2:15 P.M. Was the appointment but...

Three-thirty is when I was finally seen.
And yes, I am speaking about my follow-up doctor’s appointment to get my ‘abnormal’ results of my blood-work.
It was either taking this ‘appointment’ or waiting until next week.
I left it up to Hubby and he agreed to take it, and then if we still had some money left we would go out to celebrate his big day.

Oh, the results, I am getting to that, yes, something was off kilter, but not anything that I expected, but always kind of thought could eventually be proven… a weight gaining related problem that gives some of us gals an excuse that is legit!
What is it you are wondering?
I may as well tell you instead of keeping some of you waiting while others probably already figured it out… MY THYROID!

Not really too bad but over the legal/normal limit my TSH was 5.590 with the norm range from 0.450-4.500 and so now I am on another medication, Levothryroxine 25 mcg! And the beat goes on… this one cannot agree with my Pepcid Complete and so figuring out when to take it with the other will be tricky!
And my Triglycerides were high too at 163 with norms in 0-149, but my total cholesterol was 182; so who cares… I am OK, besides I am on medication for that already!

Oddly enough, my stomach has been acting up, but we went out to celebrate after the bill was not too bad after all, half what I thought it would be seeing a nurse instead of the doctor.
The new prescription was less than ten bucks for a three months supply.
And so Hubby chose Chili’s for his birthday dinner, I suppose taking so long at the health department made our dinner on our usually time of five-ish.
I told the server it was Hubby’s birthday and he got a free dessert that he shared with me a wee bit a yummy brownie dripping with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream, but I could not eat too much, my tummy hurt.
And it still does…and so I will close early tonight, and no, I did not try my new medicine yet since I had to take a Pepcid I will take it first thing tomorrow, OK?

And so I will say my usual and that is: allow me to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you to count all of your blessings and ask you kindly to share all of your overages and we will too!

Next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Repetitive notifications by government agencies...hmm, and they wonder...WHY...

And they wonder why we have so many financial difficulties as a nation.
Gosh, just to send one letter these days it’s forty-four cents!
I know what you are thinking, that’s still a bargain, and it is for us who don’t send hundreds or thousands of notifications daily or monthly or what-have–you, hmm?
Gotta love our state government, they keep saying they have to change the hours of public buildings and cut-back on their employee base, because of lack of funds…BUT then incompetence has them double mailing information without thinking, by those employees that they kept or mechanically and presumably saving BIG BUCKS saving a heap of the gold by having machines doing what the people they let go might have picked up on having a mind to figure it all out with!
Is it just me?
I know it is sometimes, but… sometimes I wonder if common sense would make it all just a better smoother running piece of machinery, I mean our government for those who might be wondering…
You see, again I received another letter about making an appointment for the reading of my blood work!
Geez, you would think it was my last will and testament with all these reminders!
I mean two in two days… when I actually made the appointment when I hadn’t even received the first notification!
I crack it up to incompetence, if not that than what else could it be; I so boldly ask?
It’s not bad enough that I have been trying hard to distract myself from thinking about, why I had any abnormal results with all the medication that I take that is physician prescribed!
A year ago August was my last blood work and it was basically fine; it appeared to prove that my cholesterol and blood pressure medications were working appropriately and my last January 2011, MRI, proved I had my optic nerve causing my legally blindness and my ischemia was there due to some TIA’s and that my MS was stable due to the Copaxone, which is what it is supposed to do. Although, that MRI did say that I had a cyst in my left nostril that could explain my sinus problems, but why would it affect my blood work?
What could have changed it?
The only new medication is the Dexilant for my stomach, GERD, and of course these sinus issues that continue to come back when I least expect them to…
Being a detective is interesting and in my five novellas my heroine did use deductive reasoning not unlike Sherlock Holmes or Columbo, Peter Faulk.
Unless there was a false positive for some scary ill?
Or some other mistaken identity, yes that’s it they mixed me up with some one else’s blood tests, yep that’s it!
Gosh, don’t they know me by now?
When you keep reminding me to come in since this is what they wrote: Upon review of your recent test, the medical provider has requested that you schedule a return visit to discuss these results.
Please call to schedule an appointment.
And I did before I got their FIRST ENCRYPTIC scary message!
I know it wasn’t in code, but vagueness is another prevalent government issuance, hmm?
Why can’t they just send the results in anyone of those to come-in notices; is all I want to know?
I suppose simplicity is considered for the simple minded and I also know that’s me.
Confusion and complexity is why they all make the BIG BUCKS, hmm?
Now that I think about it… wouldn’t it all run better without all that stuff?
I know that I have a wee brain and that I am not that smart, but, wait, couldn’t it work?
Hit yes for yes and hit no for no.
Geez, wouldn’t that also work for passing all those bills stuck in congress?
NAH, too easy!
Gotta love the ease of how I can try hard, not that hard to solve all our problems… now if I could only have that same ease of problem solving with my own…hmm?

On that problem solvers lament; just the plumber with rusty pipes… allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you kindly to count all your blessings and to share all your overages and we will too! (I won’t give up, I won’t give up… repeat after me Tobi, I won’t give up Tobi! HA!)

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

It's back...

And with a vengeance that is my sinuses being unruly!
I had two more days left on the prescription for the generic Zyrtec antihistamine and the test failed!
My head felt like a vice was enclosing it, with my upper cheeks (my face ones that is) were full of some horrendous fluid that wanted, who knows what!
Not to mention, my neck and ears, oh all right I did mention them too!

And so I finally got a hold of the health department to find out why I was not notified about my blood work that was faxed to them on November 9th!
Of course I let them also in on my suffering too and what I thought should be done about it!
The blood-work I was informed due to HIPPA to find out my results I would have to come in and so they gave me an appointment for later this week.
And the nurse that I left two voice mails for last week finally got back to me today and called in for the doctor another prescription, this time a Zithromax Z-pak an antibiotic, which fortunately was free! (And I started it this afternoon)
How ironic, that’s what I asked for, when?
When I was there originally!
And as angry as I was…and so I said I bet the only reason I have to come in for my results on that blood work is because they need me to pay them for it!
(I had tried at the lab but they told me since I went through the health department I had to pay there.) I had requested a bill, and I was informed that there was a letter sent telling me that I should make an appointment to see the results and sure enough it did come this afternoon.
I said with all the medicine I am on for each problem I was sure that my blood work was fine, but the nurse said that it was not and that the doctor has to discuss it with me… GREAT!
And now I must wait… since if they call you at your home number to tell you, besides being against HIPPA procedure they say that they don’t know it is you! CRAZY!
So now besides the dear cost of that blood work we have to pay again for another office visit!
Perhaps, from what I gleaned from the internet that it is a bacterial infection, quite common with chronic sinusitis and the appropriate treatment is, voila, ANTIBIOTICS!
See, now I told them that way back when…Gosh I have enough of them.
Anyone with an autoimmune disease is susceptible to these things, and MS is one of the many!
I hear House in my head, that is doctor House, boy, sometimes I think in a past life I may have been a diagnostician, hmm?

Any-who, in the interim while waiting to hear back today from the doctor there or his nurse, I called my pharmacist, Pinki to make sure that I could take some Benedryl while on that once a day stuff and she said sure and so I did, I took two, which is an adult dosage! That held me until the nurse called and called in the antibiotic and Hubby was able to pick up my newest prescription.
I also cleared my ability of taking it after my consuming of the Benedryl, and so I just waited until my next dose was due.
Are you following all this?
I think I lost track a week ago, or so… HA!
Darn, all of this and with my rude awakening about my youngin yesterday and he marrying again and all without so much as a phone call or invite…
Gosh, this has been a couple nasty days and in the next few I fear what they may bring, since my blood work was NOT normal; scared a wee bit.
Also waiting for that proverbial next shoe to drop…

On that what’s next attitude and welcome to my reality, allow me to be the first to wish a happy good night and to ask you kindly to count all your blessings and share all your overages, and I better send the dogs out looking for ours!
HA!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Tobi here...

Today created turmoil in my life both good and bad.
Our darling older son called early this morning, before eight A.M. to ask if he could come down on his day off from work to visit, since his Dad’s/Hubby’s birthday is this week.
And with joy in my heart and soul I asked when he would be leaving and I estimated his arrival time, a little over two hours from then.
He arrived just on time with a new car in my favorite color, blue, an eco friendly car that he said got over forty-four miles to the gallon; he had traded in his other car one that was not even a year old if I recall.
This was his fourth vehicle counting a workhorse truck and two motorcycles, one a Harley and one not.
He works hard for his money and he is not married but has his gal pal.
And at thirty-nine I am happy for him.
These last few years with his new girlfriend at least she has gotten him to travel quite a bit too, which makes me very happy for him and her.
Balance is what we all need in life not just work sleep and eat and over and over, again…
We all went out to lunch at the buffet that is now called the Hibachi Buffet in Port Charlotte, and for dinner we had what we had in the house. He left a little while ago and so that is why I am writing this now…

And on the other end of that spectrum our younger son, who is our estranged son, I Googled once again and found out that he got married for his second time at age thirty-five this past summer on July 23rd!
To say I was shocked would be a vast understatement; it almost gave me a heart attack!
I was, gosh, saddened, happy, miserable, and ecstatic and horrified all at the same time.
Hate is a HORRIBLE entity and to this day I have no idea what caused him to feel that way about all of us, his father, brother and me to not speak to any of us for all this time!
I almost did not write tonight.
But this is my forum for my many emotions, blatant as they may be some nights.
The reason it became a Google was by sheer chance, our elder son was showing us well, how the Google world site worked with zooming in on our homes, his north of Tampa and ours here, and I thought I would have it zoom in on his brother’s outside of the Miami area, but I couldn’t find the address… And so I Googled it and the wedding came up with the date and everything!
Then I found out that his bride was on Facebook, and so just before I started this I messaged her, letting her know that we knew about their wedding and to congratulate her and to contact us please.
Was that a bad idea?
Who knows… but what would you do?
We love both of our sons and want them in our lives!
Maybe this was a bad idea, i.e. my confession to all of you and I am almost sure it will not change anything sending that message to her.
And so, in reality what have I to lose, hmm?

On that crazy up and down type of day TMI, allow me to be the first to wish you all to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages and we will too! (At least try to with number one son making that a wee bit easier to do)

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Return trip

Everything needs a second chance, including places of business, hmm?
Thursday we had gone to an open house at the grand re-opening of our local Winn-Dixie.
It was a madhouse there; you might recall me mentioning it, which is what anyone in the promotion game would be happy to have.
And so in that respect I am more than sure that they were thrilled!
But for me traveling on a mobility scooter and being crowd shy even when I had not been it was an awkward and uncomfortable situation.
Today was their second chance and our late morning to try it out.
First of all our ability to locate a handicap parking space was incredibly easy, we got one right up front across from the front doors!
Then, the crowds had diminished considerably, of course since now it was not a freebie give-a-way evening event but a serious business providing what any business of its type would, groceries at a competitive price.
We went there with a grocery list, which we found easier to stick to what we needed and not to deviate from costing more money than what we intended to do.
We found that the specials were a dollar off here and there if you were a Winn-Dixie card holder, which we were and had been for years.
And so, when all was said and done we saved about thirteen or fourteen dollars off of our bill; not bad.
We also came away with a newer card for a discount on gas, but only good at a Shell station with 35 cents off per gallon.
Unfortunately, here, anyway, Shell is the more expensive brand, but perhaps with the discounted amount it will be a contender.
Gasbuddy.com will help in that comparison.
Have you ever used it?
It is really great.
Makes it so you don’t have to drive around looking for the best price, just put your zip code in and it lists the current prices in your area.

To be honest the whole experience was much nicer today at the new improved Winn-Dixie.
The store is spacious and truly attractive in the concept of making shopping an enjoyable experience and has many interesting aspects to it, like carry-out foods sold by the pound or items for that quickie lunch or dinner, many in the gourmet realm, as well a wine area that is a contender to many stand alone shops of similarity.
Hard liquor too is sold somewhere in the confines of the space, but we did not happen upon it.
The one bar-like area for serving yourself near the exotic cheese area had an olive-antipasto- gourmet blends of olives et al bar and they were sold by the pound.
The scale for the consumer was on the top shelf of the display and Hubby was busy at the bakery getting our five grain bread sliced that was nearly a dollar less than where we usually buy it… Any-who, a young woman with a nametag that stated that she was a store employee, helped me, and she weighed my deli cup that I filled with an olive assortment of my choice... I happened to mention that the scale was not ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act, passed in 1992, brainchild of Bush the first, oddly enough) accessible and perhaps they should put one down on a lower shelf for people like me in chairs or scooters. She agreed and said that she would look into and recommend it. See, she could have said ok and nothing more, but she really made me feel as if she meant what she said, boy she was good!
I truly hope that she was sincere, sure she was.

On that small glimpse/picture of our shopping experience, which I know you were all waiting and wondering about if or if when we would actually return to that grocery store…NOT really, for you have much more exciting fun things to do and think about… but I can dream, can’t I?
Of course, I am kidding! Maybe, not…WHO KNOWS, why I should, shouldn’t I…hmm…

Allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you to kindly count all your blessings and to share all your overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Some days are just some days...

Yesterday, was a holiday and for some strange reason I felt the need to search for a treasure amongst the so-called trash; an odd statement, hmm?
For some reason Hubby and I do enjoy the PBS program Antiques Roadshow, and watch it often.
We think it is amazing what we think about an item and then they mention its worth and we are on occasion baffled by that!
Since some of the ugliest things are worth a fortune and other items are of little or no value.
It truly does prove that, beauty can be in the eye of the beholder.
I did have the advantage of taking history of art and going to Europe as part of my education program and there and in NYC I had the privilege of being able to visit museums all over the world and here in the United States from my travels.
And I did have a few semesters of interior design, which in thought of appreciation of things of value would have been somewhat ingrained in me.
Not to mention that I had worked at an upper class store called Lord & Taylor’s for a few years.
I have been to Harrods’s in London, Bergdorf’s and Bonwit Tellers too those two were on Fifth Avenue in NYC, within in blocks from my school.
Designer’s were also being taught in my school, and I even bought Yves St. Laurent towels from Lord & Taylor’s as a newlywed from work with my 20% discount, not to mention all my clothes then.
So in other words I have not been living under a rock when it comes to these things, although that I must admit was in another lifetime, years ago!
But we all know some things stick with you… as a Mom I would shop the outlets so our family still dressed well at a good price, and I was the thrift store lady before it became fashionable to be…I even wrote about the ones here locally not that long ago as an editorial comment for the local newspaper…
So realistically why wouldn’t I be up on that sort of thing?
That brings me back to our mini treasure hunt yesterday, and we even stopped at the bank for a few bucks of cash, that is our bank's drive thru ATM.
And so Hubby drove to the Habitat for Humanity store on rte.#776 here, and we looked and searched and for a second I thought I saw a nine piece set of Fiesta ware for a cool $15.95, but alas none of the pieces were marked and so I moved on to the practical.
Hubby takes his shoes off at the back door which are often grass in-coated and so I do appreciate the effort in not dragging it throughout the house, but there is always quite a bit left under them even when he stomps them off on our fishy mat by the door, it has pictures of fish, it is not mysterious, HA!
Any-who, and so when I saw a plastic nautical tray marked $1.99 I thought it would work as a catchall for the grassy shoes and I picked it up.
But Hubby nixed it he thought it was not strong enough and he felt he wouldn’t use it anyway… he packed me and my scooter back into the car and we moved on to our next stop, The Goodwill Store…
I have donated to them from left over items that did not sell at garage sales and they are most appreciative, and on occasion I have shopped there too when something jumped out at me that I needed or liked at those bargain prices and it helps people too, just like Habitat does, and I am not ashamed to do it. Let’s face it in this economy it is Chic to be frugal, and a deal’s a deal.
Hubby and I must have circled the store quite a few times, my search was for those elusive interesting coat-hooks that I mentioned here weeks ago and a glass jar of a decent size with a glass lid to turn into a terrarium that I once had way back in the 1970’s, they are back!
And oddly enough with me not going out so much anymore it would be nice to bring some of the outside in to me, hmm?
No luck with either item but I did see under some other stuff a wooden hand-painted tray that was white with purple grape-like flowers and greenery in the base of it, the handles were carved into the sides, small, less than a foot long and about six inches in width.
Just the right size for the top of a dresser, coffee table or an end table, where I did try it in each location when we brought it home… but finally I settled it by placing it on the small dresser in the guest room where it look as if it belonged.
In the store it had a red sticker on it that said it was only a quarter and so I got on line and Hubby who only had a twenty on him from the machine said he had a quarter in the car and some pennies for the tax, so I thought…but when I got up to the register the price on the front was incorrect, according to the cashier.
It was actually, $1.99 and so Hubby handed her the twenty since he didn’t have anything smaller and she said she couldn’t make change and that she needed fives!
Uh oh, but she did say oddly enough that they did accept credit cards, even for that small amount, well, we gave her ours and the rest is history!
The little tray had some chips in the white paint and at one point I considered painting over the grapes but they grew on me, ha! Today I checked online and most of that kind are worth anywhere from $25 on up!
In the end I just touched up the white chips with my white paint in my crafts draw, which oddly enough was a perfect match!

And so some days are some days, simple and not that exciting, but what you might make of them to be more so for you…huh?

You know what I mean… and now allow me to be the first to wish you a very happy good night and ask you to count all your blessings and to share all your overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Idle, Idol, here, hear, there, their...

Homonyms are NOT picked up in this particular grammar/spell check; is there one that will pick it up? I wish I knew of one. Oh that’s right; it’s called a ‘human editor’, ha!
Even words that you think to use appropriately like I did last night with vulnerable and it corrected my mistake and installed the word, venerable, it had no idea what I was trying to say and were not corrected in my blog, and I used to be such a great speller! All it takes is one letter to make it take over…
Did you all know that vulnerable means to be: susceptible, weak, defenseless, helpless, open to, exposed, in danger, at risk, or in a weak position?
Sure you did, and I did too!
But for some strange reason last night I spelled it incorrectly and when spell check got a hold of it they replaced it with, ‘venerable’, which I found out meant something totally not correct for what I wanted in my sentence! In actuality is means respected, august, esteemed, honored, admired, a very nice meaning but not the one I wanted for what I was trying to say, so please forgive?
As we all know or so I have been told when you ‘tweet’ or ‘text’ (since I do not tweet or text) this can occur too…why Ellen DeGeneres has had a segment on her TV show all about the stupid things that have been written by mistake…and some are unbelievably incredible to think about, what was the grammar/spell check thinking, and maybe there is a person inside doing this all to be funny, hmm?

All I do know that today was the date that only happens once, 11-11-11, although, last year we had 10-10-10, and the years before nope that didn’t work when we had single digits we need to put an ‘0’ before it then it was 9-9-09, see no can do, but 12-12-12 will work and yep, then there will be no more until… I have no idea, till when? Perhaps, you do, but my head is spinning… so I’ll stop if you do, okay?

More importantly today was Veterans Day, which is amazing to me for one great reason besides the obvious one; do you know what I am getting at?
YES! It is one of the few that has NOT had its actual date of being on November eleventh changed to meet our desires to have three day weekends! And for that I say hooray!
And to all our Veterans past and present I will say two words that we all should say daily, really, THANK YOU!

On that upbeat ending to my bits and pieces of my strange way of thinking… and of knowing when you’ve said enough… allow me to be the first to wish you all to kindly count all your blessings and to share your overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

PS cold down here in ‘Paradise’ for just last night, today, tonight and tomorrow, but warmth will be back from this frosty brrr time of fifties, sixties, seventies… and yes, the eighties will be returning by SUNDAY!