| leatherman's log |
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August 2007 |
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| Week One: |
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| Pooltag2
Pictures are online! |
| I worked as fast as I could to sort,
crop and arrange all the pictures and video we took at our
blockbuster Summer party - Pooltag2. We were
worried about having the pool party since the weather this last week
had been cool (only the low 70's), very cloudy, rainy and stormy;
but the day of the party dawned clear, sunny and very hot! Everyone
had a wonderful time and a whole lot of fun, food, and sun! |
Click this Pooltag logo to see all the pix and fun! |
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The morning glories that I planted a
few weeks ago are really grooving on all the rain we've been having.
The local weather says that even with all this rain, we are still in
drought conditions. That doesn't surprise me though. I think we've
only mowed twice this year!! |
| After many of the rain
showers and thunderstorms have passed by, it been nearly impossible
to get into our backyard from the patio. The bamboo leaves collect
so much moisture that the plants have been drooping over into the
yard. It's like walking in a yard of weeping willows. Although I
know all the plants desperately needed the water, I'm sure glad the
weather finally got better. I getting rather depressed after seven
days of cloudy, gray skies. |
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Happy Birthday
to my Honey!
7/29 |
| BIG GOOD NEWS! |
I've got some really GREAT news. In
just a few days, I'll be taking a trip back to North Carolina.
 My GrandMother (aka Nana, now that she has
great-grandchildren) will be turning 90 years old. We're all quite
proud of her, as she still lives by herself in the condo she shared
with my GrandFather for many years, and still drives around town. My
Mom and family are planning a big party to celebrate her birthday,
and now they have arranged for me to come join the party. I'll be
flying out on Aug. 9th , Thurs, at 5:30pm (Jim will be able to see
me off since he won't be working that day), and returning the
following Mon, at 9:30pm (perfect timing as Jim will be driving
right past the airport then on his way home from work that day). |
| Now, I just have to decide what book
to take to read on my upcoming trip. This past week, I starting
re-reading the Xanth series of books by Piers Anthony ("A
Spell for Chameleon", "The Source of Magic"). I started
reading this series way back when I was in college and still living
with my parents. Through the years, Mr. Anthony has continued
writing these funny and pun-ny books, and I recently downloaded all
26 books. Since I know I haven't read the last 10 or so, I figured I
would just start back at the beginning to make sure I knew all the
story. Unfortunately, all my Xanth books are e-books, so I have to
be at the computer to read them (sure wish I still had a laptop
 ).
There is hope though! Several of my friends have the new Harry
Potter book (of course, hasn't nearly everyone gotten a copy by now?
 ).
It's been passed to me and Jim (who is half way through now) and
I've been considering holding off until I can take this book with me
on my trip. (Don't know if I'll be able to do that though -
specially when Jim finishes it and he and DO want to talk about the
story.)
I might be able to wait on Potter while I finish reading some
books I recently checked out from the library. Right now, I'm about
to finish up "Worse than Watergate" by John Dean. Next on the
list will either be "Imperial Life in the Emerald City"
(about the Baghdad Green Zone) or "The Assault on Reason" by
Al Gore.
Ever since I was a young boy and my Dad let me stay up to watch
the late news, I've been a "news junkie". One of the worse parts of
losing my cable back at my old house and only having basic cable
now, is that I don't have my MSNBC, CNN, and FOXnews. Fortunately
having Road Runner cable for my internet, I can easily access those
same websites and more to get my "fix" of news. Listening to so many
of those talking-heads, I feel obligated to read at least a portion
of the hundreds of books they have written. I believe that, not only
will it make me a more-rounded person from hearing both sides of the
many political arguments these days; but I can speak and debate with
my friends from a better standpoint, knowing more of the facts.
Just for the record, I'm sure glad that I don't have children.
The chaos that this current administration has created, not only in
Iraq, but within our own government, will take years and years to
straighten out. The worse part of it is that every day, more and
more money feeds an un-winnable war (just look at history to know
that), and it will be my friends' children and grand-children who
will not only have to pay the bill; but will suffer the consequences
from the hatred towards America that this war is enflaming. Factor
in the damage to our economy and nation by the un-stopped flood of
illegal immigrants from Mexico, and the future of America is in
grave danger.
Don't think that I'm some crazy liberal hoping for the next
President to be a Democrat. If the Republicans were still the party
of small government and restrained spending, I'd gladly vote for
them. Instead these war-mongering neo-cons have taken over after
they riled up the neo-evangelicals to obtain the power they are
abusing today. (The last election's "can't lets gays marry" vote has
given us "preemptive war" and more lies and scandal than ever.) All
I can offer is a wish of "God bless America". Hopefully, in the
future, reasoned thinking will return to our government and they'll
begin to work for us, the people, instead of oil companies,
pharmaceuticals, special interest groups, lobbyists, and CEOs of big
corporations. |
| An unexplained miracle
healing! |
| Jim and I have a theory that no
project is truly complete and finished until a blood sacrifice has
been given. It seems that all of our projects require a skinned
knuckle, knife-cut, scraped knees, or even a paper cut sometimes. A
few months ago, our pool developed a small leak. We have put on
three different patches; but the dribble of water continued to flow.
However, that changed after Pooltag2. You'd think with all that
crowd sloshing around, that any hole, or leak, would only have been
made worse. However at the end of the day, two of the girls had
gotten small cuts on their toes (we still don't know what caused the
small cut/scrape on each girl) that bleed just enough to have a
Band-Aid. Now that the pool has gotten it's blood sacrifice, the
leak has mysteriously disappeared and the ground outside the pool
has dried out. |
| I haven't shown you any
pictures from the front yard lately, and today was a good day to
take some shots for you. Four golden finches flew away as I went
outside; but I did catch this large, beautiful butterfly getting his
turn at the flowers. |
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| MouseOver both butterfly
pictures for a CloseUp |
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| The cosmos on one side
of the driveway are doing wonderful. Some of these blooms are
nearly 4 feet tall now. |
On the other side of the
driveway, although the cosmos aren't doing quite as well, they
are still putting out quite a few blooms. |
| Day and Night
pictures of the driveway from DrivewayCam |
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Out in the backyard, the sunflower are beginning to bloom! There are
two flowers right now, with probably another eight which will be
blooming soon! |
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Week Two: |
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| I just couldn't wait any
longer. The newest Harry Potter book sat on my coffee table for two
days, untouched. I still had a few days before my trip to NC, so I
picked it up. Only 36 hours later, I was done. What an exciting
ending to a great series of books.
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This week, before my trip,
we went to see the new "Simpsons Movie". OMIGOSH!
I laughed and laughed and laughed. What a great movie! If you're a
Simpsons fan, this is a must see! In my house, dinner isn't started
until 6:30 when the daily rerun of the show is over. Of course, I
stopped by the new website they have been advertising and "Simpsonized"
Jim and myself
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using pictures from our Wagon Trails Mystery Trip last month. |
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mIkIE and Satan's Little Helper |
Jim goes to the Qwik-E Mart |
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The sunflowers have been holding up okay under some recent storms,
and have produced quite a lot of flowers no. |
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WooHoo! I'm off to North and South
Carolina for the weekend to celebrate my GrandMother's 90th
birthday!
I jazzed up the "mIkIE-cam" picture while I was away. |
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Week Three: |
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With the rain before my trip, the
morning glories really grew while I was out of town. In just those
few days, they grew up from the brick wall to the top of the fence.
Hopefully, since I planted them late this year, we'll still get some
blooms before Fall arrives. |
| I stayed busy when I got
back from my trip (which was EXCELLENT; and there's a link in the
next section for the pictures and stories of my trip). The few fleas
the dogs had before I left, were now a lot of fleas after all the
warm, wet weather recently. I pulled out the clippers and gave all
the boys a haircut first. Afterwards I washed and dipped all four of
the cockers. I also used a dip in my carpet shampooer and did the
carpets and used a bucket of dip to wash all the other floors, even
the basement. |
Unfortunately, I really
overdid things with the trip and the dog grooming. Three days
back home, and I was sick and barfing from the meds.
(well, it could have been a reaction to the dip I used. Or even, as
I discussed with Lisa and Jim, it could have been from germs I was
just exposed to at the airports, the pool, or those restaurants I
ate at. Or maybe a combination of all of the above!)
Damn! And of all days, that was the day I had to have my blood work
taken for the next doctor's appointment on the 30th of this month.
I'm preparing us all - if my numbers are a little bit worse, I sure
won't be surprised and neither should you. But, then again, if
they're better, I guess it means I'll just have to run myself ragged
more often.
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| Happy
90th Birthday Nana - My trip to the Carolinas |
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Thanks for patiently waiting for my
update. My trips back home are always so busy, and I always have so
many pictures, that it takes me a while to get every together for an
update. As you can see, my Nana was quite pleased to see me for her
birthday and I had a great time on my trip
back home to the Carolinas.
Click the picture to see all the pictures and read all about the
party, my family, and the good time that I had on my trip. |
| I'm working on a project now for
Cottage Gate that I'll be updating you on at the end of the
month - along with the results from the visit to the doc! |
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Week Four: |
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| My latest project has been
for my friend Loretta. Her store's location (where Jim and I painted
the "gate") turned out to not be in a good area. With no traffic in
this small plaza except to the bar on one end and a daycare on the
other end, she was hard-pressed to get many customers. Several month
ago, she moved the store from North Canton to Canal Fulton (about 10
miles away), into a building that she shares with her friend who
runs a teddy bear shop. Loretta tells me that things have been much
better for her shop now that she's located in this historic downtown
district. Because she was having a hard time getting the local
council to approve to have a sign painted on her new windows, we
came up with the next best idea. I've been painting her store sign
on a large piece of Plexiglas that we'll hang just inside the
store's front window. |
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| After creating a template
on printer paper, I taped it to the back side of the glass, and
began painting the white letters on the front side. To make the
lettering stand out just a bit, I used black paint to add drop
shadow |
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| Staying up late, I finally
got the sign completed. Next I needed to drill a few holes near the
top. I'm planning on using S-hooks and some decorative chains to
hang the sign from the ceiling. Tomorrow, I'll take Jim in to work,
so that I can use the car to deliver the sign after I finish off the
final little details. |
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Along with painting this sign, I made up a special gift for Loretta.
I think all business owners fondly remember their FIRST store, so I
took a picture of her first store, antiqued it in PaintShop Pro and
framed it for her. |
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It wasn't too hard hanging the sign in her window. After screwing
some hooks in the window frame, and using S-hooks through a few
holes I drilled in the Plexiglas, it only took a short time for us
to situate the sign. |
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MouseOver to see a CloseUp of the sign now hanging in the window |
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Week Five: |
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Well, I came back from the Carolinas
and it nearly looked like Fall had arrived while I was out of town.
 It was rainy, rainy, stormy rainy for days and in the low
70's. We had been down about 6 inches of rainfall; but now we are
over by nearly 3 inches. Some of the storms have been very heavy and
the rain really isn't soaking into the ground; but causing a lot of
flooding. Luckily, Canton isn't flooding like so many places around
here.
I really even hate mentioning anything about the rain up here. I saw
how the plants by the side of the road, and in the fields, down in
NC/SC were dying and drying up. The red clay dirt at home is now
just baked clay. And my friend, Bonnie (with the horse farm in KY),
has told me how bad things are there with the heat and the drought.
They are really having a very hard time. All of the new landscaping
to make the business look more attractive is dying off and they
having a rough time with feed for the horses (No grass to munch now;
and NO hay coming up in the Fall !). If I could send the pool water
for the horses, I would; but I just don't think I could ever put
enough stamps on the pool to get the mailman to deliver it to KY.
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But Summer decided to come back for just a
little longer, after that week of rain and cool temps. We're back
into the mid 90's and HUMID! Of course that just means that I'm
going to have the finally cut the grass again this Summer. I think
we've only mowed 3 times since the first part of May. On the side,
I've been mowing the yard at Richard and Angie's new place and have
only been over twice. I'll be heading over there again next week.
Although I do enjoy the yard work, I have to admit that I get a
weird feeling sometimes when I'm out mowing in the heat. My Dad
passed away mowing his lawn, and now that I'm 45, it makes me a
little nervous. Don't worry though! I take breaks and don't push it
too hard - I've been using Jim's SELF-PROPELLED mower.
(I'm
still mad that MY mower was stolen by my ex-landlord's workers when
I was moving.
 )
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| A quick Reading List
Update: I just finished up three books this week. Actually quite
interesting was "It's Not About the Truth", about the alleged Duke
Lacrosse rape case. What a sad story for all the people involved.
The DA in this case is back in the news this weekend, for receiving
one day in jail for lying to the court about turning over all the
material to the defense. Not much but a slap on the wrist for him
after destroying the lives of quite a few people (the coach, those
players, their families, the Duke college reputation along with
creating more racial tension in Durham). Having just read the last
Harry Potter book, I went back and re-read the previous two books in
the series ("The Order of the Phoenix" and "The
Half Blood Prince"). Of course, that whole series is well
worth reading. I might have to borrow book seven from one of the
kids to re-read it again just to finish off the story in my head.
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MouseOver this sunflower
picture below to see a CloseUp of the butterfly.
(I don't remember if that butterfly was on Allyson's puzzle or not.
The girls will have to check and, if it is there, let me know the
name for this butterfly. |
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Ever since I got back from my trip, I've been very busy. Not
only did I groom the dogs and shampoo the carpet; but I had to
shampoo the carpet again a few days later after one of the dogs had
been sick
(why do they have to walk around and barf? Stay in one
spot! Don't they ever learn from watching me hang over the toilet
some mornings??
). I think lately I've just over-extended
myself because I've still been having days where I don't feel so
good. Part of my problem has been an allergic
reaction to something in the air and to the damned little fleas that
I can't get rid of in the house. (I'm going to have to take more
extreme measures to combat the flea situation I guess.
 ) The rest
of my problem is something I'm going to talk to my doctor about
later this week. (I'll tell you more about that later).
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| I had tried to get Becca to
consider setting an earlier date for her birthday pool party; because
the weather at the end of August is always uncertain here in Ohio.
Most years, by the end of this month it's already turning cooler and
rainy as an early preview to Fall. However, things worked out just
great for her this year. If she had taken my advice, we would have
had to have canceled the party last weekend; instead, the weather
this weekend was gorgeous and back to hot and sunny!
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Everybody loves my doggies and they
love all my friends (which works out rather nicely
).
Scotty gives some loving to Gabby and Zeus at the same time. |
| We had most of DO's family
over along with our long-time friend Erica and her three kids.
Needless to say, the pool was full again and everyone had a blast
playing in the water. |
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| While DO's Three-Cheese
potatoes were baking in the over, Linda finished icing the Mandarin
Orange Cake that Becca requested, I got plates, cups and
condiments ready, and Erica loaded up the grill with hot dogs. Just
like the last party, Zeus inched closer and closer to the grill
hoping to catch some food. This time he wiggled under the sheet on
the couch, I guess he thought that hid him from Erica's watchful
eyes.
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Aries, sitting back and taking it all
in while most of the crowd is in the pool. I'm still so pleased that
he's doing so well over here at this house. In the old days, I would
have never left him to roam around with so many people around. I
don't know that he would have bitten anyone; but who wants to take
that chance? Instead, he got along with everyone and only snapped
once as someone tried to take a deflated balloon away from him. |
Zeus is my official greeter. Linda
barely had time to sit down, before Zeus jumped into her lap to say
hey and slap some wet kisses on her face.
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Angie tries to get Scotty presentable
for a picture.
MouseOver to see how cute he can be.
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| Usually there is only Jim's Hyundai in
the driveway. I just had to take a picture with the drive so full
that we had cars parked on the street and up in the yard. What a big
crowd! |
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I know how much Becca
likes me putting her picture in my blog; but can you believe it?!?
We didn't get one good picture of the birthday girl at all. Matter
of fact, she's only in one picture that I took, and I know that only
because I can see her hair. (I promise to do better next year
Becca!) Usually by the time I remember taking a picture of the cake,
most of it has been devoured, so at least I did get a good picture
of Becca's cake before it was attacked.
Happy Eleventh Birthday, Rebecca Clark! |
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Now that the rain has come
and gone, and it's gotten hot again, everything has started a big
growth spurt. By the time I got around to mowing at Richard and
Angie's, it was a big deal.
Whew! Their grass had gotten quite deep
and lush. I probably should have gone over last week to mow. I'll
have to not let it go so long before it gets mowed again.
In my own backyard, I was glad to see something that I wasn't
certain we'd be seeing this year. Jim and I planted those morning
glories so late in the season; but with the season dragging out late
for a change, the vines had a chance to grow, and put forth some
flowers. |
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| Within just two days of
the pictures above, I had to take more pictures to show that even
more blooms are appearing - and in more colors! So far, there are a
couple flowers each of purple, pink and blue. If the weather will
stay good a while longer, I hope to see a lot more, as morning
glories are avid bloomers.
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I put some seed mix in a
couple of pots; but only seemed to be growing weeds until just
lately.
As you can see, I've got another morning glory vine, winding
it's way through the lattice by the patio. There's even another vine
in the front yard. I don't know how it got there. I had only
planted irises from the old house (that didn't grow
 )
in that bed. Oh well, flowers are good no matter where they grow!
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| My sunflowers have taken a
beating but are still growing well. The recent storms and winds,
along with some birds, destroyed about half of the plants. The
remaining plants are doing great and still producing big bright
yellow flowers. |
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| The visit to the
Doctor: |
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| I hadn't been certain just how my numbers might be this
time, as I was pretty sick the day the blood was taken.
My mom wisely pointed out that puking from the meds (a
stomach/throat action) would probably make little difference in my
blood work (red and white blood cells along with those pesky HIV
cells). Although my counts didn't change by much, there was some
change that caused some mild concern. |
| |
05/03/07 |
08/14/07 |
| Viral Load |
264 |
255 |
| T-Cells |
<75 |
2,754 |
|
| I didn't get a bump up in
my T-cells; but they only went down a tiny amount, so that isn't too
bad. I keep hoping I can break that 300 mark and stay above, but I
guess I'll just keep on hoping for a while longer. My doctor
occasionally mentions that I could drop the Bactrim from my med
regimen, if my numbers would ever go that high. Actually I could
drop this med now, as my count is over 200; but it has never been
steadily over 200, so I've kept on taking it. Since the Bactrim is a
prophylaxis against pneumonia (and especially because it doesn't
make me puke!), I'm happy to just keep taking it until my T-cells
are staying over 400.
|
Click this picture for a large up-to-date chart |
The main concern that my
doctor had with my counts is the "blip" in my viral load. First let
me tell you that I have been VERY compliant with my meds during this
last 3-month period (between doctor visits) - actually the BEST I've
ever been!
I only skipped two days - the one went we went to King's Island, and
the other was Pooltag/Jim's bday - because I really didn't want to
puke on either of those days. If you'll remember, I was even good
about taking them while on my trip to the Carolinas (and look where
that got me.
If I had skipped just one more day
of meds this period, I might not
have barfed at my Nana's party
).
As far as this "blip" though, my doctor isn't worried, just
concerned. He's got me scheduled to have more blood work done in
about three weeks, so that we can get some new results by the first
part of October. Depending on how those numbers go, will determine
what we do next. Hopefully, my viral load will go back down, and
I'll just keep on with the meds I'm taking. However, if the count
isn't better, they'll be able to take that blood sample and run a
genome-type test to determine the levels of meds in my system and
whether my HIV has become resistant to any of my meds.
Unfortunately, that is always a concern. HIV is a pesky virus and
none of the meds that have been developed completely eradicate it.
Since some of it is always in my system ("undetectable" doesn't mean
it's gone, just too few virus infected cells for any sort of a valid
count), some of the HIV is able to mutate. I am already the proud
owner of a wild, mutant variety of it after taking so many different
meds through all these years. There's probably half a dozen meds
(out of maybe two dozen in total) that are no longer effective
against my strain of the virus.
Frankly, I'm not certain what to think about it yet, so I'm not
going to worry about it (well, not much anyway
).
Let me explain further. I frequent the aidsmeds.com site for several
reasons. I really enjoy the forums, where I meet and chat with many
people from all over the globe that are dealing with the same
problems; I get great news about the breaking research results and
info about all the meds that are in the pipeline; but one of the best
things about the site is it's "Cool Tools" section, which is what I
use to produce the nifty graphs of my blood work. So I decided to
take a closer look at just my viral load. Starting at the first of
2005 (when I started trying to be faithfully compliant to the
regimen that wasn't making me sick), the graph shows that I've been
having "blips" every few months, with each blip actually getting
smaller as time passes. So what does that mean? Like I said, I'm
just not certain. I'll wait to see what results I get back in a
month, re-graph them, and talk to the doctor. |
blip, blip, blip, blip?
|
I also talked to my doctor
about a couple of other issues (besides one incident of my finger
infection; a bee sting; some allergies here at the end of Summer;
and a couple of sick days along with throwing up half a dozen
times). For a while now (6-9 months), I've been watching and
thinking that I am developing a new problem called peripheral
neuropathy (PN), which is damage to nerves of the peripheral nervous
system. PN can be a side effect of some of my meds, or a condition
brought on by HIV itself. At this point, it isn't bad enough (my
hands and feet go numb very fast, and occasionally I have burning or
"pins and needles" feelings in my feet) to try to do anything about;
but I did want to make sure he knew that I am having these problems.
There isn't a cure or treatment, per se, for this problem. If the
pain gets bad enough, pain meds can be prescribed, or a more drastic
approach of switching to different medications can be made. As with
those "blips" in my viral load, this isn't an immediate problem; but
it is something that my doctor and I will have to keep an eye on.
Although changing meds is not a choice I'll be happy to make, I was
just discussing with Jim, that doing that is always a possibility.
Unfortunately no HIV meds are permanent, as they are unable to
destroy all the HIV in the body (some stays in the brain and in the
gut). Eventually this small amount of HIV will mutate and become
resistant to the meds. I had a test a few years ago that shows that
my strain of HIV is already resistant to several medications that I
have taken. |
| |
I also spoke with my
doctor about another topic, which I mentioned to several of my
friends and family over the last month - my smoking habit. Doing
some research about a new med (Chantix), I found that within a few
days, your desire to smoke is curbed and many people are "cured"
within just a few weeks. According to what I could decipher on the
Medicare site (which is uber confusing!), this drug is approved to
be covered. Several people in the aidsmeds.com forums gave the med
high praise, and mentioned that they were able to obtain it through
their Medicare coverage.
I took the prescription to my pharmacist; but my Medicare part D
would not cover it, nor would Ohio Medicaid!
Go figure! Rather than cover a $300 medicine to stop the problem,
they'll just let people continue to smoke and worry about treating
the lung/cancer problems later. It really makes me wonder what they
are doing with all that tax money they collect on each pack of cigs
that I buy. I knew most of it went to pay for ball parks and
stadiums, but I thought part of it was to go to prevent/stop
smoking. Somehow, I think the taxpayers in Ohio (with the highest
tax per pack) are being screwed by their government again.
However, I haven't given up yet. I put in calls Friday afternoon to
several agencies to see if anyone had any advice (a "stop smoking"
program or perhaps changing Medicare plans), so I'm hoping to hear
back after the holiday from someone. In the meantime, I went back to
the forums and posted my problem - and got a potential good
response. Another forum member was able to quit after just 4 weeks
and has 3 refills left on his prescription. We're working out the
details where I'll reimburse his co-pay ($25 per monthly
prescription), and have him send me the meds.
(At least I don't have to go to a foreign country to get medical
help.
) |
| Unlike some months on my blog through
the years, this month I can leave you with a couple of pieces of
good news.
I've been emailing with my clients with the horse farm in KY. They
were having problems with their server host and are changing to a
new service. Because of the recent problems, we haven't been able to
update her site, so along with getting everything transferred over
and working again, I'll be getting the site current again. This will
be a good change, and I'm looking forward to working on their site
in the next couple of weeks. |
| But that's not the ONLY job that I'll
be working on in September.
I received a phone call the other day from a voice from my past -
Doug Waikem. Just before I quit
working with the Waikems, I set up a webcam in his brother's Honda
dealership to help with a theft problem they were having. It sounds
like Doug may be have a similar problem now, and would like to try
the same solution. This should be a pretty interesting job as he
mentioned that he's considering anywhere from about 5 to 50 cams in
all! I've already sent him an email explaining many of the issues
we'll need to consider to implement this plan and I hope to finalize
some the details when we meet soon. If things move along well, I should
be working on this project during September. |
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