We Interrupt This Blog for my Gallbladder

You have probably noticed that Frank has been writing a few more articles and responding to more of the comments lately. For the past six weeks, I have been suffering with a dead gallbladder which I will finally get rid of on Wednesday. It has been a difficult month and a half.

I know there must be a lot of gallbladder sufferers out there. I have talked to a number of folks that have had theirs removed and one common thread appears to have happened. It took a while for it to be diagnosed if they didn't have obvious stones that could be seen by an ultra sound.

My problems started with an attack of sorts in the middle of the night that was painful enough to start packing a bag for the emergency room. Luckily the pain subsided somewhat and we stayed home. The next week I had an ultra sound that showed no stones. The next week I had an endoscopy where they looked over the upper part of my digestive tract all the way to the duodenum, or beginning of my small intestines, where the bile from the liver is added to aid in the digestion of fats. The only thing that showed up there was gastritis which I think was brought on by the attack.

Yet another week later I had a HIDA scan. This is a two hour long CT scan of sorts that tests the functioning of the gallbladder. The results were that my gallbladder is only functioning at 18% capacity, which means it is basically non-functional, so I'm calling it dead. They also did a CT scan of the rest of my guts which came back negative for other problems. That was good news. After all the scanning and checking I finally made it to the surgeon's office. I couldn't talk him into doing the surgery today, so Wednesday is the day. After suffering with pain, which is sometimes rather intense, and nausea which has greatly affected my appetite, I cannot wait to have this outpatient surgery.

And yet.....hospitals are not where we want to be right now. Between Enterovirus D68 and Ebola, hospitals are not where we want to be at all. It was interesting to note that the facility where I went to do my pre-surgery lab work was strangely deserted today. The last time we were there a few years ago the place was packed. Today there were few people. We also called another doctor's office to schedule a routine check up. The normal wait time to see this doctor is a couple of months. This time our appointment is in a few weeks. Both of these odd occurrences make us wonder. Is it ObamaCare, Ebola or the economy? Why are there so many fewer patients?

I am truly grateful that I am still able to receive medical attention and have my gallbladder removed. I have gotten sicker and weaker with each passing week since that attack. If a collapse had occurred and I just had to live with this, I don't think I would last very long. I guess that's the way it used to be in the old days. I'm just glad it isn't that way now. We hope to be back up to speed next week. In the meantime, pay attention. There are many indicators that the fragile stability of our society is wobbling ever greater. And like a big, old fashioned, wooden top, one day it will fall over and gradually spin to a halt. Be ready.

Until next time - Fern

Neighbors & Friends

As some of you know, I recently had major back surgery. Even with the best laid plans, there is always a gap, and sometimes a large gap. A couple of examples. 

We never thought about a bedside toilet. We didn't realize there are some made for smaller people, bigger people, taller and shorter folks. Not trying to sound crude here, but it would be nice if the people that designed these bedside toilets would actually take the time to sit on one of them. Sometimes it is apparent that these are not designed for use by a man. 

Next example. Bedpans. While in the hospital, I was advised to just use a bedpan. Okay. A short review here. I have 16 staples in my lower back, am in unbelievable pain and am told, just put it underneath and let it go. That just doesn't work. I can see where a metal bedpan would be a tremendous benefit during a hail storm, or if you want to play pirate with your kids, but otherwise, I saw no practical use, with my accompanying condition and the use of a bedpan.

We did some modifications to the couch before my surgery. Instead of spending a lot of time on my back in the bedroom laying down, this gives me another option closer to where most of the living and doing occurs in our house. 

I had a good plan of building 'legs' to go on the legs of our couch. And in our opinion, that was one of those great plans, but the couch was just not meant for long-term sleeping right after surgery, as I quickly discovered. But in just a few days, when I could move around a little better, the raised couch became a very good resting place.
 

We discovered these small sliders on the bottom of the legs.

I got out my forstner bit and fixed that problem.

 

The real reason for this post is the utilization of your neighbors and friends. I am, by all serious nature, a hermit, recluse, loner, pick any term you like. And I'm also one of those types that seldom ever asks for help. But there are times that we adult males need to get over some of these things. When I arrived home from the hospital, there were more cars parked in front of my house than I have ever seen. One of my male neighbors and friends, was there to help me up my steps, which if you can't hardly walk, steps are tough to negotiate. It seems that everybody and their cousin has extra medical supplies that were gently used once and are now available for loan.

But, let me back up a little bit. I have a neighbor, who is also a relative, and we share a common fence line. She was nice enough to come over and open up our chicken house every morning, then come back and close it every evening. Since the hospital is an hour and a half away, for Fern to make two trips a day, would be a minimum of six hours driving time, not to mention the time on site doing chores. So, opening and closing the chickens saved us about four hours a day.

The animals need feed and water. Other neighbors from down the road, helped feed and water our animals several times, which was an unbelievable help. This helped Fern cut down her trips to do chores to once a day. That puts us down to three hours drive time and 30 minutes chore time. 

As most of you are aware, if you let yellow squash get too big, the plant will quit producing and gradually die. So, what does that mean to us? We are not going to be using any of these crops right now, but after my back issue settles down some, we would still like to have harvestable crops. Some more neighbors of ours helped us by harvesting the mature crops in the garden. You think, well, that's free food for them, and that is true. But the bigger issue to me is keeping our garden producing. It's also good for the neighbors, because some of those crops did not do well for them this year.

Other relatives picked up our mail at the post office for us and drove to our closest pharmacy, 25 miles away, and had our prescriptions filled. It's nice to be able to call the pharmacy and talk to the folks there on a first name basis. 

Our local preacher and spiritual adviser has called to check on me everyday. He also came to see me in the hospital. We have not always attended his church, but I have known this man for over 30 years and appreciate the time he takes to contact me everyday.

I know I'm going to leave some events out here, but it humbles me to know that there are people, good decent people, that will step up to the plate when someone is in need. Some of these are friends, some are neighbors, some are relatives, and some are combinations of the above. So, when I get over this, I will still be a hermit, but I want to genuinely thank everybody that helped and are still helping. I also want to thank everyone for their prayers, because I do believe in God and the power of prayer.

Well, it's about nap time. Be appreciative of what you have, and for those around you. Now if I could just get someone to wash my car....

We'll talk more later. Frank