Oh, that sucks, but I think you’re right that it’s best for you amid your ongoing health issues (as @Grey_Devil says). Hopefully, they’ll be able to find good homes for all the kittehs where they’ll be happy. You did a good turn taking in all those cats and keeping them safe for all these years.
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Ok, just a quick photo of my physical appearance these days. I’ve definitely lost weight, and have set my belt back a couple more notches. I know I look kinda grumpy, but it’s a pain in the joints to move around. Just walking a block is difficult.
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Yeah, as others have said that’s a rough time and I’m sorry to hear about your dad. Thinking of you and hoping things improve. Giving up kittehs is a tough call.
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Def keep trying to be active and taking in food and shakes. I know its been difficult but glad to hear you’re out and about despite how you feel.
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Considering what you’ve been going through, I’m glad to hear you are ambulatory! I hope you feel better soon, @knoxblox!
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I feel you on the ongoing pain all the fucking time. If you haven’t tried it, KT tape helped a good bit with my knee pain. There are YouTube videos on how to apply it for different areas. Not too expensive (as medical stuff goes) and lasts a week or so for me. I always thought is was just black magic, and honestly still do, to some extent. No reason at all it should work. But here i am, waiting to knee replacement with a bit less pain.
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What’s weird is that joint pain seems to be a common symptom of the interstitial lung disease, but I feel like it’s more closely tied to the autoimmune disorder beneath the lung disease. I’m still trying to get an appointment to see the rheumatologist and another CT scan for my referrals. Maybe I’ll have better luck tomorrow when I am physically at the hospital for pulmonology testing and I can stand in front of someone and hopefully won’t be ignored.
I thought I was having “surgery” on Thursday, but actually it’s another biopsy of the mole on my ear for the ENT. Weird, the ENTs deal with moles above the shoulders, and the cancer center moles below the shoulders. I assume this second biopsy will be a “punch” biopsy as the second shoulder biopsy was. Maybe I’ll get my diagnosis by the end of the year (sarcasm). This process with all the referrals is really dragging on.
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Ok, today was a designated strike day for some San Diego medical staff, so it was just me and the tech at my spirometry referral appointment in The Box.
Basically did stress testing of my lung function. A lot of breathing in and breathing out, and some pushing against the pressure of the machine valve. I did this once back in 2015 at the end of my Texas days after my third nasal polyp surgery before heading out to Tijuana, and the doctors suspected I might have Churg-Strauss syndrome, also known as eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA). Remembering the crazy knee pain I had that summer, making it difficult to walk. I wound up passing more of the markers than failing them, so it wasn’t pursued any further.
Anyway, the test was so much harder today than it was then, and I almost wound up being “untestable” for not having enough lung strength to complete, as I kept coughing and screwing up the testing.
There’s no diagnosis yet, but from the raw data the tech thinks I have a mix of interstitial lung disease (inhalation) and COPD (exhalation). She also said that while most people have an oxygen absorption of 80% (a different number than a pulse ox), I was testing at 39%.
This was a most tiresome day, and when I was finished all I wanted to do was sleep.
Here I am in the box.
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Goodness that’s scary, but glad at least that this round of tests happened quickly. What’s next?
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Two things not necessarily related to my lung health. Wednesday I have the initial consultation with the gastroenterologist, likely concerning GERD/acid reflux – and Thursday I have the second biopsy of the mole on my ear with an ENT up at the cancer center dermatologist’s office in La Jolla. I think it’s a silly rule, everything above the shoulders goes to the ENT, and it feels like it’s just slowing things down before we actually get to the point of “Okay, we see that these moles are either pre-cancer or cancer in progress, and they need to be removed, so let’s do that ASAP”. For the love of Dog just get to it already!
I just wish I could get the rheumatology referral scheduled and get working on the autoimmune issue, because I think it may be the cause of all this joint pain. So maybe I won’t be able to breathe freely, just please get the joint pain to stop.
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That all sounds exhausting, i’m sure it is 
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45 minutes or so to get to the border, then an hour and fifteen or so to ride the trolley to La Jolla, and then the time it takes to drag myself the distance to the cancer center from the trolley. I wish the medical campus had a shuttle, but something tells me the homeless might have been disrupting service.
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Ok. I found out today what the referral to the gastroenterologist was all about.
I have my first colonoscopy scheduled for late August, several years late.
The doctor has some trepidation about doing it if I still am in the same condition in August. She says if I am making improvements, I could bump the appointment out to when I should be in good shape again, but if it looks like I’m still in the same condition or worse, then we may have to book an OR at the hospital. The good thing is, she has privilege at Scripps, where I stayed before.
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Speaking from experience, do not put off the colonoscopy. Caught early colorectal cancer is very, very treatable. It can get not-so-much way too quickly, and for reasons not clear, it is very much trending younger. I know you have a lot going on, but get that done. And if you can push for a rheumatologist appt, you should absolutely do so. Those guys are scary smart.
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This. 100%.
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The colonoscopy itself is a breeze if you get sedated; it’s the prep that’s tough to get through.
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This kind of information is exactly the kind that can be lifted (even though the sender and receiver have the best of intentions) by hackers.
ID theft is a really common issue these days.
If one must go about trading the financial info cited in your post (I am not faulting you, I have family in the infosec industry) please do consider using this to convey such info:
It does exactly what it says on the box.
We use it at work to send clients their passwords.
The other option is by phone, live. Not voicemail, and not text, and not a screenshot of info on a piece of paper. It’s all hackable now, esp. w OCR, AI and more.
Sorry to be a complete PITA. I’ve had some ID theft and hackery over my many decades on the planet and it totally sucks, even for a person with nearly no health issues, with full access to food and water and shelter. ID theft among The Precariat is one of the worst situations I can imagine.
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That is good to know! Thanks! Alarming, but necessary these days, I guess.
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Okay, some not so bad news for once today.
I went to see the ENT at the cancer center, and he said there wasn’t even a need for a second biopsy. Both moles are cancer, but neither of them run very deep so once they are removed that should take care of things. Not even a need for simultaneous surgery, so it should be possible sooner because they don’t need to match calendar dates.
He also inspected my nasal polyps and expressed concern about my voice, so he’s giving me a referral to a doctor he thinks may be able to help me get my voice back.
My only issue is getting some help home from the surgery center because he’s going to give me a little Versed with my local anesthesia.
Apparently, he’s going to cut a notch in my ear (Hey! I’m not neutered!) to excise the mole and then sew the two edges together.
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