Well, damn.

Gregg's appointment with the kidney doctor on Friday didn't yield much new information. He basically repeated what we had already heard: yes, a renal blood clot is rare; the most important thing is to figure out why it happened; blood thinners are the main treatment. They've scheduled him for some heart tests starting May 3rd to see if there's an underlying condition there, and then he goes back to the nephrologist in four months for a checkup, barring anything else happening to his kidney in the meantime.

The only good news was that the affected kidney may not necessarily have permanent damage after all this is over. When Gregg asked why it's still hurting so much, the doctor said, "Think about a heart attack. This is basically the same thing, but in your kidney. Yes, it's very painful." Gregg then told him that he was almost out of pain medicine, the guy told him to see his regular doctor, since pharmacies will "flag" pain prescriptions from more than one doctor. Okay, fine, Gregg said, and then went by our family doctor's office right afterwards to ask for a refill. And guess what? The doctors at her practice take half days off on Fridays, and there was no one there to give him the refill. He asked the nurses: "So what the hell am I supposed to do this weekend? Go back to the ER and spend another $10,000 if the pain gets bad and I run out?" to which they replied "Probably."

Can you believe that? It all makes me so mad!

And then, of course, the pain has been getting bad again. He's down to his last couple of pain pills and they probably won't last until tomorrow when (hopefully) his doctor will be back in her office. In fact, the pain was so bad this morning that he seriously thought about going to the ER again anyway.

This seems beyond ridiculous that he's still hurting so much and no one seems to have any sense of urgency about helping him. Maybe we got spoiled when he was going through cancer treatment....you always have access to your doctors and to pain management drugs when you have cancer!

He plans to have a serious talk with his doctor tomorrow about his medical needs and whether or not she's going to be taking them seriously enough to continue to serve as his GP. I realize she's not a specialist,but after the serious health issues he's had, he deserves better care than this and when he has a problem it needs to be given more urgent attention than this. I hope she apologizes and tries a little harder. Finding a new GP is another headache we don't need right now.

This morning Gregg apologized for "ruining your spring break" which made me feel terrible. I don't care about spring break, there will be more. I just wish he could start to feel better. It scares me when he's in pain and I'm feeling a constant low level anxiety that I'm doing my best to keep under control.

Not a great way to end the vacation, though. Wish me luck that we don't end up in the ER tonight.

Solution

I hit on an idea for blocking Crazy Neighbor's camera just by chance this morning while messing around in the garage.

My big, tall, plastic jack o lantern has been called into service this morning--during the month of April, no less! He's currently grinning directly at the camera while blocking most of the view.

Take that, creeper!

An interesting week

Even though I've barely left the house this week, things have been....interesting....around here.

The good stuff first:

It's been a banner week for birdwatching. About three days ago a Facebook friend posted about a rare sighting of a Rose Breasted Grosbeak at one of his feeders here in Florence. I told my husband about it that afternoon while we were sitting on the porch watching our feeders, and not an hour later one showed up! This was a first for me.

And if that wasn't exciting enough, we had another feathered visitor a few minutes later that was even rarer in this part of the state: a Painted Bunting!

I've seen Painted Bunting before, but only a couple of times at Huntington Beach State Park in Murrells Inlet, SC. They tend to stay close to the coast. My dad, who grew up in Murrells Inlet, talks about seeing them there as a boy. I've never even considered seeing them 50 or 60 miles inland. What a treat!

Unfortunately, the Rose Breasted Grosbeak and the Painted Bunting only hung out at our feeders for a few minutes, and then they both disappeared. We sat outside all afternoon yesterday hoping they might stop back by, but no luck. They must have been passing through on Monday and it was just sheer luck that we were sitting outside and got to see them.

Speaking of birds:

Somebody kept trying to sneak up on the dyed eggs to see what they were all about! I had to stop him twice or he would have broken into them. I finally just took them away. Brat!

I also got a much-needed haircut:

In January and February I started losing an alarming amount of hair. Every time I took a shower there would be gobs of hair around the mesh drain covering. Of course I googled it (thanks Doctor Google!) and discovered that stress can make that happen. Apparently you're supposed to think back two or three months before the hair loss started to see what was going on in your life. Well, we bought a house and moved in November. So there you go. I'm beyond thankful that the loss seems to have gone back to a normal amount, even though now I have tons of 1-2 inch new hairs that stick out all over. Hey, at least it's growing back, right?! I hadn't had a haircut in several months and my hair was looking bad. Limp and tired, thin, with dead ends. I usually go to our local Great Clips to get my hair cut, but that's always a crapshoot. I've had some of the best and some of the worst cuts of my life there. I went yesterday hoping to get someone good, and as luck would have it a woman named Wendy who has hair very similar to mine in texture and color was assigned to me. She listened sympathetically to my tale of hair woe, assured me that she's seen lots of people lose a bunch of hair when they're stress and that it always grows back, and then talked to me about  the best method of cutting fine hair like mine. I was very, very pleased with the results. The cut is good (hard to see that in these two pictures) and now my hair looks much healthier and shinier again. Wendy was a godsend! I feel so much better about how I look right now.

Finally.....the weirdest thing that happened this week. I've been looking at the fence line in our back yard, planning how we need to get back there and do some weeding. On Tuesday afternoon I went out there again while scooping up dog poop and this had appeared, hidden in the bushes just behind the crazy old man neighbor's property line:

What does that look like to you? The crazy old asshole has set up a surveillance camera! It's pointed at our back yard and porch, although when you're sitting on the porch the angle of our garage blocks it from view. It's hidden in thick bushes about 6 inches behind his property line, and it definitely wasn't there the day before. There is absolutely NOTHING on his own property that he could be filming. Not his yard, not an entrance, nothing at all except our yard and house. What a creep!

I texted the sheriff's deputy that works at our school. He said he didn't think anything could legally be done, since the camera is outside and on his property. He said he would put up something to block the view of the camera, and see if it moved. He thought it was hilarious. I was furious at first, but now I think it's kinda funny, too. There's nothing for him to see, and our dogs rarely bark anymore (not to mention they spend over half their time in the house these days) so I can't imagine what he gets out of it. I've gotten close, leaned over the fence, and flipped off the camera a couple of times but now I'm trying to think of something funny to put right there his view. A sign of some kind, maybe? I would LOVE any suggestions you all might have!

So that's been my week so far. Today I'm planting a few tomato seedlings around the back porch (I'm sure Crazy Neighbor will be watching from inside his house) and then going to lunch with a friend. Spring break is going by a super light speed, but once we go back to school we only have a little over a month and then summer vacation will be here! Then I can spend three months thinking of ways to get revenge on the nutty neighbor! Hahaha.

Back in business

I'm finally able to blog again (comfortably) because I bought a new computer! Yay! The old one bit the dust last week, and when we purchased a new one, we discovered that the old monitor was dead, too. I had to go out today and buy a new one of those. But finally, after a week of commenting on blogs and writing posts on my phone, I have a real computer to work with again!

I wanted to buy a nice laptop instead of another desktop, but the price for decent ones was out of our current budget. We should get a few years out of this new machine and hopefully by the time it dies, we'll own a couple of laptops. We just can't afford one (let alone two) right now.

How's your week going? Mine is pretty good. Despite being worried about my husband it's been nice to be off work for spring break. Gregg has an appointment with a nephrologist on Friday so maybe we'll get some answers about the blood clot on his kidney. Meanwhile, he's taking blood thinners and the occasional pain pill as needed. He's also scheduled for some heart function tests next month, to see if an underlying heart condition is the origin of the clot. For now he's feeling okay and that's the main thing.

This is just a hurried post; I have a few things I need to accomplish this afternoon. I'll blog later tonight or tomorrow about some things going on this week that might be of a little more interest than computer problems and blood clots.

It's good to be back!

Happy Easter

I decided to go ahead and dye a few eggs tonight, and I'm glad I did. The bright colors are cheerful and they look nice on the table.

Happy Easter!

Good Friday

It's the first day of spring break and I don't know what to do with myself. Everything has been so odd around here for the past week that it doesn't feel like the beginning of a vacation. Until yesterday there were plans to have a wine drinking/Easter egg dyeing party with Marla and Martina tonight, but I decided to cancel. Gregg is still having pain and feeling pretty miserable, and neither one of us feels like having company. It will be next week after the holiday before he can see a cardiologist and a kidney specialist, so in the meantime they have him on blood thinners and pain pills (to be taken as needed). At this point, we don't know how this will all play out. The doctor said he could work and continue normal activity as long as he feels up to it. Which for my husband means working long days to catch up on his missed aquarium jobs. He refuses to stay at home and rest and it's driving me crazy! I wish the doctor hadn't been so casual about him working, but under the circumstances most people would take it easy on themselves. Although to be fair, Gregg's trying hard to catch up because he has three days off with me scheduled (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday) and he's determined to have his little mini vacation that we've been planning for a month now. I'm disappointed that he's having it turn out like this though --pain and worry over a health problem.

Another reason I was upset that he went out to work today is that he's driving an hour to service two nursing home aquariums, and terrible storms are going to be rolling in before he can get back home. There's going to be strong winds, flooding rain, and the possibility of hail, tornadoes, and dangerous lightning. I'm worried about him driving in such conditions, but he was stubborn and determined to go. At least he wouldn't take pain meds this morning, fearing being impaired behind the wheel on top of everything else. But he'll be out working with pain in his side.  It's a no-win situation.

That man of mine frustrates the hell out of me sometimes! He's too obstinate to be argued with, though. I've had to learn over the years to just let it go.

So as not to end this post on a sour note, and to show you that it's not all gloom around here, let me share three good things from yesterday with you all:

First up, my smiling Georgie:

 Next, my new shoes. Look closely at the pattern.....it's called "Woof Pack".

And finally, a gift I got at work yesterday from one of the special needs classes. Next week, while we're on break, Administrative Professionals Day is coming up. Ms. Goodale and her sweet students made this for me.

If you look closely at the top of the card, you'll see that it was signed by Jesus. I guess that's appropriate for Good Friday!

Not-so-good news

Gregg has a blood clot on his kidney. That's why he's had so much pain. I'm really worried. They said that it could involve something with his heart, too, which I don't understand. More tests tomorrow, and he has to see a kidney specialist. They said that it will have to be addressed immediately, but we don't know if he'll be in the hospital or not.

More info tomorrow. Scary day.

Tuesday stuff

I'm taking a sick leave day off from work today. Gregg is still having pain and nausea, and when he finally saw his regular doctor yesterday she ordered more scans to be done to try to figure out what's going on. She also prescribed stronger pain and nausea medicines, which he shouldn't take and drive. Hence the day off I took; when I mentioned all this at work yesterday the office staff insisted I take the whole day to look after my  husband. This morning the principal texted me to wish us luck and to say he hoped Gregg felt better soon. It's still amazing to me to work at a place where they will emphatically say "family comes first" and mean it. I can't tell you what a relief it is to not have to worry about covering shifts/asking coworkers to trade schedules/getting attitude for being out....which is the way the retail world works. It was especially so at my last retail job. I remember when I was out for a week because my husband was having his left lung removed and was in the cardiac ICU for 5 days, and not a single coworker called, texted, or messaged me. Not once. And when I got back to work very few people even asked how he was doing.

Boy, was I glad to leave that awful place behind when I got this job.

Anyway, enough of that. The doctor wants to have a closer look to see if there's something the ER doctor missed. Today's CT scan will be "with contrast" as opposed to without, so they should be able to get a much more detailed look at everything going on in his abdomen. ....................................................................................

That was the point where my computer made a funny noise and died. I'm finishing up this post while waiting for Gregg to have his scan. Lucky us....looks like we may have to buy a new computer on top of everything else. Argh!!

Happy Tuesday.