I haven’t posted for quite a while, and for the craziest of reasons (i.e. I hurt my hand and haven’t been able to type! More down further in this post). We’ve been back home from our Doha, Australia, and New Zealand trip for a couple months now, yet I feel like we’re still catching up from being gone for six weeks. I still have a couple New Zealand posts I’d like to add from the cruise, as well as a few days post-cruise in Auckland, but will get to that when I can.
We’ve got a couple short trips coming up this summer; one to Sarasota, and a birthday cruise for me in August on the Celebrity Beyond, which we’re both looking forward to. Meanwhile we’ve enjoyed our backyard pool a bit, in between the hot summer days with afternoon thunderstorms.
Steve (DOS) and I did make a quick overnight trip to the Villages a couple weeks ago when my sister, Jenni, was down this way for work. DOS and I, and usually a couple friends used to go to The Villages for my birthday weekend and stay at one of the hotels in this mammoth retirement “Village” about an hour and a half from Orlando where we live, but we haven’t been there in about a year.
My sister, Jenni, had never been so we stayed the night in the Lake Sumter Village (our favorite) and had a nice evening of fun with pre-dinner drinks and appetizers at the Garvino’s Wine Bar, followed by dinner later at the nearby Arnold Palmer Country Club, less than a mile away from the hotel. Our lodging at the Waterfront Inn was so convenient as you could walk to the Village Square with its restaurants, shops, and evening entertainment. DOS and I had a nice corner suite which overlooked the water, and Jenni had her own room down the hall from us.
When we headed out for the evening, it was too hot at 6pm to enjoy the outdoor Town-Square entertainment, so we found a cool and fun relief at Garvino’s for our happy hour, just down the street from the Village Square in Lake Sumpter.
After Garvino’s we had dinner at the nearby Arnold Palmer Country Club. Steve DOS and I had our usual Chateaubriand dinner for two, carved table-side, while Jenni had a small filet mignon. The meal and service were wonderful, and It was a fun evening! I’m so glad Jenni got to join us for once at The Villages, as we’ve been talking about her coming for a visit there for years.
The next day we had a late breakfast at Bob Evans before we headed home, while Jenni had a few appointments and 1 day conference to attend in Orlando over the next couple of days.
For now, we’re back at home here in mid June, I’ve had a few health issues this summer that required prompt attention and figured it was time to give a quick update on us as I haven’t posted in so long. I (Steve UNO) had to have a couple MRI’s after we got home from New Zealand in late April, including a prostate and separate cardiac MRI which I had recently. Add to that I’ve had some issues with osteoarthritis in the knees, and had a series of weekly gel shots, for 3 weeks, and some lab work and other tests, and it’s been like a full-time job! Who knew retirement would be so much fun and occupy all of our free time during the days!
So way more health information than you wanted to know, but here’s a bit more if you’re interested. When I was having my first MRI (prostate, and weeks earlier than the cardiac MRI), I had my pacemaker and onXz heart valve verified as “MRI Safe”; i.e. “MRI Conditional” they call it” by my doctors prior to the MRI procedure. So the first go-round, DOS drove me all the way to the hospital in Clermont (it had to be done in a hospital due to the pacemaker) which was an hour away from home, but it was the hospital that could do the MRI the quickest, noting they only had one day a week when the Medtronic technician (manufacturer of the pacemaker) would be on site there to put it in “safe mode”.
Steve (DOS) drove me to the hospital and waited there for me while I went back for the MRI. I was anxious enough as it was, and I had been prescribed a valium to relax for the procedure (I’m very claustrophobic). Well I change clothes into the gown provided and am ready to go, and as I’m about to sign the consent forms, the hospital staff tells me they don’t do a T3 MRI, only a 1.5 MRI. The T3 was specified on the script from my doctor, and anyway how was I supposed to know the difference in the two MRI’s; the all looked the same to me! I’ve had MRi’s before and never been asked this before.
So this ended the first MRI there and then before it even got started, and it took another week and a half to get it rescheduled, this time downtown Orlando where I had wanted to go the first time.
So another Valium and at the downtown Orlando Hospital and I’m gowned up again and ready to go. The paperwork was already cleared, and almost as an afterthought as I’m being wheeled into the MRI procedure room, I realized I had to remove the ring from my ring finger which I hadn’t done in years. Up-Ohhh. Up-ohhh is right. I should have gone to a sink and used soap and water to loosen the ring, but just wrangled it back and forth until it came off; not the right way to do this. Anyway, at last I got thru the first procedure fine and back home with no blood loss on my ring finger.
The next day however, my whole left hand was swollen up like a balloon in the Macy’s Day Parade, and hurt like hell!
Steve (DOS) took me to an urgent care clinic, where I was diagnosed with cellulitis, most likely caused by a tear at the ring finger site, which somehow got infected (I was in a hospital outpatient area after all.) I was given antibiotics and the doctor was glad I came as it can be quite serious.
Per the doctor’s instructions, if it wasn’t better in 3 days I should head back to see her, my primary doctor, or an ER.
I chose the ER as by now the pain was quite intense and an ER can do X-rays, lab work, and CT scans on site, which are not readily available at an urgent care or primary doctor facility. In the ER I was given a much stronger antibiotic and even some prescription pain pills and went home after 3 hours in the ER, again very glad I went.
The next three days at home were intense for me as my body and the antibiotics battled out the hand infection. I didn’t feel like eating or doing much else but resting at this time. Within a week the swollen wrist and hand infection had mostly gone down, but I went back to the ER once again as it was still painful and a couple fingers were still swollen. (I’m very concerned about any infection since my major heart surgery nearly two years ago which required the first heart surgery to be re-done due to some unknown infection.)
The ER doctor gave me another 5 days of the same antibiotic, which fortunately my body tolerated much better this time. The point of all this medical drama is I am just now able to use my left hand to type, and while my wrist is still slightly sore, I can update this blog finally! I tried using the MacBook dictation feature, but must not have used it properly, so I’m just now typing again.
Other than that, we’ve had a fun last couple Sunday’s at church! Yes church! This summer for 10 weeks or so, we are having a series of lessons from the movies; Hollywood movies in fact! These range from movies such as Star Wars, Finding Nemo, The Shack, Jaws etc, with themes of forgiveness, self sacrifice, love and more. Our Pastor Merrill always brings out the fun and entertaining aspects of the service, while still getting her point across. They even serve complimentary popcorn on Sunday mornings for the movie-themed services! Where else can you see the Pastor engaging in a laser sword fight with the lead Praise Band singer! LOL!
After attending for the last year and a half, DOS and I formally joined the United Methodist Church of College Park last Sunday. College Park United Methodist is a very welcoming (to ALL people), friendly, and FUN, with a Church motto of LOVE BIG, something the world needs a bit more of these days.
Now it’s June 20th as I write this, and hope to post more soon. Thanks for listening to me go thru my medical woes, and hope it helps someone else; i.e., don’t play around with infections and go to the doctor right away, if you get an infection as it may be more serious than you think. That’s all for now! Enjoy the hot summer days with afternoon storms, at least from the “Sunshine State”, here in Florida! And remember to LOVE BIG!
