Still awaiting medical test results, neurotic cat

    Don't you just hate it when doctors take forever to get back to you? It's been about 10 days since my abdominal ultrasound, and I haven't gotten any results back. The xray of my hips didn't seem to turn up anything unusal, according to the report I just got in the mail. So I don't have ovarian cancer? What about my liver and lungs (still have a soreness in my back)?
    Once you've had cancer once you can get it again, it seems. And as I am typing this the cat is at my feet and trying to get into something (the closet, a space near a drawer) or into my lap. the spouse says she is neurotic because the dog is gone. Possibly. But in the winter she is "in and out" and in and out of the house, though there is a "cat door" in one of the porch doors so I don't have to get out in the cold to get her all the way outside.

Got ultrasound to see if I have cancer,the dog, Gerson therapy

   Well, it was a "really long" ride to the Bristol Wellmont hospital so that my husband's insurance can "sort of pay" for medical expenses. First they tell me there is a $300 deductible for the ultrasound on my middle region (abdominal area, under both ribs and the middle, where the vital organs are and I have felt some pain) so I put $150 down, THEN I FIND OUT my lab service connected to my husband's insurance isn't even in the hospital anymore. That is a financial bummer. But "most" of the healthcare in this country is a financial bummer. My mother is spending "all" her extra dollars on doctor bills. We need a healthcare tax that is "better" than Medicare, that covers lab work and some specialists. Healthcare is just too expensive.
    So they tell me his lab service moved down the road near Kroger or some such place. But if I did go there after the ultrasound then I probably wouldn't have eaten a bite till 11:30 (as I had to fast and not eat/drink from the night before for the bloodwork AND the abdominal ultrasound-- the bloodwork had to do with insulin fasting, I think and they like your abdominal area 'flat' so it is easier to take pictures). And I was kind of exhausted, so I took the higher deductible and had the blood work done at the Wellmont hospital.
    I was exhausted as the dog, Grover, had been yelping on and off all night. Should I have taken him to the doggie emergency room that evening? I almost did, but I knew I had to leave by 7 and thought I wouldn't get any sleep if I did. Well, he was yelping on and off (we think it was constipation but I say he had a blockage) and I got almost no sleep. Finally, at 6 am the husband took him to the doggie emergency room but he died on the way. We should have taken him that evening, put him out of his misery sooner, as I don't think he would have survived then. He collapsed twice at home that evening. And he'd had seizures since being put on the heart medicine for an enlarged heart -- could the drug have had a bad side effect? I felt bad we waited to take him to the vet. We haven't had much luck with dogs and this is the last one I want to take care of. I'm not really a small dog person anyway; they can be whiny.
    So after the medical 'stuff' I got with natural friend Carrie and she told me about a man who had bone cancer and had been on the Gerson Therapy (alternative cancer therapy) for 2 years. It involved juicing everything, coffee enemas,  and supplements, but he hadn't gotten better. In fact his cancer had spread. I don't think I will try that if I have cancer, but the Kelley therapy is kind of similar. I think I'd rather do a targeted therapy and do "Protocel" instead.

Still don't have a doctor's appointment

      I think our  health insurance is schizo. ON  the one hand, my husband's doctor was distantly related to the "Wellmont" health netwoek and he was able to see him and sort of have his visits and lab work covered. But for me, two doctors later, they say they are "not" in the Wellmont network (it's all about networks, not people, it's all about profit, not health) so can I go to these
people or not? They are 50 minutes away on the interstate. I risk having to see another dr.
2 hours away because his network doesn't reach this far. It stinks.

Decent doctors anyone?

   I believe I have serious health issues and yet my husband's doctor can't take the time to call back and let me know if she can take me on as a patient or not. That really sucks. With back soreness/pain and pain under my ribs, that is not a good sign. I hope it is my gall bladder but I don't think I'll be that lucky.
     Why can't doctors treat you like you are somebody? I know this doctor is new, but geez, how about fitting in a really sick person? I may have to travel a very long distance to see a doctor "in my network".

What if I have cancer again

 I didn't do great with cancer treatments the first time around. I had breast cancer then. But I have this soreness in my back that is not going away -- a bad sign. It could be pancreatic (no) or lung cancer. I am not a very lucky person. Maybe I should have stayed on the Femara. I have tried to
lose weight but my intestinal tract and thyroid  I don't think have cooperated.

    I did lousy on chemo, but some people don't do chemo, or do it in combination with different things. I need a plan.

Beale Street, Memphis, Moving with son

     It was colder than normal  the one day I got to roam around a bit of Memphis (am told it is usually in the 40s in January, not closer to 20o F). Anyway, it was spitting snow and the rottweiler in the backyard of the house behind the one my son was now renting was howling, probably because with his short hair he was pitifully cold. We'd just finishing moving what things Zeb had into his ground level house, and were planning now on running errands and see what else we could see in this new hometown for him.
     He wanted to visit the ornamental 'metal art' museum. There were "several" other museum choices we could have looked into, like the one with the IMAX theater and the Underground Railroad museum. It was Monday and they either closed at 5 PM (we got kind of a late start and had errands to run) or were closed, period. So, after buying a few things  he needed for his new place, like food, we took it back to his place, got his new GPS device working, and looked for the Applebees we had a coupon for (which my middle son gave me as part of a Christmas gift). I tried this chicken recipe and the waitress brought me this alcoholic "milkshake" with kahlua  (sp?) in it. Son Zeb tried it, and, of course, the alcoholic aftertaste he so dislikes stood out. It's just as well. I think he'd have a hard time being an alcoholic with that attitude. But he's been a "soda-holic" in the past!
     So what was left to do? I thought we'd go on this Beale Street, the one mentioned in a song. There supposed to be some music venues on that street. But on a Monday?
     Yes, on a Monday. The waitress said if we followed the street we were on (Perkins?) we would hit Beale. Actually, we hit Riverside Drive,and viewed the pretty yellowish lights of the De Soto Bridge, which was strung across the mighty Mississippi, connecting to the next state, Arkansas, childhood home of President Bill Clinton. I'd gotten a map at a travel stop and Beale looked to be south of where we were, so we turned left and sure enough, we hit Beale. We pulled into the first parking lot we found, a very reasonable $5.00 to park, and then had to dodge pieces of ice on the sidewalk it was so cold. But we were in music land!
     There so no "you can walk" signal for the first big street we crossed so we had to basically run across. Then we came upon a theater, the Orpheum, where people like Louis Armstrong and I think Joan Rivers had performed, and their names were in metal and gold music notes that were a part of the sidewalk. Soon we hit the gaudy, colorful purple and blue and pink and green (etc.) marquees of the eateries and bars that are Beale Street proper. Beale looks to be an area of three to four blocks, with cordoned off streets open just to pedestrian traffic. Even on this cold night there were some people out and about walking by famous old shops, like Schwab's, and bars, one of them for BB King. We actually went through a bricked archway at one point and discovered the Fedex Forum. Guys on the street were asking if we needed tickets and we thought what for? Oh -- the L. A. Clippers were shooting baskets against the Memphis Grizzlies. I'd never heard of the Grizzlies. Are they a professional team?
   So we got out of that area and back to the Beale section and found a bar to go, Silky Sullivan's. In back in a case in the wall is this very gaudy black, gold and white custome with black bangles and feathery white wings, like a party angel would wear marching in a Mardi-Gras kind of parade. Maybe they have their own version of Mardi Gras there. Inside also were 2 men, a young one and gray haired one, facing each other and taking turns doing the main singing to songs on the piano they played.  Zeb said to request "Piano Man" by Billy Joel and I asked for "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John. I think the younger guy sounded a bit more like Billy Joel than the older man sound like Elton, but they were both entertaining and the sparse crowd there clapped at least some of the time, while we glanced up at a big TV screen and saw the Grizzlies play against the Clippers for nothing. Well, if you don't count our sodas and giving the pianists a few bucks.
     I think Memphis will be a very interesting city for my son to live in.

Losing Weight is harder as you age, school and writing and Nanowrimo month!

    While my talkative class has settled down, I still find that teaching can be both tiring and stressful. Am I in the wrong business?
     It would be fun to do something like the "Crocodile hunter -- Steve Irwin" did-- go out and talk about nature. Talking to a camera has to be easier than talking to 18-20 year old students! But my quiet class does listen, so that's a good thing. Students don't realize that listening can be a good thing!
     I am jealous of a neighbor. She has lost 70 pounds. I lose a few pounds, gain a few pounds, back and forth. It is difficult to lose weight after menopause, and after being put on an anti-hormone pill that I think compromised my hormones and metabolism even more! What do you do with a low metabolism? And don't tell me to eat hot peppers -- it hurts my throat! I have acid reflux and a hiatal hernia to boot!
     Losing weight is more of a struggle than reaching students, perhaps.
     But it is Nanowrimo (sp?) -- national novel writing month! And I am working on something I call "A Moroccan adventure". A member of my church mentioned some things about their culture and it sounds somewhat exotic and could be an interesting locale for a story. They have  cities somewhat like ours, and so the traditional sheep herding tribal clans and maybe I could tap into that -- and in the mountains hashish is grown, illegally but still used by many, and they will throw foreigners in the clink if they think they are using/trafficking in it, so that gave me a few ideas. And the idea of mistaken identity, which could get you into a lot of trouble in a foreign country. So I am writing about that and how a young couple gets separated because of this mistaken identity. Maybe it could be a good short story or novella. I am trying to write that AND my novel on education, "Lessons".