life and stuff
medical stuff
I almost never tell people this, because it's one of the things people harp and criticize on facebook--and off!-- but I no longer have an actual family doctor. I've had a few, and they all ran away from home, leaving me with my current primary care provider, who is a CNP, or certified nurse practitioner. If you ever feel compelled to question her ability to provide as good a care as any of my previous MDs, please and I beg of you, STFU.
(1) it's not your business, just because/even though I mentioned it, and
(2) she seems to know what she's doing as well as, or better than, some MDs I could mention, and
(3) I'm asking you not to start about this. It will only come between us. Trust me.
So she's been tweaking my meds, and my A1C test number plummeted this time, and the actos didn't kill me, and the side effects have abated.
Late last week, however, I noticed some edema in my legs and feet, and a red blotch/bump on my right calf which I suspect was caused by Kelly using my legs as a bridge from the coffee table to my lap. But I showed it to her anyway, and she took me off one BP med that sometimes causes edema, and doubled the other BP med, which also doubled the diuretic since it's included.
Now I feel like I am on one of those zippy cords that jailers use to reel in their keys, only I am anchored to the potty. On the up side, the swelling has gone, and I feel better.
She also put me on an antibiotic in case the red blotch is an infection, to which I am prone (exploding ovaries, anyone?)
But after she got home she had second thoughts and decided she'd like to have my leg ultrasounded, boo. And her office manager called me eleventy times, and the hospital scheduling department did also, and harrassed me mercilessly because she wanted this done ASAP. Unfortunately I had turned off the answering machine so the AC guy (more on this in a bit) wouldn't hear the bill collector who hasn't got the notice to stop calling (because nobody answers when I call them back. I am mystified as to how they are supposed to collect anything if they won't answer the phone, but not so mystified I am willing to try harder, especially since I have no idea what bill they're even calling about.)
Anyway, the earliest available appointment was in a week and a half. Hope it's not a clot, sheesh.
I also have test orders for my mutant clotting gene, which is what I believe made my CNP paranoid after she got home, and all my usual blood work.
I feel like, even though school let out last week, I have not had a chance to relax yet.
air conditioning stuff
It got hot last week, and we discovered our air was not working at all, not even enough to freeze up, which is what it does every spring. Whereupon we call our little dude Gary and he comes out and puts two pounds of very expensive old-style coolant in it, and it works for another year. The plan was to recharge it one more year and have the unit replaced in the fall with one that (a.) doesn't leak, and (b.) uses the new, less expensive coolant. However, there was no love this spring. The compressor was dead, and we needed an entire new unit.
If this house were at all coolable with fans--they don't fit in the high narrow windows--or if we had more tolerance to heat, we'd have tried to muddle through summer without air, but neither of those things are true. This house was built to be climate controlled, to keep the heat and air in, and it does a fabulous job of that, which unfortunately means once it gets hot in here, you are living in a brick oven.
I love Gary, who not only does heating and air, but is an amazing storyteller! and somewhat resembles Captain Kangaroo. He also does painstaking high-quality work at affordable prices, but nothing in life is ever quite as affordable as you might wish, and coming as it did on the heels of Berta's big repair a couple of months ago, we are pretty wiped out, even though--good news!--the furnace we had put in a few years back (by somebody else) is the brand Gary prefers and so everything was compatible and we saved a lot by not having to re-replace some things (like the coil).
Also, I received bonus stories, which he told while working. Sure he might have got done a little faster--probably not much--if I hadn't stood there listening to him talk, but he wasn't charging by the hour, so...free stories!
And now we have air, presumably working, but it's impossible to say for sure since it is cold out again, and we are having frost warnings. If you hate hot, you're welcome. If you hate cold, sorry.
Oh, Gary put in a new thermostat, too. It is specially designed to work with the brand of furnace and air units we now have, and it is not programmable. How pitiful is it that I have not been able to set the thermostat in five years? I told T-Moth, "I want a thermostat that is no more complicated than the climate controls in Berta." And that is what Gary brought me. I can choose heat or cool, turn the fan to auto, off, or on, and turn the temperature up or down. Woot!
Someday I will probably post about my feelings toward little dudes like Gary, but later.
critter stuff
Yesterday we took Cobie and Kelly to Woofstock, which is a pet health fair. Sadly, I think it's the last time we'll be going. At the very least it's the last time Cobie will be going. It simply stresses him out too much, and it stresses us out, trying to see in every direction at once to make sure no excitable dogs get too close and--worse--that no people sneak up on him and touch him.
You'd think people at a dog fair would know better, especially in a world where everyone has seen a show and is now an expert on dog behavior, but they don't. It isn't fair that I can't get him socialized because people are assholes and allow their dogs to be assholes too. I say assholes because it's impossible to tell who is rude and who is simply ignorant, and I suppose it really doesn't matter.
You can't socialize a nervous dog by allowing him to be around the public. It sets him up for failure. :(
On the upside, Cobie loved Gary.
Oh, he'll tolerate new people, after a fashion, if they don't look at him, or try to touch him, and if he can hide behind one of us for an hour and glare at the new person. But so far the list of people he has taken an actual liking to is two. onegrapeshy, and Gary. Other than that, if he hasn't known you since puppyhood, he pretty much has a getawayfrommenastyhuman attitude.
It's possible he gets that from me to some extent, but he even dislikes people I love, like the home folks.
Everyone thinks they are going to be the exception. "Oh, dogs love me!"
No, you are not the exception. I wish you were. I wish the exceptions were the exceptions and he loved everyone like Kelly does. But he's not Kelly, and it's up to me to make sure he lives in a world that doesn't make him crazy...crazier. And it helps me to think of him as an Asperger's dog that can't handle being overstimulated. Whether it's true or not doesn't matter; the fact is, if I act as if it's true he does well. I don't ask him to meet new people up close, and I don't move furniture unless it's nice enough for him to go outside until I'm done because that makes him wild. (I no longer think I made him that way.)
I am no longer a fan of Cesar Milan, but I do think he's right when he says you don't get the dog you want, you get the dog you need. And I think in this case, I got the dog that needed me, that I "get" his flaky weirdness. I love Kelly because she is so easy and uncomplicated. I love Cobie even though he is not, maybe even because he is not.
There is more I could prattle on about, because that is my life. Either there is a crapton of things going on and I have no time to chat about them, or there is nothing going on and nothing to chat about. I think I prefer the latter. That time will roll around again; it always does.
So until I get organized enough to write more, may all your stories be worthy ones.
I almost never tell people this, because it's one of the things people harp and criticize on facebook--and off!-- but I no longer have an actual family doctor. I've had a few, and they all ran away from home, leaving me with my current primary care provider, who is a CNP, or certified nurse practitioner. If you ever feel compelled to question her ability to provide as good a care as any of my previous MDs, please and I beg of you, STFU.
(1) it's not your business, just because/even though I mentioned it, and
(2) she seems to know what she's doing as well as, or better than, some MDs I could mention, and
(3) I'm asking you not to start about this. It will only come between us. Trust me.
So she's been tweaking my meds, and my A1C test number plummeted this time, and the actos didn't kill me, and the side effects have abated.
Late last week, however, I noticed some edema in my legs and feet, and a red blotch/bump on my right calf which I suspect was caused by Kelly using my legs as a bridge from the coffee table to my lap. But I showed it to her anyway, and she took me off one BP med that sometimes causes edema, and doubled the other BP med, which also doubled the diuretic since it's included.
Now I feel like I am on one of those zippy cords that jailers use to reel in their keys, only I am anchored to the potty. On the up side, the swelling has gone, and I feel better.
She also put me on an antibiotic in case the red blotch is an infection, to which I am prone (exploding ovaries, anyone?)
But after she got home she had second thoughts and decided she'd like to have my leg ultrasounded, boo. And her office manager called me eleventy times, and the hospital scheduling department did also, and harrassed me mercilessly because she wanted this done ASAP. Unfortunately I had turned off the answering machine so the AC guy (more on this in a bit) wouldn't hear the bill collector who hasn't got the notice to stop calling (because nobody answers when I call them back. I am mystified as to how they are supposed to collect anything if they won't answer the phone, but not so mystified I am willing to try harder, especially since I have no idea what bill they're even calling about.)
Anyway, the earliest available appointment was in a week and a half. Hope it's not a clot, sheesh.
I also have test orders for my mutant clotting gene, which is what I believe made my CNP paranoid after she got home, and all my usual blood work.
I feel like, even though school let out last week, I have not had a chance to relax yet.
air conditioning stuff
It got hot last week, and we discovered our air was not working at all, not even enough to freeze up, which is what it does every spring. Whereupon we call our little dude Gary and he comes out and puts two pounds of very expensive old-style coolant in it, and it works for another year. The plan was to recharge it one more year and have the unit replaced in the fall with one that (a.) doesn't leak, and (b.) uses the new, less expensive coolant. However, there was no love this spring. The compressor was dead, and we needed an entire new unit.
If this house were at all coolable with fans--they don't fit in the high narrow windows--or if we had more tolerance to heat, we'd have tried to muddle through summer without air, but neither of those things are true. This house was built to be climate controlled, to keep the heat and air in, and it does a fabulous job of that, which unfortunately means once it gets hot in here, you are living in a brick oven.
I love Gary, who not only does heating and air, but is an amazing storyteller! and somewhat resembles Captain Kangaroo. He also does painstaking high-quality work at affordable prices, but nothing in life is ever quite as affordable as you might wish, and coming as it did on the heels of Berta's big repair a couple of months ago, we are pretty wiped out, even though--good news!--the furnace we had put in a few years back (by somebody else) is the brand Gary prefers and so everything was compatible and we saved a lot by not having to re-replace some things (like the coil).
Also, I received bonus stories, which he told while working. Sure he might have got done a little faster--probably not much--if I hadn't stood there listening to him talk, but he wasn't charging by the hour, so...free stories!
And now we have air, presumably working, but it's impossible to say for sure since it is cold out again, and we are having frost warnings. If you hate hot, you're welcome. If you hate cold, sorry.
Oh, Gary put in a new thermostat, too. It is specially designed to work with the brand of furnace and air units we now have, and it is not programmable. How pitiful is it that I have not been able to set the thermostat in five years? I told T-Moth, "I want a thermostat that is no more complicated than the climate controls in Berta." And that is what Gary brought me. I can choose heat or cool, turn the fan to auto, off, or on, and turn the temperature up or down. Woot!
Someday I will probably post about my feelings toward little dudes like Gary, but later.
critter stuff
Yesterday we took Cobie and Kelly to Woofstock, which is a pet health fair. Sadly, I think it's the last time we'll be going. At the very least it's the last time Cobie will be going. It simply stresses him out too much, and it stresses us out, trying to see in every direction at once to make sure no excitable dogs get too close and--worse--that no people sneak up on him and touch him.
You'd think people at a dog fair would know better, especially in a world where everyone has seen a show and is now an expert on dog behavior, but they don't. It isn't fair that I can't get him socialized because people are assholes and allow their dogs to be assholes too. I say assholes because it's impossible to tell who is rude and who is simply ignorant, and I suppose it really doesn't matter.
You can't socialize a nervous dog by allowing him to be around the public. It sets him up for failure. :(
On the upside, Cobie loved Gary.
Oh, he'll tolerate new people, after a fashion, if they don't look at him, or try to touch him, and if he can hide behind one of us for an hour and glare at the new person. But so far the list of people he has taken an actual liking to is two. onegrapeshy, and Gary. Other than that, if he hasn't known you since puppyhood, he pretty much has a getawayfrommenastyhuman attitude.
It's possible he gets that from me to some extent, but he even dislikes people I love, like the home folks.
Everyone thinks they are going to be the exception. "Oh, dogs love me!"
No, you are not the exception. I wish you were. I wish the exceptions were the exceptions and he loved everyone like Kelly does. But he's not Kelly, and it's up to me to make sure he lives in a world that doesn't make him crazy...crazier. And it helps me to think of him as an Asperger's dog that can't handle being overstimulated. Whether it's true or not doesn't matter; the fact is, if I act as if it's true he does well. I don't ask him to meet new people up close, and I don't move furniture unless it's nice enough for him to go outside until I'm done because that makes him wild. (I no longer think I made him that way.)
I am no longer a fan of Cesar Milan, but I do think he's right when he says you don't get the dog you want, you get the dog you need. And I think in this case, I got the dog that needed me, that I "get" his flaky weirdness. I love Kelly because she is so easy and uncomplicated. I love Cobie even though he is not, maybe even because he is not.
There is more I could prattle on about, because that is my life. Either there is a crapton of things going on and I have no time to chat about them, or there is nothing going on and nothing to chat about. I think I prefer the latter. That time will roll around again; it always does.
So until I get organized enough to write more, may all your stories be worthy ones.