Aaaaah, New Orleans . . .

We made it back from a few days in New Orleans.  Drove down from Weatherford to the city.  We got off on Poydras, went about five blocks, turned right and one more block to the hotel.  That was easy and convenient.

 We met James and Joan and Jacob, Anne and children for a stay in New Orleans.  We stayed at the Old 77 Hotel and Chandlery on Tchoupitolas Street.  Old 77 was a quaint place, newly configured, perhaps a couple of years old at best.  Chopped up old warehouses coupled together to make a hotel, restaurant and art dealership.  It was nice though sort of dated walking around tiled floors, then carpet, then wooden (and noisy) flooring.  The place was well done and the location was convenient.

Then we ate our way through the city.   First night we ate at the Pelican Club, a restaurant off Bienville, across the street from the Monteleone Hotel and down the alley.  The food was great.

The next night we ate a Commander's Palace across from the cemetery in the Garden District.  My great great grandfather is interred the cemetery.  And some of our relatives of later generations are also interred there with him.  Commander's, owned by the Brennan family, was spectacular.  We entered the place, went through the kitchen, passed the bar and patio to another dinning room out back.  The dinning room had a couple of large oak trees in the center.  Our waiter was Peter and he was magnificent.  The food was out of this world including the deserts.

The following night we ate at Emeril's Delmonico's on St. Charles Avenue.  The dinning room was up stairs and we were on time for our reservation.  We had a large round corner table in the front dinning room.  Service was again terrific and the food was excellent.

Friday, we had to get up and drive back to Texas.  Jacob, Anne and children caught the train, the City of New Orleans, for Chicago and James and Joan flew back to Austin, Texas.  We had a great time, drank to much, and ate to much, gained three or four pounds and loved it.

The weather cooperated, it was cool but dry and we walked to the French Quarter to have beignets at Café Du Mode.  Being old hands at it we walked past the long line of tourists wanting to sit outside, or the long line at the "togo" window and went in the small but cramped inside dinning area at got the first available table.  We actually got two tables adjacent to each other and had instant service.  No wait, just coffee and donuts.

We later walked down to the French Market, browsed around, caught the street car on the levee and rode back to Canal Street.  From there is was just a stroll back to the Old 77.

We passed a great time, enjoyed ourselves and the children but we were ready to go home.

Computer Woes . . .

My old Dell Inspiron crashed.  It had to do with loading an update of Windows 10 Pro version 1803.  In the mean time I acquired a new (at least new to me) Dell OptiPlex 890 with an I-5 CPU chip.  It is a much faster machine.

The computer was purchased from Blair Technology which refurbishes computers for Intel.  It came with a one year warranty, a mouse, and key board.  And it was stocked with Windows 10 Pro, 8 Gigabytes of Ram and a two terabyte hard drive.  All of that was $206 delivered to my door step.

Yet the Version 1803 bit me again and got the system up and running again but having lost almost all the software package that came with it.  It was no great loss.  I loaded all my old software and it runs just fine now.

Then I started having start up problems with the new machine.  I found a way to get it going but finally shipped back to Blair Tech under warranty.  I got it back in about 10 days and I figure I got a new power supply.  I added more memory and it now has 12 Megabytes of RAM.  The same hard drive was in place so I did not have to reload software.  I did have to reload my selected pre- addressed URLs like Google, Morning Advocate newspaper, etc.  That is no big issue and all is well now and I have a faster machine.  I did have a problem with the Blog but that is finally resolved for keeps (I hope).

I reformatted the old Inspiron computer and it sits in reserve now.  I plan to give it to my house keeper for her young grandchildren to use but I will have find a cheap monitor for them.  I have the key board and mouse.  I probably will have to get a new Internet connection along with the monitor to make the machine a complete and useful device.  Their children need the machine and I have given them a small lap top but they will soon out grow that machine.

A Long Time . . .

I have been fighting the "Blogger" for at least five months.  At last I broke the code and I am back on the air so to speak.  Much water has gone under the bridge in that time.

The biggest is I had my left shoulder replaced.  I was in constant pain, sometimes harsh, sometimes mild.  The Orthopedic Surgeon said the end of the humerus bone was totally eaten up by Osteoarthritis and had to be replaced.  The operation was conducted in Fort Worth Methodist Harris Hospital on September 18, 2018 by Dr. Curtiss Bush (an graduate of the LSU Medical School).  There was immediate relief, no more pain, period.  Done and gone.

However, recovery was a bit more arduous than desired.  I had to wear an awkward sling that put a lot pressure on my neck.  Apparently that caused my Radii Culopathy to flare up and started problems from my neck down to my right hand.  I have pain that radiates from my neck sometimes very bad but most times just irritable often requiring a couple of Ibuprofen pills up to and including Tylenol 3's (Codeine).   Sometimes the numbness in my fingers is elevated and sometimes it backs off.  But all together indicate my neck problems had returned.

Dr. Bush seemed skeptical about it but I convinced him to require a MRI on my neck and an X-ray of my right shoulder.  I have had the MRI and looked at the results and the 6th vertebrae looks bad on the top and the bottom of that neck bone.  In the past I have had Cortisone shots in the neck that pumped up the disc and totally relieved the pain.  I have an appointment with the same pain doctor and I will give him the MRI and say shoot me up again.

The Cortisone usually results in freedom from pain for at least 5 years and last time it worked for almost 15 years.

Any left shoulder is great, no problems fully recover range of motion, etc.  I am very pleased with the final results.  I breeze through physical therapy and face a follow up appointment a year from my birthday, March 9.

I am getting old and things are wearing out.  The left shoulder being one of them and my neck the other one.  Both are attributed to all the jogging I did in the military.  On the other hand all that jogging has put off my cardio problems.  I do have cardio problems but no heart attacks and mild blockages in the arteries around my heart.  The VA has awarded me service connected disabilities for both the Radii Culopathy and the heart disease.

Getting Close to the Operation . . .

I checked in with Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth.  That is the doctors preferred operating location.

The people were very nice.  I had first to check in with a clerk to see if the operation had been scheduled and that was an affirmative.  She then took me across to yet another person to do the real check in.  This was more correctly described as your rights and their money check in.  That took about three electronic signatures one of which acknowledged my signature itself, HIPPA instructions on rights, etc. and then we got down to the money part.  And of course, being retired military and on Social Security, there was no additional funds required.    Otherwise the clerk was ready to collect money but I did not owe any.  She then took me over to Pre Op Center.

Pre Op was the real nuts and bolts.  Long questionnaires on whether I had been out of the country in the last month, all the drugs I take, history of operations I have had and a ton of instructions including a vial of special soap (really cleanser of some kind) to use prior to the operation at least twice.  The instructions included not to take any drugs except bring one of them with me.

So when I start the final fast it is no nothing, not even my Diabetic drugs.  That kind of bothered me but I guess I could last until the next day.  No one knows how long maintenance drugs stay in your system anyway.  That is why no Aspirin or NSAIDs a week before surgery.  Those along with Fish Oils are blood thinners and they do not want to deal with thin blood.  My blood now days is thin enough to probably give them fits but that is life.

Finally I was handed over to a Medical Technician to draw blood and do an EKG.  I thought the EKG was odd since I already had clearance from my Cardiologist and had had a Nuclear Stress test about a month ago and a visit with the Cardiologist.  But no matter, it was done and I got my parking ticket validated.

It is a huge hospital complex, like six or sever high rise towers interconnected with a maze of hallways, the parking garage alone is seven stories by itself.  And there is yet another parking lot for heart patients (one floor for them) and a third parking lot for the  Emergency Care Center (Judie had processed through that one for her second go round back operation a couple of years ago).  It is a giant complex covering four or five city blocks and all kinds of other ancillary places like Cancer Centers, doctors offices, X-ray and MRI facilities and laboratories out the gazoo.  It makes Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge look tiny in comparison.  There is even a wing named after Ben Hogan, a famous professional golfer from years back and of course he was a Fort Worth native.

I have already been in and out of several of those facilities with Judie as well as Harris Methodist Hospital itself.

I was told I would be in for one night but advised if I thought I needed to stay longer I could do that (at what astronomical cost I have no idea).   So should be prepared for one night stay and discharge the next day.  Bring fresh undies, etc.

Not at all like the old days, check in at one place, and get the job done.  More people, more contentions law suits, more exotic diseases, and more government requirements has over laid the process with tons of bureaucracy.  Unending forms, paper work and computer entries all before we get down to the cutting.

Post Stress Follow up . . .

More Meh.  The Cardiologist said keep on doing what you have been doing.  Everything looks about the same.  A shadow in the back of the heart and the scribe read back the results of a 2015 CTA where there is some blockage in the LAN area.  Still not enough to change anything.

Blood pressure was good.  So he was happy.  Ran me out of the office.  Schedule another visit six months from now.  So I will see him next March just a few days before my birthday.

I wonder if he will have me do another stress test.

I asked why there was no treadmill, just the chemical stress test.  He said he did not know why.  But I surmised it was good enough for him and a lot less stressful to me.

So I will be keeping on keeping on.

Stress Test - Meh . . .

I had another stress test today, a nuclear stress test.  I expected to trot on the treadmill, etc.

Nope none of that.  I had an IV inserted in right hand.  Then the shot me up with stuff and followed that with a saline shot to clean out the IV (or so I was told).  Then I was covered with sensors on my chest.  I did not have to put on a gown as I was prepared to trot and was in a T shirt and shorts.

After that I was "scanned."  I am supposing it is something akin to a CAT scan.  Then I was run out of the scan room to the lobby and told to drink a cup of water.  I am sure the water was to add to the blood supply or something like that.  To make the solution to flow around the system easier.  Of course, I really do not know why.

After a wait was ushered into the treadmill room and told to sit in the big chair.  They then took my Blood Pressure and shot me up with something new.  And then a second shot was administered.  That was the stressor.  The nurse said I would feel weak, shortness of breath, etc. and that would go away in a minute or two.  I had no particular sensation at all.

While the stressor was going on they were taking an EKG.  She took my Blood Pressure again and entered that data into the machine.

Then I was run out again to the lobby and told to drink a cup of coffee or drink a Coke, something with caffeine in it.  So I had a cup of coffee.  I also ate a packet of crackers and peanut butter.  After about 15 minutes it was back into the scan room.

After the scan it was out the door with an appointment to see the Cardiologist later.  I am sure the data has to be absorbed and scrubbed and then the prognosis has to be drawn up.  There were would be a report of sorts, I would get a copy and my primary physician would get a copy.

If something shows up I am sure the alarm bells will go off and some procedure would be done.  I think I am in good shape so I figure nothing will show up.  Just a nice conversation with the Cardiologist.

Left Shoulder . . .

My left shoulder was giving me fits, a great deal of pain.  At first I would take a Naproxen Sodium pill (Aleve) that kinda made it livable.  Then my personal doctor said no NSAIDs other than your baby aspirin.  Finally, she relented and said do not take more than four a day.

She had an X-ray done and referred me to a Orthopedic Surgeon and also had an MRI done.

I made to the Orthopedic Surgeon.  He looked at my MRI (and I do mean my MRI, it is in my possession).  He lifted me arm and moved about a little bit and said, "You need a shoulder replacement, you are bone on bone at the moment."  He also gave me Cortisone shot and said that it would not do much for me.

And the shot did not do much for me.  He then referred me to another Orthopedic Surgeon who does shoulder operations.

I got to see the second doctor, found out he went to LSU med school.  And that he was indeed from New Orleans.  He was a much younger man that the first Orthopedic Surgeon (who informed me he no longer did operations).  And he also said the new doctor was the best one in the Fort Worth region.

I was impressed with the second doctor.  Like the first doctor, he said bone on bone and no relief until the joint was replaced.  He also said I may not recover all my range of motion but I would get pain relief.  It is my left shoulder, not my primary use arm so yes, I can tolerate a good bit of loss of range of motion and not worry about.  He said often the range improves with time.

He showed me on the joint displayed on his lap top computer what we were going to do.  Basically, it is a total replacement of the rotator cuff with a new synthetic/plastic material that will not wear out.  I will not have to come and get a grease job every so often, it is once and done.  The big recovery he said was the reattachment of ligament that had to be removed for the operation.  That and stitches were the big issue.  And there would be some soreness for a while.

He was intent upon selling me to do the operation.  I said I was ready right now to have it done.  Pain relief was paramount to me.

He said recovery is about six weeks.  I am sure in that time is some rehab also.  But that I would get paid relief immediately.  And I could quit taking Aleve or getting Cortisone shots.

My biggest issue is getting the grass cut while I am recuperating.  I am pretty sure I can survive that.  I do have to get clearance from my Cardiologist but I get to see in just a couple of days for a Nuclear Stress Test.  So that is easy.  Now it is just a matter of getting the operation scheduled.