ProfessorTomoe

Surgery went well, although the new drain line is shorter than the old one. It's a PITA to deal with in the bathroom.

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.

Here's more. The "wait and see" got a LOT worse. My right leg looks like The Elephant Man's leg now. I had a sonogram today - they found a 7.3 cm "bubble" of fluid in there, so they're going to put me under tomorrow (Friday) and insert a new drain. Just what I always wanted - more surgery.

No, no "Meh," fortunately. In other news, I'm starting to swell up a bit. The doctor said to expect this, and that I should ice down the area, which I have done.

This silver/gold business is turning out to be fun to discuss, so I figured I'd set up a new topic for it. I did a little more digging on APMEX's site and found what @mlooney was discussing, more or less: something called "Prepper Silver." Little one gram bars that are meant to be bartered at will in the event of a financial meltdown: The image is obviously much larger than the bullion would be in real life. Here's what the sales pitch has to say in part: I was actually thinking of buying one of these little guys just because they're cute and cheap...until I read this crap. Now, I think I'd feel dirty carrying out the transaction. I don't know. I might buy one anyway, but I'd have to swallow some serious pride in the process.

New silver added to the repository: It is a 2015 Canadian $8 "Superleaf" coin, and it comes in at .9999 Fine. That's the purest silver I have in my collection. Beautiful coin.

I saw the surgeon today, and he took a good look at the damage. Pronounced it "wait and see."-type damage. I've already got an appointment on Thursday, so we're keeping that and will use it to reassess. In any case, he said he's seen worse.

The pope is dead. However: If you are a devout Catholic, you may be offended by what follows. Please forgive me. It is only meant as friendly humor. Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum; habemus Papam: Eminentissimum ac Reverendissimum Dominum, Dominum Pisces Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem Swimmeatus qui sibi nomen imposuit Dopefish.

Oh shiat. I got my drain hose caught in the folds of my recliner leg rest upon standing and yanked it out, stitches and all. There wasn't even any pain as a warning. There's pain now, though. My right side is sore. I'm going to have to see the surgeon on Monday to figure out what to do. Oh shiat.

You have your next T-Shirt ready to go now.

I messed around with the sticker and wound up peeling it off without residue. Good enough. The back is now visible, but with something that annoys me: https://ibb.co/cKg12nmK (it won't embed, for some weird reason) Anyway, you can see the scratches on the thing. I think they're on the plastic sheath, so they'll go away when I remove that and put the bar into a hard plastic capsule. We'll find out.

And they're here! I am now the proud owner of a Johnson Matthey silver 1 oz bar, serial number A495919. Mondo cool. As for the Star Wars coin, it's even prettier than the bar! Beautiful frosted highlights. I've already put it up, or I'd post a pic of it. As for the bar, here it is: It doesn't look pristine for a couple of reasons. First, it's inside of a sealed plastic slipcase. Second, it's not brand new - Johnson Matthey have been out of the refining business for many moons now, and this is somewhat of an antique bar, so to speak. None of this affects the value, which is in fact enhanced by its collectibility due to its scarcity. I've got a better, hard-plastic shell case coming for it. Once it arrives, I'm going to remove the bar from the soft plastic and put it into the new plastic for better protection. Besides, APMEX slapped a barcode sticker on the back of the soft plastic case, so you can't see any of the reverse side of the bar thanks to that. I'll be freeing it up.

If things go as planned, Mrs. Prof. will be purchasing a new laptop for herself about now: https://www.microcenter.com/product/649163/acer-aspire-5-a515-57-52yq-156-laptop-computer-gray She does not need a huge multimedia machine. She just needs something she can use to do spreadsheets, communicate, and watch streaming content. Please tell me I haven't steered her wrong.

Quick update: I think the official Apple Thunderbolt 5 cable may have solved the problem I had with my external 4TB drive disconnecting. I haven't had that happen once since I hooked in the new cable. Just as a precaution, though, I bought an el cheapo heat sink to put beneath the drive housing. It's quite large - bigger than the drive itself, although only by a bit - and it does seem to work somewhat in keeping the drive coolish. Life with the MacBook Pro MP4 continues to be swell and dandy. No major hiccups, now that I've alleviated the drive disconnect issue.

Big day today! My 1 oz. silver bar is due to arrive, as is the 1 oz. Star Wars Imperial logo coin that I got for my son for Christmas. Can't Wait!

Same here. I was a bit freaked out when I saw it there. But, then I saw the real seller listed (APMEX), and realized that they were doing just what Amazon does (Amazon sells silver as well) with sub-vendors. If I'd been really smart, I'd have held off and bought it along with today's purchase and saved even more money, but no, I got antsy and pulled the trigger too soon. I think I'm going to turn this into a once-a-month collector's thing. I'll browse APMEX some more (their inventory is seemingly endless), and see what other vendors are out there and browse them as well. Then, come May, I might pop for something else new for the collection. Or, I might roll over my May allotment to June and buy something bigger in that month. I'd love to get my hands on a 5 oz. piece of silver, just to feel the heft of it. Or, hell, why not one that weighs a troy pound? I might happen to have a spare $458.84 lying around somewhere... To very roughly paraphrase a quote from a certain Bond villain: Just call me Professor Silverdigit.

I decided to make one more purchase this month, just to play a bit of a collector's game with some of the silver "rounds" that are available. The company I've been buying through, APMEX, has its own mint, 9Fine Mint, and they've been running a sale on the 1 oz. "rounds" (think coins, but not legal tender) that they carry. They've got 3 basic designs, and all of them are coincidentally priced exactly the same at the moment. So, I decided to buy one of each and see which one gets the most traction, just for the hell of it. Here they are. First, the "beehive" model: Next up, the "radial": Finally, the "diamond": All have the company logo, but with different embellishments. The back designs differ as well. These I got straight from APMEX instead of going through Walmart, since it was cheaper that way even with the shipping.

I did a bit of price comparison shopping, and believe it or not, I managed to snag a Johnson Massey-brand 1 oz. silver bullion bar from APMEX by way of Walmart for less money than if I had bought it from APMEX directly. Saved about $4 on the overall transaction when you figure in the shipping/handling - APMEX wanted $9.95, but Walmart's was free because I'm on the Walmart+ plan. Here's what I bought: Let me tell you a short, sad tale. Back when I was a kid, I had a little bit of money - just under $100. I took some of it and used it to get into the booming silver market of the day, in the mid-70s. I bought a 10 oz. silver bar (which turned out to be a junk silver pour) for a tad less than $80. I then held onto it until hard times hit, after I'd got married in 1983. I tried to cash it in. Lo and behold, the place from where I bought it no longer existed, and the exchange where I tried to sell it at first didn't want to accept the Certificate of Authenticity that came with it. They eventually caved in, but with me taking a loss of almost $30. The lesson they imparted? "Buy something like Englehart Fabricated next time." Well, Englehart no longer fabricates ingots, although their bullion is still around. Their ingots look like crap, though. For a trader, that doesn't matter. For a collector like me, it does. So, I picked a happy medium between reputability and holdability, then bought the best I could afford (Johnson Matthey, above - mine will have a different serial number). I could have bought something in Assay, but I'd never have been able to put my fingers (well, my cotton-gloved fingers) on it. Plus, it'd have been more expensive. So, come next week, I'll finally have a reputable, sellable (in case of emergency only), ingot of silver bullion of my very own. I'm stoked. Can't wait.

Ah, I get it now. Thanks for clearing that up. I showed the Imperial Star Wars insignia silver coin to Mrs. Prof, and she got a kick out of it. Thought it was a good idea.

I went searching for. something for Mrs. Prof, knowing her obsession with cats. APMEX did not have anything suitable, but another company had something suitable for a friend of ours who raised Tonkinese kittens into full-grown cats. The Isle of Man issued a series of bullion and non-bullion coins with cat themes. These included a pair of Tonkinese kittens in a playful pose on a non-bullion release: I went ahead and bought this for our friend. He's going to love it. Grand total with shipping + etc. was around $24 dollars.

Agreed. That was the gist of my "coast" question.

Do you live near a coast? Just curious. The ones I've been posting are .999 or .9999 fine silver. Very pure.

Anyone who buys into the "Prepper" market is, IMHO, a bit off to begin with.

Yeah, I think I'm going to pass on the "Prepper Silver." I think I'll save up and get something a bit more substantial a ways down the road.

I figured that, since I'd bought my son a birthday present that was Star Wars-related, I'd go ahead and pop for a Star Wars-related Christmas present as well: While he's big into Star Wars, he's specifically a fan of the Imperial Forces and the Galactic Empire. He will crap bricks upon receiving this Niue $2 coin of .999 fine silver, I predict. Moreso than with the Beskar bar.