ProfessorTomoe

Mrs. Prof's brother's health improved enough for the doctors to perform a heart catheterization procedure on him. They put in two stents - one on the right artery, and one on the left artery, according to a text Mrs. Prof sent to me. (She's back home, BTW.) Anyway, her brother came through okay, so there's some good news.

As with the thread from the previous incarnation of the board, I begin this one with a request that the information within remain confidential. This is a thread for those seeking support as they deal with very sensitive situations involving either their own or a loved one's health. Please let this be a thread where such information can be shared with a level of trust. Now, back to the topic at hand. I picked up my second filling of Brintellix yesterday—all $141 of it, for a month's supply. I find it odd that it is an antidepressant, yet the price is so high that it is depressing just to purchase it. As for its effects, I'm still getting used to them. I haven't been able to sleep for more than three hours at a time for a couple of weeks now. When I do wake up in the middle of the night, I'm not groggy. In fact, I feel for at least a short time that I've had a decent night's sleep. That sensation only lasts a few hours, though. I don't crash out—I just sort of fade to the point where I need to sleep again. Very weird. I've also lost weight. Not a lot, but every pound counts, and it's been a slow and steady drop. Some of this might be related to the small dose of metformin that I'm on (my A1C hit 6.5 again, causing my primary doctor to freak out). I seriously don't know. Whatever the reason, it made my cardiologist happy at my appointment yesterday. Speaking of cardiologists, mine determined that I am status quo as far as my PVCs are concerned. He hasn't seen them in the short 30-second EKGs he runs at every appointment, but the memory of my Holter monitor results from several years ago is enough to keep him on his toes. Still, he saw no reason to increase my lisinopril or to add a beta blocker to my shoebox full of medicines. I hope this thread will be as useful as the last one was. Thanks for any support you can provide.

Let's see if we can consolidate some of the "what are you eating/drinking/breathing" threads into this one. I am currently ingesting Crystal Light tea. Just had some hummus & pita chips beforehand. I'm considering getting a glass of Bulgarian buttermilk (I was shocked that my local Albertson's actually had the Bulgarian style! Nom.).

I don't think so. He's almost 80 years old. Not sure if they put you on a list if you're that old. In any case, they've bumped him up to Grade 3 kidney disease, so he's making slow progress back to normal. Only time will tell if he recovers fully. Mrs. Prof says he's getting ornery and wanting to go home now, so that's an improvement as well.

I'm sorry to hear that. You and my wife's eldest brother are in a similar boat. They had to take him to the hospital, where he's now in the ICU. When he got there, his eGFR was at 9, indicating that he was in ESRD (end-stage renal disease, or Stage 5 kidney disease). They've managed to get his eGFR back up to 21, which is still bad (Stage 4), but a damn sight better than what he was at. Mrs. Prof is staying the next couple of days down in San Antonio (where he lives) to take care of him and whatever else crops up. I'm up here in Garland, being watched by my son while she's away. Not a good situation for either of us.

I thought it was all Obama's fault???

Looks like we're at war with Iran. https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cn5ge95q6y7t

During last week's cold snap, both my knees were swollen and hurt as well. I'm normally not very weather-sensitive, but I surely was last week. It was painful. Of course, the situation isn't helped by the fact that my doctor decreased my hydromorphone dosage from 7 to 6 pills a day. Urghh.

Damned migraine forced me to miss band rehearsal tonight. Urgh. I still haven't got rid of the pain completely.

I'd like to use this thread as a way to highlight new releases of my music. Anyone else who has any music coming out is welcome to do the same. For starters, I've just released a song called "Ant Farm Melee" to my Bandcamp account. You can read all about it on my latest blog post. Please grab a copy of the song today!

Cross your fingers and toes for me, please. I've submitted "Central Texas Elegy" to Carl Fischer, Inc. to be considered for publication. My track record with my concert band pieces is very poor (I'm batting .000 so far), so I need all the help I can get. And if you haven't yet, scroll up a bit and listen to the piece. Please. I guarantee it'll be worth your while.

https://givebutter.com/25centraltxflood

BTW, the people of Central Texas still need help to recover from the disaster that was the 2025 4th of July flood. If you can, please donate to the Central Texas Flood Recovery Fund today at this address: https://www.rebuildtx.org/fund/central-texas-flood-recovery

I've posted a new major work to YouTube. This is a piece for concert band titled, "Central Texas Elegy." It's a work that is dedicated to those who were lost in the flooding that struck Central Texas over the 4th of July weekend in 2025. At last count, at least 137 people lost their lives, and at least two were still missing. Some of the deaths occurred in my home area of Travis County, near my birthplace of Austin, and others happened in areas where I spent a lot of my childhood, so this hit a little close to home for me. The work begins with a trumpet soloist playing the opening theme of the piece. It is later answered, "Taps"-like, by a Euphonium, setting a somber mood. The opening third of the piece ends with a solo sax playing a variant of the trumpet's theme, fading out as it nears the "nightfall" of the section. Suddenly, a tympani roll and a flourish of woodwind runs signal the coming of the floodwaters, ultimately heralded by a "Come To Me" theme in the brass sections. The woodwinds continue their rushing motifs as the "Come To Me" theme is heard throughout the different sections of the ensemble. The middle third climaxes with a peal of church bells and a massif tutti statement of the "Come To Me" theme, before everything comes craching down, settling into silence. The final third of the work features both the opening theme and the "Come To Me" theme, echoing over the devastated landscape, until only a pair of quiet, dissonant notes are heard - the missing souls? Whatever they are, they remain lost at the end of the Elegy, as only the timpani is left to signal the "Come To Me" theme. (This is my first try at writing a summary for the piece. I would appreciate it if you'd listen to the piece and then tell me if I've done it justice. - PT) Here's the YouTube link to the Scrolling Score video for "Central Texas Elegy": https://youtu.be/olaW9aH49H0 Thank you for listening.

My tilt-lift reclining chair was in the process of giving up the ghost on me. Once you got it to lift you above a certain height, it began to wobble left and right something fierce. So, Mrs. Prof, thoughtful being that she is, got onto Facebook Market and found a replacement for $250. It seems okay so far. Instead of a faux leather covering, this one has a fabric covering. It's also very, very plush - so much so that we had to stick a couple of pillows behind me so that I could reach my laptop's keyboard. I'm not quite used to the new layout yet. Just a couple of moments ago, I knocked my iPhone off of the tiny stand I've got it on and caused it to hit the floor. No damage, fortunately, thanks to the OtterBox case it's in. I'm also still getting used to the typing layout. The kayboard is at kind of an angle to me for proximity purposes. Any closer to straight out in front of me, and I would't be able to reach it, even with the pillows. Speaking of which, Mrs. Prof has ordered some kind of lumbar support pillow system that is supposed to take the place of the pillows. No idea when it'll get here. Could be worse. Could have been raining on the way home from the place we bought the recliner. That would have really sucked.

That new camera has terrific resolution! So much detail in the fur. It's amazing!

No problem. Enjoy with your favorite beverage.

Got a new song out - a piccolo trio, of all things. Don't let that scare you off, it's not shrill. It sounds more like a Revolutionary War fife ensemble than anything else, hence its title - "Suite of Colonial Miniatures." it's just a shade over 5 minutes long for the total of 4 movements, which is the reason for the "Miniatures" part of the song name. Please give it a listen! https://youtu.be/ZQmCtjyUTgQ

Silver is up to $112 an ounce. My initial investment has almost tripled in value. w00t!

It is going to get smegging cold in the DFW area tomorrow night (Friday, Jan. 23, 2026) and stay that way through Monday morning. They're talking single-digit temps and sleet/snow. Much fun.

A major development has taken place over this past weekend. Yet another seven (7) works have been approved for publication! The total comes to 15 now, I think. I've listed the new seven on my web site at this link: https://dleejackson.lbjackson.com/2026/01/major-publication-development/ . Please give it a read.

I am finally coming down off of a 3-day migraine episode, wherein I hit pain level 10 many, many times during day 2. I felt like my head was going to explode with the force of Tsar Bomba and take out several counties. During day 2, I had no choice but to listen to my wife and let her drive me to my neurologist's office for a walk-in neural block appointment. He administered 3 sets of neural blocks to my head: one group of injections to the back of my skull, on both sides, another group of injections to the temple on either side of my head, and another set via foul-tasting nasal drops administered to each nostril (without injections, thankfully). Before all of the above, I also received a gluteal booster of Zofran anti-nausea medicine, since the ODT dose (Oral Disintegrating Tablet) wasn't getting the job done. After around 10 minutes of simmering, my pain was more or less manageable. It was down to a more reasonable 4 or 5 on the zero-to-10 scale I referenced earlier when I said I'd hit a 10 several times. My nausea was also more controllable, but it was not completely gone: the motion from the car ride home made things rough for me. Since then, during day 3 at home today, I've briefly hit pain level 9 a couple of times, but never level 10. The nausea has mostly been kept at bay, too. All told, I'd say this was the worst bout I've had, even if you count the time last year when I had to have a "migraine cocktail" at the ER. Now, let's see how big of a headache the insurance coverage is going to cause.

My turn to ride the crazy Migraine train. It hit with no warning, despite me taking my preventative 60mg of Qulipta last night. I took a Nurtec ODT 75mg as soon as I realized it was a migraine. Forty minutes later, nothing had kicked in yet, so I took a Sudafed and then, a few minutes later, a capsule of medical-grade caffeine (200mg). It's now almost 1 hour and 50 minutes past onset, and the pain has subsided from a 9 to a 6.5 or a 7. Most of it is on my right side, as usual, but it has hit both sides, albeit unequally. As long as I keep the lights off and the television muted, I think I can live with the current level, but I wish I didn't have to. I've started tracking it on Migraine Buddy to see if that helps me any. Simultaneously, I'm using a tracking chart that's part of a Word document. Same goal.

I just saw one about six weeks ago, and he didn't see any major problems with my eyes. He said I had cataracts in the extremely early stages, but nothing to worry about. He definitely didn't say anything about the yellow tint I get on waking up sometimes. Anyway, my vision came back to normal about 5 minutes prior to me typing in the above complaint. If it happens again, I'm going to see my primary doctor and get a referral to a different eye doctor.

Most annoying. For the second time in the past week, I've woke up and couldn't focus on anything. My glasses didn't do me any good. It took about 20 minutes for my eyes to settle down and start focusing on letters that I normally can see without much problem. My wife checked my blood sugar, just to be sure. It came in at 139 - a tiny bit high, but not enough to cause this kind of problem. You'd expect numbrs in the 200s to cause this.