Yesterday was not so good.
But feeling pretty good today.
Seeing Joe Biden hanging out with the Pope was a treat.
I would have liked to have been a fly on that papal wall!
Can't you just imagine Joe cracking jokes to Francis?
And the Pope took a swipe at some U.S. bishops who want Biden's support of abortion to make him a non-believer. The Pope told him to keep receiving communion....
Gotta like those two guys.
I am a cancer survivor.
I had prostate cancer over 10 years ago and had it removed after talking to a female consultant in NYC. I asked her what she would tell me if I were her brother and she said, "yank it out!"
She also recommended a surgeon in Greenwich, so I had my surgery at Greenwich hospital--which is more like a luxury hotel than a hospital--meals from menus, not able to see the door of another room from the door of your room, a pianist playing for hours in the big room on the first floor that floated through the rooms above.
But my radiology after surgery, done in Waterbury every week day for a week, scared my bladder. So, every month I have two peas with a little blood and my urologist tells me that's perfectly normal.
However, yesterday (Tuesday) was different.
I did my zoom group and went to Waterbury Hospital to get my two Zolair shots I get every other week. (Zolair, by the way, is a wonder drug. It has ridden me of asthma attacks and most asthma symptoms!)
But when I got home, I had a pee that was mostly blood.
And then again.
And again.
Finally, it became a trickle of blood only and I had to go do it ever 15 minutes.
So, I went to the Emergency room. Bern took me though I planned to go by myself. Lucky that she did because I started having severe pains in my bladder half-the-way there.
We waited in a very busy waiting room for almost three hours before they called me.
They tried to insert two different catheters with no success and then called the urologist on call. It took him over an hour to come.
He put a camera up my penis and found a constriction of the urinary track.To open it, he started with a wire into my bladder and then a series of larger and larger tubes on the wire until he opened it up for the catheter.
Amazing amount of pair for almost an hour!!!
A wire up your penis...imagine....
But the catheter ended the pain.
Bern went home after 12:30 a.m.
He saw me twice this morning and after deciding I could go home with the catheter at 10:30, I called Bern to bring me jeans and underwear since the ones I had were soaked in blood.
It was another 5 1/2 hours before the order was finally accepted, my IV was removed and I came home with a leg bag and an overnight bag.
Almost 24 hours in pain and waiting.
The nurses were great though.
Meanwhile, Brigit, our dog had been in the Vet hospital having a growth removed and her teeth cleaned while she was asleep.
She is not happy. We picked her up at 5 p.m. and it's 9:30 now and she's restless and whiny and obviously in pain.
The two of us are a mess.
Maybe the worst 24 hours of my life....
I have a DVD player on my computer, but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to make it work.
I'm sure I had a guide book (long gone!) to help with such things, but like most guide books, I never read it.
I'm awful like that.
Like when you buy something that has to be assembled and there are step-by-step instructions--I just dump the parts out and try to discern how to put them together.
I really wish I could watch a DVD I have called "Bloodline" for the class I'm going to do next month on Mary of Magdalene.
Alas, I can't.
I learned to type on a typewriter--computers confound me.
Alas and alack....
I don't have to go to Milton again until a week from Wednesday.
This coming Sunday I am off and I cancelled Wednesday's Bible Study.
So I have 9 free days.
What to do with all that time?
Well, I do have to prepare for Wednesday's next Bible Study on Mary of Magdala--but I've done it before.
And I should see my orthopedic doctor about my knees and hip.
But I'm afraid he'll suggest surgery.
And I'll read and sleep and drink white wine.
Not a bad way to live for 9 days.
I get two kinds of emails that drive me crazy.
The first kind are from the Democratic National Committee--several a day.
They all ask me to fill out a survey about things that matter to me--racial justice, the supreme court, voting laws, abortion, stuff like that. And no matter how many I fill out, at the end they ask me for money.
I already give a generous donation each month to Act Blue--the DNC's donation place--but each email asks me for money anyway.
Next one I get I'm going to reply--STOP ASKING ME FOR MONEY? IF NOT, STOP EMAILING ME.
The second are job offers, a couple a day--from everywhere from Target to Spirit to UPS.
I'm a 74 year old retiree with bad knees, why do you say I meet your criteria?
Every knows there's an employee shortage here in the US because of the pandemic. Every retail store in Cheshire is hiring.
But I'm not who you want, I promise you.
And scam calls! Oh, my Lord! Most of the calls I get on my cell and on our land-line are scams. My I-phone even labels them for me.
Yesterday, Bern got a call that began: "Grandma, it's me, your grandson...."
We only have grand-daughters, so she knew it was a scam.
Then she read on-line about a group of young people calling old people to claim it was their grand-child needing money!
Many people probably send it.
Bern said if these kids would stop the scam and spend their time and cunning in school, they could get Ph.D's.
Probably so.
I give enough money to the DNC. I don't need a job. I don't want to be scammed.
Enough already.
I went to my urologist today.
(Bern complained the other day that I had 'so many specialists" and she had none. I think she should be happy!)
But here's the thing. My urologist is Dr. Wong and she looks a lot like my daughter-in-law, Cathy Chen.
Ponder that for a moment.
Someone looking at your private parts that looks like the mother of 3 of your granddaughters.
It went ok.
But I need to go back in January so she can look in my bladder!
Do you realize what that means. Have you ever had it done?
They put a tiny camera up your urinary track (and you surely understand where the entry point is!) then fill your bladder with water and film your bladder.
Not the most pleasant thing in the world.
But even worse when the person who's doing it looks like you son's wife!
Ah, well, I have a couple of months to dread it....
Yesterday we finished "Reading the Gospels Side-by-Side" up at Trinity, Milton.
Week after next we move to a study of Mary of Magdala and her gospel. That will include looking at other non-biblical gospels as well plus the legends surrounding this woman, who was the only one in all four gospels that witnessed the resurrection. In some of the gospels there were others, but Mary was always there.
A companion of Christ.
And since she took the message to the others, she was the first evangelist.
An amazing group of legends about her.
I look forward to leading it.
The people at Trinity who attend Bible study are insightful, deliberate and extremely bright.
God love them.
