Good morning!!!!

jbrumberg · Jun 20, 2018

Good Afternoon Everyone!!!!

It's a long story, but we are alive and well in Centerville, SC on Lake Hartwell by way of Owings Mills, MD for good reasons. Brogen is doing well at the kennel so far. They have not yet introduced him to other dogs; hopefully he will be a "good citizen." The "7 hour drive" from MD to SC took 11 hours. In the age of laptop computers and smartphones and the need to constantly change forgotten secret "decoder ring" security settings has really messed with my ability to contact the outside world. Now I need to access my e-mails.

It's freakin' hot down here, and it is not much cooler up in MA from the weather reporting.

Ted- I am sorry to read about the knee. I hope there is no serious additional damage to the MCL.

Randy- I am happy to read that Ellen's Mom is doing better with the med change. Some medications are "disinhibatory" in nature for some individuals. Anti-depressants and anxiety medications seem to be the worst offenders.

Like previously posted; a lot of "stuff" happens in our personal lives and is shared here. I believe that I have caught up for the moment. Life is never boring nor should be.

I anticipate being on the road for about another week for good reasons. It's interesting to visit other regions of the US. I am already missing home and Brogen. By the time I get back our place will look even more derelict and abandonned than the usual state of disrepair. At least my rock crop harvest will not rot in this heat.

My + thoughts, wishes, and prayers for all.

Bird · Jun 20, 2018

Bird, prayers for your daughter, hope everything goes well.

The surgery went OK . . . . thanks to all of you . . . . and I don't often go into much detail of mine and my family's problems, but in this case, perhaps it might save someone else from a terrible situation.

A dozen or more years ago, our youngest daughter was getting pretty heavy, so she tried one of the surgical cures. There are quite a number of different ways to do weight reduction surgery. As far as I know, most people have no serious problems with it. The procedure she had done was two tiny holes in her belly through which they ran a string of some kind to tie off part of the stomach. I guess all of the methods simply make it impossible/uncomfortable/etc. to eat too much. Anyway, it seemed successful, and I don't know enough to properly explain the problem, but she was quite happy with it for awhile; lost weight, looked great, etc. for 6 or 8 years. But then she started hurting bad, bellyaches, vomiting, etc. almost every day. So she lost even more weight, and her doctors had no explanation for some years in spite of repeated colonoscopies and such. So she's been in misery almost all the time for more than 6 years. But a colonoscopy recently led the doctors to believe she just basically has no stomach left; food goes straight through into her small intestine. So they've been looking inside the intestine; today they went in to exam the interior of her abdomen, but the exterior of the intestines. I know she was concerned that they were going to find cancer. Well, the doctors tell us all her insides are beautiful, with one exception; her stomach capacity is one cup or less; food does go right on through instead of being digested in the stomach. For now, they've told her to eat no more than a tablespoonful at a time, but several times a day, of course. They may have to install the plumbing to insert nutrition another way in the future.

As I said, most people seem to have no problem, but I'd think long and hard before I had weight reduction surgery.

sodamo · Jun 20, 2018

Bird, glad to hear it went well. Sounds like quite an ordeal. Wish her well.

lostcreekranch · Jun 20, 2018

I don’t know much about that procedure? What happens to the part of the stomach that is tied off and “unused”? Is procedure reversible?

buckeyefarmer · Jun 20, 2018

I know of someone who also has problems after weight reduction surgery.

I go in tomorrow for a followup look procedure from my surgery last fall. Edit, Dr just called and rescheduled.

sodamo · Jun 20, 2018

Got some mowing in. Nice to mow when dry for a change.
Gonna take a break from mowing and get back to straightening up the shop for a bit, then perhaps a bit more mowing.

Bird · Jun 20, 2018

rlgustafson said:
I don’t know much about that procedure? What happens to the part of the stomach that is tied off and “unused”? Is procedure reversible?

They have assured us that the procedure is NOT reversible. As for the part of the stomach that was tired off, I can't really say. I think it just shrunk/atrophied or such.

ronjhall · Jun 20, 2018

Glad surgery went well. Hope that her health improves now that they know what was causing her problems.

daugen · Jun 20, 2018

Bird, that sounds like Senior Women Stomach. They eat like birds and only a few ounces at a time...

Hope there's a way to increase her comfort.

thunderstorms popping up as expected. Just took a ride to garden and picked some more okra, really does grow like a weed.
And I sprayed all the tomatoes and peppers with foliar calcium, to help with tomato bottom rot. I was using Miracle Grow Tomato fertilizer and thought
that would do it. Nope. Have chucked half a dozen tomatoes away already. Earlier today I soaked the ground with longer acting calcium and tonight I applied
it topically. Can't do it in the sun or you burn the plant.

Big problem in the garden. When running the rototiller what pops up but a baby rabbit out of a hay pile. GRRRR.
Shooed him/her out and then Mama Rabbit was back last night I think looking for baby rabbit. No sign of either today.
They are wrecking the beans and seem to love sweet potato leaves.

I need to get about 100 linear feet of 2x4's and make the bottom of the netting secure. They are slipping right
under now.

I hope Andrew/Freedom Lives is doing ok with parenting and his summer.