So, where have I been?

[Scuba_Jenny]

Will wait for the reviews.

 

[BoltSnap]

I am ordering the gun but I have to find out if they would ship to Libya.

 

[DandyDon]

I am ordering the gun but I have to find out if they would ship to Libya.

Playing with a toy gun over there sounds dangerous.

 

[BoltSnap]

Playing with a toy gun over there sounds dangerous.

Spraying each other with salt is a lot more fun and safer than with real bullets

 

[DandyDon]

Will wait for the reviews.

Got both of the salt guns loaded and shot at a piece of copy paper taped to the cabinet. No holes but they both knocked it around some. We'll be ready for the flies come spring.

Back to my One Issue After Another story, I go back to one of the hospitals Wednesday for a procedure and one night as an inpatient.

• First, there was the stint work around August 1. I've had those before and they've always helped. Now that I've finally stopped smoking while continuing with blood thinners, I may be over those. We'll see in time.
• Then there was confusion over my condition at the rehab hospital, sent home, sent back, and so forth until an Infectious Disease Specialist had an Orthopedic cut open my knee and clean it out followed by a few weeks of IV antibiotics. It's still painful but no new infections have been found so I'm continuing with PT at my local clinic gym.
• During my final weeks at the rehab hospital, my bladder started giving me problems. They tried doubling my Tamsulosin dosage and draining it manually, then my self-cathing, hoping to restart it, but that didn't work and I ended up back on the Folley bag for over a month now. Wednesday we'll try prostate surgery and hope that fixes it.

 

[DandyDon]

After 4½ months with nearly 3 of those as an inpatient and three surgeries now, I am starting to feel closer to normal. It's nice to be off of that Foley bag. I'm not brave enough to try walking without my walker out and about yet or at least a cane for support and balance as I fear that I'd over extended myself or hit a sore point in my knee and fall, an action I still want to avoid as I wouldn't bounce as well as in my younger years. Who knows? I may still get out the scuba gear or tent come warmer weather.

 

[DandyDon]

For the BUG-A-SALT, a little shotgun that shoots salt? Looks like fun if you don't mind spreading salt all over.

Will wait for the reviews.

I gave one to my grandson and ordered a few more of the $10 models to share in time. Still no flies out to kill, but soon - then I can share with the two teenage boys living with my daughter's family as international students. We will hunt soon.

I'm not brave enough to try walking without my walker out and about yet or at least a cane for support and balance as I fear that I'd over extended myself or hit a sore point in my knee and fall, an action I still want to avoid as I wouldn't bounce as well as in my younger years.

There was one more fall, a big one really. I opened the garage door for a contractor there to look at my jammed front door, forgot that we had removed a wooden step that didn't fit my walker, and went flying. Amazingly I landed on the concrete floor without injury - just wow!

I took a road trip with my daughter, those two boys, and two of my great-grandkids that she is raising last week with several stops and five nights over a thousand miles of New Mexico. I was still limping at White Sands National Park so I used my cane and stayed on the boardwalk shooting photos of the others sliding down the dunes on discs. At the big Albuquerque Zoo, I rented an electric cart similar to the one I use at the grocery, did okay, didn't run into anyone else and only hit my arm on a door once. I got through Santa Fe's Meow Wolf: Immersive Art Experiences (very strange place) ok even tho my great-grandson pulled a fire alarm while waiting for me to enter, then we motored down to Carlsbad. The rest took the long natural entrance while I took the elevator down, and then they caught up to me in the Big Room tour, but I got around okay,

Who knows? I may still get out the scuba gear or tent come warmer weather.

Today I made a run to the larger town in the next county for several errands, most without my cane - CVS for my extra Covid shot, then to my lovely barber's, then Walmart, Murphys, Family Dollar, and my favorite grocery. I may never give up the electric cart at the grocery, but I got around okay. My barber noted that I was walking okay without a cane, and looked healthier with better skin color and healthier hair.

I'm still working with my Physical Therapist and saw her today, mostly for wound care. All of those dozens of nurses and others I saw over the four months and I told that my foot hurt, none of them ever looked - just checked to see if I could have another pain pill yet! Finally that PT noticed that a miscut toenail had rubbed a wound into an adjacent toe. I wish that we had started treating that months earlier, but we're winning now.

I've made some progress in restoring that 20 pounds I lost in the hospitals. Some anyway. And this is odd as much as I worked to avoid gaining more weight for years.

I'd love to get my dive gear serviced and plan a dive trip this summer. I am still hesitant as I have always felt that I should be prepared to save myself and a buddy both if we got in trouble and I'm not up for that yet, but if I keep healing, it's possible. I've got some yard digging to do tomorrow so that'll be a good test.

 

[DandyDon]

I keep getting better month by month I guess. I had my identified problems down to two infections on a foot on the same leg with the knee that had to be operated on and the same leg that got the last two stents. One was one that was never actually identified but responded well to a prescribed ointment, so I kept treating it with tube after tube until the pain totally vanished. The other is a wound between two toes caused by a sharp corner from a trimmed nail, which was a careless way to incur a wound. It's been slow to heal, I've lost count of the weeks, but we're down from three professional treatments a week to one with me doing it myself after showers which I only bother with three times a week generally as I generally don't get dirty really and I'm a hermit.

I've been going to the same barber monthly for ten or twenty years as she's lovely, a previous neighbor to our farms, a family friend, I like her work, etc. I went for a badly needed cut when I got out from my long hospitalization and she noticed that my hair was sick then as well as her having to follow the work of a haircutter my daughter brought in once. She's mentioned every month lately that she can tell that I am healthier from the feel of my hair. It's almost white, but it's healthier at least.

I've stored my folding wheelchair, my walker, and now my shower chair in a spare bedroom altho I am still careful to use the grab bars we installed in my shower and I am careful about how I walk. I seldom use a cane anymore but do keep a couple in the car in case I lose one and a couple more around the house in case needed. All in all I have much to be grateful about at my age, one year more than King Charles.

I have campsite reservations for a couple of nights in Palo Duro State Park at the end of May in hopes of continuing to get better. I am uncertain about any diving trips, but maybe if I keep improving.

 

[The Chairman]

I've stored my folding wheelchair, my walker, and now my shower chair in a spare bedroom

This is so cool. I've been kept out of the water for over two years now because of a severe back injury. Maybe we can do a dive together, even if we're diving in different places! Keep up the good work of healing, and don't think for a moment that we don't miss you being in the water!

 

[BoltSnap]

I've been kept out of the water for over two years now because of a severe back injury.

Now or in the distant past?