Finally, I have gotten a referral for hernia surgery. I'm using medicare at the local hospital. My consultation will be Sept 3. No date for surgery yet. I'm just a bit disappointed by how St Cloud VA clinic, or maybe my provider, is not all that helpful.
By having the surgery at the local hospital, I pretty much have guaranteed transportation. We'll see how things go.
Michelle

Michelle,

I am happy that you finally have a consultation to resolve the hernia. That is important. What concerns me is that the VA is not covering the cost, and you have to go through Medicare. Getting it done is the most important thing, but have you asked if they will reimburse your expenses?

If I were you, I would contact the Patient Advocate at the St. Cloud VA Clinic and talk to them about this.

Call 320-255-6353 to connect with a Patient Advocate.

The worst that could happen is they say no, that you are not covered for some reason. But if it could save you a lot of expense, it is worth a phone call to ask.

The Patient Advocate is there to represent YOUR best interests. That is their job, and all of the ones I have spoken to have been very helpful in resolving issues of all kinds, from billing to medical care.

My provider at the VA clinic is a nurse practitioner. I know I have asthma, and I did get the referral from her for my pulmonary lung test. When the results showed normal, I got a letter from her that I do not have asthma or COPD. This years CT lung exam has on it mild emphysema. When I showed it to her, I was told that it doesn't mean anything because they put that on all the tests. Meanwhile, I am coughing up this phlegm almost every hour and have no prescription for medication. Did I mention my grandfather on my mother's side died from emphysema? Or, that my mother also had emphysema, and had an inhaler? Strange that I have been a smoker for over 50 years, and not a hint of COPD.

There is more. I think you get the point.
Michelle

Months ago, I started watching cos play videos. Some are how they made their costumes, others are at the competitions. A couple were at renaissance festivals. That may be where I got the idea to sometime dress up and go to a renaissance festival.

I don't know how many months ago I found a pair of women's mid calf boots in my size. Unfortunately, I had not been wearing them to make sure I could wear them all day. I realized this when I was getting ready for the Minnesota Renaissance festival, so I decided to leave them home.
I need to wear longer socks with the boots, and I could not find knee high socks at Walmart. I did find compression socks the right height. I wore the boots with the compression socks yesterday while shopping. The compression socks are a bit thicker than normal socks, and the boots were starting to get uncomfortable by the time I got home.
Today I'm trying it again, this time with proper knee high socks.

I got curious a couple days ago, and wondered what I could do with my shirt. Standing in front of my mirror, I grabbed the sides of my shirt so it was tighter around my belly. As I folded the extra material back while watching in my mirror, I went wow! Putting my shirt on inside out, and buttoning it I again pulled the loose material and put safety pins in both sides. Then put it on proper and checked how it fit, adjusting the pins so I had room for movement. Currently I have about 3 inches of loose material folded over on the inside. That's the way I was wearing it while shopping yesterday.
Michelle

Finally cleared a space on my dining table, and my sewing machine is now on the dining table. I have one problem, the cord is 12 inches too short. My extension cords that are not in use are 50 ft cords.
Since I was using that spot for modeling, there was already a cutting mat there. I had to move a bunch of stuff out of my way, mostly tools. Clearing the table I found my glue and finally the pin is glued back onto my dress uniform name tag.

My sewing machine was on a sewing desk, and I had used it there. Moving it to the dining table will give me more room around the machine, and have better lighting.There was another cutting mat next to my sewing machine and I want to put it on the other side of the dining table for laying my shirts out flat.

As long as I have the glue out, I might see about gluing other items that need gluing. I had to split my Lara Croft doll thigh to replace her broken knee. I just put the blue tape around it instead of gluing it.
Michelle

After getting my sewing machine on the dining table, my triangle screw drivers were sitting there. That's what I needed to remove the display base from my 1/24th scale 56 Chevy. With the base removed, it fit nicely in the garage of the 1/12th scale doll house. While I was there, I put the garage door back in place. Back to cleaning the table off, I uncovered a bunch of Kelly dolls. I was looking for Elroy, but didn't see him. Elroy got a ball joint body and is slightly taller than Kelly, and is fully articulated. I later went back to the 1/12th doll house looking at how things looked. There was Elroy sitting in a chair in the doll house.

If the Kelly dolls find out, they will turn the doll house into a play house. That will get them off my dining table. One Kelly doll had magnets put into her feet.That didn't quite go as planned. I have some steel disks about 1 inch in diameter, and the magnets work fine barefooted, but not when she has shoes on.

My Lara Croft doll finally has her thigh glued and is laying with clamps while the glue is setting. She has a Cy Girls body with interchangeable hands and feet. Now I know where the other hands are.
Michelle

@michelle K
Dear Michelle
I have really been enjoying reading your last few postings here on your Blog Thread.

If you feel so inclined, I would love to see you post some photos of your fun activities...
and I can help you with that if you need any assistance with how to do that on the Forum.

PLEASE keep sharing and posting your updates.

HUGS, Danielle [Northern Star Girl]

The doctor consultation for the hernia is done. Now just waiting for the insurance approval. Same as the bladder surgery, I might get the surgery and then stay overnight and drive home the next day. I was told the weight limit would be about 20 pounds.

Hopefully that will eliminate the pain, which had gotten worse after the bladder surgery. I don't understand why I have no problems while pushing the lawn mower, yet just walking I don't get very far. I'm thinking the handle of the lawn mower supports me more,so I don't have to tense up the abdomen muscles.

It used to be kind of a joke, my brother would have so much back pain that he could not work, yet not so much pain to interfere with his driving a go kart. I'm the other way, In pain if I want to goof off, but no pain doing work. Or is it my dad's constant accusations of imaginary pain, that I just don't feel the pain doing work?
Michelle

I got to the thrashing show this year.



I remember as a child, maybe slightly older, helping thrash oats on my paternal grandfather's farm. We did not have the steam tractor. I do remember when the tractor was parked, the fuel valve was turned off, and it ran until the carburetor was empty.


Out back of the building on my maternal grandfather's farm there was one of these tractors. The engine and transmission were missing. I don't know when I realized the engine and transmission were to be from a model T Ford.
Michelle

Thanks for sharing, Michelle!

My great-grandfather had a threshing business when he was a young man in Pennsylvania. I never saw any photos of what his machine looked like, so seeing these photos is a real treat.  🙂

Been a busy day today. My hernia surgery day is scheduled, and so is the pre-operation exam.
Michelle

That's good news, Michelle!

Good luck on both.  🙂

@Michelle_K

Dear Michelle:
Please continue to keep us all updated ... 
...we will be thinking of you during your appointments.

HUGS, Danielle

Quote from: Michelle_K on September 09, 2025, 02:09:42 PMBeen a busy day today. My hernia surgery day is scheduled, and so is the pre-operation exam.
Michelle

Yesterday I spent some time in my storage unit. I have the Menards racking around the perimeter. I had to go over the trailer to get at one of my tool chests. The other one the shelf was too low and I could not open the lid enough to open the drawers. On the opposite side of the unit, I cleaned and removed one shelf, and clearing enough space on the lower shelf for the new location for one tool chest. Moving the first one was easy enough. Opening the top allowed me to open the drawer, Moving a small lever on each side allowed me to completely remove the drawer. Then put the chest in the new spot and put the drawers back in.

The second tool chest was not so easy. Not being able to open the top meant the drawers were locked shut. I had to pull the tool chest off the shelf, being lucky, I pulled it right onto the trailer that was there. I couldn't get the drawers to release from the tool chest, so that meant carrying it from that side of the trailer to the other side, and slide it onto the other side to get it onto the same shelf that I put the other one. Being mostly empty, it wasn't all that heavy. Previously the tool chests were on different shelves, and now they are on one shelf. Both tool chests can have the top opened and I can then open the drawers on both.

I need to get back there and dismantle the two 4 foot sections that the tool chests were on, replacing them with one 8 foot section.

Part of this rearranging was to swap the contents of two tool boxes. I had automotive tools in a 3 drawer tool box with one drawer mostly empty and modeling tools stuffed into a 2 drawer tool box.


The modeling tools are now in the 3 drawer tool box and the automotive tools are in the 2 drawer tool box. Now I have room to pick up modeling tools from around the house and put them into a tool box.
Michelle

Watching a video about school shootings, or more of analyzing. One problem was that even a cap gun going off was considered a school shooting. Thinking along the lines of the cap gun, I remember how disruptive it was when a miniature cap gun accidentally went off in our classroom in sixth grade. He said he just bumped it.
That led to the teacher telling her story of how her son had found shells for his rifle loaded it and then unloaded it. Unaware that a bullet was in the chamber, he pulled the trigger while pretending to shoot at bad guys on tv. He put a hole in the tv. Thinking now is that the teacher was irresponsible for letting her son play with a real rifle in that way.

If school shooting include misfiring of a cap gun, then I witnessed a school shooting.
Michelle 

"Thinking now is that the teacher was irresponsible for letting her son play with a real rifle in that way."

You are correct. I wonder how old the son was who "found the shells".

As teenagers, my brothers and I each had our own hunting rifles. My dad would take us elk hunting up near Leadville, CO. He taught us about safety, but carefully supervised us. When we would return to camp, he would watch us unload and clear the chambers of our rifles. Then all the ammo went in a lockbox in the camper. We were allowed to keep our rifles in our bedrooms at home, but the ammo was always locked up and hidden.