ProfessorTomoe

Thankfully, he's only the doctor on call, and not my regular hematologist.

Good lord. I see your point. No rashes for you. Meanwhile, on my end, the doctor called, and damned if he didn't try and get me to go to the ER. First up, he said I should take 50mg Benadryl. I told him I'm already doing that. Next, he said he was going to call in some oral steroids for me to make the rash go away. I told him I can't take them because oral steroids give me heart fibrillations. He then said he was going to give me a topical steroid. I told him it would have to cover 75% of my body. That's when he told me to go to the ER, so I could get IV steroids instead. I told him I couldn't afford another $250 ER visit (I can't). He then got snotty with me, mainly because he thought I'd said I merely "didn't want to take" the oral steroids. I corrected him, told him I was allergic to them, and said I *couldn't take them*. He said for me to come in to the office on Monday, keep taking the Benadryl, and go to the ER if the rash gets worse. The guy was a bit of an asshole. I've seen better bedside manner in a rat. Anyway, here's hoping I can hold out until Monday, and that I can get an appointment on Monday.

I am trying to get in touch with the hematology doctor on call to figure out what I should do from here. I kinda doubt he'll tell me that I need to go to the ER.

FOLLOW-UP: Oh. Joy. Monoferric is the iron infusion drug I took last week. I don't know if it would cause a rash this far out (I had it last Friday, and it just appeared yesterday (Thursday)), but I was told that I wouldn't see benefits of Monoferric for two weeks after the IV, so maybe it can set in this far out.

And now for my next plague, I'm getting a rash. It's all over my legs, groin, butt, and back. It looks for all intents and purposes like my hair follicles are getting inflamed, but I can't say for sure that the placement of the tiny red dots corresponds with my hairs. I do know that the rash on my back itches, but none of the other areas itch. I'm taking 50mg of Benadryl every 4 hours in addition to my regular meds in order to fight it. I'll give it until Monday. If it doesn't go away, or if it gets worse, I'll go and see a doctor, but not before I call my hematologist to find out if this is a side effect of the iron infusion I had last week.

I'm having a bit of trouble with my blood pressure. The cardiologist insisted that I get a new blood pressure meter (do they still call the fancy digital models sphygmomanometers, or has that term been relegated to the analog realm?) so that I can check myself when I have a "passing-out" spell. Sure enough, my blood pressure runs low when those happen, not so much on the systolic side, but definitely on the diastolic side. I'm going down below 50 on the diastolic, which is Not Good. For now, all I can do is get up and walk it off, but I'm going to have to call the cardiologist and find out what he wants me to do eventually.

Erm...no. I took those back in my 20s and wound up getting vascular issues in my arms and hands (blue fingers). Never again.

The Monoferric iron IV infusion went well today. No real negative side effects during the infusion procedure, and afterward, just a ton of fatigue. I've slept most of the day since. I've been told to watch for joint pain over the course of the next two weeks, along with continued fatigue ("it gets worse before it gets better"). I guess I'll have to borrow my son's Red Bull drinks for a little while.

I am resigned to agree.

Just cooked up a pan of homemade chile con queso for the family, or more accurately, chile con Velveeta Plus. It was by no means a slap-dash affair: the cheese, while mostly a Velveeta loaf, also consisted of a bowl of Mexican Four-Cheese Shreds. I diced fresh onion and minced fresh garlic for it, and sauteed them with a can of Hatch chopped green chiles and a can of Mexican-style Ro-Tel. Add to that some whole milk and my secret spice blend, and you've got dinner. Larrapin'.

It probably should.

Drinking an offering from Dutch Bros. - a 9-1-1, with a soft top, whipped cream, and a caramel drizzle. We are nothing if not hedonistic.

I have some cool fans, and I don't mean the three- or four- bladed kind. I put out a call in a couple of spots for donations to my web page's Tip Jar for a software upgrade fund to get Cubase upgraded from v13 to v14. Not only did my fans come through for me on Cubase, they donated enough to let me upgrade Wavelab from v11.2 to v12, and to get a new drumpak for my Addictive Drums 2 application. Cool fans indeed.

D-dimer can also be an indicator of the dissolving of a clot, which means the clot may already be gone.They may be playing Whack-a-Mole with it.

Okay, I've got the laptop. Back to the topic at hand. The elevated D-dimer test numbers mean that a clot may have formed somewhere in me. They spent a good part of today looking for it. I had an ultrasound done of my neck and my legs. They took me to the nuclear medicine lab to run a chest scan, but my claustrophobia prevented me from getting into the machine. I don't know what they're going to do instead. Meanwhile, I keep getting level 9 pain spikes in my left knee, where the joint replacement is. They're giving me 2mg of IV Dilaudid every 4 hours, and they're putting up a struggle with every injection despite doctor's orders not to. I grow tired of the nurses' bullshit. Just do what the doctor says, mmmkay? Sheesh.

Well, I'm in the hospital. Again. I had problems with passing out at my computer. Blood tests showed an abnormal DDimer result, which means I might have a blood clot somewhere. I'm typing this on my phone, so I'm going to keep it short. More when I get my computer.

I did wind up talking to a nurse at the hematologist's office yesterday, but because I called them, not the other way around. Turns out the low iron/ferritin numbers aren't going to kill me outright like the potassium could have, so the same level of concern is not warranted. I'm definitely anemic, and it's not a good thing to have, she said, but it's just not going to put me immediately in the hospital. So there's that. In the meanwhile, I get to have fun trying to stay awake until I can get the Monoferric infusion going. Joy.

No, it's not likely that a medicine is the cause. None of my meds have iron-robbing as a side effect. The *only* possible one is my calcium supplement, but I'd have to take such a huge dose of it that it would make me throw up. Thanks for the kind words. I appreciate them.

I finally got up the energy to pan fry some walleye fillets I'd procured from Wild Fork, and which I'd thawed out a couple of days ago. I went with a simple seasoned flour/egg+milk/breadcrumb coating for the pan fry. This was really more of a test than anything else - the Wild Fork package had 4 smallish fillets and one great big one. I'd taken out the big one and cut it up before frying it. That gave me three back loins and one thin belly flap. I'm in the process of eating the back loin pieces as I type this. They're pretty good. I like Texas panfish better - bluegills, crappie, that sort of thing - and I'm a sucker for striped bass if it's cooked right. But this is my first encounter with walleye, and it's okay. Tartar sauce and lemon helps it out significantly. Okay, I just finished the belly flaps. Good stuff, probably better than the loin, even with the skin on. I think for a moment I had a bone stuck in my throat, but that cut loose real quick. Overall assessment - if you like walleye, you'll like Wild Fork's walleye, I figure.

I'm getting my numbers back on my blood tests from the hematologist. My hemoglobin and hematocrit are both low, as expected, but the numbers from my ferritin panel are *shockingly* low - so low that I wouldn't be surprised if the doctor called me about them today, like they did on the potassium numbers. I'm rather worried about them, to be honest. For example, my ferritin level should be above 65. Mine is at 22. That's why I'm worried.

You should consider talking to your doctor about a prescription for Topamax (topiramate), if you haven't done so already. It's what I take to lessen the frequency of my migraines, and it apparently does the job. I've only needed to take my migraine treatment meds very infrequently since going onto the Topamax.

My son made curry again tonight in the Instant Pot. This was below his usual excellent fare - while the sauce was stellar as usual, the beef was a bit on the tough side. That was the only minus in the equation, however.. Even the rice was great - of course it was, it's Koshi-Hikari rice. Nom. While he was cooking, I got to order replacement curry supplies. The usual 5-pack of Extra Hot S&B Curry roux went into the basket, as did some more Koshi-Hikari rice. I got to add some experimental curry roux packets, though. A single of House Vermont Curry, Extra Hot - that got added, as did some S&B Tasty Hayashi Rice mix. Finally, I got some Kokumaro Curry and some Java Curry, both extra hot. Believe it or not, we're saving money by eating at home instead of going out, doing drive-through, or ordering in. It's good that we've got 3 people who like to cook now.

The Balvenie has arrived, and good lord, is it worth the money. It takes a little getting used to at first, though. The first sip has a definite "firewater" impact, but in my defense, this was before I opened up the dram with a few drops of water. Once I did that, the experience changed dramatically. Smooth, smooth, smooth, with the "vanilla oak" taste that The Balvenie's flavor profile is known for. I hope to get to know it better as the days pass.

Mrs. Prof made an Aldi trip yesterday, and brought home several refrigerated (i.e., not frozen) 4-pack trays of seasoned crab cakes. They had an expiration date on them of December 5th 2024, so we all joked about whether or not I'd be able to finish them off in time. I cooked up a tray this morning, thinking I'd only make it through 2 of the 4 cakes. As it turns out, December 5th is going to be a breeze of a deadline to meet. The crab cakes force me to invoke the "larrapin'" descriptive once again. They were most definitely larrapin', in every sense of my grandfather's word. Slightly crispy, with a smooth texture to the stuffing that held the cake together, and just enough real crabmeat (the #1 ingredient) to beat down the obligatory fake "surimi" crabmeat filler into the background. The whole experience was rounded off well when each bite was dipped in the enclosed seafood cocktail sauce, which had some definitive body to it. It wasn't just watery tomato squeezings augmented with a dash of horseradish extract. I wound up eating all four crab cakes, which is my only gripe - they were just a bit on the small side, leaving no leftovers. I'm going to wind up doing in the three trays in a very short time. I normally prefer my crab cakes with tartar sauce, or with drawn butter. However, I think I'm going to stick with the enclosed cocktail sauce this go-round, unless I decide to make a crab cake sandwich. If I do that, I'll probably switch to either the tartar sauce or to just plain mayo (we use Japanese-style Kewpie brand mayo in our house), with a slice of Velveeta cheese or two to go with it. Forgive me for waxing rhapsodic over a smegging tray of crab cakes. My emotions are going wacko lately. Gomen nasai.

Fortunately, the ass is one area where this won't be hurting. I hope. Unless I break out in a rash, and it spreads back there, which is a possibility.