Surgery--Again

Izzile,

What a spectacular, glorious, amazing video. Also, not bad. Thank you, querida.

Just back from the hospital. Saw my internist. I'm doing ok. She gave me referrals for a mammogram and some dental help. The radiation did some unkind things to my mouth.

I anticipated a major problem with my prescriptions. Bellevue's pharmacy doesn't service people with insurance, and I now have Medicaid. Two scrips need to be refilled. What to do. I was geared up for a major argument. Instead my doctor gave me new prescriptions. She suggested I try the old ones (from the med bottles) because they had refills. When the pharmacy guy said he'd have to call Bellevue, I gave him the new presciptions.

Waited a half hour and voila. Filled. My co-pay? I'm outraged, I tell ya. Fifty cents per prescription!!!

All in all, not a bad day.

((B))

Something I thought was kinda interesting.

First the downside (when isn't there a downside?): I gained back a few pounds.

Now the upside: When I reached my full adult height, I was five feet six and a half inches tall. The last time anyone measured my height, I was five feet four inches. Help! I'm shrinking. Today my height was five feet five and a half inches. Of course one might suggest that not all height measurers are the same. However, I asked the doctor if she thought it was possible that I gained back some height when I lost that tremendous amount of weight. She thought for a moment and smiled. She said she thought it was quite possible.

I'm thinking that the weight on my spine pulled me down.

I'm not gonna gain back any more weight. I got back some height, and I no longer have to take meds for high blood pressure.

or mebbe they stretched ya while you was out for surgerying...

That is great Roberta!

Now why didn't I think of that, RH? Like I been tellin' ya. The old brain cells are slowing down...stiffening up...on hiatus. Whatever brain cells do when they're not clicking on all cylinders.

Thanks, mismi. One of those light bulb revelations for me. Worth giving up an Oreo or two or three (but not all). I already started cutting back.

Something to ponder (pour moi): While I was talking to the doctor today, she commented on how smart I am. I responded, "Not anymore." She disagreed. I see a very definite real difference. What I'm pondering is, How smart was I? And how do we perceive intelligence in ourselves. Mebbe I should start a thread on this. I must ponder more. (In the olden days, I would already have finished pondering. Is speed of ponder part of it?)

You're growing UP!!!!!!



Yeehaw!!

Deb, I don't expect to get all the way back up, but my doctor is no longer concerned about my shrinking and my calcium levels.

You're on an up, no doubt about it, Roberta!

Not to bring you back down, or anything, but how is the complex editing job going? Could it be over & down with by now?

Not over and done with. I don't know what they were thinking. (They = the people at the publishing house.) Foist, you assign a very complex, gigantic mess to a person who's just coming off brain surgery. (Thud.)

Second (although this happened before the book was assigned to me), why was this book accepted for publication? Not only is it a mess, but it keeps referring to 2008 as the future!

I just finished editing a chapter with many equations. All the equations were called tables and were set up as tables. (Thud.) On the other hand, the tables were called figures and weren't all set up as tables. (Thud.)

Glad they're not rushing me to get this done, although I've had the project since February 9, and I got a due date today! I'll get it done--just to get it out of here.

I hope they get a good proofreader for this. Someone who hasn't had brain surgery in, oh, I don't know, a year.

You've gotta wonder what the publishing house was thinking, Roberta.

Why?

Why even bother to decide to publish this book at all?

Perhaps it's the work of a relative of someone in the company, who knows?

In any case (though I know you'd object strenuously!) it sounds as though YOU will be the actual author, as you will have re-written this monstrous tome, by the time it's acceptable!

The was meant to be a in my last post, Roberta.

(Hard day & my concentration's not the best. )

Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I have no understanding at all of the subject matter. Not doing a rewrite. Just trying to get things right.

You get some rest, kid. Bon soir, cherie.

Please do start a thread. I've been considering it too.

I'm noticing a similar thing with BBB and her doctors. I've been concerned over the increasing flashes of memory loss, slower recall of words and repetition of questions. Mentioned this to her doctor when I first moved here and it has gotten worse while she's been on so much medication the last few months. She's so quick witted and intelligent that the doctor's don't seem to notice the difference, but I sure do.

I wonder if this is a common problem with quick-witted folk when they get older and how their families cope with it so they receive the help they need.

Is the intelligence thread started somewhere?

Roberta, intelligence is multifaceted. My guess is that you're feeling your brain is slower and sort of like you have gaps in thinking or knowledge. Maybe you forget things. Thinking is harder than it was..... I am just going on what you've posted. I don't think any of this means you're less intelligent than you used to be.

Have you ever considered how you define intelligence? Your brain has just been sliced up. It's going to take a while to rebuild neural connections. You probably have all the parts, you just need construct new pathways between neurons and then pave it over with practice. Of course..... I'm no brain scientist.

I haven't started the thread, K, cuz I'm still pondering. I can't figure out how to word it or what the discussion would be about. See? Dumb as a carp (no offense to fish.)

I'm getting there, though. I know how I define intelligence. And I know I'm not as smart as I was. How to put this into words? I can define the intelligence part, but the rest is a challenge.

When I start the thread, I'll put a message here about it.

Not sure if this will help you with your description, Roberta...


BBB describes it as being able to describe everything about the concept of the word she is looking for but not being able to come up with the actual word. Sometimes it will take her a few days for it to bubble to the surface and she'll suddenly say the word she was looking for. (I'm getting good at helping her finish her sentences when she's talking to others.)

She says it only happens in verbal communication, that she's able to complete her daily newspaper crosswords without any trouble.

I've noticed that it also appears in her written communications. Takes her longer to compose a post and the spelling, punctuation and grammar isn't what it used to be. Sometimes there are dropped words in her sentences.

This'll probably devolve to a separate thread and be a good one.
I don't follow all the ongoing papers on memory, but will conject that memory flails in some circumstances, certainly surgery, but including medications, and may come back. Roberta the Swift and BBB the Sharp may bound back, their physiologic challenges and personalities being different. They are decades apart in age. I'm often awed at how sharp many people I think of as old are (and how old that is grows in number as I/we age). Take Roger Angel writing in the New Yorker on baseball, in what I think of as in his nineties. Maybe not, but he is pretty much older. I think of Roberta as The Kid.

I, on the other hand, have forgotten some words at the moment decades ago, probably even in my twenties, but then I have a large vocabulary of recognition if not usage and probably distract myself with the search. Sometimes I nab the word, but maybe not right away, and when I do it is by having a sense of the starting letter. I talk in sets of swirls which reflect my mind, even without wine, and sometimes I lose track or tire, and that has been so for a long time. I'd just call me non linear. Harder to monitor loss..
However, I'm glad to be here and posting, re my fairly extreme alzheimer's heritage.

Not to butt into Roberta's thread: it's an interesting subject, go for it, Roberta.

I'm getting there, osso. Mebbe later or tomorrow.

Just to present my perspective on one issue already discussed, I don't view memory as intelligence. Yes, my memory isn't as good as it was. That's age.

Glad you find this interesting.

Roberta the Ponderer