It's Only Stuff- second try

Not being an experienced blogger, I have no idea what happened with that previous post. When I first started it, a few days ago, it just hung- so I went to bed & tonight thought I'd try again. Same problem. So I just published what I had written and decided to start anew. We'll see what happens.

So Stratton and Brian came on Friday and left Sunday. Stratton had a great video that he took of Lucy at the animal hospital. I'll ask him to post it sometime. She has on one of those Elizabethan collars, and amazingly, she isn't fighting it. Of course it is necessary to prevent her from licking her paw which is lacerated to the point that there isn't enough skin left to cover it. But she is getting excellent care, and when they returned to Dallas, they were pleased with her progress.

This week, I have to make 2 trips to Houston. Today, Steve & I went over at noon in order for him to see John for his issues: his weight (joining Weight Watchers tomorrow- they finally found a class that he can make), and his terribly deteriorated right hip. He truly needs a hip replacement as badly as I need a set of lungs, but it sets him off for me to say that. Bless his heart, he is so good- all of you who know him well will agree. The heartbreaking thing is that it is just as hard for Steve to walk as it is for me. So as the song that sort of "brought us together" goes- "Aren't we a pair? Don't you agree?" I am so loquacious that my cousin/doctor John says that I was vaccinated with a Victrola needle, and he claims to have been here to witness it! And then there is Steve- who has made a number of trips at the wheel of our van while the other 3 people in the car talked up a storm, and he hasn't said a word. But if you ask him, he isn't depressed, or angry or anything else- he is just quiet.

OK- I wanted to write about the title of this installation: you know what Stratton has come down for most recently is to finally get the rest of our boxes unpacked. They have beenin the carport, stacked on either side of my car, lending the house the unfortunate appearance of a bunch of Gypsy pack rats. Much of it was memorabilia, and things I had collected over the years, and no one wanted to start throwing away things that I was keeping for a certain reason. So at some point Saturday, Stratton came into the kitchen and said "I have some very bad news. My baby book is ruined." Well, that was a bad blow. There were many other things that could have been sacrificed easily that were fine- but no, I had to lose really "good" stuff. As an aside, Stratton added, "And it gets worse- Trilby's book was below mine in the box!" As I stopped what I was doing to look over the two items, I realize that they were not entirely ruined- just damaged, and then I got to thinking about all the things other people had lost from those three hurricanes, and when I ask myself what it is that constitutes true value. And I come up with lots of non-tangibles, along with things like the baby books.

The next time I write, I will try to describe what is going on with me physically right now- basically, it's not real good. But I also have a wonderful blessing to report in my serendipitous visit tonight with Chaplain Sandy Londa. Til then- all my best- which includes no stuff!

It's Only Stuff

Once again, it has been over a week. I used to love to "hop on" the Internet and check my mail, respond, then other browsing, etc. kept me online about an hour per day- I consider this a healthy amount of time for a retired person. But with this illness, doing anything is a real chore. I'm up at this ungodly hour only because we were sort of waiting for Stratton & Brian, who we knew to be en route, but whose ETA was unknown. I finally became able to snip the apron string on that, saying to myself & to anyone else- he is nearly 40 years old, and if he chooses to drive all night long, so be it. Just now he posted an ETA of 4:00 AM, so I replied for him to drive safely, stop when sleepy, and not ding my phone with a text again unless he had trouble, because I wanted to try & sleep. Then I took my meds, & when I begin to nod off at the keyboard, I will close up shop.

Poor Stratton has been trying to get away from Dallas since Wednesday. The big delay was caused by the fact that their dog Lucy was hit by a car that day. Lots of drama & traumatic emotions, but when they took her to their own vet, it turns out that she had bad lacerations on one front paw but no fractures whatsoever. So she is in the hospital until Monday because of the fact that she is missing a lot of skin. But she is a young dog and healthy, and from all indications, she will recover with time. I'm just so glad that their vet is keeping her- the last thing we need around here is an injured dog. Anyway, Stratton seems consitutionally incapable of staying away from Beaumont for more than 2 weeks at a time. While I love having him visit, it is hard on him to drive so much- we are getting 2 new tires put on his Jetta in the morning that were supposed to be installed before he left Dallas. When I think back to the fact that when this 40-year-old man was a baby, a person could fly from here to Dallas, or to Tyler, or to Austin- and several other places. I can't understand what happened- I know the answer- "It's the economy, Stupid", but it is still hard to understand.

A young man with the surname of Garrett died tonight after playing in a football game. He was the Quarterback for the West Orange-Stark team, and he had thrown 2 TD passes before he collapsed. nn. Quarterack

So Much To Say - So Little Energy

Well guys, I just feel terrible. I've wanted to write every night for the past 3, but I just don't have any energy when the time comes. Suffice it to say that this week has entailed 3 trips to Houston, two of which have been completed, and one of which (today) was very difficult for me physically. Stratton came for the week- and it was such a disappointment (to me, not to him) that he had to spend so much time driving, when we had several projects around here that he was planning to do. However, when your doctor says "jump", you ask "how high" if you are dependent on him for getting new lungs. About a year & a half ago, I had a pair of tests that are done through the endoscopy department at the hospital in which a probe is inserted into my stomach via my nostril. Yes, it feels like what you are thinking- ewwww! and Owwww! It wouldn't be so bad if it were just done once, but because of the way they have to take measurements, etc., it calls for a catheter to be inserted, removed, and inserted & removed a second time, followed by the probe which is inserted to STAY for 24 hours. The free end of the probe is taped to your face & nose- it looks so lovely- and then it connects to a small computer. The one thing that has changed for the better since I had this test run not once but twice in 2009: they have reduced the size of the computer- just like everything else that is computer-based, it has gotten smaller. That is carried with you, of course, & you sleep with it. You also have to tell it every time you lie down, get up, eat, quit eating, have heartburn, have pain, cough, etc. Not only do you have to push buttons on the computer, you are supposed to manually create a log that they check against the readings. All of this is to determine the extent of your reflux. Now when I had this done before, #1, I was not nearly so sick and I didn't have any lung pain. #2, I was allowed to take my medication that controls the reflux- i.e., my Nexium & Zegerid. So even though it was a pain to haul around and impossible to sleep normally, it was just for 24 hours, and I didn't have any bad effects from what I ate since I was on the meds. This time, they made me stop my medication that is controlling my GERD, which at this time is 40mg omeprazole morning & night. That is a double dose of Prilosec, in case anyone is wondering. But it had it completely controlled, and I had no more ulcers on my vocal cords, no more hiatal hernia, and the esophagram that I had done in January 2010 was clear. This time, I have been pretty miserable since about Tuesday morning- it takes 3 or 4 days for the drug to clear your system, and after mine was all gone, my body began letting me know. Even though I wasn't allowed to take the big guns, I did take Tums and good old pink Pepto, and that was something at least. Now, until tomorrow morning, I can't have anything. I can drink water but it isn't supposed to be cold, and the same for food. I had to fudge on that- all I can tolerate is vanilla ice cream or milk, and neither of them can I tolerate at room temp. But I'm letting the water get about half-way there, and I let the ice cream melt. Anyway, our frist trip was the Class on Death & Dying which we attended (Steve, Stratton & me) on Tuesday night- that was trip #1. We did have a neat visit with Stratton's friend Suzanne Wheat who is a Physician's Assistant at Texas Children's Hospital. That was the second time we had done that- last week she treated us to a down-home dinner at Barnaby's. Then it was time to head home, as the oxygen was getting low & my heartburn was killing me- I sat there staring at a $26 red snapper dish but couldn't eat it. Today was our second, and tomorrow, Stratton takes me right back to that same office & they will remove the probe. That trip will be quite quick by comparison, and just as soon as the probe is removed, my omeprazole goes in! We will return to Beaumont, and then sometime tomorrow afternoon or evening, whenever he is ready, Stratton will hit the road for Dallas. Right after we got home today, I called Suzanne Ryan, and she came over- we celebrated one month of becoming "reacquainted" since her return to Beaumont, because on her first trip to see me, she brought in the mail, and it included my Vanity Fair magazine. Today the new one arrived. She is getting very excited as she & David leave for Australia to see their daughter & family in less than 2 weeks.

I promise to post more about these very difficult days soon. Right now, I am going to see if I can do anything resembling sleep.

The Betties in my Life

This is actually going to be a report of my week- but I decided to build it around a theme of all the people I know whose name is Betty (or Bettie!). Here is what I have decided, based on the ages of all my Betty-friends: between about 1920 and 1960, a lot of people named their baby girls Betty. Some of those (a minority) were named Betty- period- it's on the birth certificate. More often, however, the girl's real name was Elizabeth, but the parents decided to call her Betty (or Bettie!). I suppose some of them decided on the nickname themselves, but most of the time I believe it was done for the child. And while many baby girls are still named Elizabeth, they do not seem to be turning into "Betty" any longer. The oldest Betty I knew was actually my mother's age, and one of her closest childhood friends- her name was Betty Webb, and her family lived across the road from my mother and my grandparents, out on Wald Road in New Braunfels, and although Betty grew up & moved out, her parents were still there until I was a young adult, when they passed away in their 80's. I really don't know if that Betty was really an Elizabeth- I never asked her, and I have completely lost track of her. But I digress. So to begin with, of course, there is Bettie Nixon. She really does like it when people spell her name "right", meaning with an "ie" instead of a "y". So I have learned to do that always, and I try to remind other people (like my former boss) who continue to refer to her as "Betty". Most of you know, but for those who do not, Bettie & I go back a long way- to the early 90's at least. As you know, I was the PC salesperson at Entre, and after Jay Hicks left his job & Beaumont rather suddenly one day, I inherited the school districts as my customers- make that prospects. I worked for about 3 years, trying to get my foot in the door at Beaumont ISD (which had recently dissolved itself & been absorbed by South Park ISD, and then of course, they promptly changed their name to Beaumont ISD). As frequently happens in situations like that one, I had to wait for a change in Administration- not the Superintendent, but the Director of Information Services. Bettie moved into that position when her predecessor took another job, and Entre just happened to have a forum where we presented our capabilities to the business people who attended, and Bettie & her network administrator both came, and we clicked. And that began a long period of about 15 years during which she was my best customer- pure & simple. We never really had any issues about business vs. pleasure- we just became very close friends, and I made certain that she & her staff were taken care of, and just generally devoted myself to the account about 75% of the time, which it took- after all, that was like having 40 different customers. Throughout our years as friends, we have been in Bible Study, several different exercise classes, and an investment club together, and even after she retired, she continued to assist me & the school district with our summer-time rollouts. Now I'm retired, too- and sick, and as I mentioned in an earlier installment, Bettie is the kind of person who, when asked on a Friday afternoon if she would leave on Sunday for a week of Caregiving, said "Yes" without a second thought. And she is also on my Primary Caregiving Team for after the transplant. So that's "my main Bettie". Actually, she's my only Bettie- the rest of them are Bettys! On Tuesday of this week, my friend from High School, Betty Merendino Lebus, called me and said "I'm coming and bringing lunch- is 11:00 OK?" She also said she had enough for a third person, and suggested that I invite Suzanne Ryan- who is also on my Primary Caregiving Team. That lunch was (1) some of the best food I've put in my mouth in months, and (2) the best fellowship and the most fun I've had in weeks. She made corn & potato chowder, homeade pimiento cheese sandwiches on croissants, and apple pie for dessert! As Suzanne remarked, "A lot more than I usually have for lunch!" I frequently forget to eat- that was never a problem BPF (before pulmonary fibrosis). But I have no appetite- most of the time. Tuesday, the combination of the delicious home-cooked food plus the two good friends sitting at my table, conspired to see to it that I ate all my chowder & a half sandwich. Later on in the afternoon, I had some pie with a scoop of ice cream on it! And she left me more chowder, plus the other half sandwich, plus an entire bowlful of cabbage rolls, for another meal (or 4). Having been told that I need to keep up my strength & my weight- (I absolutely cannot believe that doctors are telling me to quit losing weight)- Tuesday was definitely "just what the doctor ordered"! And that's my second Betty. On Wednesday, my housekeeper comes. Her name is Betty Bass. I came to know her through Bea- we were both looking for a household helper- having decided that the one we had was no longer tending to business- and someone recommended Betty to Bea. She worked for us for a couple of months- back then (pre-Ike) I was taking care of the day-to-day myself, and once a month I had someone do a blitz. After the evacuation, followed by Bea's death, for whatever reason, I never called Betty again- or anyone else, for that matter. But I kept her number in my cell phone! And lo & behold- when I called, she answered- and she was SO glad to hear from me- that's what she said anyway! So I told her about my change of fortune- she knew that Bea had passed away- and I told her that I had reached the point where I could no longer mop, sweep, vacuum, change bed linens or clean bathrooms- those being the main things, in my opinion, that speak to a "clean house". Anyone who knows me well can attest to the fact that I am a bit of a packrat- I just take the path of least resistance, which is NOT to toss things that SHOULD be tossed. Hence I tend to have a lot of clutter around, but I am basically CLEAN- it's CLEAN CLUTTER!! And there is hope- since we moved, when we do unpack a box, if it needs to be given away or thrown away, that's what happens to it- then & there. That's also why we still have a carport full of boxes- but Stratton is coming Labor Day for a week! And knowing him and his energy level- assuming they have NOT called me to come to Houston for surgery, he will probably get the carport cleaned out while he is here. So that is Betty #3. For many years, on Rosine St., my down-the-street neighbor was Betty Heacker. She has moved to South Carolina, to be with her daughters, both of whome live there, along with spouses and 5 of her grandchildren. At Entre, back about 1989, my boss (who was then Andy Bridwell) told me to interview and hire an assistant. I couldn't believe it! I had never in all my life had an assistant at work. So I set about it, and I do believe I picked the best of the applicants- her name was Betty Whitehead, and she worked at Entre for over 5 years- she outgrew her job as my assistant in short order, however, and I never got a replacement! And on Friday (yesterday), mid-morning, into my house walked Betty Linscomb- who happens to be about the very first person I think our family met in Beaumont. We (that being me, my parents & my grandmother Nancy Schnautz, whom I called "Mom") moved here from Houston at the end of June 1955. We rented a little house on Parkway Drive in the South Park neighborhood, and directly across the street is where the Linscombs lived. It is amazing when I think of it- the passage of time- I'm talking about 55 years ago last month, but I remember it like it was yesterday. For one thing, I was in my diary phase, and I recorded that it rained in Beaumont every single day in July 1955. The Linscombs had a son Craig and a daughter Sue, and I think Sue was about 2-3 years old when we moved in across the street. Craig was closer to my age and he & I used to put bacon on a string and poke it down a crawdad's hole in the ditch in front of our house. We caught some crawfish, but of course there wasn't anything to do then but let them go- it was fun, however. Fast forward- when I got to high school, I decided against babysitting for income, and decided instead to teach piano lessons. (This impacted my future in 2 ways: I made more money than my friends who babysat, but since I was an only child, I was electively by-passing my only opportunity to learn anything about early childhood development, and thus was a totally unprepared parent.)I had studied the piano for over 10 years by then, and seriously, and my teacher even helped me get started, because she had more beginners every year than she could take. So she told the parents that if they let me train their child for the first 2 years (I was beginning my junior year in h.s.), then she would promise to take them if they still wanted to study. (That was a good way to filter the keepers for Mrs. Hebert!) Anyway, Sue was one of my piano students when she was in elementary school. Fast forward- after I graduated from high school, I was not in or around Beaumont very much at all for 25 years until I returned in 1979 following my divorce. After Steve & I married, we eventually moved our church membership to Wesley United Methodist, and it wasn't long before the Linscombs joined as well! Steve's family had known the Linscombs quite well all during the years I was elsewhere, because the Linscombs moved from Parkway to Giles, a couple of doors down from the Garretts, and both families were very active at St. Paul's UMC! So now Steve & I see Betty & James from time to time at church, but Sue (of course) has grown up, married & divorced, and since she doesn't attend Wesley, we haven't had an opportunity to see her. As I've said, my job for most of my 22 years at Entre was working with the schools- primarily the Beaumont ISD. Each school has a technology liaison- someone on staff who has some interest in & ability to handle technology problems, and I dealt with those teachers frequently- almost always via email or phone, however, because I didn't want to interrupt the classroom during the school day. For about 3 years, I had been emailing a teacher named Sue Little who worked at Southerland Head Start. It never occured to either of us that we knew each other in another life. And then one day, we were in a meeting together, and it all fell into place- she was little Susie Linscomb. So that is the story of my week, and the four Betty(s) (or Betties!) who have been a part of it. I thought I had listed most of the people named Betty (or Bettie!) whom I have known well recently- but then of course I can't forget my Insurance Agent! Betty Tipton LeBlanc has held our automobile & Homeowners insurance for as long as we have been married- she was also a member of the SPHS Class of 1962! I think all the people profiled herein fit the demographic of being born before 1960. If you know of any glaring omissions I have made- well, that's why there is a place to post comments! Until the next time, then......

It's Official Now!

Hooray and Thank You, God- it is now really going to happen. Blue Cross gave their official OK to be billed once I am matched, and I was put on the list, right towards the top. There isn't a way to say that someone is "first". That is because of the variables. The organ has to come from a donor with my blood type, which is A+, and he or she also needs to be approximately my height. Therefore, I may have the highest lung allocation score of everyone with A+ blood, but if the donor is 6' tall, then I will not be offered the lungs because they will more than likely be too large. And so it was explained to me. Now we wait- I have a lot of paperwork to complete, plus I need to "get my affairs in order", whatever that means- I believe they are in order. Then I need to pack a small bag- I'm not too clear on what I need to take just yet- so I have written to ask Kelley a couple of questions, and then I'll be able to pack the bag this weekend. It reminds me of when I was pregnant- packing a bag to go to the hospital- just a little different. It is past my bedtime, but I promised myself that I would not go to bed tonight without reporting this. And I will try to write from time to time before I get "the call", and I will most definitely post that- but don't look for details- there won't be any time! And as to when I'm able to get back online afterwards- it is anyone's guess. I'll probably turn the job over to Stratton & let him Ghostwrite for me for a while.

Unofficial Good News

Before I go into the details of the day, I want to tell you that it looks like I will be listed next week. Until Blue Cross officially agrees, it is unofficial- but if Blue Cross were to renege on me now, after all they have put me through, I don't know what I would do- wait & hope for Dallas, I guess. But they agreed to cover me in Houston when my case manager appealed it, and they have covered everything leading up to it, so I am thinking positively.

The day didn't get off to an auspicious beginning, however. I received a call from the hospital Thursday, and it was a technician confirming that I was going to be in the basement of the main building for an MRI at 7:45 am. Well, I told him I'd be there, but then of course I had to tell Suzanne that we had to leave at 5:30 instead of 6:00! She arrived promptly, and we took off. My paperwork not only had a start time of 8:20, it also said I was to report to the outpatient building on the 17th floor! It turns out that Methodist has about 3 MRI Departments. That test was quite difficult for me, because like so many other procedures that are being imaged, or photographed, you are supposed to hold your breath in order to produce images that are clear. Holding my breath is just not possible for me, at least not beyond a few seconds. I don't have anything approaching normal lung volume- hence, there is no such thing as a "deep breath" for me any more. And so, although I told the technician before we began, he said he was sure I would do fine. Yeah. Really. Sure enough, after about 3 tries, the technician stopped and said "I'm really not getting acceptable images because of the movement." I said "Yes, I'm sure that's true. I told you that I can't hold my breath anything like 30 seconds." (I wanted to be snide and say "What part of that sentence didn't you understand?" but I refrained. It never pays to alienate medical people.) Well, they took me upstairs to another machine on the 2nd floor, and although it also asked me to hold my breath, and I still couldn't do it, they injected the dye and took photographs without asking me to cease breathing. Apparently, they passed muster. I had 4 more tests, each pretty involved, with much waiting in between, but just like in Dallas, they never could tell me that I had an hour to go eat. I had taken a protein bar, and I told Suzanne to bring some things to snack on, plus when I was about to cave from hunger, one of the CT Scan departments had some emergency food in the refrigerator, and the technician procured a banana, a muffin and one of those tiny little single servings of Blue Bell ice cream. That helped enormously. Finally, at the end of the day, they typed and cross-matched my blood, and I went up to the transplant center to let them know that I had been there and to have the nurse remove a catheter from my arm, because it had been there all day since the MRI technician said he was leaving it in because someone else might need it (if I had to have any more dye). No one else needed it, and it was pinching the hell out of my arm, so Maricella in the transplant center did the honors. (Only an RN can remove a catheter, and they have whole departments in the hospital with no RNs!) Then Kelley came out & told me that they had already processed the MRI, and I was on the way to the list. It's a good thing,too, because I feel like I slipped another notch yesterday. Maybe it was just all the stuff I had to do, but I "de-saturate" almost immediately now when I am off oxygen, and even with it, I could only walk slowly for 2 minutes before my saturation was too low to continue. I have learned so much through this- how much it means to have enough oxygen in your blood- the fact that just standing up takes more than sitting down or lying down- talking uses it up really fast- and trying to lift anything is all but impossible. What it adds up to is that I'm really unable to do much beyond sit quietly. I want to stay positive- and I will- this was just an extremely difficult day.

Stratton came down- he took Brian to his folk's down in Port Arthur, then spent the rest of the night down there, because they were late arriving, as always. But he was here this morning- bringing his love and cheer and some new gadgets for me like a massager & a neck pillow. It's so nice to have family around. I'll sign off- will pick this up & report when the listing is official, as well as whatever location on the list they assign me.

Another Trip in the Works

Somehow, I must have missed something. Once Kelley Fry received all my test results from Dallas, she said that I needed to come over for up-to-date lab work plus consultations with each of the specialists (surgeon, internal medicine, plumonologist, GI doc, Social/Psyche worker & Financial Counselor). So I asked my cousin Cullen, and he took me over for the day, and I thought I was done, once Kelley got a copy of one other test done here in Beaumont last year. But as I said- I missed something, because she called me yesterday, and said that my case had been presented, and the committee thinks I am a good candidate, but they have 5 additional tests in their evaluation protocal that Baylor-Dallas does not use. So now I have to return this Friday (the 20th) and undergo those tests. One is an MRI of my liver- since I have not drunk alcohol in 25 years, I didn't expect problems from that area, but one of the doctors saw something on the CT scan that looked vaguely like cirrossis- I don't like that at all. Anyway, I now have 5 more tests to pass, so Suzanne is taking me to Houston for those- we leave at 6:00 AM Friday and my first test is at 8:20. You would think that needing to arrive south of downtown Houston at 8:00 or thereabouts would mean allowing a lot of extra time because of "rush hour", but it's basically always rush hour on the Houston freeways. Anyway, when Cullen & I left at 6:00, we arrived at the medical center at 7:45, so since this appointment isn't til 8:20, surely we will be fine. Then they want to see inside my mouth & x-ray my teeth! I feel like a horse that is up for auction. I have a very difficult time keeping crowns in place- on the one hand, I'll tell Tommy Gautreaux that he must be doing something wrong because all my crowns come loose after a year or so, and I have to go back & have them "re-glued" on a regular basis. But then he tells me that none of his other patients have trouble with crowns coming loose, so he thinks it's me. I know one thing- I'll never superglue another one in. I did that once, and I believe it is proper to say that my dentist came unglued - totally - over that issue. So now I use denture adhesive!

We have had a satellite now for a little over a year. We were extremely pleased until just recently. You know that Beaumont has lots of rain- like 60" per year. Well, Beaumont still has a lot of trees, in spite of having lost half of them in the hurricanes, And lots of storms + lots of trees = lots of failure of systems run across wire- from the power to the telephone to the cable TV. That's one reason we were pleased for the entire first year- Time Warner Cable (including our Road Runner high-speed online service) went out periodically- sometimes with a storm, other times for no apparent reason. After they took their support call center away from our area, we didn't see service getting any better, so we got DirecTV plus a nice, large flat-screen Sony TV that is unbelievably beautiful in HD. Then we had the 2 summer storms that we have had just recently- one is still going on, in fact, because it is a remnant from that tropical disturbance that never materialized or matured into a named storm. The other storm was a few weeks ago. These have apparently knocked our dish askew or something has gone haywire each time. On the earlier one, we were able to secure the services of a technician on the day after we called. When he left, he highly recommended their protection plan, and for about $60 per year, it is worth it- it means that when something goes out, they will fix it and we will not pay for labor, and we thought he said that the contract customers got serviced faster, but this problem was reported Sunday night or Monday morning, and we will not see a representative from DirecTV until next Monday! In our case, it is Steve who misses it. Bless his heart, after working all week, he deserves to watch baseball games & the pre-season football games that are taking place- especially on weekends. As for me, most of you know that I am totally a book person- and a magazine person & a newspaper person. I like hard copy when I read, and I really did resist the idea of an eReader until Steve gave me the nook for my birthday & pointed out how easy it is to hold, and how I can store enough matter on it to see myself through whatever is to come re: the transplant & days in the hospital. So I have taken to it, more or less- but the neat thing about being a reader is that it doesn't require power or any wires. If it is dark when we lose power, I read by flashlight or oil lamp, in the daytime I just get by a window. I can read and I can write without anything fancier than pen & paper and a book.

I need to pay our bills- I have usually done the mid-month stuff by now. I've had to devise a new structure for when I pay what, because now we have Steve's check every other Friday, and my great big SS check once a month on the final Wednesday (which is payment for the month before now), and then I need to work on my paperwork that needs to be returned to the Social Worker to let her know who is going to be with me when I am recovering in Houston after I leave the hospital. More after I see the transplant team Friday.