One Of Those Days

Ever have one of those days? You know the ones. Where the days starts out bad and just goes down hill from there. Today was one of those days. My first chore of most days is walking the dogs. The devious twins, aka Amy and Emily, go first. I try to get them out in that time between when the middle school bus has picked up its charges and when the elementary school kids begin their walk to their school. I do this to minimize the chance of actually running into anyone. The twins tend to go ballistic if they see any one (as terriers are want to do) and who needs that racket at 7:30 in the morning? Upon opening the garage door there at the end of our driveway walking passed our house was another person walking their dog. Clue in the barking, the yelping, the carrying on. As the Grinch noted: "The noise...noise...noise...noise..." I dragged the twins back in the house to wait a few minutes and tried again. This time with success. After walking all the dogs, I showered and was getting ready to leave the house when I got a phone call from Ann. She had gone to Mass and was calling to report she had a flat tire. Great. Luckily a few kind men offered to help her change the tire so I was off the hook for that one. Dodged one bullet. Then I was off for an appointment with my eye doctor. I'm having continuing problems with my eyes due to the fact that some of my lower eye lashes grow back toward my eye and scratch my eye. Today was a scheduled treatment where the offending lashes are literally burned out of existence. Sounds painful doesn't it? Actually that part isn't bad at all because your lower eye lid is numb. Now getting the shot in your eye lids to numb them - that's the painful part. That and they bleed like crazy. While waiting for the doctor, Ann calls and informs me that they tire has been changed. Great news! Except the spare is also flat or just about. Crap. The kindly gentlemen that help change the tire direct her to the nearest service station to get both tires fixed. I hang up and I'm then directed into an exam room and given three injections in each of my lower eyelids. It's as painful as I remembered. I'm left alone to give the shots a chance to work. And alone and alone. The doctor finally returns with an apologetic "Oh I forgot all about you!" Oh how nice. Three eyelashes from each eye meet their end and I'm released. Thank goodness. I now get another call from Ann who is sitting at Starbucks while the tires are being taken care of. Someone or something has tripped the alarm at our house and the police are on their way to investigate. She thinks she may have forgot to cancel our dog walker or maybe not. I finally arrive home and no police and no note. I assume that they found no forced entry and no one home and figured it was a false alarm. A bill should arrive from the county in a few days for that. Merry Christmas. Driving into the garage, I notice the door into the kitchen has blown open and thats what tripped the alarm. Not to self - make sure the door is securely shut before running off to appointments. The rest of the day in uneventful. The quiet before the storm. Just as we are about to sit down to dinner, The Son calls. A phone call from The Son is almost always bad news. Its just a matter of degree on how bad. Turns out his car battery is dead. He wants me to come take care of it. What? He wants to use our car (flat tires now having been fixed) to go to work in the morning. I tell him to call AAA and they will install a new battery for him. Grumbling ensues, but he agrees to do it. 30 minutes later he calls back. AAA has arrived, but they don't have the right battery for his car and will have to return to the shop and pick one up. Oh and by the way, they're showing 2 different types of batteries called out for his car and would I know which one is the right one? Of course I don't so they leave to get the one they do have and we're all praying it's the right one. AAA returns and all seems to be ok. We'll see come morning. The car will be sitting out all night during the coldest night so far. The wind chill is already down to 3 with 25 mph winds. We finish dinner and Ann and I immediately fall asleep in front of the TV. We're old. Its what old people do. We wake up and face the dreaded job of taking the dogs out for the final time before bed. Its cold. Its windy. We whine a lot about it, but we walk the dogs. Scruffy's business looks terrible. We get home and unleash the dogs. We notice an unsettling smell coming from the dining room. Apparently Scruffy isn't feeling well and the dining room has borne the brunt of his intestinal distress. I watch the dogs while Ann does the clean up. We are keeping our fingers crossed that he isn't all up night having problems. After all who needs another day like today?

Scans and Treats

It has been so gloomy, drizzly, overcast, cold and rainy for the past month I was beginning to think that some transformation had occurred that had dumped me in England. Finally, today, the sun is shining and it's beginning to warm up. Warmer temperatures cannot come soon enough to suit me.

Yesterday I went to our local X-Ray/Imaging Center for a bone scan. I have what I like to think is a mild case of osteoporosis in my upper hip/lower back area. I'm not prone to breaking anything, but the bones are not what they should be. I take calcium supplements and Fosamax and it seems to be doing the trick. My last bone scan was better than the previous one and hopefully the trend will continue with this scan. I would have totally missed the appointment if I hadn't loaded the date and time into my cell phone. When the alarm went off, I was grumbling that someone had the nerve to call me when I was at home until I saw what it was and then had to scramble to get out the door. It didn't help that I couldn't find the referral from my Doctor. I had given it to Ann for safekeeping. I called her at work, but of course she wasn't at her desk. She never is, it seems, when I really need to reach her. Talk about adopting a new dog? She's always available. Need to reach her in an emergency? Forget it. You are so out of luck. After ripping apart our office and the file cabinet, I located it sitting right next to where my wallet was. Oops. I did make it there in time. Well 3 minutes late, but that's close. The scan itself was pretty uneventful. You just lay back and let the machine does whatever it does. In and out in about 45 minutes including doing the paperwork.

Thursday is the one day I actually look forward to coming to work. At least I do once I manage to drag my butt out of the beg and quit begging the alarm for just 5 more minutes. The reason I look forward to Thursdays is its Treat Day. Today's offerings were bagels, donuts, three different cheeses, crackers and muffins. All quite good and I had my fair share. Yum.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow, finally, I might get out on the water for my first row. It's suppose to be warm enough and as long as it's not too windy, it should be a go. We'll see how out of shape I really am.

For anyone curious about rowing and would like to experience it first hand, the Prince William Rowing Club is offering the first of three "Learn to Row" days this Sunday starting at 1:00PM at the Oxford Boathouse at the Lake Ridge Park Marina in Woodbridge. I'll try to post more information on it tomorrow.

Annual Physicals

This past weekend I had two annual physicals. One for me and one for my minivan. Mine was fairly mundane, other than the prostrate exam, which is always a show and not in a good way. Except for my eyes, I seem to be in pretty good health for my age. My blood pressure is still a little higher than the Doctor would like so he tweaked my meds again adding a third medicine. This whole blood pressure thing bugs me because its more about my genetics (Thanks Dad) then a lifestyle thing. If your a male in my family, come your 40th birthday you'll have high blood pressure. It's just how it is. Other than that, nothing exciting. Of course I'm still waiting to hear the result of my blood tests. Things could change, but I tend to think not. The other annual physical was for my minivan. In Virginia, there is a requirement for an annual safety inspection on your car. The minivan didn't fare as well as I did for my physical. The front tires were too worn to be passed. Given that the van still has the original tires and it has 62,000 miles on it, I can't complain too much. Two new tires and I was out of there albeit $400 poorer.

Our Easter was fairly quiet. Ann and I attended services on Good Friday and Easter morning. Then basically relaxed the rest of the weekend. Saturday it was rainy and windy and Sunday it was cold and windy making rowing or biking out of the question. I'm itching to get on the water and the weather has not been cooperating at all. The Son joined us for Easter dinner and our annual Leg of Lamb. It was very tasty although lamb is so rich I can't eat that much.

All weekend I was having problems with my eyes. On Friday and Saturday, my eye lids were so swollen I could hardly see out of them. Saturday I actually spent most of the afternoon with a cold washcloth over my eyes. That seemed to help a lot, but being so swollen I couldn't wear my contacts, which means I couldn't see hardly at all. I certainly couldn't read anything. I took Monday off from work because I didn't think I could wear my contacts. If I can't read there isn't much reason to go to work where 99% of my job involves reading. It was driving me crazy enough on Monday that I finally put my contacts in around 11:00. I figured I would wear them for just a few hours so my eyes wouldn't get irritated. As it turns out, putting in my contacts actually made my eyes feel better and I left them in for 8 hours. I have an appointment in May with my eye Doctor, but I probably should go in in the interim and see if he can figure out why they are so swollen all the time. The worst part of it is my glasses appear to be totally useless. I can't see any better with my glasses on then with them off. I definitely need to get them looked to as well. Now let me get this posted while I can still see.

Sore Foot

A few weeks ago, my left foot began giving me a bit of a problem. Apparently I have developed a plantar wart on the ball of that foot. I ignored it at first, but over time, it began to hurt more and more. By this past Friday, I couldn't put any weight on the ball of my foot because it just hurt too badly to do so. Obviously something had to be done. Should I go to my primary doctor, to my dermatologist, or to somewhere like Urgent Care? I figured if I went to my dermatologist, they would freeze it much like they do anything that looks suspicious during my yearly checkup. (Note: fair skin people, like myself, who let themselves get sunburned like crazy over and over growing up need to be checked out every year.) I remembered from one of my weekly visits to the grocery store, that someone had come up with an over the counter do it yourself freeze kit. So I decided to skip the medical professionals and treat myself. Turns out the kit is made by Compound W and consists of three parts - a base that contains the freezing agent, a foam q-tip and a small handle/actuator. The disposable q-tip locks into this handle/actuator and the q-tip is inserted into the base with the handle actuator interlocking with the base to prevent whatever is in the base that freezes the foam q-tip. It does say keep away from your face though. I assembled everything and pressed down on the base. A hissing sound ensued and after a very short time (3 seconds) removed the handle/q-tip. The foam q-tip indeed looked frozen. I held the q-tip to the wart and heard some sizzling noises. I assume that's a good thing since the idea is to freeze burn the wart. Per the instructions, I held the q-tip on the wart for 30 seconds or so. It didn't hurt and also didn't look significantly different from when I had started. I slapped a bandaid over it and put on clean socks. Hopefully this will kill off the wart although I've read that plantar warts go deep and freezing may or may not work. Shortly after the treatment, I tried putting on a sneaker. That didn't go well at all. It felt like a blister had formed and it didn't like being smushed into such tight confines. I went shoeless the rest of the day. The next day, I removed the bandaid after my shower and checked it out. Despite what i thought felt like a blister, there was no evidence of one. Not sure what was going on there. Again the wart didn't look much different than before the treatment and it's still sore as hell. I'm still having difficulty walking and I'm trying not to put any weight on the ball of my foot. I'm suppose to wait two weeks before trying to treat it again. If this at home treatment doesn't work, I think I'll go back to the professionals and let my dermatologist handle it. This is turning out to be much more of a pain in the ass then I bargained for.

Oh What a Day

Today I stayed home so I could go to the Dentist to get a "suspicious" area looked at by my Dentist. The area had turned up in an x-ray my Periodontist had taken a few weeks back. I only see my dentist when such problems turn up and rely on regular visits and cleanings by the Periodontist to keep my teeth and gums on the straight and narrow. The visit didn't get off on the right foot as I missed a turn and showed up 15 minutes late for my appointment. Then the Dentist decided the x-rays the Periodontist had forwarded to him weren't clear enough and wanted to retake them. That accomplished his assistant came in a few minutes later to discuss them with me. As they popped up on the flat screen monitor, she pointed to a shadowy area on my back upper right molar. She explained that was all decay and, oh by the way, it had broken through to the root area and guess what? It's your lucky day - you need a root canal and crown. Lovely. Also just my luck - they had a cancellation later in the day and wouldn't it be wonderful if I could come back for the procedure. Dealing with Dentists is like dealing with an auto mechanic. You just aren't qualified to know if something is really truly wrong or its just a way to dip into your wallet. I guess there is a measure of trust involved. So I rolled over and agreed to come back. Next up was their office financial assistant to make sure I could afford it. She showed me the bill and after picking my jaw up off the floor, I guess I satisfied her to the point that yes I could afford the procedure. They sent me on my way with a cheery "See you in a bit".

I went and had lunch before returning. I was truly dreading it because I had heard that it was quite an uncomfortable/painful procedure. They numbed me up pretty well, but god the sound of the drill. It freaks me out whether I can feel it or not. The fact that I know he was slowly destroying most of the tooth didn't help my visualization of what was going on. Overall I guess it wasn't too bad and didn't hurt at all, including post recovery. Even now, several hours later, I'm not feeling any discomfort. Knock on wood. I now have a temporary crown with the permanent one due to be ready in a few weeks. It sucks getting old

A Week for Doctors

One thing about getting old is that your Doctors become some of your best friends since you are seeing them so often and have known them for such a long time. So it was this week I visited my dermatologist to see about a lump on the back of neck and I also have a follow up with my regular Doctor to revisit my blood pressure medicine. I suspect he'll want a change as my current medicine doesn't seem to be controlling my blood pressure as well as he would like. High blood pressure is a gift from my dad's side of the family and my eczema/allergies/asthma a gift from my mother's side. We're an equal opportunity family when it comes to afflictions. The trip to my dermatologist on Tuesday revealed that the lump on my neck was an infected cyst, which they proceeded to drain. That was both painful and bloody. She eventually numbed the area, which made things a lot better. Two days later it is still draining, which is quite gross all things considered not to mentioning ruining a shirt before I realized what was happening.

A front has moved through and the weather has reverted to being raining and cool. The weather is suppose to begin warming up again in time for the weekend. Lets hope. We don't' want our second Learn to Row Day to be rained out again. Tomorrow (Friday) is my Friday off. here's to three day weekends - yea!

New Eyes

Just a reminder that if you live in the northern Virginia, Washington DC area and would like to try your hand at rowing, the Prince William Rowing Club will hold a Learn to Row Day this Sunday at the Oxford Boathouse in the Lake Ridge Park from 1:00 to 3:00. Directions to the park can be found at the link for Lake Ridge Park or at the PWRC website: www.pwrc.org.

Wednesday I went in for a follow up exam on my eyes. My eyes have been giving me problems since January. They've been very irritated plus my eyelashes were scratching my cornea. My eyes were better despite requiring a few more eyelashes to be plucked and the decision was made to try and fit me with some new contacts. I've been wearing glasses now for over 15 years and I've never really liked them. I tried hard contact lenses for awhile, but I couldn't keep them moist enough and I'd have to take them out after 4 or 5 hours. I also have pretty severe astigmatism, which up to now made most soft contacts and Lasik unsuitable. Technology continues to advance and my Doctor wanted to try some new contacts that are part hard lenses and part soft lenses. He fitted me with a pair and wow I could see. Currently my glasses can't correct my vision to 20/20. These new lenses will. The contacts are now on order and I should have them in about a week. It should make a big difference on how I see the world.

A Day for Doctors

I love my Fridays off although today was spent dealing with one type of Doctor or another. Rosie had an appointment to have her teeth cleaned. Since dogs need to be out under, she had to fore go her breakfast this morning. She was not pleased with that at all. We dropped her off bright and early around 7:00. I had an appointment of my own with a surgeon at Georgetown Hospital to see what was going on with my skin infection. The infection seems to have started at one of the incision sites for a labaroscopic surgery I had a few years back to correct a hiatal hernia. The surgeon that originally did the surgery examined me and his opinion it was unrelated to the surgery since they leave no permanent stitches at that particular area. His opinion was it was a small cyst causing the problem. We'll have to wait until the infection clears for a final diagnosis. A bonus for having to drive into the District was being able to see crew teams practicing on the Potomac in the morning sun.

After my appointment we headed home and did some grocery shopping. I also went shopping on my own (I know!) and picked up some new underwear. Mine was in desperate need of replacing.

The rest of the day was spent watching basketball or taking a nap. Naps are way underrated. The Vet called around 2:00 to say they were finished with Rosie, that all had gone well and that she was just coming around. We finally picked her up at 5:00 and seemed none the worse for wear despite having a few teeth removed. She'll be on painkillers for a few days. Good drugs.

Hope your Good Friday was a good one.

Home Again

Daughter#2 and her husband have landed in Philadelphia and we'll be leaving for Washington National to pick them up from the connecting flight from Philadelphia. It hardly seems possible they've been gone for two weeks. They sent us one group of pictures and I'm sure they'll have more for us when we see them. I'll post a few for your entertainment.

Babysitting Gracie has been pretty easy and a lot less stressful then I originally thought. Watching a young lab is not quite the same as being with two elderly schnauzers. Having her here did help us with Winnie's passing though so we're happy for that. She's been pretty well behaved except for the last day or so. Almost as if she knows Mom and Dad are coming and she can't really be punished that much.

Case in point - She started sleeping not only on our bed but right against my pillows. A definite no-no. Then yesterday she managed to chew up a pair of my shoes. How cute. Not. Here is the Demon sleeping after her shoe snack.

But then Rosie also helped herself to Gracie's bed.

I haven't been able to erg at all this week since Sunday. I picked up a skin infection that is quite painful. I'm on antibiotics, but it looks really bad. As anyone who suffers from eczema will tell you, sooner or later you'll develop a skin infection. Eczema suffers tend to be walking staph factories so it's only a matter of time. Usually it takes the antibiotics a few days to really kick in. I can hardly wait.

Also congratulations to Daughter#1, who won an award at work for her performance. Keep up the good work!

The Eyes Have It

Yesterday I had a follow up appointment with my eye doctor to see how the scratches on the cornea on my right eye were doing. The scratches were caused by my own eyelashes of all things. In the interium since my previous appointment, my eyes have been just a disaster. They have been red, irritated, gooey and crusty. There is nothing like waking up to find your eyes sealed shut by the crud from your eyes. I think the problem with my eyes is somewhat related to the bad flair up I had with my eczama since they both began around the same time. The good news is that the scratches have pretty much healed. However another offending eyelash had to be removed as it was starting to rub against my eye again. I'll have to start making regular visits to get the eyelashes monitored. That is so weird. The bad news is my eyes are a mess. My eye lids are swollen besides being red and irrated. Turns out most of the small ducts under the lids which produce an oily substance to mix with your tears are clogged and need to be cleared. The Doctor outlined the treatment to clear up my eyes including antibiotics and ointment for my eye lids. He also prescribed hot compresses as often as possible to help open up those clogged ducts. I did hot compresses twice yesterday and my eyes feel a lot better. It's a bit impracticle to do at work, but I'm looking forward to doing it tonight. I have another appointment in two weeks to see how things are going. He did mention steroid shots into the lids if the hot compresses don't work. I'd really like to avoid that.

Its a busy day at home even though I'm not there. The groomer is cleaning up the dogs so they should look cute and not smell. A plumber is also dropping by The Son's condo to see if a leak in his bathroom can be located. Hopefully that won't be a big deal.

Congratulations to Anyabeth who had a babygirl on Monday.

LOST is back tonight. I can't wait.

Bad Eyes

It's always somewhat depressing to visit my optometrist for my yearly eye exam. Every visit I'm told my eyes are a little worse. Considering I had 20/20 vision going into my 40s, the decline of my eyesight is just another reminder that I'm not getting any younger. I've never liked wearing glasses and never felt comfortable wearing contacts. I'm not a candidate for Lasik, so I have to put up with one or the other for the foreseeable future. The eye exam was routine until the Doctor asked if my right eye was bothering me. Now with my allergies, my eyes are always bothering me so I told him no. He told me it should since once again two of my eyelashes were growing such that the tips were scratching my cornea. This has happened before so we're thinking I might have to come in for more regular visits to check on those pesky eyelashes. The Doctor removed the offending eyelashes and I must say I can definitely tell a difference. The rest of the exam proceeded without incident. I ordered new lenses for my glasses and discovered that my insurance now pays for 50%. Sweet. I go back in a month to my cornea checked and try a new type of contact. I'd love to give up the glasses so we'll see.

After the exam, Ann and I went out for bbq and then to Target to return a few items. Upon returning home, I curled up on the couch and took a nap. I've been feeling really tired lately and I'm not sure why. Hopefully it's only temporary. After getting up from my nap, I helped Ann set up her pedometer, a Christmas gift from Daughter#2 and The Son In Law. She went out for a short walk to test it out and seems pleased by it. Hopefully this will get her walking more.

Now its time to warm up the TV and watch Maryland play Oregon State in the Emerald Bowl. Have a good weekend.