bobanddenisewanderlust

Saturday- We had received a call last evening from a second landscaping company, so we have her scheduled for 9 AM on Wednesday. We had another company yesterday. We are getting 3 estimates for the patio.

I did not sleep well again last night, as the right foot kept me up with pain, even with the tape on. I am going to have to do something different!

I took all the tape off to take my shower. Once I was able to get the bone back in line, we taped the area with exercise tape, making sure all of my skin was covered. Then Bob put duct tape over the area. Hopefully this will work!

I dropped Bob off at the Wood Shop for his orientation. Everyone has to undergo an orientation to the shop and the equipment. While Bob was there, I ran and picked up a 4 piece Black Forest Cake, at Fry’s for his birthday tomorrow. It’s his favorite.

We had a quiet day, with me keeping my foot elevated. Bob picked up prime rib for his birthday dinner, from Georges. We have enough for 2 days! It was very good.

Sunday– Happy birthday Bob! We went grocery shopping, with me in the boot. We started at Fry’s, then Walmart. We returned home and put everything away. Bob had a free burger from The Habit, so we ordered burgers for lunch. I had an impossible burger, which I thought was very good!

I did laundry and we had a fairly quiet day up until 4:45, when Diane and Jim picked us up to go to the Sun Bowl for a free concert by the band, Uncle Click. The band was great! We met up with the “Next Gen” group. This is a group of younger members of Sun City. Jim and Diane belong and we are planning to join. It was very hard not to dance, with my foot, but we enjoyed the music. We had taken our dinner with us. We ate our dinner, and decided to get some ice cream from one of the food trucks. By the time Bob got there to get us cones, the truck had left. Oh well, next week we will get ice cream first and eat dinner second!

Monday- I was off to the craft room for the Diamond Card Making. I worked on the Christmas cards. Bob had dropped me off and went to the storage unit to get a couple of items out of the rig. Then he went to Costco for a few items. He picked me up at 11:20. We ate lunch, then I returned to the craft room for the Card Making class. There were only 3 of us there, as the gal who was running the group, was showing a very difficult card. I decided I did not want to do that card, as it was actually a cute booklet. So I stamped a lot of cards that I will be working on in the future.

Just as I was leaving, my Orthopedic doctor’ office called me. I have an appointment for Wednesday to figure out what is going on with my right foot. I had gone straight to the Doc’s assistant to get the appointment and she squeezed me in. I stopped at the Library and returned a book and picked up a couple of books. We had been doing more laundry, and Bob had everything hung up.

We ate dinner, then went to our first “Next Gen” meeting. We had joined online this morning and RSVP’d for the meeting, so they had our name tags there. The membership chair escorted us to a table and introduced us. Many people came up and introduced themselves. We were impressed as to how friendly and welcoming everyone is! We were a bit overwhelmed with the list of activities. They have a Wine Tasting this Friday night were there are already 73 people signed up! Bob would be allowed, and encouraged, to bring beer! Not sure we are going to attend, but it is outside.

Tuesday- We were up early, as Bob is doing the Posse. He is helping with one of the divisions. I dropped him off at 5:45 AM. I returned home and worked on some tasks.

At a little before 9 I went to the Posse General Meeting. At this meeting, the Fire Chief, the Police PR cop, and assorted management from Sun City attend. The community is also welcome to attend. There was a speaker who told us about the Sunshine Club, which is actually a warehouse with over a millions dollars’ worth of inventory. They loan out all sorts of medical equipment.  Bob met up with me at the Posse. He had been doing Vacation Watches and they only had one medical call.

We signed up to sit at the Posse table during the Fire Safety day on October 16. This is a big event that the Fire, Police and Posse do jointly for the community.

I returned home and Bob returned to his duties. MaryAnne came over at 10:30 to chat and we sat out on the patio until Bob texted me to go pick him up. I took the dogs with me, as we are trying to get them used to riding in the car, somewhere else besides the Vet or Groomers.

We had a quiet afternoon at home, taking a nice short nap.  After dinner, Bob went to the Astronomy Club meeting. They had a film about some students finding two stars that were circling each other. He said it was really interesting.

Wednesday- A really busy day for us! We had an estimator coming at 8 AM. He called to cancel, and change to tomorrow. Then we had another one coming at 9 AM. She showed up and did the estimate. Her ideas were a little bit different than the prior estimate, which we still have not gotten in writing. She is supposed to send the written estimate this evening to Bob’s phone.

I had a 10 AM appt. with the orthopedic Doc. I arrived to find a zoo in the waiting room. It was really crazy there. I checked in and found the last seat. Fortunately, they were moving people through, because there were people with walkers, crutches, canes etc. showing up for appointments. It was so loud, it was hard to hear the names being called up to the window. A little bit after 10, I was finally called up to the window. I was told that the Doc had an emergency this morning, so that he was running behind. The gal handed me an iPad to check in, so I filled out the information and made some changes. She had taken my driver’s license and insurance card, so that when I returned the iPad, she gave me those and the next paperwork. I was able to get a seat near the door that my Doc is behind. After about 10 minutes, I was taken back for X-rays.

When the X-rays were completed I said to the employee “guess I have lost my seat in the crazy waiting room”. He said no, and he took me to a different, smaller, quieter waiting room inside this area. Whew, that was so much better!

I waited another 15 minutes and was taken back into the exam room. The gal and I chit-chatted as she was taking my information on what had occurred. About 10 minutes later the Doc appeared. He apologized for the delay. I told him it was okay since Yolanda, his assistant, had squeezed me in for today.

He looked at my X-rays, and I have no broken bones. My pain is much better since I have been using the Athletic tape and duct tape. He said that he was glad that I came in, as people who have this injury usually wait too long and have more issues, resulting in surgery. My diagnosis is micro-tears in the planar fascia, from doing exercises for my planar facitis. I am to use the boot for 3 to 4 weeks, and he ordered steroids (ugh) and a lace up wrap for sleep. I was taken to another area, and told to sit there. I sat and a gal called me back to another room. She then tried on to different wraps, going with the medium size. She asked me if I had met my deductible, which I have. She said if I would take this home or order it online. The price to the insurance is $250. The price online is $16. Isn’t that ridiculous!

I headed back home. It was noon by the time I arrived home. Ate lunch and completed a few tasks. At 1, Bob and I left for my appointment with the neurologist. This is the same Doc Bob has seen in the past. The traffic getting there was unbelievable. All the snowbirds are not back yet, but it was still crazy!

The Doc came into the room, and looked at my wrapped foot. I said, nope, other foot! This Doc had done the EMG, in April, so he already knew I had the neuropathy in the left foot, probably secondary to the 2020 ankle surgery. He said that is as good a guess as anything else.

I have been trying to get into a facility which does the Neurogenic treatment. He was familiar with the treatment, as he had read articles about it. He said if my insurance pays for it, then get it done. There is limited data, but it sounds promising. At this point, there is no cure for neuropathy, which is a deterioration of the nerve. The Neurogenic treatment sends electric stimulation to the area, to increase blood supply to the nerve, to hope fully stop the degeneration or improve the nerve. Neurogenic treatment is approved by the FDA and Medicare does cover it, but we do not have Medicare B as our secondary, as Bob is retired federal government.

The Doc ordered Gabapentin, which is typical medication for this diagnosis. It is not a cure, it is a pain management, without using pain medications. I am starting on a low dose, and taking 1 x a day for 2 weeks, then increasing to 2x a day. I see him in 3 months, with increasing dosages in between. So I have 2 new medications.

We stopped for ice cream at Brusters, as it is really close to the Doc’s office. We returned home. I sat out on the patio reading a library book, after switching to the boot. When I heard from Walgreens that my two prescriptions, Bob ran to the Walgreens drive-thru to pick up my meds.

I started taking the Gabapentin with dinner, and will start the steroid in the AM, per MD instructions.

Thursday- I had a follow up appointment with the NP this morning at 9:40. I took the paperwork from the medications with me so that she could update my records. She spent a long time reviewing my lab work and medications with me.

While I was gone, the estimator, who had called yesterday to change times, arrived and met with Bob. He wanted to take out our concrete and add new concrete, so that was a no go, as our concrete is in pretty good shape.

At 12:40, Diane picked me up to go to Ponytail Canasta with some of the Next Gen ladies. We played until 3, and I had a great time. They mix up the tables, so I did not get to play with Diane. I will be going back again, as I really enjoyed the ladies. I have not played Ponytail Canasta since Denver, several years ago, but it did not take long to pick it up again.

While I was playing cards, I received a call from the Doctors office that does the Neurogenics. I was able to set up my intake appointment for 10/19.

We ate an early dinner, then picked up Jim and went to the Sun City Democratic Club. We joined the group and the speaker was a member of the Corporation Commission for the state. This is an important group, who regulates the corporations, such as water and power.

Friday- The alarm woke us at 4:45. Usually we wake up a little before the alarm, so we were hustling this morning. We made it to the Posse by 5:45. We were scheduled for Division 2, and also had 40 Vacation Watches. Whew, it was a busy morning.

Things were going along okay, until we arrived at one house where the garage door opened when Bob tested it. There was also a car in the driveway, which was not listed as being there.

Of course, right at the same time, we had an emergency call, so we had to ask for someone else to take it, as we had to find out what was happening at this house.

We called the Duty Officer, Courtney, and she said she would meet us there. The inside of the garage was a mess, with dirt, leaves, boards and a lot of junk mail and bills, on the floor. The cabinets were also pulled open. The door into the house was locked. Courtney, made sure that the door to the house was locked (the double check confirms our findings in case of problems with the owner of the house) and Bob called the owner in California. She said that she did not know why the garage door was open. She asked us for a referral of someone to fix the problem. Bob told her that we do not do recommendations. We just made sure that the house was secure, and that only her garage door was open. We did not mention the mess inside. Evidently, no one has been living in this home for over a year. It was up to her to take care of the issue. The strange car in the driveway was the neighbor’s car. Bob had gone over and asked him, as he had two cars in his driveway. We had suspected that was the case, as people do that all the time to make it look like someone is living in the home.

Since we spent so much time on this, we raced to do more of the Vacation Watches. We finally finished the last Vacation Watch at 10:45 and started our drive-by’s. We made it past one of the banks, when we received an emergency call. So we were off to that. It was at a Dialysis Center, almost next door to the hospital. We arrived at the same time as the fire engine and the ambulance. We stood guarding the fire engine and the ambulance. They loaded the person into the ambulance and turned out of the parking lot and into the hospital next door where the ER is located. Seemed like they could have just walked the gurney into the ER, but it is probably rules.

We were able to do 3 more drive-by’s before we were called to end our shift. That left 3 undone, but that happens sometimes. We told Courtney, and she said that was okay!

We returned home, changed clothes, ate lunch and fell asleep on the sofa. Bob was scheduled for Traffic Training at 2 pm, so he took off back to the Posse office. He was back by 3:45. I am not signing up to do Traffic Control, as it is all standing, and with my current feet issues, it is not something I want to volunteer for!

We had a quiet evening at home, watching some recorded TV. We are glad that Call the Midwife is back on for another season!

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