NOT GOOD, NOT BAD!

Have your blood pressure
checked often by a
trained professional and
also yourself!!!
BRODERBUND CLICKART IMAGE

After more than two weeks of guessing, I believe the nurse practitioner at my clinic has figured out the blood pressure problems as "malignant hypertension."


Rather than go into every detail,  those of you who are interested may follow the link. Some of you may be familiar, maybe too familiar, with this kind of hypertension.


This is a sudden turn in my hypertensive state and probably is the cause of some earlier weird sensations such as my previous post, Dizzy as a Dingbat, Drunk as a Skunk. I have scans of my carotid and renal arteries Thursday. The renal artery is suspected to have cholesterol plaques like other arteries. Like other arteries it can be stented. The only danger is I only have one renal artery and kidney after losing one to cancer 15 years ago.

Investing in a home blood pressure
monitor unit is expensive; be
sure you get a unit where the
cuff fits your left or right
arm correctly!!!
BRODERBUND CLICKART IMAGE

After adding a second blood pressure medicine I feel somewhat better today and less apprehensive. No spikes and no burning and stinging so far today.

I was advised to buy a blood pressure monitoring device from a professional medical supply store as the cuff size can be changed. Most box and drugstore units have only one size cuff--medium. I need a small cuff, despite my flabby wings. I just invested $100 in a drugstore model, only to be told I needed another one to get the most accurate readings.

I will probably heed the advice, but when my b.p. was 202/101 on the recently purchased unit, I knew that was too high and got myself to the physician's office. Plus the new top reading you pump the cuff up to is systolic 300. OUCH!

This diagnosis certainly jump-started my weight loss and better eating resolve. Not Surprisingly I lost 2.5 lbs yesterday. I think the second med may have some diuretic effect. I'm not in favor of diuretics as women seem to abuse them in chasing the magic number on the scale, a very unwise decision for anyone.


As I said, NOT BAD, NOT GOOD, but could be worse. Some my bloggers are facing similar or more serious problems as we age.

The Great (O)Possum Invasion

The year 1996 was memorable for three reasons. August marked my Dad's 90th birthday and we traveled to Texas for the occasion, which was interrupted with my ruptured kidney cancer emergency. I do know how to crash a party in unorthodox style, don't I?! [Scripture to Go! Part 1 , Scripture to Go - Part 2]

Besides Dad's 90th birthday and my kidney cancer encounter, there was the great possum invasion.

Before we left for Texas and Dad's birthday, we knew there were weird bumps under the floor of our manufactured home, especially at night. Husband(H) with back problems would give a cursory glance through several crawl space openings with a super-sized flashlight, more like a floodlight.....nothing visible.

Our manufactured home had a layer of loose insulation held in place by black impervious material stapled to the floor. In some places it had been torn open for repairs to various electrical and plumbing lines. Critters could possibly make nice nests if they were not allergic to Pink Panther insulation.

At the time we had our third German Shepherd, Gabriela [Gabby for short(G)], about 8-years old. The bumping and racket drove her crazy; she ran from floor vent to floor vent trying to catch the then unidentified critters who seemed to party at night, and relatively quiet in daylight hours. They were a raucous bunch, no doubt these were mating rituals, but we did not identify the critters for a while.

I do not remember when we identified the critters as possums. I remember finding a baby possum dead in the yard. H said it fell out of a tree. G may have had a part in the baby possum's demise.

G was not a hunter, like Luckie, but she hated invaders of her domain. Neighbors were amused, watching her rip the gutter downspouts off the house to get rid of chipmunks. I never found a dead one. She did unbelievable damage to aluminum downspouts with her teeth.

Never doubt the pressure of a German Shepherd's bite! None of our dogs ever bit anyone, but I respected their reputations and did not subject strangers to them. They generally warmed up to persons after they witnessed we were friendly.

We replaced aluminum downspouts with PVC--ugly but still standing.

Discovery of 0ur mystery invaders' identity may have been before the Texas trip. We had blocked every crack and crevice which could be used to invade our crawl space. One morning early I notice a large break in the lattice work surrounding our front deck's base and told H, who checked it out.

Meanwhile a stench permeated a few areas inside the house, like mice who die in the walls.

H worked for the City which frequently trapped wild or domestic pests for citizens, especially if rabies threats were prevalent. He borrowed a trap, baited it with dog food and placed it inside the lattice work near the opening. [These are not critter friendly traps, so some of you may wish to move along to another blog.]

We waited and checked every morning. A few days passed with no results. One morning I carried my coffee out on the deck and peered over the railing. Bingo! Something was in the trap. I awakened H to tell him we had a criminal in the trap.

He dressed and went out for a look. Being a man of few words, especially before a cigarette and coffee in the morning, all he said was "Possum." He carried it off to the City's unofficial and probably illegal dead animal dump; I made sure I didn't know where this was, although I was not a city official at the time.

These critters could form a formidable army as they have 1-3 litters, averaging 8-9 infants, yearly. We were already losing this war without knowing it.

Over a period of time we caught several possums, some were lunker-sized. He caught at least one while I was recuperating in Texas; it was the news of the day when I called him.

When I returned home I spent a few months more recuperating and applied for Social Security disability (I was 59.5 years old), which was granted. During this time the possum trapping continued.

The City work force began kidding H about when we would be serving possum pie, and other despicable sounding dishes, known in the South, nicknaming him Possum Hunter and a variety of related names. Long ago I told H the only meat on our table came from the grocery store. However, I relented for fish, when we were lucky enough to have a decent catch.

During this period of time there was a tragedy in a nearby community where a man shot and killed his wife, dismembered her into parts placed in white garbage bags in a Styrofoam cooler and dumped in Norfork Lake. It was the scuttlebutt for miles around.

I begin to worry about the white bags leaving our house for the city's animal dump, especially if neighbors were watching.

One day I'm sure they were watching!!! One possum was not dead in the trap. It growled at H, which didn't set well him. He came in the house, retrieved his shotgun, and finished off the possum with several blasts heard round the neighborhood. Discharging a firearm in the city limits is a violation of law, but you do have the right to protect your own property---interpretation is everything.

Then he carried the remains in white plastic bags to the city animal dump.

That day I made several unscheduled appearances outside the house around the property so the neighbors didn't start a rumor H was carrying his wife off in numerous white bags, just like the widely reported tragedy the rumors of which were getting wilder by the day.

This was NO COPY-CAT murder and I wanted to be sure we were the brunt of the city's coffee shop's rumor mill.We have several very popular coffee shops just brimming with "official" information to pass around. Some coffee shop regulars, mostly men, make all the stops every morning.

The possum population finally reached zero after several months of no victims. H sealed the opening.

Then began the obnoxious repairing of damaged insulation and black material. This was a dismal period in our lives where finances were tight, I was not working, and hiring the work out was not an option. We had decided that if we could get the mess removed, we would staple batts of insulation to the floor so no more invasions would be possible.

H's supervisor, knowing our situation, offered to help remove the near 20-year-old dirty insulation and black holding material. Despite he and H wearing protective clothing and masks, they both were sickened by dead possum carcasses. It seemed the supervisor was the unfortunate discoverer of a majority of the carcasses.

H then put up the new batts in several sessions. We had no major invasions on our property since the possums, just lots of annoying ants and a mouse once in awhile.

However, the current invasion of note is the home next door, which we watch for the absentee owner. Armadillos are breeding under it. It is 13 years later and H's hands shake a bit. When he heads for the shotgun, Luckie and I head for the Hidey Hole storm shelter.

Photo: old snapshot of Gabriela Von Haus Coward commonly called Gabby; she always thought everyone needed assistance in the bathroom . No doubt occupant at time of this photo thought otherwise! Gabby has a sable coat, a bit unusual in German Shepherds.

The Commonality of the BIG "C"

WINGS OF HOPE

Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me,
for in You my soul takes refuge.
I will take refuge in the shadow of Your wings
until the disaster has passed.[Psalm 57:1]

Today, an event in our blogging world has given me an opening to write on a subject, Cancer. I have written on this subject before, but today the parameters are different; today the subject is my personal observation and experience of areas in which anyone can be a servant in what may be the greatest hour of need for encouragement, hope, empathy and love.

If a person has an encounter with CANCER, he/she knows what is meant by the Big "C.'' Not 0nly does the person have cancer, but the disease permeates the immediate and extended family and friends who are consumed with the issue of a loved one with cancer, the support, needs and cares of the cancer patient, and surrounding surrogates.

Yet the disease seems, or even is, so isolating to the cancer patient. To the patient cancer is seemingly perceived a contagious condition deserving isolation; no one wishes to discuss, or be around anything labeled cancer. ONE MORE TIME, cancer is not contagious -- hereditary links, perhaps -- but not like the common cold!

Some persons truly do not know what to say or do (BTW just sitting silently, but exuding a pleasant, peaceful countenance is the best gift of all). Some persons deny its existence because they have not dealt with their own mortality.

One of the more amazing statistics of my brief blogging career is the number of persons who are cancer survivors, none of which I specifically sought, but delightfully I've met, welcomed and shared stories I did not expect. --THE COMMONALITY OF THE BIG "C."

I'm not sure how each of you began blogging. I took an 1-day blogging workshop and set out mostly writing and randomly reading other blogs. I used a search engine for topics, like Arkansas, Texas, Weight Watchers . Then I would check their blog lists for interesting topics and lurked around. I sought persons who were doting pet owners.

My own cancer survivor (kidney) experience is described in two blogs, Scripture to Go - Part 1 and Part 2. Many of you encountered breast cancer, but there is a Duke's mixture of bone, cervical, lung, too. Also a number of bloggers are caregivers to cancer patients--what absolutely wonderful angels you are!

Some of you have confided you nearly died. Some of you have formed your own cancer survivor support groups, because of the isolation and loneliness of the disease as I described, even as survivors. Some of us expressed the wish we had blogging during the acute phase of cancer, the long, lonely hours of chemotherapy and radiation.

With this train of thought I lift up to you today Janine Rusnak of Sniffles and Smiles. I drifted through her blog early from some one's blog list [I really don't remember who]. She is on Facebook, too.

Janine had breast cancer and is a survivor; she also was a caregiver for her beloved Mother who was diagnosed with terminal ovarian, breast and lung cancer, very soon after Janine's chemotherapy ended. TODAY Janine is having a procedure near the site of her original surgery to determine if her cancer may have returned. She has written of some experiences in her blog.

Fellow bloggers, Faye and Jackie, Facebook friends of Janine's have graciously requested I post this simple WINGS OF HOPE photo today on my blog, which I would willingly do for anyone. These bloggers, Janine and I are on Facebook, but my Facebook use is fledging at best.

If you desire to send encouragement, hope and speedy recovery messages, I suggest you visit Janine's blog, leave an encouraging comment on her latest post and post this photo in comments (if possible) or in your blog, if you so wish. She has tons of comments, but she reads every single post!!! She may not respond immediately until her recovery allows her the strength.

Or you may link to my post, if you so desire.

And a tiny bit of my perverse humor: Tuesday (Oct. 13) I celebrated the 34th anniversary of my 39th birthday with a sightseeing visit to my physician's office where I was the proud recipient of a shot in the butt. How is that for creative birthday celebration!!!

Such thoughtfulness deserves a tad of respect so I lurked over to Jackie's blog, Teacher's Pet , and Faye's blog, Sleepless In Gainesville; both are very humorous.

But now, this is what the LORD says--he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name, you are mine. [ISAIAH 43:1 NIV

Moody Monday

Mondays for my retiree status is like any other day--none of the usual work-day stress associated with Mondays, except occasionally.

Besides TeleCare today, I have three days of medical tests: Wednesday - mammogram and bone density scan; Thursday - blood work and cat scan of lungs for a small nodule my oncologist is following; and Friday - the proverbial INR/PT finger prick with brief physician appointment. Then a week from today (next Monday) I see the oncologist for results of blood work and cat scan and another physician appointment for allergy shot.

Thank goodness I have a shopping trip to the "big city" of Springfield, MO next week. I love to leave the mountains, only for awhile, go to where I can find items that are unavailable nearby smaller communities.

Anyone who has had cancer knows these follow-ups are approached with apprehension, even a 13 year kidney cancer survivor. I am feeling so great since dropping 21 lbs. and participating in a modest exercise program, but I've had some irregular blood work.

I'm lecturing myself into a positive attitude.... and filling my empty time with busy work and exercise.

Several on my blog log are battling similar problems, some worst than others. Maybe this blogging is some kind of therapy!

I seek some comfort in verses from my religious background.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. [Matthew 6:34]