Yep.  Another quite week here in the cornfields.  At least as far as my recovery is concerned (no biology updates needed).  As far as work, well….

My boss was on vacation this week, so I was his designated back-up.  Between his scheduled meetings and my own, I spent from 7 AM to 3 PM in back to back meetings–even one that ran through lunch (11-1).  Ugh.

We also said good-bye to another coworker who opted to head to Seattle and a new opportunity there.

Maybe I should start a countdown…  7 weeks from today, I should have my next PSA results.  That’s not all that far off.

So that’s about it from here for now.

Okay, I’m back in my bad habit of being late on my posting.  Last night was another farewell party for a coworker who’s decided to pursue another opportunity, so I wasn’t thinking much about updating my blog.

This is the third person (out of six in that role) that has left since the end of March.   I don’t know that I need to say anything more about what’s happening at work.

It actually was a pretty boring week here in the heartland.  Not much to report–not even on the biology front.  It makes me wonder if I shouldn’t switch to a monthly format.

I may hold off on that until my next PSA test which is scheduled for 4 August, with the results appointment on 11 August.  Assuming everything’s okay then, it may be time to just bring this journey to a close. 

Thoughts from the peanut gallery?  🙂

Yea!  I remembered to update my blog on time this week!  Woo-hoo!  Of course, it helps that I’m sitting at home instead of in some airport terminal or on the road.

Yesterday I received a surprise call from the hospital I was in.  “Will you need financial assistance to pay off your $14,000 balance?”

“HUH?!?!?”

I’m still battling with the insurance and hospital over my second admission back in January.  Anthem says they didn’t do a pre-authorization for my trip to the emergency room, so therefore they’re not going to pay until they get the medical records to review.  I’ve been on the phone with the hospital several times over the last few months to try to get them to do that, and it hasn’t happened yet.

Then when I got home today, there was a bill in the mail from the X-ray service provider marked in big bold “PAST DUE.”  I had spoken with them and they put my account on hold the last time we talked, pending the resolution with the Anthem.

ARGGHHH.

And that’s all that I’ve got to say about that.

Man, I’m really slipping here, aren’t I???

No, I wasn’t traveling this week–finally.  I think I just got wrapped up in getting caught up from all the recent trips that I’ve made, plus work has been keeping me busy as we put the finishing touches on our first draft of our FY 2012 business plan.  In other words, I’ve been living in my spreadsheet.

That said, we reset our vacation calendar on 1 June, so I’m back to having 4 weeks of vacation on the books!  Woo-hoo!  🙂   Nothing planned yet, but wait…

Okay, I’m bad.  I was traveling again last Thursday (and through last night) and spaced doing my update until I was prompted by an email from a friend yesterday.

Perhaps I need to get on a monthly schedule now that things seem to have calmed down for the most part. 

Although I’ll have to admit that, after writing the last update to this blog, boasting about going padless for several weeks, I went outside to pull a few overgrown shrubs out of the landscaping in the front yard and found that heavy physical activity can cause leaks.  But other than that, I remain relatively “dry” through normal daily activities.  Guess I just need to get a bit more active so my muscles can adapt and get stronger.

Yes, I’ve been on the road yet again.  This time, it was back to Chicago for my oldest nephew’s wedding on Sunday.

It was a very nice, small affair in an intimate chapel followed by dinner and one of their favorite restaurants.  The wacky Chicago spring weather could have cooperated a bit more.  Overcast, windy, cold (40-degrees) and rain before the ceremony.  Just overcast, windy, and cold after the ceremony.

Of course, with the wedding on Sunday, that meant that I just had to take another vacation day on Monday.

After having lunch with my sister, I took the scenic route back, stopping in the town of Warsaw, Indiana to check out a lakefront home of one of the relatives.  Very nice.  I contacted a friend in nearby Ft. Wayne to see if she might be available for dinner, but she was already booked.  (That’s one of the problems with spur-of-the-moment ideas–not everything works out.)

Work has been busy as we’re preparing the FY 2012 budget plan.  That meant another couple of days buried in my mega-spreadsheet.  (With more to come.)

The incontinence continues to improve to the point where I’ve not worn a pad since the wedding on Sunday (and that was for insurance purposes).  No incidents at home or work, so that’s good.  Still, I find myself running to the bathroom more frequently just to drain my bladder and make sure that there’s only minimal “ammunition” available for a leak should one occur.  Given a bit more time, the confidence level will go up.

So that’s it for this week.

First, apologies for last week’s truncated post.  I started it on Tuesday, forgot about it on Wednesday, and just hit the “Publish Post” button on Thursday as I was sitting on the beach in Coronado, California.

Yep.  I spread my wings and took my first post-surgery flight to San Diego on Wednesday night for a five day weekend in paradise.  Two weeks ago, I was pretty much on the Atlantic Ocean; this week, the Pacific.

I stayed near my old apartment on the island and just spent Thursday and Friday walking up and down Orange Avenue and the beach.  It was great.  Very relaxing.  On Saturday, I checked out of the hotel and spent the next two nights with some friends that I served with when I was in the Navy.  It was great to see them again.

Photos are available via the link to the right and below.

I did have some concerns over getting through security at the airport with an absorbant pad shoved down my pants in case I got the full body scanner treatment, so I took a chance and went to the airport without wearing one.

As fate would have it, I did get the full body scanner screening and made it through just fine without it.  Afterwards, I asked the TSA agent what would happen if I had to wear the pad through the scanner.  He explained that I would be taking into a private screening area and be given a more thorough personal screening in there.

Even though I had extra pads in my carry-on bag, I opted not to wear one during the entire flight and, save a cough-induced leak, did quite well.

For the return trip, I did the same thing, but I could tell that it might be a leaky day, so I took a pad out of my carry-on, hit the men’s room, and put it in place.

Walking several miles in an afternoon didn’t seem to bother me too much at all.  I need to do more of that if the rain around here would only stop.

Things are getting better with time…  

So that’s it for this week.

And, no, I’m not talking about my incontinence…. 

We’ve had rain and storms for 9 of the last 10 days, putting us well above our average rainfall for April (3 inches/8 cm)–we’ve had over 12 inches/30.5 cm so far and the month isn’t even over!!  In fact, it’s the rainiest month on record for Cincinnati–ever. 

Needless to say, everyone’s getting a little fed up with the weather lately.  I spent pretty much the entire three-day Easter weekend hanging out around the house.

Most of the last week has been spent on the road.  Yep.  I managed to take my first post-surgery road trip and it went pretty well.

I actually left on Wednesday night (and used the scheduling feature to automatically post my blog post on Thursday) and headed south into Kentucky.  I spent the night in London, KY and Thursday morning headed to Cumberland Gap National Park.  The dogwoods and redbuds were in full bloom, so there were explosions of white, pink, and purple mixed into the forests that were just beginning to turn green.

I stopped at the Abraham Lincoln Museum on the campus of Lincoln Memorial Universaity in the tiny town of Harrogate, TN before heading off to Charlottesville, VA to visit Thomas Jefferson’s home at Monticello.  Impressive.

From there, I became reacquainted with the Beltway traffic in the greater Washington, DC area as I visited a former coworker and her husband, and a college/Navy buddy whom I hadn’t seen since around 1989 (we guessed). 

On Saturday, we hit the Museum of American History (part of the Smithsonian) and saw the Abraham Lincoln exhibit; the actual Star Spangled Banner that was flying over Ft. McHenry and inspired Francis Scott Key to write his poem; and saw the ruby red slippers that Judy Garland wore in the “Wizard of Oz.”

On the way home, I stopped to see Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece, Fallingwater, in Mill Run, PA.  Awesome.  I spent the night near Pittsburgh and then headed home Tuesday afternoon.

You can check out photos from the trip using the link to my photos to the right.  (Don’t worry–there’s only 43 of them!)

Physically, I did pretty well most days on the trip.  I could tell that I need to walk more to build up my endurance.  Most of the days, the incontinence was minimal, but there were one or two days where, after an extended period of walking around all day long, my body got tired and the minor leaks increased.  Again, take it gradually and build up my strength.

Finally, it’s been a sad day, as today marks the fifth anniversary of Mom’s passing…  We miss you, Mom.