Adventures...

BOX SCORE
Element	Current	Std. Range	Trend
Hemoglobin	11.7	13-17	v
Platelets	83	140-375	^
ANC	3360	1800-8300	^

Every day another adventure. Friday we had friends over for dinner. It was great to see them in person and we had a wonderful time catching up. Saturday, the neighbor next door rented a tractor so we could mow the field behind our two houses. It is a natural area that, if left to its own devices, grows tall grass. It looks nice waving in the wind, but both Wayne and I worry about fire. If there should be a grass fire it would quickly spread to the fir trees at the back border of our lot. From there it would undoubtedly take out our houses. Accordingly, we rent a tractor and mower annually and have fun taking turns riding it around and around until the 3 foot high grass is reduced to about 6 inches high. Makes us feel like real farmers, although neither of us comes from a rural background. 

Sunday we had a visit from son Patrick and his family. It happened to be his birthday as I mentioned in the last post. We had a wonderful time reconnecting, playing in the yard and eating hot dogs and potato salad. Patrick asked what was new in the brewery, so we went in to see. Since his last visit, I replaced my big, old converted side by side refrigerator that I used for a kegerator with a sleek new model designed for the purpose. I also have a small dorm sized fridge in there, where I keep some of my brewing ingredients and some bottled and canned brews. Among those were some bottles of hard cider I made a few years back. Not being a ciderer, I made some mistakes, one of which was to over-carbonate some of the bottles. Patrick picked up one of them and then put it back. I say that not to place blame, but simply to indicate that we had disturbed one of the over-carbonated bottles. 

We ended up in the shop, next door to the brewery, talking about this and that. While we were chatting, we heard a loud bang and the shattering of glass. We went back to see what happened and discovered that that bottle of cider had literally exploded...fortunately inside the fridge, which contained some of the damage. Now, I have been brewing off and on since about 1988, and I have never had a bottle blow up before. I have read about it, but I always imagined the cap would blow off, and the contents would spew out the mouth of the bottle. Well, I learned that those caps are on tighter than I thought! The glass actually shattered. You learn something new every day. 

On a different topic, I took an at-home sleep apnea test in the middle of last month. It involves a small device that straps onto your wrist, like a wristwatch, a cap that goes over the end of a finger and a sensor that sticks on your chest at the top of the breastbone. There is a phone app that records data and forwards it to the company that makes the device. The last thing before I went to sleep, I activated the device, and the app had a button showing that I was supposed to touch in the morning when the test was complete. In the morning, when I awoke, I picked up my phone to press the "Test Complete" button, but it had disappeared. I went through the various pages of the app and found one that said, "send data." I pressed that button, and it said it was sending data. I wasn't too sure I hadn't messed the whole thing up. 

Now, I had been told that the results take a while to come back, but by last Monday, it had been nearly three weeks, so I decided to call, just to see if they had received my data. They had. Then yesterday, I received a message saying that my test results were available on the Kaiser Health Plan website. I checked, and sure enough there was a report. It indicated that I have moderate sleep apnea, which I had already surmised. The message went on to say that a Constant Positive Air Pressure (CPAP) device is recommended for me. I was instructed to reply as to whether I wanted to proceed with that mode of treatment. With some reluctance about yet another device in my life I responded in the affirmative. 

Later in the day, I received another letter saying that my device had been ordered and that the supplier would contact me in two to four weeks to confirm the order and arrange to send the device to me. This morning, I received a call saying that my device was ready for pickup in Salem! Wow! All of this happened within two days of my calling simply to ask whether they had received my data! 

Sometimes, things are just a bit too good to be true, as you may know from your own experience. We arrived at the Apria warehouse, where we were told there would be a phone number for us to call, and the device would be delivered to our car. This is a routine we know well from picking up groceries at Walmart or Safeway both during the pandemic and when my ANC is too low to mingle with people in a real store. 

We found the warehouse and parked, but there seemed not to be a phone number posted anywhere. A young man, who was just getting out of his car after apparently having his lunch asked if we had been helped. We said, "No," and he said he would let someone know we were there. In the meantime, I wandered around to the front of the building, where I found a door and a window. Inside the window was a sandwich board sign that said "Stay in your vehicle, and call 'this number'".  I copied the number into my phone and went back to the car. When I dialed the number, I was connected to someone in Springfield, OR. I told her we were at the warehouse in Salem, waiting in the car to pick up a CPAP machine. She laughed and said you can go on inside. 

At the desk, I found a delightful lady of, perhaps, 60 plus years, on the telephone. When she was finished with her call, she asked me what my business was, and I told her I was there to pick up a CPAP machine. She did some checking, and after some time she told me that whoever sent me there had not properly advised them that I was coming, and the machine was not ready. She apologized profusely and said someone would call me in the next couple of days and arrange for me either to pick up the machine or opt to have it mailed to me. I was a bit disappointed, but not devastated. It seemed everything had gone just a bit too smoothly up to that point. 

We headed home and hadn't gone a quarter mile when she called and said that her supervisor told her to call and tell me my machine would be ready tomorrow afternoon, without fail. So, in theory, tomorrow night I will be sleeping with a little help breathing. Better rest will be welcome, since I currently never seem to feel completely refreshed in the morning. Tomorrow is D-Day...no, not THAT D-Day; that was yesterday. Stay tuned for more adventures.