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.

I've just returned from the infectious disease specialist. Here's the deal: I'm going to have to go into the hospital on Friday to have a PICC line inserted. Immediately after that, I go back to the infectious disease specialist's office and pick up a week's worth of supplies. I will then have to infuse myself daily with two antibiotics through the PICC line. I'm not sure if each drug will take 30 minutes or if both drugs together will take 30 minutes, but in either case it's something I'm going to have to do for the next six weeks. I don't know how I'll do it, but it's got to be done. Man, they are taking my toe extremely seriously!

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.).

Update: I have an appointment scheduled with an infectious disease specialist on Wednesday, July 18th at 9:30 a.m. CDT. The damned referral secretary first tried to hook me up with a wound care specialist, which would have done no farking good. How is that supposed to help a case of osteomyelitis? I got her straight on the subject and she fixed things, finally getting me set with the right doctor. I hope.

Much obliged. It's been a rough couple of months, which explains my absence. My mother used to threaten to amputate my toenails at the neckline.

I have had a nasty turn for the worse. I first reported trouble with the second toe on my left foot back in February, specifically with an ingrown toenail. The toenail had to be removed, and I was placed on antibiotics for the infection that had developed around it. I've been on antibiotics of one kind or another almost non-stop since then. The infection never did completely go away. I had Silvadene cream and other ointments prescribed. None of them totally wiped out the infection. In the past few weeks, the toe itself has become extremely painful to the touch. The infection was just a small spot on the outside, but the pain involved the skin covering the two end bones of the toe. My podiatrist had no explanation. A week ago, I began to experience swelling in both my legs from the foot to the knee. Walking became almost impossible. The podiatrist finally ordered a nuclear bone scan to see if anything was wrong with the bones of the toe itself. As it turns out, I have a bone infection. Osteomyelitis of the tip end bone and possibly the second bone. There's no way to confirm with a biopsy or MRI, since the bones are so small. He gave me two options - a referral to an infectious disease specialist, or amputation of the toe. I had an appointment with my regular doctor to discuss an upper respiratory infection later that same day, so I decided to let him consult on the decision. My doctor immediately recognized what was going on with my foot and legs, and connected the two. He said that the bone infection was causing the swelling (edema) in my legs. He prescribed a diuretic for the swelling, but couldn't do much about the pain since I'm already on oxycodone. He then checked out my mouth and throat and confirmed the upper respiratory infection, complicated by a case of thrush in my mouth (a fungal/yeast infection). He switched out my antibiotic to Augmentin and added Fluconazole tablets to my already huge mix. In the end, he ordered a stat referral to an infectious disease specialist in an attempt to save my toe. I'm hoping the referral comes as early as Monday. I doubt it will, but I'm going to ride them hard on the matter. This hurts too bad to leave it alone.

Just got my results from the doctor. His truncated reply: So, it's cross-your-fingers time and hope the discomfort goes away.

I had some trouble with the patient portal this morning. It sent me an e-mail that said I had new test results available. However, there was a system glitch that wouldn't let me log on to see it. I called the doctor's office and reported it. I did eventually get in around 1pm - the test was a simple CBC, showing normal results. Around 4pm, I got a phone call from the nurse, asking me if I got in. She also told me that the doctor had all of the test results, but hadn't had time to go through them yet. I'm now waiting for either a phone call or another e-mail from the doctor via the patient portal with results. Meanwhile, I'm still having discomfort in the kidney area. The Bactrim DS side effects of weakness and dizziness are going away, at least - I was able to do some music writing - but whatever it did to my kidneys, if anything, is still hanging around. BTW, the Bactrim DS is going to be replaced by Keflex 3x a day. It's been a long time since I've taken that stuff.

Got back from my main doctor about 30 minutes ago, after being told to see him by the podiatrist (we'll call him Dr. P). Dr. P told me to stop taking the Bactrim and get my back pain checked out for possible kidney problems. My main doctor did just that and found that there may in fact be kidney problems, based on where and how bad the pain is. He ordered labs stat and should have the results tomorrow. In the meanwhile, he suggested putting a lidocaine patch over them if my oxycodone isn't giving me enough relief. This one's got me a bit scared, folks. I don't know what's going to happen.

I'll make a long story short (or avoid repeating a story) and say I have an infection in the tip of my second toe, left foot. It's a leftover from an ingrown toenail. At one point, the infection was quite large. My podiatrist keeps treating it, and every time we think we've got it knocked out, it comes roaring back again. This time, he decided to try attacking it with Bactrim double-strength. Big horse pill. I'm not having fun with it. I've been tired all day long, but at the same time I've had insomnia. I can't sleep until I wear myself out. Both are side effects of the Bactrim. I'm starting to get other side effects as well, such as loss of appetite and a feeling that my head is spinning. Most recent of all, I'm getting discomfort in my lower back - bad enough to Google it to see if kidneys ever get involved. I'm going to give the doctor a call later today to see what he wants me to do.

SECONDED

Breaking a writer's block in an epic way. Now, to finish the song tomorrow. Moo.

The Japanese term for someone not being able to handle hot foods/drinks is "they have a cat's tongue." Prime example.

The 1997 one with Tommy Lee Jones, set in Los Angeles.

Volcano, the movie. Lots of science problems with it, but good action.

I'm waiting for insurance approval to have an operation that will supposedly help with debilitating pain down my right side and right leg. We're talking about an 8.0 to 9.0 on a zero-to-ten scale. The pain kicked in out of nowhere on Monday of last week and hasn't left. The operation I'm waiting for is something called "radio ablation" of my right side nerve endings along my spinal cord. It's hard to describe, but it's supposed to make things feel better. I damn sure hope so.

To my local post office to get a passport. Mrs. Prof and I are celebrating her retirement and our 35th wedding anniversary by going on a trip to the U.K. this October. I'm also going to meet up with a mate who does a radio show out of Lincoln called "The Cyber Den" and hopefully be a guest on his Wednesday program. (He did the interview with me on the Calibrations CD.) After that, it's a guided tour for us through England, Scotland, and Wales.

Had a pair of steroid injection procedures into my back last Friday at the hospital. One was into my lower right side of my back , while the other was into my sacroiliac joint (basically, my tailbone) on my left side. The latter was done to fix, believe it or not, a problem with my left leg. I couldn't lift it onto the threshold of a car in order to enter, or up onto a stool to dry it off after a shower. The pain was excruciating. After the procedure, half my butt was numb for a day (the left half, obviously). I gave it a test the next day. Carefully, I lifted my left leg and put my foot on a chair. No pain! None at all. Today marks four days since the procedure, and I still don't have any pain lifting my left leg. It's almost like I never had any pain there in the first place. The story with my right side is a bit different: just a tiny amount of relief. Still, I consider the left side relief a miracle.

New blog posts about the ASCAP situation: https://dleejackson.lbjackson.com/2018/05/a-goal-achieved-before-reality-sets-in/ https://dleejackson.lbjackson.com/2018/06/and-all-well-most-becomes-clear/

Ohh, it's so tantalizingly close I can almost feel the shiny new jewel case in my hand. If you've followed the forum, you may be aware that I need to publish an album by April to keep my Grammy voting rights. It looks like that may happen much sooner than that. All twelve tracks are complete, tested on a crappy laptop speaker, and await just one more road test. A cover is being designed, and publishing possibilities are being investigated. Of the twelve tracks, three will be absolutely brand new, never published before! Right now, that's all I can release to the general public. Watch this space for more over the next month. In the meantime, if you've got music to talk about, talk about it!

I've finally netted $100 in sales from the CD, MP3, and streaming sales. Not a king's ransom, but money is money. Another thing I've netted is a title I can add to my name - ASCAP! As in ProfessorTomoe, ASCAP. (Not my real title) (No Ass Cap jokes, please)

What have they got you on as a migraine preventative? The boost to 400mg of Topomax seems to have done wonders. I haven't had a hand grenade go off in my head in a couple of weeks.

Crystal Light Lemon Iced Tea. I'm too damned tired to do anything else.

Turns out I did give Mrs. Prof the same disease, and thanks to her stubbornness she let it get worse than mine. She now has an acute maxial infection with water behind the ear, according to the folks at CareNow. And, for some dumb reason, she's going to continue with plans to conduct a feral cat round-up on Sunday. She's going to make herself worse, especially when you consider that she's got to take me to my pain med checkup on Monday. To add to the agony, the stupid Windows update made Google Drive try and sync with every file on my system, and in my anxiousness to get them off, I wound up deleting most of what was there, including my medical records. That's it - I'm using Dropbox from now on, because I'm going to have to restore a recent image backup to an empty drive and then restore what I had from Google drive just so I can access my medical records.

Had to visit the doctor today. Been having sore throat issues, along with congestion (nasal & chest), sinus pain, non-migraine headaches, and a generally foggy head, making it unable for me to write music. Diagnosis: upper respiratory infection that has spread to my mouth. Additional: while showering, I noticed a black spot on the second toe of my left foot. That's the one that had the toenail removed back in February due to infection. Well, the toe is now ulcerated and infected again. I'm on a 14-day course of Augmentin. I haven't been able to write music today or yesterday, although I'm hoping I can by tomorrow (or at least by Saturday). Mrs. Prof is now complaining that I've given her the same disease. I hope not.