ProfessorTomoe

BTW, the ultrasound reading came back normal, according to the nurse who ran it. I still have to have a follow-up appointment with the doctor to officially get the good news. Today, Monday, December 2nd, a date which will live ... erm, scratch that. It's just a Monday. An extremely early Monday. I've got an 8:30 a.m. appointment with my foot doctor to go over the MRI and figure out why the hell the ball of my right foot hurts so much on occasion. I'm hoping it's something he can fix surgically so it'll go away once and for all. He's a good surgeon, otherwise I wouldn't be wishing this. Tomorrow, Tuesday, at a much more reasonable hour, I get to meet the physician's assistant who's been injecting my knees with GELSYN-3 and tell him the injections haven't done a damned bit of good. I'm going to request arthroscopic surgery on my left knee. If my main knee doctor refuses, I'm going to ask for a second opinion. You see, I've now read the MRI report on my knees, and it turns out he left out a LOT of stuff when he explained what was going on with my left knee. Brace yourself - here comes the report: === cut here === FINDINGS: LIGAMENTS: Low-grade interstitial tear of the anterior fibers of the distal MCL. The PCL is intact. ACL and LCL complex are intact. MENISCI AND FEMORAL-TIBIAL HYALINE CARTILAGE Myxoid degeneration of the posterior horn of the medial meniscus. Small free edge radial tear of the posterior horn of the lateral meniscus. Myxoid degeneration of the posterior horn of the lateral meniscus. Scattered partial thickness tearing of the cartilage of the medial compartment. Few areas of suspected full-thickness fissuring with partial delamination within the lateral compartment and mild subchondral cystic change and marrow edema of the lateral femoral condyle. PATELLOFEMORAL JOINT AND EXTENSOR MECHANISM A diffuse full thickness chondral loss of the lateral patellar facet, trochlea, and median ridge with subchondral schlerosis and joint line osteophytes. Thickening and edema of the superior patellar fat pad which cam be seen in settling of patellar fat-pad impingement. OSSEOUS/BONE MARROW Tricompartmental osteophytes. Patchy marrow within the proximal tibia which may represent heterogeneous red marrow. Subchondral sclerosis and edema within the lateral femoral condyle. GENERAL Small joint effusion. Mild subcutaneous edema surrounding the knee. === stop cutting already === Good to know that I can still transcribe a document like that - phew! Anyway, that's just my left knee. My right knee isn't as bad. Still, I don't understand why he said my left knee showed signs of normal wear for someone my age. My right knee, maybe, but my left knee? Hardly. I'm making back-up copies of everything I take to the doctor and having them ready for a second opinion.

I stand corrected, yet you stand absurdly. A common stance used by people who do not have a leg to stand on.

Per the Purdue Writing Lab: Your argument is a cross between the two. Another example of where you'd get flunked. Try again.

If you tried to use Wikipedia as a quoted source in a grade school research paper, the school teacher would flunk you. Come on, you can do better than that.

Done, I think. At least, that's what the voices in my head tell me I did. Now I get to go back to the Vascular specialist on Monday and have a followup ultrasound of my right leg post-procedure. I then get to schedule an appointment with my foot doctor, now that I have the MRI CD-ROM with the report. (BTW, I read it - no more metal shards. There's some other stuff there, but I need to talk to him before I say anything.)

Speaking of Monday's endovenous ablation, apparently I'm still recovering from it:

I applaud the fact that you are at the point where you can comfortably (or at least, reasonably comfortably) write such a document. It's a bold move, and I salute you for it.

Done. Damn. Lumbar rhizotomies are only covered by insurance once every 6 months. My last one was in July, which means I'll have to wait until January to have it done. There goes my budget for January. On top of that, the doctor's office wants a new MRI of my back (my last one is years old). That'll probably happen within the next week or two, and it'll be damned uncomfortable. Fortunately, I got the doctor to call in some Xanax to relax me during the MRI, so there's at least that.

I got notification that I can now do advance check-in for a Gulf of Mexico cruise that Mrs. Prof and I are taking in February next year (it's a convention cruise, and I'm a "special musical guest"). Said notice told me that I needed the following to check in online: Ship name Sail Date Reservation number Passport Credit card I rounded up everything mentioned and was, I thought, ready to check in. Alas, not so. They want a Security Photo, 960x960, taken in front of a white or off-white background, with other niggling little details. Why the fark didn't they mention that in their e-mail, Bob Gammage??? So, I back out of the sign-in process, hope that it's saved what I've entered, and wait until Mrs. Prof gets home and we both get back from my doctor's appointment so that we can take lousy pictures of each other on my cell phone. Augh.

Done. Relatively clean bill of health. Blood pressure and premature ventricular contractions still under control. Would have been a great appointment if it weren't for two things: The doctor squeezed my right leg, looking for edema (and found my freshly unwrapped still-recovering endovenous ablation site). The check-out clerk argued that I had a co-pay, when I met my catastrophic deductible back in May (we had to call Blue Cross and get them to clear it up for us). Left the office limping, dehydrated, and pissed.

Done. Uncomfortable as hell. My back doesn't like not having lumbar support for 30+ minutes. I've gone ahead and had Mrs. Prof unwrap my leg. I've got to have a shower before I leave for the cardiologist today.

Done. I'd forgotten that the procedure is preceded by a dozen or more injections of numbing medication. Those hurt like smeg. Plus, they missed a spot toward the end. Ow ow burnie burnie ow ow. To add insult to injury, I have to take a sponge bath tomorrow, since I can't remove the dressing prior to my MRI - hell, I can't remove it until 2pm Wednesday, which means I'm going to have to take a sponge bath prior to my 1pm cardiologist appointment on Wednesday. Crap.

Either way, it's impossible to watch either one with a straight face.

Ahem. Enough deflection, already. Back to the topic at hand. Discuss.

Busy, busy week this week, medically. Monday: go in for a venous ablation procedure on my right leg to prevent swelling in my ankle. Hopefully. Not a pleasant procedure - they insert a catheter into your blood vessel and literally burn it to death. Tuesday: go in for an MRI on my right foot in an attempt to try and find out why my ulcer spot on the ball of my foot keeps flaring up. Wednesday: Cardiologist follow-up appointment. Thursday: appointment with the physician's assistant for my chronic pain management doctor, in an attempt to get a lumbar rhizotomy scheduled on my left lower back scheduled before the end of the year. My back has been hurting worse and worse - it needs help. Friday: Psychiatrist appointment, where I find out it's all in my head anyway. Busy, busy week.

Hear, hear. Enough deflection. Back to the topic at hand.

It was determined by the republicans' own department of justice that the whistleblower followed proper procedure and provided substantive and verifiable material. This much was made clear from the very beginning. They violated no laws and provided real information that they were authorized to submit. Any other statement is just white noise intended to drown out the truth.

If it weren't for this gloriously stupid language we speak, I wouldn't have three O. Henry Pun-Off World Championship trophies. Give it a break.

About 12 minutes have passed, and I feel a bit of a cone of focus surrounded by the haze of the oxycodone/gabapentin. Most importantly, I no longer feel the need to go back to sleep. I'd call this a successful experiment, and say that "Wake the Hell Up!" ultra-caffeinated coffee has its uses beyond giving someone a swift kickstart out of bed. I've reviewed it earlier and found that its caffeine kick is a smooth one, with no hands shaking and no crash at the end. It's more of a crescendo of a lift, with a smooth fortissimo of a kick and a decrescendo to piano as it wears off. (Yes, I've just described several pieces of classical music.) It's a smooth experience, to be certain. Highly Recommended. Try some.

I have taken up the mantle of resident coffee tester on a certain social media site. My test cup today is "Wake the Hell Up!" coffee. I'm using it to see if it can help me break through my morning oxycodone/gabapentin haze. We'll find out soon enough, since I'm still drinking it. As far as drinking goes, it's not bad at all, despite it being an "ultra-caffeinated" coffee. There's a mild sweetness, and no bitterness at all. I recommend it on taste alone.

Yeah, it just keeps falling apa ... oh, wait, there went another testifier, and he directly linked quid pro quo to the president. And aren't the republicans giving in on that now, too? No, what you've got going for you are the republicans' Moving Goalposts®. Every time one of their definitions of an impeachable/removable offense gets met, they just roll them goalposts back another 15 yards and declare a new definition. Convenient.

Saw my podiatrist for the umpteenth time yesterday. My right foot has started forming a callous once more and it's painful to the touch in the same spot where the ulcer and metal splinter once were. I also reported pain in the ball of my big toe when I walk barefoot/in socks. The doctor shaved down the callous and put an order for an MRI into gear. I go in for that on Wednesday of next week. Something is causing this thing to repeatedly erupt, and damn it, we're going to get to the root of the matter.

ThankyouverymuchI'llbehereallweektipyourwaitertrytheveal.

What it boils down to is that right now, people are running the country in spite of the president.

That's still not good enough when it comes to running the United States of America, I believe.