Where To, Bud?

 Hello again - Have you seen a sign like the above on the side of the street lately? Of course you haven't, (right?), but since checking online, I have discovered that Medicare has handed down a decision which makes it tougher to buy these medications. Here's a quote from the Alzheimer's Association;"In April 2022, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued an unprecedented decision that blocks Medicare coverage of FDA-approved treatments that target amyloid for Alzheimer's disease. This policy applies to all currently FDA-approved monoclonal antibody treatments, including Aduhelm and others that may receive approval in the coming months. The Association recommends a letter to your congress person asking them to intervene. I know. Another "write your congressman" recommendation, and given the divisiveness of our two major parties, how can you be sure it's going to be read? When it comes times like this, Bernie Sanders' name alwa...

 Is that a sigh of relief that just washed over me from wherever you are? 😃 Great! I'm glad that makes you happy. I don't want to rain on your parade, but even though we're getting out of the pandemic status, people are still dying, and the virus continues to mutate. 🙄 I know - "Party-Pooper", right? Its latest variant is "Arcturus" and it causes pink eye.  So if you get itchy eyes, you should probably take a Covid test. It probably came from India, and it's here with us, now, in at least 10 states Here  are the latest Covid figures for the US, if anyone is interested. We live in Carroll County, Georgia and the latest figures per capita show less than 10 deaths from  January 1st, 2023 through last Monday, April 17th, 2023. That doesn't even cause a "blip" on the Covid 'Radar" here, but folks are still "trickling in" to get their vaccinations and Dondra and I have our boosters and are up-to-date. So what will you do...

    To be honest, I hadn't given much thought to the cancer lately, but once one gets diagnosed, one's doctors and nurses (The "Oncology Team") follow their patient (s) usually for five years to make sure  all the numbers and values remain within normal limits. In my case the numbers are so low, they don't register on the machine which analyzes them. Just as a refresher, PSA stands for "Prostate Specific Antigen". That's the test used to determine prostate function, and therefore, possibly cancer. To keep things simple, here are the numbers for us guys (all figures usually reported as nanograms of PSA per milliliter of blood): 0 - 2.5: Normal for a man 40 - 50 yrs. 2.5 - 3.5: Normal for a man 50 - 60 yrs. 3.5 - 4.5: Normal for a man 60 - 70 yrs, 4.5 - 5.5: Normal for a man 70 - 80 yrs.  In my case, (adenocarcinoma of prostate) before my procedure my PSA was 5.480, which was considered "abnormally high". Following  my surgical procedure, my...

 No excuses offered - I've been just plain lazy , friends and guests. That's not to say no journal-worthy events have happened , because they have. They have either sucked all the energy out of me or I just said "Hell with it!". Which one's your  choice, friend? How about we just say "both of them" and be done with it? Good. So here's an update. Dondra now has full-blown kidney disease for which she must undergo dialysis three times a week for 4 hours a day. She hates it, but the alternative to not  cleaning her blood is much, much worse. There was a time when we considered a home dialysis unit, but we absolutely do not have room here for all the equipment that requires. Maybe you know of someone who is on dialysis - either at home or at a center - and you're familiar with what goes on? So because we only live 5 minutes away from her center, I drive her there and pick her up. No muss, no fuss and our living room is free of wires and jugs of fluid...