, too.

PeacE

Belt or Suspenders?

 Recently, I made a purchase of a pair of suspenders - not a nice set like to go with a suit, but a practical one for fat guys - it is thick and strong. I decided to go back to wearing them, as it is just too much of a hassle all the time to walk around holding up my shorts. Seems no matter how many holes I add to the belt, it just doesn't hold them up as well. My thing about suspenders, however, is you basically have to wear them with your shirt tucked in. I don't like. Being heavy is bad, too, and I feel like to shows off my "fatness" in the abdomen. But I will suck it up, and wear them. So much better.

As happens each month, I attended our regular monthly Auxiliary meeting this past Tuesday night. Usually I walk out of these feeling like nothing pertained to me, and most times that is true. So I was only half listening when we had a verbal disturbance crop up. I'm not going into details, but I was requested to provide a witness account of the event. I typed that up prior to getting here, and I admit, I don't like doing it. I am not a fan of one of the persons involved, and I really did not like writing this report, but I did it. I also included a statement about my encephalopathy, and how it affects my short-term memories, and that I reported as best I could. I left out details that happened, that really didn't need to be in the report.

So I sent that off, and immediately received a reply from the Treasurer/Secretary thanking me and commenting it would be fine, and the bottom line is being truthful. <eyeroll>.

Tomorrow is our Rider's Dinner, and reading RM's blog this morning, I see she takes her Rider Dinner nights pretty seriously. I guess she feels she doesn't see me enough, and if this is the only way for her to have five minutes with me, so be it. Trying to make my list of what I need to bring for tomorrow: saltines, cash for cashbox, and I think that is all I need to worry about.

Yesterday was draining day, and I got a surprise. They were only able to drain about 8.6L of fluid, rather than the max of 10L and b even better than the higher amounts they were getting. Hoping it is not a fluke, and something is starting to work correctly again, but won't know. Mayo testing is in a week and a half.

Okay, cutting this short as I need to get moving. Figure a bank run and then head to the post.

PeacE

In the Last Words of Our Leader ...

 ...Naw, I got nothing.

I'm getting online here a little earlier than my usual mid-day. The Wife has been assigned a student (Again) at work, and that requires her to be at work by 8am, rather than the 8:30-9an she had been doing. So, I set my alarm to assist her getting up. Then I am awake. Usually I can roll over and go back to sleep, but figured I would have to get up in a couple hours anyways, I rose this morning.

Today is a draining day, where I have yet another paracentesis completed. I am hoping that after the week of appointments, and we know pretty much all we can about how bad the liver is, that we will have a time frame in place that I can stop these! Even if we have to do put in a TIPPS device, anything to be able to stop getting the paracentesis done. I have this area on the side of my abdomen about the size of a fifty cent piece, that is a collection of pink dots, from the punctures at these drainings. It looks ugly. And I am tired of going. Whine, Whine, Whine.

Received some interesting news yesterday. My Sissy that is about 12 years my younger, and that still lives in Indiana, sent a text out. Seems she is pregnant. No big deal? At 42? She had gone in for some spotting, and came out expecting!! So I will be an uncle again. I am so used to it just being us older siblings, with only about 2-3 years between our ages, that Lil Sissy is much younger than us. Well, I am glad for her and the boyfriend. Again, wish I lived closer to Indiana so I could visit more. Or maybe this is a sign that I need to get back and visit, for myself as well. I'd love to take a couple weeks and drive back, but I don't see that happening. I mean, it could like if someone died, but otherwise the Wife would want to be able to go with me. She gets upset when I travel and do something without her.

Dumb, little story for the day. Recently, I had ordered some little things from Temu (I am sure you have heard of them). Aside from their biggest catcher ("you only have $1.38 in your cart being shipped from Temu. Add up to $20 to get free shipping!"). Anyways, that isn't what came to mind. I had purchased a smart watch. I know, you get what you pay for, and this was pretty cheap at under $10. The purpose I bought it? To monitor my steps so I can try to stay at the same level daily, or evenly increase daily and be able to know it. Needless to say, I plugged it in to charge, and downloaded the software on my phone. Within the first hour, I was done with the watch. It took all notifications, rings, alerts, alarms, and put them to the watch, instead if the phone speaker. So the watch vibrates (no noise) and in theory, I could see the message, answer the call, etc. if I knew about it. The watch isn't on my wrist, so how am I to hear a late night call for help from one of the kids? Or reminders for certain events that I have to be somewhere at a certain time. Yeah. This is not working for me. So I now have an under $10 smart watch. All you need to do is put the software on your phone. I may look into just getting that basic pedometer for like $6. I dunno.

Welp, I shared more today than I thought I had in me! Reminder RM, the Riders Dinner is Friday!

PeacE

Starting to Panic ...

 Over the weekend I hopped into the patient portal for Mayo just to see if there was anything new I had missed a notification for. There was. And there was a flashing red dot under appointments, so I look there, and find there are 24 appointments scheduled for me. What?!? I wasn't called for any of this - oh wait. This is the week of testing I bet. Sure enough, one of the emails included a download of the Patient Schedule for the week of the 23rd.

Mayo has two campuses here in the Valley. One is about 10 miles, the other (main) is about 20-25 miles, from my house. The appts are split up between the two campuses, though only one day I have to go to both campuses. Looks like most of the easier stuff like bloodwork, consults, etc are done at the one, and the more medical like CTs, MRI, etc are at the main campus. Either way, this :pamphlet" was 50 pages printed out! But it is detailed for time, date, location, and for some appts, estimated time of appt.

It's just a lot of stuff, crammed into a short time. It's making me feel like an anxiety attack is coming on. 

After that week, I find out how bad things are, how severe the damage is to the liver, and where I will be placed at on the transplant list (assuming I am that bad). Then it's a waiting game for the an available liver that meets certain criteria. Could be months - years even. If that's the case, I have a feeling we will be looking at a TIPPS procedure in the meantime. That's the one that a device is put in that bypasses some of the blood going to the liver, to ease up the pressure it has to work under. It'd be removed with a transplant, and the thought is it would help with the fluid build-up.

Been staring at the screen for a half hour now, so I guess I should wrap it up ...

PeacE

When It Starts With A Coffee ....

 ... you know it is going to be a day. It is barely 9am and I have downed my cup of coffee this morning. Not that it is totally weird, but I don't drink coffee often, and my mug is one of those ones big enough to be 2. ...And now I see it is *really* going to be a weird day. I just did my numbers for the morning, and they are: BP 97/54, pulse 58, glucose 128. What do the numbers mean? Well, that's the lowest BP I think I have EVER had, and this one was after 4 readings. It kept coming up lower, so, even though it showed I had battery power, I replaced the batteries, and got this reading. and the glucose is about my normal range.

So the BP is a little lower than my average of 105-110/ 65'ish. Am I just that relaxed and lethargic this morning? Or is something going on? I don't know....

Things have finally slowed down a bit in the medical area of my life. With Mayo Clinic involved, and the doctors all  'stepping back', my appointments have almost disappeared. Seemed like a had a blood draw and a paracentesis and an appointment somewhere every week (I'm sure I'm exaggerating a bit). Either way, now I am doing the paracentesis once a week (this month on Wednesdays at 11am) and that's about it. Mayo has nothing for me until the 17th, when I do an online 'Zoom-type' education class about the preliminary procedures for transplant, etc. that Mayo does. After that, I'm just waiting on the list of places I need to go, and doctors I need to see, on the week of the 23rd. Liver, Kidney and PCP all backed off and I have those appointments in April (2 with bloodwork - always taking blood...). Kind of nice, but leaves quite a bit of time to think about things - and that is  sometimes a bad thing. My imagination can get pretty wild.

Got some reading done! Having forced myself to try again, I found I am able to read without the comprehension issues I was having before. I thin it may have been part of the encephalophagy, so good sign that the meds are improving that? I hope so... Either way, I got onto Goodreads last night and updated my  reading goals for the year. I thin k I mentioned I dropped it from 250 to 100 this year, since I was having the reading issue. I think it may still be hard to hit 100, as I can read and comprehend better, but still "tire" the mind fairly quick in a short time span. Gotta build up the endurance again! I know RM is happy about it, as I Am her "Reader Child", and enjoy books as she does. On a side note, RM, I found out this last week that one of my Riders is a published author! He actually came to me and was talking about it, versus me searching him out. He said he has like nine books, and gave me a list of six of them for now. So, I have a mission this weekend to locate one of the books and check it out. It'd be cool to know him, and enjoy his books! Plus, the author signatures!

I need to work on the meeting notes from this past Tuesday's House & Entertainment meeting. Shouldn't be too bad, as the House part was short, and the Entertainment was mostly confirming event issues for the upcoming 100th Birthday of the VFW Post at the end of the month. This Tuesday is our regular general meetings. Friday (3/13) is the Rider's Dinner night, and we are bringing back our Soup Night! Have several sign-ups (finally) and it is happening.

Welp, late last week, and early this week, the registration department at Banner Hospital has called me several times. The first was the usual every week call, to re-verify all my information for me, billing insurance, etc. Then they called back saying that I have reached my out of pocket with my insurance (I knew this) but still had a balance to pay at the hospital (of course I do, and I plan to pay it). They practically were demanding I do a payment plan with them, and not just a random figure, it has to be broken down over a 12- or 24-month period, so if I said $100/month, they were like no, and we arrived at a final figure of about $259/month for the time being. Their loss. Before, they were "requiring" a patient payment of $342 for each para I got (4 per month) so now they get $259/mo, instead of a $342 payment every two weeks. Huh, 250 instead of 684...hospital math?

Sigh. Seems that is all I think about nowadays is medical crap, and payments. Such has become my life at this time. It is even starting to interfere with my VFW work. And let's not even start about the job searching....

Think I covered most of what's happening around here. The Wife and I have our 35th Anniversary coming up the end of this month, and have pretty much decided that I would make plans. We are going to do a weekend in southern AZ, as I have not travelled that part of the state much. I haven't really been checking hotels in some of the larger towns like Bisbee, Tombstone, and Sierra Vista (near Ft Huachuca Army base) but need to work on it more. mostly looking at events going on at that location, or regular daily activities. Something new for the Wife and I to do. It has become sort of our goal after the Youngest graduated HS, and that is to try to get out more to social events/happenings not just in our area, but the Valley, or where we are travelling to/from. We've had some good ones, and some bad ones, but it was something we did together, and had not done before (some of them).

Welp, I need to close this off and shoot RM a text letting her know I posted something. Then I will get my stuff together and get out of the house. Have a prescription to pick up. Should run the car through the car wash. Then head to the VFW, where I will bring up my laptop and do the meeting minutes, and probably end of searching for our anniversary stuff as well.

PeacE

Resigned

 I think I have come to grips with many things over the past handful of months. There was all that uncertainty of health when all of this started. Then it was if my "affairs" were in order, and was I ready to die (yeah, that extreme). I struggled through those, and came to terms with it, no I just have to accept the transplant issue.

The two or so conversations I have had by phone with Mayo, I get the impression that I may not qualify for the transplant list, therefore, would just be treated the rest of my life for symptoms. Either that, or they sound jubilant to have another one under the knife... I jest. I know itis in their job to sound positive and upbeat about everything, including the dead horse.

Liver Doc said he is "stepping back" and letting Mayo Clinic take lead on my treatment and medications. I'm guessing they are much more trained for this than he is. I have an online 'Educational Meet' Mayo has for me on the 17th, and I am waiting them to contact me regarding dates, times, locations for the tests the week of the 23rd. I did have to designate 2 caregivers in my interview, so I picked the Wife and the Youngest, as they already live here. Youngest will have to attend a caregiver class at some point prior to the transplant (if I am getting one). He will then be in charge of driving me to all appointments, labs, etc. Hoping they have facilities/doctors affiliated on this side of town so I don't have to go to Scottsdale, but will do what I need to do.

Saw the Kidney Doc yesterday. He left it for regular three months lab workup and visit, to be sure the kidneys stay in good shape (they are now). He sounded like the transplant was already considered being done, so now I have no clue if I will qualify through my preliminary tests. So for now, Paras each week until I do the Mayo testing. Trust me, I wanted faster movement on this, too.

Still haven't heard from Disability, but it has not been 60 days min. yet. It could take longer, though my friend gave the impression it shouldn't.

Think I am off to get some hairs cut and hang at the Post. I did my Agenda today, so I accomplished something at least.

PeacE

Dive Right In

 It's Thursday. I am up early today - on purpose. I have the Liver Doc today at an early hour. Hopefully will find out if there is a game plan we are going to use, or if we are winging it.

Mayo Clinic had their phone interview on Tuesday. I will be doing some tests/appointments starting the week of 3/23 and be done within that one week. Gave me much more I am working over in my head.

With that said, you can imagine where my thoughts are this morning...

PeacE