I have heard it said that one is never too old to learn, and I learned a couple of things this week. One important thing is that if you cough up blood, you should seek medical help. If you cough up blood two mornings in a row, you should not wait until Monday to call the doctor’s office.
I began coughing early last week. Then on Thursday and Friday morning, I coughed up blood. Being that it was a Friday, I figured I would wait and see how things were on Monday. I happened to mention those things to a visitor Friday morning and was told I should call … now!
I took that advice and called the clinic right after the visitor left. That led to an appointment with a doctor in Clintonville, which lead to an X-ray and some blood tests. The X-ray showed something in my lung, but it was not definitive as to whether it was a blood clot, so he wanted me to go to the Shawano hospital for a CT scan.
I am thankful that my granddaughter, who comes every weekday to help me with things I cannot do since my foot surgery, was willing and able to drive me to all of the appointments and wait while these tests were going on.
By the time I was able to go home from the hospital following the scans and the phone call from the doctor giving me the results, my granddaughter had gone home and my son was waiting to take me home. The verdict was no blood clot; it was pneumonia.
That was a busy and stressful afternoon, but of the two things, pneumonia seemed less ominous. I am now on antibiotics, and they aren’t even bothering my stomach as much as they usually do, thanks to a probiotic recommended by the doctor.
The other thing I learned is that the Barbie doll was invented in Willow, Wisconsin, and if I remember right, the year was 1959. It is amazing the things a person learns by watching TV a lot. Like most every day, all day. I have discovered channels on the DISH network that I have never watched before, and even enjoy some of them, other than the commercials.
I learned about Barbie on a show called Garage Brothers on the DIY network. These men will go and clean out a garage and turn it into whatever the owner wants. They don’t get paid for this effort, other than getting to keep what they find in the garage of any value.
On the Barbie episode, she was still in the original box, and it was issued as a Christmas Barbie. However, the Christmas ornament had been removed from the box, so she wasn’t as valuable as originally thought.
Another show I discovered a while back was Flea Market Flip. Contestants are given $500 at a flea market and can buy what they want there with that money. Then they have one day to turn it into something salable and sell it at a different flea market. The winning team gets $5,000. On the Fourth of July weekend, I was home a lot, and it was on a whole day on one channel. I was amazed by the small amount they paid for stuff, the unique things they turned it into and the huge price tag they sold it for.
Have no fear, when my cast is off, and I can once again be up and about, I will not be glued to the tube, but for now, it is something to help the time go by.
