HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

Today, Dec 21 is my 70th birthday. We were supposed to go To Disney for the day. Here is what actually happened. After believing there was some relief in the knee, we went to Dr Dews office for an appointment previously scheduled. They took new x-rays of the knee implant, which were fine. They drained 75-100 ccs of fluid from the knee. The fluid was yellowish, but basically normal looking. Samples were sent to the hospital lab, and if some kind of crystal was found, it mean't infection and into the hospital I go. From there we went to the St Johns Imaging Lab for an ultra sound on the knee/leg looking for a blood clot. everything fine there.

We were then sent to the little medical lab, in front of the Drs office for some
routine testing, in case the above referenced crystals showed up. They do an EKG, other tests and then tell me, I have an arrtthymic(?) irregular heart beat, and am doing 155 beats/min. Since I do not have a regular physcian, they are looking for someone at the hospital who can take me on so as to admit me. Dr Miguel Limeres is found and agrees to take me on. About 4:30PM we are going over to the HOSPITAL.

In the Hospital, they change my clothes, hook me up to all the monitors, hook up an iv, etc, and leave me alone for the night, fortunately they have pain pills but I have to ask for them, and wait to get them. Laura gets to go home and take care of the cat, plus deal with the many phone calls. Somthing tells me this is not a good situation to be in. Anyway, Happy Birthday to Me.

cruising along

The night did not go real well, although we survived it.As far as I was concerned there was no improvement. We did not have enough pain pills to last the weekend, so we called the Dr again and they got us in at 2:15 in St Augustine. At this time it did appear that the cortisone might be starting to work. Anyway we got a new prescription for a more powerful pain pill, and they applied an ace bandage followed by a velcro with steel knee brace. This does not let the knee move which gets away from the very painful moments when the knee exceeds the range where it is comfortable. The next appointment remains Monday the21st. We shall see what happens.

I have been sitting here for several hours, in a fairly comfortable position so that part is ok. However, the brace makes my leg longer which makes it very difficult to get in and out of the car, plus getting up or down on a chair.

The good thing is I am home with my stuff, my cook, and my best friend.

Now for a little story about what happened two weeks ago. Norma had a motion detector light that was not working. We had one that also was not working, so I bought 2 new ones and installed ours first. We came from a play(more about it later)and it was dark so the light came on, like it was supposed to. There, right in front of us ,at the base of the steps , was a large full grown oppossum. Naturally, we made noises and he went away. Now what would have happened if we had walked into the opossum. Would he have bitten or clawed us? we don't know. Probably he would have yowled or screamed or whatever they do and run away, leaving us to wonder what the hell was that. Anyway , thanks to Norma we had an operating light and no mystery.

a Big bump in the road

Wow, what a bump we hit.

As I am writing this(thursday afternoon) I am using crutches to get around and apparently will be for a little while.

after reporting all is well, things changed. Tuesday afternoon, my left knee ( surgery was last Jan 8th) stated to hurt, which is not totally unusual. In this case it continued and it was impossible to sleep. Very much like before the surgery. In the morning the pain was excruciating, and I could neither bend it or put weight on it. Out came the crutches.We were able to get an appointment with the Dr, and had to go St Augustine to do it, but OK. all kinds of thoughts raced through the mind, including something happening to the partial replacement, to infection from the the previous weeks cytoscopy. After a difficult ride to the Dr, we had x-rays which were encouraging, because they showed no problem with the replacement apparatus. Hooray, no return trip to the hospital? The Dr said if it was infection it would be red. He did not know what the problem was so he put in a shot of cortisone and a prescription for a strong pain killer, and we go back to see him on Monday, the day we were going to go to Disney on my birthday.

After one day of cortisone and pain killer, the situation appears to be getting better. I was able to sleep last night and there is no pain unless the knee is moved or wt put on it. The swelling appears to be the same. We shall have to wait and see what happens. It is of course, great concern to me that he does not know what it is.

now back to the routine stuff. We had planned to go to Seaworld abd Busch Gardens this past Monday and Tuesday. While checking their schedules we learned the Christmas programs at Seaworld do not start until this Sat the 19th. So we rescheduled to Disney the 21st and Seaworld and Busch Gardens after that. Now we know Monday at Disney will probably not happen, nor will the others.

This was considered to be good because now we had a cool spell coming and about a week of no scheduled events. So we loaded up the trailer with $200 worth of lumber, and screws, determined to start construction of the shed and repair the holes in the floor, during the cool weather. Well we started building one wall of the shed Tuesday, the last Day I could walk without crutches. And here we are. We were able to complete the first one today, but no more until??? and the plywood on the floor. good luck with that. So now we may not get to any of these places until later in the sason.

It is not all bad here, the weather is much better than yours in the Buffalo area. We still get an ocasional boat ride. We have not had a freeze yet, though that may change in a few days.

On Sunday past, we went to Normas to help move some furniture to her house and some to Janices house. We then went to Ruby Tuesday to meet Greg Folts, who had just arrived to do some work in Ormond Beach. Greg took a group photo and sent it to facebook. So if you know how, look us up in facebook.

There was some other stuff we were going to tell you about, but you have enough to read already.

Norma has decided to host Christmas at her house, so that should be a nice affair. Merry Christmas to you all and a Happy New Year

So as we leave you at this time, where we once had a plan, we now have no clue as what we will be doing in the next few weeks/months.

Good News

As you may recall, we have been undergoing a series of questions concerning blood/ or sugar in my urine. The urologist always finds "blood" in my urine and upon further tests determines everything is OK. This time he found "sugar" in the urine and he said it was wildly out of control. This , despite not having any of the normal symptoms of diabetes. So we did a blood test, and came back to the Dr yesterday.

He said everything was fine with the "sugar" and proceeded to check my kidneys with ultra sound and my urethra and bladder with a "cytoscopy procedure."(look it up). anyway, he wound up by saying "come back in 6 months, you are fine". So off we went to The Outback in Ormond Beach(buy one, get one free, and their Ribs are great as is everyhing else) to join Janice and Don and Norma to celebrate birthdays (again).

So it looks like I am OK and ready to go another 70 years.

Anyway it appears the the sugar scare was from a bad sample(maple sugar cream on toast, shortly before sample time). Oh, and the cytoscopy is simply inserting a tube with a camera into the penis, and looking around on a screen. In this case there was a very small "stone" imbedded in the prostate, which the Dr could not remove, but did break it up some, and it should be flushed out in time. The Dr noted that the prostate is slightly enlarged, but not a problem. A psa test done earlier this fall actually showed lower numbers than before.

one last comment. Although the cytoscopy procedure is not actually painful, it is certainly uncomfortable. Today, there is still blood in the urine but it is ok and going away.

Liza and the 3 kids are in Naples for a short break with her Mom and this explains the lack of any new postings on her blog. She will catch up very shortly.

Time to work?

The weather has been somewhat un co-operative, with lots of rain and some cool days. Saturday was to have been numerous christmas/or lighted boat parades which we enjoy attending. most of them were wiped out or postponed due to the weather. We had 39 degrees Sunday morning and about 55 during the day. So we traveled in the car to Bronson, Florida, a place we have never been. it is on the west side of Gainesville, which was quiet rather than celebrating. Mighty Casey(the Gators) struck out on Saturday, losing to Alabama.

Anyway in Bronson we looked at and bought a 6x8ft utility trailer with the built in back that drops to make a ramp. We bought it primarily to transport our golf cart and riding lawn mowers in New York, but it will come in handy down here for hauling wood and construction materials for several sheds and other projects that are scheduled for this winter here in Florida. It will also make it easier to transport the windows, we bought back up to nY.

Thursday we went to the flea market at Eustis, and then went to Leesburg to buy a new door for our back door which has broken hinges. On the way we encountered a yard sale that had 3 aluminum framed, glass covered desks. we could have bought all 3 cheap, but were concerned about getting all three plus the door into the van, so we took just one. It fit nicely into my office, so Friday was consumed with re-arranging and neatening up the computer stuff, and the assorted DVD players and recorders.

enough for now.

December Already

As I write this, we are under a tornado watch until 10:00 tonite. It is 3:45 pm now.

We are all alone down here now as Sue and Lester left for home yesteday morning, and Gary and Connie won't be here until Christmas(for a short while), but we will be OK.

Yesterday we went to Port Orange to visit Wally and Joan Tanner(we needed haircuts). Wally is having a bout with prostate cancer and will be undergoing radiation treatment after they get back from their trip North for Christmas. Hopefully he will come out of this ok. we wound up meeting Norma, and Janice and Don for supper at Outback. it seems we had 2 for 1 coupons to use. We followed Norma home to check on her motion light, which is not working properly. She wants to the little piggies when they show up. We will put in a new light that works.

We had an appointment with Dr Dew, who took x-rays of the knee and told us to come back in 2-3 months, or if we have a problem. The knee is slowly getting better.

Our Thanksgiving was very nice, with Sue putting on the Dinner with help from others. Norma was here, along with Virgil and Helen Jarrett, Steve Johnson, Sues' niece, her friend and two daughters, with Les , Laura and myself. We took them all on a boat ride and saw a few alligators.

Last Tuesday, we went to Seaworld again, because Steve wanted to go. So since we have been here, this fall, we have been to Seaworld twice, Busch Gardens once and Magic Kingdom once. We are scheduled to do Epcot for my birthday, and Seaworld and Busch Gardens one more time before the end of the year. Sunday we went to the Waldo Flea Market and now we have been to all of the local flea markets at least once, with the exception of Daytona Beach.

Last Saturday, we spent time in Jacksonville and watched their annual lighted boat parade in the St Johns River. They had about 50 boats, mostly 25 ft or bigger, and almost all were very well decorated and lighted. Following the parade, they had a spectacular fireworks display, using three barges spread out in the river. They had done the same thing the night before when they had the official lighting of the 64 ft Christmas tree, which is filled with computer controlled lights to provide musically choregraphed lights and sounds.

It is time for a few minutes of rest and awwwwayyyyy we go again.