Where To, Bud?

Remember that old Faron Young tune? Some of you are probably too young, but it's one of those "cry in your beer" old-time country tunes, about a guy who misses his loved one, so he winds up talking to inanimate objects such as the windows, ceiling and of course, the walls. "Now why would he bring that up?", you may be asking yourselves. Well, I am bringing that up because there was a time when I would have felt like that guy in the song, but now I can't even get up the energy to be angry at her anymore, and I am wondering about the significance of that? Am I entering another stage of EOAD? The "I don't give a shit about anything anymore" stage? I have noticed I am not as fastidious as I once was: don't clean my place as often, hate to even load the dishwasher, and on the days when I stay in, I'm likely just to give myself a "spongebath" rather than a complete shower. Same with shaving or even eating anything, and if I do ...

One of the vials of my spinal fluid is being examined for this protein. Know what it is? Would you believe MAD COW DISEASE!!! Shortly before the procedure last Friday, I got a call from the lab in the hospital where I had it done, and was asked some very interesting questions, to whit: 1. Have you ever served in the military? YES 2. Ever been out of the country? YES 3. Where? GERMANY (my home) 4. Consume any meat products while there? YES Okay, to explain number 4: Because of my rheumatoid/gouty arthritis I practice a "vegetarian" diet. I put that word in quotes because I am not a true vegetarian or vegan, because I allow myself to eat chicken and some fish/shellfish. But when I go home to Germany (twice a year on the average), I do "fall off the wagon" so to speak (more like a running jump!), and go a little nuts on sausages and pork (Wienerschnitzel and pig knuckles - okay, okay - stop gaggin' already! ), and even though the practice has been banned, I may ha...

Hey Here is a play-by-play of the spinal tap from Friday morning: 1. Arrive at hospital at 8:30, and get checked in and prepped - which at that time consisted of just stripping and putting on a gown, INT (IV) started, and blood drawn. It took two IV techs to get the vein, although I am not usually a "hard stick). Yeah, it hurt, but I'm not a "baby" usually, so it was okay. I don't always hit the artery (for arterial blood gases in connection with my job as a respiratory therapist either, so I took no offense). The nurse drew 9 tubes of blood which were needed to rule out all the funky stuff that could be going on inside my head. 2: 11:30: My neurologist shows up (finally - procedure WAS scheduled for 9) 3. 11:45: We begin. I was told to turn to the wall and bring my body into fetal position. (If I had known then what the pain would be like, I would have gone into fecal position! ;) Swabbed down with Betadine , and injected with Lydocaine to numb the site. 4. 11...

Thanks for being my friends!

Hey Working on that this week. Not being morbid, just want to have that stuff out of the way so that I can concentrate on other things, like surviving this beast of a disease. One thing I haven't lost, and that's my libido. Did lose it for a while (due to depression meds, I think), but it came back, and that is not necessarily a "good thing". With the AD, I can think of no good reason to become involved in another relationship. I wouldn't want to do that to someone. So , what : Self-Gratification? Use myself? :) Send myself flowers, a dinner, a movie, and then "Hey YOU , I just spent $100.00 on you! Lay your ass down! No way am I goin' home empty-handed!" (excuse the bad pun!) ;) Do I sound sarcastic? Yeah, I do sarcasm very well these days, I reckon. Gotta work on that a bit. It's a beautiful Georgia day, and I'm gonna get on my Trek 1000 and do some cycling. I hope the weather's nice wherever you are, and that you'll get out and...