Rockin' pneumonia and the boogie-woogie blues.....

Life has continued to be quiet and uneventful this month, except for Robert J's unfortunate cold that became pneumonia last week. We are pretty good at dealing with cardiac and vascular situations by now, but a simple cold was outside of my area of so-called expertise. After waiting the requisite week for it to go away, the cough just got worse, so finally a trip to his primary care doc and a chest x-ray explained the problem. Serious cough syrup and some antibiotics improved things within 24 hours, and our hero (and his other half) are happily sleeping through most of the night again, after too many hours lost to coughing in the last week.

In other news: At the risk of jinxing our delicate insurance situation, I will reveal that we are approaching a major milestone on Nov.1: that is when Medicare will become RJ's primary insurance, and his retiree insurance (what's left of it) will be secondary. This is huge, since our friendly financial rep from UCSF was quite certain that the primary insurance would not last until this date, after all the latest hospital bills from early summer. I spent several weeks in a pretty panicked state, looking for alternative coverage with little luck. Had the transplant happened this summer, the insurance would have run out for sure, so I have to look at all the delays as perhaps a good thing, in the big picture. Of course keeping him out of the hospital until the transplant will also be very helpful, and that is our daily goal. His insurance situation is one of the thousands that could and should be helped by health care reform, so national politics are especially personal for us! Fingers are crossed for all of us to see better options in the near future.

Long Time, No Blog

Sorry to ignore my blog for so long. Fact is as has been the case nothing to report. This means nothing bad too so it is definitely not all gloom and doom. I did visit the docs recently and it was the same story; stay well and keep your phone charged.

We met a very nice couple at the UCSF Support Group. He has had a heart-kidney transplant and is doing great. He has much the same health history as me; diabetes, dialysis, and of course heart issues. What he has that I don't is a 1989 Ferrari Testarossa that he allowed me to sit in at his house. They had invited us over to Pacifica for their annual block party which was quite nice.

In a couple of weeks I will be having a sleep study to determine why I am so tired all the time. I will stay overnight and be observed sleeping out in Walnut Creek. Sounds like a blast.

Had a great dinner in Sacto the other night to celebrate Andy's 29th BD. Leslie was able to join us and of course Linsey was there with her new jewelry. Plans are moving ahead on that as well so right now everyone seems content.

That about handles it for now


RJ/Bob/Irv