August BP

 

Hot Water Tank

For several years now, I have been concerned about our hot water tanks. You may recall that prior to our purchase of this home over 20 years ago, it was a group home. To accommodate the eight persons living here, they installed three hot water tanks. 

So when we moved in, we had plenty of hot water. About ten years ago, one of them started leaking. I shut it down and pulled it out of the system. Now we were down to only two hot water tanks. Don’t feel bad for us. We still have plenty of hot water. In fact, I take rather long showers and I have never run out of hot water.

So, that’s where we are today. Since these two existing tanks have been here well over 20 years, I have been expecting a failure. I have not spoken of it, knowing that to mention the situation would exacerbate the situation.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a small stream of water leading from the Hot Water Tank in the Laundry Room to the drain. That was the clue. This tank is on its way out.

Today, with the help of Handyman Shawn, we replaced it.

I was very concerned that this was going to be a tough install. Mostly because I thought it would be difficult to get the old one out. 

Several years ago, I thought it would be smart to drain the tank and try to remove some of the calcium that builds up inside them. I opened the valve and couldn’t get anything to come out. I tried fishing a wire hanger up through it and got nothing.

Today when I opened the valve, the thing easily drain all the way out. After that, it was nothing to disconnect it from power and the water lines and haul it out of the basement and into the back of my truck.

The new one went in beautifully with just a couple of adjustments that Shawn made. I’m very glad he was here. I believe I could have installed it on my own, but it would have taken much longer and there would have been several trips to the General Store.

In any event, another successful episode of Handyman Corner.

First Sign of Halloween

Here it is, not even Labor Day yet and I have already broken out the Candy Corn.

The first Candy Corn’s of the year are the best and these were pretty awesome. They are fresh out of the C.C. Factory and they melt in your mouth like sweet, corny butter. Everything is downhill from here.

Another E.R. Visit

10:28AM: I am writing today from the Multi-Care Emergency Room on North Division. It’s way up north and I chose it because I was hoping it would have a low patient volume. There are not a lot of people in front of me but it remains to be seen how long this takes.

I’m here because my PICC line is not aspirating properly. Last week, when the nurse came to change my dressing, she will normally inject a little saline sauce into the line and then try to pull out on the plunger until she sees blood. Then she shoots the rest of the saline into the picc line and all is well.

I’ve gone two weeks now with no blood return. So, they say I need a TPA. It’s a procedure where they shoot something into the line and let it sit for about 20 minutes while it dissolves whatever clot or blockage is preventing the blood return.

I’ve had it done once before several months ago and they just came to the house.

They have since discovered that Medicare will not pay for the procedure in a home setting. It must be done in a clinic.

In talking to the Providence Infusion people, they do not have a clinic setting set up for such a procedure. They told me that any Emergency Room could do it.

The last time I went to an E.R., I waited for se7en hours only to be told to go see a Dermatologist.

As I said, I picked this facility because Deb, the Infusion Nurse, told me they do not get huge numbers and it might be quicker here.

So, here I am. It’s been about half an hour since I walked through the door. I have checked in, been to triage and explained my problem, and now I am sitting in the comfortably appointed waiting room with four other people sitting here. I like those numbers.

Stand by!

11:10AM: I’ve just been called in. Let’s see what happens.

11:16 AM: I came in, took a seat and explained the sitch to the nurse. She asked if they had me raise my arm. I said they did not. She got a saline flush, pushed in, pulled out and got no blood. She had me raise my arm, she pulled out and we got red stuff.

Now I’m sitting here waiting for the Doctor to give me his blessing. This turned out to be easy.

11:40AM: It took the Doctor a while to get to me but when he got there, he looked at me, asked a few questions, listened to my chest and sent me on my way. I’ll be using that facility again.

EUS

Today, I had an Endoscopic Ultrasound.

It’s the procedure we’ve been waiting for since we got back from Stanford.

The purpose was to investigate a spot on my pancreas that Stanford discovered through go all the tests they put me through.

Because of my defibrillator, they could not do an MRI on me. So this procedure was the next best option.

The Doctor involved with the procedure was Dr. Divyanshoo Kohli. He seemed like a very nice, very competent guy.

The plan was to knock me out and run a scope down my throat, which would somehow give them access to checking out my pancreas.

As alaways, I tried to fight it when they hit me with the sedative, which lasted all of two seconds.

The result was that Dr. Kohli did not find anything that concerned him. That is good news.

Here is a screen capture off the Mychart.com website pertaining to todays’ procedure.

I can tell you now from looking at that screen capture on the website that it is virtually unreadable. I have a follow up appointment on Monday, so we’ll update here when we have some update able informational knowledge.

Fish Lake Trail Ride

I had my longest ride yet today.

I've been wanting to find different parts of the Centennial Trail and one I've been wanting to try is the Fish Lake Trail. It starts near the freeway and heads west-ish along the railroad tracks.

It took me a little searching but I found the trailhead at the bottom of the Sunset Hill behind the abandoned church on the corner of Sunset and Gov't Way.

The trail is a very slight uphill grade which was easy on the ebike but still gave me a workout. I rode it seven miles out, to somewhere around Marshall. I decided to turn around when I hit 12.5 miles.

I got to a rode by two train crossings, took a break and then headed back. I had kept the assist level on the ebike at 2 all the way out. When I got out there, I still had 96% battery charge.

My ass was killing me so I decided I would use a little power to get me back home. I cruised for about a mile on electric power only. It was fun.

I decided I wanted to wear the battery charge down so I pretty much rode back under power.

By the time I got home, I had the charge down to 30%.

Ride in the Rain

Today I had my first bicycle ride in the rain with the E-bike. I rode it this morning to get a blood draw for a Doctor's appointment on Monday.

Just as I arrived at the blood draw lab, I felt a couple of small drops of rain.

When I came out, it was still raining but pretty light. I made my way through downtown, into the park and headed for home.

But not before stopping at the Pancake House on Main Street for some breakfast. I had pancakes, bacon and eggs. It was all very good...especially the bacon, which is thick cut. 

The service was pretty shitty. I waited a good five or six minutes after asking for coffee. The waitress was just not that attentive. I left $3.00 on a $25.00 bill. I should have only left two.

July BP