Darned Doctors!

I got up fairly early this morning and fed the animals and put the drops in my eye. Those drops turned out to cost ninety some dollars. I hope they work. These doctors come up with these experiments and half the time it's for nothing.

My brother-in-law called last night to say they were going to take Phyllis in for a CT scan as soon as they can get her an appointment at the hospital. Now what for??? Alzheimers is incurable and she certainly isn't going to get any better and there isn't any treatment for it. It will just upset her terribly. The last time they took her back from the hospital she was terrified of the lift from the van. I don't see any reason to put her through that just to satisfy a doctor's professional curiosity....and to make him and the hospital some money. Maybe I'm callous but I don't see any sense in it. Every time she goes to the hospital and back to Windsor afterward, she gets a lot worse. It's just too hard on her. My brother-in-law is going to try to reach her doctor this morning and find out his reasoning for doing that.

He called again this morning and we went to Eggberts and had breakfast. He will call me if he learns anything from the doctor. She was very upset yesterday and cried when he left without taking her home with him. I feel so terrible for them both.

I have an appointment Tuesday with my doctor. I need to find out if my high blood pressure is just a fluke or if I need to take medication to lower it. I took it again on Thursday at Wal Mart and it was still 172/100. This year may have just been too stressful for me. No sense having a stroke if it can be controlled.

House Cleaning Now

The day has come. I must clean house today. It's beginning to look pretty grubby. That's my goal for today.

Yesterday turned out to be a very busy day. Besides getting my hair done, and picking up Juanita for breakfast, I went to Independence's Wal Mart and got the ingredients for my part of the Thanksgiving dinner.

When I got home, I talked to Scott again and got an address in Germany and then, because I didn't know how long it would take to get there, I went to our Wal Mart store and got some things for a box to send to him as well as his birthday card. Well, it's on it's way.

Last night I watched TV until 9:00 and then went on to bed. I am having a hard time staying awake in the evenings. The eye doctor in Wichita, Dr. Amstutz, said much of that is the effort it takes to consciously keep my eyes open when the left one especially wants to close. I saw Joanne B. at Wal Mart here and she told me she had had the same surgery some years back. She said she had held cold compacts on her eyes after the surgery for the first day and had barely any swelling or discoloration. They told me in Wichita that the eye would look healed in three weeks but the healing would continue for nine months to a year.

I'm still a little apprehensive about having it done...especially since he can only do one eye. If anyone's surgery will fail, it would be mine. The left foot bunion surgery still irritates me. I went through all that discomfort and inconvenience and still it failed. And I had an orthopedic specialist do it too.

Keith called yesterday afternoon too. It seems now he will wait to leave until Tuesday evening . His vacation begins on Tuesday but he has something else going on Tuesday so he will arrive a day later on Wednesday. I have to have my hair done on that Wednesday at 7:30 AM but should be back home before he comes in or while he is sleeping. I need to bake my pies on Wednesday..or at least early Thursday. I also will need to make my Waldorf Salad while the pies are in the oven.

Another trip to Independence

I will go back to Independence this morning to get my hair done. This will be four trips out of town this week. I cannot find anyone in Coffeyville that can do anything with my hair. It has become so thin as I have aged.

It will be a very difficult two more years for Obama. I doubt anything of value will be accomplished. The Russian/American nuclear arms treaty is the first to be sacrificed. All that work the first president Bush put into it will be lost. We will start (or continue) building up nuclear arms. The second thing will be the tax increase for the richest 1% of the country. They will not let that expire and they may make it permanent. History has shown that trickle down economics does not work. The rich do not spend much of their wealth. The middle class spends all of their income...as do the poor. The way to stimulate the economy is to give those who make under $200,000 the tax break because they will spend their money.

It seems the primary goal of the Republican Party is to defeat the president's hopes for the country and keep him from a second term.

At least he has a plan now to get us out of Afghanistan. We will always have a peace keeping/training force there but if we can just let the Afghans fight their own war against the Talibon, that would be the best answer. They will have to do something about Pakistan and their training grounds for them though. But they need to let the Afghans do that. Most Afghans are illiterate and so our troops are trying to teach them to read while they train them. That is a monumental and impossible job if you ask me.

Wichita Doctor's Appointment

We are back from Wichita. My brother-in-law went with me. I had to bring someone just in case they dilated my eyes. We stopped and ate lunch at Olive Garden. We got back at 4:00PM and left here this morning at 7:00 AM. We had a huge day in Wichita and found out many things we did not know. One was that my white jacket syndrome evidently kicked in or the stress from the last six months did. My blood pressure was 180/112. (Stroke City). My normal blood pressure is 129/72. I have an appointment with Dr. Melissa to have that checked out. Plus Dr. Amstutz cannot do both of my eyes at once because the right one is not bad enough and the vision in it is not impaired from the eye lid droop. Medicare would not pay for the right eye at this time. When and if it gets as bad as the left eye, then he will do the right eye. I would have to pay for the right eye now out of my own pocket (around $2,000). So he will do only the left one...in which vision is impaired.

But Dr. Melissa will need to sign a paper saying my blood pressure is up because of the white jacket syndrome... or, if it is not that, she will have to check my blood pressure under ordinary circumstances and if it is that high then, get me on blood pressure meds.. Then she will have to sign a form to say it is regulated and fax it back to them before they will do the surgery. My appointment for the surgery is January 5th at 12:00 noon check in time. My appointment with Dr. Melissa is this Tuesday at 9:00 AM.

So, disturbing news if my blood pressure has been that high this year since Bob died.

Slap Dash Men!

Yesterday during the rain, once again I noticed my windshield wiper blades on the driver's side were not working properly. The one on the driver's side would catch on the one on the rider's side and even bend. The rider's side cleaned well though the driver's side only cleaned half the window.

So, although I don't think there's any rain in tomorrow's forecast, I decided to replace the driver's side blade. I went to Auto Zone where they will install them for you at no charge. They replaced the driver's side for a little over $10.00. When she replaced it, she noticed the rider's side, was the wrong size. In today's cars, they are supposed to be two different sizes. So I bought a second one and it works perfectly now. The second one was a dollar cheaper.

The men at Fast Lube had put those on for me only last winter. I will know better then that now. I know they charged me an arm and a leg and still got the wrong wiper blade.

I will leave in about an hour to go visit Phyllis. Then about 10:45 I will leave for my luncheon engagement with Gay.

The rest of the day I will do some cleaning here at home. I have nothing else planned.

I went to see Phyllis this morning and she was sleeping in a chair. I couldn't seem to wake her by holding her hand but finally she roused just a little. She was slumped over and her head was on her chest. It hurt me just to see how she was sitting. I stayed about 40 minutes, had a short visit with Denise in the parking lot and got to Cherryvale in time to have lunch with Gay. We stayed about two hours and caught up quite a bit of news.

Then I came home and was catching up my e-mail when a transformer blew out back and the power went out. I called the city on my cell and they were out here within thirty minutes. that was fast god service!

I will pick up Bob A. tomorrow at 6:45. He is going with me to my appointment in Wichita. They said they may dilate my eyes and I would need someone to drive home for me if they do that. It's awfully good of him to come with me.

I will watch Tv tonight. Nova is on PBS and after that Frontline. I enjoy both those programs.

Very Busy Monday

I have a big day planned. First I go to Independence and do the invocation for the County Commission meeting. Then I go out to Leslie's and clean her house. I probably will not get finished soon enough to go to lunch with her. Then at 4:00, I will go to the board meeting for MC3. (Montgomery County Community Medical Clinic).

Tomorrow I plan to go see Phyllis and then go to Cherryvale to have lunch with Gay.

Then Wednesday Bob A. and I will drive to Wichita to the doctor. I plan to have eye lid surgery. I cannot open my left eye all the way since my eyelids have become so heavy. This will be preliminary appointment and he will look over the problem. Then in four to six weeks I will go back for the surgery. I don't know what to expect. I imagine there will be a lot of swelling following the surgery. He will probably tell us on Wednesday. If Medicare doesn't approve it, I won't have it done.

Then on Saturday, I will pick up the two Thanksgiving dinners we are giving away to some of our needy friends. Thursday and Friday are both free. The following Monday son Keith will take off after work to drive here from Phoenix. he won't get here until Tuesday. He will spend a week here with us. We are all excited about getting to see him.

Another Sunday

Today I will go to church, as usual. The worship service will mostly be about the Samaritan Child project. Sue has worked hard to bring this all together. I believe her goal was to have twenty five boxes to turn in. She recruited all her friends and they really responded. I'll bet she has at least twenty five...maybe more. She has a video to show us today as well as some remarks of her own. Then she has the sermon next week following the election of congregational officers. I will preside that day. I hope Carletta is up to presiding over the business meeting. She is really struggling. After the pastor is elected, I can take over for her.

I am hoping we will all eat out together after church today. That's always great fun.

This afternoon I will do my letters and get them on the mailbox to go out tomorrow. I will stay home tonight and watch TV...hopefully something will be on after 60 Minutes. If not, I will finish my book.

I will have a busy day tomorrow. I am to give the invocation at the County Commission meeting in Independence at 9:00 and afterward go out to clean Leslie's house. Then I will go back up to Independence at 4:00 to the board meeting of the clinic.

More later....