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