ProfessorTomoe

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.

The Formula One Azerbaijan Grand Prix. There's been so many bumps that have left debris on the track that they've red flagged the race at lap 23 of 51 so they can clean the entire track. It's been a bizarre race, to be sure, and it's not even halfway over.

Oh, yeah, the leg pump. I had to wear two of the damned things when I was in the hospital after I broke my ankles. Not fun.

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'm starting this thread to move some of the trail camera photos Mrs. Prof took (thanks to tOH and the rest of the Changing Medications thread for the hardware!) into their own thread. I'm also opening this up to other original photography from the great outdoors, be it from your own front porch to the rim of the Grand Canyon. The only requirement is that it must be something you took yourself, or that someone took with you in it (and you don't mind stepping out from behind your avatar.) NO STOCK PHOTOS, HISTORIC PHOTOS, FOUND PHOTOS, NEWS PHOTOS, OR THE LIKE, PLEASE. NEW STUFF ONLY, NATURE STUFF ONLY, AND YOUR STUFF ONLY. Now, with that said, you don't have to have a trail camera. You don't have to have a full-on mirrorless DSLR. A simple camera phone will suffice. CONTENT MUST BE G-RATED, OR AT THE LEAST BORDERLINE PG. We're not trying to document animal husbandry here. Save those photos for your local FFA or 4H club. THE IDEA IS TO SHARE NATURE PHOTOS, NOT PICTURES OF AUNT MARY SUE ON HER PORCH. FOCUS MORE ON NATURE, LESS ON PEOPLE. NO PHOTO FLOODS. TRY TO KEEP YOUR POSTS INTERESTING, WHICH MEANS AT A MINIMUM. LESS IS MORE, UNLESS MORE IS FUNNY. You can direct-post your pictures into the forum, but be warned that there is a limit to the amount of bytes you can post set by the forum software. You can post via the Gallery tab, but that limits you to 100 total images. Free hosting sites such as imgur are popular alternatives, but are not 100% reliable. The only way you can get maximum reliability is to set up your own web site and host them there, but that is beyond the scope of these rules/instructions. THE MODERATORS MAY DECIDE TO LOCK AND/OR DELETE THIS THREAD AT ANY TIME, SHOULD ITS CONTENT VIOLATE THESE GUIDELINES OR GENERAL FORUM RULES. More guidelines will be added if they become necessary. Phew. Now, with that, try and have some good, clean nature fun!

I honestly did not know that Ctrl-F5 trick. Useful for debugging HTML.

Not a trail camera image, but a photo of our current backyard feral colony feeding: Took them a while to get along together, but they've finally calmed down.

3:58 CDT 20170624 It's worn off again—the pain medicine, that is, but this time closer to the regularly scheduled dose time of 4am. Only problem is that I woke up somewhere in between falling asleep and now. I think it was around 2am or so. Probably due to right foot swelling pain. Anyway, one hydrocodone pill, down the hatch, on schedule. It still won't help the foot swelling/edema. Hell, if anything it's been getting worse with this stocking. I might have to go back onto the Lasix to get rid of it. Mrs. Prof took off my stocking tonight and said she found a "line" across part of my leg. I'll bet it was caused by uneven compression from the stocking, either by the thing just pressing wrong or by Mrs. Prof not putting it on correctly. I hope it's not the latter.

Jasmine oolong again. I keep waking up tonight, so I thought it was time I revisited an old friend. Plus, my sinuses have been acting up. Good for what ails ya.

Opposite side of the country.

#Live·PD on A&E. They just busted some old guy for crack cocaine possession. He did not go quietly.

Good to hear. I've been having my own early wear-off issues tonight, so I'm gonna fudge my last hydrocodone dose by about 45 minutes.

That's almost what happened with the cats involved with the brat. Mrs. Prof's cleaning did some good today, And yes, Garland Animal Control did come by the GPAC and do an inventory. Apparently, they did not send the brat's father, since things went well.

Oh, man, can I ever sympathize with you there. All the medical feels, mate.

5:37 p.m. CDT 20170623. Still haven't taken the GERD test or picked up the compounded prescription, thanks to a much busier schedule than anticipated. At least my beard is back under control after the haircut. Got a call from my primary care physician's nurse about the referral to the new pain management doctor. They're wanting reports from my last MRIs, CTs, etc. related to my back. I had to give her the locations where I had my CT myelogram and MRI done so that she could pass those along to Baylor Scott & White's whatever department. I've still got the actual discs in my possession, in case they want to see them at the pain management place. At least some progress is being made in getting me there.

I'd be really ticked off if I spent however much money it cost to get a cat prepped for adoption, only to find out it had to be put down as part of a broad retaliation over the fact that a parent didn't follow posted rules and kept their brat away from the cages. Oh, the story gets better. Read on. The brat mentioned above was the child of an Animal Control worker, as I've said. That worker was one of a group who recently had reprimands placed in their files for failing to properly take care of a group of four kittens over last weekend (claimed they didn't know how to syringe-feed—were told they could have Googled it and learned in five minutes). Two of those kittens eventually died after being taken out of the Shelter. The other two kittens? They wound up at our house. You may have seen pictures of them. Mrs. Prof saved their lives. Retaliation? Methinks it's a probability. Anyway, Mrs. Prof's sponsored cat is now out of harm's way and at the vet, but not before she paid $70 to the Garland Animal Shelter ($10 tacked on for quarantine fees, and $20 for I don't know what). Mrs. Prof is now at the GPAC, helping to clean it to prevent a possible outbreak of some sickness (not sure what). It's been a rough day for her, but hopefully one with good consequences. Hopefully.

You got it. There's room at the vet. Animal control doesn't open until 10am, so she's got to wait until then to get the cat transport ball rolling. She'll have to pay a $40 transport fee, but it's worth it to get the cat out of the potential danger that it's in now.

6:46 a.m. CDT 20170623. My "dry GERD" test and my compound prescription fill are still on the agenda for today, after the salon trip. We know where a compounding pharmacy is. We just need to find a Quest Diagnostics place that stays open after we get haircuts. In other news, Mrs. Prof finally got a chance to wash my moon boot with Woolite last night. It had passed the point where Febreze worked anymore. It had to be washed. So, overnight, while it dried and I slept, I had to wear the shoe I normally wear in the shower. I'm definitely not ready to go full-time on the shoe, thanks to the snapped sesamoid bone. It still hurts, as does the top of my big toe. That's why the podiatrist ordered the boot 24/7. I agree. Mrs. Prof will be putting it back on when she gets back from retrieving cats—hopefully, including the one she sponsored so she can move it to the vet. My shoebox containing my medications is starting to fall apart. I think I'm going to have to get a new one. Believe it or not, I wrote a poem with the shoebox at the center of attention of the work, if not the actual subject. If anyone wants to see it, I may post it here. It's a bit emotional, so brace yourself if you do want to see it.

Is it possible that "Box" will try and use Tedd to break down the magic dam, therefore making him her catspaw (in a good way)?

The sad part is that he's really not a "boss," per se. He's in charge of Animal Control. The Pet Adoption Center is a separate entity. It's a cross-department situation here. BTW, Mrs. Prof is going to get the cat she sponsored out of Animal Control tomorrow and move it to our personal vet, if there's space.

10:05 p.m. CDT 20170622. Without going into detail, we made it to the psychiatrist. Mrs. Prof got to sit on the sofa, while I had to sit on a chair. I bring this up because the person who was in right before me was also using a walker. The disability parade today, it was. The appointment was mainly an infodump of everything that has happened since my last appointment in March, the last time I was able to drive myself. I went over the hydrocodone disasters, the whole Spine Team [Redacted] Texas mess, the UT Southwestern nightmare, and what my primary care doctor is doing for me in the way of getting me a third pain management doctor at Baylor Scott & White. I also went over the broken big left toe and sprained other toes, the recurrent edema in my right foot/leg, and (briefly) the ENT appointment yesterday, since I'd been coughing at my last appointment three months ago. That's as far as I got before he had to cut me off. He asked me about my medicines, where I told him that my Abilify had been increased from 5mg to 10mg. End of appointment, see ya in three months. A bit of mental and hair hygiene is scheduled for tomorrow. It's time for Mrs. Prof and I to visit the hair salon. I really need a haircut ... and a beard trim ... and a mustache trim. I think I'll let her handle a second hair washing tomorrow as well. We've also got to go by a testing lab and get that damned GERD test done, then get the compounded prescription filled. (I don't understand this doctor—I've seen him before, and he has some penchant for compounded prescriptions.)

Mrs. Prof sponsored a beautiful black cat at the Garland Pet Adoption Center. She trapped it in our own back yard, practically with no effort at all—the cat walked into the trap, she pulled the trigger, and the cat just kept on eating. It must have been an escaped domesticated cat. Anyway, she paid for all of its shots and everything else, including a microchip. It has been in its own adoption cage for a while now. Move to another spot in the GPAC's building. There's a communal room where many not-so-friendly cats are kept in cages, next to signs that read, "If your child is less than 16 years old, HOLD THEIR HAND." Well, the wife of a staffer at Garland Animal Control came in and did just the opposite. She let her 8-year-old kid run rampant. At one point, he tried to pull a black cat out of one of the cages. He got bit, sending Mrs. Animal Control staffer into a texting frenzy. Garland Animal Control came in and confiscated every black cat that was in that communal room for quarantine, since the 8-year-old brat couldn't (or wouldn't) identify which cat he'd messed with. They also got on to a GPAC staffer who was in the middle of an adoption for not IMMEDIATELY filing a bite report, saying bites take precedence over adoptions.("Throwing their balls around," as Mrs. Prof called it.) Well, today, Garland Animal Control took things one step too far. They confiscated the cat Mrs. Prof was sponsoring, even though it hadn't even been in the communal room when the brat got bit. Mrs. Prof found out and simultaneously broke down and blew up. Tears and phone calls started flying. She's now on her way up to the GPAC to figure out WTF is going on, and to do everything she can to get the cat transferred to our usual vet (due to an upper respiratory infection that's been making the rounds among the cats) for treatment. If you haven't figured out by now, Garland Animal Control is run by an egotistical bastard who sees Mrs. Prof as a threat to his territory. The entire TNR program had to be rammed down his throat by a city councilman on her behalf. I believe this is his way of getting back at her, and so does she. Things that make you go WTF? Yep, I think this qualifies.

I've downloaded it and wish to help test it. Now, if I only new what I was doing ...