10/31/08

A rough week

It has been kind of a rough week for me. I have not felt really great all week long and this gall bladder thing has really gotten me down. Yesterday I had no energy and really hurt all day long as well as burped so much that I could not quit hurting. I did not ride my bike yesterday but tried riding today and had the tension level too high and it literally made me sick, so I had to get off and will lower it the next time that I ride.
Tonight has been better and I have not hurt as badly and that is a good thing, but cannot wait for the 13th when it will be coming out.
I also found out that the surgeon and his nurse have been talking about Major all week long and evidently he made one heck of an impression on them as well.

10/28/08

Finally some answers

I think I have finally gotten some answers. I went to see the surgeon yesterday and he confirmed that the gall bladder has gone bad and needs to come out before I get major gall stones and then have real problems. I am now waiting on their office to call me so that I can set up the date and time to have the surgery. I cannot wait until it is done. Major was a real flirt yesterday and really showed off to both the dietician and the nurse for the surgeon who would have taken him home with her if I had turned my back fast enough too. He is such a silly boy and he really loves working so that he can go and show off, and I have to really love that about him.
I just wish that the surgeon's office would hurry up and give me a call and I think that might even make me feel better about having to wait so long.

10/25/08

A lazy day

It is becoming a lazy day here today. It has finally quit raining and we are just taking it easy for right now. We have to go to my parents for dinner tonight and other than doing some laundry, we really have nothing planned and that is a good thing. The nice thing is that there is not a Carolina game and I can always listen to the Nationwide race on the radio going out to the house, so it should be fun.
Sue is really tired out and her one student has really given her a run for her money. He is a foster child and it seems like every time he goes and sees his biological mom, he comes back giving everyone a really hard time including his foster mom and I have a feeling that she is to the point of wanting to get rid of him too and sending him to another foster home. I really feel for the child, but after awhile you have to have abreak too.

10/24/08

A little frustrated

I am getting just a little frustrated with friends that are forwarding me stuff that they don't even check out as a urban legend or hoax. One such example was a I got an email last night telling me to not take the new dollar coins because they had left out IN God We Trust, but after going to snopes.com, I found out that this was a hoax and I get annoyed at these "well meaning People" that send this stuff out. I do forward things, but have learned to check them out if something just doesn't seem right. I am also sick of the crap that I amg etting in my in box from my friends that are bashing candidate Obama. I am not saying that I totally agree with everything that he stands for, but the continual bashing by "Christians" is really leaving me lacking and it would not want me to become one with these kinds of attitudes and it makes me not want to vote for a single Republican and the way that things are going, I will be voiting third party for President and more than likely Democrat for everything else.
I think that if we would stop and serve our fellow man and even the church get more involved with the community outside of it instead of letting the government take care of the world, then we would be much better off as a society.

10/22/08

A rough day

Yesterday was a really rough day for me. I had eaten the leftovers from the night before and the leftover hamburger steak evidently did not set well with all of the problems I have been having with my gall bladder. It took me well over two hours to eat lunch and still even supper was making me burp badly. I am so looking forward to seeing the surgeon on Monday afternoon because this is really getting old and I am really uncomfortable.
Sue is really tired and I am hoping that our doctor will get off of his rear and see about getting something done for her and maybe demanding that the insurance company see her problem ass a matter of life and death because she is so tired all of the time and I know that it has to be from her weight and not sleeping like she should be. I have a sneaky feeling that she is dealing with a sleep apnea issue and the CPAP machine is here since I no longer need it. It is hers at her disposal and I think that she would really benefit from it because before I lost so much weight, it really helped me sleep too. There was a time that I could not sleep well without the thing, but now that I have lost so much weight, it really does me no good.

10/20/08

Nice and quiet

It is nice and quiet here this morning and that is just the way that I like it. It is chilly and am happy to see some fall weather finally getting here. I cannot believe that we had some frost this morning and that the temperatures were in the uper 30's too. I love this time of the year because the nights are chilly and the days are nice and mild. It is peaceful here right now and I like it that way too and I can even enjoy my morning coffee that much more.

10/17/08

Finally a decision

I fianally got a decision from the surgeon's office this morning. The surgeon that I wanted said that he would gladly see me and it still baffles me as to why there was so much drama in getting this accomplished. I have a feeling that they saw I was not just going to lay down and die for them and since I had already talked to the insurance company, that gave me real leverage and they could not dispute that and had to give in. I will be going on Monday, October 27 at 3:30 and we will just see what happens after that. I have a sneaky feeling that after what the ultrasound showed, that the gall bladder will be coming out and if so, then I want to schedule the surgery as soon as possible. I know that it will be an outpatient procedure as well as being done laproscoprically. I know that will be better for me and the recovery time will be easier than an open incision. I kow that this group will not do anything with an open incision unless they absolutely have to and i greatly appreciate that too.
It will definitely be interesting to see what actually happens.

10/16/08

Finally getting somewhere

I think I am finally getting somewhere with the surgeon's office. I fiannaly got the office manager and have no clue why she did not return any of our calls. She is going to talk with the surgeon that I want to use and said that she did not think that there would be a problem doing that, and my question was why could not someone in that office told us that yesterday afternoon when we first started calling. If I can get the consult with the surgeon that I want, then maybe we can go ahead and schedule the surgery and get things over and done with. It will be interesting to see if I hear from them before the end of business today.

10/15/08

Finally getting somewhere

I think I am finally getting somewhere about getting an appointment to see the surgeon about my gall bladder issue. I found out just a few minutes ago the referral has not even been started. I got the song and dance about the priorities about appendicitis and kidney stones, but excuse me a gall bladder going bad should be up there too. It has been one week since they were supposed to have started on this and are now getting to it. I find this unacceptable and it is obvious that the office has gotten too big for its personnel and that is just wrong. I have spoken to the office manager as well as my doctor's nurse about this problem and will talk to them again if necessary. I will even call someone in the administrator's office at the hospital if need be to see if this problem can be quickly taken care of.
The referral secretary said that she would start working on this right away and hopefully will be able to call me back later on today with an appointment. I know that the surgeon I want has openings on Monday at this point and maybe I can get one for Monday or next Thursday and that would give Sue time to either take the day off or be able to get her mom to take me. It has gotten aggravating, but think I am finally getting somewhere. I have heard that the squeaking weheel always gets the grease.

10/14/08

Still waiting

I am still waiting on the doctor's office to call and give me an appointment for the surgeon's office. I called the appointment secretary at the surgeon's office to see if an appointment had been mae, but all I got was her voice mail, so I left a message in hopes that she will call me back soon to let me know what is going on. This is really ridiculous having to wait five days at least to get a referral to see the surgeon. This stuff with the gall bladder is really getting uncomfortable and I really wish that something could hurry up and get done. Last night was really aggravating because I kept burping and after awhile my belly ached so badly that I ended up taking one of the pain pills that the doctor's nurse practitioner had prescribed for me and that really helped. If they are going to do surgery, then I want it to be done as quicly as possible so that the holidays can be enjoyed without having this over my head too.
I guess things will get taken care of in the next day or wo.

10/13/08

Really excited

I got an email earlier today telling me that the lady who had fostered Major throughut his training has finally become an apprentice trainer at Southeastern. I know that Jessi had been a kennel assistant and had been promoted back in July to a trainer assistant and that was a good thing and knew that in time she would be in line for one of the next apprenticeships available and to her creditt, she got the next one available.
I am really proud of her and for her as well because she really loves the dogs and will do a great job and will be apprenticing under some really good trainers that will definitely teach her plenty. I am hoping that we can get a group together to go down to the walk in February and I would love to hear her say hi Handsome to Major and I know that he would jump on her too.
It was funny because any time that she would come around during training, all she would ahve to say was hi handsome and he would turn toward her and sometimes would even jump up on her too. It was kind of funny to see.
Major is such a silly dog and many people down at the school said that he had no personality, but that is not true, it just takes him a little bit to warm up to you if he doesn't know you. I can definitely remember our first day, he did not really warm up to me until the next morning when I was getting out of the tub/shower combination and stepped on 97 pounds of black Labrador named Major. It really cracked me up and after I told Raymond my trainer, he laughed and said that was him showing me his silly side and that he was bonding with me and he has done things over and over again in the almost 15 months that we ahve been partners to show me he is a silly dog and that he is definitely a daddy's boy.

10/11/08

A long week

It has been kind of a long week. I was finally happy to get the results of my ultrasound and am now waiting somewhat inpatiently on the doctor's office to get off of their butts and get me an appointment with the surgeon. I would like to go ahead and get this taken care of before the holidays so that I will be able to enjoy them with my family as well. Sue had a long week and we are just relaxing right now. It has just been a long year for her adn we desperately need to get out of town for a few days and right now are planning on escaping to the mountains in two weeks if I don't have to have surgery before. We have only been up there once this year and that was with her mom back in March and we have not been able to get there by ourselves and that is what we want to do and have no interruptions and no visitors while we are there. I really love going up there because it is so peaceful and private and we just go to get away from it all.
I know that my parents go and come all the time while they are there, but we take our own food and only eat out a couple of times and that is usuallygoing up and coming home and sometimes even get tot he bakery in Brevard for fresh bread and cookies. I love the pastries there too, but cannot eat too many of them especially because of the sugar content, but it is good stuff. I can remember our honeymoon up there where we spent nearly 100.00 that week and let me tell you, it was definitely worth all of the money we spent int hat place.
I think we are just going to cool out this weekend and try to get a few things done in the house and I am definitely going to be watching football and see if my beloved Gamecocks can get business taken care of in Kentucky.

10/8/08

Finally some news

I finally have news on my gall bladder ultrasound. It seems that the gall bladder if full of sludge and the lining is full too so the next step is to have a consult with a surgeon and I have selected the surgeon that assisted in my gastric bypass surgery because he and I do well with each other. I am now waiting on the them to make the appointment and figure that if they need a consult then surgery is imminent and if so, then I want it done as soon as possible so that it won't interfere with any of the holidays as well.
The great news is that the other bloodwork that they did last week came back normal and my blood sugar was 77. I was really surprised at that considering I had eaten lunch about 4 1/2 hours before they did the blood work, so that lets me know that the surgery was definitely worth it and it worked as well.

10/7/08

Sick of politics

I am really sick of all of the political stuff right now. I have a couple of "well meaning" people bombarding my email in box with all sorts of crap and I am absolutely sick of it. They claim to be Christians and think that since I am a Christian, I am going to vote the way that theya re and it is just not going to happen. I really tried making one of them mad at me the other day just to shut him up and it looks like it did not even work. I will be so glad when the election is over and we can go back to a normal life.
I think if people are going to be so darn political then they need to run for office and not harrass their friends with their junk.

10/6/08

A rough night

It was a nother really rough night last night. I tried the leftover roast and it bit me again, so I guess until we find out what is going on in my system, any kind of roast like that is definitely out of the question. It is really strange that the sausage on the pizza we had Saturday night did not bother me that much and the same with my morning coffee and I am not brewing it any less strong than I normally do. It will definitely be interesting to see what the ultrasound showed that we had done on Riday and then decide what to do after that. If I have to have surgery, I would like to go ahead and get it done before any of the real holidays get here so that I can enjoy them too.

10/3/08

ultrasound over and done with

The ultrasound is over and done with. It went prety easy and now all we need are th results which will come either Monday or Tuesday. The radiologist will have to read it and then send the report to my doctor and then they will cal me with the results. If the gall bladder is bad, then I am going to see about getting the surgeon that assisted with my gastric bypass surgery and see about scheduling it as soon as we possibly can. I would love to get it out of the way if that is where we are headed.
Major was great and got lots of compliments on how nice looking he was and how well he works and that always makes me msile. It is nice tohave such a confident dog that enjoys his work too. He was really good in IHOP since I could not eat or drink anything before the test and then we went and had our Trailblzer serviced and the cashier at Herndon had to come and talk to him. I think that she would steal him if she were given half the chance. It was kind of a busy morning, but am happy to be back home too.

10/2/08

My silly dog

I had to go to the doctor's office yesterday to see if my gall bladder is going bad. Major did a great job of guiding me, but he really shoed off his silly side and then one of the nurses that my doctor uses came out to talk to him, and what did he do but roll on his back in harness with all four paws to the wind expecting to be petted.
I really liked the nurse practitioner and she had a Labrador and then asked many great questions aboutguide dogs and guide dog work. I love it when people ask questions because I am alwasy glad to answer them andd educate them about guide dog work. It is a passion for me and it helps because Major is such a nice looking dog and a looker as well. It was just a shame that I was single and will just leave it at that.

10/1/08

A rough night

It was a really rough night for me last night. For the past week I have been wondering if my gall bladder is going south on me. We went over to Sue's mom's for pot roast and vegetables for supper last night and after eating my portion of roast and a few carrots, I got sick. Usually if I have eaten something too fast, I feel it in my throat, but lately it has been in my gut and it was on fire. I ended up throwing everything I had eaten for supper up and then tried eating some of the wilted lettuce and the potato I had not eaten and that made things even worse, but I was still hungry. I waited until we got home and threw up some more and then had a couple of ice cream sandwiches and they made me sick, so I waited a little while and then tried eating a bag of soy chips and then they made me throw up too. I had taken Tums, Pepto-Bismol and even Maalox and I ended up throwing all of that stuff up too. Needless to say Sue was quite worried about me and I have scheduled a doctor's appointment for this afternoon. Unfortunately our doctor is on vacation and will not be back until Monday, but this cannot wait so I am going to see the nurse practitioner this afternoon and see if I can get them to refer me for a gall bladder ultrasound. I think that is the only thing that is going to rule this out and if it looks like it is going bad, then I will get with the surgeon's office and schedule surgery. I think that this kind of surgery is outpatient now and that is definitely a good thing too.The last time I was in the hospital was for my gastric bypass surgery and that was not the most pleasant experience I have ever had too, so if I can get away with having outpatient surgery, that will be the thing to do.