Waggin’ Tails Pet Boarding

My grandmother and her best friend have a Web site for their Waggin’ Tails Pet Boarding business. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

Sarcoidosis: “Asymptomatic”

Today, I was declared asymptomatic for sarcoidosis. Which should be good news, but I think it just points to differing yardsticks used by medical practicioners and patients.

Yes, at its worst (well, nearly worst — the absolute worst is blindness), sarcoidosis targets lung capacity and function, and that’s horrible and I’m glad I no longer have the 30-minute coughing fits and the like that I had in 2005. We had an office manager with sarcoidosis who had greatly reduced lung function thanks to all the granuloma studding the inside of her lungs.

But just because I’m breathing fine doesn’t mean that I’m asymptomatic: I still have pain in my joints, especially my left side, especially my left wrist and hand and knee. When I get up after a long time sitting down, our current office manager, Sharon, can hear my knee snap, crackle and popping from across the room, particularly when I’ve been off my meds for a few days.

Anyway, my prescription has been renewed and some more drug company coupons for free months’ supplies have been tossed my way as well. I’m also due for a chest x-ray to see if the granuloma on my lymph node have disappeared. I’m also going to go in for a Pulminary Function Test on Thursday.

Still, by any standards, my quality of life is a lot higher than it was this time two years ago.

Sarcoidosis: Two years later

So, it’s been about two years since I woke up one morning, when I woke up with what I thought was a foot spur, which then progressed into what doctors thought was rheumatoid arthritis and then diagnosed as lymphoma before finally identifying as sarcoidosis.

For maybe 18 months now, I’ve been taking a combo pack of 1000 milligrams of (generic) Aleve a day to lower the swelling in my joints and Prevacid to undo the damage that the Aleve was doing to my gut.

Yesterday, I was informed my monthly prescription couldn’t be refilled without another visit to the doctor, which is certainly overdue. Sarcoidosis is something that most people’s immune systems will eventually get over (it’s an auto-immune disorder where the body mistakenly discovers non-existent problems in the body and then overreacts to them), and I’ve tried to lower my Aleve intake a few times just to test over the past year or so.

Well, I’m still needing my drugs, it seems. My fever has come back — eyes, tongue and other bits are swollen and hot — and my left wrist, both hands and left knee are swollen, stiff and making as much noise as a large bowl of Rice Krispies.

The saga continues.

My first Mustang

Like a lot of people who liked the old school Mustangs, I was thrilled a few years ago when Ford suddenly realized “hey, maybe they shouldn’t look like Ford Escorts with spoilers and airdams” and restyled the cars to look more like the classic models.

Now, I’ve never owned a Mustang (I’ve owned a succession of Honda Civics and one ill-fated Hyundai Accent), but these new cars got my attention, as classic Mustangs have for years.

In my case, it all goes back to a Matchbox car I got when I was in elementary school in Virginia.

And, indeed, it’s because of this Matchbox car that, if I got a 2008 or 2009 Mustang (there will be lots of expenses and other complications between now and then to account for first), I might actually break my no-yellow-cars rule and get one that evoked this old toy, even if it didn’t have a supercharger and so on.

Wildly impractical, I know. It’s just a gas-guzzling pipe dream at the moment.

My son, Skeletor Yarbrough