Life Of Michelle K

[Michelle_K]

I finally sent the ECG and CT scan results to my VA provider. There was a ct scan done when I fell and broke my wrists, and I explained that I had hit my head on the kitchen cabinet that was just above eye level prior to the CT scan. The cabinet is right next to the door without any counter under it. I requested a cardiologist to discuss the finding on my ECG.

This will be a bit different, instead of my message stating the kidney damage, they now have a PDF with the results of the CT scan describing the kidney damage, not just one kidney, but both kidneys.

I do hesitate in my writing, not knowing how much I should share. Sometimes it is should I even bother with trying to get my female hormones. I'm well past the age that females would go through menopause, and I've heard of the difficulty they go through trying to get the proper dose of HRT. Another was the old standard, comparing the cost of transition with life expectancy.

Maybe it could be shown with an example. I'm age 76, after my hernia surgery, I'm checked in to stay overnight.  The occupational therapist comes to have me walk the hallway. She brings with her a walker, expecting me to use it in our walk. I ask how to use it, and she explains.  Her remark is that I lied about knowing how to use it, as I push it out the door. Outside the door, I push it to the side, stand up straight, and continue the walk without the walker.

Back to this life expectancy, I think it was put as the improvement in the quality of life for a few years, did not justify the cost of that improvement. Like I stated, it was an old standard.
Not knowing if I'm going to run into this old fashioned thinking of a doctor deciding HRT will not give any benefit at my age.
Michelle

[Michelle_K]

It took 3 hours to transfer the KIA Soul update to a SD card, after downloading it from the website. Since all I did was swap the SD card in the navigation, the maps did not need to get transferred, so the update then took 15 minutes. My navigation shows the speed limit, so now it shows the correct speed limit. Something new was the radio reduces volume when I put the car in reverse. I haven't tried typing in my destination yet, but I'm sure it will be better, since before it would not let me input the destination.

I think it has been 45 years since I've been to my land up by breezy point. I will be going through Brainard, and considering looking up Paul Bunyan. I was there the last weekend that the park was open when it was on the west side of Brainard. It has since moved to the east side of Brainard, and may not even be the same Paul Bunyan. On our camping trips there was a park on the east side of Brainard that had a steam locomotive. I need to find addresses and get them imputed into my navigation.
I think I could even put in the address of the gender clinic that is 80 miles away, and it would be a lot easier if would tell me when I need to get off the freeway. I couldn't use it before, as it would not allow me to input the address. I'm running out of excuses.

I finally got a new bag of popcorn, not high priced, but still not the store brand. It seems to pop better and taste better than the 5 years past expiration popcorn. Years ago, I thought I might have a problem with intolerance of the popcorn. The problem turned out to be the butter flavored soy oil.
Michelle

[Lori Dee ✅]

I finally got a new bag of popcorn, not high priced, but still not the store brand. It seems to pop better and taste better than the 5 years past expiration popcorn.

I have heard that popcorn doesn't reach its peak flavor until 7 years past the expiration date.

🤣

Seriously, though, I think it has to do with moisture content. Popcorn requires a certain amount of moisture in the kernel for it to pop correctly. Expired popcorn might be too dry, and that could affect the flavor. Fresh is always better.

[Michelle_K]

Thinking the older popcorn might taste better when popped in an older machine, I decided to get my other air popper out.


It worked just as good as my newer popper. I lost the top cover someplace, but I used a pickle jar cover over the feeder tube. I think it is about 20 years old.
Hot buttered popcorn, minus the butter.
Michelle

[Lori Dee ✅]

Is Lara popping the corn? Or is she just waiting to get some when it's done?  😆

Great pic, Michelle!

[Michelle_K]

I know I complained about my game controllers before. I think they are made for younger people, not necessarily children, but someone with smaller hands.

It makes it a bit difficult to work the buttons


Lets just say I don't have much to choose from as far as the controllers are concerned. For me, relaxed slow movements are fine, but trying to find the proper buttons in a fast moving action game would put me out of the game.
Michelle

[Michelle_K]

Like some sort of joke, Plastic Man. Plastic man was long before Stretch. Then there was elastic Man. Then there is Elastic Girl, more commonly known as Helen.
I wonder how much I got teased, then learn to hide it. Unbutton my sleeve, reach out and 4 inches between the sleeve and my wrist. It doesn't matter whether it a man's shirt or woman's shirt. If I don't reach out then the sleeve stays at my wrist, the symptom remains hidden. My height is 5 ft 10 inches, I think my span (finger tip to finger tip) is 6 ft 2 inches. That's only one symptom, and I have a whole lot more.
Michelle

[Michelle_K]

I finally found my missing garter. I don't recall how the bow got tore off.


I had to analyze how the bow was made, and then I could duplicate it. It looks like the bow was stuck on with hot glue, and pulling the end it would come undone. I'm sure I could sew the bow onto the garter in a way that would hide the stitches and would not come undone.
Michelle

[Michelle_K]

Trying to figure out what steps to take. Seems like I am getting blocked by my VA provider, I was told that it is not necessary for a cardiologist.
There was a recommendation for a MRI of my kidneys from the local clinic, in the papers I sent. The MRI had not been scheduled by the local clinic, and was long past. I do now have a scheduled MRI through the VA.
Michelle

[Michelle_K]

So much going through my head. The idea that both my parents used foul language, and the thought that I might have used foul language earned me a mouth full of soap. It was my maternal grandmother that was tricked by my sister into thinking I had used foul language.
I was watching some show on the Comedy Channel. I have no idea what the joke was about. It seems every other word got beeped. Maybe the person thought it was funny to use foul language, and the joke was the use of the foul language.
Where was I going, oh yes, my mother's attitude towards boys. I don't know how my brothers were treated, so I can't really say for a fact that she treated my brothers the same way I was treated. She was quick to anger, striking with her hand. Now that I think about it, my sisters would also duck when my mother reached across the dinner table.

New topic: It was back in about 1968, when I was in the back of a car that got hit by a drunk driver. My dad was angry when I finally got back home, as I had not taken care of my chores. I got told that it was my fault that I was in the accident, since if I would have stayed home I would not have been in any accident. Of course, my dad denied that I had any pain, so I never went to the doctor. By this time there probably is no record of me being in any accident, and never did get any accident report. Over the years, I have been to see a doctor about the neck pain. I finally gave up and bought a foam cervical collar. I got tired of my neck popping every time I turned my head while reading my computer screen.
Michelle

[Michelle_K]

Marfan syndrome sounds weird, but it just a collection of symptoms. The long arms are the indication of a connective tissue disorder. I tried to explain to my provider that there is a possibility that the plastic lens put into my eye might have moved causing it to go out of focus. I think mostly eye strain due to light sensitivity, and then slight swelling and double vision. I mentioned that I told the eye doctor and basically got told to use more eye drops. Might be a problem of having yearly eye exams done at the same place as the cataract surgery was done.
Then too, my appointment for the fall has already been made, without any input from me. I need to check again to see if I need a referral from the VA to see the eye doctor.
Michelle

[Michelle_K]

If I keep at it I might just remember what I had originally intended to post today. I have a chair at my computer, or rather had a chair at my computer, that was without arms. The bottom was threatening to break, resulting in severe rocking. I have temporally pushed it to the side and am using a different chair. The replacement did have arms, and was quite miserable to use, as my elbows were well below the top of the arms. I did manage to remove one arm, but the other one has a severely rusted screw. Since the arm was plastic, it was simple to saw it off. Now that I know the problem is the arms of the chair getting in my way, I can watch that I avoid chairs with arms. Though I do have a couple of saloon style chairs, one with arms and the other without.

Tie some loose ends together, I don't know if it was in the movie, where elastic man a was on the toilet and had to reach way out to a cabinet to get some toilet paper. With my long arms, I used to pretend that I was plastic man (from a different era) reaching out into the distance.
Now I could try to pretend to be elastic girl or maybe plastic girl.

Growing up, I watched the man from UNCLE, maybe more important was the girl from UNCLE. My uncle had an auto salvage yard, and lived on the property. By one building was a delivery truck. Although it didn't run, I put a lot of miles on it as the girl from UNCLE. I even had the UNCLE gun and id badge.

If I remember this right, as far as my vision was concerned, prior to cataract surgery, I did have the full strength prescription on my left eye and a weakened prescription on my right eye to eliminate the double vision. I should see if I can find all my previous eye doctors and see about getting my records.
Michelle

[Michelle_K]

It might seem strange when I say I bought these things decades ago. At the time I was looking forward to some time that I might be able to move off of the family farm and get a place of my own. Unfortunately, my cast iron frying pans got stored in a bad place and ended up getting rusty. I finally took the time to use a scouring pad and scrubbing them good and putting them on a hot burner to dry. They have been seasoned with avocado oil, and that is the oil I cook with. I think it has been a couple of weeks already, and it seems the pork chops are better cooked in the cast iron frying pan. I do use a grill thermometer set in the frying pan to know when the pan is the right temperature.
I stopped cooking my eggs in the electric skillet, and lately I have been cooking them in the cast iron frying pan. I prefer the eggs scrambled, and use a small blender to scramble them.
I am considering taking the electric skillets to the thrift shop along with the aluminum skillet.
Michelle
 

[Northern Star Girl ✅]

@Michelle_K
Dear Michelle:
Thank you for sharing your updates.
I hope and trust that you get your eye and vision issues satisfactory taken care of.

Regarding cast-iron frying pans, my mother used them all the time.  For me, I was never
happy with cast-iron for a variety of reasons.  I also have not be happy with all the
varieties of non-stick cookware however some of the newer non-stick fry-pans are getting
better and longer lasting.  I do not use electric skillets but I use my air-fryer
and crock pot very frequently.  I love using my Hot Pot which is a type of pressure cooker.

Very interesting about Marfan Syndrome .... that seems to explains a lot of what you experience
regarding your body.... I am wishing you well in that regard.

Again, thank you for sharing.

  ❤️❤️❤️   
HUGS and more hugs,
Danielle [Northern Star Girl]

[Michelle_K]

Sorry, I didn't realize I was signed into Susan's through Discord. Found out that the program was running in the background. Also the popup was not on my screen long enough to really tell who had messaged me.
Reminded me of the early years of the internet. Anyone logging into the same provider as me could tell that I was online. It was difficult to do research when I was being interrupted through instant messaging.

I've seen t-shirts someplace with the statement "Does not play well with others". Probability it got put on my grade school report card, not those particular words, but something similar.

It's just that What kind of father would feel the need to butt into a conversation and answer the questions aimed toward his child. To not give the child a chance to learn how to socialize with others.
Michelle