Sunday, February 18, 2018 – Monday we left very early in the morning and drove over 7 hours to get to Cordova, Tennessee and 7 hours to come back to Louisiana in the same day. Roy’s idea, not mine! He handles driving that much really well. That’s my man! Our orthopedic doctor here in Louisiana told me I need a full knee replacement. I wanted to see what the doctor in Tennessee who did Roy’s full knee replacement had to say about what I need. After xrays and a bone density scan he came in and said my bone density was great (yay! yay!) and showed me where I only need a partial knee replacement because only one side of my knee is bone on bone, the other still has some cushion. He explained that a lot of doctors do not want to do partials but he does. With a partial knee replacement I don’t have to stay over night in the hospital and should require no rehab. Dr. Schrader is absolutely worth driving to Tennessee for.
When we sat down with the scheduling lady, Darla, we went over a lot of things. When she asked me what my last A1C was I had to tell her it was 10 and there we ran into a stumbling block. If you don’t know what Hemoglobin A1C is, it is a blood test that indicates the average level of blood sugar over the past 2 to 3 months. 5 is really great, 7 is the highest it can be for the doctor to do the knee surgery. 10 is pretty unacceptable even without it affecting me having the surgery.
I made an appointment to see my Family Doctor, Dr. Hugo Valdes today, Friday, to get 
orders for my A1C. Darla, at Dr. Schraders office, recommended just having the A1C test done now so I can see how much I have to work on bringing it down to 7. This is a really huge obstacle made even more difficult because I should be exercising to get it down and exercising or walking makes my knee hurt a lot. So Yes I need a partial knee replacement, Yes Dr. Schrader will do it and No can’t have it done until I get my A1C at or below 7.
We’ve been wanting to see our oldest son’s family and have been waiting for the weather to improve and for our grandchildren to be well. We met them at a public park in Baton Rouge and enjoyed seeing them run around and playing with children. We had some time to visit with them and their mom. Their precious hugs and how they like to share things with us is priceless. Their parents don’t like us sharing photos so you will have to imagine four adorable loving, well behaved and kind children. All four cute as a button!! Our son’s oldest daughter loves reading and now writes. She’s 9 and has written her first book which is a mystery. We read it and are so proud of someone that young taking to writing like she has.
Roy’s been working on replacing the plumbing pipes between the house and the septic tank. I’ve written about it but haven’t gotten it published yet. He finished today and I know he’s very delight to have that over with! Photos will be in the blog about the plumbing.
Friday morning we went to Dr. Valdes who tested my blood there to get my A1C. I was a little happy that its 9 and not 10. There is still a good ways to go to get it to 7 but not as far as if I was started at 10. He’s greatly increased the Toujeo (insulin injection) I am taking to help bring it down. He said for me to contact my insurance company to see if they will cover Soliqua which is insulin. That call will be made first thing Monday. I had some other health concerns we talked about. Dr. Valdes is such an amazing doctor. He covers everything in detail and really listens. He remembers us from visit to visit and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that. He’s taken care of us wherever we’ve been throughout the USA. He gave me blood test orders for some of the health concerns we talked about and we went across the street to Quest to have that done. Oh and I lost another pound!!!
After Dr. Valdes we stopped at Chip’s work to get some hugs and lovin!! Next was the appointment with Dr. Morgan, Neurologist. She’s still not the neurologist I want forever but the new dementia medicine she put me on, galantamine, is helping a little so she increased it from 8 mg a day to 24 mg a day for the next month. I had a really bad dementia day this week so I am really hoping the increased dosage of galantamine helps. I know that having a really bad dementia day is pretty vague. I’ll be writing more about what that means.
Ya’ll come back now, ya’ hear!
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Some Things I Learned About Dementia
BECAUSE HE LIVES 