D's Notebook

Tag: health (Page 3 of 5)

Some More Old Man Shit That Has Nothing To Do With Golf or Other Hobbies

February 12, 2020 /

It’s been awhile since I wrote way too many words about something relatively personal. So strap yourselves in – or just skip this post if you’re not interested – for some old man news.

For the past few months I’ve been undergoing a series of tests to try to determine why I had two lengthy episodes of irregular heartbeat late last year.

The first episode was in October, the week that I was taking steroids and not sleeping because of my poison ivy. On a Saturday I had a few drinks at dinner with friends, a couple when they came over after, and just before bedtime, my heart started beating strangely. It was kind of a fluttery feeling, like my heart was out of synch. I had no chest pain or tightness, no shortness of breath, no numbness or anything else that would indicate a heart attack or stroke. S was already asleep, this sensation was not totally unfamiliar, so I went to bed figuring it would pass. I woke several times during night it was still present. Same in the morning when I woke up. I had checked my pulse with my Apple Watch a few times and it was always normal. I finally thought to use the ECG app, which told me I was in atrial fibrillation, the fancy word for irregular heartbeat.

“Well no shit,” I thought. I finally told S, she used her stethoscope to listen for herself, and then started looking up ways to counter AFib. I held my nose and blew out, like I was trying to pop my ears. I dunked my face in ice water. I ate cashews and drank cold water. Eventually my heartbeat corrected and I felt fine. When it didn’t happen again over the next several days and weeks, we both chalked it up to the steroids, lack of sleep, and alcohol combining to make my heart beat strangely for 12 hours.

Fast forward to mid-December. I was reading, about three sips into my only beer of the night. Suddenly I felt my heartbeat slip into AFib again. My watch confirmed. Stupidly, I just went to bed without telling S, thinking it would pass quickly. When the AFib was still present in the morning, though, I did tell her. She did some Googling and threatened to stick two plastic spoons down my throat. Apparently triggering the gag reflex can reset your heart beat. I refused because, again, I otherwise felt fine and wasn’t interested in gagging.

However, she was now concerned since I had experienced two episodes of AFib that both lasted over 10 hours. More importantly, my dad had AFib, and we believe he died because of complications associated with it. As soon as she got to her office she walked over to my doc on the family medicine side of her practice and spoke with her. They quickly got me an appointment with a cardiologist later that week.

So, two weeks before Christmas I began making rounds at medical offices. First came the trip to the cardiologist. Then one to my PCP so she could run some thyroid tests. Then came a heart stress test and heart echo. At that appointment I was given a heart monitor that I had to wear for a month. After the holidays I met with a sleep specialist and then did a home sleep study a week ago.

So, first, the good news: I aced all the heart tests. The stress test and echo – I walked and ran on a treadmill until my heart rate was over 150 BPM then laid down so they could shoot images of my heart – all showed my heart is healthy and functions normally under stress. Same with the heart monitor: it showed a normal, healthy heart. No thyroid issues, either.

I’ve also had no further bouts of AFib since December. Although my cardiologist told me to not make any lifestyle or diet changes while I was wearing the monitor, after the holidays I did almost completely cut out alcohol. It was more about needing to drop some pounds after the extra drinks and desserts of holiday break than heart health. But there was also the knowledge that alcohol may be a trigger for my AFib. On the nights I drink I do so nervously, waiting for my heart to slip out of rhythm. Since January 6, excepting nights we’ve gone out to dinner with friends, I’ve had maybe three beers. And then always lighter stuff rather than the 6–7% ABV beers I prefer. Hey, I’ve lost as many as nine pounds, too!11

I saw my cardiologist again last week and she was very pleased with all these results. She is sending me to get a heart scan, but other than that, I left without any prescriptions and without needing to see her again for a year. Provided I have no more AFib episodes.

My visit to the sleep specialist and resulting sleep study was to determine if I have sleep apnea. There are strong ties between sleep apnea and AFib. I bet you didn’t know that because I sure didn’t. This was viewed as more of a formality, as I don’t snore, neither I nor S have any memories of me waking up gasping for breath in the middle of the night, I’m not overweight, etc.

However, the sleep study was a damn nightmare. I had to strap a monitor across my forehead and then stick two tubes into my nose that would measure my breathing activity while asleep. They assured us – five of us picked up our monitors at the same time and got the spiel together – that we could sleep in any position. Well, I’m a stomach sleeper and you damn sure can’t sleep on your stomach with this thing on. I often fall asleep on my side, but even that was difficult with the monitor on. They also told us not to sleep around a partner who snores because the monitor could pick that up. S snores when she is getting a cold, which she was doing last week. So I decided to sleep in the basement guest room.

Between being forced to sleep on my back and being in a strange room I had soooo much trouble relaxing and falling asleep. When I did sleep, I managed to knock the monitor askew around 4:00AM, which set off an alarm that woke me to reposition it.

That night kind of sucked.

I got a call Monday saying that the sleep study showed that I indeed have sleep apnea. The specialist I spoke with two weeks ago said just because you don’t snore does not mean you can’t have apnea. And the more I read about the symptoms of sleep apnea, the more it makes sense. I’m always tired, even if I sleep well. I figured that was just because I rarely drink caffeine anymore but perhaps this is the explanation.

For now they’re going to put me on a CPAP machine for two months then reevaluate me. Unfortunately the sleep specialist doc is not in the office this week, so I don’t know if this is just a preliminary step or if I’m stuck on the CPAP machine forever. I’m holding out hope that it was a shitty sleep study that triggered the result and maybe I’ll only have to wear the machine for a couple months. I would not place bets on that being the case, though.

Here’s where those of you who have had real medical issues can laugh or shake your heads/fists at me: this really bummed me out. I’ve been a stomach/side sleeper my entire life. When I attempt to sleep on my back, I can never get comfortable and often jerk awake just as I begin to slip into sleep. And now I have to wear a device that forces me away from my preferred sleep position? A device I thought only elderly or exceptionally obese people had to use? That sucks.

As I thought about it more, though, I realized it is obviously a good thing to figure out what is causing the AFib so I can get it and keep it under control. While I don’t know many of the details of my dad’s final weeks, I’ve obviously seen how not managing your AFib can be a life ender. Also, as I noted, I had felt that sensation of an arhythmic heart before the October episode. I don’t know how many times or how often it has happened, but I know my heart has done that in the past. Just never for more than a few minutes, so I never really thought much of it. The lengthy episodes might be unusual, but the condition is not new.

Beyond the AFib effects, perhaps wearing the CPAP machine will mean I’m not walking around yawning all the time, or trying to not fall asleep when I sit stationary for a few moments during the day. It’s one of those things that has become so normal that I almost don’t notice it; in fact I don’t think I mentioned it to any of the docs, again because I assumed it had to do with the lack of caffeine in my system. But maybe I am exhausted all the time because I’m not sleeping normally, which is also triggers my genetic link to AFib and causes my heart to wig out occasionally. Wild, man.

So this all sucks. But at the same time it doesn’t. I am making some lifestyle modifications. But my overall good health has been confirmed. There are worse outcomes for having heart issues. There are far more serious diagnoses than sleep apnea.

Weekend/Fall Break Notes

October 14, 2019 /

It was a nice, semi-relaxing weekend at our house.

No sports, thanks to fall break. C was supposed to run at the City meet, but her foot pain never fully went away so she chose not to run. Kind of a bummer end to her season. M had finished her cross country season a week before. We are proud of her for sticking with it, as it was a very tough and humbling experience for her. But it served the purpose of helping her to settle in as a freshman and make new friends. We’re pretty sure she won’t run in the future, and are fine with that.

No homework, again thanks to fall break. M’s first quarter ended a week or so ago. We’re still not sure how grades work in high school; do they get proper report cards or do you just check online? We wonder because her first quarter grades have adjusted a couple times since the end of the quarter, so we’re not sure if everything is locked in or not. Regardless, she absolutely rocked her first quarter of high school. She has the best grades she’s ever had and seems to be really enjoying her classes and most of her teachers.

No football Friday, thanks to terrible weather. M hung out with some friends and we took C, L, and a friend bowling.

Saturday evening we went to a local beer hall/barbecue joint to meet our old neighbors for dinner and enjoy the Oktoberfest celebration. It was a perfect, cool mid-fall night for hanging with friends.

Sunday C joined the group of friends she will be trick or treating with to work on their costumes. They are going as 20-some of the 101 Dalmatians.

We had our last swims of the year Thursday night before I turned the heater off in advance of the pool closing process that begins tomorrow. L and I swam for about an hour then watched a movie on the outside TV with the fireplace on. That, my friends, was a outdoor living space triple crown!

This morning I had to kick the furnace on to take the chill out of the air. As always, it is a quick transition from air conditioning weather to furnace weather in Indiana. Hopefully we get a nice, long stretch of normal fall weather and don’t advance straight to coat weather like we did last year.

And I know the question you’re all answering is how is my poison ivy and associated issues? Good news is the rashes are almost completely gone. Looking at my arms, legs, and stomach you would barely know they had been covered in sores just a couple days ago. The downside is that I itched so much and so long that I still have itching spells despite the rash getting knocked down. S said sometimes when you get hit this hard, it takes awhile for your body to realize it doesn’t actually itch anymore. I’m feeling much better today. Especially since I was finally able to sleep last night. Since I started steroids I was getting 3–4 hours of sleep per night, but never more than 90 consecutive minutes. Sunday I was feeling pretty wiped out, but thank goodness I, more or less, slept through the night last night. I did wake several times all itchy, but could get back to sleep rather than lay there for two hours waiting for exhaustion to take over again.

I also had a rather scary 12 hours or so from overnight Saturday to midday Sunday when my heart beat was all erratic. S thinks it was a combination of the steroids, lack of sleep, and having several drinks when we went out that made my heart rebel a little. There were never any other issues, like shortness of breath or chest pain, and it has not come back. It was more annoying than anything, but anytime your heart starts misbehaving it is bound to get you a little nervous. Especially since both my dad and his dad had heart issues later in their lives.

Nobody Likes a Bragger

October 7, 2019 /

I feel like I’m not much of a bragger. I’ll toot my own horn on occasion, but I like to think I pick my spots and am not annoying about it. I also know that bragging inevitably comes back to bite you in the ass, so in addition to making you look bad, it’s just tempting fate.

Example: just a week ago I was bragging a little about how I’m not allergic to poison ivy. We had done some yard work the previous week and, like clockwork, S had a few blotchy rashes from making contact with poison ivy. As long as we’ve been married, when we do yard work, she ends up with a rash, I come out clean. I might get a couple bumps on my arm, but never the bad rash that she gets. We had some friends over, they were commenting on S’s rash, and I made it clear how poison ivy doesn’t bother me.

Then, last Monday, the back of my left hand started itching. And then that arm. And then my right arm. Over the next couple days the itching spread to both legs and all along both wrists. The bumps grew into angry rashes that I did my best not to scratch.

By Saturday morning the rashes were much worse and I was lathering myself in creams and lotions to try to control the itching. I was glad the weather turned cooler so I could wear long sleeves and try to hide the rash when I was out in public.

Both Saturday and Sunday nights I would wake every few hours to find myself scratching one appendage or another and would shuffle into the bathroom to coat the rashes with another layer of ointment. I tried taking Benadryl to help me sleep through the itching but that was no help.

The worst part is it doesn’t seem to be getting better but rather new hot spots keep popping up. My right eye is swelling because there are bumps both on my eyelid and below my eye. Somehow I got the rash inside my belly button (I assure you was wearing a shirt while doing yard work). This morning I awoke to find several new spots. The itching seemed to be better until about 10:00 when I was suddenly a hot mess again.

I realized I did not pick this up the same night S and I were pulling landscape netting out of the yard. Rather, almost two weeks ago, I decided to cut a bunch of vines off a tree. In retrospect all or most of them were poison ivy/oak/sumac. I know I came in and took a shower immediately after finishing, but now I’m trying to remember what I touched afterward, what shoes I was wearing, etc and then doing my best to wipe all those surfaces so that any oils I brought in are gone. I trashed my shower loofah in case there was oil on it and that’s why the rash has spread to some weird locations that weren’t exposed.

What a mess!

I want to take this moment to sincerely apologize for ever bragging about not being allergic to poison ivy and let those of you who have suffered through this before know that I feel your pain. I’ll do my best to keep my mouth shut the next time I have the opportunity to brag about something.

Weekend Notes

September 9, 2019 /

Last week kind of sucked. I had the worst cold I’ve had in years, and it totally wiped me out. I think I slept most of the day Wednesday and spent the next four days coughing constantly. Friday and Saturday I had a headache that no amount of ibuprofen or sinus medication would knock back. My night time attempts at sleep were interrupted by coughing, a sore throat, or general discomfort that kept me from sleeping for more than an hour at a time. As a bonus, S was on a girls weekend with her sisters, so I was hustling the girls around to events while also watching one of my nephews.

It feels like I’m finally coming out of it today, though. I appreciate all the thoughts and prayers.

I’ll save the update on the girls’ events for another post. Let’s talk about some other things that went on this weekend.

KU Football

I know there is much handwringing about the meek Jayhawks falling to Coastal Carolina at home by the baseball score of 12-7. People are talking about one particular play call that seemed straight out of the David Beaty time management system and totally out of place for a Les Miles team. Or the absolutely pathetic play by the quarterback and wondering how the “stud” juco guy Miles brought in hasn’t seen the field yet.

I have none of those negative emotions. Just because KU has a new, high-priced coach with an impressive resumé does not mean the program is suddenly better. Especially when the offensive line is still not good enough to play at the Power 5 level. Miles can bring in studs at skill positions every recruiting class, but until he recruits some kids that can legitimately play the line, the results will not change.

I had pretty limited expectations for this year. Two wins most likely, maybe steal a third somewhere. But this year was all about Miles using his juice to start bringing in players, update the culture, and set the team up to start winning next year, or even two years from now.

We’ve been waiting ten years. What’s 2-3 more? For now the team isn’t worth getting upset over.

Colts

I watched parts of the Colts game Sunday. They didn’t look bad! Jacoby Brissett looks legit. The offense looks balanced. The defense hung in against a tough offense and gave the team a chance to get back in the game. And then Adam Vinatieri left seven points on the field that could have turned an overtime loss into a regulation win. Age may finally be catching up with Mr. Reliable.

I figure the Colts are an 8-8 team, unless Brissett is really good.1 He just might be, but games like this are the ones that good teams find a way to win and mediocre teams let slip away. The good news is the Colts started 1-5 last year and still made it to the playoffs. Of course, that was with Andrew…

US Open

We were busy Saturday afternoon and evening, so I only saw a few moments of Serena Williams’ loss in the women’s final. I don’t think people appreciate enough what she’s going through right now. Listen, there’s no tactful way to say this: she’s still not in great shape after her traumatic childbirth experience. And yet she’s still beating people up and making it to Grand Slam finals before it all catches up with her. Maybe she’ll never get it back and this is how the rest of her career, however long it lasts, will go. But, good grief, I think it’s incredible that she is still such a force despite basically becoming a totally different person physically.

As for the men’s final, I checked in early and saw Nadal was up and then forgot about it between the Colts game and doing some pool cleaning. Fortunately my brother-in-sports John N texted me in the midst of the fourth set to let me know some terrific drama was underway. So I got to see the last 90 minutes or so of that epic match. There were so many wonderful twists and turns to the final set-and-a-half that made it impossible to stop watching. L watched with me, and I believe this was the first tennis match she’s ever watched. Naturally she was just killing me with questions, which got a little annoying as the tension built. But she recognized that this was a big event and hung in until Nadal had secured the win. That was a fine way to end a busy weekend.

1. I have a one-beer bet with a friend who insists they will go 10-6.

Weekend Notes

May 13, 2019 /

It was a pretty quiet weekend for us.

Friday was the annual St. P’s eighth grade Mother’s Mass. All the eighth graders and their moms got dressed up, had a special Mass first thing in the day followed by a brunch at school. Then they were excused for the day to go do stuff together. The girls all went to Top Golf and then a bakery to get treats.[1] Although I handle a lot of the mom duties in our house, S did take this one and I believe both she and M had a really good day. M got her hair and nails done the night before, which along with her new dress and shoes made her happy. All this was prelude to the really big day, her eighth grade graduation at the end of the month.

After school Friday L and I rushed over to a neutral school for her kickball playoff game to see who won their division. We gave up nine runs in the top of the first and then our lead-off kicker got tagged out at third when she tried to be sneaky. But we went on to score 11 in that inning, had a couple great defensive innings to create some space, and ended up winning 41–17. They play for the City championship later today.

They did not play quite as well as they played the previous game, when they beat the same team by 28. But they still played really well. L’s performance at the plate was not as impressive, either. Only one home run along with a couple doubles and a long, loud, three-run single. But I was really happy with how she noticed where the good fielders were and tried to kick away from them, sacrificing power for making sure she got on base. That’s easy to do when you’ve played a team three times. I’m telling her to just kick it as hard as she can today.

Saturday, on a clear and cold morning, we hustled downtown to the IUPUI track stadium for the preliminary heats of the City track championships. It was in the mid–40s when we got there, which was great for running but not so fun for watching the runners. The kids did not seem impressed when we told them people like Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and Florence Griffin Joyner had run on this track. Kids!

C got her wish and was switched from the 800 to the 200. She had not run the 200 at a meet but they run a ton of them in practice she we hoped she was ready. In the 400 she got placed in the fast heat and finished fourth, which was good enough for fifth overall and a place in the finals. Then in the 200, she smoked her heat to win it by two seconds. That was again good for fifth overall. But while she’s five seconds behind the fastest time in the 400, the top six girls in the 200 are all within a second of each other. She got a little ragged in the last 20 meters but if she can hold that together, she can be right in it.

The finals are Wednesday night. She will also run a relay race then so it will be a full night for her.

One of the highlights of the track meet was the one final that was run that morning, the 1600 for 3rd and 4th graders. One of L’s good friends was competing and ran a great race. Until she got confused about the finish line and came to a stop about 50 yards early. Luckily her coach was near her and started yelling at her to get moving again. One girl passed her but she somehow got back up to speed quick enough to catch her and finish third. We were across the track and all screaming and laughing at the same time. When she came over after she had a big, goofy grin on her face. We made sure all the other kids knew where the finish line was after that.

But the really big news of the weekend is that I got a cold. “How is that big news?” I can hear you asking. Well, it’s been over two years since I’ve had a cold. I have no idea what I have or have not been doing that launched this extraordinary streak. There have been many times over the last two winters when I felt a scratch in my throat or a touch of the sniffles and thought, “Here we go,” only for them to pass the next day. But this time it reached up and grabbed me pretty good. I’ll admit I was a big baby about it, barely moving off the couch on Sunday. Fortunately there was a lot of good sports on TV so I could focus on those. In my defense, though, S looked at me a couple times and said, “Wow, you look terrible.” Glad my look matched how I felt.

As I said, a pretty boring weekend.

  1. Apparently the boys and their moms drove an hour to go do paintball out in the middle of nowhere.  ↩

On the Orthodontic Tip

March 5, 2019 /

It’s been a busy couple weeks for two of our girls’ teeth.

M officially graduated out of her orthodontic practice two weeks ago. She had her braces taken off back in June but while her teeth emerged beautifully straight, her gums were “angry,” to quote her orthodontist. He floated the idea of some minor laser surgery to clean them up but wanted to give them more time to heal on their own first. Fortunately by mid-February the natural healing process had done its thing and she was given the all-clear. We do have to remind her to use her retainer on occasion, but for the most part she’s done a good job with it.

With her out of braces, it was C’s turn. She had her first visit yesterday and got her uppers put on. She was not thrilled with the process.

We had actually planned on switching practices to one closer to our new house and school, but that office couldn’t get her in until April. I called our old practice last Friday, they had an opening Monday, and I signed her up. C was disappointed that she didn’t have more warning the visit was coming and that she’ll have them on over spring break. We kept telling her that if she gets them on now, and everything goes well, she’ll have them off before she begins eighth grade. That helped a little but she was still giving me side eye much of the drive to the office.

The aftermath of her visit has been a reminder of one of the big differences between her and M. M is a whiner. When she got her braces first put on, and any time they tightened her wires down, she would whine about how much they hurt. Like endlessly. We knew it was legit pain – or at least S did since I never had braces – but after a couple of hours your sympathy runs out.

C, on the other hand, is a crier. She bit something kind of strangely during dinner and that kicked off tears round number one. Despite a healthy dose of Motrin and melatonin the pain kept her from going to sleep, so she came into our room around 1:00 in tears. And this morning she was a mess between the pain and the lack of sleep. I’m hopeful she can power through the school day, and the next couple, until the pain calms down a bit and she figures out her new normal.

Friday Notes

June 29, 2018 /

Dear readers, I apologize. Between all the craziness of week one in our new home, I’ve not been able to sit down and share some updates with you all. And I realized last night that given part of Monday’s post, some of you may be worried about C.

I can happily report that she is back to normal, acting goofy, annoying us with her hyperactivity, and generally being herself. We never determined, with complete certainty, what caused her issues last week. We have a theory, though, after a visit to another doctor. It’s nothing serious or on-going, but I won’t share anything more than that about it here. The good news is that she seems to have put last weekend’s suffering behind her.

Beyond that, it’s been a week of trying to get settled in. We love our new home. But we are also building up a list of minor annoyances, or questions of “What were the builders thinking when they did that?” For example, our only completely furnished gathering area is what we will eventually call the Girls Lounge on the second floor. We have a sectional, some chairs, and the TV in that room. However in the builder’s plans for this room, there were several options, including one where the room doesn’t exist and the space is open to the main family room below. Because of that, there is no duct work into the floor. Instead, the two central air vents are both in the ceiling. Combine that with being on the second floor, having west-facing windows, in a very insulated home, and this room is like 10 degrees warmer than any other room in the house. We have to run a couple fans and it is still almost too warm to hang out in. Hopefully it is this toasty in the winter, too.

No cable/internet yet. No idea when we will get it. Fuckers. I met a neighbor from down the block tonight and he said he has AT&T Fiber coming into their house. So I’ll be calling them soon to beg them to do what I asked Comcast to do four weeks ago: come out and see if they can hook me into the line that is a block away. Not holding my breath.

Honestly, it’s been kind of refreshing to not be constantly connected. This is the time of year to do it. The Royals are terrible, so I hadn’t been watching them anyway. I miss watching every World Cup game, but we can still see the games that are on Fox. We miss our HGTV and Food Network, the girls miss their Disney and Cartoon Network. L keeps telling me how bored she is. It doesn’t help that it’s been hot and humid lately, so don’t want to play outside much. We can survive living like it’s the early 90s. For awhile.

We’ve been putting together Ikea furniture for the girls’ rooms. That’s always a blast.

It seems that the movers damaged both our washer and dryer in the transition. We had a technician out Wednesday. He got the dryer running; a connection had just come loose that prevented the heating element from firing. But the washer wouldn’t repeat the issue I had with it while he was here. When he left, M threw a load in, and about 15 minutes into the cycle, it started making a terrible, grinding noise. I called back immediately but they couldn’t get someone out again until Friday afternoon. We all really need to do laundry so I’m really hoping they can get it figured out.

I took the girls to see The Incredibles 2 Thursday. We all really liked it. L loved the first one and when the first trailers hit for 2 last winter, she was very excited at first. However about a month ago, she started telling me, “I’m worried it’s not going to be very good. The second movies are never as good as the first.” I loved that! A cynic already at age 9! But I also reminded her that her favorite Toy Story movie was the second one, and The Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars movie. She was very pleased that The Incredibles 2 followed their leads and did not suck.

We’ve still been making at least one trip a day to the old house. We can likely get everything that’s left out this weekend. The buyers’ inspection was Thursday. Knocking on wood, rubbing rabbits feet, lighting candles, etc. that there are no surprises and we can potentially move closing up by a week.

Closing on the lake house Monday went off without a hitch. That was another huge load of stress off of us. Seriously, what were we thinking doing all this at once?

We have a very busy weekend planned. Today we are watching one of my nephews part of the day. M is having her first school buddy over for a couple hours. Hopefully our washer gets fixed. M and C’s buddies from the old neighborhood may spend the night. Saturday L is going on a nature hike with some school friends. We have a designer coming over to help us plot out what furniture and accessories to buy. And there will be a lot of unpacking, rearranging, and stacking of boxes for recycling.

If babysitting pauses allow, I’ll do my best to get a playlist or video up later today.

New Chapter

June 25, 2018 /

What a weekend.

Thursday, we closed on the new house. Which I believe I mentioned. What I did not mention was we also got an offer on our old house that day. It was not a good offer, thus my failure to mention it. But, we had no other offers, we were moving in two days, so rather than just reject it, S and I decided to see how much the potential buyers wanted to dance.

Friday I spent most of the day helping two of my sisters-in-law fill a Uhaul with items they had either been storing at our house or were claiming from our donation list before we moved. That was a nice, five-hour process.

Our potential buyers countered our counter. They were still way too low, but were still showing interest. We sent another counter back.

C got back from camp as I was wrapping Uhaul duty. She caught a ride with a friend, which made my day much easier. She looked tired but said she had a great time during her week down there.

After S got home, we came over to the new house with a couple loads of stuff. Another sister-in-law and her husband brought us pizza for dinner. My brother-in-law and I were trying to figure out why the hot water heater didn’t seem to be pumping out hot water(fn) when I heard a yell from upstairs that C was getting sick. I ran up and she was doubled over in pain in the bathroom, saying her stomach really hurt. The kid has always had a sensitive gut so it wasn’t a surprise that after a week of camp food, woofing down some pizza might set it off. So we went back home for our last night there.

Saturday was moving day! The movers showed up at about 8:30 and started loading. They did an awesome job. We were out of our house by 11:30 – it should be noted because we were still showing our house Wednesday and Thursday, we had done almost no packing, so a lot of small stuff stayed for us to get later – and after a lunch break they were unloading at the new house around 12:30. Amazingly they were completely done by 3:00. We had been scheduled for an eight-hour move and, subtracting their lunch time, they knocked it out in just over five.

As the movers were wrapping we got the latest counter offer. The interested party had come up some more, but were just short of the number we had decided we would not drop below. We talked it over with our agent who suggested this was as high as they would go based on his conversations with their agent. We had a painter scheduled to come in to do a bunch of rooms on Monday, hoping that would help generate interest. We did the math and realized by taking the final offer and skipping the painting, it would be about a wash. So we accepted. We sold the house! Well, inspection pending, of course. Which is a whole other set of stresses to keep me awake for a couple weeks.

All day Saturday C was in terrible pain. She said both her stomach and back hurt. She spent much of the day hiding from the movers, curled up under a blanket with a heating pad on her back, looking miserable. By the afternoon, S was on the phone with one of her partners asking for advice. Their best guess was that C might have a kidney stone, but they also weren’t 100% convinced that was the case. The partner called in a prescription for some super Tylenol and we tried that, but it didn’t seem to help very much. Shortly after dinner, C ran outside and threw up in the front yard. Welcome to the neighborhood!

Earlier, after the movers had left, we made a trip back to the old house to load up both cars with boxes. C was in pain on one couch, crying and moaning. Then L got super emotional and was crying about leaving. I found M hiding in a corner looking down so I couldn’t see her tears. We’ve put these girls through a lot over the past six weeks. It was no surprise that they all needed a moment.

Sunday we tried to get some stuff done around here. But we kept discovering that things we needed were still at the old house. S was trying to get C back to normal. L had a birthday party. We really didn’t get much done. But we did set a new family milestone: we had our first kid ER visit!

C was still in tremendous pain so when I took L to her party, S took C to the ER. They gave her an IV with fluids and pain killers(fn) and scheduled her for a CT scan. Four hours later I hadn’t heard anything so I started running through all the worst scenarios and texted S. She said they had been waiting for scan results for almost two hours. Moments later she texted back that the results came back clean; no kidney stones or signs of other things that might be causing C’s pain. The IV with the morphine much have done the trick, as it did with S when she got food poisoning two years ago, because C seemed back to normal when the got home. Knock on wood that she remains in good health and this was just her sensitive system getting knocked for a loop by camp, the heat, and the stresses of moving.

(Update: I had to spend most of the night in bed with C because she was doubled-over in pain again. This morning she feels better, still some discomfort but way less pain than she’s had since Friday.)

Somehow that was the first time in almost 14 years of parenthood we’ve had to take one of our kids to the ER. I know some of you are shaking your fists in our direction as I mention that. We’ve been very lucky.

We still don’t have cable or internet access because Comcast can’t get a crew to come find the line that is right across the street and tie us into it. I’ve asked for updates six times now, and each time they act like there’s no reason it shouldn’t have been done yet and promise to get it moving. The joys of living in a single cable provider area! I was kind of happy to be done with AT&T/Uverse after over a decade with them. But now I’d happily stick with them if they could get service to our house.

Oh, and later today we close on the lake house.

Good grief we’ve packed a lot in, haven’t we?

We are happy to be in the new home, and roughly two-thirds of the way through this crazy process. We won’t close on the old house until mid-August, so there will be several weeks of going back-and-forth to get stuff, mow the yard, check on things, etc. Luckily the yard here is still a work in process so I don’t have a ton of mowing to do. Have I mentioned that we have an acre of land now, and I’m going to have to figure out how much I want to mow weekly, and how much I want to pay someone to come mow for us every 3–4 weeks? I was walking around outside today and said, to myself, “Holy shit this is a big yard.” I had lobbied for a riding mower but S pointed out how long it would take me to mow our yard even on a riding mower. First world problems, man…

Old Man

February 1, 2018 /

I have passed another milestone of the aging process: last week I picked up my new pair of glasses, my first with progressive lenses. If there was any uphill left in life it is now certainly in the rearview mirror.

My eyes are still adjusting, which is kind of always the case with me. I have a nutty prescription – both bad nearsightedness and serious astigmatism – and have weak corneas. Combine all that and even in the best of circumstances it’s tough to get perfectly corrected vision. If the angle of the lenses or the correction is off by just a hair, it can throw either part of the prescription off by enough to be noticeable to me. And my weak corneas mean my prescription is always in flux. I’ll see great for awhile then suddenly everything is out of whack for a few weeks before it returns to center.

In other words, I’m a pain in the ass. Or at least my eyes are.

Anyways…I’m still getting used to the new lenses. I will say they’ve gotten better over the past two days, so hopefully I’m getting locked in. But there is still a chance I will need to go back and have the lenses checked and, perhaps, redone.

The one big win is the whole reason you get progressive lenses: my up-close vision has improved dramatically. I had reached the point where it was impossible to read anything that was in tiny print, because that meant bringing the object near my face, where my eyes just didn’t work anymore. I had become one of those people who took a picture of, say, the directions on a bottle of medication with my phone and then looked at the image on screen to figure out the proper dosage.

Sad and pathetic.

But now I can read that shit!

For those of you not in the progressive world, it has been a little tricky getting used to the “tunnels” of vision these lenses offer. It’s frustrating to have to move my eyes or head a few degrees up or down to bring something into clear focus. That’s the one area where I worry about whether these lenses are correct, because at times it seems like I’m working too hard to find that perfect spot. And I don’t know if that’s just something I need to get used to, or only happening because the lenses are off by just a hair.

Two other downsides to the new glasses.

1) I had to go to a bigger lens/frame size to accommodate the progressive correction. I’m not wearing 1980s Phil Donahue lenses, but they are certainly bigger than what I’ve been wearing since I went to specs full time a decade ago. I’ve also been wearing Oakley frames for years and didn’t love the ones they offered that would take progressive lenses. The frames I chose are decent, but I also don’t love them like I loved my old Oakleys.

2) Holy crap these are expensive! I already had expensive glasses because of my prescription. Damn near doubled that already significant cost. And I’m going to need new sunglasses once I’m sure these lenses are correct. We could put a couple more kids into private grade school for the cost of my glasses now. I mean, I need to see, right? But that seems a little ridiculous. I do go to one of the fancier eye places in the city, only because my doc is the uncle of one of S’s best friends. But I’m starting to think I may have to go to a less fancy place that charges 15% less for my next set. I’m thinking about braving the discount glasses world for my sunglasses, although I worry about fit and getting the prescription right at those places. We’ll see.

So, nine years old = first pair of glasses. Fifteen = contacts. Thirty-seven = back to glasses only. Forty-six = progressive lenses.

Now I shall go curse whichever one of my ancestors are responsible for my terrible eyes.

Quick Notes

November 8, 2017 /

A few assorted notes for the middle of the week.

Election Night

A little less traumatic than a year ago, for sure. The result I was most interested in was the vote on the new airport in Kansas City, which passed overwhelmingly. There’s no doubt that KCI needed a facelift, but I’m among those who still love it. It’s the most convenient mid-sized airport I’ve ever been to. You can literally get dropped off at the curb and be through security, at your gate, in less than 10 minutes if conditions are right. Compare that to Indianapolis, where you have a 10-minute walk just to get to security. And then likely another 10 minutes to get to your gate. And IND is a small airport!

That said, I’m all for my hometown building a single-terminal airport. IND is really nice, and when you throw out the unique KCI, it’s comparatively very fast to get through. Hopefully Kansas City will follow Indianapolis’ lead in building something that has space for the future but keeps the middle-sized city compactness to it.

Colts

Andrew Luck’s season is over without it ever beginning. There are rumors – some substantiated, some disputed – that folks within the organization are calling out Luck for his inability to play – well practice – with pain. Let’s not forget it was the Colts who built a terrible offensive line in front of Luck that forced him to flee for his life or get pummeled on every snap. Let’s not forget it was the Colts who, likely, mismanaged several of his injuries over the past two years. I understand frustration with an injury that seems to be defying what the medical experts forecast in terms of recovery time. But there doesn’t need to be any throwing of Luck under the bus.

Oh, IF he comes back healthy next year, he’ll begin the year having just turned 29. And the offensive line will still be shit.

We thought we had the next Elway when the Colts drafted Luck, and a worthy successor to Peyton Manning. It’s looking more and more like Luck’s career will mirror Archie Manning’s that Elway, Peyton, or even Dan Marino. Moments of brilliance but ultimately disappointment at a missed opportunity.

KU Basketball

I watched their exhibition game last night. Kind of sorry I did. They did not look good at all in the first half, only mildly interested and lethargic. My first thought was they had been run really hard in practice on Monday and were suffering. The mantra the past couple years for KU hoops has been “this team has less margin for error than in the past.” That’s even more true this year. We’ll see how they look when the games count, but right now, on November 8, I think this could be the year the Big 12 title streak finally ends.

Sick Days

We had our first sick kid day of the year yesterday. C stayed home not feeling well. Ironically she had the first sick day of the year last year, also on November 7. I know that because of a Facebook post from that day. S suggested she watch A League of Their Own and said Madonna was in it. C’s response, “Who’s Madonna?” I guess I’ll go ahead and mark her down for absent on 11/7/18.

Leaves

What a weird fall. Hardly any leaves fell early. Colors changed quickly and a bunch come down last week. But we still have trees that are normally bare right around Halloween that are full of leaves. It’s made for easier gutter cleaning than normal. And we only spent an hour blowing leaves at the lake Saturday, although that may have much to do with my finally investing in a gas blower instead of S and I using two electric blowers like in the past.

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