Today 13March2023: Month the 13th

Sorry, forgot to take pics on Monday.

Going backward, I was home after 8PM after an average dinner at a local place I will not return to. I decided I needed some food on my last meal before starting on liquids for my colonoscopy on Wednesday. So I drove around to a nearby local place; I was fatigued. I arrived after six, stayed until about 8, and wrote the blog. I had a beer and some lame appetizers, and then an industrial spaghetti and meatballs. The salad was the highlight. No name, as they cannot defend themselves here–I am not willing to flame someone who might be having an off-day here.

While home and before heading to bed early, despite the coffee that kept me awake all night, I worked on some electronics. I mounted the 3V needle meter (old-school looking) and an On/Off metal switch (old-school too) and soldered the wires for all those. I found I have a supply of 3.3V Arduino Pro boards without headers that are perfect for permanent use. I bought these back in 2020 when they were new.

Aside: Arduino Pro boards are not that great. You need a serial connection to talk to them (no easy USB connection is available), and while the board has a LiPo battery connection, it has no recharge capability (!?). However, the board is a stable Arduino platform with tiny LEDs and usual cool features, all at a safe 3.3V. It has a voltage regulator allowing me to plug in a 9V battery and use the Arduino to supply 3.3V to the remaining hardware. Adafruit produces better Metro boards, but this is cheap (less than $20) and avoids the mysteries of why the old 5V Arduino suddenly stopped that I see here and there with older models.

Before this, I was with Susie until 3PM. She was still in bed and in her PJs. Jennifer wanted Susie to rest, and Susie thought it was a good idea. So I just sat with her and used my Apple. I had to use my hotspot connection as the Internet was unstable at the hummingbird house (Comcast). I was getting sleepy and left and returned to the Volvo Cave (getting my new meds in the mail); I rested for a bit and then, as covered above, went out for dinner.

I rushed to see Susie in the afternoon, having been up until 3AM the night before with Susie’s visit to the ER, as she had a video appointment at 2PM. Despite setting the software for the video appointment, I again had to override the setting at the general settings (!?), and then the sound worked. My mic is dead on my Apple, so I plug in earbuds and override the sound back to the speakers.

Aside: To get it fixed, I would need to send my machine for repair, which likely would mean no Apple for weeks. Ugh. I am considering a new device and then seeing the cost (yikes!) After that, I decided I could make this work.

The process is to connect to a check-in person first (likely at their home and following a script) who checks us in and puts up with connection issues. Once we get the connection working and review all the questions (always the same), the $20 co-payment goes through (my iPhone sounds the event at US Bank), and we await the doc.

After ten minutes, the doc appeared in the video call, and he and Jennifer mostly spoke to brief her on the care for Susie’s arm and expectations of changes. Doc was disappointed that we ended up in the ER; he said he was trying to avoid that. But he agreed that we were justified in that choice. It was decided to stop the blood thinner for two days (four doses), and he would send an order for that. Generally, the doc said that the bleeding was over, and now we just needed to manage the impact of the bruising on Susie’s arm. All good news.

For those not following along: Susie hurt her arm somehow, or there was an infection. The arm bled in the muscles, both the upper and lower right arm muscles. Now this blood turns into a hard thrombosis and needs to be managed. Susie’s arm is sore and hard to use–this should improve over the next two weeks. We are stopping blood thinner for two days to prevent more bleeding and improve the arm by hopefully having the bruise heal faster. We will carefully monitor this.

Before this, I slept into 10ish (on the new time), skipped writing, and had breakfast/lunch of Chinese soup with wontons, pork, and baby bak choy. I had only four hours of sound sleep at the most. It made for a hard day.

Thanks for reading.