Tuesday March 3rd 2026

Still morning, but not for long; it is eighteen minutes before noon. My eye-lids are so heavy, I'm having a difficult time keeping them open. Should I force the issue and get up to start vacuuming, or should I just set the laptop aside and let the ol' eyelids close again? 

Odd thing: for 2 nights in a row, Tinker has slipped out of bed at some point and spent the night down on the sofa in the den! She pulled my jacket off the arm of the sofa and made a nest of it. Don't know why this is happening, but since I am asleep, I don't realize she is not in bed with me ... but there's nuthin' I can do about it. Now that I am awake (but still in bed plunking away on my laptop) I have to go get my 2nd cup of coffee. We'll see if that wakes me up a little better or if I succumb to the urge to float away in an early "nap"..... 

Hour and a half later..... I sort of dozed. Now I am dazed, and half dressed, at least. I will finish getting dressed and then take Tinker out for our yank around the yard. I wonder if I can put my brain and body on automatic and just start getting those other pesky things done, like washing the dishes in the sink and vacuuming and folding the clothes from the dryer. My life is so thrilling and filled with fun and games and tons of people coming and going. <That last sentence is a total lie, but this next sentence is not a lie> I am glad there are not tons of people coming and going, and I am glad my life is not 'thrilling'.....unless it has to do with winning a lot of money!

Okay, I am even boring myself, so I'll stop here and see what I can get done around the house. Maybe there is a good old movie on TCM I can watch after I have accomplished something that makes a difference in my current environment. In spite of not having you-know-who around, I think I am somewhat depressed by my lack of having a feeling of home and friends. This too shall pass, I suppose.  Bleh. Meh. Ho-hum.

Good morning!

J22 hope you feel better.

Ado, happy birthday to your grand daughter.  

Stars, my late Billy started doing that.  We started the night together snuggling and then sometime he'd get up and go to the living room couch to sleep.  

Waffles came through her appointment fine.  Her eye ulcer is there and necessitates continued antibiotics unfortunately but the worst of the infection is over.  She said she might have to take a  maintenance drop from now on because of slow healing.  I see them again in two months.  At least the interval of visits is getting longer because it's $200 a visit.

I had a flexible sigmoidoscopy today.  Doc was looking to take some biopsies to see if I have something microscopic causing my symptoms or if I now have IBS D.  Bowel prep went well but worst was being on clear liquids for a day, but I survived.  I opted for no anesthesia as it's a very quick procedure.  I was able to watch it on the screen as he talked about what he was doing. It was easy peasy and minimal discomfort and no after effects.  In the mean time he said to try four weeks of daily Questran (cholestyramine) powder to see if that helps.  If not there's another medication which he says "is a nightmare to get insurance to approve" that we can try.  

It's complicated that tomorrow is his last day here but he's staying with the organization.  He said he would be in Australia but I should text him the results of the biopsy when I get them and he will tell me what the plan is.  I like that he's going to be the one to follow me for this one procedure but I doubt I'll want to interrupt his vacation.  After which I will have to switch to one of his partners. 

Anyway that's TMI.  I was a first case and very tired and took a nice long nap.  I will go to the gym now and clear my head.  

Best friend stayed here last night so he good take me to my appointment very early and his crazy neighbor was very noisy the night before.  He brought a quiche that was delicious (no crust as he's low carb) to eat afterward my procedure.

To continue my whine about finances, my co-pay for the procedure was $1000 and that's with a 20% discount for paying in full and paying early.  It's a new year and I have new deductibles to pay.  I used my HSA which now has dwindling funds to use for medical purposes.  Next time I'll have to set up a GoFundMe because that's how we do healthcare in America. 

dianah, sorry about your friend. Since my 6 years at the teaching hospital were on a nephrology unit, I sympathize a lot with with patients with renal failure. I guess it's pretty awful to have any organ decide to stop working.

Dianah so sorry about your friend.  Sounds like he's surrounded by loved ones and good much.  I'm sure that is comforting to him.

I too spent several years on a nephrology unit, and we would grow very attached to our patients. And all of the nephrologists were kind and caring. Many would choose to be admitted for comfort care and they got what ever they needed or wanted. That was back when the nephrologists acted as primary for inpatients. They knew the patients and the patients knew and trusted them. 

My cold has progressed from hacking cough and wheezes, to runny nose and popping ears. I went to an inservice to learn about a computer app to be used to sign volunteers up for work parties. I wore a mask while inside, and that gave me flashbacks of the pandemic. I switched cars with youngest ds while he was waiting for an oil change, so he could get back to work. Then home, to study for weed class tomorrow. 

I am going to let dh fend for himself for dinner, because I don't think he wants Typhoid Mary dripping nasal secretions into his dinner. 

Tweety, I hope you get some answers. At least cholestyramine is an old drug, which I hope means cheap. 

Did anyone see the eclipse? I woke up too late, and it was clouding up, anyway. 

J22, get well soon. 

My 89 year old mother has chronic kidney disease and is real close to needing dialysis which won't happen.  Dad is refusing that option and we kids are 100% supportive of that idea.  Dialysis would not improve her life one bit.   I've suggested to my father and sister to get her onto hospice so they at least have her in the system and can be called upon when needed.  Dad thought it a good idea but doubt it's been done.  She's actually been near dialysis state for a couple of years now so who knows.  But she gets swollen and short of breath.

Cholestyramine is indeed relatively cheap. He ordered an probiotic that's not covered by insurance that's $250 for a 30 days supply I found out today.   I'm going to try it for 30 days but they have to order it and it won't be here until Thursday at the earliest.  I would like it now while my gut microbiome is wiped out from the bowel prep and in dysbiosis.  The pharmacist said it was over the counter and not covered by insurance but when I went to the website to see if I could order it cheaper, it said I needed a prescription for the one the doc ordered for me.  Not sure why, but I guess because it has 900 billion bacteria when typical tablets are 20 to 100 (with 100 being on the high end).  

Again, I'm tired of spending money and I guess it's never going to end.  Again, my remodeling project is ill timed.  I wish I'd waited a few months but who knew I'd have $2500 in car repairs and $1000 in co-pay.   Meh.......

I forgot about the eclipse, although the meteorologist said it wasn't going to be very visible from our county.  

Tweety~ The only time I nearly fainted as a student nurse was when I went to observe a sigmoidoscopy! I noticed my vision was narrowing and I felt sort of a hot-flash (I was 20) and I had to go across the hall and sit in a chair so I could hang my head down.         And you can come here and grouse about your finances any time: you KNOW that's what *I* do! I can't believe all you are having to fork over so much $$$$$ between one thing and another!

I forgot about the eclipse also, but since it was cloudy here, I couldn't have watched it anyway.

dianah~ Goody-goody for me! I did the dishes, vacuumed the 'formal living room,' (which we don't use,) and the dining room, (ditto). I also vac'd the kitchen and hallway, and washed the floors of both rooms. They don't look spiffy, but they are somewhat cleaner. If I had the moola I would actually pay another person to come in and professionally clean the kitchen, top-to-bottom and side-to-side, including all the corners and edges between wall and floor, etc. did wash off the fridge and cleared out-dated stuff from the freezer. Dumped the trash and recycling. I washed off some of the old (white) cabinet doors, the upper ones, but have not yet done the lower ones. The lower shelves in the kitchen have not been touched since I moved in here, so I imagine they are gross. But they are easy to forget about since they are behind the closed cabinet doors. One of the pulls on a lower cabinet door was knocked literally sideways by hubby's forehead head during one of his spectacular drunken falls. The more I look around the more I see that really needs attention. The ceiling in Nannie's room is, like all of the ceilings, that awful 'popcorn' that collects dust. Her ceiling  looks TERRIBLE, dirty and dusty. I think it needs to be swept off, but I imagine doing so and becoming dust-covered myself. I would have to wear a mask to avoid inhaling at an inopportune time! Oh, and I walked Tink around the yard four separate times. All we saw was ONE squirrel, and no more old newspaper pages to read.

j22~ I hope you get better soon! 

Tinker is waiting patiently for her bedtime snack, so I am going to get in bed and make her happy by FINALLY feeding those snacks to her. Then I will read until my eyes get blurry!

I forgot about the eclipse, too, but it was probably too cloudy to see much.