Thursday Eve, Dec. 11th… survived the Dr. and the ice continues…

Good evening from all of us here on the Cluckin’ “A” Critter Farm, as the ice continues to tighten it’s grip. It’s now 29 degrees out there and still raining, so you know what that means. I guess they are calling for 100% precipitation all night long at these temperatures, so you know we will have some heavy duty ice which will probably pull lines down everywhere. I hope not because it worries me about the animals without their heat lamps. They should all do ok, except, perhaps the five young chicks in the brooding house. They all have their adult feathers, but I would have to immediately move them to the barn or small chicken house where there is heat in numbers when they group together for warmth. We’ll be ok here in the house, with a full tank of propane for the fireplace upstairs and the stove in the kitchen. I do, however, wish we had a standby wood burner or maybe a good generator to run the pellet stove for heat downstairs. When they have 24 hours of rain and ice buildup, the power could conceivably be knocked out for a long time………possibly days!
We made it to the doctors office this morning and received what I considered good news, unlike Vicki’s nursing viewpoint, which she would call bittersweet news. First of all, my blood work numbers indicated that I was not (yet) diabetic. My sugar was 86 and actually my bad cholesterol was down two points…… a 146 I think, but the good cholesterol was also down about 2 points too. I forget the actual number, but I thought it was suitable and they could be lowered and raised by more aggressive exercise. Unfortunately, my alkaline phosphatase is at issue now. This happened last year, when they did blood work and my biliruben numbers were a little high along with the alkaline phosphatase numbers, indicating there could be a liver problem. Re-testing, however, gave us normal numbers, so she wanted to do more extensive tests, which we did. They came back normal, putting the issue to rest and we forgot about it. Now, today, the doctor found the alkaline phosphatase high againbut the biliruben was normal. She asked if I had my gall bladder yet, which could cause this. I assured her I have everything this body came with…. And that nothing (physically) was ever given away, so it was back to the needle and more blood tests. I forget what she is looking at now, dealing with the liver again, because I really don’t care……… unlike Vick. She thinks it is from my psoriasis, which can elevate the alkaline phosphatase numbers, since everything else is normal.

She worries and I hate that. We discussed the situation and she explained what she had gone through with Carl, Vick’s first husband, who died of Pancreatic Cancer in 2006. I understand her concern, but told her I will not worry about dying until it happens.... and then I don’t believe it’s very important to worry about it after that. She didn't see the humor in that and she didn’t agree. I asked her not to waste time worrying and she said that I needed to help her program her mind to not worry about these things that you can’t change then. I asked her if she was going to pick up the heavy metal flashlight we have at home and carry it around all day (in the day time) since we had such heavy ice buildup and mentioned that there would probably be things she would miss out on doing while she had one hand filled, holding that heavy flashlight all day. She replied, no…she wouldn't carry the flashlight because it wouldn’t be dark. I said well, what if it got dark at 1:30 in the afternoon today……and if she thought it might. Again she indicated that it wouldn’t get dark at that hour. I then asked if she still shouldn’t carry the light in case it might get dark before the usual time or if the ice would possibly knock the power off. She replied that we could worry about that if and when it happened. She then got my point……… Death will come to us all one day and I am not going to darken one moment of my life with worry about it, which is as foolish as worrying about carrying a flashlight during the day because it might get dark before it’s time. Be healthy, do what you can to remain so, but don’t waste a happy, active life by worrying about dying before your time. Every time she wants to worry about me, she could just as easily hug me and kiss me and enjoy my love in return and never regret missing a moment of what I have to give (or receive)………… Think about it!