ProfessorTomoe

If it ain't one thing, it's another. I've had a sudden 7 pound weight gain, thanks to edema (swelling), in this case suspected water weight gain. I've ballooned up in my feet, legs, and ankles. I take Lasix (40 mg) for edema, but I fear that it's either not doing its job or I need a higher dose. A doctor's visit may be in order, but I can't arrange for my wife to drive me there: we've got constructors, an electrician, and floor replacement people all coming in at the same time Monday, and someone's got to be here to watch over all of them. Urgent care is out, since this is not the kind of situation you take to someone who doesn't know your medical history. I don't know if Uber is an option to get me to a doctor. I don't know what I'm going to do.

From the comments: "G*****m grass, sitting there, being all smug and green, at least the Danes put the pricks back in their place XD"

Stick around for a while. Lurkers are welcome (I hope - I'm in lurk mode most of the time, except for medical updates).

Our cat Loudmouth has begun sneezing. He's still eating and drinking and doesn't feel like he's running a fever, so we're not sure what the deal is. Mrs. Prof wants to give it another day - she deals with sick cats all the time - before we stress him out further by shoving him in a carrier (he hates the carrier (he hates being picked up)) and driving him to the doctor.

Crisis averted - the abscess was below the bones of my amputated toe, not on the bottom of my foot. The podiatrist says he got all of the pocket of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa in my toe, but he's put me on Cipro just in case. Fingers crossed!

That's one way of going about it, but with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, it's developed resistance to so many antibiotics that doing it that way would be a crap shoot. What the CDC and others recommend is taking cultures and testing them out against antibiotic agents until you find an agent that works. I'm not looking forward to having a second round of cultures taken, since that probably means opening up my foot again. I'll find out more at 2pm CDT today.

One infection leaves, and another is discovered. Sigh. If you'll recall, I had a sliver of metal get into the bottom of my right foot last summer and cause a very nasty infection. The sliver was removed and the infection went away, but callouses kept coming back along with inflamed areas of tissue in the area. An MRI found an "opportunistic" situation developing over and over in the area. It caused pain, not just in the callous spot, but deeper in my foot. My podiatrist told me he would address the situation while he had me on the surgical table last Thursday. Apparently, he "dug out the core," as he'd been saying he would, and took a culture of what the subsequent report described as a "deep abscess." The report's findings? "Rare Pseudomonas aeruginosa," verbatim from the report. You can find more about pseudomonas aeruginosa from the Centers for Disease Control's website at this link. Apparently, it becomes drug-resistant quite easily. I know for a fact that it doesn't react to Augmentin or doxycycline, or I would be rid of it by now. What the hell am I going to do? I guess I'll find out at my post-op follow-up with the podiatrist. This is almost as scary as having a dose of COVID-19!

I'm on Xyzal and hydroxyzine 2x a day each for my allergies. I was taking allergy shots for about a decade, with scant improvement. At one point, I was getting 4 shots - 2 shots in each arm - twice a week. That's 8 shots a week, and that went on for years.

First things first: the infectious disease specialist let me off the doxycycline. Hooray. I'm feeling slightly better day by day. Now, for today's events. The toe amputation went rather well. No major issues, just a tiny bit of post-op nausea (phenergan and Zofran dealt with this) and some post-op amputation wound pain (which fentanyl took care of). There was a brief moment's scare when the nurse couldn't find my glasses, but they were eventually located and the crisis was averted. The reason the nurse took care of finding my glasses and not my wife is that my wife was not allowed into the hospital with me. You see, we were met at the entrance of the hospital Thursday morning by masked and gloved COVID-19 disease screeners. They cleared me, but they hung my wife on the "do you have a cough?" question. She's been coughing for weeks due to ridiculous pollen levels causing allergy trouble. They said she'd have to wear a mask in the hospital, and for that reason she'd be denied entry past the screening point. I wound up going through the entire operation by myself, all the way through to dismissal. Meanwhile, Mrs. Prof. did a bit of driving around after giving hospital staff her phone number. She managed to find a grocery store just opening and bought some bread!!! for a change - even managing to find our favorite brand. Another trip for some home repair supplies ate up more time. She finished that and got a phone call from the doctor immediately after checking out, with word of how the surgery went. Thankfully, she returned to the hospital to retrieve me. Since returning, I've spent the day fighting off the anesthesia and trying to stay ahead of the amputation pain with my oxycodone. I think I've finally managed to catch up on both counts. We shall see how things go tomorrow.

The good news: I've lost weight to bring me just below 300 lbs. again. The bad news: I've been eating Zofran anti-nausea medication like it's candy. I suspect I'm getting sick from prolonged exposure to the doxycycline antibiotic. I'm on two antibiotics (Augmentin being the other one), but only the doxycycline has ever given me trouble in the past. I'm going to call my infectious disease specialist on Monday and basically beg to be let off of the stuff. I can't stand it any more.

I wish I had a Doofus and not a Loudmouth-slash-barfbag. That cat urps on everything. He urped on the computer chair I use for my Music System late last night. I got out the pet stain cleaner and sprayed it at my chair, but it seems like the foam rubber seat just absorbed it. I'm still waiting for it to dry so I can vacuum it out.

Well, speaking as an American, it makes me mad. I'll say no more lest I breach forum protocol.

Wrong thread. "Things that make you mad" is the right one.

If Baker, one of our cats, had done this while we were gone, we would have returned to a house fire. He knocked over a bedside lamp so that the light bulb was in contact with the lampshade. Thank goodness it was a compact fluorescent bulb, but those things still generate enough cumulative heat to ignite a lampshade over time. If it'd been a 60 watt incandescent, it would have burst into flames almost immediately.

Some things Chtuwin, somethings Chtulhus.

TB or not TB ...? That is the congestion.

I have finished mastering Derivations and am in the process of having a CD cover designed. I've got a couple of other things I've got to wait for before I can release the CD, like toe amputation surgery and so on. In the meanwhile, I'm going to release a digital single in the upcoming weeks. Would anyone here be interested in nabbing a copy?

Saw the foot doctor today. One issue was easily resolved - the black spots on the bottom of my foot were dried blood from some unknown source. Easily scraped off. No infection. The other issue ... not so easily resolved. My second toe continues to be a source of discomfort and infection. The antibiotics are still not working like they're supposed to be working. Intravenous antibiotics would not be worth the hell that they put me through - I'll be damned if I have to go back to a nursing home again. So, we amputate. Partial amputation of toe number two of my right foot. This will get rid of the infected bone, and it will get me one step closer to a knee replacement. Two thumbs up. Amputation day is about two weeks from now. Bad timing, but you do it when the doctor can do it.

Saw the knee replacement surgeon on Monday. He has - praise all that is holy - agreed to replace my left knee. However, I must overcome the osteomyelitis (bone infection) in toe number two of my right foot first. Sadly, the oral antibiotics are having little effect on the osteomyelitis. Mrs. Prof says my toe is starting to look a bit worse. On top (or on the bottom) of that, there is now a large black spot in the middle of the callus on the bottom of my right foot. This does not bode well, since my last case of osteomyelitis was preceded by a black spot on the tip of toe number two. Fortunately, I have an appointment scheduled with my foot doctor this coming Monday. We will discuss possibilities and probabilities at that time. Will I have amputation surgery? Will I have surgery to remove the core of the callus? These will be decided then.

The rizatriptan, in combination with its forced sleep, has done its work. My migraine is suppressed.

The neighbors across the street have no regard for the cops when it comes to playing loud music. I've called the cops on them for blasting their music from their big-ass pickup trucks' subwoofers in the past. Immediately after the cops left, the idiots threw a tantrum by turning up all four of their trucks' radios and honking their horns for a minute solid. Since then, they've continued to violate city code on subwoofers and automobiles (I've read it), but never long enough to get caught in the act again. Until today. They fired up their subwoofers and stood around with beers in hand, having a grand old time with no concern for anyone else in the neighborhood. I called the cops again and explained that this was the second time I'd had to call them for this. I also explained that they were "retaliators." They said they'd send someone out. Less than 5 minutes later, a police unit was on scene. There's been blessed silence ever since. I hope the police wrote them a ticket.

I've had to dig into my supply of rizatriptan in an attempt to knock out a migraine. I was hoping a dose of Tylenol would take care of it, but alas, that was not to be. Now, on the day before we leave for Galveston in preparation for our cruise, I've come down with a massive migraine. Megacrap.

First good result from beta testing of Derivations - what was track 9 is now track 1. The placement works so much better, and the transition from the old track 8 to track 10 is wonderful. Burned a new CD for in-car testing on the way down to Galveston on Sunday. Fingers crossed!

I am now playing through a playlist of ALL TEN SONGS off my Derivations album. You read that right - I've finished writing them! I put the last tweaks in on the last unfinished track yesterday. Now, I'm checking for relative volume levels, mastering differences, appropriate track placements, and other details. I've also put out a call for help in getting the album cover designed. If it weren't for my knee and my infected toe, I would be a happy camper indeed.

After two days of a wild goose chase, I finally found a place that would do the chest X-ray that my infectious disease specialist ordered. You see, I still haven't shaken the sinus infection from last week, and now it's trying to crawl down into my chest. I'm on both Augmentin and doxycycline for it (as well as for other things - more on that later). The specialist drew blood, and while she was at it she examined toe #2 on my right foot. She took a culture and sent it off for testing to see if it's still Enterococcus or not that's causing my osteomyelitis. Since I'm going on the NotCon at Sea cruise on the 17th, I can't do IV antibiotics for my osteomyelitis (bone infection), so she's got me on a 6-week course of both Augmentin and doxycycline (that's in addition to the 20 days of Augmentin I've already been on). Of course, the pharmacy would only fill 30 days of this. Stupid insurance limits. I hope this made sense. My nighttime pills are starting to kick in.