Sudokuaholics Anonymous 11

'Hope forever tells us that tomorrow will be better'
Richard Daly

Heidi, I'll second what CynB said. It is definitely good news - as far as it goes. Here's hope that more tests determine the reason your body isn't making blood at the rate you need is something minor and easily changed! In the meantime, I hope you're enjoying the little cria!

Great TOPP, CynB! So true and so appropriate!

Thinking of all of our Sudoku friends and sending along lots of and {{{{{HUGS}}}}}! Take care!

Here's to a better tomorrow!

Thanks to large amounts of iron supplementation, the leg pain and cramping is now gone. It was caused by the severe anemia. But because of the low blood production, it's still a looming threat to reoccur.

Heidi, I'm glad your leg cramps are gone. I hope that they do not return. Fingers crossed.

Heidi, what wonderful news that your leg pain and cramping are gone! With luck, the large amounts of iron supplementation will continue to keep the pain and cramping away! Will you be able to get enough iron through diet, or will you need to continue the supplements?

Our weather has become quite chilly for autumn. Current temperature at 10:30 pm is 54 degrees F (12.2 degrees C). The temperature inside the house is about 71 degrees F (around 12 degrees C, I think). With the outside temperature dropping overnight, I better get some blankets out. I suspect the temperature will remain a bit higher than that for Heidi, and possibly lower for DOrA.

Thinking of Everyone and sending healing energy, warm {{{{{HUGS}}}}}, positive thoughts, prayers, and . Take care, Everyone, and stay healthy.

Sorry for my typo last night. I think 71 degrees F is actually about 21.6 degrees C.

I hope everyone is well and healthy and enjoying appropriate weather for wherever you are!

Thinking of Everyone and sending lots of , {{{{{HUGS}}}}}, healing energy, prayers, and positive thoughts! Take care, Everyone!

Our weather has cooled off, too. We're having highs around 70˚F and tonight's low is supposed to hit 44˚F. Nice.
I worked on cleaning out my fish pond today. Long overdue. Still have another day's work on it, but it IS looking better. And the fish look happier already.
My stupid bull went thru' a fence today and is in with a neighbor's heifers. I'm going to try to catch him tomorrow afternoon after I get home from taking Robert to a doctor's appointment. Then I get to work on fence repairs.

Wednesday I'm having the repeat blood tests and Thursday I'm having another test done. I just want to get my body back to normal functioning, with the correct amount of blood in it.

We have a frost warning for tonight. I don't remember one this early in the year. Normally we don't get our first frost until late October or early November.

Blood work done. Tomorrow morning is the small intestine follow thru'. I'm dreading that since I have NO idea what it entails.

Just read up on it. I have to drink barium at regular intervals while they take x-rays. It's non-invasive. But it can take 4 hours. I'm hoping it will take less time since with a tiny stomach, the barium will pass through it faster.

The guy who leases the pasture where my bull ended up called Mike this morning. He trapped the bull and has him caught. Mike and I will retrieve him this afternoon.

What a bloody rodeo! That stupid bull was in with about 40 of the wildest heifers I've ever seen. He was spooky to begin with, but his brain is gone now. He's a fence jumper and he attacked both of us. He's now locked in a small pen in my barn and he will be leaving here.... preferably this weekend.

The Small Intestine Follow Through went smoothly and quickly. Because of my tiny stomach, the barium passed thru' faster than normal and the test took less than 2 hours. The doctor in charge said everything looked perfect, so we have now completely rulled out leaks and tumors causing the low blood in my body. Now we have to figure out why my body is not producing enough blood, and fix the problem.

Heidi, I'm glad to hear that that all tests so far have had good results. I hope there is a simple solution eventually to fix the problem. It's so nice to see you posting more often on here.
Take care when you get rid of that bull on the weekend!
Colin went back to work on Wednesday and is coping well. He even worked 10 hours yesterday and still came home happy. I realise that this heart problem of his started a while ago and just drained him of energy - obvious now that we know that his heart was only pumping at 20% capacity. He was coming home exhausted, cranky and miserable. He was hard to deal with at times. I have my real husband back now! Woohoo!

Heidi, it's wonderful to read that the tests went well so far. I hope they can soon discover what's causing the problem and get it sorted our so you can return to much more normal experiences. But I'm SO sorry to hear about the bull and his escapades. I'm hoping you'll be able to get a decent price for him when you take him to the sale.

CynB, that's fantastic news about Colin! I hope the 'new and improved' version can stick around for a long time! Has he begun to think about retirement? (I'm sorry; I really don't have a good idea of his age or when he can retire.P

Speaking of retiring, it's time for me to head to bed. I hope everyone is well and staying healthy! Take care, Everyone! Sending healing energy, {{{{{HUGS}}}}}, positive thoughts, prayers, and for Everyone!

What wonderful news about Col, CynB!!!! The right diagnosis and solution can dramatically change a person's life for the better.

I forgot to tell you all that the stupid bull (Packer) is also a dud as a stud. He's been in with my cows for 4 months, and not a single one is pregnant. He was semen tested, and is supposedly highly fertile, so the problem might be between his ears. I will not be having a Spring calf crop next year, thanks to him.

Stupid Bull!! Disappointing that he's even a dud at reproduction.
Julie, Col is 10 years younger than me so he still has a few more years to work yet. I feel confident that he'll be able to keep going that long now, In recent times I was very worried without realising that his heart was failing.

I took Packer (the stupid bull) into the Vet Clinic this morning for a BSE (breeding soundness exam), to get answers as to why he was not getting cows bred. He failed the exam on motility of sperm. His ''swimmers'' weren't swimming. They were barely wiggling. So I took him from the Vet Clinic to the sale barn, to be sold on Monday.
I lucked out at the sale barn. In the past, they accepted animals on Saturday and Sunday for the Monday sale, but apparently they recently stopped accepting them on Saturdays. I showed up early Saturday afternoon, and by chance one of their employees had showed up there to do office work and had left the front gate open. I was surprised to see the place deserted, and called their office number, and the employee told me that since I was there, I could unload him myself and told me which pen to put him in. It already had hay and water in it. He took all my information over the phone. Once Packer was unloaded, the employee followed me out and locked the front gates behind me. I'm SO glad I didn't have to take the bull back home and return tomorrow.

Packer needs a ''last name''. How about T-bone, Ribeye, Porterhouse or Hamburger.

Good news, for me, from Florida. My friend, in the Ft Meyers area, suffered some damage and flooding, but they are OK.

I'm going to the sale barn to watch that stupid bull sell. I hope he at least brings a decent price.

Great news about Colin and looking forward to hearing Heid's problems are solved. All o.k. here, weather slowly getting better and no. 1 son home until next week then off to Chile. No. 2 son off to Thailand again on he same day so will be quiet in our household. Planning on going to Queensland for a couple of weeks at the end of this month if we can get away. Had another skin cancer removed and had stitches out yesterday (15 of the blighters) but no radiation this time thank goodness as we are now a fair way from the hospital.
Have seen some photos of Florida - must be dreadful for the people living there. This crazy weather we are all having - didn't want to believe in climate change but now it seems a foregone conclusion.
Hope you are all well, cheers for now.

Just a quick Hello and Good Night! Take care, Everyone!

The Florida death toll from hurricane Ian is now over 100, and still rising. Horrific!!!

Packer, the stupid bull, didn't bring as much as I'd hoped. Thanks to his squirrelly, hyper disposition, he had worried off weight and didn't look that good. Robert went with me to the sale, and we enjoyed ourselves, though I was surprised at some of the animals that people brought there. Two steers walked in the ring, stone blind, with obvious neurological issues, and kept walking in tight circles and regularly falling over. Multiple animals had massive tumors. Several had severe pink-eye that should have been treated 2 weeks before the sale so they could have been sold for more than double what they brought. One heifer had a broken leg (sold for $10) and one had a severe wire laceration to a leg. But most were in excellent condition. We're planning on going back in 2 weeks and buying 3 small heifers to help add to my herd numbers, since I won't have a Spring calf crop.

Horrific is right Heidi - it is hard to fathom that amount of people gone.
Sorry you didn't get as much as you wanted for Packer but at least you don't have to worry what he will get up to next. No spring calves will give your heifers a long break - will you try them with another bull or will that be too late in the season?
Glad it was you at the sales - I would probably have ended up with a lot of pitiful creatures for Edgar's Mission - animal rescue farm in Melbourne that takes on the most injured and sad animals of all kinds.
Have hounded hubby into finally getting another dogafter we have a short holiday up north - he doesn't know I am getting one as well. At least two dogs are good company for each other.
Unable to sleep most nights so I watched Nigella Lawson cooking - followed her recipe and cooked coconut prawns and stir fry veggies with rice (in my new cooker) tonight. Worth trying and very simple to do.
Hope all are well. Cheers for now

I leave in 20 minutes to go get the results of the Colonoscopy, Upper GI and Small Intestine Follow-Through. I'm hoping thar we find some answers as to why I'm not making enough blood. I still have another appointment with a different specialist, this one a specialist on blood, scheduled for the 13th.

It's official. ........no bleeding, and no sign of tumors or other nasties.

Heidi, good news that the colonoscopy was clear.
Maybe the blood specialist will have answers for you.

So sorry you had trouble sleeping, Midge, but the recipe sounds yummy! Time well spent, then.

Heidi, I'm glad Packer has a new home - hopefully far away from you. Good news about the colonoscopy results, no bleeding, and no tumors. Hopefully the blood specialist will have some answers.

I'm struggling to stay awake, so it's off to bed for me. Sending positive thoughts, healing energy, prayers, {{{{{HUGS}}}}}, and for Everyone! Stay well. I'm hoping there are no typos because I don't have the energy to try to find them. Good Night!

Dropped off my stock trailer to be repaired this morning. Packer broke a bolt on the back door of the trailer, and it needed to be replaced ASAP. Next Monday, I'm planning on picking up several small heifers at the stockyard to add to my herd, and I need a working trailer for that.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) I have an appointment at Pain Management, Wednesday I have an appointment with my GP to get the results of the latest blood tests, and Thursday I have an appointment with the Hematologist to try to figure out why I'm not producing enough blood. Busy week.

I just caught a huge opossum in the barn. He's now past tense. Defunct.

WooHoo!!!
My regular doctor is back at Pain Management! Dhe's been swamps with complaints about the doctor who replaced her while she was on maternity leave. I'm glad I wasn't the only one. She got an earful from me about his incompetence and lousy patient treatment. (He told me that there was nothing wrong with me, it was all in my head, and if I didn't see a psychiatrist within the month he'd get me kicked out of the Pain Management program. A couple of days later I was in so much pain I went to the ER, and discovered the severe anemia and loss of blood. It WASN'T in my head.) She was delighted to hear that thanks to the heavy iron supplementation, I'm now in less pain than I've been in in over 22 years. Yes, I still have some back pain (thanks to 3 degenerative discs, 3 degenerative vertabrae, 2 herniated discs and osteoarthritis) but it's improving a LOT thanks to the change in medicine being injected by this doctor.

On the way home, I picked up my repaired stock trailer. They did good work.

Tomorrow I get the results of the last blood tests. My fingers are crossed that the previous one was an anomoly.

Oops ,,,,, that's ''She's been swamped...''

Good News, Heidi.

Heidi, I'm appalled that the replacement Doctor treated you so badly. Is there some avenue to report him?
I once went to a Doctor with quite bad influenza. First thing she asked me was if I was a smoker and if so why should she treat me. I told her that as far as I knew smoking was still legal and she needed to take that up with the government. I also said that she was supposed to help me not judge me.
That was back in the 90's. I have been smoke free for over 8 years now.

I got the blood test results back from my GP today. They could not have been better. I've been taking everything they told me to take (lots of iron, B12, multivitamins, calcium and Pepcid) and all levels are now perfect! I've even replentished the missing blood!!!