Banisters and a countertop! Waiting, waiting, for the OR. Sales/shares (including registries) very much needed.

Photo copyright Wings, 2017; all rights reserved.

I was gone all of yesterday, of course, but the crew was rocking. Tony and Reynaldo got the newel posts set and the banisters installed on the stairs. No balusters yet, but I think that's what they'll be working on today. Supposedly there's snow at home right now, although the weather map can't always be believed.

Floyd and Gary got the tile laid on the one existing cabinet, too:

Photo copyright Wings, 2017; all rights reserved.

Which means that, at least in theory, we'll have a working kitchen sink sometime tomorrow. And that will go an indescribably long way toward making my life easier.

Which is good right now. 

We're in the room, waiting for me to get put on the cath-lab rotation. Mine is not considered emergent for these purposes, so I'll be bumped in favor of any and all ER cases that come in in the meantime. The good news is that the technology has now advanced so much that the procedure itself is generally far less invasive (and much safer), takes only about 20 minutes, and doesn't involve the unpleasant many-hours' recovery process of lying flat on one's back, unmoving, that used to be required. If it turns out that whatever was showing up on the imaging was indeed a small blockage, they'll take care of it right then, on the table — no need for two separate surgeries anymore, one to diagnose and one to treat. And they emphasize that it could still be nothing at all — breast tissue or impingement from something that normally should be farther below — in which case we'll back almost to square one, diagnostically. But given my family history and its presentation, better to rule it out or take care of it now. If it IS cardiac, I will have been very, very lucky: A lot of people don't ever get these kinds of early warning sings, especially women, and only find out when they're hit with a truly massive cardiac event.

They also want me to have/do/take a bunch of other things after this is all over. New meds, but also a sleep study, because the ordering doc us reasonably sure that I have sleep apnea (and I've known for a while that that's likely), and for someone with my cluster of issues (not least the AI stuff), that has the potential to do serious damage to my heart. ::Sigh:: more money. But I'm listening to Wings, who keeps telling me to worry only about getting this done and being able to get well, and that we'll figure all that out somehow later on. I need to keep my BP in the nice low range it's been in except for the incident on the 10th, so I've mentally kicked that particular can way the hell down the road.

I wrote Wings's post last night, so that I could get it up this morning before they take me into the OR. Not a lot of sleep, massive headache from the meds, no food and water, and my concentration is trash right now, so the rest is cut and paste. Please pray for an easy time of it for both of us while we're here, and for a good result (and that I get out of here sooner rather than later; I want to rest at home). Lots of expenses coming down the pike, and we need to make some sales. Given the circumstances, I'm leaving up the donation link, too, and the registries have some new items on then, mostly lower-priced, to replace stuff damaged by the RV or given away when we first moved into it seven years ago. So please share the links:

• Wings's direct PayPal link;
• Wings's site, for sales;
• Wayfair gift cards, to replenish all the furnishings that the RV has destroyed in one way or another.
• Partial registry #1, from Bed, Bath and Beyond. There are new kitchen-y things on it now, stuff that I didn't realize we'd need to replace (either because the RV ruined it or because we gave it away when we had to downsize).
• Partial registry #2, from Wayfair. Still waiting for them to resolve this fulfillment/shipping problem they have with their site. Even so, I've added some things (kitchen/dining room stuff mostly), most of which are comparatively reasonably priced. Now, it's going to be mostly odds and ends that make this place more liveable, because of the sheer volume of stuff destroyed by too many years in the RV (e.g., by the oven and stovetop, by the wiring, by the water, by the mold, etc.), or that we simply gave away seven years ago because we had no room and no place to put them and despaired of ever being able to use them again. But about Wayfair, and VERY IMPORTANT: They make it possible to crowdfund each item. So if you'd like to help, but the prices are too much for one person? You can kick in 20 bucks, or ten, or five, on any one item; many small donations can add up to one item.

I don't know how lousy I'll feel coming out of the OR, nor how long I'll be here: If I go back early, they could conceivably let me go late today; if  not, I probably won't be home until tomorrow. Even so, as I've also been saying, I am still catching up, and will be now for a while. But this is the holiday season, and the sales/commissions from these few weeks are what keep us alive throughout the whole long winter and spring months (to say nothing of what's in the offing medically), so please continue to share the links. And please refer folks to Wings's site (and if you have an endorsement, too, so much the better). I'll be trying, slowly but, I hope, steadily, to get caught up over the course of this week. Thanks again, to everybody, and we love you all.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.