White, White Birthday

 We got about 6 inches of heavy wet snow yesterday. Today a fine light snow has fallen a few times.

Today is my birthday. My twin sister and I were born about 6 weeks premature. While an earlier birthday didn't mean harsh winter weather in Southern California, waiting until March would have made a big difference in Indiana. The certificate with my inked footprints and an embossed seal (which nobody accepts as legal, I had to get a different kind from the county when I wanted to marry) stated I was born on a Thursday. "Thursday's child has far to go." I have seen interpretations that the Thursday child will go far, be a success. Or that such a child will have a long life. To me, it means having a long laborious journey. Thursday's child will not have an easy time travelling through this world. After all, it rhymes with Wednesday's child of woe. 

When we were at Costco a month or so ago, I bought some filet mignon and froze it. Tonight I will broil that beef and serve with Bearnaise sauce.

I will saute a vegetable mix from Trader Joe's and microwave some left-over wild rice.

For dessert there must be chocolate. The cake is thawing in the refrigerator to be ready to eat with ice cream tonight.

Speaking of Trader Joe's, we bought some grapefruit for my husband. These are gigantic. He usually only eats half at a time.

One of the problems with such short notice for surgery is that I have some things I need to eat up before my diet restrictions start. Spaghetti sauce (half a jar in the fridge), nuts, sausages. For 2-3 months I will not be able to eat the candy I received for Christmas. I don't think See's Toffee-ettes with the crunch and the nuts will last until I can eat them again. I am busily trying to finish them before February 2nd. I thought my surgery would be toward the second half of February. I didn't start on these right away because I had several boxes of Moose Munch to eat. The See's candy is too good to let grow stale. 

I sort of see this next week as a countdown time to eat what I will miss post-surgery. I even went thru the garage freezer looking for what might work post-op; I found the zucchini bread (with walnuts) I had frozen, and it is thawing on the kitchen counter. I know I have to take each day after February 1st day by day and not think too much about all those weeks of careful eating.

LINX Surgery

In 2012 I had an EGD. This is a scoping and viewing with a camera of the esophagus, stomach, and upper small intestine. One of my grandmothers had problems with regurgitation and reflux and eventually died of cancer though I don't know if of the esophagus or the stomach. There were no strictures (narrowing), abnormal lining, or tumors found in my esophagus. I had occasional heartburn and infrequently it felt like something was stuck in my esophagus as I ate, and I had two incidents of regurgitation (one in a fast food restaurant) that year. I did not have manometry, a test to see if there were swallowing/motility problems because I had insurance through the Indiana risk pool which provided minimal coverage with a huge deductible. Manometry is expensive.

Those symptoms have been getting worse the past few years, and in the past 15 months I have had regurgitation at least weekly. When I had blood in my stool last October, I was referred for an EGD plus the surgeon wanted to do a colonoscopy as well. That finally happened November 22nd. I was told I had a hiatal hernia. You may remember that on the day of those scopings I ended up in the ER that evening with fever and shivering so bad my whole body shook. After a CT scan, I was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia and admitted to the hospital for several days. 

It is interesting how God can use human mistakes to direct us down a new path. The surgeon who did the EGD made an appointment for me to see the local gastroenterologist. I thought this was odd as I had not yet had the follow-up visit with the surgeon, but I went.

 The visit did not go well. According to the GI doctor's nurse, the reason for the visit was listed as a follow-up to a barium enema which I knew I had not had. I showed her my paperwork from my surgery, and I told her I had questions about my hiatal hernia.

 When the doctor came into the room, he said I guess this is the appointment that wasn't supposed to happen. I said I didn't know the intent of the scheduled visit since I didn't make the appointment, but I had questions about my hiatal hernia. He said to me, "I can't help you; I don't know anything about you." I stood up and put my coat on and had my hand on the doorknob when he said, "Wait, sit down, I will answer your questions." He is at least in his 60's and it turns out he does not like having to look at the digital records for a patient, he prefers paper. I offered him my paper records, but he said he needed to see all the stuff in my records. Somehow I mentioned something about having had medical procedures/surgeries in Dallas. His response was why did you ever leave there and come to a place like this with gray cold days. (This was in December). There were several other awkward moments and comments, but in the end he provided me with some key information. I did not like what I had read about Nissen fundoplication, a surgery to fix a sliding hernia. He told me about LINX surgery. At the end of the visit, he said, "You know I think there was a mix-up, that you were not the patient that was to see me." When I asked if there was paperwork to check out, he said, "You just walk out of here like you own the place, and nobody will stop you."

When I saw the surgeon a week later, I told him about this odd visit. He excused himself and went to see his scheduler. Yes, there had been a mix-up. I was not the patient intended to see the GI doctor. He wrote off my co-pay for that day as a way to apologize. The GI had told me I needed hernia surgery. So did this surgeon. I asked about LINX. He had heard of it, but nobody in their practice was trained to do it. He referred me to a doctor in Fort Wayne who did LINX. If I had never had the strange visit, I would not have known about LINX, as the surgeon was surprised I brought it up.

That brings us to today's visit with Dr. Nearing, the Fort Wayne doctor. After looking at the barium swallow I had in Warsaw in December and then the results of the tests/procedures he did on January 5th, we decided to have the LINX surgery. It is scheduled for February 2nd. Suddenly things are moving fast. 

Since this is a long post, I won't go into the recovery from LINX which has a multi-page list of food to avoid. I have to eat certain kinds of things once an hour post-surgery (except while sleeping) for 2 months. It is going to be tough, but I think worth it. 

Post-Christmas

We ordered an office chair through our local Staples since all they had in stock was a display model. We were originally told it would arrive no later than December 19th. It was a Christmas present to us. There was a snafu requiring contact with the Staples complaint site and waiting more weeks. The original chair was never picked up by UPS or was lost or who knows. Staples reordered for us. It arrived several weeks after the promised date. We now have it at our computer desk. My husband did a fine job assembling it.

I have been slowly taking down the Christmas decorations. This afternoon my husband put the sleigh with bears and the Christmas music CD and tape cases on the upper shelf of the closet.

The poinsettia still looks good; I left it on the table in the sunroom though I put the Christmas tablecloth away. 

Last week I had a manometry test at Lutheran Downtown Hospital (Fort Wayne). Several hours later I had an EGD (upper scope) with Bravo placement. I also was given some sheets of paper ("diary") to mark down sleeping, eating, and times and duration of symptoms such as reflux, chest pain, heatburn. Monday we returned the recorder box and diary to the hospital.

The doctor said to make a follow-up appointment 1 to 2 weeks after the procedures. When I called, there were no appointments this week and next week he is out of the office all week. The earliest opening was January 24th. I am in limbo again waiting for answers. The nurse who did the manometry test told me it did indicate some swallowing difficulties. That will certainly factor in to any decison about surgery.

Northern Indiana is having one of the warmest Januarys since data was recorded. That is forecast to change in another week. Currently no snow on the ground. It is gray and gloomy most days, though we did have sunshine yesterday. 

My husband started back to the Y this week to work out. He had not been since the Pandemic started. I am a little skitterish because I do not want COVID to interfere with any needed surgeries. We do go out to restaurants, and next Monday I will be in the Grace Village choir as it starts up after the Christmas break. There are cases of COVID in our community, but not a lot. 

What is the COVID situation where you live?