ProfessorTomoe

That's sound too analytical for phobia. Phobias tend to be less logical. I'm familiar with phobias. Dear God, I'm familiar with them. Don't get a wasp, hornet, or anything that mimics one within 15 feet of me. I will hurt myself trying to get away from it. Totally illogical to me, but I'm sure some psychiatrist has worked out the machinations of the mind with something like this. With Susan, I'll agree her phobia is illogical to her. However, I was playing the part of the paper-writing psychiatrist who's researched similar cases and has seen the cause over and over. With that, I'm guessing what I said above. Susan wouldn't be able to see that, because her fear overcomes her before logic can kick in.

Am I the only person in the world who doesn't like seafood dredged in cracker meal? Dear God. Mrs. Prof went out on a meeting/dinner with some of the pet adoption center people last night, and as usual, she brought me home a plate from where she went. Well, where she went was a seafood restaurant. She ordered me a plate of fried oysters and fried shrimp. I don't normally use cocktail sauce, but that was the only way to make this stuff edible. The shrimp was good once I got past the cracker meal, but the oysters/cracker meal combination turned out bitter because it had cooled down. There was a lot of it, and I tried to make it through all of it, but in the end I had a Zofran emergency due to the volume of seafood. I'd prefer no coating to cracker meal coating. It's that bad. Cornmeal coating is almost as bad (my grandfather loved cornmeal-coated fried catfish). Don't like either one, but at least I can tolerate cornmeal coating.

Another thing that makes me happy: I've renewed my hosting and domain registration until Mrs. Prof's birthday in 2019, and it cost about $100 less than I though it would! Of course, they tried to foist off the "business plan" on me at only $8 a month, but good lord, why would I need that much bandwidth? Besides, if I do, I can always upgrade later. No, I'll stick with the economy plan and pay $130 + change total for two years' damned good hosting plus domain registration. (I use ICDSoft, if anyone's interested. Only had one glitch, and they were on it like white on a cue ball.) I thought I was going to have to pay $240 or something like that. Now, my wallet has a happy.

Yeah, he's superbusy right now, dealing with the Kickstarter orders. Wait until he's dealt with them. Only then will you see your order, most likely.

This has to do with a different webcomic (David Willis's "Dumbing of Age") and his latest Kickstarter for volume six of his book series. He sent out a survey to confirm addresses and the like. I added a message to my response asking for a doodle of a character drawn in a certain way. I got my book today, exactly as I''d requested! He even tossed in an extra character magnet. For the first time in a long time, I has a serendipitous happy.

I called the pharmacy around 1:30 p.m. and asked if the prescription had come in yet. It hadn't. They close at 5pm and are closed all weekend. Unfortunately, I got knocked out by my medicine to the point where I even missed almost all of the Astros game (and that's saying something). I didn't wake up until 5:30 p.m. I don't think I like this system, but I'll be damned if I'm going back to CVS.

Essentially, Susan mistrusts her own immune system. That's what it boils down to. If she trusted her body's ability to fight off infections more, she wouldn't have the phobia. Getting over that mistrust is one huge problem, though.

Gruntle level: negative ∞ I call the pain management center and (gasp!) manage to get in touch with one of the nurses who deals with prescriptions. She asks if I've called the pharmacy (yes) and asks for my last name's first letter (J). She then puts me on hold. For 15 minutes. Mongo not happy when lady come back. She's one of these stereotypical hyper-jaded nurses who has a "you did it wrong" answer for everything. I ask where my prescription is. She tells me the doctor hasn't reviewed it yet. "What?" I ask. Inside, though, I'm thinking, WTF??? I tell her that I'm going to run out on Saturday, and that I called in the prescription to the pharmacy a week ago. I'm told that I should have called the pain management center (her) to check on the prescription earlier in the week. Wait a minute—where on the thousands of sheets of paper taped to EVERY SINGLE DOOR in your office does it say I'm supposed to do that? Nowhere! Still, that's what I'm supposed to have done. But how should I have known that was S.O.P. if it wasn't on the doors? You must be new. That doesn't matter, I did it right. I'm going to run out of prescription on Saturday (she thinks—more on this later). When did you get your last fill? September 6th, one month ago. Short silence. Repeat above exchange. Threaten to use a word that starts with the letter "m" over the situation. Tell her this is an emergency case. (Crescendo begins here.) Tell her I expect the prescription to be at the pharmacy TODAY. Tell her that ever single sign is misleading (there's your "m" word). Get an apology from her for the 20th time. Hang up on her. Fortunately, I still have three days left of my prescription from my primary care physician's last fill that my doctor (who's on vacation) knows about. I can make it until Tuesday of next week, maybe Wednesday. I enjoyed the crescendo of indignation. People like her who don't care about the people they serve deserve more crescendos. Daily.

If anyone wants a blog experience of my hospital stay, here's the links: https://dleejackson.lbjackson.com/2017/09/hearts-and-hospitals-part-one/ https://dleejackson.lbjackson.com/2017/10/hearts-and-hospitals-conclusion/ https://dleejackson.lbjackson.com/2017/10/hearts-and-hospitals-addendum/

Whataburger's new Chorizo Burger. Interesting, but messy. Not sure it'll be the same hit that their Monterrey Melt has been. Too many vegetables, not enough chorizo.

Add to it: the times I'm supposed to call the pharmacy are after the pain doctor's Friday closing time (noon). Isn't that convenient?

Okay, I am thrice frustrated now. Apparently, they did manage to get through to our voice mail (lord knows how). The first thing out of their mouth after introducing themselves is that they don't return calls anymore. THEN WHY DO YOU HAVE A SMEGGING PHONE LINE FOR PROBLEMS WITH PRESCRIPTIONS THAT TAKES MESSAGES? They suggested that I call the pharmacy tomorrow after lunch, or better yet, around 3pm. To really put a kick in the call, at the end, they said I should call them back if I have any other questions. What good would it do if you don't even answer the phone? Or am I supposed to play phone roulette and see if I get the one lucky time that someone actually PICKS UP THE DAMNED PHONE?

I am twice frustrated now. Mrs. Prof was on the phone with me. We finished up our call, and right as we did the caller ID on our TV (FiOS) popped up with "Baylor Univ Med" in the infobox. I never got the beep in my earphone of an incoming call. I hit flash to bring it up, but no one was there. I checked to see if they left a message, and sure enough a message indicator was present. I played the message. It was blank. AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH I am going to be all over the phone at 9am tomorrow.

Starting to panic here. I'm going to run out of my hydrocodone prescription on Saturday. I've just learned several things: The pharmacy hasn't received authorization from my doctor to fill the prescription yet. They faxed over a request to the pain management clinic on Monday 10/2, although I called on Friday morning 9/29. The doctor is currently on vacation. Definitely starting to panic.

Hear, hear!

Just got back from seeing my primary care doctor. Brought home some interesting results: The bruising in my leg (shown above) is from a hematoma. I need to put a heating pad on it so it can break up. His diagnosis of my "heart problem" is actually problem with my ulnar nerve. He says I was 100% right to do what I did in calling 911, though. He gave me a steroid shot to alleviate the problem for now. I told him about the diagnosis of my ear biopsy. He recommended a couple of different treatments, including Liquid Band-Aid so I wouldn't touch it and a cool compress at night. Before he came in, his nurse gave me a flu shot. I almost passed out afterward for some weird reason. He said it was a vasovagal attack and leaned me back on the exam table until my color came back. So, lots of drama at my PCP's office today. Hell, even he had his arm in a sling—fell down some stairs. At least I don''t need to go and see my cardiologist.

A problem has been solved. It's not Loudmouth barf—it's Baker barf! I didn't exactly catch him in the act, but he did it on the edge of his food tray. I seriously doubt that Loudmouth would have come all the way in to the kitchen to barf on Baker's food. Same goes for the last incident: I found it on the floor near the kitchen, but just assumed that it was the usual suspect. Baker must be sucking it down too fast. Now, how to work that out ...?

I am wishing heavily that The Dan would use the character design shown in the center of panel #1 MUCH more often, yes, please.

This.

I think I may have come up with a use for the Jasmine Flowers I got as an "herbal tea" (i.e., pure jasmine flowers) from TeaVivre. I've still got some jasmine oolong from Teavana, so I've taken a couple of scoops of jasmine flowers and added them to the Teavana mix. First attempt wasn't a 100% success, since the flowers "float" on top of the tea in the bag. I got more flowers than I did tea. A bit better mixing is called for on my next attempt.

It's a good thing I've got a follow-up appointment with my PCP tomorrow, because my leg is going downhill. Here's a new picture, compared to the first picture taken: The one on the left is from Sept. 29th, while the one on the right is from Oct. 3rd. Significant difference. I'm glad I've got a Greenfield filter.

Don't mistake it for internal bleeding.

Raybern's Heat & Serve frozen cheesesteak. Not bad, actually, as long as you toss on a slice of extra cheese. Goes good with jasmine tea.

Oh, sorry - I thought it was you who did the tea bricks. Sorry, @Don Edwards, you were the person I meant to ask. Thanks for your reply. I have a question. I'll probably be using the traditional way, since I use one of the IngenuiTEA devices from Adagio Teas. (Please check the link for the IngenuiTEA device.) If I'm using it, then following your instructions I'll drain the device immediately into the sink on the first fill, and then drink what comes from subsequent steepings, right?