Medical Frustrations and David’s Birthday

Tuesday January 6 –Thursday-January 8, 2015
Oscar Scherer State Park

 

 

Most of our time for past the few days has been spent trying to jump through the hoops to get David’s new medications.  First it was the doctors all on vacation for 10 days after his December 22nd appointment at which the new treatment was determined.  Then it was getting the on the road pharmacy all the paperwork it needed from the doctor.  We thought we had everything worked out and the drug would be coming when on Thursday the pharmacy, RXtoGO, called and said they’d submitted the paperwork for the delivery and had been told our Part D insurance no longer carried their pharmacy.   WHAT?

Wish we’d known this in November, I’d have changed insurance since they have upped the cost of everything this year by a serious amount.  They’ve added a co-pay and upped the deductible.  We stayed with them solely because of this relationship with this great pharmacy which we were able to use through them.  To say I’m furious is an understatement but it’s really our own fault.  We should have checked this specifically at reenrollment time but at that time, he was on infusions not on an oral drug.   So as the days click by with no medication we seem to be back to square one.  

Not much of a birthday present to be told by your insurance company that you will no longer be able to use the fabulous pharmacy RXtoGO which has done an amazing A++ job of getting your medications to you for the past 3 years. 

So what did we do between our wonderful Monday sunset and moonrise and David’s birthday?   Here’s a quick summary for the record.

 

TUESDAY

We walked up to the coffee social held in the visitor’s center at the park.  We met some nice people and one man had some great advice for us on where to do some mangrove paddling.   I was amazed at how many people were from Ohio.   They were all thrilled to be out of that midwest winter.

We spent the rest of the day running errands to Detweilers Farm Market and CVS for drugs to accompany the chemo one he can’t seem to get.   Then it was phone calls by the score to try to light a fire under the powers that be to get this drug.

 

 

WEDNESDAY

David went for blood tests to see how out of control the myeloma has gotten while we wait for the drug.  We won’t have the results we need for at least a few days.  I seem to be much more worried about this than he is. He says he feels fine so I guess that’s really all that matters although he does appear much more tired and naps a lot.

After the blood tests, he makes MORE phone calls to try to push some buttons on getting things going.  All this of course is before we know that our great pharmacy is no longer ours.  We only have 700 minutes a month on our plan for which we pay Verizon an outrageous amount so if this never ending phone calling continues we could be in trouble.

 

We spend the afternoon getting all of his blood numbers into the sheet I created and have kept for the past 3 years of all his blood results.  I have flagged the ones that are out of range which is many of them.  Some of those, like the M spike and his white blood counts are concerning but the sheet does make it quick and easy to look back historically and see what’s going on.

I’m typing, he’s looking them up from all the pounds of medical paperwork that make up part of Winnona’s weight problem.  Drugs and prescriptions on the table.   What a life!

 

 

But now it’s finally on to the fun part except for the bummer phone call which starts off his birthday but we’ll forget about that for now.

 

 

THURSDAY
Happy Birthday David, Your Birthday is TODAY.

 

As usual, David’s birthday is mostly about food.   Are you surprised?  Not if you know him or have been following us for a while. <grin>

First thing today is pre breakfast toast.   One has a tiny layer of honey and sliced strawberries.  The other has tomato paste and Italian herbs.   The Italian one doesn’t sound terribly breakfasty to me.   But I’m not eating it LOL.   He follows that with a Red Naval orange.  I had one of those too.  Now that’s delicious.  No picture, it disappeared too fast.

 

 

Former work friends from Charlottesville call to wish him a happy day!  That would be you Marty and Pam.

 

 

Then it’s time for breakfast with oatmeal pancakes, strawberries and raspberries. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Duly fortified, he wants to visit some potential kayaking spots to check them out for when the weather warms up.  We are optimistic here.  So far it’s been a chilly winter in the Sarasota area.

First we visit Snook Haven which was once a private camp but was purchased by the county of Sarasota in 2006 to provide more public access to the Myakka River.   I laugh at the contrast of the sedate county sign and the more accurate sign for what is clearly a party spot with music being played nearly nightly.

 

 

 

The restaurant has a few indoor tables and a lot of outdoor tables where people are partaking of down home food – BBQ, fried green beans, collard greens, deep fried potato chips and beans and ham.   David says it’s a heart attack spot.

 

 

 

I took this picture because of the dog keeping warm but then I noticed the electronic cigarette and wondered if this fellow might be from Colorado?

 

 

We check out the public boat dock and the nice woman booking spots on their boat tour tells us that it is open Monday, Tuesday,  and Friday during the day.  Those seem to be the days they aren’t playing music during the day since right now you’d have to drive over picnic tables to get to the launch.  I think they have music every night.

 

 

The River looks lovely here.  I’m wondering if you could put in at Myakka River State Park and paddle down for a high cholesterol lunch and paddle back to try to get rid of it.

 

 

Among the “unique” decorations at Snook Haven was this dock side alligator.  He’s wired for light.  I’d love to see him then.

 

There are two launches at Snook Haven, the larger one just behind the restaurant and the one you can see from there as you look down the river.  It’s to the left of the rental canoes and luckily you can use it any time.

 

 

 

We head over there to take a look.  Looks great and would be my launch of choice for sure.

 

 

The road into and out of Snook Haven is actually Venice Avenue a main road through town which at this point turns into a dirt road and is exactly like the old Florida I remember from visiting my Aunt Carrie in Ocala.  It’s tree lined with dripping spanish moss and made of sand.

 

 

Next on the list is to check out Deer Prairie Creek Preserve and its paddling potential.   This one is tricky to find since the sign is off the side of busy Rt 41 and the road is only accessible if you are traveling north on the divided highway. 

 

 

 

Like at Myakka River State Park, there is a weir here too.  Weirs are smaller than dams but do the same thing, they alter the flow characteristics of the river and often cause the river below the lake created by the weir to be dry and unnavigable.  Sadly this is very often the case inside the state park so the kayaking on the Myakka there is iffy. 

 

 

Here the river below the weir looks fine but there’s no put in here.  You can only put into the lake.  I assume you must be able to paddle up river from here.

 

 

 

Here’s the lake/river.  There is a very small put in right beside the weir.  You can see it in the lower right of the picture above of David walking on the weir.  On a day like today with pretty strong winds you’d have to be careful to make sure you got up good speed going against the water or you’d find yourself tumbling over the weir.  Might have to check further around the lake to see if there is a better place to put in but this is clearly one that people use.

See that black mark in the middle of the lake about 3/4 of the way back in the water?  That’s the cormorant who has just caught a catfish and works for quite some time trying to figure out how he can eat it.

 

 

Hope you’ll find this excess of pictures of the cormorant as amusing and amazing as I did.

He’s got the fish

 

Opps, dropped the fish.  He actually dropped and recaught this fish at least a half dozen times while I tried to follow him as he went under the water to get it and resurfaced at a distance from where he’d just been.

 

Got him back.  Look at the size of this fish.  How can he possibly get that in his mouth let alone down his throat?

 

 

 

 

He’s nothing if not persistent.  Doesn’t seem to fit does it?

 

 

Does his whole head look like it swells up to get this thing in his mouth? 

 

He actually swallows the thing whole and there it is in his neck.   Boy I’d think that would hurt.  Have you ever swallowed something too big?

 

 

But mere seconds later he doesn’t seem phased and I have visions of this fish now running the length of his body.  How does he digest it?   He swims around a bit and then he actually takes off and flies up into a tree with all that extra weight.  Nature is just flat out amazing.

 

 

After that great show, we walk on down from the weir to take a look at what is the “official” canoe and kayak launch into the river below the weir.

 

 

 

It’s a long portage and a muddy one.  If it weren’t for the weir I suppose all this would be under water.  I’m not sure if the river is tidal up here.

 

 

Our last stop is at the Venice Area Audubon Rookery which is also off of Rt 41.  I understand that the birds really fly in here in the early evening and fly out in the early morning and it’s something to see.  We aren’t here at either time but there are definitely nesting birds on the island in the small lake.

 

 

 

We see nesting great blue herons, anhingas and great egrets.  

 

 

 

 

 

Other birds are just grazing like this glossy ibis.

 

I’m going to stick my neck out again since you can’t learn anything without being wrong a time or two or three so Judy is this a black whistling duck?  In my elderly Peterson’s guide he’s listed as an accidental in Florida from the tropics but on line at the allaboutbirds.org site they say these ducks occur in several southern states and are expanding northward.  There are quite a few of them around one of the fenced in sewage treatment ponds until they decide to fly outside the fence.  We listen for them to whistle but I guess they aren’t into it today.  Darn!

 

 

It’s a really lovely spot.  You can walk around the lake and see the island from all sides although it is closer to the shore on the parking lot side.

 

 

 

 

We walk up to the Audubon Society building but it’s closed.  The butterfly garden is not so we take a brief stroll through this nicely laid out spot.  No butterflies today.  Not enough sun and too cold is my bet.

 

 

In our former life as farmers, we had a dozen raised beds with drip irrigation and we really like the set up here with the closed rain barrels taking water off the roof of the building and routing to an underground system in this garden. Great decorations on the barrels too.

 

 

 

A few flowers including the  shrimp plant are in bloom.

 

 

 

 

By now it’s time for an early dinner at Rosebud’s.  David picked this restaurant because he wants prime rib.  I get the early bird special but he goes full force. 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry there aren’t any pictures of the dinner but the birthday cake made me sit up and get out my camera.  Take a look at this desert try.  That’s a double chocolate cake about 8” tall and a mile high carrot cake as tall.  There are other deserts as you can see from the tray but I don’t remember what they are except for the chocolate peanut butter cake and the cannoli.

 

After such a big meal David chooses the peanut butter cake which is a special today and not always on the menu like the other two cakes which seem to me could feed 4 people. Wish we could return and split a piece of either one or both but we’ve had enough food extravagance in our diet for now, especially since I think we have a breakfast out date at the end of the week-end.

Here’s what the cake looks like before he digs in.  The size of the peanut butter cake is very adequate for two.

And here it is near the end.  I admit to helping him a bit with it but not even close to half.  Too much food already for me.  But David has a limitless capacity.

 

 

 

After we arrive home, Carrie calls to wish him a Happy Birthday and he has a much looked forward to imperial stout while talking with her.   See what I mean by limitless capacity?

 

Time for presents.   He says who me to the giant bag.   Well who else here is having a birthday?

 

Reaching into the bottom.

Oh boy!  How can you get excited about a fancy pop rivet gun?  But he is.

 

He pulls out another gift, it’s a big set of sockets and the packaging is screwed closed with 8 screws.  You have to use a tool just to get into it.  Too funny!

 

 

 

So here’s the entire haul for you other tool collectors.  It’s a tool birthday and he seems very pleased.  This is what happens when he goes into Harbor Freight and spends hours saying “Oh now this is great.  Boy I could use that.  Isn’t that cool??” 

 

 

 

 

 

So Happy Birthday David!
Your birthday WAS today!