This is a bad day

OK.  So I don’t write in my blog everyday.  I just don’t have something to say everyday.  But today is a good day to write simply because it’s been a bad day.  I don’t get them very often, and that’s good.  Sometimes days begin well and end badly.  Sometimes they begin badly, and they end well.  Today was bad from beginning to end.

I went to my doctor’s appointment just for a checkup.  I knew my blood sugar numbers were bad because I take my blood sugar every morning, and it’s been really high for a couple of months.  So I was expecting bad news from the doctor about that.  But it was much worse that I thought!

My blood sugar numbers were so high that he said I needed to begin seeing an endocrinologist.  That was not good news for me.  I’ve been trying to avoid taking insulin shots to control my blood sugar, but my body seems to have a mind of its own.  My numbers were so high today that he was worried about complications arising from such high numbers.  I may have to begin insulin because my diet and the medication I’m on are not controlling my sugar.  I even lost weight hoping that my numbers would go down.  But they didn’t!

So I take a deep breath and try to come to terms with that.  My doctor tells me that there is some good news, though.  My cholesterol numbers look good, except for my tryglicerides.  They are, of course, too high.  But my HDL and LDL are looking pretty good.  Yeah!  At least a little bit of good news.

Now for the clincher.  He was concerned because my blood test showed a high count for my platelets.  This meant nothing to me because I’m not very smart about health care, but his whole attitude screamed “worried” to me so I knew it wasn’t good.  He explained that the high platelet count indicated that there was something wrong.  He didn’t know what because I’m not complaining about anything.  But he said something wasn’t right.

One thing about my doctor is that he knows I want things explained to me whether it is good news or bad news. So he explained.  I may be developing something called, Thrombocytosis.  It could be related to an inflamation in my body or perhaps a bone marrow disease.  Yikes! How could my body betray me like this!  He said that he will watch it for the next few months.  Maybe my platelet levels will go down and we won’t need to worry.  He also said that Thrombocytosis takes many years to develop, so at this point, watching it is the best we can do for now.   Whew!

Well the doctor visit ended, and I’m looking forward to returning home and just trying to relax.  But that just wasn’t going to happen.  Dan called me to say that he got an email from the building inspector, and we are being fined for putting a motor home on our land.  What!!!  He asked me to come right home so we can find the letter from the APA that said it would not have jurisdiction on our land.  Could this day get any worse!

He and I spent the next hour looking through all of our paperwork looking for the letter.  We couldn’t find it, but he said it may be in our trailer on the land.  Instead, he called the APA and he asked if they could email another letter to us.  They did, and we are not the piece of property they are looking at.  It is someone else’s property in the area.  Whew, again.

It is now closing in on early evening.  Hopefully, the day will end calmly.  Nope!  Dan decided to do his taxes tonight.  Since he retired last June, these taxes are different from what he’s done in the past.  There is currently lots of swearing going on in the next room.  I’m staying out of sight and quietly watching TV.  Hopefully, the evening will actually end well.

Family – You’ve got to love ’em

Family birthdays are always interesting.  Dan’s family is no different.  We had two granddaughters who had birthdays yesterday.  One was 14 and the other 12.  Whoops! These are the “teenage” birthdays.  It was everything I expected and even more.

We arrived with presents and food and were greeted by everyone but the birthday girls.  Where were they?  We asked, but no one knew exactly where they were.  Well, they had to arrive at some time, probably when the food was put out or the presents were ready to be opened.  We knew they were somewhere in the house because the other kids would come into the living room complaining about what the girls did.  “She pinched me!” or “She took my . . .” were some of the complaints.

At dinnertime, as expected, they emerged.  Both girls looked beautiful!  They flew by us toward the food, but we managed to catch them and get a perfunctory hug.  Oh yes, this was going exactly as I expected it would.

After dinner, they opened their gifts.  The 12 year old opened our present with a sort of half smile on her face.  She gave the card to her friend to read who said it was from Grandma Vitale.  With a puzzled look on her face, she asked her sister, “Who’s Grandma Vitale?” I sat watching her quietly and trying not to laugh.  The gift was from Dan and I.  Dan is trying to get his grandchildren to call him Grandpa Vitale instead of Boppi Firetruck.  The name Boppi Firetruck started because she couldn’t say “Grandpa”.  Instead she said Boppi.  Firetruck was added because he drove a truck.  Her friend misread the card as saying Grandma instead of Grandpa.  Apparently, it will take a few more years before she is ready to resolve these types of situations.  It was also beyond the 14 year old to figure out.  They both looked at me with quizzical expressions.  I said,  “It says Grandpa not Grandma.”  They still were lost.  Finally their mother said, “It’s from Boppi Firetruck.”  “Ahhh,” they both said with puzzled looks on their faces.  I think a “Thank you” may have been thrown in there also.  How can you not love them!

As I said, this birthday party was as expected with even more thrown in.

I Did It!

April 1st was my first day of retirement.  I can’t believe it finally came.  I’ve planned this day for over a year, and it always seemed so far away.  Suddenly, I was saying goodbye to all of my friends and colleagues, and then, I was gone!

Now What?

When I awoke on April 1st, I didn’t feel any different.  I got out of bed, had my tea, dressed for the day.  What was different?  Oh yeah, I didn’t have to go to work.  I was free to do as I pleased!  Yippee!

Dan and I decided to drive north to our land, visit the post office with our new PO Box, drop off material lists to several lumber yards, meet the well-guy at our land, and do whatever we want.  How cool is that.  It was a Friday – not Saturday or Sunday – a Friday.  A day that I would typically have to go to work!  I think I’m really going to like retirement.

 

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