This is about two of my favorite places in the world — our cousins’ B&B/Vineyard in Australia
Romantic Vineyard, near Amherst, Victoria, AustraliaAnd
The Secret Garden in Ouray, ColoradoSecret Garden — Ouray, Colorado on The Western Slope of the Rockies
And it is also about what’s been going on with me since about Valentine’s Day . . .
Okay . . . here goes . . . .
Yesterday I got a big envelop from the Veterans Administration Adjudication Office with the details of their decision about the appeal that was pursuant to their denial of the application I made in 2013 concerning my disability status.
Apparently that particular package and all the information in it is a kind of justification and explanation of the main decision they made and all the details about why they did or didn't agree with what the Veterans Disability Lawyers from Bosley and Bratch presented on my behalf.
Before it came in the mail Dan Smith, my lawyer called and said he had been given a hint that good news was on the way, and we were both very excited.
So it was adjudicated in my favor, agreeing with what all the assessments and evaluations and examinations and records showed. And the next thing will be some written verification of how it will affect what I get every month and what the access to some benefits I haven't had before will be . . . but at the moment we still don't know what all that is, exactly . . . I think they are waiting for a particular phase of the lunar cycle or messages left by leprechauns somewhere or something like that.
God only knows . . .
So . . . . as soon as I know, we will move ahead with our plans.
***cautiously optimistic***
. . . and trusting the Lord.
Meanwhile I was back at the ER at the ATAL VA Med Ctr this morning for the third time this week because more and more pollen is coming out and some of the meds they gave me on Tues are not interacting happily with the meds I already take and there were two sets of med prescribers who I am pretty sure were not even speaking to one another.
And meanwhile again, a long line of social workers and psych eval folks along with residents and teaching assistants and observers were hovering around and asking the usual questions and not at all listening to any of the answers I was giving them.
I really wanted an injection or an intravenous dose of phenagran or Benadryl or prednisone and also something like paregoric . . . the first to stop my body from reacting to the allergens and the second to calm my whole GI tract down because it ends up feeling like I have just woken up in bed, but have had 17 cups of coffee before even opening my eyes.
To give you a complete update and an idea about what the last month was like, here goes:
Feb 14th -- I got a sweet Valentine's box of chocolate caramel pecan "turtles" from my beloved daughter Krista and my son-in-love Daniel and two of my grandsons.
-- I ate two, put the rest in the freezer, because that'e the way I like 'em.
-- 45 minutes later I bit down on one of them and broke the crown I had over one of my two upper front teeth . . . have had crowns on them since I was about to leave for college in the summer of 1970, because I was a tomboy and had chipped my teeth when I was in 4th or 5th grade and it really bothered Mom . . . then -- I found the broken part and kept it safe.
Feb 15 -- 8 AM -- got an appointment at a dentist's office that I had tried to connect with when I was still going back and forth to Dad's all the time . . . in that era I opted to stay with Mom's and Dad's dentist they had been seeing since 1992.
The dentist here made a plastic mold of my upper teeth and put the broken off crown in it and set me up with her husband who is also a dentist -- he is the oral surgeon and she does the crowns and regular dentistry and cosmetic dentistry.
So by 10 AM I was set up with an appointment to get an implant, but the husband-dentist had to squeeze me in all afternoon between patients from 1:30 PM until almost 6 PM . . .
I had much more novocaine than usual for an unusually extended amount of time.
It was not much fun, but I am grateful to them all. Then was given an antibiotic (they pulled out the post of a live tooth and then drilled and put the implant into my bone . . .) and said that a new crown could not be put back on for about 3 months or maybe a bit longer.
So I have that prosthetic that comes in and out and looks okay. Otherwise I look like an overgrown first grader with a missing front tooth and the Tooth Fairy hasn't even been by.
The husband dentist said I would be in pain for 2 or 3 days . . . could only eat very soft stuff and had to take Zithromax antibiotic for 5 days and then enough tramadol and my other usual pain meds as needed.
But I was in the midst of a very major reaction to the novocaine . . . already was allergic to codeine, morphine, Percocet . . . whatever else . . . was in extreme pain and taking Benadryl until the 19th of Feb . . . and by the 21st was almost back to normal.
Then the redbuds started blooming . . . then the non-bearing pear trees and the Japanese magnolias . . . the hyacinths and the daffodils and the tulips and now the cherry trees and it is very beautiful . . . but by Monday the 26th of Feb I knew I needed all my asthma meds and everything else I normally get in such situations (Like the 2x to the ER the last week of Nov in FL and the 2x to the ER the first week of Dec here in GA.)
Finally got everything I needed and got it all straightened out at the ER at the VA in Atlanta yesterday and felt MUCH better and taking the sleeping pills for three times now has started putting my world right side up . . . but still tired . . . but, thank God I will be okay.
Nevertheless, I was too spacey to realize yesterday afternoon after waiting for my meds after I was released by the ER folks, that they hadn't taken out the IV port in the inside of my left elbow. So right before I took the sleeping pill last night around 11:30PM, I called the triage nurse for after hours at the VA.
The triage nurse then determined that I could wait until today to go have it out and made notes on my chart for all that. Slept from 11:30 PM until 7:30 AM, had some breakfast, got in the car and drove down to the VA.
By 10:30 AM, I was on the road again without the IV port and with some tide-me-over migraine pills (because a scrip is on its way in the mail) . . . and then meanwhile again . . .
I got a new phone from Verizon and quit AT&T and my new phone number is a CO number -- 970-596-2771
But it's suspended because I put the phone down somewhere in the house last night right before going to bed and I have no idea where that is.
Hopefully. the dogs didn't take it out to hide it in the yard.
😎
Fun, fun, fun . . .
Romantic Vineyard, Amherst, Victoria, Australiahttp://babyboomergospel.blogspot.com/2018/03/as-hare-in-march.html
