Week of Halloween

How can it possibly be November 6th already?

Steve and I both had doctor appointments last week on Tuesday.  Steve went to see a G.I. doctor.  For the last six weeks or so, he has been bothered by constipation, lack of appetite, higher than usual blood sugars, and occasional night chills (interestingly, not sweats, just chills).  So, he went his primary care provider who ordered some blood tests.  His alkaline phosphatase levels came back unusually high so an ultrasound of his gut was ordered - specifically to look at his liver.  That showed nothing unusual so another, more definitive blood test was ordered as well as a bone scan  (liver and bones are the reasons for high alk phos).   But, when he went to get the scan, he learned that it had been cancelled because the blood test said it was his liver.  So, Tuesday was the G.I. doctor visit but he really didn't have much to say.  Do another ultrasound in three months.  And, to a thyroid test which might be the cause for the constipation and chills.  Bottom line, we don't know exactly what is going on but it might just be the new "normal".  I went to my primary care provider to follow up on another A1C.  It was 5.9 without being on metformin so she was pretty happy with that and I will continue to not take metformin.  She feels my doctor in Arizona might have pulled the metformin trigger too soon.  I also talked to her about the MRI I had of my right breast.  Back in August, on the morning of  the very day of my annual mammogram, I had a teeny bit of bloody discharge which set off all kinds of alarms at the women's health clinic.  They immediately did an ultrasound but neither the mammogram nor the ultrasound showed anything really significant.  The breast cancer doctor I saw then suggested I have the MRI - which also really didn't show much to be worried about.  I will have another MRI in six months and I am continuing to note the days I see discharge.  It is never very much.  My primary care doctor didn't seem worried.  So, I guess I won't either.

Winter came early last week.  Brrrr.  And, crazy Steve and I decided to ride our bikes on Wednesday morning to the Smiley Lane clinic that is only a mile away so I could get my shingles shot.  We also rode our bikes the next morning after a skiff of snow.  Both were VERY cold rides and we haven't been out since!

The shingles shot really was a doozy for me. I felt like I was getting sick for two days and my arm was red and sore.  And, I get to do a repeat in about four months for phase two.  

Halloween afternoon, Steve and I drove to St. Louis to spend the evening with the Southerlands and Beckie.  We dressed super warmly but, happly, the snow that was to have been falling that night came in the morning so it wasn't as bitterly cold as we had feared.  Everyone but Noah headed over to Beckie's.  Noah stayed back in Ballwin to trick-or-treat with friends.  We ate dinner at Beckie's place and then went to a street about four blocks north of her place where all the people in the block decorate for Halloween and many have fires burning in portable fire pits.  The street was blocked of for safety and we had a great time walking from house to house.  Larkin, as cotton candy, was the "belle of the evening"  

Below is Beckie's apartment with her cute jack-o-lantern in front.  

Saturday, Steven came over to help Steve and I remove two mostly-dead trees from the yard.  And they also hauled some landscape timbers to the landfill. 

Happily, weather was much more pleasant on Saturday so we had a bonfire in the back yard and roasted hotdogs and made s'mores.  

Friday evening was the Civic Orchestra / Columbia Chorale dress rehearsal and Saturday evening was the performance.  Sunday was stake conference and I played my cello in a flute/piano/cello trio as prelude and then Steve and I spoke during the conference about being senior missionaries. 

Progress report on the house - we spent a LOT of money with Home Depot - bathtub, toilet, vanity, flooring, light fixtures, kitchen sink.  We are going to have our driveway lifted with polyjacking (injecting a foam under the cement to raise it) rather than tearing out all the old concrete and pouring new.  That will save us $4000.  But, nothing has actually been started.  We are all waiting on the foundation guy to do his thing.  And, yard work has slowed down due to weather and health, darn it.  If you know me, you know this is just driving me crazy.  So, I try to not let it bother me.  And focus on other things.....

I think this is all the news.