UPDATE ON HEALTH PROBLEMS

By OLIVENE GODFREY

I will not remember this month fondly, believe me! I was already stressed out by multiple visits to the doctor and medical tests and then my blood pressure started acting up and scaring me half to death. I am now taking two prescription blood pressure medicines, one with a fluid pill. I have been having unpleasant side effects but at last my blood pressure is down to normal. I hope it will stay normal and that I will soon be feeling better. If I can adjust to the medicines, I should be feeling better soon.

Son Barry, bless him, has been wonderful about helping with the housework and cooking and has driven me around to the various medical offices the past month.

Recently, my sister, Jeanette, and I discussed the prescription drugs that literally are keeping us alive in our advanced years.
We are grateful to the medical scientists who invent these drugs but we wish the medicines weren't so expensive. I am in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program and am now in the
"doughnut hole" period when enrollees have to pay full price
for our medicines. I still have to pay the insurance company
a monthly payment and it really gripes me. Jeanette and I agree that the insurance and drug companies are the only ones who benefit from the stupid program.

See you next time.

I FEEL LIKE I AM FALLING APART !

By OLIVENE GODFREY

I told you a couple of weeks ago about my various medical reports following my physical. The follow-up doctor visits and the tests
have been very stressful for me. I know now that the sudden rises in my blood pressure turn my face a bright red. But, last week I took my blood pressure here at my house and it was
very high. Being an anxiety-prone person, I panicked and the result was that I am taking a new blood pressure medicine which started today. I hope it solves that problem.

Yesterday, I had a follow-up visit with my doctor and she advised me that my bone scan revealed that I have arthritis in both hips and a lot of arthritis in my spine. I knew I had arthritis
in my knees and hands but this latest report has left me reeling. The doctor said that my bone-density is stable and she thinks the Actonel, bone medicine, that I take weekly has
helped keep it from getting worse. I have to live with it along with my diabetes and other ailments.

The good news is that the wax plugs in my ears are now rinsed
out and for the first time in years I can hear well. I am
grateful that my deafness was curable and feel great empathy for the ear impaired people.

See you next time-- I hope!

BUZZING AROUND & EATING HIGH ON THE HAWG

By OLIVENE GODFREY


I buzzed around like a bee on Labor day weekend and, as we old folks say,
eating high on the hog. One dinner was especially delectable which son
Barry and I ate at home. We had bacon wrapped fillet mignon and the
trimmings with pumpkin pie for dessert. The steaks were cooked on our
indoor electric grill and were rubbed with steak seasoning and garlic.
Barry eats often at steak houses and he said the ones we ate that night
were the best he had ever eaten.

When Barry had a physical recently, his cholesterol was high. He is
taking a cholesterol lowering drug and goes back to doctor later this
month to have it checked again. The doctor told him he should eat
steak only once a month and he has been trying to do that. My cholesterol
for years was high even though I took medicine for it. When I
started eating oatmeal once a day my cholesterol dropped dramatically
and has remained that way since then.

We ate an early lunch on Sunday at Dalton's Western Sizzling which
was tasty and then we went to K Mart to shop. We took my wheel
chair and Barry pushed me all over the store. I purchased two tubes
of Revlon lipstick among other items. I have read that if your lipsticks
are a year old, they should be tossed out, so I threw out my old tubes.

Barry started putting ear drops in my impacted ears as the doctor
ordered and then he washes them out with a syringe. My ears are
already feeling better and I am beginning to hear better. A lot of
gook comes out of my ears and no wonder I can't hear good.
I still have more treatments to have until my ears are completely
healthy.

We cooked hamburgers outside in the Weber charcoal grill for Labor
Day and they were delicious. Since Barry bought the electric indoor
grill we have seldom cooked out as it is easier to cook inside. But
Barry is a traditionalist and because we have always cooked out
on past Labor days he felt we had to cook outside. He says he
thinks he will not cook outside again until next spring.

On Saturday, I went to the grocery store with Barry. We bought
a Rotisserie chicken and ate all of it when we got home from
the store with our other foods and supplies. Ingles deli has the
best and most tender of these small chickens we have ever eaten.

Some of the leaves on the trees in our yard are turning early which
may be a sign that we will have an early fall here in northwest
Georgia. A nice thing about falling leaves is that we can see

our gorgeous view again of the picturesque farm house, barn and lake that
adjoins our property with the mountain range just beyond.

We will go back on our diets this week and hope to lose some weight
before the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

See you next time.