Archives for February 2021

Hey Sweetheart,
Had a good night sleep, now that things have settled down a bit. I managed to make a morning appointment for a lab test, something about checking for how thin my blood is, though considering I’m not taking any medications it should be pretty normal. I stopped at a couple of auto repair places to see about inspecting the suspension on the truck, maybe putting airbags in. One guy couldn’t look at it until next week, another one not until tomorrow. As I was coming up the drive, Jeff was talking to his neighbor Mike, who’s a pretty good mechanic himself, and he told me that he’s had problems with airbags, a lot of things can go wrong with them, and suggested maybe just shocks (since I’m pretty sure they’ve never been replaced) and many another leaf spring just for extra capacity. I hadn’t thought of that, but that makes a lot more sense to me, not to mention will be a lot less expensive. I need to find a truck specialist for it, though, that’s my next project when I have a chance. Jeff FINALLY got around to getting some chemicals and new filters for the pool, so this morning it was actually looking really nice, and it’s been such a hot couple of days the pool temp is up to 80, so I decided to take the afternoon off and just float around for awhile. Brother Glenn and wife Dena joined me for quite a while, got some nice sun, and wore Lola out with lots of fetching and swimming. Jeff had a service call, so James and I fed the horses, got that done in short order, then settled down for the evening. Ready for my shower, reading and bed, so good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Well, after days of running around trying to put everything in order for my surgery tomorrow, today I had disappointing news. I went up to Stuart for the second half of my stress test, which was simply to get a “resting” reading to compare to yesterday’s stress reading, and in the process, they discovered what they think is a blocked or partially blocked artery to my heart. That meant my cardiac doctor wouldn’t give clearance for the the surgery, so that had to be postponed. Unfortunately, they tried to get it rescheduled for next week, but the operating rooms are all fully booked, so it will now be at least two weeks until I can get my knee fixed, unless there’s a cancellation and they can fit me in next week. In the meantime, I have to undergo a cardiac cath, or angiogram, where they send a camera to my heart and try to clear out any plaque building with one of those balloon deals, or worst case, put in a stint. This was the procedure they did to you when we think they put in too much dye that eventually caused your kidney failure. I’m sure they’ve improved that protocol since then, but you can bet I’m going to ask about it! Unfortunately, that’s not scheduled until Tuesday, and in the meantime, I have to have another blood test done to check the thinness of my blood, and a THIRD covid test on Saturday. The only silver lining in all this may be that this will be considered an underlying condition and I might be able to get the covid vaccine earlier, which means I might be able to get back on the union insurance quicker. Fingers crossed! I guess it’s a good thing this was caught early, though, I just wish it didn’t mean delaying my knee surgery, it’s just getting more painful every day. Anyway, after spending most of my afternoon on the phone trying to resolve all of this, I finally settled down for the evening. Had my shower, now I’m off to bed, late! And certainly a lot later than if I had get up at 4:00 in the morning! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
Felt like Groundhog Day, starting out with a repeat of yesterday. Woke up long before the crack of dawn, headed straight up to the hospital for my stress test, which went really well as far as I could tell. I remember watching you go through one of these pharmaceutical ones and feeling like you were going to die, but I hardly had any reaction at all, so I’m hoping that means everything is fine. There’s a second part to it tomorrow that they make most people take, with rare exception, so I’m guessing I’ll be back again tomorrow, though not until 11:00, thank goodness! I didn’t think I was going to get out of here until 12:30, that’s what my appointment schedule said, but we were finished by 9:30, and that included me going to the cafeteria and getting some breakfast in between! I took my second covid test early, they were happy to get me done, and by the end of the day, that came back negative, too. I had some time to kill before my next appointment so I stopped at TJ Maxx to pick up a few more pairs of those leggings that I use for riding pants, my other ones are starting to get a big worn out, with some holes from brambles and threads starting to unravel. Their dressing rooms were closed, but they have a generous return policy if I don’t like them, but they seem like they’re pretty much the same. I’ll try them on before I head back up tomorrow in case I need to bring them back. I got to my next appointment, started with an x-ray, then seeing a Nurse Practitioner and finally, more than an hour after my appointment start time, finally saw the doctor. This time I stressed that it’s my scapula more than my shoulder that’s the problem, but in the end all they prescribed was physical therapy, so in addition to my knee I’ll be doing PT on my shoulder area as well. Not convinced that will work, but I’ll try anything at this point. Hope the insurance company understands that all that PT will be for two different things. Finally finished up there, then drove over to Ranch Feed to stock up on feed and hay, then lost a bale on the freeway on my way back to Jupiter. I saw it go, so I pulled over and backed up to where it was, and everyone was doing a good job of avoiding it. Then, just as I got out of the truck, someone in a small car crashed right into it, spreading hay everywhere! I thought they would stop but they didn’t, which surprised me because it looked like sections of something were falling off the car as it went. I think they’ll discover a lot more damage than they think once they pull over, but maybe not, I don’t know. So that was a waste of $10, wasn’t going to dodge traffic just to pick up a few flakes of hay. I was only on the freeway because I had to go to the Walmart to pick up all the prescriptions I’m going to need after the surgery. I had forgotten all about it, but they called me to remind me today, so I stopped there and got everything.. Finally got home after 4:00, stored the rest of the hay under the gooseneck, so with two full batches, now, I should be good for nearly a month. I’m going to move the feed bins into the back of the Logan trailer tomorrow so I don’t have to climb up the ramp to feed, and neither will James if he’s feeding, both of us would have trouble navigation that incline. At 5:00 James was ready to feed the critters, so we got that done in short order, and I finally settled down for the evening. Not surprising, I’m feeling pretty tired today after two early mornings, so I’m off to bed, and hoping I’ll be able to sleep better and longer now that everything seems to be on track for the knee surgery on Thursday. It will really be a relief to get that fixed, it’s really been bothering me lately, and it’s clearly not going to get better on it’s own. I hope the same is true for my shoulder, it would be great if I can get myself in really good shape before the maladies of old age start to set in. At least now I have a baseline for a lot of my vitals, which will be good going into the future. Anyway, time for shower and bed. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Woke up to my alarm way before dawn, with only enough time to get dressed and drive up to Stuart. Arrived on time, and no surprise, the girl there said my appointment was canceled, then further said the the insurance company actually DECLINED the authorization. Well, that was the first I had heard that, last I heard it was pending, and I had expected it to come through early. When I questioned her, just to clarify that she wasn’t confusing it with the earlier declination (later reversed after a peer review) about the knee surgery, she got all uppity and in my face about it, as if I was accusing her of being incompetent. That was the last thing I needed after my frustrating weekend! I told her I wanted to see if it could be rescheduled today, but when I asked her where scheduling was, she got all nasty again, saying you can only call. Fine, I sat in the waiting room until 8:00 when scheduling opened, was making good progress with the first woman I spoke to when the call dropped for now reason, then called back again and managed to get the procedure rescheduled tomorrow morning with another woman. Then I started calling the cardiologist and the orthopedic surgeons offices must to make sure they all were in the loop, and discovered that someone from the cardiologists office had already spoken to the insurance people and did, in fact, get the denial reversed (yay!), all before 8:30!! But, of course, it was too late to get in to do it today, so it’s on for tomorrow. I let the shoulder guy I’m meeting tomorrow know I might be a little late for the pre-appointment x-ray, and the covid folks that I would be late for my next covid test (I need one less than three days from the surgery, so Saturday’s doesn’t count for that), and they were all okay with that. I breathed a great big sigh of relief that everything now seems to be on track again. From there I went down to a Verizon store to see if they could solve my problem, but after half an hour of screwing around, they didn’t seem to have any solutions for it, except, of course, that my phone was so old I should replace it, surprise, surprise! I declined and left, headed up to Walmart to do a major shopping, I wanted to have enough supplies on hand to get me through as much of my first few weeks of recovery as I could, so I wouldn’t have to worry about going out again, though I’ll need a few things I guess I’ll have Jeff pick up, like lettuce and milk. Anyway, I finally made it back, put all the groceries away, relaxed a little, then decided that since it was such a nice day, and the pool was up to 80 degrees, that I would float around in my river ring and read for a bit, which I did. Though, of course, Lola kept insisting I throw the ball for her, quite a trick since she would drop the ball in the pool near me, and I’d have to collect it, stick it in the chucker, and toss it for her. I’m glad she’s getting some exercise, but it wasn’t quite as relaxing as I had hoped, but still, it was nice to get some sun. After an hour or so of that, I went back to the trailer and was just about to go feed the horses when Jeff’s boarder arrived, she had asked about taking Apollo out with her yesterday, but I didn’t expect her this late. I went ahead and fed the horses, I knew Apollo wouldn’t be happy about leaving right at dinnertime so I fed them both, but I knew this would create problems getting the goats back to the barn, which it did. Flash ran around the paddock like a mad horse when Apollo left, and the goats wouldn’t move, so I left them in the yard and instructed the boyfriend to have the girls put the goats away when they put their horse away, so they did. By then it was after dark, but I checked on them and everything was fine, except they didn’t put the electric fence up, but I fixed that and it was all good. I watched a couple of Heartlands, but now the long day is catching up to me, and I’m heading off for shower and bed now. Love you, babe! Good night!

Hi Darlin’,
Had a horrible night sleep, stressed out about this stupid stress test that I was supposed to take tomorrow that got canceled, worried about whether I’ll be able to schedule another in time. I actually woke up around 4:00 and fretted for the next few hours about whether I should go down there on schedule and hang out until things are resolved, completely forgetting that today was Sunday, not Monday. Crazy! Then I spent four frustrating hours chatting with Verizon trying to figure out why I can get great data on my phone where I’m parked, but when I try to make a phone call, the signal drops down to no bars of 1x, so I haven’t been able to make or receive phone calls, which has also been contributing to my frustration level. Grrr! After that, I was so exhausted from all the frustration and lack of sleep I just vegged out the rest of the day, even taking a little nap in the afternoon, and falling asleep while reading. I did make the decision that I will get up and drive up to Stuart at the appointed hour just to see if they can still fit me in as soon as the approval comes through, which I’m sure it will, so at least that part of my mind will be at ease when I go to bed tonight. You know how I am, I have to have a plan to regain control, or I’m not very happy! So time for bed, nice and early, hopefully I’ll sleep better tonight, now that I have a strategy. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Had a very fitful night, stressed out worrying about what will happen if I can’t get a stress test in time and if I have to postpone my knee surgery just because ONE person didn’t make the right phone call at the right time. I even looked back and saw that I had emailed the cardiologist’s office on Wednesday to get them to make sure the hospital had everything it needed for the appointment, and it STILL didn’t get anything done on it until Friday. So frustrating! So I only got a few hours sleep, then almost slept too late. I decided to go do the scheduled Covid test just in case I can do the procedure on Tuesday, I certainly didn’t want not having the test delay it, so I drove all the way up to Stuart for the test, which was given in a parking garage and lasted all of two minutes. Hardly seemed like the most sanitary place for labwork to be collected, but that’s how crazy it’s gotten now! After that I went to Ranch feed, I was going to stock up on hay, but then a huge downpour started (of course there was almost no rain in the forecast, surprise, surprise!), so I skipped it, figuring since I have to come back this way next week anyway I could pick some more up then. Headed down to the Dodge dealer in WPB for Jeff, he needed some parts for what he hopes is the final repair on his big truck, then I stopped at Town and Country feed for my usual eight bales of hay, since there didn’t seem to be any rain about, and it was a short trip. Managed to get back and get it loaded in the trailer before the horses discovered it in the back of the truck, so that was good, but then I forgot to close the trailer door after I drove away and they found it shortly afterward. Fortunately I got it closed before they made too much of a mess. Didn’t do much else the rest of the day except start looking into getting air bags for the suspension of my truck. I need to get the shocks and stuff checked out anyway, and several people have mentioned to me how useful the air bags are, so I’m checking that out. Might be an expensive add-on, but it could be worth it with the load I’m hauling. Settled down for a quiet evening, not much else to say! Good night, my love! P.S. Just got my covid test results, no surprise, negative.

Hi Sweetie,
Spent the morning getting the inside of the truck cleaned up and my tools put away, then headed down to Wellington for an electrocardiogram. On the way I got a call from the WPB office saying that somewhere along the line no one request approval from the insurance company for my stress test on Monday, and with out it, they couldn’t do it. After the test I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get an answer about the approval, only to get a late message saying my appointment had been cancelled because the request was still “pending.” So the two hours I spent on Wednesday setting up that appointment went out the window, and unless they can get another appointment scheduled in time, which is doubtful, they’re likely to call of the surgery and the whole domino affect that will cause is just unthinkable. If I can’t get this all done before my insurance runs out, I may not be able to get it done for years. It’s all so stupid, and just because someone at the cardiologist’s office dropped the ball and didn’t make the approval request on Wednesday like they should have done. GRRRRRRR! I’m so ticked off I can’t see straight. I’m the one who has to suffer, possibly for months or years, just because of someone elses’ lack of follow-through. I hate this system, when an insurance company dictates what care you’re allowed to get. I wasted another couple of hours on the phone trying to fix it, but then was told it was under control, then later told my appointment had already been cancelled. I have to stop ranting, but it really does make me ANGRY! Anyway, I finally settled down late (I kept trying to resolve something right up to about 8:00, but of course, no one works on the weekend so I didn’t get anywhere), now I’m heading for shower and bed, trying not to seethe too much, and not being very successful. Grrrrr! Love you, darlin’. Good night!

Hi Darlin’,
Another extra warm day today, we’re really having a heat wave, every day in the low 80’s, not bad! I decided today I was going to take the next logical step in the pursuit of fixing my sound system in the truck, and did what I SHOULD have done from the beginning, and test the speakers directly. I took off both door panels and took out the working speaker and plugged it into the left, non-working side, and surprise, surprise, I had sound! So all this money and time I’ve spent over the last few weeks, getting a new radio and wiring harness and all that, totally unnecessary. I guess that’s what I get for listening to my brother’s diagnosis. 😉 I went into town and picked up a couple of speakers at Walmart (plus a stop at the post office to send out some additional paperwork the new owners of my old trailer needed to get it registered), and by the end of the day, I had the new speakers put in, and even took the one working front speaker and put it in the rear left door because I discovered that one wasn’t working either. I probably should have changed them all out, but I’m not really the audiophile I used to be, so this is good enough. A lot of wasted time and money, but at least the job is done. Now I can finally put all the tools away and clean out the inside of the truck, just in time since other people will have to drive me for awhile after my knee surgery. The doctors are saying it will be at least two weeks before I can drive since it’s my right knee, but we’ll see. I’m planning on stocking up on everything so I can keep those shopping trips down to a minimum so I don’t have to rely on anyone else any more than is absolutely necessary. I have to check with my insurance company and find out about transportation to the PT sessions, which are supposed to be 2 or 3 times a week, if there’s a service I can take, or reimbursement for Uber or something. I’ll figure something out, you know I always do! Managed to get the horses done, a bit late but just before the mosquitoes came out. Jeff’s been home working on the Dodge, he did a major overhaul, with new injectors and a new fuel pump. It wasn’t sounding too good in the afternoon, but he finally got it going, and it does sound a lot better. Finally settled down for the evening, ready for shower and bed. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Had an early appointment at the DMV to try and get both horse trailers registered, but only managed to get the Trailrider done, but that was a huge accomplishment on it’s own. Evidently the copy of the Certificate of Origin from Harmar was the contributing factor. Amazingly, I got the same woman at the DMV as I had last time, and she remembered all the problems we had, so she was very helpful. I couldn’t believe the annual registration fee for the Trailrider is going to be over $100! Compared to the $26 in TN, it seems ridiculous. She was really nice about it though, and she asked me how much I paid for it (because Florida requires the taxes to be paid), and I gave her a figure (albeit a bit less than the truth), she said, “Are you sure it wasn’t a gift?” with a sly eye, so of course I agreed, and I got a big break there! She was telling me all about the rich and famous who come in and have everything registered under a corporation and don’t pay any tax, and I guess she was just helping out the common man (or woman) with her helpful suggestion. So at least I got that done! They wouldn’t register the Logan, though, because the VIN sticker has completely pulled off and the only way I can register it is if I drag it down to their regional office in Riviera Beach and have them certify it (for which I need to make an appointment), and then I need to come BACK to the north office and register it (for which I need to make an appointment), so I think in the end I’ll probably just leave the old TN tag on there, considering that it’s mostly just sitting in the yard storing hay, probably won’t go on the road at all this year, unless I decide to go out to Dupuis at some point. Probably not, though, considering my knee surgery is next week and everyone’s telling me it will be at least 4-6 weeks before it will be moderately healed. Seeing as that is nearly April, it’s going to be getting way too warm down here and I’m going to want to be heading north by then. I had expected to be at the DMV for a couple of hours, but was finished in about an hour, so I called the cardiologist and arranged to come in earlier, and thankfully they were able to do that. I stopped for a quick salad at a little cafe tucked in a strip center, then got down to my appointment. Sorry to say that didn’t go every well. The EKG that my GP did last week never got into the system, so he didn’t have anything to compare today’s EKG with, and with my high cholesterol, he decided I needed a couple more tests before he’d give me clearance for surgery, and they had a really hard time finding an opening in any of their offices. In the end, they managed to get one test down in Wellington on Friday, and the other test I arranged myself up in Stuart on Monday morning. It’s strange that their network systems don’t connect between Palm Beach and Martin counties, though apparently it’s in the works. So I’m going to be doing little else but running around to medical facilities for the next week plus. I was hoping for a longer reprieve after spending so much time doing that with Hubby, but hopefully after this problem is resolved, things will settle down. Got back just before it was time to feed the horses, and since Jeff was still working on his truck, I did it on my own. James and Glenn got home shortly after that, and Glenn gave me a few of his venison appetizers leftover from Superbowl Sunday, my one indulgence this week. Well, except for the wine I had over two days. Settled down for the evening at last, won’t be long out of bed. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
Today was mostly about meeting with the PA down in Coral Springs in advance of my surgery next week, telling me all the procedures and medications that I need to know about. One quick stop at Publix to pick up a few things, then back to the house. Didn’t really do much else today. It’s been hotter than normal so I’ve had to run the AC for Lola all day while I was gone, and tonight, too, because of the heat and humidity. Hard to believe I had the fireplace going all night just a few days ago, so changeable right now. Better than being in the snow, though, for sure! Tomorrow will be busier, have a couple of things to do and places to go. Just another mundane day today! So I’m off to shower and bed early again. Good night, baby! Love you!