Hip Surgery Scheduled

   The Trulicity and metformin, along with the other medications, has lowered my a1c to 6.4. As a result, my hip replacement surgery has been scheduled for Dec. 21st. I was given a chlorhexidine gluconate soap to be used the day before and the morning of the operation. I'm expected to be off for 6 weeks after the surgery. MetLife is going to be sending me the FMLA forms and I've contacted UFCW 1473 to see if there are any forms I need from them. When I had my colectomy, I had to get a form from the union in addition to the other forms I required. I believe this is so I get paid while I'm on leave.

  My 59th birthday is coming up. I ordered the Great Old Ones pack 2 for Cthulhu Wars. It includes Atlach-Nacha, Bokrug, Father Dagon and Ghatanothoa. I'm expecting it later today. My orders with The Game Stewards has been delayed until Feb. 2021. The Debunked game arrived a while back. The posters will be mailed separately. The Hexacube Kickstarter has had trouble finding a dice manufacturer that can make the dice correctly and the Go Dice Kickstarter has been delayed due to the pandemic.

  Satursgiving has been cancelled due to the pandemic. This sucks. I haven't gamed since last year's Gen Con and was looking forward to at least seeing my friends again. It's likely that the New Year's Eve get together at Glenn's will be cancelled as well. 2020 has been fucking boring as shit.

  The election's coming up Nov. 3rd. Mom, Dad and I already voted via absentee ballots. Hopefully, Trump and his GOP sycophants will have their collective asses bounced out of office. Of course, the orange skinned dipshit has indicated that if he loses the election, he won't leave office peacefully. If this is the case, I hope the military escorts his sorry bloated orange ass out of the White House at gunpoint. 

Signs of the Times

  The pandemic has caused quite a few changes in the way we live our lives. Masks are being required at my workplace. Only essential businesses are up and running. Restaurants are conducting business online and by phone with curbside pickup or contactless delivery. Numerous EDC (every day carry) devices are being offered on Kickstarter. Most of these are made from copper or the copper alloy, brass. Brass, bronze and copper are known to be antimicrobial and kill a variety of microorganisms relatively quickly. The devices in question are meant to be used for touching frequently touched surfaces like keypads, elevator buttons, door handles etc. You use them to touch these surfaces thus keeping any microorganisms from coming into contact with your skin. The copper or brass surface then kills them.
  Some of these devices include the Safepoint Antimicrobial Door Opener, the Careful Key, CuPID and the one I've purchased, the Hygiene Hand. Search EDC on Kickstarter to see more devices like these. I've purchased three virus masks from a seller on Etsy. Now me, my Mom and my Dad have reuseable and washable face protection. I got the Navy camo pattern because the material is thicker on those and the Army camo masks.
  The pandemic has delayed many of the Kickstarters I've pledged to. Elderwood Academy was shut down for a time thus delaying the crafting of my mini Spellbook. The Hexacube, Overkill d20 and Critical Dice sets are status unknown at present. Since China manufactures the dice for these Kickstarters, the sellers have to wait until the factories are up and running again. On the plus side, the Debunked card games have been printed and are due to be mailed out soon. I'm still waiting to hear from the people that made my Mindflayer Turn Keeper regarding the extra set of magnetic and battlefield tokens I ordered.
  On the medical side of things, I had a meeting with my endocrinologist recently. I've been prescribed two new meds, metformin and dulaglutide (Trulicity). Technically, the metformin isn't new. When I was first diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, I was prescribed metformin. With the addition of these two drugs, my blood glucose readings have lowered. I'm finally getting readings below 150 mg/dl on a fairly consistent basis. If I can keep this up, I can get my a1c to 7 or below and get my right hip replaced.

More Health News

  The Jan.19th biopsy attempt was a failure. There were too many organs and blood vessels in the way for them to use a needle to obtain a sample via my throat. I have a consultation with Dr. Needle, who performed my colectomy, on Feb. 9th to determine the next course of action.
  I had a consultation today with Dr. Matkov, a urologist, regarding the ultrasound of my scrotum. The end result is I'm having a right radical orchiectomy on Feb. 12th. In layman's terms, my right testicle is being removed because it's enlarged, unusually firm and covered with nodules. Once it's gone, I'll hopefully find out how it wound up that way. I don't believe I have testicular cancer but it's in the realm of possibility.
  All this, of course, could lead to more medical bills. I already have another $1,300.00 added from the PET and CT scans. Despite this setback, I still believe that I can put enough money aside for Gen Con.

The NHGHs of Life Part 4: The Financial Report

  I can't seem to get ahead. I spent about 4 years getting rid of my MasterCard and Discover debt. Four years. And when I finally pull this off, my health takes a turn for the worse and I'm right back in debt. I didn't get any time to build up my savings and checking account. None. To make matters worse, Aurora has billed me $12,889.80 for the time I spent in the hospital when my creatinine level went up to 6.91. So far, my insurance hasn't covered any of it. I contacted them and they said that they needed an itemized list of everything done so they can work matters out. They asked Aurora for the list on Jan. 19th but never heard back from them. I called Aurora and asked them to send the list. I'm hoping this works out. If I get stuck with the entire $12,880.89, I'm well and truly fucked. I'll be spending another shitload of years digging myself out. Hell, I may never get out from under this.

The Results of the Biopsy

  The appointment I had with the surgeon that did my colectomy brought news of a less than rosy nature. The cancer that was in my intestines has affected one of my lymph nodes. This means that my cancer is officially at stage 3. I have an appointment with an oncologist this Wednesday to go over my treatment options. Dr. Needle said that chemotherapy is the most likely course of action. Given what I know about chemotherapy, this won't be a pleasant experience. On the plus side, I've heard that there are a variety of chemotherapy treatments out there and not all of them make you sick, kill your appetite and cause massive hair loss. I'm not looking forward to this but I have little choice. Doing nothing means the cancer will spread and I'll end up at stage 4. Stage 4 is pretty much death. I can't let that happen. The cancer can still be stopped.

The Upcoming Surgery

 This is my last blog entry prior to my surgery. My right colectomy, which was originally scheduled for 1:15 pm has been moved up to 11:45 am so I'll be at the hospital at 9:45 am. I'm planning on bringing my iPad with me so I can, hopefully, post a post-op report on how things went. I REALLY want this surgery to go well and be as routine and uncomplicated as possible. For an unknown time after my surgery my bowels will be shut down so I won't be able to eat or drink anything. As soon as I am able, I'll be taking my happy ass over to Red Lobster so I can enjoy a nice Ultimate Feast platter and Cheddar Bay biscuits. After all that I'll be going through I think I deserve some good seafood. I can't say that I'm not worried despite reassurances otherwise. All the pre-op preparations are done. The necessary paperwork has been filled out and turned in. My bowels have been cleaned out and the prescribed pharmaceuticals taken. I'm going to be in the hospital for about a week and at home recovering for about three more weeks after that. How I'll spend all this free time is unknown to me.

  Update: Due to some emergency surgery, my colectomy has been moved back to 1:00 pm.

Heading for Surgery

  On Sept. 25th, I'm going to have laparoscopic colorectal surgery to remove the cancerous polyp from my cecum. Despite the fact that the polyp is only approximately 1cm, about one third of my large intestine will be removed. I believe this is being done in order to prevent the cancer from spreading to my lymph nodes. There's some lab and prep work that needs to be done prior to the surgery. I also have to get in touch with Human Resources at work to secure the time off. I'm going to be in the hospital for about one week and off from work for about a month. I also need to call AIL and see if they need to get involved.