I Don't Want to Take My Medicine

My doctor prescribed diuretic pills to go along with my eye drops to try to control the pressure in my eyes.  She said side effects included drowsiness, and frequent urination.  She also said to take them with food or they could upset my stomach.  I made sure they wouldn't make me gain wait, break out, or lose hair.

My friend, Artie told me to start taking a potassium supplement because the diuretic leaches potassium from the body.  I picked up the prescription when I got back from the wedding.  I spent the rest of that week eating a banana a day since I forgot to buy potassium tablets.

I started out bright and early Monday morning taking the pills. To me drowsy means a bit sleepy, like when you stay up later than usual.  I was not drowsy I was verging on narcolepsy.  One minute I'm sitting at the computer watching something on Hulu and the next thing I know, where my forehead meets my hair line is resting on the monitor's screen.  I sit back but am oh so sleepy.  I guess I dose off again because this time my eyes are closed but I don't know where I am.  I decide to take a nap.  I wake up with a headache.  I think I went to bed around 7:00 p.m.

I woke up the next morning feeling exausted.  My body was stiff and achy and that pesky headache was back.  I slept on and off at the computer until I decided to give up and take a nap.  My friend, Lee, calls and I thought I was talking to her for a while until she said she would let me go because my medicine had me sounding groggy or funny.  I don't remember her exact words.  Here I was think I sounded fine after my nap and all.  My plan was to go downstairs but I found myself sitting in the bed several minutes later.  When I do make it downstairs I decide I'm to tired to stay up.  I tell Andrea I'm going to bed.  She informs me that it is only 5:00 o'clock. 

"I can't live like this."  I think to myself.  "Give it a week; you'll adjust and things will get back to normal. You want to preserve the little sight you've got in your left eye.  It's already useless."  I debate with myself most of the morning.  I take my pill vowing to give it a week.  I'm getting wiped out sleepy again.  "I can't live like this." 

I pick up the phone and call the doctor.  Lo and behold I got to speak with her!  I explain the overwhelming sleepiness and headache.  I even explain how I had no diuretic effect.  She said to stop taking them and she'd call in a prescription with half the dosage.  I can't half the pills I've got because they're time released capsules.  The Grady pharmacy takes a few days to fill called in prescriptions so I'll pick it up Monday or Tuesday.  I hope I don't have those side effects on the lesser dose.  I'm feeling better as the medication leaves my system.  Last night I stayed up until 8:30.  It is already after 8:00 and I'm not sleepy.

For some reason my experience caused me to think about people in nursing homes.  There you see people who are just plain out of it and others who don't want to take their medicine.  If I had been in a nursing home could I have convinced a nurse to call my doctor?  When a person in a nursing home doesn't want to take his/her medicine is it because they want to avoid unpleasant side effects they've been unable to communicate to someone who can do something about it?  And the ones who are out of it, just sitting there not tuned it; are they ever alert enough to tell their doctor it's a medication that's causing that state? 

I'm so glad I decided to go ahead and call my doctor.  Hopefully changing the dosage will do the trick.  I guess it all comes down to what you can live with.  When I first started using the eye drops I'd feel dizzy for about ten seconds after I put them in.  Then I was fine until the next time.  After about a week the dizziness lessened in duration and happens infrequently.  I could live with that; it didn't impair my ability to function. 

 

Getting Together

We were all together the weekend of May seventeenth for Merritt's wedding.  I was both good to see everybody again and to have a mini vacation.  We went to Kansas City Missouri for the wedding. 

Andrea and I flew in from Atlanta.  Merritt, Holiday, and Merritt's fiance Gabriel met us at the airport.  Merritt and Gabriel dropped us off at Holiday's while they went to meet Beazle at the hotel where the Collins were staying.  Holiday took us to our hotel, to grab a bite to eat, to Walmart, and on to the stake center. 

Andrea and I spent our time at the Stake Center next door at the Temple.  We were scouting out places to shoot good pictures the next day and getting shots of the grounds. 

After that we go to Merritt's to pick up Beazle and head for Merritt's favorite restaurant, Jazz.  Here I met Gabriel's family for the first time.  We were seated next to the band so we could only really talk when the band took a break. 

the whirlwind continued the next day.  Farmers market, hair dresser/makeup artist, family luncheon.  Constance and Maria arrive in time for that.  Andrea and I go with Beazle, Constance and Maria to get settled into their hotel. 

Maria used OnStar to navigate us to the temple.  The computer says we've reached our destination but we're in the middle of nowhere.  She calls OnStar back and asks for the Stake Center and is given another address but Constance called Holiday or somebody for the address.  Turns out the invitations had the wrong address.  Ggggrrrrrr.

We got there before the newlyweds came out of the temple.  For the next few minutes was a picture taking frenzy.  I went on about that in a Blind as Eye Look blog post. http://blindaseyelook.blogspot.com/2014/05/weddings.html

Now everything starts happening in reverse.  We say goodbye to Beazle, Constance, and Maria after the reception.  Andrea and I slept in Sunday.  Later Andrea went swimming while I watched TV.  We had the bright idea we'd go find something to eat.  I get out my phone and learn there's a subway almost a mile away.  We head out.  When we get there we discover it is closed; so was pizza hut and KFC.  Merritt said downtown is dead on Sundays so nothing is open.  I said downtown is dead in Pine Bluff all the time but Subway is open. 

I hope Holiday isn't planning a wedding anytime soon. I'll need at least two years to recooperate from this wedding and trip. 

Is Spring Here?

It's April tenth and my heat still comes on in the morning.  We've had some warm days put too few for this time of year.  the windows have even been open a few days.  Usually by now the heat is off and the windows are open all the time.  All the rain would say Spring has sprung.

We've got pollen and more pollen.  The van is covered in it.  The sidewalks are yellow with it.  The radio announcer says the pollen count is way above normal.  This is one of those allergic reaction years for me.

First I started sneezing.  I can live with that.  Next my nose stuffed and post nasal drip set in.  I began to feel bad.  As night approached, the worse I felt.  I went to bed around 6:30 two or three nights.  Next came dizziness and I lost my voice.  All I could do was croak.  My friend Tammy thought she had the wrong number when I answered the phone.

Some allergy medicines say not to take if you have glaucoma, others don't.  I wish they'd all use the formulation that would allow me to take them.

Beazle thinks I should go to the doctor.  She tries to send us to the doctor even though she doesn't like to go herself.  I figure it will run it's course with or without seeing a doctor.  

I don't know if it's allergies or a virus.  Andrea says I gave it to her.  

Beazle The Best

I woke up this morning with so much gratitude for Beazle, my mother.  She has done so much for us that we can never repay.  I also know I have fallen short in my accomplishments compared to her.  You can read about her drive and accomplishments on one of the stationary posts on this blog.

Beazle thrived before, during, and after the Civil Rights Movement and she has always had pride.  She was no stranger to hard work.  She didn't make excuses for why something couldn't be done; she just did it.  In retrospect, she made it too easy for us.  I have not and probably will never achieve half as much as she did.

"If I was just twenty years younger there's no telling what I would do," is something Mom said quite often when she was in her late seventies.  I thought of this when I got up this morning.  I am at that twenty years younger age range she was referring to.  I pledged to do a lot more with my life than I have been doing.

First I will stop bemoaning the fact that Getty dumped millions of stock photographs on the internet for free.  They didn't deluge the free market with footage so I should concentrate on that.  Photo opertunities are endless so get out there and shoot.  I can't control Getty or those who will snap up free photos.  I do know buyers will pay for the right image and I need to concentrate on producing varied, quality, photographs and footage.  Beazle didn't give me this gift of everyday photography to let stagnate.

I've adopted the phrase, "What would Beazle do?"  Beazle would be doing; doing something around the house or yard, not wasting time all day.  I'm going to get this house in order, the yard too.  I hate yard work so I need to suck it up until I can earn enough through photos and footage to hire someone to do it.

Now is the time to work on becoming a well-known legally blind photographer.  I don't want to look back when I'm in my late seventies and say, "If I were twenty years younger." 

Not Quite Right

Andrea and I have always been computer people.  We use it for school, entertainment, shopping, banking, you name it.  I've never been big on monitoring because Beazle didn't monitor my sister's or my reading, music, TV shows, or phone calls and we both turned out well.  Unfortunately, now I can make a case for monitoring internet use. 

My youngest Daughter got cought up with someone I would call a predator.  At the end I learned she had deliberately lied to me about several things.  Her behavior had became erratic, defiant, and uncaring.  To me, it seemed as if her reasoning ability had gone out the window. 

According to Andrea she met, I'll call him "X" through a friend.  "X" is reported to have a fairly common name but not so common to arouse suspicion.  He's supposed to live across the country, eighteen years old, and a college freshman.  They would play games online and Skype. 

Shortly thereafter, Andrea starter referring to "X" as her boyfriend.  I didn't pay much attention because she'd had quite a few boyfriends for a couple weeks each.  Her internet relationship stretched into months.  I asked her on numerous occasions how she can call somebody she never met her boyfriend?  I suggested we pay "X" a visit during our road trip this summer.  She didn't want me to meet his family because she said they were prejudiced against Black People.  I told her she had a problem on her hands and that's another reason to meet.  I told her she needed to see if this is something she can live with. 

As time went on Andrea spent more and more time playing games or using Skype with "X".  When I'd tell her to get off the computer or to do something she'd get angry and belligerent.  Andrea's grades started to suffer but we were able to buckle down and get good grades first semester. 

Andrea had a math course she needed to make up second semester.  That gave her two math classes and what a mess?  She was having trouble with the makeup course again.  She said "X" was good in math and could tutor her.  They spent a long time doing the wrong assignments.  That was all our faults because even though the first semester assignments were listed, they did have due dates and one of us three should have noticed.  Andrea was discouraged because she'd done all that work for nothing.  "X" started telling her she should get her GED.

I told Andrea she should keep plugging along.  I told her to work on her other subjects she got behind in trying to learn that math.  I started looking for another tutor because it was clear "X" was trying to learn the material along with Andrea.  The math and school issues are another problem interlaced with this on.  I may deal with it another time.

Andrea let her studies go.  All she was interested in doing was playing games and Skyping with "X".  I questioned Andrea about why he had so much time on his hands.  He wasn't away long enough to even be at school part time or working at all.  She said his parents didn't mind that he spent so much time doing nothing.
Andrea wouldn't do her school work, wouldn't help around the house, had tremendous mood swings, was interested in little other than games and Skype.  She started talking about moving in with "X" after graduation.  In one sentence she'd say she doesn't want to live in a camper/trailer all her life.  I'd tell her if she doesn't want to live in a trailer all her life not to move into a trailer.  The next sentence she's talking about how to make everything fit.

Andrea started telling me what she wasn't going to do.  She wasn't going to go to church, she wan't going to help around the house, etc.  I told her she was going to mind me as long as she was a minor or face some steep consequences.  If she didn't pick up her mess and be in church Sunday morning all she was getting is basic support.  No cell phone cards bought by me, no eating out, no new clothes, no more make up.  Just basic food and pads.  And on December31st she could get up and out of here.  To show how short sighted she is, she didn't go to church that Sunday.  I had already told her she had to got to church until she gets her drivers license in June.  We're talking two months at most.  Conference is one time we don't go and if our ride doesn't go, we don't go. 

Since she was passing only two classes and had no chance of passing the rest this semester, I decided a GED would be her best bet.  For some reason she signed a contract saying she would study the curriculum I lay out toward her GED.  She did well for the most part.  One day some new game came out and she thought she and "X" should spend the day playing it.

I felt something was seriously wrong; something more than my inability to control my daughter.   I placed a FaceBook post asking for prayer.  I didn't go into detail but lots of people said they'd pray.  And it worked!  It worked quickly.  Things started falling into place.  Thank you Heavenly Father.

"X's" FaceBook page was disturbing.  No location, no contact information, no photos at all.  I even have a few.  He only had cartoons and graphics.  Only 37 friends.  What active FaceBook user has only 37 friends?

Yesterday morning started off really well.  Then Andrea said something about waiting until she gets to where "X" lives before she gets her drivers license.  She said that would be easier.  I explained to her that she wouldn't have to retest.  All they'd do is take her Georgia license and give her a license from there.  She blew up all of a sudden and among other things said she wasn't driving, she is flying.  That did it.  Why I don't know.  I decided I was going to put a stop to this if I could.

My incoherent thoughts.  She's going across the country to live with somebody she hasn't met with no means of escape if she needs to.   .

I couldnt get much useful information from Andrea so I Googled him with the information I had.  I found a few entries with the age range I was given so I jotted down the phone numbers and people he may know.  My intent was to call his parents to express my displeasure and to remind them of Andrea's age.  I didn't want to call these random people looking for his parents though.

Next I called my sister, Constance, to see if she still had contact with her lawyer friend who was good at finding people.  Andrea was in the room Skyping with "X".  I decided to speak a bit loudly so they could hear me.  I had been looking up how to report a suspected child predictor.  To my surprise the Department of Homeland Security has a lot to do with investigating suspected child predators. I told Constance about my plans to call his parents if I could find them.  I went on to say if I couldn't find them I was going to contact Homeland Security.  Maybe they could drop by and see if he is really who he says he is.  I don't what made me think or say that but when I did it made sense.  We really didn't know if he was an 18-year-old kid, or who.  I told Constance that way I'd know if I've got a big problem or a gigantic problem. 

Next, Andrea said "X" wants to speak to me.  I said I didn't want to talk to him, I want to speak to his parents so have them call me.  Andrea said to, "Grow a pair and talk to him."  I said I'm not talking to "X", Have him give his parents the landlines number. I was told they were at work.  I just said have them call me tonight or I'm calling Homeland Security.

The phone rings a few minutes later and guess who?  "X".  He says if I don't want him to date my daughter he won't.  He says if I want him to disappear he will because he didn't want to get Homeland Security involved.  He admitted being older than 19 but didn't say how old.  He says he's in the state Andrea said he was.  I told him I thought his disappearing is a good idea if that's what he does but I'm skeptical.  Your relationship isn't right when Andrea is compelled to or feels she needs to lie about your age. 

He had the audacity to ask what made me suspicious.  I told him the obvious one; plans to live with someone she has never met.  I left the rest vague, "Too many things didn't add up." 

I called Constance back to tell her what happened.  She asked how Andrea was taking it.  I said she wasn't mad enough so I've got to keep a close eye on her.  Either She and "X" cooked something up or she's hurt because he didn't even try to fight for her. Constance thinks I should report him anyway.   If if find out he and Andrea are in any kind of contact I will. 

I dialed Star 69 to get the number he called from.  It was a cell phone from yet another state.  Granted, I kept my Arkansas number for years after moving to Georgia, but it could be another red flag. 

I made another FaceBook post asking people what does Homeland Security do other than deal with terrorists and be a pain at the airport.  I got one response and it had nothing to do with investigating suspected child predators.  So if hardly anyone knows Homeland Security deals with this issue, why did it spook "X"?  Yeah.

I decided to give Andrea a couple days to process and think about all this.  Then we'll have a talk.