Dermatology Report

 About a week and a half ago when I saw Dr. Mooney, she noticed a rash on my chest just below my neck. The spot is a small indentation right at my clavicle that I've noticed since the 70's. It used to get a little light brownish discolormentation that made me think it was Ringworm or something. I do not recall if I ever had it looked at.

On Mooney's encouragement, I made an appointment with Advanced Dermatology to have it looked at. Yesterday, was that day.

I met Dr. Keith Parker. He had me remove my shirt and looked me all over. He said he saw nothing that concerned him. He decided we should freeze the rash off which I agreed to.

It was just a matter of spraying some liquid nitrogen on the rash. It kind of stung but was no big deal.

Later in the day, I felt around the rash and the scabby skin that was there fell away and exposed this red oozing sore.

I followed the instruction they gave me and dabbed a little Vaseline on it and covered it with a bandage.

It continues to ooze a bit but other than that, I'm just letting it heal.

Anyway, that's another piece of good news that I don't have skin cancer.

Transplant List Update

If I am reading the notes correctly from Dr. Reddy, who is my Kidney Specialist, he seems to feel that my kidney issues are caused by my deteriorating heart and I would therefore benefit from a heart transplant. My kidneys are not failing because they are going bad. They are going bad, because of my heart.

This is good news for advocating my getting on the Heart Transplant list.   

Kidney Doctor

We saw a kidney doctor yesterday. This was the next step in my looooooong journey to get on the list for a heart transplant. The thing they are trying to figure out is are my kidneys going bad, or are my kidneys going bad because of my weakening heart.

Dr. Reddy seemed to feel that it is the latter, my heart is making problems for my kidneys. They were going to do a kidney biopsy on me but that would require me going off my daily aspirin for seven days. Apparently, that's not a good idea. They decided against that.

Instead, I am on a 24 hour Urine Study. So, since after my first pee this morning, I have been peeing into a jug until my first pee tomorrow morning. Then I can return the jug to the lab and some poor technician gets to deal with it then.

Hopefully, the results of this rather large collection of urine will help to get me on the list.

Breaking the Fast

Susan and I just finished a 12 day fast. It was something that a local church offered up as a way to commune with God. 

The deal was to not eat anything all day until sundown. Then you could have a normal meal.

I have to say that I did pretty good during the fast. I had a few moments of weakness, but a little prayer to build my resolve and I cruised on towards dinner time. And besides, the point was to get closer to God.

In the course of doing the fast, I lost five pounds. For that reason, I think I’m going to continue to eat just one meal a day. I really want to lose 30 pounds. That would get me close to an even 200. 

It’s going to require some good discipline and some walking. I’ve been going to Northtown to walk and the last two times I went, I did three miles. I haven’t done three miles in ages.

I’m not going to fool myself. There will be snacking. But I’m going to try and make it healthy stuff and stay away from the Reeces peanut butter cups.

Excuse me now while I go and scarf!

Reprieve

Yesterday, I had my monthly appointment with one of the doctors on the Transplant team. This time, we met with Dr. Mooney. I brought up how disappointed I’ve been with not being allowed to ski. She thought about it for a while and at the end of the appointment, she said it would be okay if I skied. She said to take it easy and listen to my body.

I can do that. I can hear my body right now. It’s saying, “Let’s go skiing!”

Three Mile Walk

For the first time in a looooooooong time, I walked three miles today.

I went to Northtown Mall to walk and when I got there, I was feeling pretty good so I set myself to walk 3 miles. I did two laps on the main floor (1.5 miles) and two laps on the second floor (1.5 miles). I took a brief rest just after the start of the second floor, about three minutes, and then finished up.

Afterwards, I strolled down to an airsoft shooting range shop on the main floor of the mall. Practically every time I walk by this place, there is nobody in there. I decided to give it a try. It cost me $15.00 for 80 shots. I think I managed to hit 12 targets with my 80 shots. 

I hope to do better in the future.

Heart Alert

I just had a little event that was significant enough for me to come upstairs and record it here so I remember the date and time.

 At about 9:00AM today, I was in the kitchen reading the morning news when I began to feel this discomfort in my left arm. As it grew stronger, it started to radiate into my left shoulder blade on my back.

It got to a point where it was pretty intense and very uncomfortable, not painful. I came upstairs and took my blood pressure. As the cuff finished the reading, 110/72, the discomfort faded and I was back to normal.

At no time during this event did I feel any chest pressure or pain. 

Mall Walkin’

Susan and I went to Northtown Mall to walk on Friday and it did not go well. I didn’t even make it around the main floor which would be .75 miles. I was just shaky and a bit dizzy. We ended up leaving and I took it easy for the rest of the day.

We went again yesterday and had much better results. We walked the whole coarse, both levels which means we walked a mile and a half. I felt much better than the day before. It felt good to know that the walk on Friday had been an anomaly. I was worried that something had changed with me and I couldn’t walk anymore.

To confirm, I walked again today with great results. I made the mile and a half in about 24 minutes. I would like to break 20 minutes but that is going to require some training and some grit. I’ve never been accused of having grit.

Twenty Twenty-Fi5e - The Year Begins Anew

I start 2025 five pounds heavier than I started 2024. I'm at 242 this morning. I know I've said it several times, but this trend has to stop. I'm feeling the 242. I'm tired and easily wear out. I know that's due to my heart issues but it can't help to weigh at over a tenth of a ton.

We celebrated the New Year with our friends Kim and Gary and went and saw "A Complete Unknown", the Bob Dillon story. It was pretty good and should ring up quite a few Oscar nominations.

We woke up to snow, as I had hoped and as had been forecast. It's ending soon and I doubt much of it will stay around. Already the sidewalks are clean and we didn't have to do anything. But, I was able to get this lovely picture to start off the new year.

The main project of the day is to get our tinder dry Christmas Tree out of the house. If I can get to it, I'm going to get all the outside Christmas lights down as well.

10:05PM: Success! We got all the Christmas lights on the house down. We got the tree undecorated and it is currently standing on the front porch. 

Tomorrow, I shall unceremoniously cut it in half and put it out in the alley for the city to pick up. They have a program for picking up trees and composting them.

Anyway, I feel pretty good about our progress today. Tomorrow, maybe we can get some of the boxes stowed up in the Carriage House.