Happy to say I was feeling much better this morning than I was last night when I went to bed. Thanks to everyone for your concerned comments. Not exactly sure what happened Monday afternoon but I have a feeling now it may have had something to do with either the new Crestor cholesterol drug I just started or the Nortriptyline drug I just came off. The Nortrip med was prescribed for my leg pains several weeks ago & I was on it for 2 weeks. This drug is also known to have some mental affecting properties as well. Although I felt no different taking these pills for a couple of weeks I am wondering if my abruptly stopping them Sunday night knocked me for a loop. Monday about noon it was if someone opened a big flood valve in the bottom of my foot & all my energy immediately drained right out of me. Spent most of the afternoon & evening in a both mentally & physically lethargic state in my chair. No physical energy to get out of the chair & no mental energy to even want to get out of the chair.
Got a call from the Goderich Hospital yesterday setting me up an appointment to meet with a Dr. Annan. He is the same surgeon who removed a lesion on my left temple a few years back. He’ll have a look at what I now have on my right temple on May 23rd. Counting my blood work stops I am now over a dozen medical appointments & procedures for the month of May alone. But, that’s all Ok because I want to get as much of everything done as soon as possible so that nothing is left standing in the way of our departure for the Southwest in October.
CAN YOU TURN THAT CAMERA FLASH OFF DAD
LAP DOG EXTRAORDINAIRE
Headed for the Clinton Hospital this morning because I had an Ultra-Sound scheduled for 9:30 regarding my Kidney Stone locations. I kind of like those Ultra-Sound procedures. Very relaxing. Once again laid on my left side/right side in a darkened room. The operator & her young trainee sat beside the bed at a computer. She places some kind of a small scanner in a pool of ‘cold’ jelly on my abdomen & slowly moves it from one location to another with her hand, all the time watching her computer monitor & speaking lowly to the trainee. I felt like a Mouse Pad & someone was scrolling a Mouse around on me. Like I said, very relaxing & maybe even bordering on soothing. Who wouldn’t like a nice warm computer mouse slowly rolled around on their tummy eh. The scan only lasted about 15 minutes which was less than half the time my Ultra-Sound in Tucson took last December. And, unlike the Tucson operator, this lady had nothing to say after the scan. I’m still wondering why the Tucson tech told me I was….’a special case.’
‘ANOTHER’ WAITING ROOM….DR. PHIL WAS ON THE TELEVISION BUT I CHOSE TO SPEND MY TIME MORE CONSTRUCTIVELY, PLAYING WITH THE KID’S COLORFUL TOY IN THE FOREGROUND.
Tuesday morning, before I had my energy collapse, I did manage to get a little cleaning done on the Motor Home. Remembered the big shiny wheels hadn't been scrubbed up since getting home back at the beginning of April so with a bit of soap & water I turned those big chrome wheels from dirty gray to shiny chrome. Also tackled the front of the coach with some wax. Although more labor intensive I still do prefer the shine & finish wax leaves on the fiberglass rig as opposed to, ‘The Solution’. I do like the Solution for cleaning the motorcycle though & I've used it a few times on the Jeep. Kelly was very impressed with it when she did her Santa Fe a few weeks ago.
Today’s much cooler & grayer day had me trying to catch up on some lost sleep again. Guess I just must be some kind of a Night Owl or something. Did a bunch of weed whacking & Pheebs took me for an afternoon walk around the forest trail.
MY YEARS OF CARRYING A CLIPPERS ON OUR MORNING WALK HAS SLOWLY TRANSFORMED OUR MORNING TRAIL INTO A GREEN TUNNEL THROUGH THE FOREST…& KELLY TAKES ANOTHER WORK CALL THIS MORNING
And, a few thoughts on prescription drugs & holistic medicines etc. etc. Somewhere between the extremes of poo pooing holistic drugs at one end & prescription drugs at the other end lies a common sense path through the maze of thoughts & opinions. Of paramount importance is the understanding that not everyone is the same & what works for one person may very well not work for another. Body tolerances & chemistry vary from individual to individual. Ignoring a Doctor's advice is just about as risky as believing everything you read on the internet. And, by the way, I have made both those mistakes. I believe my cholesterol problem to be genetic. I have tried many ways to get my cholesterol under control over the years without success. Losing weight, changing eating habits, cholesterol fighting supplements, etc. Nothing ever worked & my numbers have remained high for many years. I just chose to ignore those numbers.
<<< BESIDE OUR FRONT YARD POND
Over the years & against Doctor's recommendations I have avoided all cholesterol medications because I have this 'thing' about taking pills & medications. Might be kind of a guy's thing. Well, sometimes some of us more stubborn critters just have to get ourselves smartened up a bit & make some changes whether we like it or not. Heart attacks & strokes are the common result of cholesterol build up in the arteries & it is 'having a stroke' that scares me the most. The thoughts of being incapacitated & hanging out of a wheel chair in a nursing home totally dependent on people to feed me etc is just too scary a thought for me to comprehend. Not to mention the burden it would put on family. So, I guess what I am saying is that one has to be open minded in one's own treatment. First, we have to accept the aging process & admit that we do have related problems occurring. Second, we have to be open minded enough to understand the pros & cons of treatment, whatever side of the coin recommendations & advice come from. Somewhere through the maze of 'treatments' lies everyone's individual path & it is up to each person to be open minded enough to make the correct decisions & find their own wellness way through the maze of opinions. And, speaking of opinions.....Ok, I won't speak of opinions:))
FROG POT
Believe it or not but early tomorrow morning I have to be at the Stratford Hospital in Stratford Ontario for something they call a ‘pre-op. Not sure what that one is all about but I suspect it is going to result in me losing some blood to one of them darn needle things again. Who knows what else I’ll have to give them. Best part of that appointment is going to be the nice country drive to & from Stratford which is about an hour east of us.
GROANER’S CORNER:(( A man visits the doctor for a check-up, and after some tests, the doctor comes in with a grave look on his face.
Doctor: Well, I have some bad news and some really bad news.
Man: Well, give me the really bad news first.
Doctor: You have cancer, and only 6 months to live.
Man: And the bad news?
Doctor: You have Alzheimer's disease.
Man: That's great. I was afraid I had cancer!
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- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
stargeezerguy@gmail.com
Al,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you are feeling perkier today. I don't comment often, but I do lurk. Cheers! :)
I wrestle all the time with which meds I want to take, which doctors I trust, and how far I'm willing to go to stay alive. Not staying alive doesn't bother me nearly as much as living and becoming incapacitated. Good luck with your decisions.
ReplyDeleteAs I've said before, we all do what we have to do.
ReplyDeleteAs for the frog pot, how many little frogs do you think will bloom? :)
Al, our 39 year old daughter is on Cholesterol meds..It IS in the genes...I will be thinking of you LOTS in the next few weeks...Hang in there...You are in for lots of "white coats"..
ReplyDeleteGood to see you are feeling better Al. Good luck with all your upcoming procedures! Your comments and thoughts on different drugs and treatments hits the nail on the head.
ReplyDeleteGlad you are feeling better. Good luck with all your medical stuff.
ReplyDeleteLove that photo of Pheebs covering her eyes.
Gotta do what we gotta do, and getting older is one of them, We keep this up and Stratford General will be a meeting place for us. One of these days this summer we will meet up.
ReplyDeleteSo happy to see you up and at it again Just a temporary set back
ReplyDeleteI like Judy's comment on your "frog pot". I guess the "side effects" of blogging is getting everyone's opinion of what you should and should not be doing or taking or whatever. Seems like you are listening to your own body and doing what is right for you. Good Luck with all of the procedures and the surgery.
ReplyDeleteAl, good to see you're back. Man, i'm envious about your bird and animal pics. In my book, they are outstanding.
ReplyDeleteHey Al,
ReplyDeleteAs someone who has run the course of most antidepressants, I can tell you that you should have been given instructions on weaning off the nortrip. And, I have also taken Crestor, but it makes my fibromyalgia much worse, so for now I'm off it. My Doc, who is also my 2nd cousin, and I both take a supplement of "Fish, Flax and Borage" and it is actually doing some good for my cholesterol. Just my opinion...
Whatever you choose, I hope you feel better! Yesterday as I was watering my flowers I wished for a location to find some toads to come and eat whatever bugs were eating on the flowers! All of a sudden, up from the ground and bark mulch came the Godfather of toads! lol
Glad to see the smile back on your face! I hope all the tests are easy to endure and the results are what you hope to hear! I hate taking meds, but the alternative is not worth thinking about!
ReplyDeleteJim just got his results back from the VA today and they are concerned about his cholesterol--Total 168--his LDL is 98 and his HDL is 44, not good! Things change as we age and we just ride the waves! ;-) Take care....
ReplyDeleteI suspect that your reaction the other day was to coming off the meds too quickly, usually one tapers off over a week or longer.
ReplyDeleteI've felt like all we've done this year is go to doctor appointments or I've sat in waiting rooms. But I hope your news is as good as ours when all of your work is done.
ReplyDeleteLove the pictures of your yard and the birds. Too bad it couldn't look like that year round. You would never want to travel. Again thanks for the pictures.
ReplyDeleteSure glad you're feeling better today. That Pheebs is a pretty big lap dog. Scratch behind the ears. Good luck with the next dr thing.
ReplyDeleteGood to have you back my friend!!
ReplyDeleteYour pictures are stunning.....
It is so hot down here I can't get up enought ambition to load things up!! I'm stuck!!
Have always found when taking a new drug to listen to my body, everyone reacts differently, that's why there are so many "this could happen on this drug".
ReplyDeleteHope all goes well w/ the stones.
Take care.
Extremely well written blog Al! I too need to get my head out of the sand and start taking a cholestrol medication--the thought of a heart attack or stroke is scary! Now to get Mike to take a pill--I have to sit on him! Must be all you guys born in October have a hard time with pills!
ReplyDeleteFirst and foremost, here's to your health and October return to AZ! I totally agree with your take on meds. Quality of life is top of the list, whatever that takes, to keep us "on the road" of fun and adventure.
ReplyDeleteI read The China Study which changed the way I thought about food and disease. Loving my veggies and have dropped one of my heart meds after less than two months with my docs approval. Forks over knives is same content in easier to read format. Good luck to you.
ReplyDelete