Where To, Bud?

And I guess we'd better do something 'bout "BILLY", right? And you didn't think I'd forget this one, didja? This movie plays on my birthday every year! No not on Halloween! On December 31st! Have a "Ghoul Night" y'all! Bill PS: And don't forget the 4-legged ones who aren't werewolves! Thanks!

I had to think about that title for a bit, but what the heck, it fits, right? Well, I got a really quick reply from Georgia Department of Education's Pam Smith, and a really nice follow-up from Therese McGuire: Good afternoon Mr. Craig, Pamela Smith forwarded your email to me. I am the health education program specialist at the Ga Department of Education. The Georgia Department of Education sets health education performance standards provide an outline for curriculum development. Those provide concepts in health curricula, which is to provide a framework from which curricula (which is often topic specific) can be developed aligned to local needs. Local school systems develop and design their own curriculum, instruction and assessment. Here is a link to those standards: https://www.georgiastandards.org/Standards/Pages/BrowseStandards/HealthEd.aspx There are several ways to work with local systems and help provide curricula and/or information concerning Alzheimer's a...

I was surprised recently to learn that Alzheimer's and other dementias aren't taught in our Georgia school system unless we , the advocates teach it by being invited into the school. I have long thought that this is inadequate, being that a diagnosis is made every minute, and that our kids know this disease exists and kills, but may not know why . For this reason, I have asked Pam Smith (director of curriculum) of the Georgia Department of Education to help me sort this out and hopefully work this into our Biology and/or Human Anatomy programs. Here is that e-mail: Dear Ms Smith, My name is Bill Craig. I am a 61 year old Young Onset Alzheimer's patient and an advocate working out of our Atlanta chapter. As an advocate, it is my job to oversee any legislation which affects the patients and caregivers who have to deal with the 6th-largest killing disease in our country. We make ourselves available to anyone who needs assistance, as well as speaking to communiti...

If you've followed this blog for a while, then you know how much this crap frustrates me. More often that not, the "meat" of the story is followed by, "although more study is needed......" blah, blah, rackenfracken BLAH! Here's an example : Okay, maybe this is the one, but I've been eating B12, fish oil, coconut oil, E, everything but suck some normal person's blood out of his neck for the three years that I've had this stuff. I've even been asked if I've been "washed in the blood of the lamb?". I'll try anything once. I really don't mean to be so cynical, guys, but dammit, some of our time's running out, and it seems to me that for whatever reason, we're still pussyfooting around this disease with really nothing to show for it. Over on the Straight Dope Message Board, we have some of the most interesting and knowledgeable people discuss some very interesting stuff, and here's a subject I participated in...

The insurance company has agreed to begin it November 1st,which is only 13(!) days away. Meanwhile, I have checked into "Georgia Cares" (neither of us can qualify for "Extra Care', which they feature on the site, because we make too much.)  One has to make under 22, 300K for 2 persons in a household, so why not give this a try if you live here in Jawja. Maybe you'll make the cut. The Sun Assocation is much more liberal. Here are their conditions and secondly, D and I want to apply for this, because for a $25.00 application fee and $100.00 a month for all of the costs they can reduce, we can save a lot of money, because our med costs are killing us. They do all the paperwork, although one (or two of us because Dondra will be involved), but we have to do some as well: List all prescriptions and dosages, the prescriber, his or her address and phone number. We don't mind paying the fees, if it's legit. Check into it, at least. It's nationwide! ...

And because she's the most important, she gets the number 1 slot. She continues to recover from her surgery, but still has a lot of pain. Today, though, she was upset because, except for me helping to exercise and take her showers, she can't do anything yet but lie in bed. But today the dam burst and she began to cry, telling me she was so tired of being in bed, but because of the pain, she really can't do anything she usually does, such as housework and cooking, which she loves to do. I gave her a hug and reminded her of how big the gallbladder was, and that removing one of that size would cause some serious post-operative pain and that everything is okay. I'm taking care of her and everything which needs doing, and all she has to do is her breathing exercise, and continue to ambulate. (and give ne a little "sugar" every once in a while, LOL) She gets very short of breath because of the pulmonary hypertension, but she has an oxygen concentrator and so...

Sharon Amaya, MD was my consulting physician on the first Texas to Georgia bicycle ride I ever did ( www.d2d4wetnoses.com ). She and I worked together in the ER, and she was also the friend I confided in when I noticed something going wrong in my brain. I haven't seen her in 3 years, but we keep in touch via facebook, and I'd like to share with you some pictures of her and some of her other friends from a recent vacation: Sharon and Greg Amaya and friend. Both Sharon and Greg are ER docs and world travellers. Pearl Jam is probably the one band they'd drop anything (hopefully not a patient! lol) for! Oh, yeahhhh! Can't forget this one: It's the dolphin's "Oh, shit! Not again!" picture of Sharon and Greg kissing over their friend's head. Look closely at their friend's face!..... A little something appropriate to your last vacation, Sharon. Listen to it when you need to relax and remember. And thanks for everything ! Please re...

This is my buddy, "Bob" who helps protect the house, having a  bit of Oktoberfest "cheer". I'll post some other pics later. Dondra continues to recuperate, although she doesn't have much of an appetite at present. It's good that when I fix her something, I'm usually a little hungry too, so I eat what she doesn't want. As I write, we're enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon, just lying around and watching movies, with Bert squooshed in between us. ================================================================= =================================================== ================================================================= ==================================================== Thanks, Bill

We're home! Walked in the door last night at about 9:30 and shortly thereafter our home oxygen guy came to set Dondra up with her tanks and concentrator. I hate that my otherwise so active wife has been brought down by these stupid happenings, but I'm making it my project to get her back on her feet and, as soon as she's able, taking her with me to the track so she can walk and build her strength again. Funny story: Before we left, as D was getting dressed, and I had already taken some stuff down to the car, I came upon her nurse giving report to another nurse outside her door. "She's doing so much better", she told her, "and will be going home within the hour and thank God she's taking that asshole husband of hers with her!" I walked smiling past them into D's room, and I know she knew I'd heard her. But I don't mind being thought an asshole as long as I know I did the best I could to watch over my wife. They'll meet many ...

We're home! Walked in the door about 3 hours ago. I hate that my otherwise so active and beautiful wife has been brought down by these stupid happenings, but I'm making it my project to get her back on her feet and, as soon as she's able, taking her with me to the track so she can walk and build her strength again.We were discharged this afternoon, but didn't leave the hospital until 8 PM Friday night. Dondra is far from well, and will need home oxygen, physical therapy, many follow-up doctor's visits and much TLC (that's   my department! LOL!). Funny story: As D was getting dressed, and I had already taken some stuff down to the car, I came upon her nurse giving report to another nurse outside her door. "She's doing so much better", she told her, "and will be going home within the hour and thank God she's taking that asshole husband of hers with her!" I walked smiling past them into D's room, and I know she k...

We are still here in the hospital. Her cardiologist stopped by earlier and told her that her increased pulmonary pressure is due to a leaking heart valve. That's all he said, except "it is what it is", which, to me, is a phrase which cancels itself out and isn't really saying anything at all. D's  room air oxygen saturation is 88% without 2 liters of O2. Her normal room air sat is 99 to 100%, so this is of some concern to me. When I was an RT, we'd send people home on oxygen with a room air sat of only 88, and she has never smoked or inhaled dangerous fumes in her life. Oxygen Saturation is the amount of oxygen carried by the red blood cells. O2 saturation is usually measured over the fingernail, although it can be measured with an arterial blood sample, which is very painful. As I write, we just found out that the nurses will be taking her on a 6 minute walk without oxygen to see how far her sat will drop. For that reason, I'm not letting Georgia ...

Dondra's started running a temp tonight (102). Blood cultures have been drawn, as well as a urine specimen taken to lab. We're thinking atelectasis, but no chest x ray has been ordered as of yet. Atelectasis sets in when a post-operatve patient doesn't cough or deep breathe with the aid of incentive spirometry. It sometimes happens when the patient is under general anesthesia and is being breathed through an endotracheal tube by the anesthesiologist. The patient avoids deep breathing afterward because of the pain at the operative aite. Pneumonia can be the result of atelectasis, sometimes referred to as "whiteout". The blood cultures have to incubate, but the urine specimen might reveal a kidney infection. D's is very concentrated, even though she's been drinking clear liquids. I sometimes wish I didn't remember so much about my days as an RT. Thanks Bill

The wifi here is horrendous, so I haven't been able to write until just now. D is getting up to go the bathroom, although she's still in a lot of pain. She's doing her incentive sprirometry exercises, but still gets short of breath so she's on O2. I'm keeping her spirits up by being her very own 60's dj from songs stored on this laptop. One she likes is at the bottom of this entry. We don't know yet when we'll get to go home. We had hoped it would be tomorrow, Thursday, but they're not talking like it. The gallbladder from hell was so large they had to keep drawing bile out of it, to make it small enough to fit into the bag. They gave us a view of it, which I told her I would frame once we got home. Here's what she said: "Not!" lol Maybe since she's up and around, albeit slowly, it might not take the entire 14 days to recuperate. We hope so, but I'm not letting her get up until she's pain free Since I don't dri...

One week today. The lung guys (Georgia Lung) still are not satisfied with what they're seeing, and, as I mentioned before, they're seeing the symptoms but not the cause. What's left is the echocardiogram, and "working in" a therapeutic dosage of Coumadin (a blood thinner) before we're discharged - but I don't see that happening until Thursday. Meanwhile, she's in a lot of pain from the surgery and it looks like we're in for a long recuperation (14 days at least) time at home. Dondra was originally scheduled for a neck fusion, but it has been postponed indefinitely. A word about the nursing care: great! About the only complaint we have is that they can't remember to close the door all the way! LOL! We'll both be glad to get back home and into our own bed! =============================================================== =============================================================== If I have to look like somebody, I prefer to...

I spoke with her surgeon shortly afterward and he showed me a picture of the gall bladder before removal and said it had swollen to 5 times its normal size. She'll be in recovery at home for about two weeks. The next echocardiogram is still pending, but the surgeon has released her from his service. We don't know yet when she will be discharged. Thanks Bill

After several false starts, a cancellation and a re-order, Dondra's cath was finally done this morning at 11. Dr. Miller told us that becaus the results are inconclusive, he wants to repeat an echocardiogram when she's in "normal sinus rhythm" (otherwise known as a normal heart beat, not blowing one's nose to a rhumba!) so he can take some measurements and put her on the correct meds. One thing he did notice is that her heart has a "stiff" left ventricle, which interferes with the regular pumping of the heart. For this reason, he says, her case is still a mystery, so he'll continue the IV's and cardiac blood tests. Also nothing conclusive about the pulmonary hypertension. But, taking all the symptoms together: the swelling of the extremities, the atrial fib and the chest tightness, it's been determined that all are contributary. On a related matter, her Nephrologist came in this morning, told us the scan of the gallbladder was normal a...

Dondra is in good spirits today, although she's still getting IV Heparin and all the drugs for her heart, and of course, the pain. One thing we haven't discussed are the results of the complete pulmonary function test. Although she's never smoked or inhaled anything damaging to her lungs, she has reduced values in her FeV1 and Total Lung Capacity. (FeV1 is the amount of air that can be forcibly exhaled in one second, and total lung capacity is the amount of volume retained after a maximal inhalation). We don't know for sure yet if this is what's causing her pulmonary hypertension, so tomorrow's cath will hopefully shed some light on that mystery. D says to thank our friend ninetywt for the phone call a couple of nights ago. That is something I forgot, so I apologize. Thanks also to our friends Becky from California, and BillDL from Scotland for the phone call. We had family to come and visit last night, and the night before my bro' came to get me so...

Hidascan (of her gallbladder) done today in nuclear medicine. That took about three hours due to the contrast not visualizing the organ, so they gave her 2mg of morphine and that relaxed the valve which goes into the gallbladder, so they could see inside. If I had 2 mg morphine, I'd show you all kinds of valves! Other things we know is that D is anemic, so the doctor is going to put her on an iron drip beginning tomorrow. Meanwhile, she's laughing and kidding with family who are here as I write, so I know she's feeling much better and the atrial fib is leaving her alone. So after a busy afternoon, we're going to settle down and watch some movies on my mini DVD player and go to bed early for a change. Thanks! Bill

D is feeling better today, although one of her meds is making her perspire profusely, so bad her sheets are wet, but we'll trade all of her pain for a little sweat any day! Her atrial fib is gone for the time being (due to the Heparin kicking in, I reckon), and she had a pain-free night for a change. The cardiac cath is now definitely scheduled for Monday, and the gallbladder surgery will for sure be done after that laparoscopically. She'll be going home with a rolling walker, which, to me, will take a lot of getting used to, because she's always been so strong, but I can put up with it since it's temporary. We don't know yet when we'll be discharged, just sometime next week. The not so good news is that she's throwing some PVC's (pre-mature ventricular contractions), and that is some concern, because if they keep up, she'll be moved to ICU. Other than that, we're good, and still optimistic, because, after all, they did find all that st...

We're still here, although we had a bit of a scare last night. D started to feel bloated, which is one of the symptoms she experienced last year when her anestemosis incision burst and rleased "free air" into her abdomen. Quick surgery was what saved her life then and we thought it was happening again last night, so we had the nurse call the doctor who ordered a stat xray to check for free air, but she had none, so we dodged that bullet. So, we're still dealing with the atrial fib and she has a Heparin drip to help with that, but so far nothing, and D says it's a very UNPLEASANT feeling which keeps her awake all night. Hematologist was in llast night and told us that ALL her blood values were low, so the neck fusion surgery is off indefinitely. Lung doctor just left and told us pretty much the same thing: the high PAP is a symptom of something, but they don't know what just yet, so they're going to find out what it isn't and go from there. Ag...

Not good. We learned this evening that her pulmonary hypertension is worse than we thought: a pulmonary artery pressure of 70 - dangerously high, and high enough for a blood clot in the lungs. What this means is, she's a poor risk for her neck surgery for the arthritis in her neck. What happens now is we treat the pulmonary hypertension with drugs and (we're about 80% sure) a right-sided cardiac cath. Both of us are optimistic, but with both of us being respiratory therapists, we know the score and we know she's in trouble unless we do something quick. I'm sure you know that a blood clot ("embolism" - in this case a pulmonary embolism) is like a dormant bomb: No one knows when it might blow. Meanwhile, the blood thinners, anti-arrythmia drugs, blood tests, etc. continue. Tomorrow, she'll be seen by a doctor in one of the finest pulmonary groups in the nation: Dr. Chad Miller of Georgia Lung. Dr. Miller actually specializes   in pulmonary hypertens...

"Pulmonary Hypertension" The quick definition: High blood pressure in the pulmonary artery, veins, or cappilaries, making the heart have to work harder to pump oxygenated blood through it. Because the heart tries to fix that, it enlarges itself and that threatens the heart and lungs and can cause a blood clot in the lungs and or heart failure. This what we're dealing with right now. More tests to see how severe it is will be done. She could need a right sided cardiac cath. That's all we know so far, but we know it's much more serious than we thought at first. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. Thanks, Bill

Looks like we have some other stuff we have to correct: D's been having chest pain all day, and she's going on heart meds and oxygen to try to correct this. She's very weak in addition to all her other problems. More later. Bill

My pretty but stubborn wife got herself admitted here yesterday, because a few of her meds had stopped working for her and she got really sick, and finally broke down and listened to me and e went to her doc who immediately admitted her here and now she's having all kinds of tests (again), this time for Osteoporosis, since she had a stress fracture of her foot, we think due to the brittle bones that disease causes. We had hoped she might have had her cervical fusion done while we're here, but no, that is scheduled for October 31st, which means mine will be done sometime in late November, yay! :( She is feeling better as the new meds are kicking in, and we hope maybe to go home by Friday. Meanwhile, I'm being her caregiver, and I am very happy that I still can be. ======================================================================== ======================================================================== In other news, you may have seen me mention my hopes tha...

Oh, I don't know. Maybe. I certainly want to be and did start out that way early in life.  At age 17, I asked my then-girlfriend, Lynn, if she'd like to spend a couple of years in the Peace Corps with me after we graduated, and got laughed at for my trouble. So no Peace Corps, 'cause I sure didn't want to go by myself - not that I might not have met someone there and developed a relationship. So up we broke and went our separate ways: college. In my broadcasting days, I hosted numerous telethons (seemed like I was on for some cause every weekend) to the point where people would tell me, "Bill we just love you to death, but you're on the air all the time, asking for money!!!!" Oh well. At West Georgia College (now University), my Philosophy Prof once asked us: "How do you justify your existence?", and that's been on my mind ever since. Why am I here and what am I here to do? For that, I go to the Hippocratic Oath: "First, do no h...