Catheter out and Other Stuff

This is most likely a small thing for a lot of people, but for me it was simply the first time for everything.

Melissa from urology had suggested yesterday that I try to remove my catheter on my own this morning.  I had about a dozen syringes left over from the nefrostimy, so I was able to deflate the catherter and it pulled out wthout any fuss.  Again, not a big deal, just a first for me.

I had my first visit with my in home physical therapist shortly after and we worked on balance.  Clearly I depend on my eyes more than I thought, and there's quite a bit of work to do in this regard.

Today was another first as my co-worker, Dustin, dropped off his fifteen month old daughter for Laura and Kate to watch.  The objective was so that Laura could continue to watch the baby while keeping an eye on me.  She's a very pleasant baby, and while I don't expect to live long enough to see any of my own grand children, it was fun to play a bit more of a grand-fatherly role.  I don't think she'll be a bother to me if I need any rest or anything, so she's very welcome to the home.  The dogs enjoy her company, and she likes our dogs just fine.  I thinks she's having a lot of fun.

If Dustin feels OK with it, I'll likely post some pictures.  It's just that I am a privacy nut, and would want to be sure I had permission to do that first.

I managed to get most of the bills paid today.  The Verizon bill is currently divided into two accounts, with the kids being all on one and Laura and I on the other,  I
m going to make the kids that work start to pay me for thier phones, as the bill is $331 this month just for them.

However, I am current on my mortgage and utilities, including Time Warner, so I will be maintaing my internet so I can continue these posts and everything else.  Face it, for me the internet is  huge part of my life that I won't be able to dispense with, and I expect to be more dependant on it s my physcal activity reduces some.

I have updated my short term disability provider yesterday with all the hospital updates from last week, so I expect the claim to continue shortly,

Oh and I also got some help from the Housing Association.  While I am some $600 arrears in my HOA dues from September, they are willing to wave all late and attourney fees provided I get current with the $600, which I still have saved in my account.

I need to check on my Social Security Status soon, but I feel a lot of things are comming together quite well.

I thank Pat Crawford for having set up a gofundme.com account and we've recieved sigificant contributions from it - the problem for me though is thatis is somehow tied in with facebook, and I refuse to get invovled with facebook so I have no idea how to access the information, and Laura's pretty ignorant about it too.  She can't tell me where the URL is or how to get it, she just sccops up the money into her account, and I have no visiblity to where it come from.

I'd like to get that fixed, because I owe a great deal of gratitude to all these benefators, but I can't say anything about it, if i can't know who you are.  I can say that Laura used $590.16 to pay down the co-pay owed to the Urologist.  That was a bit better than half our outstanding balance which is now $407.  This is significant as the Urologist's office manager was putting up road blocks and witholding my medical records so that Social Security (SSA) could not review them and make a determination.  The medical staff was surprised that someone was being overzeallous in the bill collecting, and is trying to get this fixed so I can hear from SSA, settle my income and work on payment plans.  It just will take a little time, but it's annoying when someone gets this myopic about the process and does something this collossaly dumb.  I just have to offer it up and be a little patient while we work the problem.

So again, my spirits are as high as they can be, I'm tremendously optimistic about the future and if anything, these small stuggles are just something to do to keep me entertained anyway!

Pax vobiscum