Where To, Bud?

First, thanks to all new readers of my journal. If you find it humorous and/or informative it would be great if you'd pass the web address on to your friends who may be in need of a laugh or to discover something they did not know. In the case of the latter, I try always to make certain the information is correct and up to date. If it is not, one has only to utilize the comments section to set me straight. Also, I work well under pressure. I have begun to assign myself "deadlines" and, as of this writing (July 27th) I have written ahead 4 "episodes". This one will "air" on 7.31.2121.. Admittedly, my "style" is more conversational than formal. I find I am more easily read that way, and if you see me use colloquialisms written to appear as misspells or typos, they are meant to be there. Y'all. ============================================================== Got suggestions? Write. How about "What is a typical day for me"? I can do t...

 I don't care what's wrong with you - you need to be your own doctor in reading up on the meds prescribed for you because 9 times out of 10 your physician won't have time or take time to do it for you. Sorry, but it's a fact of life and if it isn't stopped at the pharmacy, you may wind up taking something that's got some bad interactions with your other meds or may affect you adversely in that you might be allergic to its ingredients. You are the captain of your own ship, the "USS Body", and if you don't know how to navigate her "waters" she just might sink out from under you. (How's that for metaphorical speech? 😃 ) As I generally do, I'll use myself as an example, and this has nothing to do with my cancer or dementia, but with pain. My VA nurse practitioner felt I might benefit from a drug called "Neurontin" or "Gabapentin" as it's known generically. It is used to treat nerve pain - in my case, Sciatica ...

 If the Fermi Paradox is new UFO terminology to you, let me give you the "short and dirty", okay? If there are sooo many worlds and suns capable of supporting life, then where they (The E.T.'s) at? Just  a little street talk for the kids among you. As I mentioned previously, countries such as Russia and China have long ago conceded the existence of extra-terrestrials and recent evidence (such as the "Tic-Tac" sightings) led to the famous Pentagon document we saw earlier this month.  So there's where we got the Paradox "theory" - from American - Italian physicist Enrico Fermi. There's also the "Drake Equation" which we wl discuss later. Paradoxes and Equations aside, I think the majority of us want them to "fix" our broken world, don't you? Think about it: We're going to Mars with an idea to colonize it,  for cryin' out loud! I don't know about you, but I don't particularly want to live there! I'm not ...

We certainly "opened the door" to them, didn't we? Now, after all this time, everything may be anti-climactic to all of us and they may not want anything further to do with Earthlings. If you'll give it some thought, would you want anything to do with us? If I were an ET, I'd see Earthlings as a violent, ugly race ready to kill at the drop of a hat and I'd leave skid-marks in the air leaving this planet. What? I forgot "World Peace"? We're going to convince "them aliens" that after we tested the atom bomb,  dropped two nukes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that we want to be peaceful??? I don't think they'd be that stupid, bro. Question: Were we the last hold-out to admit to their existence? If so, where are they? Let's hope they're not lying in wait for another "Mars Attacks" scenario and they're probably already pissed at us for how we've portrayed them in movies. In addition to laughing themselves silly ...

 ........even if one is in remission, one continues to see one's oncologist, and I see mine once every three months. I'm not as much "in control" of it as I am with my dementia, so there's really only the treatment to tell you about. The whole thing began in early 2018. Our son, Jason had passed 7 months prior and our lives were still in turmoil.  I credit my VA Nurse Practioner, who, during some routine labwork noticed my PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) going up and up. Due to her diligence, I was able to get into the VA's "Community Care" program and was able to be seen by doctors at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) at their Atlanta Hospital. I won't go into detail regarding why I was so glad to be seen by them, but let's just say they saved my life. The first item of "business" was for my urologist to determine the amount of cancer I had sustained. First I need to tell you I have had an enlarged prostate gland most of m...

 If so, please be aware that as of August, I will no longer be able to notify you of new posts by e-mail. That service will be discontinued, so if you want to continue to follow me, I suggest you note my web address (www.wheretobud.blogspot.com) somewhere.  You would honor me if you'd find a place for me on your desktop, for instance, but as long as you have it somewhere you won't have to google it every time. Thanks Bill EDITED TO ADD: The name of the service to be discontinued is "Feedburner", so if by chance you get a note from them or you continue to get notifications about the journal, please let me know. I did some monkeying around with the settings which MAY allow the service to continue notifying you, but I won't know unless I find out from you. Thanks

 Thanks for coming this far with me, -"Crash-Test Dummy Bill"- in exploring MCI ("Mild Cognitive Impairment") Let's recap. You've noticed yourself getting more forgetful than normal You're more anxious - more impulsive in your day to day life You're hesitant with your words - oftentimes forgetting them, even And many many more, including depression, aggression and apathy So you and your doctor have concluded that, yes, you are mildly impaired, cognitively. What's next? Before we get to that, remember I told you a few posts ago there are 10 kinds of dementia? (I may have written 11 before, but the figure has been revised.) Here they are: Alzheimer's Vascular Lewy Body Parkinson's' Frontotemporal Creuzfeld-Jakob (aka "Human Mad Cow Disease") Wernicke-Korsakoff Mixed Huntington's Disease Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus I told you about these so you wouldn't think Alzheimer's is the only type of dementia. None of the a...

 Here is where I have to tread carefully with my words. I am not now, nor have I ever been a physician and it is not my intent to represent myself as one, Simply put, I am a retired respiratory therapist who has had experience with being tested and diagnosed with simple dementia and nothing I write in this journal is to be taken as anything except a telling of my experiences. For a definitive answer to any question you may have, nothing can replace the advice of your own physician. We good on all of the above ?😎😎 Great! Let us continue. ============================================== Meanwhile, back at the farm.......All tests are in and your doc has called you in for a conference, After your nurse obtains your vital signs, your doctor comes in and tells you that in his opinion you have MCI ("Mild Cognitive Impairment", remember?). Going to stop here to tell you there are some quotes coming within this entry and I am attributing them all to The Mayo Clinic. Okay, "Mild ...

Your Assessment For Alzheimer's Dementia.... .....will generally begin with your Primary Care Provider (PCP) unless you are already being counselled by a mental health professional who has an MD behind his or her name. Following a simple "Acuity Assessment" more formally known as "MoCA" for "Montreal Cognitive Assessment" your physician may or may not refer you further to a neurologist. It depends on how you do on the MoCA which takes about 10 minutes and consists of some words to remember, drawing a certain time on the face of a clock, and identifying some animals or objects. You may also be asked to count backward from 100 by groupings of three. If all this seems a mite familiar, it should. Former President Trump underwent the same test while he was in office. To keep myself occupied while waiting on an appointment with any of my docs, I do prime numbers in my head.  Prime numbers are whole numbers greater than 1 that have only 2 factors - 1 and the ...

  Note: As of today this will no longer be known as my "Blog" but as my "Journal". I never liked the word "blog" all that much as it reminds me of a kid throwing up. I'm "old school" so let's make that change together - thanks As you will no doubt have noticed, I stay away from politics here. My feelings are it doesn't benefit either of us to get into a tussle about it and I'd rather concentrate on things such as Alzheimer's Dementia (I began calling it that several years ago). Yes, it is a disease, but it is also one of the 11 types of dementia, so in my opinion, it belongs under the "dementia" umbrella:. Agree/Disagree? Let me know in the comments section. Because it has been a while since we last discussed dementia, let's use me as our "Crash-Test Dummy". I will create a "case study" which will include vital signs, diagnoses, pertinent lab values and prognoses. Because I would like this to...

 When I began working as a respiratory therapist many years ago,  I thought I was "King Shit of Turd Mountain".  If you smoked, I - fresh out of school with my new white lab coat on - would get all altruistic on ya and tell you how one could recover a certain amount of lung function if one only stopped smoking. I would speak to students and watch their eyes get saucer-huge as I'd show them the slides of Black Lung and Lung Cancer and explain how, if one has COPD, one could die on 100% oxygen because effective respiration ceases to take place and you would "suffocate if we don't shove a tube down your windpipe and hook you up to mechanical life support." I used simple words like "windpipe" rather than "trachea" because I knew if I didn't their eyes would get glassy and I'd lose them. I also used 1st and 2nd person pronouns. I didn't pull punches - even back then. I told myself I was doing good work, but of course, once a person...

 I don't know if that's true anymore, brothers and sisters. Now we all have to protect ourselves against one common enemy, and he's not in a tank. "He" works on us from the inside. You think I may be on a different tangent here? You're right. This one isn't something for the memoirs or pulled out of my so-called "history". It's about the Truth. I won't beleaguer you with the latest news. If you're here on my Journal, then you get credit for at least some  smarts. 😛 This entry is about the absolute least you must do if you have already decided to cast your fate to the wind, as it were. Before I begin, fairness dictates I tell you I don't believe in an Interventionist God. Oh, I believe in a higher power, just not that He's going to pull our "fat out of the fire" because it suits Him to do so, So if you've decided all you hear about Covid and its latest variant is "fake news", here's what you need ...

..... But a little fear (okay - maybe a lot ) will help to boost that caution. They're symbiotic, aren't they? Well, I believe they are, and maybe I can convince someone else of that.   Back to back blog entries (God, I hate that word: blog -  "Blarg!"! Sounds like a little kid trying to puke.) It's a JOURNAL , dammit!) ? Ja, I think I found my muse again - or she found me - so you get a double helping of "drivel" (another sound-alike word: "gruel") from me, your fellow "space traveler".. Okay, let's go..... Fear and Caution, not one and the same but taken together, they could turn someone into a fighter/protector. Gotta be smart and wise too, though. Fear/Caution aren't going to help you much if you're a dumb-ass. We've spoken of this in the previous entry, but it bears repeating: GET VACCINATED!   And yeah, I know I'm yelling, but in this instance, I think netiquette will allow it. We may be headed fo...

EVE     [pssst! Remember to "scroll down" at Read More. Thanks]  How are you doing? Hope you're still alive after this madness, chaos and meanness .  So many dead in one form or another. If the virus doesn't/didn't get you, a bullet might have/will. Not much of an outlook is it, yet we have to persevere. The Dark Ages had the Black Plague - millions dead - and we're going through pretty much the same, allowing for an update on weaponry either to kill or weaponry to save lives. Did you get vaccinated? Both shots? It's up to you, of course; it's still just a choice you have to make. Do I care if you get vaxxed? Of course,  I do. I don't want you breathing that shit in my face and making me or my loved ones sick and killing us There's an old song with the words, "There are none so blind as those who will not see.", and that's what's wrong. We know people are dying, and we see the numbers, but we don't see to take that extra s...