Thanks For Your Concern

Thank you to everybody who has sent emails, texts, and Facebook messages expressing their concern for our safety with Hurricane Dorian approaching Florida, and with our various medical issues. We appreciate you.

As far as the storm, we are watching it closely and are well-stocked with provisions if we get hit. If worse comes to worse and it looks like it’s going to be a big one, we will head inland north and west to get out of its path.

However, just like all the years we spent in the Midwest during tornado season when we were fulltime RVers, I think we’ve adopted some of the Floridian attitude of not panicking just because someone’s calling something a hurricane. People around here ignore Category 1 storms, hold hurricane parties for Category 2 storms, and hunker down and play board games by candlelight during Category 3 storms. I don’t know that we are quite that laid-back, but we are not freaking out at this point, either.

On the medical front, it seems like it’s two steps forward and one step backward. Terry had an appointment with her gastrointestinal doctor on Tuesday, and he admitted he has run out of ideas on what to do with her problems, which are caused by all of the damage from the intensive radiation she had during her cancer treatment. He put in a referral for her to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. Hopefully they can come up with something that will help.

As for me, I went to my pain doctor on Monday and he compared the MRI on my spine from a year ago with the one taken last week, and it shows two more herniated discs. So basically, all five lumbar discs are shot. Yesterday I had an appointment with one of the best neurosurgeons in Florida, and after examining me and looking at the MRIs, he told me the same thing the VA has been telling me for years – due to the nature of my injury and my advancing spinal deterioration, I am not a candidate for surgery.
He said it will not help at all but very likely could do more damage. He said to double up on the pain meds and consider nerve ablation and/or a spinal stimulator, but added that neither of those are a solution, only a band-aid.

I have another appointment scheduled for September 11 with a specialist to see if they can figure out the dizziness and head pain I experienced a while back. I have no idea what, if anything, they will be able to come up with. I’ll tell you what, this getting old sure isn’t for sissies!

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of The Green Pearl Caper, the first book in the Damien Dickens mystery series by Phyllis Entis. To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening.

Thought For The Day – I just replaced the can of air freshener in the church bathroom with a canned air horn. Now we wait.