Alive Okay?

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

There was a hospital thing not-for-myself and not life threatening except in the sense I might end up killing someone.

I am all right, but we need to take things to the storage unit. So just letting you know I’m alive.

103 thoughts on “Alive Okay?”

      1. Caution in using licorice (tea or actual candy that uses the real thing and not anise seed). First it can have a laxative effect if used in larger quantities, Second it can affect heart rhythms and blood pressure even in smaller quantities. That was why it was often found in “spring tonics” to pick folks up after the winter.

        1. I was surprised to find the REAL licorice (black, not that red strawberry wannabe stuff) I bought on discount/closeout has actual licorice extract and not anise (or fennel). That means: eat sparingly. The Real Thing can raise blood pressure. It. Is. Medicine. And should be treated thus.

          1. Most of the good soft licorice and organic (e.g. Panda) formulations use it in abundance. I think most of the traditional ones use it at least SOME. Definitely if you have hypertension you should eat it sparingly ( sigh ), don’t chow down on a whole bag. Moderation sadly is often required in things that are pleasant.

          1. That’s new to me. Not an issue on my part (male) but good to know. Although the number of people in my daughter’s generation that like real licorice is SMALL.

            1. My mom got us hooked on it when I was a kid, when it was being pushed as “100 times sweeter than sugar.”

              The amount of herbal teas that *are* _known_ to be safe to pregnant women is pretty low. -.-

      1. As a supervisor of mine at my last job told me when I said I was feeling positively murderous, “Don’t. But if you do, I’ll visit you in prison.”

        1. Many years ago I blew up at a co-worker (he managed to get himself demoted -twice- as a Department of the Army employee, so he had exceptional talent, poor man). I lost it in front of our mutual supervisor. Afterwards my boss looked at me and said, “You know you shouldn’t have done that.”
          “I know.”
          “But….I understand.” And he turned and walked away.

      3. Not always bad. Sometimes it is necessary.

        When necessary, it is unfortunately, it is a tragic waste of a life; but you are not the one that wasted it. Usually it is the person that needs killing that wasted their own life, resulting in the need for their removal. Violent criminals are either predators or parasites that fall under the need for removal definition; not reliably rehabilitatable.

        What’s bad is when someone is convinced by others that it’s okay to prey or parasitize someone else. Then you end up having to kill someone who otherwise might be a perfectly acceptable drinking and fishing buddy, just to keep your stuff, your freedom, or your life. That’s a bad thing. Even more so because it’s usually some other predator-parasite that got you and the other guy to fight so they could swoop in and take the spoils.

  5. except in the sense I might end up killing someone.

    Does the someone deserve it or is it someone that you’d dislike killing? [Crazy Grin]

            1. Note to Orvan: Axes are supposed to be melee weapons, not ranged weapons (unless you have a supply of multiple axes to throw.) Rocks are cheaper, usually in greater supply, and just about as effective when thrown.

        2. He didn’t want to worry me. Because the stress of moving is enough. Because you know, moving and a funeral is EVER SO MUCH BETTER.
          Scheduled follow up and probably surgery. And caught in time, QUITE minor. Another week, couple of weeks and ARGH.

          1. Yes but he wouldn’t have personally gone and bothered you.

            Some of the people here…. thinking you should go bother loved ones for minor troubles like imminent death. The absolute nerve!

          2. Prayers up.
            Reminded irresistibly of spouse, who goes from, “I’m fine!” to, ” I feel a little off,” to, “I need to go to the hospital. Now.”

              1. I tend to go straight to the “Oh, damn” stage myself. Luckily I don’t have any known issues that’ll put me in a bad place.

                1. I’m pretty much that way. If it’s going to require hospitalization, I’m pretty willing to fly the “I’m in Trouble” flag. Took a couple of minutes to go from knee injury to “let’s call the ambulance”. The ER doc had me wait 5 days to see the surgeon (to let swelling down, I think), then 4 days to clear warfarin from my system to do the repair.

                  OTOH, when a morning stomach-ache presented “There. Oh Shit!”, the appendectomy happened that evening. Eldest Brother had something quite similar a couple weeks previous, so my Christmas holiday trip was, er, interesting with him, but I knew the symptoms. I did have to spend a little time convincing the doc it wasn’t Munchausen’s syndrome. ‘Twas a hot appendix, not sibling rivalry.

                  I’ve put off less urgent issues, like the second time my prosthetic stapes failed in my left ear. (Note to self: I probably should have used a different ENT surgeon after the first failure. Oh well.) Waited to get a sebaceous cyst removed until draining it got too annoying for $SPOUSE and me. (Naturally it was where I couldn’t touch it. Where else?)

                  I see the cardiologist for my annual check this Friday. The last couple of years he was talking about a pacemaker because my heart rate is low. I’m not sure I need one yet. I *think* my heart is doing what it needs to do when I’m exerting myself. I am out of shape because of the knee. That’s my story, anyway.

                  1. My big issue is low BS caused by sudden unexpected drop without warning. Going to see if treatment options have changed over the last 30 years.

                    One item that Has Changed, DAD’s are recognized. Granted I’m not diabetic. But Low Blood Sugar is dangerous regardless of how it got there. Didn’t expect to have a DAD, but the puppy (not a puppy anymore) started alerting. Once I caught on and learned that (at least US) self training Is Allowed. Okay then. It takes diet to (try) and prevent the crashes. It takes her to warn when dropping low. A low I can do something about (if I’m not passed out). You’d think that should be obvious, right? Obviously just haven’t eaten lately, right? Not when the alert comes and my response is “I just ate, for crying out loud!” Nope. Or “gee I’m sweaty and huffing because we hiking at 8k feet and the hill is steep” (being out of shape might also be part of the problem), nope. It is because exercise caused the BS to drop off the cliff.

                    I’d say “Getting old isn’t for sissies” and it isn’t. But I’ve been dealing with the above for 33 years, since diagnosis, and who knows how long before that.

            2. PRECISE progression.
              Dear Lord. Strong silent type. ARGH. And just sent him to doctor again, because symptoms of massive ear infection. “Oh, but it’s less than–” ARGH

          3. Makes me feel glad I called the doctor when I thought a bug bite might be infected.

            (He got me in that day to see a different doctor. Verdict: it might be infected. So I got antibiotics in case and the bite marked in pen so we could see if it grew. Funny, the bite really started to improve the day the drugs were done. Just looks like a healing bruise now.)

        3. I cannot say that I will not be done in by something stupid, but I do hope to at least prevent it being MY OWN stupidity. Really, if I/it can’t be Normal (yeah, yeah, I know), nor Heroic (unlikely, I know), things should at least be comedic. I cannot guess, let alone predict, the future… though I have a suspicion that it won’t be Heaven or Hell – at least not right off – but some time “wandering the earth” (place yer bets if that means any net positive/negative effect on the living inhabitants thereof) as I’ve *always* seemed to be on the edge of things, rather than “IN”… for a a while, anyway.

          The one Religious Idea of any value I recall from someone I found less than trustworthy…. is that while ‘X’ for any given X might not have a soul by his (or even His) definition…. if YOU are in Heaven and expect X, X *WILL* be there for you.

        4. The really nice thing about “If you die. I’ll kill you.” murder type, is it isn’t illegal. Redundant. But not illegal. OTOH if you know a working Necromancer you might be in trouble for murdering the raised dead. After all don’t Zombie Lives Matter (running an hiding from the incoming Carp).

          1. “The really nice thing about “If you die. I’ll kill you.” murder type, is it isn’t illegal.”

            Most places have laws about “abusing a corpse”…….

              1. Basically, anything done by someone who isn’t a licensed funeral parlor. Beating a dead corpse would qualify.

                1. So, I guess a lot of folks are in deep doo-doo for beating dead horses… 😛

                  1. A corpse is a corpse, of course, of course,
                    And no one should beat on a corpse, of course.
                    Unless the corpse is that of a horse,
                    And then you’ll have pate’.

                    😎

  8. “The dull administrator Who lacketh any spine;/Too focused on the formulas/to serve the next in line/
    He never will be missed, he surely won’t be missed . . .” With apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan.

    1. We could come up with some great alibies. Some of which might even be believable. Others might best fit in the Sunday Promo post. Hmm.

  13. Rhetorical killing? I’m sure there is a story there somewhere. Keep it to slip into one of your books. That way you can just claim coincidence. Keep it together. You got this. Cheering on the move, moves.

  15. Good that you’re not dead. Even better that you are not defending yourself on a capital charge. If anything happens to you who will finish the tale of Miss Albina Blackley?

  16. I was going to try to tell y’all how hot it was outside tonight in my portion of NC; temperature wise it wasn’t too bad, but the air was almost saturated with moisture. Thankfully, right as I was about finished feeding the critters, the wind came up and made everything much, much better. Even better, it’s raining a little. The summer hasn’t been very hot so far this year; I don’t know if it’s gotten over 95 degrees F (35 degrees C if you speak metric). In other words, the west coast of the US has gotten all of our heat and some of their own and we kept the moisture.

    2. Oh, we’re still getting the heat, but also a bit of monsoonal moisture. It’s 60 degrees outside at 6 AM, maybe 15 degrees above normal for the day, so though we’re in an arid, not-quite desert location, it’s freakin’ muggy! (Looks at weather pages after hearing some thunder) OK, not going to be that hot, but the forecast for the day is “heavy rain”. Lord, please let it rain on the fires?

      Trying to get the house temperature below 78F without the benefit of air conditioning. I know it’s bad when $SPOUSE starts researching mini-split HVAC units.

      1. We’re alternating between mid 90s and dry, and upper 80s and storms at night (coming off the mountains). We’re supposed to be in the mid to upper 90s and dry. No one’s complaining, much, although cooler overnights-mornings would be appreciated.

        I take that back. The cotton farmers are mad because it was too cool to plant, and too cool and wet to get a replacement crop in the ground.

      3. We just costed out adding AC to our forced air system. $6400 just to add air, but if the older (14 years) furnace fails and the new AC fails at the same time, then it is the fault of the old furnace and no warranty. $14000 to replace the old furnace and add the AC. But we’re not replacing a perfectly good Furnace! Result? Costco had some floor AC units, 70 outside before 9 AM. House barely cooled off, down to low 70’s, which isn’t cool enough to (normally) help the house on subsequent hot days. Wednesday through Friday will be the real tests provided the forecast holds for Willamette Valley.

        I too hope the storms you are getting over your way includes a lot of rain to at least slow the fires. It will take not only rain, but cold, snowy, weather to knock it out. Even that is iffy. They are reporting smoldering areas, still, in the McKenzie Holiday fire from last fall. Just there is nowhere for those smoldering fires to go.

        1. *eyes bug out*

          … I know that Iowa is doing better than other places, etc, but we just UPGRADED our (propane) furnace/AC system for less than $9,000, including three guys fighting with the basement exhaust to make it *right* instead of just alright, and fix the “good enough” drain that the last guy has put in.
          (It worked, it was legal, it was a pain to swap out the filters.)

        2. We got a little wetting rain, and a couple of impressive lightning strikes. The rain hit some areas that could use all the help they can get. From today’s update: “There is a concentration of snags, downed logs, and slash that provide heavy fuels to the fire.” OTOH, the weather will let them do some direct attack. A lot of this fire has involved doing an indirect line and praying that the fire doesn’t leap over the multiple-dozer width firebreak, or simply spot a mile downwind.

          The Dixie fire in California might be worse for behavior now. Already 200,000 acres.

      1. Grin. (Have a friend in that area who owns/runs radio towers and/or transmitting sites.)

    4. Temps in the high 80’s, humidity around 60%, just came back from a 30 mile bicycle ride. Time to hop in the shower before I stink up the intertubes 🙂

        1. I’d stick my tongue out at you, but them I might pick up the smell through my mouth!

  17. Hi Sarah…Moving is such a horrendous job but does truly have a great outcome……Bless you and hang on for the ride! Just wanted to let you know I ordered your book “Witchfinder” yesterday on Amazon. I’ve not delved into modern technology type books but am curious to read this one of yours. I am a great fan of Anne Rice, fav being “the Witching Hour”…read most all of hers, so am excited to try this new genre!

  20. Super praying, as Robbie Burns put, for all things well, and all things “gang aft agley, An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
    For promis’d joy!”

  23. Glad you’re alive, and sympathize with the pain and exhaustion of moving.
    People close to you concealing medical issues, well damn.
    And you’re doing research for a book, because otherwise, it’s evidence of premeditation. 🙂
    John in Indy

      1. One of those “If you die from this I’m going to kill you!” moments?

        I know the feeling all too well.

  24. From a friend:

    Me : “We’re in the middle of an awful Pedantic”
    Him : “Don’t you mean Pandemic?”
    Me : “See what I mean?”

  25. Dang medical stuff. Got some going on in my family recently, serious enough to send us out of SD to the Children’s hospital out in Sarah’s neck of the woods.

    If I had the time and the means, I’d drop a bottle of Port or Ardbeg over at the Hoyt residence.

      1. My diagnostic sleep study entailed a DIY hookup. Since the wiring arrangement was less than ideal (wiring bodies is not one of my skills), sleep was iffy. OTOH, the titration study was done by pros, and that was the best night’s sleep I had in a hell of a long time.

        Sunday night’s sleep before the decysting procedure was rotten, largely because it was 82F in the house and we were getting monsoonal moisture. Thought about napping while I was waiting for the doc to get everything ready, but the apnea would have been an issue. OTOH, I slept better last night than I expected, high temps and humidity and all.

        1. My sleep study was DIY too. Went to clinic around 8 PM, they wired me up, showed me how to add the finger oxygen and nose detectors, and turn it on. Slept horribly. OTOH didn’t take my normal Meletoin, etc., either. Nor did the cat’s curiosity “helping” with those nifty new chords and tubes mom had hanging off of her, help me sleep, at all 🙂 I guess it was the micro wake ups that were the clue. Not the tossing/turning, cat removal, wake ups.

          I’ve had times when I was waiting that a nice semi-nap would be nice. Not without my TAPP snore guard … guarantied to wake with raised BP and a headache.

      2. Sleep studies are weird. Did my first 2 almost 20 years ago (one to determine if I had issues, one to figure out whaqt the CPAP settings needed to be). In clinic, EEG/EKG/ temp wire up nose, wire on leg (for restless leg that can look have similar exhaustion issues as sleep apnea) BP cuff that goes off every 30 minutes or so, stupid oxygenation sensor. Somehow I managed to sleep the BP cuff and the oxygenation sensor were the worst. And talking about apnea, looks like Phillips Screwed the pooch big time. massive recall on all their cpap/apap and similar hardware due to some of the sound insulation degrading/outgassing. Heads up if you use their hardware…

        1. ResMed for the win. Started in Jan 1999, and wore out two previous machines. Bought two S9s in 2016 and alternate roughly yearly, though the alternate is also my travel machine. I don’t like the phone-home nature of the S10 and haven’t followed the product lines since. (FWIW, the first was on insurance, the rest were on my own. Get a fair amount of freedom that way.)

          1. Yeah My first 2 machines were ResMed. First one I got in 2002, that got replaced in 2008 they worked fine. I’m basically at the mercy of the health insurance for which service I can use and that defines the hardware. I’ve had no issues with the Phillips until now. Big issue is it may take them a while to get the new insulation FDA certified.

            1. If your budget permits going off the reservation, I’ve found CPAPman (www dot cpapman dot com) to be a good source of machines and supplies. You need a prescription, but it doesn’t have to come from a specialist. I’m told that a dentist can prescribe one. The ResMeds were prescribed by my family practitioner, who followed the detailed prescription that *I* wrote. YMMV. I set it up to cover masks and such; good, since the nasal pillows I selected did not suit my nose at all. The nasal mask works better for me.

              You can find clinician manuals through the Apnea board (www dot apneaboard dot com). I had to tweak the autoset numbers, since the low end of the pressure setting was a bit too low for me.

        2. Don’t know, no results back yet. They had me on some kind of nose only mask and it caused weird problems for me swallowing or even opening my mouth to sigh.

          1. I’ve seen full face (nose and mouth) masks offered, but nose-only works for me, so long as I’m sleeping on my side. My mouth falls open if I’m sleeping on my back, and $SPOUSE tells me the snoring is impressive. I tried the chin strap when I was using the nasal pillows (one brand worked well for me, but they’re long out of business), but that wasn’t a good fit.

          2. I have the full face mask. Used to have a nose only one but a recent (3-4 year ago?) study noted I open my mouth. Chin strap freaked me out seriously so went from nose only to full face with humidification. Worked great until Phillips sent the recall.

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