Good news but no answers

DH got his EUS endoscopy done yesterday. Four hours in the hospital for it seems a bit ridiculous and almost half of that was waiting for the doctor to come back and go over his findings. Good news in that there were no abnormalities in his pancreas found. Bad news, I guess, is we still have no explanation why it was inflamed and why he's still having pain (though much much less than 3 months ago, when it started) and nausea. All the doctor could suggest is that sometimes, once a person has had pancreatitis, their pancreas is more sensitive to having problems. The doctor did recommend having another MRI in 3-4 months just to make sure it's still cleared up.

We checked in at 8, they got him back to pre-op room around 8:15 and took him back to do the procedure at 9am and I went back out to the waiting room (it was freezing in there, by the way, LOL) and they finally called me back to his post-op room at 10:25. Not much later the nurse had him ready to leave..and then we sat there until noon, when the doctor finally got out of his next procedure/surgery and had time to go over the results. That was annoying to wait so long and the nurse had given me the printout of the procedure results and said we didn't have to keep waiting, if we didn't want to, but both of us wanted to hear it from him, especially as some of the report is in medical terminology that we don't understand and I didn't want to assume/google it! Plus, we're paying him a damn good amount of money for this and him go over the results is part of what he should be doing.

Sis has better news. Her one stepbrother (than lives in the state) had come up and had talked the doctor (his doctor sounds like an idiot) and their dad into going into hospice care at a facility and that transfer is supposed to happen today. She is very relieved now. Hopefully he will stay there! I can just imagine him getting there, not liking it, and saying he's going back home.

The temp at our house got up to 47 yesterday afternoon. So warm! But now it's supposed to keep getting colder and colder and -4 on Monday.

I'm glad it's Friday and also that this is a 3 day weekend, as we get MLKJr day off.

Wednesday what not

Getting this blog post started, at least, before my 2nd zoom meeting with the bank. This time is so they can show me how to set up international wires that we do on a monthly basis. (one to my sis). I've printed out both's wire instructions, so hopefully this meeting shouldn't take too long. I am hoping it's not as complicated as our current bank is, for international wires. Their set up procedure made my head spin.

I was messaging with sis this morning, asking how her step dad is doing. There is no way he had a "massive stroke" - she said she got to the hospital yesterday afternoon and there he is - sitting up in bed, eating a meal, talking and crabby as usual. How is that even possible?! Her step brother, from the states, has now arrived and things are going better, so far. He has managed to talk their dad into going into hospice care, rather than returning home to his apartment. Thank God! Sis is so relieved. The transfer is being worked on right now, plus this hospice place is about a half hour closer drive for her, so 1 1/2 hours, instead of 2 hours. 

Even though I put "goop" as I call it, in my eyes before bed last night, my eyes still seemed to get extra dried out for some reason. My right eye has been a bit blurry all morning and looking at the computer screen is hard. I'm hoping with having tomorrow off, and less computer time, it will be better after that.

Dh has his endoscopy tomorrow. It seemed odd that his MyChart doesn't show a check in time. We were told verbally (by the doctors office inept scheduler) an 8am check-in. We got recorded phone call reminding him of the appt on Thursday, but dh also though it was odd that there was no time given. Yesterday afternoon I called the hospital's day surgery and of course had to leave a message (a voicemail that says leave a message and we'll call you back as soon as possible). Well, it's been 24 hours and no call back. How hard is it to take 2 minutes and return a patient's call? Also every appointment that has shown up in MyChart, in the past, has always had available a "pre check-in" the day before and I even get an email or text reminding to do the pre check in and nothing is showing up. If we get there tomorrow at 8am and that is not the correct time, I'm going to blow a gasket.

This eye strain all day is giving me a headache. Time for a break I guess, maybe just take off early today and go rest my eyes.

More health

I'm appreciating everyone's thoughts and comments on my blog post yesterday about multi-vitamins. Keep the thoughts and info coming, if you have an input on it. Part of me reads the ingredients list in the OneADay, with all artificial flavor and colors added compared to the multivitamin I take and think ya...it's probably worth the extra $. 

I am intrigued by barbaradougherty126's comment about the dehydrated beef liver and pure organic Turkey Tail. I had to look up the Turkey Tail. It's a mushroom. Also obscure's comment about the over 55 plant based vitamins and her increased energy. I'd love to know the brands from both of these commenters.

A year or two ago I tried some of the "fruits and veggies" supplements, because I know I don't get enough of either. I didn't go with the super expensive "Balance of Nature brand" but tried a less expensive brand, for 2 months. I stopped because I had no noticeable change in how I felt. I picked up a bag of a healthy smoothie with fruits and green stuff in it but I have yet to try it. I will give it a try this evening and see if I like it. If I do, that would be a better way to get my fruits and veggies, then via vitamins.

The only thing I have tried that I 1000% noticed a difference in how I feel is the grounding mat. That was worth every penny. And as I mentioned yesterday, I can vouch for the Zyflamend Prostate supplement dh is on, as well. 

My half sis is still stressing and dealing with her step dad's decline. He's one tough SOB, that's for sure! After his broken pelvis, from a fall, last summer, they were told his body is filled with cancer (He is like 92 or 93 years old). He's been in and out of the hospital, but once they clear him, he wants to go back to his home and he doesn't want his family to get him any help. That's has been the most frustrating part for my sis. There is no way he can take care of himself. He can't walk yet somehow gets himself into his wheelchair. He's somehow (not well, of course) feeding himself. she said his feet are so swollen they are blistering. I can't believe he's made it this long. The family finally did get him to concede a couple weeks ago to having a home care aid come in to administer his meds. It was twice a day, but his doctor added meds and last week they started coming in 4x a day. Yesterday morning the care aid found him on the floor unresponsive, so of course called 911 and they took him to the hospital. Later yesterday afternoon he suffered a major stroke. Yet, he's still hanging on. I guess the only silver lining in this is now he will have to stay in hospital/nursing care and at least sis and the family won't be stressing about him trying to take care of himself on his own. She will be relieved when he's passed and over all this suffering, that's for sure.

Well, I need to get back to work from my break. My boss and I have a zoom meeting with our new bank. We're having to switch banks, because our old bank is turning into a credit union and that won't work well for business banking. Fortunately, it's with a new bank, our banker lady moved to, so she is familiar with us and our business, so it should be a pretty smooth transition.

What are your thoughts on multivitamins?

I'd be interested in hearing people's thoughts on taking vitamin supplements. Do you think they really help at all/make a difference in health?

I've read where they don't really even get absorbed into your body to do any good. I've been taking a multi-vitamin for the past couple of years. I can't really say whether they do any good or not. I have at times gone a couple of months without taking them and see no difference. But maybe it's just subtle difference that is beneficial over years?

I've taken the less expensive kind that mass retailers sell (Walmart, Target etc) and the one's I've been taking for the past couple of years are from the brand that makes the prostate supplement I have dh taking. My thought process has been this: this supplement he has been taking got rid of his prostate cancer! Obviously it works and obviously whatever this company is putting in their supplements must be effective, so I started buying their women's 55+ multivitamin. This vitamin costs me about $230 a year. (Dh's prostate supplement costs about $365 a year and I am not stopping that one)

For info, in case anyone is wondering, the brand is New Chapter. I haven't seen them in stores, but several online places (even Amazon) like VitaCost, sell them as well as you can get direct from New Chapter. 

Am I just wasting $230 a year? Could this $230 be better spent on something else, healthwise, that would be more beneficial? Would I be getting just as much benefit (if I even am) by just spending $37 a year on a cheaper multivitamin.

For comparison, there does seem to be quite a bit of difference in what is in something like OneADay multivitamin compared to New Chapters, which also has some various organic herbs for digestive and hormone support.

One A Day:

New Chapter:

I'm the type of person that needs to see tangible results (like with dh's prostate supplement from New Chapter) and I've never felt like I've gotten anything out of vitamins, when I have tried taking them over the years. I know there are people that take all kinds of supplements and swear by them. If that's you - what benefits are you experiencing? I just feel like I am kind of wasting my money and really only getting some psychological benefit, where I think it must be helping me.

I'm done (for)

I powered through yesterday and got all the staining done. Here's the stacks that awaited me and you can't see 3 piles of smaller cut boards on the other side of that post - he had that heavy post on the long 12' pieces to keep from warping as much as possible as they dry out (the lumber yard keeps the lumber in an enclosed area, but it's open on both ends of the building).

When I got about halfway done, he then brought out 3 more stacks of short boards he had set somewhere else! I was like "well that's rude!" LOL.

We got started at 11am and it took me almost 4 hours (we took a quick break for lunch). My back didn't start bothering me until about the last 15 minutes, so that was good, but then it was done for and I spent the rest of the evening on the heating pad. All this for only one "section" of the ceiling under the loft, LOL. Still one more section, I think about this size and then another section that is much smaller. He has to get this done in order to get the lights put up.

I didn't feel like spending too much time in the kitchen standing, making dinner, so I just put some of the pre-seasoned frozen salmon in the oven and some garlic bread heated up and that was quick and easy.

I slept good last night and an extra half hour, so hopefully I am back to full energy today. So far, my back feels ok and recovered. Usually that's all it takes, is just some rest, thankfully.

While I was waiting for dh to get up/ready yesterday I spent the time on my computer, getting caught up with saving my medical receipts/eobs to pdf and getting them uploaded into my HSA account. I had done everything through dh's 10/15 ER visit, but hadn't done all the claims for the subsequent dr visit/endoscopy/MRI in November and December. Plus I had a few OTC receipts to add. I also realized that an OTC item I just bought is eligible for HSA, so I went back and found 4 more online purchase receipts from the past couple of years and added a total of $70 for that. 

No extra plans today - hopefully just a bunch of relax time. I need to figure out what I'm going to make for dinner. I think I'll do the chicken/rice/veggies casserole, so I need to get some chicken out of the freezer - like right now! LOL

Another "clerical error"

In yesterday's mail was another statement from the GI doctor's office. It was dated 12/30 and had a bunch of different charges on it, some I thought I had already paid online on 12/27. Once I figured out that I had paid some of them, there were 3 new charges, for the pathology done for dh's first endoscopy - charges totaling $842 and saying my share owed is $482. I'm like how is that possible, when dh had already met his deductible and should only owe max 20% of this?

I called their billing office (I think they use an outside billing company) and they made a mistake applying the insurance payment. They put what I owed as the provider write off adjustment. Once she fixed it, now I owe $90. 

ALWAYS compare your insurance EOB's with what the provider is billing you and make sure they match! This was a $400 "clerical error" that I'm sure many people would not have caught and just paid it.  

I'm just sitting here, 7am-ish. Drinking my coffee. Fed my new "churro addict"....on a plate (thanks for the tip! haha!) and trying to psych myself up for a day of staining boards. Hopefully dh doesn't get up too early and we get to get started at his normal "get going time" of around 11am LOL. Last night he was trying to pep talk me into it - "it'll be great. I'll have music playing in the shop, we'll have snacks..." What kind of snacks? "Water and Mountain Dew" LOL.

DD had to get a new oven a couple of weeks ago. What a fancy new one they got - it does convection, air frying and dehydrating (and probably more). She said last night they were trying out the dehydrator function with some bananas. What a better way to save counter space, then to have all these extra appliances. She said they will definitely be getting one like this when they build their new home.

It seems lots of people in our area do not like that Amazon is now using the delivery drivers hired with their own vehicles. It's been a new thing since about last spring or early summer. Half of them seems as sketchy as heck. It's never the same driver twice. Apparently one was caught taking pictures of a guys wife and a lot of people are feeling like they are getting scoped out for theft. We were expecting a package yesterday delivered by one of these drivers. Tracking showed they were very close, we were the next stop but the map was showing them still up on a road that is at a pretty high elevation - gravel road up there, snow....then tracking just showed they were up there and not moving. Then tracking said GPS tracking was lost. Then a vehicle pulled into our street, passed our house then turned around and parked out on the street between our house and Mr's.  Dh figured it must be the Amazon driver so he went out there. Mr's dogs are barking. DH stood at our first gate, by the shop, waiting to see if the driver was getting out the packages or what. Finally dh yelled "hey!" "do you have a package for me?" and the guy said no. I'm just waiting to meet up with another driver, to hand off some packages. By this time Mr comes out of his house to see what all the barking is and why someone is basically parked in front of his driveway and hollers out to dh "hey [MrOne] - do we need to shoot some terrorists?"  DH laughed and said, not this time. The driver looks at dh and asks "did he just call me a terrorist?" Finally the driver with our packages pulls in. DH is still standing inside our first gate and assumes the guy that had been sitting there waiting for her would say to her - this guy is waiting for his package...No, she gets back in her car, while dh is waving for her to stop there and just keeps on driving down to our other gate. No snow tires and trying to get up to these homes up on steep, high up roads. Dumb.

All this to say, I just wish Amazon would go back to using UPS. or at least the USPS, as they were before they started with these drivers. DH won't let me go out and meet them at the gate and he won't let them come onto our property either - doesn't trust them. Plus, I'd say about 80% of the one's we've had don't even speak English. I'll probably be seeing if stuff I want to order can just be ordered from Walmart or Target or some other place that will ship using standard delivery services.

Friday this and that

DH decided to get the tongue and groove boards yesterday. These are in 12 ft lengths, so would have to hang out the tailgate of his pickup, which he did not want to drive the 10 miles on the roads covered in de-icer grime and have it splash up all over the boards. They said they could wrap them, but he'd still have to have the back of his pickup open and it would still all splash up, just causing him to have to get it cleaned out (and it's not garden hose season, LOL). His truck has a canopy on the back and he keeps it clean and dry in the bed. They also deliver for free, so that was kind of a no brainer then.

But, they wouldn't take his cc over the phone to pay for it. I know in the past they have done this and I called and gave them my card #. We had also put our card on file with them 2 or 3 years ago, but I guess they only keep it on file for a year. So, dh had to drive in, pay for it, and drive back home. They said the delivery kid would be right out (the kid was standing there behind the counter doing nothing). 3 hours later he showed up, LOL.

So, tomorrow I get the fun job of staining all the boards. Oh joy. I hate it when dh's projects cause me work! haha. He's going to get them all cut to the sizes he needs today. There's 18 12ft boards. I'm guessing, from all the staining I have done the past several years, this will take me a few hours, so not too bad.

I'm confused. I had gotten Amos some catnip cat toys. They come 5 in the box. Soft, little stuffed toys. Inside the box is a little tiny ziploc sealed packet of catnip. What am I supposed to do with that? The stuffed toys are completely sewn. There's no place to insert/add the catnip. I'm just not very familiar with catnip toys, I guess.

I had also gotten him some of those "squeeze up" type cat treats. I just gave him the first one. OMG. Now he won't leave me alone. We finished the first packet (while I had to sit there and keep squeezing up the treat, so he could lick it off) and now he wants in the box that has the rest of the packets. They are kind of annoying to have to sit there and keep squeezing and with his head in the way it's hard to see how much is coming out. There's 10 in this box. Oh boy, LOL.

Well, time to get logged into work. It's payroll processing day....yay....