hope it's a better day

2/14/07 Wednesday
Today the calendar says I’m to see the doctor at the VA. Originally this appointment was set because I don’t want to take the Hydrocodone because it has Tylenol in it. On the label it says Tylenol can cause liver damage. I used to drink whiskey by the bottle in the early 90’s, I was diagnosed with TB in the 80’s and the medication I took was so hard on the liver it came with a prescription for vitamin B, after the wreck it was discovered that I had hepatitis C and possibly B so injected myself with Interferon for a year. All told my liver has been beat up pretty hard and I only have one so I want to baby that sucker so it lasts as long as it can.

So that was why the appointment was set in the first place but now I need to get the doc to fill out the form approving me to get a handicap tag. Need this to satisfy the court regarding the ticket I got for my expired Ohio tag. Don’t want to pay the $250 fine and besides that it would be nice on the days my leg isn’t working well.

Cherie just came in to tell me “That sink works nice”. That makes all the confusion, hardship, or whatever you call it to put that sink in well worth it. I seem to be doing fairly well this morning. As always I hope it stays that way. Had two hard days in a row so I’m due.

It’s pretty cold out this morning and tomorrow is predicted to be cold as well. It is mornings and days like this we are especially grateful for the woodstove Amy donated to us. In my mind donated seems to fit better than gave for some reason. We are just about out of wood but I can always cut some more out of the Mulberry tree. Chuck and Lillian said they have tons of wood out at their place also. Kevin, the Sunday school teacher, said he could bring some mesquite firewood up this week. So it looks like we can stay warm the rest of this winter. Then I’ll have all summer to stock up for next winter.

Cherie’s fixing something for breakfast so after that I’m going to take my standup bath and shave in preparation for seeing the doc. See ya next time.

Alright, let me try to remember this day. I don’t know what happened before we left for the VA hospital. When we got there we checked in and learned I had to get some lab work done so we headed to the lab first. They needed to draw some blood. That is always a challenge of the skill of the nurse because I trashed most of the veins in my arms when I was shooting dope. I explained this to the nurse as I always do. There’s no sense trying to hide the stupidity of your past, just be honest and face up to it. It makes it easier for them to do their job anyway. She had to tap into the veins on the top of my hands. She couldn’t get enough out of the right hand so had to go into the left. Good thing I have an extremely high threshold of pain.

With that done we were directed to the doctors office. The doc I had last time wasn’t in so there was another doctor taking his place. She was new to the hospital having only been there two weeks. I had written down all the things I needed to bring up with the doctor. This I often do with important things because under stress I sometimes can’t remember. The doc was understanding about my concerns regarding Tylenol and came up with a solution. She said she could prescribe ten milligram pills instead of the five’s because they contained the same amount of Tylenol but I could cut in half thus halving the amount of Tylenol. That works. Unfortunately I’ll have to go back there tomorrow cause when they filled the prescription they gave me the exact same pills I had before.

The doc had asked many questions to help her understand my medical conditions and how they got there. Of course that goes all the way back to when I broke my neck and back in 1981 during my first marriage with Cherie. Then there was the tuberculosis and hepatitis and all the other ways I beat this body up. The culmination of all this was the wreck with it’s resulting brain damage, another broken neck, and the partial paralysis. The doc had no problem approving me for a handicap tag.

After that we went to Walmart to pick up a patch kit for the tube from the furniture dolly and some creamer. When we went to pay for it the dizzy ditz at the check out couldn’t help figure out the difference between credit and debit. By the time we got out I was fuming and I fume pretty badly. I settled down by the time we got home. We went to the church dinner they have on Wednesday nights. Chuck and Lillian were there with their little girl, Miracle. I talked with them about getting some wood from their place that they are fixing up to live in. I’ll call them before I go out. They warned me to watch out for the bees. Said they have had four swarms. That ought to be fun. They also warned about snakes but snakes don’t bother me. I’ll play with them but the bees are a different story. I can’t run fast anymore. Hell I can’t really run, just walk fast with a hop.

Kevin came in late so we got to talk after the dinner. I like him cause he is just an earthy real kind of guy with no pretense. He said he would come by sometime next week before we go to Ohio with some of the firewood he is planning to cut. The wood is great but I’d be happy to have him come by wood or not.

Tomorrow we’ll take the handicap thing to the courthouse to get the charges dropped and then get the special license plates for that. Then I need to go back to the hospital and straighten up the prescription thing.

I’m tired so that’s all for tonight.