“Get outta here; see me in six months.......”

Off to Bloomfield Family Practice (yesterday, Wednesday, May 27, 2009), my biannual visit with Dr. Yavorek (“yah-VORE-ik”).
“How are you, Mr. Hughes?”
“Well, all right, I guess.”
“Ya look okay to me; and your blood-pressure seems fine.
Altoona, PA, eh? The Railroaders’ Memorial Museum. That the museum in Scranton?”
(He grew up in Scranton.)
“Nope,” I say. “But I been there.”
“Worth going to?”
“Only if they still run steam excursions; otherwise forget it.”
“I see ya had your prostate biopsy.”
“Yeah, but that was a while ago,” I said.
“Last November,” he said. “But I see ya did a recent follow-up checkup at Urology Associates of Rochester.”
“PSA was higher then, but they said it wasn’t worth doing another biopsy,” I said.
“They poke around, and say I have an enlarged prostate.”
“I’m sure you do,” the doctor said. “It goes with aging.”
“Not what it was a few months ago,” I added. “Often I sleep all night without going to the bathroom.
There are a few things I should mention,” I said.
“—1) is that my feet get cold.”
“Lemme see.”
Remove running shoe and sock.
“Hmmm. They are pretty cold; but ya got excellent circulation.
Do your feet hurt when ya walk? Do ya have trouble walking?”
“No. Don’t forget I run; I still can.”
“Your hands are cold too. Probably just aging capillaries. Don’t worry about it.”
“—2) My balance seems to have gotten worse.”
“Seems that was compromised by your stroke.”
“It was.”
“Do ya have trouble walking? Do ya fall over?”
“No. I still pull my pants on one leg at a time, but I have to pay attention so I don’t fall.”
“So what medications are you taking; just the water-pill?”
“That’s all.”
“And aspirin?”
“81 mg.”
“Your cholesterol was 176 last time. I guess ya don’t need cholesterol medication.”
“And if ya were to suggest it, I’d give ya an argument,” I said.
“I’m sure you would. You and that damned Internet. How am I supposed to dispense wisdom if you guys are always questioning it?”
“Yeah, well that so-called ‘damned Internet’ was probably part of the reason my wife survived cancer.
My blood-pressure started climbing a few months ago, when I couldn’t do the YMCA.
But then I got back to the YMCA, and it fell back down.
Two 35-minute sessions each visit on a semi-elliptical. 800 calories total. They’re the only machine that gets my heart-rate up where it belongs without killing me.
The treadmills killed my back.”
“Ya seem pretty stable, Mr. Hughes. Get outta here, and see me in six months. And make sure ya see our receptionist on your way out.”
“That’ll be $10 copay.”

As always, a slew of errands got attached:
-a) was Victor Power Equipment to pick up a hinge-bracket I had ordered for the small Honda mower.
-b) was the Canandaigua National bank Honeoye Falls ATM. I was paying cash for everything, since the amounts were small.
-c) was Rite-Aid Pharmacy, to pick up a prescription I had called in earlier with their machine.
-d) was the hardware, to get stainless nuts and lockwashers for the hinge-bracket.
-e) was the famed Honeoye Falls MarketPlace supermarket, to buy bagged spinach and milk.

Apparently two things happened while I was away:

(Photo by my wife.)

-1) Collins Landscape arrived unannounced to remove our box-elder tree. (See picture.)
-2) The neighbor up the street came down to see if our Back 40 was dry enough for him to begin work with his tractors (one of which is a backhoe).
“Can’t the state remove that tree?” he asked. “It’s on their right-of-way.”
“I tried,” Linda said. “But they won’t remove it.”
“How about the utilities?”
“Electric yes, but electric is across the street.
That tree is fouling phone lines. The telephone company won’t trim it unless it’s actually damaged their lines.”

“Bloomfield” is a small rural village near where we live. It’s about three miles away.

RE: “Altoona, PA? The Railroaders’ Memorial Museum....... —Horseshoe Curve, west of Altoona (“al-TUNE-uh”), Pennsylvania, is by far the BEST railfan spot I have ever been to. (There is also an affiliated Railroaders’ Memorial Museum in Altoona, once the premier shop-town for the Pennsylvania Railroad.) —Horseshoe Curve is a national historic site. It was a trick used by the Pennsylvania Railroad to get over the Allegheny mountains without steep grades. Horseshoe Curve was opened in 1854, and is still in use. (I am a railfan, and have been since I was a child.) —There is also a railroad museum in Scranton, PA called Steamtown. It used to have steam-locomotive powered railroad excursions — don’t know if they still do — and I once rode same.

“PSA” is prostate-specific-antigen; a blood component that elevates if ya have prostate cancer. Taking your PSA level from a blood-draw is screening for prostate cancer. “Biopsy” is to actually look at cells taken from the prostate to see if they are cancerous.

RE: “I still can run.....” —Age 65.

I had a stroke October 26, 1993, and it slightly compromised my balance, among other things.

“The water-pill” is hydrochlorothiazide; a diuretic to help lower blood-pressure. I take one 25mg pill per day.

My wife of 41+ years, Linda, had lymphatic cancer. It was treatable with chemotherapy — she survived.

I work out in the Canandaigua YMCA exercise-gym.

The “hinge-bracket I had ordered for the small Honda mower” is a hinge-bracket that holds a small rubberized cover on the lawnmower deck so it will mulch. —I had to replace the entire mower-deck because it had rusted through. I had to destroy the original hinge-bracket to remove it; the bolts/nuts were rusted. The bracket was not in stock at Victor Power Equipment and had to be back-ordered.

“ATM” equals automated-teller-machine.

RE: “With their machine.......” —Reordering prescriptions at Rite-Aid Pharmacy can be done with a telephone machine.

“Honeoye Falls” is the nearest small town to where we live; about five miles away. It’s in western New York.

“MarketPlace” is a private supermarket in Honeoye Falls we often buy groceries at.

Collins Landscape is a large, long-standing landscape service.

A “box-elder tree” is a rogue maple, a weed-tree. The tree planted itself. The female trees (seed-bearing) attract box-elder bugs in great quantity.

RE: “The neighbor up the street came down to see if our Back 40 was dry enough for him to begin work with his tractors.....” —Our back-yard (the “Back 40,” which is well over an acre) has a drainage-ditch along the edge. It has partially filled in. Our neighbor up the street, who is retired, will dig it out for us. He has two tractors; one of which is a backhoe.