D. Lee Jackson

Words and Music

Medical Progress? I Hope So

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I think I may have something to look forward to, health-wise, at long last. I received a phone call yesterday (June 7th, 2017) telling me that the paperwork to refer me to a neurosurgeon and to the pain clinic at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas has finally been faxed. It’ll be a few days before I hear anything back from them—I’m guessing Monday—but I’ve got phone numbers in the event that something goes FUBAR. After all of the long, drawn-out assembly-line medicine that I feel like I had to deal with at my last place, I’ll gladly wait a few days to get into a place with a good reputation.

(EDIT: I already have an appointment with the neurosurgery department! They called on Thursday (June 8th) and wanted me to come in the following morning! Of course, that did mean I had to fill out a metric crapload of paperwork in a very short time. I hope it was worth it!)

The only thing I’m not looking forward to is the commute, even if my wife is going to have to drive it for me. It’s near Downtown Dallas, on the other side of one horrendous mess of a construction zone that won’t be completed any time in the near future. The old place was just a 20 minute drive at most. This could be an hour at best.

On the opposite end of things (pun intended, sort of), I’m finally done with the Lasix! No more running to the restroom at inopportune times, and hopefully no more feeling like crap from the electrolyte swings, despite my best attempts to keep hydrated with a caffeine-free tea and Gatorade mix. My edema is pretty much gone, although the bruising on my right shin is acting strange. It started itching like crazy yesterday, and when I looked at it, that part of the bruise was replaced by a raised, red area. It’s still that way, but it doesn’t itch so much. My doctors are going to have fun with it today (yes, doctors—I see my primary care doctor late this morning, followed by my podiatrist early this afternoon).

Now, while I’m on an upswing of sorts, I want to take time to thank my friends in a certain webcomic discussion forum that I’ve frequented for almost a decade now. They have been extremely kind to my wife and myself, purchasing items from our Amazon Wishlists to help bring up our spirits in some very trying times. My wife has been having fun with a trail camera, which she uses to track feral cats for the local Trap-Neuter-Return program. My items have been restricted to a few CDs, until yesterday. I received a box of SAAG’S® Bistro Bockwurst—four packs of four sausages each—from my list, purchased for me by a very good friend from Denmark.

Why am I so stoked about this? Well, it has to do with IndyCar racing. Hold on, I’ll explain. My wife, my son, and I are huge fans of IndyCar racing. I’ve been a fan since the heyday of A.J. Foyt, when he finally won his fourth Indy 500 title. I lived in Houston at the time, and the city went wild. Anyway, I passed along my addiction to my wife and my son. We all know what a weight jacker is, more or less, and can even tell you what the acronym in SAFER barrier stands for (Steel And Foam Energy Reduction). As such huge fans, we make a point of going out to the Texas Motor Speedway and watching the IndyCar race held there every year.

That’s not going to be possible this year. I can barely walk across my house, much less across the concourse of a mile-and-a-half speedway.

So, what we’re going to do is have a bit of fun at home. We’re having a sausage party. (No, not THAT kind of sausage party.) I should probably rephrase that. We’re having a Wurstfest of sorts while we watch the race on TV. I ordered some bratwurst and weisswurst from GermanDeli.com and called my son to ask if he’d cook them up for us before the race. He’s a budding cook, so he gladly agreed. He’s even got some ideas for a German side dish to go with the traditional potatoes and sauerkraut.

Now that we have a bockwurst bonanza, we can experiment with it and see how best it should be cooked. I doubt we can go wrong. I mean, we’ve even got the fixings for authentic currywurst.

It’s going to be fun, I hope—one night to take my mind off of the medical nightmares that I’ve been going through lately. I can damned sure use it.

IBS-IBD Fiber Charts Update

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I had the pleasure today of conversing again with Kathy Steinemann, the author of the IBS-IBD Fiber Charts reference guide. This is the book for which I wrote a foreword and which includes my humorous short story, “How Not to Prepare for a Colonoscopy.” Kathy gave me the good news that the guide found success at Amazon, who “pegged the print book as a #1 New Release when it first came out.” Very good news indeed!

Her guide is a remarkable piece of research. If you’re not familiar with the subject, the guide is intended for anyone suffering with irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease, as well as for friends and family of people with these conditions. Kathy says, “There’s nothing worse than seeing someone suffer and not knowing how to help.” Her book provides that help in the form of charts of the amounts of soluble and insoluble fiber for over 450 different foods, and specifically mentions the benefits of soluble fiber in the diet of anyone suffering from IBS or IBD. She also lists internet links for sufferers and their families. As a victim of IBS myself, I am very glad that she took the time and put in the effort to provide such a valuable resource.

The book is available from a number of sources, linked on the right side of this blog. If you are a sufferer or know someone who is, please consider getting a copy. My thanks go out to Kathy for her work, as well as for the chance she gave me to provide a bit of levity for those who suffer from this “often-debilitating condition,” as her guide very accurately calls it.

Questions? Comments? Please feel free to use the Contact page. Thank you for reading!

IBS-IBD Fiber Charts: Amazon Kindle Version Available

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Amazon has finally fixed their issues with Kathy Steinemann’s IBS-IBD Fiber Charts and now have both the paperback and the Kindle versions online. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I wrote a foreword and a short story, How Not to Prepare for a Colonoscopy, for her book.  If you’d like to purchase a copy from Amazon, here are the links:

You can also find links on my new Amazon Author Central page, located at http://amazon.com/author/dleejackson.

Please grab yourself a copy and let me know what you think via the Contact page. Thank you for reading!

Costa Rican Coffee Crisis Averted

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My wife and I are coffee drinkers. Nothing special about that. However, we own a Keurig 1.0 machine, so at first we had to compromise on what coffee we buy for it. I’m happy to report that we both eventually found a brand we love—Café Britt dark roast “single-serve” (i.e., K-Cup clone) packs from Costa Rica. (BTW, if you’ve ever watched the episode of How It’s Made on coffee, Café Britt was featured in the relevant segments. That’s where I learned about the brand.) This particular roast is excellently balanced and easy to drink without the burnt taste that some dark roasts bring to the cup. I usually do my writing with a large mug next to my laptop.

I have almost always ordered direct from the manufacturer’s web site. They have the best prices and the best shipping service, especially when you order six boxes at a time. I decided it was time to restock this morning, but to my confusion, the single-serve packs were no longer showing up on their web site.

Undaunted, I called their toll-free number and tried to place an order. I was told that the single-serve packs were no longer in production and would not be sold anymore.

Insert shocked pause here.

The representative was helpful and offered to talk to her superior about selling me what was left in the warehouse. She said she’d call back in about 15 minutes. You can guess where this is going—45 minutes later, no phone call. I called the company back and got their voice mail, so I left a message. They eventually called, but I missed picking up the phone (I have an voice mail system that’s on a hair trigger after the fourth ring.) Anyway, I called back and got the same lady I spoke to earlier in the day. I was told that there was no more stock, and due to a decision “from the president of the company,” they would not be making/stocking them anymore. I told them they’d lost a customer. (BTW #2—the voice mail left by another representative confirmed that they would no longer be selling the single-serve packs.)

The next step in this caffeinated saga takes place on Twitter. I used to tweet a lot about my experiences in finding the perfect coffee for my Keurig machine. I stopped tweeting so much once I found Café Britt. Today, I left a tweet using the “@CafeBritt” tag, telling of my morning calls and my disappointment in their decision. The tweet got favorited and re-tweeted a couple of times.

Move on to just after noon—Café Britt called me again. Same person from my first call. She said she was calling about my tweet (!) and told me that the morning’s events were a misunderstanding. As it turns out, Café Britt’s single-serves will be returning to their inventory for sale. They’re just out of stock at the moment and have no ETA on when they’ll get more. Phew. I thanked her profusely and promised to keep an eye out for their return. This was followed by another tweet to the coffee community, explaining what I was told the second time around and thanking Café Britt for their hard work.

I don’t know if my tweet actually made a difference in their company’s decision on selling single-serve cups or not. In the end, it doesn’t matter. My wife and I will eventually have our favorite coffee back on our shelves, as soon as it shows up on Café Britt’s web site.

Definitely an interesting first half of the day.

Questions? Comments? Please feel free to use the Contact page!