Medical Marvels

 

Okay Readers.  The next great adventure awaits us all.

Well, this week I was scheduled for a colonoscopy/endoscopy over at Manchester Hospital.  I was NOT looking forward to this, but my doctor has been trying to get me to have one for a few years now, and the “take home” test came back positive, so…  To add to this joy, not only did Manchester Hospital call me to get all the medical history, demographic and insurance/payment info out of the way ahead of time, they also informed me that I have to pay the full boat for this since I haven't met the deductible on my insurance.  OBLAME-O Care sucks.  They've charged over $4K to my credit card...

The prep for one of these is historically a total shit-show (please note, all puns are intended) and this one did not disappoint.  Although I must admit it was much less painful than the prep I endured around 18 years ago, my first go-around with these procedures.

Nowadays, you are on a clear-liquid diet for 36 hours before the procedures, and the heavy dudu prep begins about eight hours before.  At that point, I had to take four pills and drink 32 ounces of miralax.  That was at 1:30 a.m.  I did not chug the fluid, but it was down by 2 o’clock and I dozed until the second dose of everything…

4:30, four pills, another 32 ounces of miralax, and start visiting the necessary quite regularly.  Very regularly.  Yup.  However, I will say there was no cramping or extreme pain accompanying the preparation.   Oh, joyful, you expel until all that comes out is yellow fluid.  Disgusting.  But at least it stopped before I had to leave for the hospital. 

The staff at the gastrointestinal unit of Manchester Hospital were wonderful.  Once they realized I have a sense of humor (probably when I requested they do the endoscopy before the colonoscopy), I was soon hearing all of the jokes of the unit.  And they had lots of them.  Sadly, thanks to the anesthesia I don’t remember them.  But I will also say that the young man who was in charge of keeping me asleep and breathing did an excellent job.  I’ve never come out of anesthesia so easily.  I usually have real trouble coming around and breathing.  This time, I simply woke up and was FINE.  Amazing.

My wonderful Trudy played chauffeur for me.  She is such a special person.

I came home grateful that everything came out fine (literally), but very tired and hungry.  My mouth and throat were sore, but I still ate a bagel with cream cheese.  I could hardly taste it.  Guess that’s the residual effect of the endoscopy. 

The immediate results of the tests were:  Mild signs of stomach irritation and a biopsy of the duodenum was taken (‘cause they could?).  Colon is fine, but a shitload of polyps were removed and sent for testing.  None looked troublesome, so “yay me” for that.  Hemorrhoids were not out of the ordinary.  It’s all quite normal.

Late yesterday evening, I decided to take a nice, hot bath and try to relax into sleep.  It worked, however while I was soaking, Someone who shall remain nameless (mostly because I don’t know whether it was Tripp or Piper) took the tube of Desitin ointment (maximum strength) from the bedside table and decided to chew on it. 

Both dogs sampled it, but Tripp decided quickly that it wasn’t tasty.  Piper decided to take a bigger sampling.  Silly girl. 

Tripp threw up a little quite quickly and then was fine, although he snuggled up with me most of the night.  I didn’t realize Piper had ingested any, but during the night she threw up FOUR times.  She lost her dinner and of course, her nighttime prednisone pill.  By morning, she was quite lethargic.  No interest in breakfast, her pill pocket or her milkbone.  With her history, I can’t take chances so… 

Cleaning up her mess was gross, so I could not eat anything.  Sympathetic stomach, you know. 

I called the vet’s office.  On hold for a half-hour before someone came on the phone.  Twenty minutes after that, I’m directed to call ASPCA poison control.  Oh, yay.  Another 35 (!) minutes on hold before someone came on the line.  OMG.  Piper just lay on the floor, and I kept checking that she was at least breathing.  After about a half-hour on the phone, I was informed that zinc oxide is “self-limiting”, i.e. she threw it up before it could do any lasting damage.  However, it still irritated her stomach and left her feeling unwell.  They recommended we go to the vet’s and have them call poison control with her case number and they (poison control) would advise the vet on what to do.

I had to lift Piper into the car and I grabbed a bagel to munch.  Once at Bolton Vet, Piper went in to the office and I parked the car…  but first, when the tech came out to take her, she carefully scrambled over the seat backs into the back seat.  Trying to get away from the tech and closer to me.  It was adorable and sad.  I got her out and walked her up to the door as if I were going in… and the tech took her. 

There is this awful feeling when the tech takes your dog into the building and you’re left standing there, dog-less, alone, and your baby is facing the unknown without you.  As much as I know she’s where she needs to be, they will take good care of her, etc, ad nauseum, it sucks.

We were there for over two and half hours.  It took Dr. Katy forever to get through to ASPCA poison control (she needed the other phone number) and by the time they used the number Poison Control gave me to bypass the incredible hold waits, Dr. Katy was already doing everything poison control recommended.

So, the upshot of all this is that Piper got to come home, I got to pay another $241 to Bolton Vet (with my senior discount!), $75 to ASPCA Poison Control, and Piper is lying down on the floor in front of me.

Silly dog jumped out of the car and did a “splat” on the ground…  Not enough strength to land and stay up on her four legs.  We came into the house VERY slowly.  Tripp and Tyson were delighted to have her home and of course they all went out for a few minutes. 

Thank heavens I thought to grab the bagel.

BTW, Tripp and Tyson are beside me on the loveseat, Tyson is asleep and Tripp is watching Star Trek: TNG with me.  Piper is asleep on her bed in front of me.  I sure hope she eats her dinner.  

Piper, relaxing on the floor.

 

 

Tyson and Tripp, piled together beside me.

 

Tripp, watching TV.

Crazy Cousin Louise Goes to Maine

 

She’s been driving me nuts, waiting for our Maine trip and at last! she went.  With the three dogs.  No cat, Blackie is too smart to be caught in that small RV with Three Damn Dogs.  So Francis took charge of him.  He’s so good.  Anyway, here’s her report:

Leaving for Maine is not cause for getting out early, as it’s almost all east-bound (into the sun) for the first 150 miles.  So we didn’t stress about getting going.  There were still things to load last-minute (cpap) and fears we’d forgotten something critical, but in the end, we’re only gone for a week and the Maine cousins will take me shopping if it’s really something important.

I-84 was not terribly busy, it being a Tuesday morning and all.  The Mass Pike and 495 were busier, off and on.  North of Boston I noticed huge plume of dark gray smoke billowing over the highway and I wondered if a car was burning…  no, it was a wildfire beside the road and into an industrial area.  As we drove through, the smoke was terribly heavy and our speed dropped considerably.  So did everyone else’s, luckily.

There will be a bill from Massachusetts for the tolls, we don’t have easypay and there are no toll booths anymore.  I wonder what those people are doing for a living now?  Anyway, the dogs were taking turns staring at the door, so I pulled over and found a parking lot I thought was big enough to turn around in without backing up, and took them for a quick walk.  They were all quite happy to water the plantings and get back into Rigbee.

I THOUGHT the parking lot was big enough… nope.  Wrong again, CCL.  I ended up unhitching the little trailer (so very grateful to Raelene for putting the wheel on the tongue of the trailer.) and wheeling it around, backing up Rigbee, turning him around and then re-hitching the teeny tiny trailer back up.  Amazingly, I was done with this little charade in about 10 minutes!

I talked to Jerry and Grace and let them know we were enroute and found the highway again.  Back on the road!

We drove north on 95, then 295, then 95 again, the GPS didn’t believe Maine exists so I went to the phone and Google maps brought me through the wilds of Maine to Pumpkin Patch RV Resort, just about 5 miles from Bangor.

We were in site 16, a lovely pull-through site with all the amenities.  Maine requires that sewer lines be “off the ground” though and I do not have the little prong things to do that.  I determined that instead, I would just dump the tanks if they got 2/3 full and before I left.  Electricity and water was an easy connection.

The big deal of camping is the three damn dogs.   We used a pen in South Carolina and while that worked ok, it was awfully small and Tyson (Houdini himself) figured out ways to get out.  So, we got a second pen to increase the size.  And spent a lot of brain-power trying to make it Houdini-proof.

This time, the pen included the RV door.  It worked much better, and although the brats got out (2X!!!), they won’t get out again!  This trip was hard on them, as I was gone a lot and they didn’t get much exercise.  The “dog walk” at the resort was not fenced in, so they had no chance to stretch their legs, unless they broke out. 

Wednesday, Jerry wasn’t feeling great so Grace took me out to lunch/dinner at a sweet little family owned restaurant.  We had a nice meal and Grace and I had a chance to catch up.  We went back to her house and pestered Jerry some, then Sarah came in (granddaughter #1, graduated 2 years ago) and I’m amazed at how she’s changed.  Grown up and adorable.

Paula came over and Emily, too.  The graduate (Emily) has grown up so very much since I last saw her.  It’s been 2 years (Sarah’s graduation!) and Emily is taller, thinner, and just – older!  She’ll be 18 in a month or so, and it shows.  Her friend Tatum was due in from Minnesota in the evening and she was very excited and nervous, all at once.

I offered to go to the airport and film the meeting, but while Emily said ok, Paula didn’t think it was such a good idea.  Turned out Paula was better than right, there were storms up and down the east coast and Tatum’s flight didn’t get in until after 3 AM!!!  So, Thursday was kind of a wash for them!

But for me, Jerry was feeling better (not great, but better) and determined to drive me around Bangor.  We went for a late breakfast/early lunch and saw all the sights – the waterfront, where Jerry was Harbormaster for 20+ years; Stephen King’s house, with the new totem pole in front (I think I’ve been by his house like 10 times, now!), driving around…

And back to Grace and Jerry’s for a bit, then back to Rigbee and the three damn dogs. 

So full from brunch, I made a half-sandwich for supper, played with the pups and played guitar.

Paula picked me up a little after 10:30 Friday morning, with Emily and Tatum in tow.  We were off to Cadilac Mountain.  Paula had to make a reservation for us to go up there, and I’m glad they’re doing that now.  The “mountain” has been over-crowded horribly when I’ve been there before, but with the “reservation” system, the park service is controlling the number of cars/people up there at any one time.  While there were still tons of people up there, it’s wasn’t packed. 

The girls went their own way, and Paula and I walked the path around the top, practicing our photography and talking.  She is near and dear to my heart.  Jerry was always my hero growing up (he still is, but don’t tell him that!) and his daughter is just a very special person.  We ended up talking to a wonderful young (19!) forest ranger for a while and then I spent too much $ at the tourist trap, walking stick medallions, etc.  

view from the top

beautiful flowers

another view from the top

Paula

views...

 

We left the mountain and headed down into Bar Harbor.  The kitchiest, most touristy town in Maine, only out-done in  New England by Provincetown on Cape Cod.  We were really looking for a place to eat, but also for some touristy clothing!  With everything shut down last year, there are bargains to be had!  I ended up with a wind-breaker and two sweatshirts.  Like I needed more sweatshirts…

We grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to the car.  I was a little concerned about the dogs, although I had given them frozen kongs before we left. 

One note about the weather at this point:  the winds were blowing quite madly at all elevations!  Too strong to put up the canopy I brought, but also keeping the mosquitos away.   

Back at the camper, it was time to get ready for the party on Saturday.  I was shredding cabbage for cole slaw when Jerry arrived to visit.  So, it was a while before I got that done.  Then I made brownies with chocolate chunks, instead of walnuts.  Not everyone can eat walnuts…  but I brought the usual brownie pan, and although it fit in the oven, it would not rotate and only about half the brownies got cooked enough to present…  Arggh!  Needed to use the square pan!  I must remember to get one to keep in Rigbee.

Saturday was the party!  Jerry brought me over a little early and as we were getting ready, realized we needed more chairs, so Jerry and I raced back to Rigbee and I grabbed my two.  That made just enough chairs for everyone!

It was a wonderful party, and the graduate was very grateful to everyone.  I had a fine time with all, especially Kevin (Murch)’s family.  All too soon, it was time for people to go, and we were taking this giant tent down and putting it all away.  It sprinkled a little on us as we cleared away everything, but the rain held off.

 

Emily and her Gramma, Grace

Kevin (Dad) and Emily's banner

Tatum

Kevin, Emily and Tatum

Grumpy old Grandpa, Jerry

 There was lots of food at the party so I didn’t bother eating again.  Back at Rigbee, it started to really rain, so I nestled down with my Kindle and the pups.

Sunday, Jerry came and got me around noon.  We were off to the Eagles Nest to have our Seafood Platter.  It’s this huge platter of clams, scallops, shrimp and haddock, with fries and cole slaw.  Jerry and I polished off the clams, scallops and shrimp and 95% of the haddock.  I brought the fries and 5% haddock back for the pups.  It was WONDERFUL, and heart-attack inducing.  Really, the fried coating is very light, so not as bad as many a fish-and-chip dinner I’ve had.  And delicious. 

We went back to their place and visited for a while, then Jerry brought me back to the camper.

It was raining, off and on.  Sometimes quite heavily.  So I again went to my kindle and cuddled with the pups.

Monday, Jerry came over with pictures.  He has some great photos of our parents, great uncles, grandparents, etc. and I love looking at them  He had a couple for me to bring home, too.  It is so much fun to remember our history together, and going through the pictures reminded us to share stories.  There was one picture where Jerry didn’t recognize a woman with my Dad and Aunt Do and I somehow Knew it was Muriel (a cousin).  Oh, we had a fine time!

We went out to the Olive Garden for dinner, the whole family – Jerry, Grace, Paula, Kevin, Sarah and her guy(can’t remember his name!), Emily and Tatum and (YAY) Todd and Leslie.  Dinner was great fun, with everyone eating and laughing.  Yup, gotta love these cousins of mine.

Again Monday the rain was intermittent.  Back at the campground, I set about getting some packing up done.  Dumped the tanks and cleaned that stuff (yuck), took apart the dog pen and stowed that in the trailer, started packing up the inside, too.

Tuesday morning, I was fussing around inside (and almost ready to go) there came a knock at my door.

TODD!!!  He’s been in the boat and RV industry for eons, and he’s the parts manager for an RV/Boat dealership in Bangor.  One of his innovations was to go around to the campgrounds and offer to supply them with some of the things RVs always seem to need.  He supplies Pumpkin Patch and was there for his usual check in.  So he decided to check on his cousin!

I’m so grateful for that.  He went over all of Rigbee and pointed out where I need to have some work done to prevent issues and what I can do to make the old boy look better.  He stayed for over an hour, and also talked to my camp-neighbors about some issues they’re having.  It was a great way to start my day, although I was late leaving – after their 11 am check out time.  When I stopped at the office, they laughed and told me they knew why I was late and it wasn’t a problem. 

The drive home was long and relatively uneventful, a couple of slow-downs where road work was being done, one stop for gas.  Then we’re only 12 miles from home, not 20 minutes away, and:  me to the pups:  “Why in blue blazes are all those people getting off at UCONN?  I’ve never seen that backed up onto the highway?!”

BAM!  A quarter mile on, traffic comes to a complete and total HALT.  For the next mile or so, we halt, snail, crawl, halt…  It is 5:15 p.m. 

There is box truck, maybe a uhaul truck, rolled over, blocking two lanes of traffic.  WJMJ reports it as a 20 minute tie-up.  Google says 20 minutes.  In truth, it’s over an hour.  We finally got home at 6:35.

I put the dogs directly into their yard and set about bringing in the critical stuff – CPAP, etc.  And I could hear Blackie howling from halfway down the driveway.  Yup, the cat missed us.  LOTS.

The laundry is going, and plans are afoot.  There will be another trip, when I don’t know, but you can’t keep

CRAZY COUSIN LOUISE

Down for long.