Some stuff gets in the way of other stuff, so some stuff is ignored, some is started but not finished, and wonder of wonders, occasionally one of the stuffs gets done.
Monday, Nov 20
No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 19: SpO2 low 82, 10 events <88% with overall avg., 90.2%. Avg. low SpO2, 86.7%. Pulse avg. 54.0, low 50. Slept 6 hrs 40 min.
Changed email addresses several places. Kaiser Permanente was the toughest. Also tried to get through to MedicAlert, but failed. Got to Pend Oreille Shores.
I’m spending incredible hours and not seeing much get accomplished as quickly as needed.
Tuesday, Nov 21
No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 21: SpO2 low 82, 9 events <88% with overall avg., 91.1%. Avg. low SpO2, 89.3%. Pulse avg. 55.4, low 50. Slept 8 hrs 27 min.
We left for Cle Elum at 9:40 a.m. We took some White Heron wine along with us for our friends there. We decided to take the freeway up and Hwy 10 back. Our trip both ways was fine, with rain and intermittent fog (mostly on the tops of hills, not in our driving path). We arrived on time, but were not admitted until 11:00. We handed over our stool samples. We had our vitals taken by the nurse, and she handed us a copy of our labs. We compared notes and formed questions for our doctor, who soon arrived.
We revisited and heard about our lab findings. Considering we were born during the 2nd World War, overall, everything is fine, and we are healthy. John was put on a thyroid pill, Levothyroxine, because the tests indicated a slight thyroid hormone deficiency (age related?). For a similar issue, I’m being rechecked because the standard test is for FT4 and the Doc is curious about FT3. These are hormones and one gets converted, or not, into the other in the body. So, more blood drawn from Nancy and in two weeks we’ll go back. John’s prescription was sent to the pharmacy in EBRG. Mine did not make it. I’ll call first thing Monday morning and try to figure what’s up.
Our med-tech phlebotomist there in Cle Elum is a friend of many years (we took her a bottle of Syrah Rosé; learned she really likes Malbec; so in 2 weeks we’ll carry one of those).
Wednesday, November 22
No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 20: SpO2 low 82, 11 events <88% with overall avg., 91.3%. Avg. low SpO2, 88.7%. Pulse avg. 56.7, low 51. Slept 8 hrs 4 min. (done)
Called nurse Diane about the prescription for me from Dr. Wood for Hydrocodone (aka Vicodin). That’s his suggested substitute for Oxycodone. I’ve still got some, but almost never use, Oxycodone but WA State is pushing hard to restrict it, and the clinics are where the State enforcement starts. Shoulder pain is a pain that requires it when playing fiddle for over an hour or for extreme exertion during exercising such as Jazzercise.
I was going to ask about my Thyroid prescription, but nurse Diane never returned the call. So, I will try again Monday, early. Never good to be needing medical attention on weekends or before or during a holiday.
We played music (last time for Oct/Nov), at Hearthstone today (a day early, because of Thanksgiving. Thanks to Charlie, Laura, Manord, Maury, Dean, Anne, Evie, and our guest Katie from Bend, OR for entertaining the residents, and guests. Thanks to Katie’s hubby, Chuck for coming along to sing, and her mom Barb, who enjoyed and sang the music too.
After the music, Gloria and I went to Community Thanksgiving Dinner. We had a nice time, greeting folks and eating. The plate was full of food: tender sliced turkey meat (dark and white), mashed potatoes, dressing, corn & green beans, grandma roll, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, & lemonade (or hot drink).
I came home and have been working some on dishes, but mostly on changing email addresses. This is turning into a monumental task.
Thursday, Nov 23 Happy Thanksgiving!
No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 22: SpO2 low 80, 17 events <88% with overall avg., 91.9%. Avg. low SpO2, 88.5%. Pulse avg. 55.0, low 50. Slept 7 hrs 47 min.
John now has a runny nose and is sneezing, so we are happy we don’t have any Thanksgiving commitments. We can’t think of an obvious source, perhaps an unfriendly spirit. We are spending time in the house because it’s still raining. A slight opening in the weather allowed John to go feed this morning and now we can just stay put. We’ve only fed one of the outside cats, Salazar, who must sleep nearby in our car shed. He’s ready early and back during the day to be a companion cat with John on his chores around the property. Czar’s the first in for dinner too. Woody sleeps farther away in a hay shed. Her momma, Sue, goes back across Naneum Road – to someplace on Swedberg’s old dairy buildings, where she originated.
We have to be careful not to expose me to germs, although I probably have built up immunity with my recent infection, or not. Because of the music and Senior Center activities, I’m around more folks than John. Maybe I brought germs home to him.
I’m multi-tasking. I spent a lot of time last night working on the changes in email, and unleashed a ton more changes required I need to tackle today and this weekend. I had primarily been concentrating on email address notification, but I realized there is a ton of information in the ‘messages-received’ from places all over, contacting us about something. So, I have to follow through changing those too, because the sender is identified in the message but not entered into our address book.
I am trying to switch tasks every so often, because that way, everything gets a little attention. Yet still today I haven’t made it back to email changes yet.
We just finished a non-conventional Thanksgiving brunch, with John’s special efforts. We had home fries with his onions, 2 eggs over easy, bacon, and a piece of English Muffin toast with Marionberry jam for me and a wheat English Muffin for him. It was all quite good. We’ve been adding smoked turkey to salads, so not having lots of left-overs from a big roast is not an issue.
Now back to putting the music for Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! into my SongWriter 2012 software. I need to share it with a piano player (19 yrs old) for a special performance Dec 15 at our senior center. He played fiddle with our group for the Veterans Day music this year, and his brother played Home on the Range on his viola (my switched over ¾ size violin from 4th grade days). I plan to add it to the end of our December music, but may decide not to. And might carry it through to the Jan-February music, if I decide against putting it with the December stuff (cause I don’t have time to make copies for the audiences). They may know the song so I don’t have to worry. It was written in 1945, and many singers have sung it through the years.
To any Facebook friends, check this video, from Bobbie (Roberta) Pearce, my violin teacher from Nampa, ID. Bobbie came up to WA for 22 years – the WOTFA summer workshops.
She is playing the piano, her daughter Katrina Nicolayeff is a left-handed violinist (a National Grand Champion) is on the microphone and the others are the Junior Jammers, presenting a hoedown performance. Katrina is their teacher/conductor. We think the mother of Libby Rogers (next to Katrina) took the video.
Wow, it’s 2:35 p.m. and the sun just arrived, after the wind, and this morning with rain, fog, and low visibility. Weird weather. Maybe John will get to do some outside chores! It gets dark about 4:30. Sunset is at 4:18 this weekend – on the Naneum Fan.
Tonight we had a nice supper of mushrooms, onions, and open-faced cheeseburger with a Rome apple cut up, and for dessert, John baked a chocolate cake, I frosted with cream cheese frosting, and he covered with his own Carpathian walnuts. The boxed cake and the tub of frosting are well past their best-by dates. That’s why we are making cakes and trying to watch our calories at the same time.
I have been capturing information from credit card statement messages on the old account and had to look for usernames and passwords that I seldom use. I had to get into these to change the preferred email for receiving announcements about monthly statements that come. Switching laptop computers mid-year is also causing access problems. John’s view is “losing this old e-mail account is a curse.” I totally agree.
I made more good progress today on some music needed for Dec 15, Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Cannot believe that song was written so long ago, but it is younger than I am.
Friday, Nov 24
No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 23: SpO2 low 83, 7 events <88% with overall avg., 91.7%. Avg. low SpO2, 88.3%. Pulse avg. 57.8, low 49. Slept 8 hrs 18 min.
We went to WalMart and found the All Bran in three types we wanted to try and got 2 boxes of the Original. Prices there are the best around, including on line. Costco doesn’t carry original All Bran, nor do any of the groceries in EBRG. Two places carry the buds.
Our trip to Costco was primarily for my glasses and to pick up a few things for our neighbor. Missing was unsalted roasted cashews we faithfully have gotten for her (and us) for years. They no longer carry them, so I have to find a local source, or check at WalMart the next time we are in Yakima.
Saturday, Nov 25
No CPAP – Oximetry for Nov 24: SpO2 low 80, 8 events <88% with overall avg., 90.7%. Avg. low SpO2, 87.8%. Pulse avg. 55.7, low 49. Slept 5 hrs 31 min - 2.5 hrs more off Oximeter.
John put out the placeholder this morning about 9:30 a.m. Don’t miss it. Fun stories. Click the bold letters in the block below:
And, I will add another special effects video, from my friend Keith Kleinfelder of his daughter – only for those who have Facebook access. This is no doubt worth getting on Facebook!
His explanation: “This is our daughter (Kiana) on her first “burn.” They’re called fire poi. They are porous ceramic cubes on chains with a strap to hold on to, dipped in Lantern fuel. These were special-ordered from New Zealand by her brother.”
It’s more than just a food of Hawaii and Samoa; this definition is from the web: A small ball made of leaves and fibres, attached to a string; also, a traditional dance performed by Maori women involving the rhythmic swinging of such a ball. [from 19th c.] ( https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/poi ) 
Kiana’s Poi Debut – 11-24-17
Poise with Pois
In the morning, we both worked on kitchen chores. John repackaged 5 lbs. of link sausage he bought yesterday, into bags of 4 for the freezer. He got 14 packages, and kept one for lunch. So they are about 25¢ per link.
I spent time on and off all morning loading the dishwasher. Now, I have the chore of putting 5 dozen eggs into individual cartons from the big bunch we got at Costco. My neighbor Ken brought me a ton of them, because I only had one left, from giving mine to the Food Bank for distribution. They give ½ dozen at a time to their clients, and now the egg production has cut back.
We had a great late brunch, two sausage links each, two eggs over easy, a piece of English Muffin toast with Marionberry jam, and a large fresh pear cut into many slices. It was all quite good.
John worked before the rains came on outside chores in the front yard. It started raining about 4:00 and continues.
Now it is Sunday morning and the first outside cat has been fed.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy & John
Still on the Naneum Fan