| leatherman's
log |
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January 2010 |
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| Week One: |
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| HAPPY NEW YEAR! |
Wow!
I can hardly believe that it's 2010. I can still vividly remember
being in the hospital in 1999 and not believing that I've ever see
2000, much less being here another decade passed that.
 
Of course, I'm hoping and sending out my best wishes for all of you
as we start a new decade.
 |
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But before I have any new
stories to tell you about this new year,
you ought to go back to my last updates and catch up the last of my
stories from last year.
Not only did I post some
general news to catch up for you,
but I have more pictures in my
annual
Christmas update,
pictures and tales from my
trip to the beach,
and my annual
Year in Review Summary. |
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I had an online friend
tell me "Happy New Year!! Let's make this a good one!!", and
I responded that I thought he really had the right attitude.
For the most part, life IS what you make of it. If you enjoy the
part you can control, the out of control stuff is a lot easier to
deal with. |
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| Last night after the clock
stuck 12 and the new decade and new year started, I was thinking
about the parts of life that I could and couldn't control, and think
that this year should be better for me: |
| |
I shouldn't lose a home
cause I'm living with my mom and she loves me.
I can't lose a car cause I don't have one anymore since Jim's was
repossessed.
I won't have any more partners die cause I've run out of them.
I can't be worried about my VL cause it's already blipped up to
being detectable again.
I can't be worried about my tcells cause they have already dropped
back down to near the 200 range.
I can't be hurt much more by SC cause my food stamps here are half
of what I had in OH.
I can't be hurt by SocSec cause my SSD check was already cut and put
back to it's rightful amount.
and I'm starting the year off with
more lab work, another visit to the doctor and an endoscopy/dilation
to fix my throat
so I'll be getting lectured, stabbed, poked, and operated on right
off the bat. |
| |
Of course, I could list a
few of the things that could go wrong this year, but I'll worry keep
those concerns in the back of my head.
I just think with all that stuff having already happened or about to
happen, the rest of the year has just got to be pretty good. |
Yikes!
Old Man Winter Has Followed Me Down South! |
| from the Charlotte newspaper,
The Charlotte Observer |
| |
| Arctic air is expected to
begin pouring into the Carolinas today, setting up what could be the
longest cold snap in the Charlotte metro region in nearly a decade,
forecasters say.
That means mostly clear skies for the Piedmont
and foothills for up to a week - but with
daytime high temperatures only in the 30s. In
fact, the temperature is not expected to reach
40 degrees again in Charlotte until Wednesday.
That would be the longest stretch of sub-40
degree weather for Charlotte in nine years,
according to National Weather Service records.
"The last time we had a cold snap of this
duration was the winter of 2000-2001," said
Bryan McAvoy, of the National Weather Service
office in Greer, S.C. |
| |
Dang! I thought I was leaving this
kind of weather up North; but obviously not. Well, there is one
consolation - no
All my friends up in Ohio have been keeping me informed that they
are going through a cold snap too; but they've been having the white
stuff.
Last I heard it was nearing 12 inches and still falling. |
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Week Two: |
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| I'm not the only one! |
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| You may remember that I've talked
before about the forums over at the aidsmeds.com website. One of the
biggest reasons that I first went to talk to the people who are
members there is because I felt very alone. With Randy and so many
of our gay friends gone from those early days, I felt like maybe one
of the only HIV positive people left from the late 80s and early
90s. Thankfully, I was able to meet all sorts of people online (gay,
straight, black, white, youngish and old) who had survived as long
as I had - why some of them have even lost multiple partners as I
have. |
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| Well, the good news is that I've
finally met another person like me - in person. Living just down the
highway a bit, Bill is the client liaison from Chester County to the
ASO (Catawba Care Clinic) where I am a client too. A few years older
than me, Bill has also been positive just a few years longer. But,
of course, we've gone through some of the same trials and issues
dealing with this disease so it's been very pleasing to chat with
someone who really understands from having been there. Thankfully,
Bill is no slouch either and we have a lot to talk about. Though he
has a degree in commercial art, I wasn't surprised to find that once
again, since he also has an RN degree, I know another nurse. |
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So, with my friend Jack, and now with
Bill, I've got two pretty good friends down here in South Carolina.
WooHoo!
Speaking of Jack, I haven't seen him since our Christmas trip to the
beach. However at the end of a very busy week, he and I will be
meeting up for lunch this Sunday to catch up on what's been
happening for the last month. |
| mIkIe can read |
While waiting for the gastro doctor to
fix me up, the clinic got me scheduled into the eye doctor's office
to get my peepers checked out. The good news is that the health of
my eyes is very good. The bad news is that the degradation that I've
noticed is because I'm over 40. Yes, old age is striking me down in
the prime of my life.
 Although she wrote me a prescription
for bifocals (omigosh!), the doctor told me that I would be just as
well off using reader glasses, with a 2X or 2.25X magnification. I
saw no sense in having the clinic help me purchase eyeglasses at
this time. Instead I stopped at a local Walgreens and picked up a
package of 3 pairs of glasses that should work fine for some time. |
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| The Reading
List |
Since it doesn't seem like I'll be
going blind anytime soon and since I picked up the reading glasses,
I ought to bring you up to date on the books I've been reading
lately. |
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| In the fiction department, I read a
new Dean Koontz horror book called "Relentless". I spent a lovely
sunny 65 degree afternoon reading this book out on the deck and
completed the book later that evening. While I'm waiting for Ilona Andrews
to write the next installment in her urban fantasy "Magic" series, I
read her first book, "On the Edge", in her new "Edge" series. I also
found out that this author is really not just one person. Although
the books are mainly attributed to Ilona Gordon, she writes these
books with her spouse Andrew Gordon; thus the name Ilona Andrews.
Currently, I just started reading another book by Christopher Moore,
a writer that I started reading this past summer up in Ohio, this
book is titled, "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's
Childhood pal". This humorous fiction is the first book that I
actually checked out of a South Carolina library, as I have only
been going over to the one in North Carolina, so far. |
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| In the non-fiction category, I've read
two very interesting books lately. "And Then There's This: How
Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture" by Bill Wasik talked about
the "flash mob" phenomenon and "nano stories". I'm currently reading
another marketing book by James P Othmer's "Adland: Searching for
the meaning of life on a branded plant" |
| It once was
a tiny little plant |
| Coming up close onto 16
years ago at Randy's death, I have a plant basket given to me when I
worked for U.S. Cargo. There were seven green plants to begin with.
Unfortunately, though I talk about loving yard work, etc. I have a
black thumb when it comes to inside plants. So within a few months,
the only things surviving from that plant basket was a tiny palm-tree-looking plant and some ivy-type vine. After
a few years, though the
vine was about three feet long, it only had two leaves left on it.
Of course, being that defoliated, it didn't survive passed it's
fourth Ohio Winter. However the little palm seemed happy, as long as
I always left it in the west-facing foyer window at my 14th street
house. |
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| That little palm grew and
grew and eventually had a second stalk. Both stalks reached about 2
and half feet tall, and it stayed that way for many years. However,
when I moved it over to Jim's house, as he put it in the car, Jim
accidentally crunched the fronds off of one stalk in the car door. I was afraid the
plant would be a goner; but sitting it out by me on the pool deck
all summer, it eventually grew new fronds on that stalk as it was a
very happy plant out by the pool or on Jim's patio. |
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| Once I brought the plant
down to SC, I kept it outside while I sorted through my belongings
and got situated into my new room. Ah ,but my friend the palm really
loved the SC weather. I repotted him into a slightly larger pot,
mainly to help replace the soil that had been lost through moving
from house to house the last couple of years. By the time when I had
to start thinking about bringing the palm indoors for the winter
(the longest the plant had ever been outside as it wasn't until
mid-December that we even had frost), he was so pleased with the SC
weather that my plant had quite literally doubled in size! |
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| So for the last couple of
months, the palm has been inside sitting in the corner by the
window. When some of the more recent days being nice weather again,
I took the plant back outside during the days to get more sun. Lo
and behold, looking at the base, I see that the palm is so happy
with SC and his new pot, that he's sprouting! And not just one new
stalk, but two! |
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You can see the place where the new
fronds
grew on the second stalk after it got hurt. |
Look! how much the new shoot has
grown in just a week since the pictures above |
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| Since the palm is the state tree (see
the SC state flag to the right), maybe that explains why my palm is
so happy here. For years though I haven't known exactly what kind of
palm he is though. I noticed on a trip to Walmart the other day,
that they were already putting out a plant section (goodness Winter
goes by so fast down here in the South.! WooHoo!) So I looked
through all the plants and found out that this is a dracaena, or
"Dragon Tree". Of all things, this plant is actually a subset of the
same type of plant known as "lucky bamboo" which isn't bamboo at
all. |
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| Jolly
Holidays |
I wasn't the only one to
get away this past holiday season,
though am I quite jealous about
where some of my friends took their holiday trips. |
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I got this postcard from one of my
favorite online friends, Emma from England. (she's the one who sent
me my first ever piece of international mail! She's also been very
thoughtful in sending me cards at my birthdays, when Jim was ill,
and even on the occasions when I have moved into a new home) Just
like last year, she has taken her holiday to go "Down Under" to
Australia where it's warm for the Winter. |
| Another online friend, Maurice from
Vancouver Canada, was at the beach at the same time Jack and I were
at Myrtle Beach. However, while we had slightly overcast weather,
Maurice had this beautiful weather, that you can see in one of the
pictures he send me, down in the Dominican Republic. (Hey Jack!
That's where you ought to head next December if you're going to go
to a beach in the Winter,
) |
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I do need to make a quick
note here and say "Thank You!" to Maurice.
For a Christmas present, he sent me a contribution towards paying to
keep "reigningpages.com" online for another year. Although this
year's payment isn't due for another few months, they have already
been sending out their renewal notices, and I wanted to make sure
that Maurice got acknowledged for his help. I've always been very
appreciative, not only that people have contributed to the
reigningpages fund; but just that people have found my crazy life
interesting enough to keep track of it. Thanks again Maurice, and to
all of y'all who have helped me stay online for so many years. Love
and Hugs to You Guys!
 |
| Open Wide
and Say "Ahhh" |
| Just like taking your car
to the mechanic and it won't make that horrible noise, ever since I
saw the gastro doctor, I've (thankfully) had very few issues with
swallowing food lately. Oh, don't misunderstand, there still were
several incidences; but it just wasn't happening every single time I
ate or as badly. However, I sure as heck wasn't going to cancel the
endoscopy I had scheduled. I want to be able to eat! |
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| Since the doctor had been
kind enough to squeeze my into his schedule, I was up early and
Dennis drove me to the hospital down in Rock Hill (about 10 miles
away) by 6:30am for a 7:30am appointment. Speaking (well, I guess
that should be "typing") in hindsight, the worse part of the
procedure was waiting on the doctor who was about 15 minutes late.
As I laid on the gurney, with an IV drip and blood pressure cuff on,
my left arm got really sore as the cuff automatically inflated and
took a reading every five minutes or so. |
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| When the doctor arrived,
everything moved very quickly. They had me roll onto my side and
while on nurse put a guard into my mouth another nurse shot me up
with the anesthesia. I had just enough time to giggle and, with a
thick-feeling tongue, tell the doctor I could feel that anesthesia,
before I was out. The next thing I knew (only about 15 minutes
later) was the nurse putting my jacket on the gurney with me and
telling me I was going over to recovery. I still felt a tiny bit
giggly; but quickly was wide awake. The doctor checked back up on me
shortly after that and said that he hadn't seen any ulcers, cancers
or anything bad. However, there was a patch of scar tissue (Aha! I
was right!) that had actually narrowed my esophagus down to a very
little slot (this is known as an "esophageal stricture"). Using a
special balloon device through the tube that was down my throat, the
doctor stretched my esophagus back open which should solve the
problem I was having. While I might need to have this procedure done
again in a year or more, eating should be no problem for a long time
now, and that was very good news to hear that early in the morning. |
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Time to remove another hospital
armband to add to my collection.
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Week Three: |
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Oh, NCS is
just the school for me,
With all her students and her facility!
(lines taken from the school song) |
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The other day an old high school
classmate of mine, from Northside Christian School (NCS) put out a
plea for help on FaceBook. It seems that her yearbooks had been
destroyed in a flood and she was looking to see if someone could
scan in some of the pictures of her. Well, have recently moved
everything I owned, I actually knew where I am storing a lot of my
high school papers and yearbooks. Oh, and I do have a collection of
stuff! I found programs from the graduation, school newspapers,
scripts to several plays from our junior and senior years, along
with my diploma and pictures. There are even cassette recordings of
one of the plays and the actual graduation service! |
| So to help out an old
friend, I pulled out some yearbooks and scanned in a few pictures.
After posting them on FaceBook, I noticed a lot of other former
classmates grabbed up the picture too. Cool! I'm very glad I had
this stuff still. See, although my friends are accusing me of being
a pack rat, it was just that this stuff was boxed up and easily
transported through the years. When I first moved up to OH, I threw
all this stuff into a box and it traveled around with Randy
and I, along with all our other books. After the house fire, around
1991 or so, when my diploma and a few things got smoke and water
damage, I bagged them all up safely and put them in a plastic tub
with a lid - so I've just been dragging that around from house to
house. I never really opened it up until I moved back to SC and was
sorting through things before storing them here at Mom's house. |
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Scanned from the page in my 1980 Senior
yearbook
(Lordy! I can't believe I was every that young - and cute!
) |
This full-page picture show
my old girlfriend, Leigh;
one of my best friends, Jeff;
and myself eating lunch in the school cafeteria. |
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Our Junior field trip was
a week long trip to the nation's capital, Washington, DC.
Can you find me in the picture? I'm in the middle row.
MouseOver for the CloseUp |
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| The Graduating Class of
1980 |
Graduating in a class of
42 people, it shouldn't be hard to find me in this picture.
Need a clue? I'm in the top row of this picture, on the right side.
MouseOver for the CloseUp! |
Although I wasn't playing any sports or
in the band, there were still a few other pictures that I was in
from the senior yearbook. Always a talker, it should be obvious that
I would be in the speech class productions and class plays.
Yes, that's me mugging for the camera in the picture on the left.
MouseOver CloseUp |
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And what's that?!?! See me up there in
the top row on the left? It's hard to tell from here but I'm
actually wearing a leather jacket that I had borrowed for this
production.
Yes, folks, it's "baby Leatherman" years before he even knew he was
going to be leatherman!! Who would know scanning a couple pictures
in for an old friend that I'm come across the first picture of
leatherman. Wow!
MouseOver CloseUp |
| YardWork |
| After a month of cold
weather, the temperatures have been going back into the 60s and the
sun has been out some, so I've been restless to get back to doing
yard work again. I spent one day, raking up the yard again. Just
where did all these leaves come from?!?! I could have sworn I raked
up everything just before Winter settled in. Obviously having hardly
had a home with trees, I have a lot to learn about how leaves fall
off trees. |
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| A few days later, when
Dennis couldn't get the chain saw to keep running, I grabbed Jim's
trusty nippers and helped out by clipping all the crepe myrtles that
line the entrance to the driveway. They had grown up quite tall in
the last couple of years, so it was really more than a "clipping" as
we cut them down to least than half the size to which they had
grown. |
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(That's me! Well, my
shadow at least.
) |
|
Volunteering |
| Some of you may know that
I have talked about trying to volunteer some for several reasons.
Although I am feeling in fair health, I'm deadly afraid, especially
since having my check cut once for that three year period, that
getting a "real" job would only endanger how I receive my meds and
would eventually negatively impact my health. But since I am feeling
in fair health, it makes for some really long dull days with no good
purpose in my life. Hence, I thought that perhaps volunteering would
not only do me some good; but allow me to help do some good for
others. |
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| Now that I'm living in a
different state, I'm hoping that doing some sort of volunteer work
and getting my face out there some will help me to meet some new
friends (as it already did with my meeting Bill). Another reason is
to do something constructive with the many hours that I have during
the week. I have considered trying to start up being the
ComputerTutor down here which would bring in a little bit of money
and use up some time. However I have felt a compulsion to do
something more along the lines of community care volunteer work from
having had Hospice help with both Randy and Jim's passings. Though I
know what to do and could be a Hospice volunteer to sit in for
someone to run errands while I watched their loved one, I don't want
to jeopardize my health and I just don't know that I have the
emotional strength to do that much. |
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| Catawba Care Clinic has
other volunteer positions that perhaps I can do instead. I'm hoping
that they can use my skills to help out with their website and
newsletter. Having done all that kind of work for Waikem Auto Group,
Expert Auto Body, et al. that kind of help would be right up my
alley. |
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| The Clinic also does
community outreach programs were some of my other skills (harkening
back to my high school and college days) could be useful. Often
after giving presentations about HIV prevention and testing, the
clinic tries to have a client speak - not just to tell their story
about the clinic, but to put a face on HIV/AIDS so it's not just
data to the audience. When I attended the clinic's World Aids Day
presentation just last month, and heard a fellow clinic client tell
her story, I knew that was something that I wanted to do! |
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| The night after that
presentation, I began to consider what I would most want to impart
to an audience, what part of my story would be most useful, and how
I could get that story of 25 years down to just a 10 to 15 minute
spiel. My speech would have to include some HIV prevention/testing |
| |
| Unfortunately, we all know too well the
tragic story I have of losing both Randy and Jim. So I've decided to
talk about the two men that I loved so dearly to tell the story
about myself, in a way that I hope appeals to an audience and will
get across an appropriate message. I would love to know that by
telling about losing Randy and Jim, I could save someone else. |
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| I won't actually be giving
this speech anywhere until the first part of next month; but I did
do a "test run" at the clinic the other day and I think it went over
well. If you have a few minutes please read through and let me know
your thoughts. |
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| A Taste of
Spring |
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With the temps still up in the mid 60s
and the sun out shining brightly, I just couldn't shake this case of
Spring Fever. I decided to tackle another yard project that Dennis
mentioned. There's quite a bit of property from the back fence down
the hill to creek. Dennis thought this would be a good time of year
to start clearing out a walking path or two, that would allow us to
wander through the "woods" a bit this Spring and Summer when it all
turns green again and fills in. |
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From the gate the path heads out and down. I'm trying to wind the
path around the nicer parts of the woods, and I've already been
eyeing auxiliary paths that can branch off towards either side of
the property. Eventually, I want the path to go down to the creek,
cut across the property, and head back up the hill coming out on the
far side of the yard by my dog's yard. |
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| There are fallen branches,
small trees, and logs all about the woods, so I've been dragging
them into place to mark off the boundaries of the path. It's hard to
tell exactly where the path is from some of these pictures; but I
still have more work to do that should help. So far I've only marked
off just a small portion of path and only almost made it all the way
the hillside to the creek. This is definitely a project that is
going to take some time. However, I should be able to have some nice
photos this Spring, as the woods fill in and the path stands out
more clearly. |
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| Several large rocks just
before the gulley will make an excellent resting place to sit and
watch the creek later in the Summer. |
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Clean Air, Clean Lungs,
Muddled Mind and Sad Heart |
I love yard work, and since I moved into my Mom's house this past
Sept, I have a whole new yard - in the woods no less - to work in.
Used to the miserable Winters in Ohio, it was really nice getting
spring fever here in SC on this beautiful 65 degree day and being
able to get outside to work. Of course, there's some more Winter
weather on the way; but OH never has days like this in January.
Plus, as I'm celebrating not
smoking for a full year,
it was really nice to get outside in the fresh air and enjoy my
clean lungs. Of course, I didn't get as much done as I would have
wanted; but being nearly 48 and living with AIDS 18+ yrs there's
only so much I can do in one afternoon.
 |
| |
| I was enjoying myself until, finally worn out, I struggled up to the
deck in our side yard to sit with my cocker spaniels. I had been
fine, until I sat still for a couple of minutes, then from out of
left field I started feeling a hollowness creeping into my sunny
disposition. Here I am on the cusp of the two year anniversary of
when Jim first became ill. For all I know it could have been 2 yrs
ago today that he first took a day off from work thinking he had the
flu that was going around. Who could have predicted how radically my
world would have changed (and been shattered) just a mere 90 days or
so later? Normally doing an outside project like I had been doing
would be something Jim and I would tackle together |
| |
I'm very appreciative that my Mom and
Dennis were willing to make room for me and the boyz and I'm
thrilled to be making friends here; but there's still a great big
hole in my heart and in my head. If I had had my "druthers" ,
I would still much rather have Jim and still be in Ohio - even if I
would have to be suffering through the cold and snow of Winter. Ah,
but I remember thinking similar things about life for many years
after Randy died. Though I try to be an emotionally strong person
and feel that I've moved on and don't live in the past, there are
times that I long for the past and all the "what could have beens"
that are gone with the loss of Randy and of Jim. |
| |
| Depression and grief are very cruel
syndromes are their are able to take normal, good times, even the
very activities that should be helping to keep your mind occupied on
"other matters" and twist them, wringing the joy right out. Ah well!
I'll just have to turn up the volume on my mp3 player when I'm
working on my next project, do something even more strenuous to wear
me out and afterwards try not to let my mind wander so. |
| The Other
Bivenses |
| Looking back at my
pictures from the Bivens' Christmas Get-Together, you can probably
see that my family isn't all that large. I think there's only about
a dozen of us. However, we're not the only Bivenses out there. My
Dad (Doug), who had three sons, had an older brother (named Roy) who
had three daughters (who are the three cousins to me and my two
brothers). |
| |
| Not long again, Mom and I
went up to Gastonia one afternoon to visit my Aunt Ann (who had been
Roy's wife) whom I hadn't seen much in very many years. I believe
the last time I had actually seen her since probably 1980 or so, was
at my father's funeral. She's going pretty good and we had a really
nice lunch and visit. |
| |
| Since meeting up with Ann,
I have met up with two of her daughters (my cousins) through
FaceBook recently. The youngest cousin, Terry, has a son and a
boyfriend and is living in a town nearby to her mom, while going to
school studying to become a teacher. Her older sister Laura, who
followed in her mom's footsteps and became an RN (yeppers! another
one that I know)
was up this week from down where she lives in SC. Making
arrangements then, Mom and I drove up to Ann's and went out to
dinner with her and the girls. |
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The youngest cousin, Terry,
and her little bundle of joy (and energy!) TJ |
| |
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My older cousin, Laura. She is a South
Carolinian now too,
and actually lives just a ways down the beach
from where I spent my Christmas vacation. |
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| |
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As you can see by this
first picture, it was too cold for us to be in any mood for
picture-taking.
However, after a couple shots, Mom finally got one of us, all with
mostly smiling faces.
|
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Aunt Ann, Cousin Laura,
Cousin Terry
and TJ |
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Week Four: |
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| Return of
the Sn@w Dogz! |
| Wasn't I just writing
about "a touch of Spring"? Ha! All that nice weather warmth has
blown away and it's as chilly here as Winters in Ohio!
And that just ain't right!! Not only did the temperatures change to
colder like up North, but the forecasters are calling for - EEK! -
that dreaded white stuff - sn@w. I just don't
understand; I thought I left all this up there for my
Wooster/Canton/Youngstown friends to enjoy.
|
| |
| After dinner time, there
were a few flakes swirling in the air; but so few that Mom spent 10
minutes looking out the window and couldn't see them. I guess my
time with the Yankees increased my ability to see tiny white dots
flying by in the atmosphere. |
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| Just before heading to bed
around 1am, I let the dogz out and checked the weather. It still
wasn't snowing; but fine sleet was coming down. |
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| The next morning, the boyz
and I awoke to a world of white. Well, not much white, but still
some white. I'm not quite certain if it's sleety/sn@w or sn@wy/sleet;
but there's enough out there to cover the ground |
|
|
| Just like me, the dogz
were surprised to see sn@w down here in (upper) South Carolina.
However, after scoping out this yard covered in white, I had a hard
time getting them to come back in and every time I wasn't looking
they were back out the doggie-door to go romp in the sn@w so more. |
| Of course, I can't say that I blame the
boyz either. Even though I was hoping to go a Winter without sn@w, I
am kinda missing the white stuff. I've always said that if it's
going to sn@w, that I hope it sn@ws a bunch; but less than even a
half an inch was all that we got. Of course, as my Northern friends
know me well enough,
even that small amount was enough to get my outside with my trusty
sn@wshovel.
Unfortunately with no sidewalks to speak of out here in the country
or even leading up to the front door, I was reduced to only being
able to clear out the walkway from my side porch to the deck. |
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Being down South it didn't
take long for the sn@w to start melting away. As soon as the temps
were above freezing the next day and the sun came out, things began
to thaw. With temps heading up near 50 by Monday, I doubt there will
be anything left after the weekend. I guess I'll just have to put my
shovel back into the shed, probably for the rest of the year. |
| Be Careful
What You Wish For |
| Last week, I had an
appointment with my Catawba Care Clinic case manager for a 3-month
review, along with having my blood taken for new labs. |
| |
| Although at the blood
draw, they told me that their new procedure to freeze the samples
before shipping would return the results much faster (in 3 days
rather than in 14), it's already been 9 days and still no results
are back. Though I'm not really complaining, somehow I'm not
surprised that for me the new procedure doesn't seem to working too
well. Hopefully, things will work out and I'll at least get my
counts back in the regular 14 day time span. |
| |
| Things worked out better
though with Christine my case manager. Looking back at our original
action plans, most things that we talked about have been completed
now. I got transferred from OH to SC and have a medical card and
food stamps now. I got my eyes checked; but don't need glasses -
yet!
I've gotten an endoscopy that fixed my esophagus/swallowing
problems. I haven't been to see the clinic's dentist yet; but that's
on the to-do list with the clinic's doctors. Plus I've gotten newer
SC medicine prescriptions and are getting my meds delivered. I still
wasn't certain about exactly how my meds were being covered, so
Christine and I worked through that issue. I wanted to make sure
that I was enrolled in a Part D program, so that it didn't come back
onto me personally to try to pay off the monthly $2,100 prescription
bill. After checking in with SC Medicaid and then the pharmacy that
has been supplying my meds, we found that the Part D program that I
was enrolled in through the state of OH is actually still covering
my meds.
WooHoo! So I didn't have to change any paperwork. |
|
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|
I was back by the Clinic the following day too; but not for any more
paperwork. Recently, I signed up to help out the clinic by doing
some volunteer work (this is besides joining their Speakers Bureau).
They had me come over to two hours to help man the pantry. On
Fridays, for those two hours, at a local church just down the
street, the clinic gives out taxables to their clients. Those would
be things like toilet paper, soap, paper towels, toothpaste, dish
soap, etc. The coordinator had really thought that the pantry would
be swamped as it just before that snow came in; however, after two
hours, we closed and locked up without seeing a single client. But
heck, it was just a quick drive down the road for me, and I met
another couple clients from the clinic who had also volunteered, so
I didn't mind too much. I'm sure I'll get a chance to do this
service again, and actually hand out items to some clients. |
|
| However, in the great
tradition of "be careful what you ask for", I just got bit by this
old adage. |
| |
| See one of my meds has
been coming as a smallish blue slick-coated tablet, which I kind of
like since it's small and easy to swallow. Well, every once in a
while (both up in Canton and now down here), when the pharmacy has
run low on these pills, they have substituted a pill by a different
manufacturer. This second pill has been only slightly larger; but
it's uncoated, which means it has a tendency to start dissolving the
moment it touches my tongue - also because it's uncoated it has a
tendency to "stick" to my tongue. Lately, they've been substituting
this white pill more often for my favorite blue pill. So while my
case manager had the pharmacy on the phone inquiring about my Part D
provider, she mentioned this to the rep. She explained that it was
just a substitution they did pretty regularly. When they ran out of
the med from one manufacturer, they simply switch over to the other
pill. That also explained why occasionally I have gotten both types
in the same order. Since this rep was my regular pharmacy rep, she
also let me know that my next shipment of meds was on the way. |
When my meds arrived, I noticed an
unusually large bottle in the box. It seems the pharmacy is having
to substitute even more. The blue pill at the top of this picture is
the one I prefer. The larger white one on the left is the normal
substitute.
The newest substitute that they have sent are those two large
capsules
shown on the right! I checked and yes it's the same dosage.
Umm, I don't think I'm going to "complain" about the meds anymore. I
don't want the pharmacy changing anything else, since their changes
are for the "bigger" not the "better".
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