Small Talk: The Welcome Mat

[Netfoot]

Dr. Kristi was surprised that Dr. Scrooge McDuck is unwilling to advise. I was not. Dr. K. told me to go ahead and start the Azathioprine and Mestinon so I had to go out to the pharmacy. Azathioprine is only $7 per month but Mestinon is $313.16 a month so I could only get two weeks worth. I am going to discuss with her whether it is better to cut the dose so it will last more days, or maintain the dosage and settle for two weeks. We're only guessing here, based on what I was taking when I first started treatment the last time I fought this fight. 

Sunlight was blinding but I got it done, and picked up some essential groceries as well. Rice, pasta, potatoes, cooking oil, a few tins of corned beef, etc. Plus 2Kg of Purina for my lovely boy. Here he is being an absolute sweetheart:

and here he is being a Monster, stealing the cardboard tube (which he still believes is not to be touched) and two shoes. Not a pair, just two:

Edited December 2, 2023 by Netfoot

[Spunkygal]

2 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Dr. Kristi was surprised that Dr. Scrooge NcDuck is unwilling to advise. I was not. Dr. K. told me to go ahead and start the Azathioprine and Mestinon so I had to go out to the pharmacy. Azathioprine is only $7 per month but Mestinon is $313.16 a month so I could only get two weeks worth. I am going to discuss with her whether it is better to cut the dose so it will last more days, or maintain the dosage and settle for two weeks. We're only guessing here, based on what I was taking when I first started treatment the last time I fought this fight. 

Sunlight was blinding but I got it done, and picked up some essential groceries as well. Rice, pasta, potatoes, cooking oil, a few tins of corned beef, etc. Plus 2Kg of Purina for my lovely boy. Here he is being an absolute sweetheart:

and here he is being a Monster, stealing the cardboard tube (which he still believes is not to be touched) and two shoes. Not a pair, just two:

When my mom was alive, there was a very expensive drug she needed but she couldn’t afford. She was able to contact the drug manufacturer and get paperwork so she could get the drug for a low price (I think $5 or $10).  It wasn’t an involved process. I wonder if you might look at the drug manufacturer website for your expensive med to see if they offer this program?

[b4pjoe]

11 minutes ago, Spunkygal said:

When my mom was alive, there was a very expensive drug she needed but she couldn’t afford. She was able to contact the drug manufacturer and get paperwork so she could get the drug for a low price (I think $5 or $10).  It wasn’t an involved process. I wonder if you might look at the drug manufacturer website for your expensive med to see if they offer this program?

I had a similar experience needing a very expensive medication ($2,400 per month). I qualified to get it free from the manufacturer based upon my income at the time being less than $65,000 per year. It was a lower amount if one was single. Never hurts to check the manufacturer website to check it out.

[Netfoot]

24 minutes ago, Spunkygal said:

I wonder if you might look at the drug manufacturer website for your expensive med to see if they offer this program?

What you can do here is get the doctor to write an order form for the meds, which will allow you to buy direct from the agent, at wholesale prices. The process is a PITA but it usually saves about 50% of the price.

Found some noodles selling for 49¢ a packet. Specifically not calling itself "ramen" for some reason - probably because the stuff is made of sawdust? It produces a much smaller bowl of noodles but if i eat a more substantial lunch i can settle for these for dinner.

Shrimp flavour only, I'm afraid. I will now proceed to eat some and see how bad it is.

[Netfoot]

At 5:00 this morning, the Brighton alarm went off. I opened one eye and peeped out from under the top sheet. I saw something I don't much like these days: The World. So I pulled the sheet back over my head and didn't come out again until 8:15 when WhatsApp messages started arriving from Dr. Kristi. 

Bought meds and some vital supplies. Carbs, carbs, carbs and cooking oil to cook them in. Also a 2Kg bag of food for Mozie. This left me with just enough money left to buy another 2Kg bag in a week or so when it is needed. After that I don't know what I will do. I'm not fond of the idea of begging, but if Mo is hungry, pride goes out the window. 

And of course, there are bills to pay...

My boy is here with me now, after an uneventful Garden Patrol. I'm sure he will be in & out several times before I eventually lock up. I just picked a piece of fluff off his head and (just like Buddy) he instantly demanded I give it back. Mo is very particular about you taking anything of his, and always insists on checking it out before allowing you to have it. Be it a bit of fluff, a tick, sweethearts... 

When he was a puppy he devised a method of lying down next to me which involved him standing alongside and toppling sideways, straight-legged. Result? A puppy landing on you with force. Not a real problem when he was 5 lbs. in weight, but now, when 36 lbs. of puppy smashes sideways into your tummy or (worse) the, um, "delicates", you really do go Oooof! 

I ate the shrimp notRamen. It didn't taste too bad! It didn't taste of shrimp at all... but I could eat that. Only, the packets are small. A packet of realRamen would contain about double but would cost 79¢ instead of 49¢ which is an increase in price of 61%. Admittedly you get more but you have to have more money to buy them in the first place. Whereas with notRamen, I can get two meals for one hard dollar.

Anyway, I had macaroni for lunch. Actually, the package was marked Bucatini! I've never seen macaroni officially called Bucatini before. On the other hand this stuff was smaller than usual. The sticks were maybe ⅔ as thick and the hole down the middle was correspondingly smaller as well. So maybe this is Bucatini and the stuff I've always eaten is not Bucatini after all? Size apart, they are identical. 

I also have a lot of potatoes in the fridge and... Wait. BRB... Right, just took a tiny breast/wing out of the freezer to defrost overnight in the fridge. When I say tiny, the entire thing fits in the palm of my hand with room to spare. But it's my last piece of chicken. After that there is some lamb and some beef but then we are down to tins of corned beef and of tuna.

Oh, and I put 400 grams of field peas to soak. Not sure whether I'll have potatoes or rice tomorrow, but if those field peas come out nice, they will be a pleasant addition.

(Pause for a game of Tummy Trampoline.)

The voice right now is fine. The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain! Pygmalion's Eliza Doolittle would be proud. But it comes and goes. I have to try and work out whether the voice changes in sync with the meds.

Also, eating has been a lot easier today. Yesterday I could barely chew or swallow. My jaw gives no trouble but you can't chew food if you can't get it between your teeth and you need working lips, cheeks and tongue for that. Yesterday I couldn't get my tongue past my teeth into my cheeks or in front of my teeth behind either the upper or lower lip. Right now, it all functions perfectly.

And I can blink left, right or both eyelids as normal. So fingers crossed for this being the drugs kicking in. 

Hotel California. I wonder how many people know what colitas are? Not the marijuana buds that many people seem to think, but a flowering desert plant. Strange how people misinterpret a phrase. Or mishear a lyric and sing along for years getting it wrong. Did The Beatles sing about "a girl with kaleidoscope eyes?" Or was it that "a girl with colitis goes by?' 

Anyway, I will stop now, because I have to deal with a burglar

and then I will read a little before blowing out the candle.

ETA: My voice is starting to go funny again...

Edited December 3, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

My 400 grams of field peas yielded 5 generous cups. I am currently cooking one with a cup of rice and a large carrot mandolined into sliced, plus a tiny bit of bully for flavour, spiced with a dash of pepper sauce and a sprinkle of paprika.

The peas were quite soft after 12 hours soaking and I have not par- or pre-boiled them. That may turn out to be a mistake, but if so, it will be one I can learn from. The soak-water turned out to be exactly the right amount to cook the rice so I hope I am getting some nutrition and flavour by using it. 

Never understood why a TV chef will pour off the water from the canned tomatoes/ peas/ whatever, then add water from the tap. That water can't be less nutritious than plain water and most probably much more, with extra flavour too. 

Problem is, I'm running out of stuff to put on the rice. I have red butter but it won't last forever. Thinking of stewing up a tin of corned beef in a pot with onion and s stock cube. Then I can scoop out a ladle of it over the rice and save the remainder for the next meal of potatoes or whatever. Not sure if the tin of bully would last as long compared to cutting a piece off the block and throwing it directly into the rice, but at least I'd be getting meat and grave all in one.

Anyway, I'm watching a movie, so I'll let you know how those peas turned out later.

[Browncoat]

17 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

Never understood why a TV chef will pour off the water from the canned tomatoes/ peas/ whatever, then add water from the tap.

Mostly just to get rid of some of the salt.

[Spunkygal]

1 hour ago, Browncoat said:

Mostly just to get rid of some of the salt.

Yes, this, and for me, the liquid from the can often has a tinny taste to it.

[Netfoot]

5 hours ago, Browncoat said:

Mostly just to get rid of some of the salt.

OK, but there isn't that much salt in the water surrounding tinned foods. And I'm cooking rice. Or spaghetti sauce. Or whatever. It is going to need salt anyway. So I just have to add a little less.

It just doesn't add up to me.

4 hours ago, Spunkygal said:

for me, the liquid from the can often has a tinny taste to it.

I suppose that could be true, but most tinned food has a lining inside to prevent the contents from contacting the metal. I can't say I remember eating anything from a can that has a metallic taste of any sort. To be honest, if I used a brand of whatever and detected an unexpected  taste of anything, I'd discontinue using that product entirely.

It still don't add up. 

But!  If anyone is not comfortable with using the canned water in which the food comes or thinks it affects the taste of the final dish in any way, then I can agree they should not use it. I consider it my good luck that I've never had that issue.

[Netfoot]

Mo and I are in bed, listening to The Beatles (Let It Be). We had our Garden Patrol and I had a cup of tea, watching some YT video. Then a shower, and now here I am. The door is open, and although Mo is curled up against my tummy, I am pretty sure he will love as soon as he's ready, probably to scout... There he goes, looking out the window... and out the door. He'll be back. 

Last few days I've been reusing tea bags. After the second use the bags show signs of wear & tear, little rips and punctures. They aren't meant to be used twice and they don't make them any stronger than needed for their intended purpose. A third use and they will probably come apart, leaving loose tea in the bottom of the cup. And since I have no tea strainer... It matters little. I only have one bag left.

For dinner I remembered I'd bought six packs of Eclipse biscuits (carbs, carbs, carbs and carbs, it seems). So I had a pack with red herring. I found two strips in the fridge and may use the second tomorrow, with some onion, to make a sauce to go with some potatoes. Prolly chuck in a cup of field peas as well.

I'm about ⅓ if the way through my book. I wish I could say the pace is quickening, but so far the author is still throwing in twists and complications. I hope there is a bit more development of the plot soon. By which I mean the various elements start to come together to give the plot some direction. 

I have also lined up my next book. It is called Bad Luck And Trouble and features Reacher. I've read it before and have a general idea of what goes down, but can't remember the details. Now, Reacher season #2 begins in a couple of weeks, and is based on this very book.  I can easily finish my current book and this one before the season starts.

Funnily enough, I had just reread Killing Floor when I learned that Reacher season #1 was going to start shortly, and it was good having my memory refreshed so I could more easily look out for favourite moments, as well as spot for departures and so forth. I didn't feel "spoilt" by reading it any more than having read the  Lord Of The Rings trilogy literally dozens of times made me feel "spoilt" when I went to watch Peter Jackson's movies. But I'd like to hear what you think. Would you read the book before the season starts?

Lightning Crashes by Live, from their Throwing Copper album. A good album. This track, playing on the radio in the car one evening on my way home from work was my introduction to this band. When I got home, I went immediately to the computer and ordered the CD. Only then did I take off my tie and change out of my work clothes. Dotty was with me then.

Mo just came in, stole an empty pill bottle off the bedside table, and departed rapidly. That little man is part panther and part kleptomaniac with a splash of angel and a dash of devil. 

Watched two movies today. Or was it three? The last one featured Bruce Willis and was not one of his best efforts. Before that was an Angelina Jolie offering which was better, but still not great.

Movies these days are such rubbish for the most part. They don't seem to make movies to be enjoyed any more. They all seem like some sort of reeducation propaganda film that the jackboots want to force you to watch. Many are remakes or reinterpretations of well known stories, but there is no respect for the original lore, canon or storyline and certainly no preservation of anything is allowed. Two examples come to mind. First, Tomb Raider. There were two films already made starring the site above mentioned Angelina Jolie. The films were based on a video game I've never played but the heroine of the was apparently "big in the Bristol area" (to quote Ronnie Barker). To such a degree that Jolie, who isn't diminutive in that town, was fitted with prosthetics to enhance size. Ok, probably quite unnecessary, but the point being that the heroine was established as a busty lass in both the original game and the two films. Now, comes a remake, and the reimagined heroine is deliberately not by any means, generously proportioned. Of course, it doesn't matter at all. And the original films were not particularly good. There is plenty of opportunity for the new film to be way better. But for the life of me, I can't see the point of mandating that change. 

Then, there is the movie I, Robot starting Will Smith. Supposedly based on the book by the same name by Isaac Asimov, it had no similarity to that book at all, except for the inclusion of a character called Dr. Susan Calvin, a leading roboticist. And even in this they strayed from the source material. Asimov described Calvin thus: "She was a frosty girl, plain and colorless, who protected herself against a world she disliked by a mask-like expression and a hypertrophy of intellect." The part was played in the movie by Bridget Moynahan who, what ever else you may say about her, is not "plain and colorless" nor presenting a "mask-like expression".

So in one case they take a character who is known to be attractive and make her deliberately less so, while in the other case they take a character known to be plain and portray her as desirable and pretty. 

Now I've probably ticked off everybody by even suggesting that these characters, beloved to their long-time fans, should not have been tampered with. (I'm not a Lara Croft fan by any means, but I am a fan of Asimov and dislike pointless alterations to the body of his work.) But it is just pointless.

It would be like making a movie of Heinlein's Time Enough For Love and changing Lazarus Long's race from white to black. Or his Starship Troopers and changing Johnny Rico's race from black to white. (Oh, wait! They did exactly that and nobody noticed! Grrrrr!!)

Hell, it pissed me off when they made two Jack Reacher movies and the part of the 6'5", 300 lb. brick shithouse of a protagonist was played by a short-assed Moses. But that brings me back to my question. Do you think I should reread the Reacher novel before the start of the second season? I am much inclined to do so, but I'd appreciate your opinion.

Now it's time to fetch Mo in and go off to sleep. 

Oh, by the way, the voice is going back and forth still. I woke up this morning speaking normally, took my first dose of the meds, and within half an hour, Elmer Fudd was back. I was expecting the opposite, to wake up as Elmer and become myself after taking my first dose of meds. But no. Anyway, even at it's worse it isn't as bad as it was. And chewing and swallowing are better. Sometimes even perfectly normal. 

Anyway, off to fetch the pup and hit the hay!

Edited December 4, 2023 by Netfoot

[andidante]

8 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Funnily enough, I had just reread Killing Floor when I learned that Reacher season #1 was going to start shortly, and it was good having my memory refreshed so I could more easily look out for favourite moments, as well as spot for departures and so forth. I didn't feel "spoilt" by reading it any more than having read the  Lord Of The Rings trilogy literally dozens of times made me feel "spoilt" when I went to watch Peter Jackson's movies. But I'd like to hear what you think. Would you read the book before the season starts?

Hell, it pissed me off when they made two Jack Reacher movies and the part of the 6'5", 300 lb. brick shithouse of a protagonist was played by a short-assed Moses. But that brings me back to my question. Do you think I should reread the Reacher novel before the start of the second season? I am much inclined to do so, but I'd appreciate your opinion.

 

I think you should read it before the season starts. I certainly would. I watch the series Outlander but books came out way before the show. I know some people read the books through again before the new seasons begin. I do not only because the books are so long! LOL

[Netfoot]

Lunch was boiled potatoes & carrots stir fried with onion, cabbage, field peas & red herring. I did boil the peas for 10 minutes before adding them to the pan. They were soft just from soaking, but by boiling them they actually became a little mushy and this helped them mix in with the other stuff in the pan. Seasoned with cilantro, garlic and a generous dash of  pepper sauce from a near-empty bottle rejuvenated by addition of a very little vinegar. Served with a knob of red butter, it was good! So I had the balance for dinner.

Watched (or rewatched) a movie called Lion, which starred Dev Patel. The story is about Saroo, a little boy 3-5 years old who gets separated from his family in rural India and ends up in Calcutta. When his origin can't be determined, he eventually gets adopted by an Australian couple. 25 years later an adult Saroo uses Google Earth to identify the town he came from and returns to try and find his birth family. I think Patel is a reasonably talented actor, and has shown his worth here and in a previous film Slumdog Millionaire. Plus a small catalogue of other films. I first encountered him in a British TV series called Skins.

It's not been the best of days. The cartoon speak has come and gone as it will, if thankfully never to the point where I was incomprehensible. (When I speak, I'm technically incomprehensible at all times, to my usual audience. But he seems to understand some of what I say, no matter what.) Control of lips & tongue not been too bad but swallowing my meds has been difficult. I have to sluice them down with water and this leaves me with the urge to give a little burp. Unfortunately, I can not burp any more, so I have to gives little combination cough & grunt and repeat until the effect of s burp is realized.

Mo was here in bed with me a moment ago, grabbing (with his mouth) my right hand which makes entering this post tricky. Sometimes he grabs with his paw but that indicates he wants you to move, and he will - with your help - roll you over or drag you away. When he grabs with his mouth and chews your sinews a little, he is just playing. But now he has run outside to find something to bark at.

I love that naughty little boy. I have had three doggies in my time and I have been blessed three times with exceptionally fine sons. He has just returned with an old Ensure bottle to chew upon. He must have a stash because I have not had Ensure for weeks. I used to drink them in the car on the way to work, as breakfast.

Speaking of doggies or doggys if you prefer, I want to talk about a cryptocurrency called Dogecoin. Everybody in the world pronounces it "Doaje Coin" with a soft or hard J. Am I really the only person in the world that realizes that the obvious, correct pronunciation is "Dog-E Coin"? I wonder if there are any other clues to how it should be pronounced...

Mo is gone out again, leaving the Ensure bottle for me to roll over on in the night. I've chucked it out the window and hope he has forgotten about it by time he returns. He can find it again, in the garden, in the morning. He's always bringing things to bed. He once brought a dead pigeon he had caught and was eating. I spoke to him very strongly about that incident, and so far we have not seen a repeat. When he hunts his own food I try to take it off him, but if you've ever seen a video of me trying to retrieve a Croc, you will realize that's more easily said than done. 

13 hours ago, andidante said:

I think you should read it before the season starts.

I think I will. I still have to get through this other book first. I'm just at about the 50% point. So with that goal in mind, I will listen to some Neil Young (Old Man) and read. Young was a much better man back when he penned Ohio than when he withdrew his music from Spotify because he was upset by something someone said.

And speaking of Ohio, I discovered only very recently that Chrissie Hynde (of The Pretenders, whose music I am a fan of) was a student at Kent State at the time and an eyewitness to at least part of the event that fateful day. 

Anyway, I'm going to read and then take a nap. 

[Notabug]

10 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Lunch was boiled potatoes & carrots stir fried with onion, cabbage, field peas & red herring. I did boil the peas for 10 minutes before adding them to the pan. They were soft just from soaking, but by boiling them they actually became a little mushy and this helped them mix in with the other stuff in the pan. Seasoned with cilantro, garlic and a generous dash of  pepper sauce from a near-empty bottle rejuvenated by addition of a very little vinegar. Served with a knob of red butter, it was good! So I had the balance for dinner.

Watched (or rewatched) a movie called Lion, which starred Dev Patel. The story is about Saroo, a little boy 3-5 years old who gets separated from his family in rural India and ends up in Calcutta. When his origin can't be determined, he eventually gets adopted by an Australian couple. 25 years later an adult Saroo uses Google Earth to identify the town he came from and returns to try and find his birth family. I think Patel is a reasonably talented actor, and has shown his worth here and in a previous film Slumdog Millionaire. Plus a small catalogue of other films. I first encountered him in a British TV series called Skins.

It's not been the best of days. The cartoon speak has come and gone as it will, if thankfully never to the point where I was incomprehensible. (When I speak, I'm technically incomprehensible at all times, to my usual audience. But he seems to understand some of what I say, no matter what.) Control of lips & tongue not been too bad but swallowing my meds has been difficult. I have to sluice them down with water and this leaves me with the urge to give a little burp. Unfortunately, I can not burp any more, so I have to gives little combination cough & grunt and repeat until the effect of s burp is realized.

Mo was here in bed with me a moment ago, grabbing (with his mouth) my right hand which makes entering this post tricky. Sometimes he grabs with his paw but that indicates he wants you to move, and he will - with your help - roll you over or drag you away. When he grabs with his mouth and chews your sinews a little, he is just playing. But now he has run outside to find something to bark at.

I love that naughty little boy. I have had three doggies in my time and I have been blessed three times with exceptionally fine sons. He has just returned with an old Ensure bottle to chew upon. He must have a stash because I have not had Ensure for weeks. I used to drink them in the car on the way to work, as breakfast.

Speaking of doggies or doggys if you prefer, I want to talk about a cryptocurrency called Dogecoin. Everybody in the world pronounces it "Doaje Coin" with a soft or hard J. Am I really the only person in the world that realizes that the obvious, correct pronunciation is "Dog-E Coin"? I wonder if there are any other clues to how it should be pronounced...

Mo is gone out again, leaving the Ensure bottle for me to roll over on in the night. I've chucked it out the window and hope he has forgotten about it by time he returns. He can find it again, in the garden, in the morning. He's always bringing things to bed. He once brought a dead pigeon he had caught and was eating. I spoke to him very strongly about that incident, and so far we have not seen a repeat. When he hunts his own food I try to take it off him, but if you've ever seen a video of me trying to retrieve a Croc, you will realize that's more easily said than done. 

I think I will. I still have to get through this other book first. I'm just at about the 50% point. So with that goal in mind, I will listen to some Neil Young (Old Man) and read. Young was a much better man back when he penned Ohio than when he withdrew his music from Spotify because he was upset by something someone said.

And speaking of Ohio, I discovered only very recently that Chrissie Hynde (of The Pretenders, whose music I am a fan of) was a student at Kent State at the time and an eyewitness to at least part of the event that fateful day. 

Anyway, I'm going to read and then take a nap. 

Chrissie Hynde is from Akron, Ohio, about half an hour's drive from Kent.  I believe she actually knew one of the victims at Kent State who was dating a friend of hers.  Her song, My City was Gone, is about Akron.  I live in the area and she's always been a favorite.  Great voice.

I also have a furry son who has brought me gifts in bed.  Once, he discovered a nest of baby bunnies in the yard who had apparently not survived their birth (he was still a pup himself and I don't think he could've killed them all).  I ended up finding not 1, not  2, but SIX baby bunnies indoors including one that he brought to bed with him.  I still have nightmares... It was like the scene from the Godfather with the horse' head.

[Netfoot]

2 hours ago, Notabug said:

Chrissie Hynde is from Akron, Ohio, about half an hour's drive from Kent...

I only recently found out any of this stuff about her. I've been a fan for many years, but was oblivious about her early years. 

2 hours ago, Notabug said:

I also have a furry son who has brought me gifts in bed.

I believe our furry children are inherently generous. Buddy used to catch mice and leave them for me to find. His preferred place was on the tiles in the passage, where they were difficult to see, so you usually discovered them when you stood on them.

They are sweet creatures and they mean well and act from love, but sometimes, yeeeech!!

[Netfoot]

Not a bad day. Speech mostly normal, only the occasional cartoonish quality crept in. Tongue able to move around pretty normally. No trouble chewing or swallowing lunch or dinner but the pills just don't like to roll over the edge and fall down into the abyss. I have to wash them down with a glug of water and then grunt/cough to "burp" out a little air. 

Did some paperwork and watched some movies. Now, after a good, hot shower I am abed. Mo was here a short while ago, jumping up and down on me and chewing my hand. Basically challenging me to tweak his nose and ears while he defends himself. Of course he cheats. I said that he used the paw to move you, but more accurately, he uses the paw to control your movement. This evening, the paw was used to make sure I lost the game by preventing me from moving my arm. 

Anyway, he has gone off out now.

Listening to Sing by Travis. I know absolutely nothing about this band, but some of their tunes are entertaining. This album is called The Invisible Band. And here comes Sir Duke, from Songs In The Key Of Life by Stevie Wonder. A great album by a great artist but in my opinion not as good as Innervisions and Talking Book. I believe his years begin with Innervisions (maybe a little earlier with Signed, Sealed & Delivered) and end with Secret Life Of Plants. This is not at all to say that his other albums aren't well worth a listen!

Quiet day, so very little to report. I still have a book to finish before I get started on the Reacher novel. So I will get to it and truly to get through a chapter or two. Some authors write a book with 50+ page chapters. This is annoying because it means if I start to read a chapter I may have to put the book down halfway through the chapter and get some sleep. I don't like to do this. Chapters are often broken into smaller units separated by a couple lines of whitespace and possibly a row of three splats or something like that. I don't know what to call these. Sections? Sub-chapters? Scenes? Anyway, you can stop reading at one of these, but the end of a chapter is best. 

Well, it's an hour til midnight so I'd better get going on this book and see how far I can get before the lights have to go off.

[Netfoot]

A few days ago I posted a photo of Mo's face, showing two pink spots on his upper lip where he had been poking his nose somewhere it didn't belong.

Here he is, clambering up into my lap to demand some of my lunch. You can see that his cute little physiog bears no sign of the pink spots.

He's rubbed his nose bear bare before. It never remains pink for long. Good thing too. Wouldn't want a face this cute to be marred, now would you?

Edited December 6, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Didn't get much sleep last night. But at least the morning got off to a familiar start...

Really missing my morning cuppa.

[Netfoot]

I recently mentioned why I try not to over-fill Mo's water bowl. Here is a short video which shows why I prefer to fill his bowl only partially and refill it often.

Everything was fine yesterday evening and we went out first thing this morning. But on return home this afternoon... Well, seeing is believing.

[andidante]

3 hours ago, Netfoot said:

I recently mentioned why I try not to over-fill Mo's water bowl. Here is a short video which shows why I prefer to fill his bowl only partially and refill it often.

Everything was fine yesterday evening and we went out first thing this morning. But on return home this afternoon... Well, seeing is believing.

What are those???

[Spunkygal]

48 minutes ago, andidante said:

What are those???

I don’t think I want to know! 😳

[Browncoat]

They look like mosquito larvae to me.

[Netfoot]

1 hour ago, Browncoat said:

They look like mosquito larvae to me.

That's exactly what they are. It doesn't take long for them to develop. Don't like the idea of Mo drinking water with them in, so I refresh the bowl often. Another way to prevent them is to disturb the water so it does not lie still. Putting the bowl under a drippy yard tap will do it, but I don't have a drippy tap and besides, water is a resource not to he wasted.

The rain, I explain, is hammering down again! We had a roaring downpour shortly after we got home this afternoon, then again while I was eating dinner. It was so loud I had to stop watching a show because I couldn't hear the sound track. 

for lunch, I made fry bread with all-purpose wheat flour, corn flour, and baking powder. With salt, garlic powder and paprika. I was going to add some oil but forgot. Mixed that up and rolled out a couple flat disks for frying in the pan. Saved the remaining dough. For dinner I made some Ugh! soup (which actually wasn't Ugh! at all), cooked myself one more piece of fry bread and mixed a glass of lime squash.

The soup consisted of a tin of mixed vegetables (carrot, corn, peas & string beans) plus a double handful of field peas and a small bit of corned beef, run through the blender and brought to the boil on the stove. The tinned vegetables are the Ugh! part (I hate tinned, mixed vegetables) but the soup wasn't actually half bad. I prefer soup with bits in it and if I'd thought about it before I would have cut up a potato and boiled that first, then added the pieces of potato to the mix after blending, but I wasn't thinking and just suddenly rushed into the kitchen to make soup and threw in whatever I could find. 

Shortly after the soup was finished (Mo took a tax on the soup and an even heftier tax on the fry-bread) the rain came howling down again so when it abated we did our Garden Patrol in haste and got back under cover ASAP in case it decided to come down again. So far it hasn't, but the breeze in the window is cool and damp and I have the sash up just enough to let the cool breeze in, let Mo's nose out, and be easily reachable in case I need to slam it down later.

Listening to Waitress by Live. I mentioned this album (Throwing Copper) only a few days ago. If you are not familiar with the band, this is the album to make your acquaintance with. 

A little person just just did a side-flop onto my arm and nearly ended up flinging the phone into the floor! It's already taken a couple of nasty falls and has some ugly damage. There is a big chunk of glass missing out of the back of the phone and I'd you look in the hole that remains you can clearly see copper traces and other circuitry. Another excursion to the concrete and I doubt it will survive, and of course, there is no likelihood of my getting a replacement. 

Mo and I went job-hunting again today. Things are tough. Nobody is hiring and many if not most don't even want to see your CV or get you to fill out an application. We were at it for over 6 hours with nothing to show for our time. The only people we found that were looking for workers wanted temporary porters to work in their warehouse during the Christmas period. I would have taken the job, but the HR lady I spoke to said they wanted staff that were capable of lifting heavy boxes and cartons.

Anyway, we came home tired and discouraged. And that's when I discovered Mo's bowl full of mosquito larvae. Probably Aedes aegypti, which are common around here and carry everything from Dengue to Yellow fever and a bunch of nasty stuff in between. Now, Mo can't can't catch anything by drinking the water but I obviously don't like to think of that.

He's here with me now, lying beside me completely catspraddled (should that be dogspraddled?), looking for tummy rubs. And getting some, too.

Anyway, I will do some reading now. There is more dough in the fridge and I just may make it into dumplings tomorrow. Maybe I can cook up some dumplings and carrots and potato and have it with bully beef stew.

Time to read my book!

Edited December 7, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

I think that I might soon need a new flame spreader / heat diffuser for the kitchen stove.

[Netfoot]

Went out today and spent some money that wasn't actually mine to spend... But that's another story. I bought some bully beef, cheese, tinned pigeon peas, onions, a large lot of pasta (Bucatini and cavatappi) and a box of 100 tea bags. The one thing there wasn't to be found, was chow for Mo. 

Tomorrow morning, I go to Dr. Kristi for a prescription for all my meds. I'm very pleased to say that we've discovered that Pyridostigmine (generic Mestinon) may be on the drug service. I sure hope it is, because I sure can't afford to buy the stuff at $10+ per day. 

Sorry to report that today hasn't been a good day. Moderate difficulty eating and very distorted speech, all worsening as the day progressed. I have been recalling / refreshing my understanding of the condition since last time I was in its grip.

At the heart of the issue is that my immune system attacks and damages my nerve synapses, reducing their ability to produce neurotransmitter molecules. Without sufficient neurotransmitters the brain's signals do not reach the muscles with sufficient force/intensity, if at all. 

At night while sleeping, the synapses continue to make neurotransmitters (albeit at a reduced rate) while the muscles are not being used as much. Therefore the neurotransmitters accumulate, so when you wake up in the morning, there are plenty of them available in your system and the body acts reasonably normally. But as the day progressed and you use them up, they are not replaced rapidly enough and the shortage manifests itself as a gradually worsening of control. 

In short, the symptoms worsen as the day progressed. And I imagine that the more active you are, the faster things go downhill.

At least my hands and feet still work normally. Last time I lost control of my fingers and I had difficulty with my right (I think) foot drooping. Not to.mention being unable to hold up my own head.

To make matters worse, the side effects of the drugs are coming on strong. I can't walk a straight line and keep bumping into things and staggering wildly as if I'm as salt as a sailor. I've avoided falling down so far, but soon, I expect. I suppose it won't be long before I lose my sense of taste.

Fortunately, that last has not happened as yet because my dinner tasted great! Far better than I expected! I started by boiling some field peas until they went fairly mushy. Meanwhile I sliced a couple small onions into rings with the mandolin and set them to soften. A little corned beef went into the pan after a while and when the peas were ready I put them in as well, added extra water to the now empty pot and set a potato to boil after cutting it into bite-sized pieces. When the potato bites were soft, they joined the other ingredients in the pan and some of the dough from yesterday came out of the fridge to make dumplings. These were boiled and eventually went into the pan as well, along with garlic powder, pepper sauce, and cilantro. After a short time with the flavours melding together, I served them with red butter melting over the top, and a tall glass of lime squash to help it down. It was grand!

While cooking there were some accidents with the dumplings. I would roll out a snake of dough and with a knife I'd whack! whack! whack! It into dumpling sized pieces and scoop them up into the boiling water. Half a dozen went into the floor and Mo refused to eat them. So I rolled them out long and thin and flung them in the pot. Being very different in appearance, these were easy to avoid while eating so when I put the plate down on the floor Mo got to eat his own rejects! Mind you - they were cooked at this stage, so...

He was here with me a while ago, chewing my hand and generally showing his love in his own way. But he's gone off now.

I love my boy but he is a very annoying passenger in the car. He insists on barking very loudly and shrilly, directly into my left ear. He does also stick his head out of the window and bark at anyone he sees. People in the car in the next lane, pedestrians, etc. And they never expect it. He surprised some poor man this afternoon to such a degree he nearly fell off his bicycle! He doesn't do an I-want-to-eat-you! type of a bark. It's a Look-at-me-in-the-car-out-to-see-the-world-and-having-fun! bark. Here he comes now... and sticks his head out the window.

Elton John sings Goodbye Yellow Brick Road from the album of the same name. A great album with 7-8 top tracks. And now giving way to Gospel Plow by Screaming Trees from their album Dust. This album was not very popular but I just love it for some reason. It's got good tracks, particularly Halo Of Ashes as well as Dying Days. 

Anyway, going to read a while before locking up and switching to low-power mode. 

Edited December 8, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Good news! Pyridostigmine (generic Mestinon) is available at the pharmacy! Price? $313.20 which is 4¢ more than your actual Mestinon.

[Netfoot]

Not much accomplished today. Went round to collect a prescription from Dr. Kristi but didn't speak with her particularly, other than to exchange pleasantries. Along with the prescription, Dr. K. also gave me a letter of referral to QEH, to get an appointment to see a neurologist. So now I know what I will be doing for five hours on Monday. 

The Pyridostigmine  / Mestinon business came as a bit of a blow. That drug was a key part of treatment last time, and now I have to manage without it. The procedure is to take prednisolone, mestinon & azathioprine. The prednisolone gets the symptoms under control quickly. Mestinon makes those neurotransmitters last longer before dissipating, and the azathioprine suppresses the immune system. MG is after all, an auto-immune disease. The goal would be to titrate the prednisolone then the mestinon slowly down to nothing, then titrate the azathioprine down until I'm are taking just enough for it to be effective. I have no idea what options are available if the mestinon is not on the table.

Anyway, came home with a big bag of other meds, and made my lunch. It was a crazy idea but it worked out much better than I ever expected. There was plenty of room for improvement which I will include if I do this again. 

I took the remaining dough from the fridge, kneaded it a bit and rolled it out into a flat circle. I added a dollop of corned beef, folded over one side to make a semicircular patty, sealed the edge with a fork and pan fried it in oil. It was great! But here is what could have made it better:  I put too much corned beef in. It was trying to squirt out the sides as I ate it. I didn't seal the edge properly. I think maybe I should have wet the edges before trying to seal with the fork. The over-filled middle didn't help. I should have seasoned up the filling a bit. Plain corned beef was fine but a little mustard, ketchup, garlic powder, or seasonings of pretty much any sort could only have made it better. I might even have added a little piece of cheese. The dough was too thick. I should have rolled it thinner. The reason why it didn't was because thinner would have meant bigger and it wouldn't have fit in the pan. In hindsight I should have used a bigger pan or (more reasonably) made more than one patty. Two-day old fry-bread/dumpling dough was probably not best suited. I should look into a different dough recipe. Or at least make it fresh. Fillings other than bully beef are obviously doable. Shredded chicken (pre-cooked), would be something to try. Maybe even tuna fish. You could also go sweet, with PB & guava jelly filling, marmalade (with or without cheese), even raisins & sweetened cream cheese. Essentially, if it works in a sandwich it would probably work in one of these patty thingies.

So I will describe lunch as easy, tasty but with plenty of potential for improvement. 

Dinner, by contrast, was Eclipse biscuits with more bully beef. Simple and quick, a drop of pepper sauce to spike the flavour profile a bit. And a cuppa tea to wash it down. The new teabags are cheaper than the ones I was using before. $10 for 100 as opposed to $12 for 80. But the tea isn't as strong so I have to let them steep and draw for longer. This results in the tea being cooler when it's ready to drink. Now, I'm not a stickler like my dad used to be. He would drink five 20 oz. mugs of tea a day and the tea had to be boiling! I only have an 18 oz. mug and I don't generally have as many as five cups a day. Nor do I insist it be boiling. But I do like it hot! I could compensate by using two bags at once but that would defeat the purpose of buying budget teabags in the first place.

It's My Party by Lesley Gore from her album I'll Cry If I Want To. By no means a fan of the artist, this song of teenage misery & angst does stand out as a bit of a classic from it's time. I think most of us can relate to the pain of having teenage love dashed by some unfeeling crush. I, being a sensitive soul have similar memories from long after my teenage years. 

So here we are again on a Friday night. I've set the alarm for 5:00 and will peep out from under the cover and make my decision then. I have a couple of bux and I could use some veggies. Pak choy? Cucumbers? White cabbage? Maybe even a breadfruit? So a trip to Brighton would be an opportunity to improve my victuals for a while. But like I said, I will decide when the alarm goes off.

Mo is here, alternating between peering out the window and wriggling around on his back demanding tummy rubs.... Now he's gone dashing out from the window and through the door. He will be back before long. I still need to take a shower before locking up and grabbing some shut-eye. And I also want to read a couple of chapters if possible. So I'll start that now. 

[Schnickelfritz]

1 hour ago, Netfoot said:

It's My Party by Lesley Gore from her album I'll Cry If I Want To.

But the burning question is did you follow it up with its sequel from the same album, Judy's Turn to Cry?

[Netfoot]

4 hours ago, Schnickelfritz said:

But the burning question is did you follow it up with its sequel from the same album, Judy's Turn to Cry?

LOL!

No, but I'm listening to it right now.

[Netfoot]

Crawled out of bed at 5:00 and headed off to Brighton Market. It was not a good morning. Speech very slurred and hard to understand. Mouth filling with saliva which I could not swallow nor spits out. Left eyelid drooping badly, very painful. Epiglottis is doing a number on me for just trying to breathe.

Went to speak to Austin whose wife & daughter in law have a tent, but they weren't there today! Did get to speak with screw a few other friends. If "speak" is an accurate description of the grunting & spluttering I was able to produce. And then Austin did show up! So I guess there was that win. 

Bought three heads of pak choy, half a white cabbage, five small cucumbers and two plantains. No breadfruit to be had, alas. 

Headed home with my veggies but the riding rising sun was causing quite some burning in my eyes and plenty of tears. Drove very slowly and made it home safely. 

Took my breakfast meds and things seem to have slightly improved since then. I think in future, I will not leave the house without taking my meds, no matter how early I'm on the move.

Now I have to figure out what to cook. Soup (stew) with potato, carrot, cucumber, pak choy, plantain, and some stew-beef. I'm thinking it would be nice to have some dumplings as well, but I have no more dough, do I'd have to start by making some of that. I could also include some of the field peas I still have in the fridge. But If I'm going to go to all that trouble, I will make a pot big enough to provide several meals, not just one.

Problem is, since I've come home I only want to put my head down and sleep.

Edited December 9, 2023 by Netfoot

[Spunkygal]

It’s been a while since you and Mo have been to the club. It would do you both good to go out there for a bit. Get some of your mates to join you.

[Netfoot]

1 hour ago, Spunkygal said:

It’s been a while since you and Mo have been to the club. It would do you both good to go out there for a bit. Get some of your mates to join you.

You're right. I have to try and pick a day when more friends will show up than less.  I feel for Mo, who has not been out of the house for ages! (Not counting trips to the supermarket, etc, because he never gets out of the car. He goes and returns without his footies ever touching the ground.)

[Netfoot]

Ended up cooking rice for lunch. I included some black beans, carrot, pak choy, and stew beef.

I've had a tray of stew-cut beef in the freezer for 3-4 months now and s day or so, I took out five cubes and left them in the fridge to thaw. Today I cut them into.muvh smaller pieces and included them in the rice. It was really cheap, low-cost beef. As I was cutting I gave Mo all the bits that were all fat or gristle and he made bank. More than half the beef went to him! The rice came out great with only salt and garlic powder for seasoning. While it was cooking I boiled up a segmented plantain and when both were ready, I served them together in one bowl. I keep buying plantains as 8fvinsm unaware that I don't have a working microwave any more. A microwave is the easiest and fastest way to cook a plantain, although other ways can be extremely tasty (like cut into thick rashers, shallow fried and dusted with brown sugar & cinnamon). 

As I said the rice tasted great but the small pieces of beef were tough as old boot. And my mouth, which had been refusing to speak properly all morning, also refuses to chew and swallow at lunchtime. Anyway, I got most of it down the hatch and the bowl with the last pot-spoon still on board, went down on the floor for my Official Taster to work on.

After lunch I decided to take a nap. But I never did get much in the way of sleep. Instead o finished my book. This means I've got the Jack Reacher book Bad Luck And Trouble to start on tonight. I think the S2 premiere sirs in Friday, which gives me most of a week to work on the nivel before the show starts.

I'm listening to Mambo Sun by glam-rock band T.Rex. I recall very well the morning when news broke that front man Marc Bolan had been killed in an automobile accident the night before. Despite a fear of cars and never having learned to drive himself, Bolan owned several cars. The night he was killed he was travelling with his girlfriend and band-mate in her car. Returning from a night out and both pissed as farts, she wrapped the car around a tree and Nolan was killed instantly. The car was a Mimi, but not the classic 850 like mine. It was a Clubman 1275GT which was about 50% faster. Bolan's fear of dying before he reached 30 came true, as he died two weeks before his 30th birthday. At the time there were a number of gruesome jokes made about the incident, for some reason. One went like this:

Did you hear that Marc Bolan was on the radio last night? It's true. And the dashboard. And the speedometer. And the glove box. And the rear view mirror....

Dinner was English (for a change) cheddar and thin slices of cucumber on Eclipse biscuits. Unfortunately, my mouth still wasn't cooperating so I didn't eat too many, and Mo was there to help me the whole time. Also have had trouble drinking tea. I take a swig of the stuff but then I have to throw my head back and let it run down on its own, like I'm some sort of goose. 

I watched A Quiet Place this afternoon and then followed up with AQP2. I enjoyed them well enough, but I do think the script was a little hard to swallow. The action takes place about 1½ years after the arrival of the lethal aliens and I just find it hard to accept that the remnants of humanity are content to hide and hope. I believe those aliens would long be hunted, lured into ambushes and destroyed. I doubt it would take 1½ years to get this process started, as the film indicates. I have to console myself with the thought that the setting is semi-rural and maybe in other areas this has been going on for some time.

Mo (who I found curled up on the bed late this afternoon, sleeping like a baby) has just joined me. He's polishing his nuts. In a little while he will want to give me kisses. No, he's gone out again. 

When he returns, I'll go lock up and then start on my book. And speak of the devil...

Edited December 10, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

He's relentless! 

I had to recover them three times yesterday. I wonder how many more times today?

[Netfoot]

In bed a little early tonight. Reasons by Earth, Wind & Fire on the gramaphone. Going to try QEH tomorrow for an appointment to see a neurologist. Last two visits took 4:50 and I'm not expecting any less tomorrow. Hence, early to bed. 

Speech today was not too garbled, and I ate my lunch (Bucatini, tuna, onion & pak choy) without too much trouble. But neither speech nor chewing/swallowing were 100% perfect. Drinking required I use the goosey method of throwing my head back and letting the liquid gravity-feed.

For dinner I had an apple and two bananas. Mo always gets the apple core and since he asked I bit of a piece of banana and gave it to him. He rushed outside with it, but was soon back for more. Of the two bananas I'd guess he took a quarter, maybe a tad more. 

So you can guess how annoyed I was, when during Garden Patrol, I spotted all the pieces of banana lying on the driveway near the gate! I had saved back a packet of four Teatime biscuits for a bedtime snack and I was sorely tempted to give him none! But in the end he got a good sized piece (not ½ but only a little bit less) of each biscuit. I'm quite hungry but I'm not in the mood to muck around in the kitchen making something to eat, only to find that it doesn't want to be eaten!

Not that the ABC dinner (apple, banana, cookie) gave a lot of trouble, but the way luck works for me these days is that success is inversely proportional to effort. If you peel a banana, you may be lucky enough to get it down without drama. And if not, you've lost 20 seconds and a banana. But if you make something more elaborate and time consuming, chance of success diminishes and the loss when you do fail and have to bin it all is more significant. 

Also having a little trouble with my left eye. It is burning, weeping and was very affected by the sun when I went out this afternoon. 

Fortunately, no signs of foot droop or uncontrollable fingers like the first time. Not yet, anyhow. But the side effects of the meds are well kicking in. Always hungry (ironic, when you have trouble eating) and unable to walk in a straight line. Wobbling all over the house, literally bouncing off the walls. I remember last time I was changing a light bulb and woke up on the floor with Buddy licking my face. I have no idea how I got from up on a high stool to horizontal, on the tiles. Felt nothing then or later.

My hands are developing the shakes, though. Yesterday (was it?) When I was eating crackers with cheese they were shaking so bad the cheese kept flying off the cracker.

Assuming I do get an appointment to see the neurologist, anyone care to take a guess when the appointment will be? Schedules may vary for neurology and urology depending on demand. The last appointment made on 6-NOV was for 4-MAR or just about 4 months exactly. Tomorrow will be 11-DEC and I'm guessing 17-APR or about 4 months again. I'm hoping I'm wildly overestimating, but I doubt that I am. 

Anyway, we will find out tomorrow. I have gathered a few snacks and will take a bottle of ice from the freezer and my Reacher novel which I got started on last night. I wish I could take something to sit on. I sing this lament from time to time. I really should have built myself a folding stool using the same design as my folding table. 

Mo is here at the foot of the bed. He was chewing my toes earlier but now he is just dozing. The door is still open so he can come & go as he likes. Uh-oh! He is now peering at my Crocs, which I have put up off the floor. He walks away. But he can get them if he wants. He usually pinches them between when I open the door at first light and when I later get back out of bed. I have to venture out barefoot to retrieve them and then squelch around in them for the next couple of hours because they are full of rainwater. 

Anyway, I'm going to read a little and then lock up, lights out and lay down my head. 

Edited December 11, 2023 by Netfoot

[Spunkygal]

Sending good wishes for your visit to QEH tomorrow. I hope you get an appointment before August. I have a recipe for homemade dog treats that you bake In the oven and it calls for mashed banana. I think also whole wheat flour and applesauce. I’ll have to dig it out. I know that Honey loved it and I used to gift it to the neighbors dogs at Christmas. I’m surprised that naughty Mo wasted banana slices. Have you heard from Heidi lately?

[Netfoot]

3 hours ago, Spunkygal said:

I have a recipe for homemade dog treats that you bake In the oven and it calls for mashed banana.

I would happily make treats for him. He is usually so keen to eat anything that comes his way, I'm surprised he didn't go for the banana. When prepping food in the kitchen he demands slices of raw cucumber, carrot, even potato, and eats everything with gusto. He eats pieces of pak choy stems, slivers of white cabbage... Of course, any type of meat like the raw skin and bones (which are allowed, apparently) from chicken, slivers of bully beef, fat or gristle off-cuts... Anything. I have to prevent him from eating vegetable peelings by hastily snatching up any such that fall to the ground. And he has a sweet tooth which I have to be careful not to over indulge. I just can't imagine why he didn't eat the banana!

3 hours ago, Spunkygal said:

Have you heard from Heidi lately?

We exchange WhatsApp messages fairly regularly but I have not seen her or spoken to her for weeks. I sent her a voice message via WhatsApp when my voice first when Elmer/Daffy so she would know what I sounded like. 

Every few days I get a "How are you doing?" And we swap messages back & forth for an hour. Then we go quiet for a few days before repeating. 

I actually exchange WhatsApp messages with Dr. Kristi more often. We don't usually chat much, but I send her photos of Mo fairly frequently. She is, after all, his godmother. And naturally we exchange pleasantries along with the puppy photos. 

[Netfoot]

It's 10:27 and I finally made it to QEH. (I slept poorly and got a late start. Mo stole my shoes, the traffic was heavy, there were three accidents causing road blocks on the way and the parking lot was full, so I had to park at some distance and walk.)

I pulled #43 and they are serving #17 so I may get through more quickly than expected! But life may find a way to dash my hopes yet. 

The flower bed where I sat last time (which is completely devoid of flowers as is the norm) has been "decorated" with plastic holly and twinkly lights, so a dozen people who might have found a place to sit must now stand.

But not me! I walked in just as someone exited their seat and I grabbed it for myself. I can not see the number that is being served from here - and the display is still faulty so the numbers are difficult to interpret in any case - but I think I'm ahead today. I might actually get this done in less than the 4:50 that it has generally taken me in the past. 

Battery is 90% so I will post periodic updates as to progress - or lack there of - as time goes by. 

The guy in the seat next to me has rolled himself into a ball liked an armadillo and is fast asleep. I've never seen anyone roll up quite so perfectly before in my life. I'm not sure he is actually here to see anyone. Maybe he just lives here.

Whoops! He just unrolled enough to stick a head out and I am now of the opinion that "he" is a girl!

Edited December 11, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

#39 and it's only 11:51!

I've moved to a seat that allows me to see the scoreboard so I don't have to keep getting up every few minutes. 

Just gone to #40! Wooo!

[Netfoot]

12:09 and I'm out! Going home to spend the afternoon with Mo! Providing my van has not been vandalized...

More later.

[Netfoot]

Ok, so my number was called after an incredibly short 1:42 according to my arithmetic. I got an appointent appointment card... but no actual appointment. 

I was told that Dr. Jacinto personally decides on who they will see, and when. They will then tell the records department who will call me to give me a date & time. I gave the clerk the letter from Dr. Kristi which I did not read since it was in a sealed envelope, but I did glimpse that Dr. K. asked for the case to be given URGENT attention (her emphasis, not mine). Perhaps this means I will find myself seeing the doctor sooner than my original guestimate of 17-APR. But who knows?

Remember also that the Urologist I saw about the kidney on 15-MAY this year also promised to get back to me on the phone with a date & time. But when I called him six months later to ask him what was taking so long, he swore that I was lying and that he never promised no such thing and would never do such a thing.  As a result I will be seeing him on 4-MAR next year for us to start again where we were on 15-MAY, after wasting 10 months of precious time. So the promise from Dr. Jacinto that I will get a call with a date & time for an appointment just might be more smoke being blown up my arse. But hopefully not.

On the way home I bought bread (and some belly pumpkin - see below), made three sandwiches for lunch. Would have made & eaten four because I was hungry (steroids?) but my mouth wasn't working properly so eating was difficult. Gave up on it and Mo got most of the last sandwich as well as his usual tax on the others. Mo tax is quite high on things he really enjoys. Maybe I should refer to it a Mo-nomics. It is no more or less arbitrary than other tax regimes I've known. 

I now have the following items that I might pout put into a soup/stew: Potatoes, carrots, cucumber, onion, pumpkin, pak choy, field peas, and (if I bother to make them) dumplings. To which I can add a small tin or part thereof, of bully beef for some meaty flavour. Season with a few spices and voila! Or forgo the dumplings and make fry-bread which I can have on the side for sipping dipping and making fishes. Or forget that idea entirely and be satisfied with the eight other ingredients. Being lazy, I will prolly do that. If I do anything at all, since it's pointless making a nice, hot soup if you can't swallow it. 

Think I will go to bed. May read, may nap, may do both, but hopefully not at the same time. 

Didn't sleep that well last night and alllmost didn't go to QEH this morning. Glad I dragged myself out of the house and got it done. If I hadn't, I would still have it to do tomorrow. 

Now, I am going to bed.

Edited December 12, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Just back from Garden Patrol. Shoes recovered: Two. Plus one from this morning makes three for the day. Red light still flashing up the utility pole. 

Woke from my afternoon nap wondering what time - and day - it was 7:00 PM so I imagine I will have trouble getting off to sleep tonight. But I needed some kip. Didn't get much last night.

Telekon by Gary Numan. He released two albums as front man for Tubeway Army before embarking on a solo career spanning decades and producing a couple dozen more albums. I have both the Tubeway Army disks and about 20 of his solo efforts. 

Numan is also an aviation enthusiast, having owned several aircraft over the years. Last I heard he had acquired a Harvard T6 (British variant of the venerable T6 Texan) and painted it to resemble the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, which it greatly resembles. (Most Zeros seen on film are actually Texans made up to play the part due to the very small number of surviving Zeros.) Numan obtained his display pilot's license and has performed aerobatic displays for the public along with other Harvards. If you're interested, you can do a YT search for "The Radial Pair", a flying duo he formed with another Harvard pilot & friend. The name comes from the large radial engines used by the Harvard/Texan.

My nap ending so late, I didn't make any soup,  but went with sandwiches again. Still not much success. I cooked my last couple eggs to go in the sandwiches but ended up just eating the egg. With plenty of help from Mo, of course. Mo likes egg. Mo likes most things.

On the advice of Dr. Kristi, I check my blood sugar every 2-3 days. Last two times the numbers were very low; 3.7 and 3.9 mmol/L. I will test again in a couple days and if it remains low I will have to do something. What exactly, I don't know. I'm already drinking my tea very sweet and ditto if I make lime squash.

What's that stuck to the side of his nosie?

Just a little piece of a leaf, picked up in the yard, I imagine. He is a welcome hot water bottle against my tummy right now even if he is bogarting a pillow, because I have a bellyache.

I had considered the possibility of finishing my Jack Reacher book while still waiting at QEH. But given how short a time I had to wait* I'm still only a hair past halfway. So I will read some more of that now. It's after midnight and not feeling sleepy but maybe a couple chapters will allow me to lock up, douse the lights and zonk.

* Stop and think what it means that 1¾ hours is a short time to wait to make an appointment to see a doctor.

Edited December 12, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

It's a quarter to two in the morning and I'm only just getting to bed. We had our Garden Patrol hours ago. I'm showered, the doors are locked, Crocodile Rock by Elton John is playing and Mo is rolling around on the foot of the bed like it's a dead frog. (Checks...) No, no dead frog is actually present.

I have some good news, so a little apparently quite a lot of background. Barbados has universal free health care via the QEH and a series of polyclinics distributed around the island. If you've been following my recent QEH adventures you will know that the system has its drawbacks. The drug service also distributes medication free to those with a suitable prescription but not all drugs are on the list. They don't have an unlimited budget, and there must always be funds left in the budget for the minister of health to steal for his own personal use. Drugs listed on "the formulary" can be obtained free from any pharmacy at QEH or a polyclinic. You used to be able to go to any pharmacy and get them free, because the pharmacy would submit the appropriate form to the drug service and get reimbursed for the drugs so distributed. But then a pharmacist I know too well (he's an asshole) insisted that they be allowed to charge a "dispensing fee" direct to the customer. This varies but $5 to $7 per item is usual. A huge improvement in many cases, over the regular price. Still, when you are on 10 different meds as I am now, that can mean $70 to pay. Or go to a polyclinic/QEH, where no dispensing fee is charged. 

Now, I've been put on Mestinon which is not on the formulary and costs $313.16 for a one month supply. I was told that a generic equivalent called Pyridostigmine was on the formulary, but when I went to the polyclinic I was told that it is no longer on the formulary and that they didn't have any anyway. I checked with another non-polyclinic pharmacy who said yes they had it and it would be $313.20, almost the same as brand name Mestinon. So I got (completely free from the polyclinic) all my other meds and bought two weeks supply of Mestinon.

This afternoon, I got a visit from Heidi. She told me that I should go to a different non-polyclinic pharmacy. They could sell me Pyridostigmine for $18 a month. They don't usually stock it but they could source it if I gave them a few days notice each month. Not only this news, but she (Heidi) had talked with Dr. Kristi and gotten a three month prescription in my name, which she had taken to the pharmacy and left it with them.

Now this is good news. $18 per month is a much better deal than $313 and even better than not taking the meds because I can't afford it. 

I can't understand how two pharmacies (one polyclinic and one private) told me that neither Mestinon nor Pyridostigmine were available for less than $313. And I don't know why Heidi continued to pursue the matter, but I'm very glad she did.

And I don't know why Heidi was fuming mad this morning when she spoke to me. She didn't say anything, but she was boiling hot and I don't know why. Was I at fault for not disbelieving two separate pharmacists who told me point blank that the stuff was not available on the formulary and that the over the counter price was $313? Was she mad because she had to ferret out a different set of facts? And go to Dr. Kristi to get a prescription? And drive it over to the pharmacy herself? I never asked her to do any of this. Obviously, I'm very glad she did, but if it was inconvenient for her, she needn't have. A simple WhatsApp saying "Go here, they have cheap Pyridostigmine" would have been fine. 

And I'm not sure she & Dr. K. should be conspiring behind my back. I could have gotten the prescription from Dr. K. myself. She has never refused to write one before. (Except for medical marijuana.) I didn't need Heidi to do that for me. Why would she do that, if only to get so mad about it she had steam coming out of her ears?

Anyway, I'm not touching that with a barge pole. I can get the meds I need, I thank her for finding that out and letting me know, and I'm going to leave it at that.

Took to my bed after lunch (cheese cutters) and finished my book. Then Mo & I took a nap.

Rose late again, retrieved a Croc from the yard, and made a pot of soup. I like my soup chunky so there are bits to chew on. But chewing can be troublesome these days so I boiled it a little long to make the veggies soft. I can get them slurped down with less chewing if necessary, or I can put the soup through the blender. Had a bowl for dinner and left 2-3 more bowls in the pot for tomorrow.

Ingredients: Field peas, carrots, potatoes, white cabbage, onions, pak choy, belly pumpkin, plantain and corned beef. I like to cook the plantain separately because I cook it in the skin which I peel off after it's cooked. But plantain peel stains the water brown and I don't want that in my soup. So I cook it separately and add it to the soup near the end. Spiced with garlic powder and red pepper flakes. 

I can tweak the soup by adding extra ingredients. Dumplings, for instance. Or channa, black beans, lentils... I could add some tomato sauce which would darken the broth and shift change the flavour a bit. I could thicken it with arrowroot flour or cornstarch. I could even buy some sweet potatoes or yams (no, they are not the same thing), eddoes, tanya, cassava and a list of vegetables and add. Broccoli. Peppers. Mushrooms. Etc.

But with the actual eating being such a pain, I don't see myself going to too much trouble to spruce this particular pot of soup up too much. 

And I have realized that the chewing and the swallowing are separate issues. If I have trouble with one, it does not follow I will have trouble with the other.

It's now only a few minutes to three in the morning and I'd better try and get some sleep, or I'll be watching the sun come up. 

A few months ago it was so hot here that I was suffering from incipient heatstroke several times a week. But it wasn't that long ago that I was wrapping myself from head to foot in warm garments to sleep, including socks on my feet, gloves on my hands and a buff completely covering my head. 

Sleep now. Blood sugar test in the morning. For once I'm looking for a higher value than recently. Something over 4.0, please. I don't want to have to go back to Dr. Kristi with low blood sugar issues. Not sure how that's happening anyway, seeing as I'm on 40mg of steroids daily.

Sleep!

Edited December 13, 2023 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

G'morning, everyone!

Blood sugar is 3.9 mmol/L again. 😕

Now, I'm going back to bed. 

Maybe I'll drink a cup of tea first. Very sweet tea.

[andidante]

7 hours ago, Netfoot said:

It's a quarter to two in the morning and I'm only just getting to bed. We had our Garden Patrol hours ago. I'm showered, the doors are locked, Crocodile Rock by Elton John is playing and Mo is rolling around on the foot of the bed like it's a dead frog. (Checks...) No, no dead frog is actually present.

I have some good news, so a little apparently quite a lot of background. Barbados has universal free health care via the QEH and a series of polyclinics distributed around the island. If you've been following my recent QEH adventures you will know that the system has its drawbacks. The drug service also distributes medication free to those with a suitable prescription but not all drugs are on the list. They don't have an unlimited budget, and there must always be funds left in the budget for the minister of health to steal for his own personal use. Drugs listed on "the formulary" can be obtained free from any pharmacy at QEH or a polyclinic. You used to be able to go to any pharmacy and get them free, because the pharmacy would submit the appropriate form to the drug service and get reimbursed for the drugs so distributed. But then a pharmacist I know too well (he's an asshole) insisted that they be allowed to charge a "dispensing fee" direct to the customer. This varies but $5 to $7 per item is usual. A huge improvement in many cases, over the regular price. Still, when you are on 10 different meds as I am now, that can mean $70 to pay. Or go to a polyclinic/QEH, where no dispensing fee is charged. 

Now, I've been put on Mestinon which is not on the formulary and costs $313.16 for a one month supply. I was told that a generic equivalent called Pyridostigmine was on the formulary, but when I went to the polyclinic I was told that it is no longer on the formulary and that they didn't have any anyway. I checked with another non-polyclinic pharmacy who said yes they had it and it would be $313.20, almost the same as brand name Mestinon. So I got (completely free from the polyclinic) all my other meds and bought two weeks supply of Mestinon.

This afternoon, I got a visit from Heidi. She told me that I should go to a different non-polyclinic pharmacy. They could sell me Pyridostigmine for $18 a month. They don't usually stock it but they could source it if I gave them a few days notice each month. Not only this news, but she (Heidi) had talked with Dr. Kristi and gotten a three month prescription in my name, which she had taken to the pharmacy and left it with them.

Now this is good news. $18 per month is a much better deal than $313 and even better than not taking the meds because I can't afford it. 

I can't understand how two pharmacies (one polyclinic and one private) told me that neither Mestinon nor Pyridostigmine were available for less than $313. And I don't know why Heidi continued to pursue the matter, but I'm very glad she did.

And I don't know why Heidi was fuming mad this morning when she spoke to me. She didn't say anything, but she was boiling hot and I don't know why. Was I at fault for not disbelieving two separate pharmacists who told me point blank that the stuff was not available on the formulary and that the over the counter price was $313? Was she mad because she had to ferret out a different set of facts? And go to Dr. Kristi to get a prescription? And drive it over to the pharmacy herself? I never asked her to do any of this. Obviously, I'm very glad she did, but if it was inconvenient for her, she needn't have. A simple WhatsApp saying "Go here, they have cheap Pyridostigmine" would have been fine. 

And I'm not sure she & Dr. K. should be conspiring behind my back. I could have gotten the prescription from Dr. K. myself. She has never refused to write one before. (Except for medical marijuana.) I didn't need Heidi to do that for me. Why would she do that, if only to get so mad about it she had steam coming out of her ears?

Anyway, I'm not touching that with a barge pole. I can get the meds I need, I thank her for finding that out and letting me know, and I'm going to leave it at that.

Took to my bed after lunch (cheese cutters) and finished my book. Then Mo & I took a nap.

 

 

 

Maybe she is just mad at the situation and not actually mad at you? I am glad she was able to help you though and I think Dr. K just wants to help too!

[Netfoot]

1 hour ago, andidante said:

I am glad she was able to help you though and I think Dr. K just wants to help too!

Believe me, I am very glad for the help. And I don't have any negative feelings about her & Dr. Kristi doing a prescription thing to help. I think she was already visiting Dr. K. and took the opportunity to get the prescription. I have complete faith in the two of them that they are acting in my best interest as they see it. I do feel that a a message saying "Just got a prescription for you from Dr. K. and will drop it at the pharmacy" would not have been inappropriate.

Just collected 58 tablets from the pharmacy, 32 more owed and will be available  for pickup next week. Price $16.32 so even cheaper than the $18 dollars I was told!

Now going to heat up some soup for lunch. Mo will get some fried pig's ears as a treat, along with his regular chow. The little shoe-thief doesn't deserve them! But he will get them anyway. 

He has broken the bolt on my front door. When the door is closed he body-slams it to try and get out before coming to wake me up. I will have to take it off and try to replace it. I wonder what it will cost?

[Spunkygal]

3 hours ago, andidante said:

Maybe she is just mad at the situation and not actually mad at you? I am glad she was able to help you though and I think Dr. K just wants to help too!

This is exactly what I think. I think she’s furious, as we are, that you are being screwed around with getting/affording the meds you need and the long wait for QEH appointments. I say Bravo to Heidi for being an advocate for you. 

[Netfoot]

My front door (side door, really) has a lock that Mo can open. He throws himself  vigorously and repeatedly at the door and eventually, the lock jiggles open and out he goes. I don't mind that he goes out, but he leaves the door open for burglars to get in. So to prevent him from opening the door in the dead of night, i use a small bolt located at the top of the door, about six inches above head height.

This morning when I went to let him out at around 5:00 AM, I couldn't get the door open. I eventually had to shoulder it hard myself, which got it open. Here is the bolt, removed from the door:

You can clearly see the end of the bolt housing which split open when I wellied the door this morning. And here is the split end of the bolt, with the pin extended into the "locked" position: What is not clear in this photo is the condition of that pin, which explains why I couldn't get it open this morning without applying the welly:

The pin has actually sheared off. When I pulled the bolt back to open it, the broken pin remained partially in the bolt and partially in the door frame, preventing the door from being opened.

Dismantling the pin and removing it from the bolt frame reveals that the pin had been cross-drilled before assembly:

There was no functional reason for cross-drilling the pin. I believe this was an error made during manufacture which they were conveniently able to conceal inside the bolt frame. It is clear that this cross-drilling removed at least half of the metal of the pin in that spot, weakening the pin to the point that a 36 lb. puppy was able to shear it cleanly in two.

I will have to take this bolt with me and try to find a replacement at the hardware store.

Edited December 13, 2023 by Netfoot

[Ancaster]

Hey Netfoot - I'm serious about sending you Marmite, and now tea.  No-one who grew up with the real thing should be reduced to the dust "foreigners" claim is tea!  What's your preferred poison?  Typhoo?  PG Tips?  As you know, the small things in life can make a big difference - like a decent cup of tea or puppy kisses.

Message me your address and I'll take care of it -- too late for Christmas I'm sure, but January's always a good time for presents, or February, or March, depending on how long customs takes to okay the weird package.  (If you think the Marmite won't make it, let me know.  I've had it checked out before because apparently it looks like dynamite on an xray machine!)

I would have messaged you (again!), but I'm making this public so everyone else can encourage you to accept the offer!  Plus, it would be a mitzvah to allow me to do this, so now you're under an obligation to accept!

Edited December 14, 2023 by Ancaster

[Spunkygal]

1 hour ago, Ancaster said:

Hey Netfoot - I'm serious about sending you Marmite, and now tea.  No-one who grew up with the real thing should be reduced to the dust "foreigners" claim is tea!  What's your preferred poison?  Typhoo?  PG Tips?  As you know, the small things in life can make a big difference - like a decent cup of tea or puppy kisses.

Message me your address and I'll take care of it -- too late for Christmas I'm sure, but January's always a good time for presents, or February, or March, depending on how long customs takes to okay the weird package.  (If you think the Marmite won't make it, let me know.  I've had it checked out before because apparently it looks like dynamite on an xray machine!)

I would have messaged you (again!), but I'm making this public so everyone else can encourage you to accept the offer!  Plus, it would be a mitzvah to allow me to do this, so now you're under an obligation to accept!

Yes, take Ancaster up on the offer! I am wondering….would it get thru customs faster if it were sent by Amazon rather than a person?  Or does it matter?

[Ancaster]

36 minutes ago, Spunkygal said:

Yes, take Ancaster up on the offer! I am wondering….would it get thru customs faster if it were sent by Amazon rather than a person?  Or does it matter?

Excellent point @Spunkygal.  @Netfoot Is Amazon available/reliable/secure by you?  What's the best way to get a package to you?  Perhaps I should just bring the tea in person, I'd love to visit the Bahamas! 😄

Edited December 14, 2023 by Ancaster