Parathyroid Doc - Round 2

The first labwork came back with a normal Calcium level and a hight PTH. So we are on to a repeat of these at a second lab. That was drawn today.

In the meantime I am suffering severe muscle cramps in my hips at night. Am hardly getting any sleep at all...

And have episodes of irritability where I'm not fit to be around anyone or anything.

Halloween 2006

I just never know, some years here at the Cove's, there are 3 trick-or-treaters, and some years, I'm absolutely slammed. I've never figured out what the 'predictor' is.

Last year I actually ran OUT of goodies to give out. I had to turn off my porch light, and ignore the knocks on the door. I felt like Scrooge!

So, in spite of the new 'security' fence and gate that is now fully operational, this year I stocked up. I purchased a variety of individually wrapped hard candies, stuff that I like, just in case. I had a little plastic black cauldron 3/4 full of candies.

The kidlets started arriving just at dusk. And they kept coming in little, adult supervised groups, till 10PM.

They were so cute! I even had one memorable costume, Harry Potter! He was adorable with the plaid shirt, glasses, hair, and freckles. Over half the candy was given out.

This year, unlike last, The Sisters stayed out of the way, yet weren't scared by all the unusual activity at the door.

I love Halloween...

Conspiracy Nut?

I am, and am not, a Conspiracy nut. What I am is a skeptical (very!) person.

I find it strange that Cox Cable experienced off /on then total outage this morning in my area at same time small plane crashed into NYC building. This effected my tv cable, internet, and telephone at various times.

When was the last time Cox had such a total outage in my area??? I can't remember when.

When was the last time a small private place crashed into a fifty story apartment building? Anywhere in the US?

Is there a possibility, just a slight possibility, we are not being informed by our government about terrorism, phone taps, email scanning & reading etc???

Damn! if the spinich and lettuce don't get you, the planes will!

Parathyroid Doc - Endocrinologist

Today, for the first time ever, I actually had a face to face appointment with Dr. Deftos. I saw him at the UCSD 'Perlman' Medical Center in La Jolla (so $9 round trip).

I've actually been 'consulting' with Dr. Deftos THROUGH some of my other Endos, that have 'consulted' with him for the last several years. Now I'm STILL having hyperparathyroidsim, even though all med changes etc that he's suggested, have been given a good try. So I am now eliminating the 'middle-man-doc' and going straight to the source.

Especially as I am slowly getting sicker and sicker.

I made sure I took in copies of all the records I could get my hand on, and there were a lot, especially labs! I was even able to take the the surgical report from 1982.

We had also been in touch via email to even make this appointment. Since he is in research, and is a 'formost' parathyroid specialist in America, you don't just call up and request an appointment. It took me two weeks just to track down his email address from my other docs.

So, I was anticipating and prepared for this appointment. I was also prepared to be 'brushed off' (he IS a researcher), or for him to refuse to take me on as a patient.

Neither was the case. He listened to me. He briefely reviewed my records. He asked me some pertinent questions. Then he lined out what he would do and how he would do it.

First of all he wanted all current Calcium, pth, tests repeated at his lab. (The blood was drawn today). Then, it they come back too high, he will have the SAME tests done at two OTHER Labs, one at a time, depending on if the results continue to come back too high.

He then spoke of, POSSIBLY, down the line, a full body CT, a second Sestamibi Scan of entire head/chest. (I kept blacking out during the first one I had 4 yrs ago-so not looking forward to that!). Then we'd go from there.

So, he accepted me as one of his patients!

I left there, having had the first set of the 3 bloodworks drawn, feeling like there might be some help after all, but it isn't going to be either fast nor easy!

The Coves BBQ 2006

Compared to last year, there were hardly any people there! I was amazed. Usually it’s a packed event. But I think last year, it was scheduled before September.

September brings a lot of little stuff folks need to do, especially if they have kidlets in school. I also think there was a Padres game this afternoon, and I know the annual ‘light show’ event is scheduled for tonight at Qualcomm Stadium.

There were very few people there I knew, and they came, ate, left!

As always the food (catered) was great. But I didn’t eat too much, as my post meal blood sugar proved.

And there was a DJ, and a good mix of music that was so loud you couldn’t talk to anyone.

Something new this year – a drawing for 3 $50 gift certificates. Of course, I didn’t win one!

I just wish it were more often than once a year. I’m not quite sure what this ‘event’ is for; if it’s for residents to ‘meet’ each other, once a year doesn’t get it. I’d rather have hot dogs once a month!

HUD Inspection 2006

My apartment failed Inspection today; because some of the plaster/paint is chipped (actually, a LOT, all over the apartment, though no worse than last year!).

I tried to explain to the woman that I’d lived here 8 years, and it needed painting. (Which the inspector last year definitely commented on – and I had to hire someone to wash the bathroom walls and the owner came in and painted it.). Her reply to this was that the management wouldn’t paint my apartment because “You smoke in here”.

Has everyone in the whole friggen world gone nuts???

But she would have NONE OF IT. She said not only would the repairs have to be made, but I would need to get ‘plastic’ corners to protect the walls from my wheelchair and walker! That they were available at Home Depot for a couple of bucks each.

People who have cars, and are not ill, just don’t ‘get it’. Right, I’ll just run right down to Home Depot, whip out my checkbook, come back home and pay someone to install them!!!

This of course means, I have to go through this all over again next month. Sigh. After the management repairs and paints the dings all over my apartment. I can only hope they regard this as ‘normal wear and tear’ after 8 years of use, and not change me for it!

But, I’ve been thinking, I WILL NOT put plastic corners up on the walls! This is NOT a ‘nursing facility’ it’s my ‘home’. ; Maybe this Inspector woman who arrived today with her nose in the air, and a regular paycheck, encases her couch in plastic and puts vinyl runners on her carpet, but I don’t live that way. And won’t

Think I'll pour myself a can or two of Orange Soda, over lots of ice, and go to bed with my cats. I'll watch some television, let my leg ooze blood, emotionally gird myself for the wheelchair repairs tomorrow...and turn OFF the world for awhile!

Another Medical Hassle

And it’s my own fault.

Today I went to a dermatologist to have a mole that had suddenly started getting big, removed from my thigh. He said he was ‘cauterizing’ it, so I didn’t mention I was a ‘bleeder’ because of the HH. Now this was no big thing, the mole was maybe only half the size of a dime and from what I can see, he only took out a little scoop of my dermis, though considerably deeper than a cat scratch, that’s for sure.

When he was done, he put a BAND AID on it, gave me a standard ‘care’ instruction sheet (which by the way, didn’t mention BLEEDING). And I went merrily on my way.

By the time MTS Access (disabled transit - $4.50 each way) picked me up and delivered me to my curb, I was starting to feel a little pain in that thigh, and maybe a little wet. (Dumb me!).

When I got in the apartment, and went to the bathroom, I discovered I’d bled through my slacks, through the wheelchair pad, onto the seat itself. I was ticked! Slacks are hard to come by – hope I can get the stain out!

Well, I padded the ‘Band Aid’ with a wad of paper towels, as the cats needed dinner and I needed to to a blood glucose and pump some insulin, and other household things. I bled through those in about 2 hours.

Next, at the suggestion of a friend who had incidentally called, I put intermittent pressure on it with an ice pack. That helped. Still, the danged thing ‘oozed’ all night, and I kept waking up to check on the bleeding. Now I knew, logically, that I’d not bleed to death from this little scooped out area of skin, but it made me a nervous wreck, even though I took an extra xanax.

The thing that ‘gets to me’ about this kind of situation is: what do I do now??? If I called this doc, he’d just tell me to come to the office. I don’t have a car. I can’t get disabled transit back to the doc unless I schedule two days ahead of time and spend ANOTHER $9. My wheelchair is not safe enough right now, to take the public bus, even to the local Urgent Care.

And I had the annual HUD inspection looming later today. Then I am scheduled to FINALLY get my wheelchair repaired (ordered part arrived – after two months) on Friday; I have to go spend five hours out there. So just when and how would I get medical attention?

The answer is, I don’t! It will just have to ‘ooze’ and I’ll change the dressing every 4 – 6 hours, putting a thick coating of an antibiotic ointment that I happened to have on hand, on the dressing in the hopes of preventing infection and plugging up that little hole in my fat old leg.

If it’s still doing its thing on Saturday, my wheelchair will have been fixed, and I can take the bus to Urgent Care.

By the way, I will NOT be going back to THAT Dermatologist; he not only doesn’t know how to cauterize, but paid no attention to my diabetic tendency to infections.

This brings me around to ‘it is my own fault’, as I haven’t been able to get to the Hematologist for the required blood work/treatment. In fact, I am way past due. My hemoglobin & hematocrit could be sky high as far as I know (it is definitely UP, or I wouldn’t bleed like this.)

And can ANYONE out there explain this HH tendency to bleed (has NOTHING to do with Pro-Times, etc) to me?