The good news

I have been away for a while. On December third of 2010, I had a muscle biopsy to find out finally what was wrong with me. At that time, they said that the material they took from my leg would be sent to a lab to find out what they could. They said it would take 6 weeks for the results.

Yesterday I went in to have the stitches removed.

To the surprise of the doctor and me, the results of the biopsy were back.

Comment: The features of denervation atrophy in this biopsy are angular, atrophic fibers of both fiber types, some of which have granular NSE staining. There are also scattered necrotic fibers, bigers undergoing phagocytosis, regenerating fibers, and mildly increased numbers of internal nuclei. No inflammation is identified. these myopathic features are consistant with a toxic myopathy, and in the context of his clinical history are consistant with a statin-induced myopathy.

In other words, my loss of muscle strength is probably related to taking a statin which I have been taking for Cholestoral.

I have stopped that medication. I am taking fish oil which will help some.

Now I may be able to build up my strength with exercise.

I am not great at regular exercise but hope to do some serious attempts at it.

Thanks for your prayers and I will keep in touch.

The Wedding

So the wedding is over. It was beautiful. The bride and my other two daughters were beautiful. The Jr. brides maid was beautiful. The flower girl was beautiful. The maid of honor was beautiful. The Groom was hamsome.

We ate wedding cake for a week after and are just finishing up the food that was left over after feeding our friends and family.

We are starting to recover. It seems like all we did for the last six months was get ready for the wedding. Everyone said it was beautiful so we must have done some things right.

I would tell you what it takes to put on a wedding but I am saving that for the book.

Love to all

Minus 2 days

Saturday it the wedding. Everything we have done for the last two months have been geared to the wedding. Well, almost. We did go to another wedding in that time.

Now we are making food arrangements, flower arrangements and manacures and hair cuts and what do we think we forgot lists.

When the wedding is over, mom and I are going on a honeymoon and the kids can clean up the mess.

Stand by.....

On the road again, again

My bride and I are leaving before sunrise to meet with TSA people at the airport and give them our unlocked luggage so they can go through it before we fly to a foreign land, Minnesota. Then we will have some time for a breakfast before taking our flight.

It will be an interesting weekend. We are going to have a dinner with my mother-in-law to wish her a happy 92nd birthday.

The next day we go to a wedding for our niece.

Saturday, another birthday party for our aunt Lil who will be 95.

Sunday, dinner with friends and Monday fly home.

Bon Voyage......

No brown pants

I looked in my closet and found that I did not have any brown pants. I am going to a wedding this weekend and have a nice camel (that's a color) jacket and wanted to have some brown slacks to go with it. I will pop down to the store and buy some.

When I looked and looked for brown pants in my favorite store, I found none. I even asked a person in the store expecting her to say, "Oh those are in the brown pant section. Let me show you."

Instead she said, "arn't there any brown pants?"

I said, "None that I can find."

To her credit, she went with me to look. Then she said she would look on line to see if she could order me some. They have no brown pants in their system.

I left and went to another store. It was a quiet little shop with no customers but an attentative clerk. I told her that I wanted some brown pants.

She took me to the pants section but there were no brown pants. She also offered to get on line and see if she could order me some. I had not told either clerk that I was looking for pants to wear this weekend.

Almost as an after thought, she went over to a corner of the store and found a few pair of brown slacks. This is not always the answer to the search. The next thing I needed was a pair of pants in my size.

I found a pair in my size.

Forget about getting them on sale.

Now if you see someone wearing brown pants this weekend, it might be me.

later......

The Rooster

When we were children, mother regularly purchased a hundred baby chicks from mail order. They were brought by the mail man in a box that was divided into 4 sections with 25 baby chicks in each section. She ordered pullets. For those of you who don't know, pullets are girl chicks. Selecting the sex of a baby chick is more art than science. That means than in every batch of a hundred baby chicks there was a possibility that one or two of them would be roosters. This is a story about one of those roosters.

We, of course, couldn’t tell what they were until they got older. Eventually, this one chick was taller, had different feathers and also had a large dose of attitude. As he reached the age of teenager in chicken age, his hormones kicked in and he was pretty sure that he was the greatest thing in the barn yard. When we went into the barn, he would make a run at us with his wings outstretched hoping that this gesture would be sufficient to maintain his dominance.

My brother, Paul, and I decided that his fragile ego needed reinforcement. So, whenever this rooster came charging at us, we would scream and run to the end of the barn away from him. This did wonders for his sense of wellbeing.

When we had to be in the barn for some work, we ignored the rooster and he more or less ignored us, as well. However, when he saw mother or one of our sisters come into the barn, he recognized that they were just like pullets and needed to aggressively chase them from the barn. He found out that when he chased our sisters, they screamed and ran away. So far, he had a pretty good understanding of the way of the world. Roosters flared their wings and the world fled screaming away.

Mother mentioned this to Dad. Dad didn’t know what the problem was. Mother said that the rooster was preventing her and the girls from going into the barn.

Dad had no personal knowledge of this behavior by the rooster so he was hard pressed to do anything about it.

One day, on a Sunday, before going to mass, dad went into the barn to drop down some hay from the haymow. As he was going up the stairs, he opened the door into the haymow which opened above the stairs. Imagine a door laying on the floor and as you went up the stairs, you pushed up the door and used the stick that was there to hold the door open.

The rooster decided that this person seemed to be unafraid so it was time to take direct action. Direct action to a young rooster is to use the little spurs that nature put on the inside of his legs and attacked dad’s leg. It was somewhat effective. Dad noticed. Dad also still had the stick in his hand that was supposed to hold up the door. It was quickly converted to a weapon to ward off an attacking rooster.

The rooster never woke up.

Dad told mother that he had killed the rooster. Mother was glad and there was rejoicing between the sisters all the way to church. Dad said “I hope I didn’t kill it.” “Why my mother asked?” Dad said, “Because I would like to kill it again.”

The Bicycle

I have been feeling quite sad because my oldest daughter has taken to a road adventure. She feels that she is following the Lord. She is perhaps the most spirit filled person I know. At the same time, I feel that each day that you run to the end of the dock and fall in the lake. Sooner or later that you might try something else.

She lives in a large (gas hog) van. It has shades on the windows and a bed in the back and other than not having a bathroom it is like a very small RV.

Today I saw a girl riding a bicycle. She had two large saddle bags (possibly a tent and a bed roll) and a small trailer with other worldly possessions. I thought, "She doesn't even have a van."

Lord, take care of her until she comes home.

The missing month

We have a granddaughter that comes to visit us for a couple of weeks at a time and is gone a couple of weeks at a time.

She is a lovely young lady who is 5 years old going on 25. She likes to go to the park, watch television and play games. We miss her when she is gone and sometimes overwhelmed when she is with us. I am sure her father feels the same way.

She was born on September 11th. That was a sad day since 2001 but is has been a happy date since this little girl was born.

I really should not single out this one grandchild because we have 5 grandchildren and one great grandchild and we love them all.

Lots of love……

Wedding Plans

Our youngest daughter is getting married.

Being the father of the bride is not a very involved process. Usually it means keeping my mouth shut and my check book open.

I have been given some tasks to perform that I know how to do so I am grateful. Sometimes I forget and make some suggestions but I really should know better.

We are happy for the young couple and like them both so we hope we never become an in-law problem.

God help us in the coming months…..

Its been a while

My oldest daughter left on a journey yesterday. She has done this before and survived. She is following the call of the Lord. Not the secure kind of joining a convent somewhere but a road trip to where ever the Lord prompts her.

We miss her.

She stayed with us for several months and shared with us her trials of a job that challenged her patience and her faith. She and we prayed a lot that it would get better but it never did.

She has a blog so we can follow her each day. Hopefully, she will be more faithful than I have been in keeping my blog current.

Sunday we heard from our grandson. He was calling from a hospital. He had totaled his motorcycle on a road in Montana. The Lord saw fit to have him wearing his helmet and his leathers. He has several stitches but no broken bones. I believe that the totaled bike may be God’s way of saying “Stay Off of it!!”

Married 70 years

We celebrated my in-laws' 70th wedding anniversary. Actually its not until Sept but the guests could only come this week. Not many who were at the wedding are around today. They will both be 92 this year. They both drive cars and were delivering meals on wheels a few years ago.

We hit the road back home on Monday and are planning on going through YELLOWSTONE park. We know it takes a full day to go through it but will press on.

We have a daughter and grandson with us so we decided to be tourists.

Safe driving.....

Ribs

We are on vacation in Wyoming and last night my brother in law made his famous (to all of us who had them) ribs. Two pigs gave up some mighty, meaty ribs plus a recipe for great ribs. Not telling you the recipe for your own good. While we fed quite a few, we still had some left over. They go into the crock pot tomorrow.

The reason for this trip is to help in laws celebrate 70th wedding anniversary. They both will celebrate their 92nd birthdays this year. All three of their surviving children will be here for it along with grandchildren, great grands and great greats.

lots of love .....

On the Road Again

Tomorrow, at the early crack of dawn, or before, my bride, my oldest daughter and I will head out for Wyoming. We plan on going to Greybull, Wyoming to help my in-laws celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary. Both will be 92 this year. You almost have to be that old to cram seventy years of marriage into a life time. My father lived to be 93 and his mother lived to be 103 so we may some good genes. I am not sure my money will last that long.

My wife said she needs at least another day to get ready. I will try to help her. I haven't started to panic but I am accustomed to not bringing some things I planned on. I do note that if I forget to take my CPAP breathing equipment, we WILL be coming back to get it.

I put is on my check list.

Now if I can only remember to check the check list before I leave.

Fire Cracker

A year ago we went up to see our great grandson and his mother for the 4th of July. They live in Bremerton and the husband and Papa joins them when he is not out to sea playing Navy. The great grandson was only a year and a half old but he really liked the fireworks up near their home. In Oregon, the is a bunch of sparkle sounds interupted by big booms. In Oregon, everyone is in the act and there is no let up from late afternoon until after midnight.

We had a tame 4th and went out at dusk with the little grand daughter and fired off the box of "Oregon" fireworks. "Oregon" means that you could almost hold them under your tongue while you light it. It is heavy on smoke and quiet as a whisper. I am sure some of my neighbors went across a bridge to get some of their fireworks.

There are big fireworks near Portland and Vancouver, WA that can be seen from our house forty miles away. No sound, just color. The best was on the television which went on and on and on and had music in the background.

Physical Theropy

I have been to two sessions of physical theropy. The good news is that most of the first set could be done in bed. The bad news is that I am not programmed to get into bed a couple times a day. I don't even take naps any more. Well sometimes I do but then I nap and not do PT. The next week, I have some stand up (or squat) exercises but I have to do the bed ones, too.

I am a big baby. I want to get well but I would like the "take a shot" or "eat this pill" method.

Next time you look for me and I am in bed. I might just be doing physical theropy. Don't wake me.

God Bless.....

Happy reproductive antiquity day

Perhaps a crude reference to father's day but I thought it was funny. I heard a radio show on Saturday and they mentioned that about 90% of the male mammals don't have much to do with their offspring. They don't know what they are missing. The female alligator lays about a thousand eggs. The male alligator eats about 990 of them. We would be up to our behind in alligators if this were not true. I love my children, my grand children and my great grand child but I never thought of them as food.

Happy Father's Day to the fathers out there.

God bless....

No news is no news

So my much awaited doctor appointment came. I felt that I was worse off than I had been but the doctor said he felt that I was stronger than when I saw him last. He ordered another CK blood test. He called me back in the afternoon as he was departing for a week vacation and told me the CK was about 4000. I suspect that is not good. He was going to arrange for me to see another doctor who would schedule a biopsy. This biopsy is above my legs and the muscles that pull up my legs or in my case don't pull up my legs. So far I haven't heard from them. My primary care Physician office called to tell me the results that I already got from the specialist. Since they were anxious to do something for me, I suggested that they extend the referal so I could go back to see the specialist when he returns from his vacation. I am happy with my PCP and the specialist but it is taking a lot of time to get to closure.

God Bless......

Rain Rain go away

On Friday, I go to see the doctor about my legs. As you may know, I went to see him a month ago. He determined that I have some form of Myopathy but did not know what kind. At that time, I had been feeling a lot better but was coming off of 10 days on a steroid and been off of Lovastaten for the same time. He did not know which was making me feel better. Now I am back where I was when I went to my PCP 6 weeks ago.

You know how you find that when you have a sore thumb, you bang it about a dozen times a day? Well, stairs are starting to not be my friend. You would be surprised how many stairs I encounter each day.

We may have to sell our house of stairs and get on the level.

God Bless

Prayers for the missing boy

Portland people are anxious about the little second grader that has been missing for few days. I am praying that this story will end soon with a happy ending. We watch the television and hear on the spot news coverage and are frustrated that all that they tell us has been reported before.

Thirty some years ago, a seven year old boy, the only son of single mother went missing. We prayed then as we do now. At that time, the Lord chose to bring him home instead of returning him to his mother and his body was found about seven days after he went missing. They found the guy who killed him and he was sent to jail.

About a month after the news of his death, my daughter received a letter from the mother of the boy. She thanked her for the nice letter she had sent and mentioned that in all of Portland, my daughter was the only one who sent her a letter offering comfort to her. I asked the little 11 year old daughter how she knew how to get a letter to her. She said that her address was in the paper.

Try on the hat of the parents of the little missing boy and continue in your prayers for his safe return.

God Bless

Off to the flowers

I haven't heard any more about my health issues. I still have trouble getting up from wherever I am. I have been trying to always use both feet to go up and down stairs. My right leg is stronger so sometimes I make it do the lion's share.

We are thinking of what to do this day. While the weather is threatening, it still seems like we could do something outside. We are thinking of going to the Iris festival near Salem.

Generally we look forward to these excursions.

I will keep you posted....

You fell out of what!!

I fell out of bed.

I sleep mostly on my side and usually change sides several times during the night. So the other night while I was doing one of these changes, I rolled over to a place where there was no bed. Gravity being what it is, I went down to the floor. I landed on the carpet mostly O.K. but while I was safely down on the floor, my feet were doing everything they could to catch up. My foot dove toe first into the heating grate. Not wanting to make any more of an already embarrassing situation, I climbed into bed and went to sleep. When I got up the next morning and had a throbbing toe. The next evening I took a more complete look and found that I had two really red toes.

I am over the embarrassment, but am still limping.

More to come….

Full day on Friday

I am a member of Toastmasters and as such, I rise at 5am, get ready, stop off for a breakfast at the local restaurant and show up at Toastmasters at 6:45am. After that, I went to mass in Sherwood, then headed over to see my neurologist. That was some experience. We talked for about a half hour and then he invited me over to lay down on his bed. His equipment included a measuring tape, a few electrodes and a small tazer. He didn't ask if the tazer was working because each jolt was enough to jump start a pickup truck.

The result of his exam is that he doesn't know if the Predazone worked or whether there was some other reason I had been feeling better. He doesn’t think I have any Myositis but may have a Myopathy. I guess there are several to choose from. I took some blood tests to see if he can figure it out.

More to come….

Mother's Day

We had the most beautiful weather for Mother's day. My bride and two of my mother daughters went to a wonderful brunch. Linda had to work but I wished her happy mother's day.

I got the carving done so my little guy has a head.

About IBM

I am in the 5th day of taking Predazone which was given me to see if I respond. If I do, it rules out Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM) but does not necessarily assure a proper diagnosis. I will see a nerve doc to see what other things that might be wrong with me. I often wonder if there are some things that one ought not to know.

I have a stress test on Wednesday. I hope that goes well. I think they run me on a treadmill until I drop or show me how much it costs and that the insurance won’t cover it. That would be a lot of stress.

We will see…

A very nice day

When I first moved to Oregon, the locals told me that you can always know what the weather will be like today. "Just look to Mount Hood, " They said. "If you can see mount hood, it is going to rain today." "It you can't see mount hood, it means it is already raining."

There is also a question asked, "What are two rainy days in a row in Oregon?" The answer is "a Weekend."

It is odd, I suppose, that I would tell rain stories on a day that is absolutely beautiful. It is warm and not much wind with puffy clouds and great visibility. I can see mount St. Helens which is about 85 miles away. Mount hood is closer but trees and houses prevent me from seeing it.

A few years ago, I carved a little cowboy. I carved the head separately so I could turn the head in various directions. Eventually, the head got lost. My little grand daughter who is 5 years old found the body and she said she did not like to see a body without a head. I tend to agree with her, so I think I will carve a head today.

God Bless you all

IBM

I sort of always felt I wanted some IBM but be careful for what you wish for. I have been losing some of the use of my legs lately. It seemed like little things like it being a little harder to get up when I got down on the floor to reach something. I was little slow going up and down stairs. I became aware of this while I was taking Physical Therapy for a weak knee. In fact, the leg I was having trouble with when I started PT is now my strongest leg. I had a doctor appointment last week so I waited until them to bring it up. I told the doctor "You know when you are going to do 10 reps of an exercise and you have done nine and are not sure if you can make the next one? Well, that's how I start out." Her first diagnosis was to have me do a stress test to see if my heart was O.K. Then she had me take another blood test to see if I might have her first guess. Got a call in the afternoon and said I was negative for malady she was looking for so I should drop my cholesterol meds, drink plenty of water over the weekend and go in for fasting blood work on Monday morning. Monday afternoon, she called and said she was going to treat me for Poly myositis. If that is what I have, the steroid treatment should correct it. If not, then I may have Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM). My dosage is 3 pills a day for three days, 2 pills a day for three days and then a pill a day for three days. So I should see some result by the end of 9 days or It might be IBM for which they currently don’t have medication for.

The good news is that it is not fatal. You don’t die from it but you might lose your balance and fall down and when you are 69 years old, that may not be pretty.

I will keep you posted.

JoAnn's Surgery

JoAnn is being operated on her knee (fourth since Knee replacement) as I write this. She was hopeful and upbeat when I talked to her on Tuesday. She said she would be mostly out of it the rest of today so I will go see her at the hospital on Thursday. Keep her in your prayes.

Keep JoAnn in your prayers

I talked to sister JoAnn and she has to have another operation. A little background: She had a knee replacement just before Christmas in 2009. She was on the way to recovery when she fell on that knee and broke her knee cap. She had another operation to repair that and was not allowed to bend her knee for 6 weeks and then to start her physical Theropy. She went to the doctor this week and found that her knee cap has separated and needs to be operated on again. She will have the surgery on May 5th. This means that she will probably be laid up into July 2010. Needless to say, She is bummed.

It took some doing....

Learning how to do a post is hard for an old ..... like me. I hope that I get the hang of it so that reading this post won't be a burden tot he followers.

Welcome to Family Nollette

I am the oldest son of LeRoy and Josephine Nollette. LeRoy was the son of Isaac and Albina Nollette. I have 5 brothers and 5 sisters. It is my hope that this blog will be valuable to them.