ProfessorTomoe

The kittens have been placed with another more experienced foster home as of tonight. Thank goodness, on behalf of both Mrs. Prof and myself. Cute as they may be, they consumed way too much of her time (she even admitted that) and interrupted her sleep to the point that she's going to probably crash out hard tonight. She's in the process of cleaning up the cage and feeding syringes. Our cat is going to be happy about this as well.

It was an initial consultation, so I don't think there's anything I can sue him over or any evidence I have in hand I can report him for. Fortunately, it was a final consultation as well, so I'm not going to be subjected to the possibility of sub-standard treatment from him.

Exactly. Mrs. Prof said he started doodling on his notepad halfway through my story. I'd say that's bad treatment, that others need to know about.

Quite. Now for one of mine. 3:27 p.m. CDT 20170620. As my left foot and big toe pain decreases, the constant pain in the right side of my back reasserts itself. My back pain has always been there—it's just been overshadowed by other things. Not anymore. It's been hurting like hell today. I can't tell if it goes all the way down to my foot, due to the compression stocking. That's covering a different source of pain that, once again, is overshadowing part of my radiating spinal pain. I took a moment today to research doctors on one of the online rating systems. My first back pain doctor got a 4½ star rating, surprisingly enough, but from an aggregate of only 9 reviews. The last one at UTSW got only 2 stars from 18 reviews. The one I asked to be referred to yesterday also has a 4½ star rating, but from 42 reviews. Looks like a substantial enough difference between him and the first doctor to give me hope that I'll get better treatment.

If Mrs. Prof has taken any pictures, she hasn't had time to post them or give any to me. Work, the kittens, and my doctors' appointments have consumed practically every moment of her life, in that order. The kittens are out of the house and at the Garland Pet Adoption Center, where someone can watch over them while she goes to her office today. They'll be back tonight (unless someone else agrees to foster them (I hope I hope I hope)). For the foreseeable future, the trail camera pics are therefore offline. Sorry.

Oh, man, don't foreshadow like this! What would EGS be like without Sarah? Say it ain't so!

Oops. Forgot I needed to eat and take my pills before getting sleep. I am ingesting @The Old Hack's Parmesan sausage on Lemongrass-Ginger Triscuits. Good stuff. Will be ingesting a shoebox full of pills with fly-free Crystal Light lemon tea after that. Not so good stuff, except for the fly-free tea.

6:56 a.m. CDT 20170620. Mrs. Prof is having tremendous difficulty putting my compression stocking on my right leg. Brief interruption: I just found a fly in my Crystal Light lemon tea. Mrs. Prof is fixing that situation now as well. Disgusting—I took a sip of that tea before spotting the fly. Back on topic. Mrs. Prof had to take two breaks in order to finish pulling on the stocking, and it's just a moderate compression (15-20 mmHg) stocking. This is only the third day she's had to mess with it, and I don't know how much longer she'll be able to handle it. I know for certain I can't put it on myself. This is going to be a difficult situation. As if we needed another one. (Case in point: I had to wait for her to feed the kittens before she'd put on my stocking.) And the hits just keep on coming. Remaining medical fnordage to deal with today: find (literally) and fill out the new patient questionnaire for the ENT doctor's appointment tomorrow. It'll probably take forever, as it always does, even with my "see attached" printouts. Very tired right now. Only got about five hours of sleep. Every time I'd wake up, Mrs. Prof would wake up and start feeding kittens. I'm going to require more sleep before I fill out the ENT paperwork. Good night.

5:21 p.m. CDT 20170619. I managed to shock a doctor today. My own primary care physician, no less. I told him the story of what happened to me over at UT Southwestern, including at their "Pain Clinic." He was absolutely stunned that anyone, much less THE premiere research medical hospital in the area, would want to use acupuncture and biofeedback on someone with my level of pain. Mrs. Prof, while looking up the name of the person we want me to be referred to, found a rating (1–5 stars) for the UTSW pain "doctor." It was two stars. The new person is rated at 4½ stars. Needless to say, my doctor agreed to the new referral. I shall not be returning to UT Southwestern. My PCP also looked at my right leg and agreed with the podiatrist's diagnosis of mild venous stasis. No need for Lasix this time around. Compression stockings will do. To wrap up for now, @The Old Hack: your gift of Parmesan-coated sausage arrived about 30 minutes ago! The picture and description were a bit deceptive—it showed a whole sausage, but they sent pre-sliced sausage—however, the amount they delivered was 4 ounces (113.4 grams), as advertised. (The description has since been updated.) The temperatures around here have been in the mid-90s (in the mid-30s in Celsius), so the frozen-paks were melted. The sausage is therefore chilling in the refrigerator until it comes down to a safer temperature (it's cured, so it's probably safe anyway). Regardless of all of the unusual aspects, I still appreciate your gift very much! I will be relaxing with some of it later tonight, as will Mrs. Prof as soon as she's finished a cycle of syringe-feeding the kittens.

I just wish I knew where to post that would get the board itself fixed.

8:38 a.m. CDT 20170619. Slept without the compression stocking. Foot and leg feel better since I slept with them elevated, but I've still got edema that you can poke dents into. Mrs. Prof was reluctant to put my stocking on, since I'm just going to have to take it off before my shower and put it back on before my PCP appointment, but I reminded her that the doctor is going to want to see it anyway and that I haven't had the compression for over 24 hours now. Stocking went on. See my entry in the "What are you ingesting" thread for what I wound up eating this morning around 5am. I think that has helped me feel a bit better. Still a bit of a headache, for which I just broke protocol and asked Mrs. Prof for ibuprofen. I've got a very late appointment on Wednesday with the ENT doctor: 4:20 p.m. CDT. We're going to have to leave very early, since there's only one way there and it's across a lake bridge that gets extremely congested starting at 3pm and ending around 6pm. I'm also going to have to fill out an encyclopedia of paperwork—again—before the appointment.

@HarJIT is the only one who's figured out how to get them going so far. Sigh. I think HarJIT's posting direct links to the emoji images from MaxCDN.

I have been ingesting over the course of several days a serving of Moo Shi Pork. The "pancakes" that came with it got used to wrap Greek salad burritos, since they're useless for containing their intended dish. Instead, I've been using flour tortillas. Works and tastes better, IMHO. I'm just glad I got extra hoisin sauce.

You have my sympathies and best wishes, as always. I hope things will steady down soon. Thank you. Item e-mailed to the doctor through the patient portal, using "venous stasis" instead of the red-flag-raising "edema." This is all taking place on the side where I've still got ankle hardware implanted, of course. The swelling is keeping me from feeling my hardware on the inner side of my leg. Painful to the touch.

Eep. That sounds scary. Very seconded. I would suggest strategically placed plush area rugs, for future such events.

2:23 p.m. CDT 20170618. Hoo boy, did we fark up. Both of us were very tired last night after the kitten reception and, being still unfamiliar with the compression stocking, left it on my leg overnight. Oww. I had to wait until Mrs. Prof woke up before I could get it removed. Oh, man, was it squeezed out of shape. And in pain, I should say. The foot outright hurt and the leg ached all the way up. Everything hurt for hours. I felt horrible overall. Mrs. Prof had me Googling all kinds of different results of wearing compression stockings for too long. Nothing explained my pain, except for the general advice never to wear them overnight. No kidding. It's been several hours since removal, and I still feel crappy. My leg doesn't ache as much and isn't as deformed as it was, but my foot and ankle are still puffed up. Neither of us understand why this is still going on. It's only a 15-20 compression stocking. (one of the lightest prescriptions (as compared to non-prescription) they make). I shouldn't feel worn out, but I do. One more thing to add to the primary doctor's appointment tomorrow. Sigh. Back to elevating my leg.

They are *very* demanding kittens. Hungry all the time. Feedings are noisy and messy affairs.

Twin Peaks: The Return did not get watched tonight. I passed out from exhaustion (and partly from frustration over the kittens—see the "Things that make you go WTF" thread). I'm full of pills now and will try to watch as much of the 24 Hours or Le Mans as I can before I pass out again.

Mrs. Prof nodded her head in acceptance. She has other things on her mind. Read on. Any time Mrs. Prof comes home and starts off her salutation with, "I know you're going to shoot me," I know it's not going to be a good day, or in this case, evening. I was advised that "we" have volunteered to foster two kittens who are still being bottle-fed. Without asking me, of course. After all of the "You're killing my job" and other complaints from the previous couple of weeks, I did not take the news well. I'm still not happy about it, but what the hell am I going to do? It was either this or euthanasia. Anyway, I made it very clear to the person who dropped them off that the situation was problematic, given my disabilities and injuries. She promised to try and find another foster family as quickly as possible. In the meantime, allow me to introduce you to Flannel (top, male) and Shoehorn (bottom, female): Our household cat is not happy with their presence. He has hissed at one of them, hissed at Mrs. Prof, and rejected their smell. I can only hope this is a short, short fostering period.

Meh. Too complicated for a smiley.

Ah. Oh, well, it's pill time anyway. Might as well do an update. 4:25 p.m. CDT 20170617. Very, very tired all day. The TV has been on the 24 Hours of Le Mans for all the hours that FS1 or FS2 has carried it. I haven't been able to stay awake to watch all those hours. Just awfully freaking tired, and my right leg/foot feels weird with this compression sock on. Someone on Scribophile offered to give me a source for "diabetic compression socks." I might take them up on the offer. Maybe. Depends on what Mrs. Prof says. Tried to have Chinese food for lunch. That's my go-to for when I feel like crap. Doesn't help much when they screw up things: no credit card slip, no hoisin sauce for the Moo Shi pork, wrappers ("pancakes") that fall apart before you can even pick them up. Even the appetizer (steamed dumplings) fell apart when I tried to eat them. No help whatsoever. Mrs. Prof has gone out to run many errands, including cat errands, grocery shopping errands, et cetera. She promises to bring home dinner, after which I've promised to watch an hour of Twin Peaks: The Return that I missed a couple of weeks ago. How I'm going to stay awake for it I don't know. I've also promised to watch last week's installment before this week's new installment tomorrow night. Lord, I need some stamina, and I'm at a loss as to where to get it.