ProfessorTomoe

Got up from my recliner a little while ago and almost fell over to my left when I tried to put pressure on my left leg. My left knee - the one with the replacement joint - damn near gave out and hurt like a motherfarker. Walking from the recliner to the bathroom was a new experience in pain. Fortunately, by the time I'd finished by business in the bathroom, my knee had finished whatever it was up to and had stopped complaining when I walked on it. I hate it when that happens.

Thought you might enjoy listening to this work in progress up on SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/b5sx2 It's a French Horn Sextet that I'm writing for another competition. No money attached to this one, just a public performance in front of a bunch of French Horn bigwigs. The piece can be described as "jaunty" at present, although Mrs. Prof described it as a "drinking song." You be the judge and report back.

Oh, one other thing - Mrs. Prof strode out of the computer area Saturday afternoon and pronounced, "Someone loves me, and it isn't you," with a grin on her face. She then showed me a pair of silly-looking cat slippers that someone for whom she had done a favor had sent her as a gift. Nice, comfy looking. Still, not a challenge one should allow to go by if at all possible, and in this case, I had a retort. You see, I had ordered her a birthday gift - a pair of lab-grown diamond earrings (small diamonds, but that's all I could afford) - and I'd hoped to give them to her at Friday's family Thanksgiving get-together. Well, UPS thwarted that with late delivery, but they did deliver while she was out running a cat errand Saturday morning. I'd opened up the package and was ready to spring it on her at the proper time, and wouldn't you know it, she presented the proper time with her little "someone loves me" remark. So, after letting a few comedy beats pass for effect, I went and retrieved the Zales box and brought it over to her. I then pronounced, "Someone loves you, and it's me," and handed her the box. The look on her face was priceless. She appreciated the gift very much, especially after I reassured her that I didn't break the bank in purchasing them (they were $59 plus tax - like I said, they were small). I had her try them on, and she looked lovely in them. Mission accomplished, on both fronts.

Friday's family Thanksgiving get-together was ruined - for me, anyway - by an acute lower gastrointestinal upset. No need for a spoiler tag or anything, since no bathroom trips ensued. I was just in pain. Things were in good shape through dinner and shortly afterward, then it set in. Urgh. We were forced to leave about an hour or two early. Still, what time we did have there was enjoyable. The food was good, the libations were interesting and conversation-worthy (always fun), and once we got home things resolved without too much fuss. (Okay, one bathroom trip. No details.) That, plus The University of Texas kicked the holy living shiat out of Texas Tech, so yeah, fun was had.

No, their Andouille is a separate product. This is a Cajun Smoked Sausage. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Zatarains-Cajun-Smkd-Ssg/305138605 We eschew cranberry sauce and go for Swedish lingonberries instead. They blend oh-so-well with turkey.

Mrs. Prof and I had Zatarain's brand Jambalaya rice with Zatarain's brand Cajun sausage cut up and dispersed throughout it, all cooked in our handy-dandy Zojirushi-brand rice cooker. We had some excess pumpkin pie cupcakelets for dessert (Mrs. Prof is making the pies for today's belated Thanksgiving over at the in-laws' place). Both came out really good.

Pretty much. I've actually passed out from the intensity of the pain when I've hit a 10 before.

I don't know what it's going to be, but I can guarantee my anxiety level will be out the chimney and through the roof until the moment I go under anesthesia. I've had BAD post-op experiences with medical staffs not knowing how to handle my pain levels, thanks to the pain medication I'm already on. I hit a 10 on the 0-to-10 scale post-op on my knee replacement surgery and passed out from the pain on a couple of occasions because they were giving me hydrocodone instead of hydromorphone, which is what I was on. This doctor says he's going to put in a block, so I won't feel a thing until it wears off. I'm afraid he's going to do that and forget all about the 8mg 5x a day that I take in pill form, either that or just do what some other doctors have done and give me the token 0.5mg of IV hydromorphone (Dilaudid) and call it a day. I can't let that happen to me, not for a moment's time. Uggh, there are so many things to take care of in this mess. I wish it were simpler.

Don'tya just hate that?

The ball is now rolling on the surgery to fix the torn right rotator cuff in my right shoulder. I finally found a shoulder surgeon who is willing to take me on, and who is willing to work with me on sending me to an inpatient rehab center after the surgery. He seems like a very good doctor upon research and first meeting - great bedside manner, very cooperative, very willing to do his own research into the patient's background. I'm encouraged. As it stands right now, I've got a couple of pre-op appointments with my primary care doctor and my cardiologist prior to December 8th, and then the surgery is scheduled for 1pm December 15th. It was scheduled for the 27th, but they managed to wheedle an earlier date out of the hospital. Then my right arm will be in a sling from 4 to 6 weeks while it heels (I'm not looking forward to that part). I can only hope that the immediate post-op pain will soon be replaced by post-op relief. Watch this space for updates.

My Thanksgiving gathering has been postponed until Friday due to an illness in the family (for once, not mine). This will interfere with the viewing of the Texas vs. Texas Tech football game, which will leave me somewhat miffed. I am a Texas fan, if you haven't figured that out by now, having attended The University of Texas at Austin for two years (ran out of money, couldn't finish, still got some benefits). I met my wife there, so that's good enough for me.

I have pills now. As it turns out, the pharmacy was not totally without Dilaudid 8mg tablets. They simply didn't have enough to fill my entire prescription. Rat bastards had 100 of the 150 I needed, and didn't bother to tell me until I was completely out of my 4mg pills and practically on my hands and knees begging them for a solution. They finally saw fit to give me the 100 pills and short me the 50 they didn't have. I'll have to see the doctor early for a new prescription, but AT LEAST I HAVE MOTHERFSCKING PILLS NOW, YOU CORKSOCKERS. Jebus Christos, I hate pharmacies.

I have finished another piece for another competition. Please give it a listen and tell me what you think. It comes in at 4:42 and is called "Fanfare and Processions." Here's the link: https://soundcloud.com/lee-jackson-12/fanfare-and-processions-v01j This one has a very far outside shot at an $800.00 First Prize and a publishing contract for the contest, considering that I had less than 2 weeks' notice of the competition and wrote it in less than 10 days. Still, I did my best. I hope you enjoy it.

I am still waiting for the 8mg Dilaudid pills to come into stock at the pharmacist's. I'm not fscking believing this. I've run out of my 4mg pills as of last night, and I'm going to run out of my 2mg Dilaudid pills today. I'm going to have to go back onto the Morphine From Hell until the 8mg arrives. And no, I can't switch pharmacies. I've already tried that. Texas law prevents other pharmacies from even entering me into their system for opiates. Aaugh. And I don't know if it would do any good to try to get the doctor to give me 2x4mg pills instead of 1x8mg - the 4mg pills are in just as short of a supply. Give me a fscking break.

I think I have finished the piece. Please give it a listen. It comes in at around 6 1/2 minutes. Here's the link: https://on.soundcloud.com/cQGzw I'm hoping that this is going to be worth a $1,000.00 commission toward writing a new piece for the sponsoring ensemble. Feedback appreciated.

I've written past the above link. Forget it and use this one instead: https://on.soundcloud.com/jFEcB Still not finished, but close. Thanks in advance for your help.

* urp *

New release of the competition song: https://on.soundcloud.com/TLyxR I've made a lot of progress, but I'm not finished. I could really use your help again.

You wouldn't believe how much better I believe, pharmaceutical-wise. Pain-wise, however, I'm hurting more. That's the sad thing. The morphine did more for me in terms of pain relief. Everything hurts now. Everything hurts.

Pupusas from Costco, stuffed with birria and cheese and topped with guacamole. Om nom nom.

I've just been through a time span from hell. Seriously, I can't really remember the exact length of it. Let me think...let me reconstruct the whole mess. I went to my pain management doctor's assistant and asked to be put on a stronger dose of my current pain medicine, which was Dilaudid (I was at 5mg every 4 hours). She didn't have the authority to increase my dose, but she did have the authority to rotate me to another pain medicine of the same strength. So, she put me on Morphine, 30mg every 6 hours. This appointment was on October 11th. We couldn't pick up the prescription until October 21st, 10 days later, due to problems with the pharmacy getting the pills in stock. So, I took my first dose on Saturday, October 11th. The side effects set in slowly, and as a result we didn't know what they were. They were also mixed in with the onset of an upper respiratory infection, which further confused things. I was coughing up phlegm, I couldn't breathe through my nose, my equilibrium was off, I had hand jitters that made holding things difficult, and I couldn't sit still without my stomach clenching up on me. They didn't all set in at once, of course, but by Saturday, October 28th, things were bad enough that I needed to see a doctor. Since it was a Saturday, I first tried a TeleDoc service from my insurance company. Things were apparently bad enough that they didn't want to really deal with me, and they passed me off to Urgent Care. I went to an Urgent Care place, where they treated me just for the upper respiratory infection symptoms. I got a "Z-Pack" for that, plus pills and a syrup for the cough. For everything else, though, they told me to see my pain management doctor. I called my pain management doctor's office the following Monday (the 30th) and explained the symptoms. Surprisingly enough, I got an appointment the very next day(!!!) with the doctor himself, not his assistant - something extremely rare in that practice. So, on Halloween Day (the 31st), I found myself sitting in the pain management doctor's appointment room. He was very receptive to my needs after hearing what I'd been through. He took me off of Morphine immediately and put me back on Dilaudid, albeit at an 8mg dose instead of the previous 5mg dose. Now, I'm facing a different but similar problem. I'm waiting for the pharmacy to get in a supply of 8mg Dilaudid pills. Until then, I have my old Dilaudid supply, so I'm taking two of the 4mg pills they'd been giving me (I'd been getting 2mg and 4mg pills, and I'd have to cut one of the 2mg tablets in half and take it with the 4mg tablet to equal 5mg). I'll be taking the 2x4mg pills until the pharmacy gets the 8mg pills in stock. However, after just a day off of the Morphine, I already feel better, and that's a HUGE statement. I felt so bad on the Morphine it wasn't funny. My wife was on my case constantly over the past several days leading up to the Urgent Care appointment - she thought I had overdosed at one point (I hadn't). The difference is like night and day. I'm glad to be on the upswing.

Pleasant, eh? Hmm. Not really sure how to read that. In other news, I spent over 2 hours on the phone with my son last night talking about the piece, so there was no ambiguity once we finished with each other. He thought he had a problem with a whole section, but it turned out he only had a problem with one note. I liked the note as is, so nothing got changed. Such is life.

I've got NotePerformer 4.2.1 to thank for that. It's a good sample playback library. https://www.noteperformer.com I'm more interested in how the actual music sounds, though. Any comments?

Here is the first baseline, unfinished work for you: https://on.soundcloud.com/h9DfC Please do not share this link. Thank you.

No replies yet on the Bach or the Bruckner. Fingers still crossed. Meanwhile, I've taken it upon myself to enter an International Composition Competition with a $1,000.00 grand prize. The competition rules "suggest" that your piece should include parts for Trumpet, Trombone, and Bass Clarinet (plus Baritone male voice, but it's not required) - definitely an odd combination. Thing is, I like odd combinations in musical voices, so this competition is right up my alley. I would appreciate your, the 4um denizen's, help in this. I'll be posting my works in progress at a private link on SoundCloud and will share that link here. I'll try to update the music at the end of that link every evening, but that will depend on how much progress I make during the day. In other words, if I only make one or two measures headway, I probably won't update for that day. When I do post an update, however, I'd appreciate it if you would kindly listen to it and tell me what you think. I'm not looking for a music theory breakdown: I'm looking for your opinion. I hope I'm not asking for too much. Please tell me whether or not you can help. Thank you, either way.