Him and alot of of other veterans (i would have to look at the past va newsletter to know the exact number). Maybe forward the number to the va crisis line to him. Its mostly vets and they seem to be good people. Jerry has called them a few times. If he doesnt have va disability and is having major issues i could walk you through how to apply for benefits on his behalf. Ive done it for several other people and between my hubby and grandpa (before he died) im very familiar with that particular beaurocracy.

Its actually a fair assumption that any Hispanic male over the age of 60 here is a veteran. If your from here, older and not white the military was the only option and back in the day seti/norad was open on blanca peak.

Kfc does also. At one point military.com put out a list. Id.me can be used at over 1000 online retailers including nike and under armor kohls does on a specific day of the week. And several places like o Riley auto parts dont but will give you a just because discount for asking.

And yeah i know how you feel about sasha. When we walk the dogs i still sometimes wonder where rambo is. At kirtland afb, rambo went with us when we walked the dogs and even went to the dog park at the fam camp with the dogs and then squirt killed her. That was in 2015 and i still miss her.

I'm lost, you're referring to someone in your first paragraph and I have no idea where that came from.

I'll have to check out Id.me for discounts. I use them to log into VA but haven't gone to their web site ... not even sure how to use ID.me to sign into some of the web sites, HP (I'm looking to replace this power hungry tower!) has a pretty decent military discount and you do log in through ID.me but it's up front and obvious.

Sure would be nice if someone put together a list of 'veteran discounter' but I'd bet it would be a bear to keep up.

BIL get therapy through the VA already. They got him a dog too for some reason. he likes the dog but they have two small kids so not sure if dog is really a source of relief or further anxiety since one kid is autistic and you have to stay on top of him with the dog.

I was referring to twisterlls bil.

And there was a reddit post about those discounts that is so endless its useless.

Me and the pups:
10:00 AM  Sorry guys, I gotta go into town, you want to go?
    Sky, nope, I'm gonna chill in my crate
    Avalanche:  Not if you're gonna tie me to the Jeep while you get something to eat!!
12:30  Hi guys, want out? as I come back in from town ...
    Both:  Hell no!  It's too hot out there!
13:30  I'm gonna crash for a bit, you want out?
    Nope, it's still too hot!
14:30  Ugh, coffee!!
15:30 Screw this, it's still way too hot, you guys want out before I crash again?
    Both: Uh-uh, not me!
16:00 ah, finally a breeze!!! I think that's what's been rough this year, the breeze that normally blows most of the day ... doesn't, then comes in stronger at about 16:00

I'm not as bad as I sound, I hope. They did go out when I got up at 07:30, stayed out for about 45 mins or so ... when the sun started to get intense they wanted back in. And ... if I ask "you wanna go out?" they may head to the door, they may head back to their corner.

I don't know whether it's all our respective ages, none of us are getting any younger but we're spending a lot of time this summer crashed out!

Mine also. They go out from about 5am till 630 then stay in till about 7pm and the door is 100% open all day. Then they dont want to come in at night

Ditto here - except the last two days have been markedly cooler and drier. But, the house has not cooled down as quickly so Ami has chosen a cooler spot. Which he is loathe to leave...

Ami chooses his spots similar to how my mom's dog does only he seem to be not as destructive about it. My mom is in a battle of wills with one of her dogs (full-time outside dog) who insists on digging pits in her flowerbeds, but no she won't just dig one pit and use that spot. She wants to dig a new pit each day and destroy new plants each day despite having access to a pool of water to lay in, a designated dig spot in the shade, and the cool underside of the crawl space to the house. Think she just wants to destroy plants at this point. So mom has draped the perimeter of the house in deer netting at this point to keep her out because standard fencing isn't tall enough to stop her jumping over. I've never seen a decent animal-loving human being regret getting an animal so much in their life as I have seen my parents wish they had never gotten that Australian Kelpie. She has been a dense thorn in their side for a many of reason. We are getting some heat break though. Anything around or under 90 is a blessed day at this point.

Ugh. Don't know which is worse - the flower destroyer or the 90's as relief! Ami has a whole bunch of holes but all behind the rhodos next to the foundation so no biggie. Z'ev likes to burrow under the yew at the back of the house. But no hole - just way back where you can't see him which is why no picture. I don't even know he's in there until I start to go inside and he scrambles (hobbles??) out.

Mine dug out between the house and a giant pine. You make me feel bad about thinking how hot today was here. And humid and thats rare so yuck. We are on a weird temp extreme. 40 degree swings arnt normal for here. Normally this time of year its in the low 60s at night and low 80s day. Lately its been low 40s night (46 in greenhouse right now) and upper 80s daytime. Al will understand about how uncommon it is for humidity and heat happening at the same time in the desert.

The house we rented before we bought this cabin had an entire tunnel system dug by spider and squirt and a pitbull we had until shadow kept going after him. All the dogs would disappear.

Spider +Toyota dealership in Colorado springs = very interesting and loud. Traded jeep for f250 that might need the steering redone or i might have gotten used to the jeep that drove like a car.

Speaking of @aljones he has been silent since Wednesday

@aljones has been having thoughts about the VA system ... mostly it revolves around "IT SUCKS" It seems as if the more the government "wants to provide" the less they actually get done.

I have an appt today in Ft Stockton (150miles) it's raining there but they're open. The rain they're getting was supposed to be ours but that stupid low that came in off the Gulf got almost here and then took a hard right. "It's gonna stay south of highway 90" Hell! It's heading due north at the moment well north of 90!

Avalanche will dig me some craters then he stops for a few weeks ... must be something that triggers an odor he wants to find.

We've been in the 80-90's with high humidity (well north of 30%) so like @lostmaniac it's been hot and muggy. Current temp is 68 with 90% humidity. And I"ve got to head to the shower and get my act in gear, it's 08:30 and I have to be in Ft Stockton at 14:30 ... plenty of time if the roads are open.

Stress test done, read, reviewed and I'm good to go. No signs of ischaemic heart disease. Exercised to my expected she, got heart rate to 105% of maximum for my age. Only concern was when they took my pre test BP, it was really high. REALLY high 184 over 92 high. Which is easy out of whack for me. I think it was either I took my inhaler before exercise, she pumped the cuff so high it hurt like hell and I was tensed up against it, holding my breath (she left bruises) or I was exceedingly concerned that I wouldn't be able to exercise because of my feet and knee. Did show trivial regurgitation on mitral and aortic valves and stage 1 diastolic dysfunction (virtually 100% of people over age 60 have this). Hubby thinks the the BP was just frankly wrong but he's been checking out daily. I had one that made him growl and threaten meds (138/78) but the most recent have been 128/68 so he's happier now.

Stage 1 diastolic dysfunction is still reversible so I'm after that. Sigh. Diet, exercise, control salt...

Good news is a found a pair of shoes that I can walk in without discomfort. Bought 2 pair! So... Wish me luck!

Went to the VA yesterday for my "intake physical." They don't seem to understand that I have VA records dating from 2015 back through 1990+/-

Like you @amymeme my first BP came back stupid 160/80 (my normal bp at home is 120/75, in the office 130/75+/-) He retook it twice before he got a 135/80 ... I normally take mine on my left arm which is where he started. Got the 135/80 on my right arm. Let's just say "that's weird", I expected it to be a bit high since I do have a minor case of "white coat nervousness" but not that high.

I spent well over an hour answering the assistants questions, then another hour with the doctor ... ARGH! The doctors comment was that "I'm in excellent health for my age" but she pretty much refused to comment on the dizzy spells or the lack of energy. She wanted me to get a heart monitor from the hospital and wear it for three day ... and it's been well over two weeks since my last dizzy spell ... yeh, that'll work, right. I offered to get one from Amazon ($90-125 range) then I can send her strips of 'normal' and hopefully catch it when I have a spell.

Now, do you have any recommendations for an inexpensive heart monitor I'm looking at things like https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Windows-Monitor-Heart-Health/dp/B07BHFS39C/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=heart+monitoring+devices&qid=1660785341&sprefix=heart+monitor%2Caps%2C155&sr=8-5&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.18ed3cb5-28d5-4975-8bc7-93deae8f9840
There are several like this all running between $80-125 There are others that require a chest band and apparently wearing it long term.

(( Very pissed right now, I went to log in to Amazon and was greeted with "Contact Customer Service" did this a couple of weeks ago ... and now again. I might be going back to WalMart!! ))

Good luck with the shoes, I find that if I get one pair that fits and work well that my feet change enough that the second pair doesn't fit when I want to wear them.

---

Besides the Dr's visit, we got some really good rain yesterday and a decent shower (for the desert) today. The nice part is that showers have been intermittent so the rain has had a chance to soak in rather than puddling up and running off.

(( Sorry, I'm gone for the time being ... ))

We had a bash the Alamosa va session at work today. One of the korean war marines was shaking so bad i had to write a check for him. He unofficially was diagnosed with Parkinsons but the pa refuses to send him to neuro. So i was telling him about jerry and a random paratrooper commented on how she wont send him to gi even tho he lost 60 lbs this year and the er suspects ibs or chrones. 3 other veterans had similar comments. Colorado community care is horrible. Im thinking about writing a petition i just dont know if there is a point because its really hard to get incompetent doctors and pa's removed.

Splinter sees a new vet friday. Getting an electrician out is turning into a nightmare and my plants are getting too cold. Had to clear with my boss that winter can be an issue with power and the truck will freeze if the power goes down too long and i wont make it in.

Bad news al, at least for us (and our weather is similar) la nina expected for 3rd year in a row. Looking at a warm dry winter in the desert west and sw and southern rockies.

My biggest complaint with Community "Care" is that even when they do something they don't communicate with the VA ... that's why there's a 7 year gap in my records.  If my current CC doctor was going to stay here, I'd have stayed with him.  While he didn't talk to VA, except to sent referrals and prescriptions, he was a good doctor - He's heading for New Zealand and I hope they appreciate him.  As far as the doctor / assistants at the Ft Stockton office, I'll reserve judgement until I need them.  They're friendly and personable folks, just wonder how they are as medics, in the long run.

@lostmaniac If you're a member of the VFW / Legion, I'd chatter around there and see what the consensus about the clinic is.  Then I'd have a talk with your Veteran Service Officer (VSO) and maybe have a few of the others talk with him.  He's a county office, your tax money pays his salary and they're generally responsive.  (Side note, we had a good VSO who retired a year+ ago and they aren't able to fill his position<???>)

Yep, getting services in the desert is worse than a joke.  Unless you have qualified 'locals' it's either nearly impossible or exorbitantly expensive.  I have a strip of electrical outlets that run along the wall above the sink, the first one is a GFCI that's tripped and won't reset so all of them are dead.  I can get an electrician out from Alpine for 4 hours travel time + service time for almost $100 an hour (last time I checked) but I'm not paying that much.  Whoever installed the GFCI used the back connects and I can't get the wire loose.  'Course I can cut them off and rewire a non-gfci but the wires are already short.  Guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and see what *I* can do with it but I really don't like working on someone else's (unknown to me) circuitry.

Weather?  I'll take the warm and our winters are mostly dry (we get 90% of our water from the monsoon) so a long warm dry winter isn't too unusual for us.

We are facing a similar thing here with Docs and systems. Our MD that we've been seeing since 2001 is retiring in Dec. He's from a city we lived in 20 years ago and is 90 miles away. Thought we'd get someone closer but that's becoming not so easy. Hubby has always said go to arnot if we have a heart attack as they have the ability to do bypass not just angio. And if you have angio or stent and it goes south, there's a surgeon that can go immediately to bypass. Except there surgeon left a year or two ago and they've had no replacement. My cardiologist said he doesn't think they'll ever get a replacement. Closest place now is Rochester or Syracuse, both 2 hours away by car. I was going to choose an internist in the arnot system(Elmira and relatively close, 45 ish minutes depending on traffic.) But - getting information from them is like pulling teeth. Took just about a month to get the results from my stress test. Took me 6 weeks to get bookwork done beginning of summer. And that was because I had the nurse at the stress test print it off get computer! Also, the various systems we've
used use different patient portal systems. The epic system is great from my perspective. I can get what I need immediately, all reports, tests, office notes etc without bothering the office or medical records. Not so the arnot system. It's abysmal and a waste of their money. So bad, in fact, we are considering using the Ithaca system. Same travel but way, way, way more nasty traffic. And we got kind of pissed at them last winter - we had our Colonoscopies done there and they wanted to charge a visit fee to get our path results over the phone from the doc! I said no thanks and pulled up the report from the portal.

And to make matters worse, hubby has been out of the system for 8 years now and is not familiar with most of the docs now. They're all retiring. He went through 3 urologists in a little over a year! My opthalmologist is retiring the end of this year as well. And my internist did that there is a dearth of internists in mid career right now - after house and Wayne's cohort, most were encouraged to specialize so very few went into general internal medicine. That's beginning to change but slowly. Which makers them all brand new out of residence quite recently. I prefer someone mirror seasoned.

They other thing we've noticed is a lack of specialties. The radiologist that read my hand MRI stressed that he is a "solid organ" person and they had no hand radiologist at the moment. Not sure when someone was coming on board. And we've always had it in the back of our minds that I might need emergent neurosurgery on my back. I've had intermittent red flag signs for cauda equina syndrome which so far resolve in a day or two. But if they don't and I have pee/poop/walking problems that last more than a day, it becomes an emergent surgical problem. We used to have a superb neurosurgeon locally but he retired recently. No replacement.

Upshot is, we may be traveling the 2 hours to Rochester for regular care just like you guys even more on the boonies than us.

And that doesn't begin to talk about the critical nursing shortage. Which, guys, means you should stay out of the hospital as best you can!!!

@amymeme ... and you missed my question about the cheap heart monitor.

I have no intention of visiting for more than checkups, thank you muchly!

I didn't ignore it - hubby is not home to run it by him. But, I'll take a look and give you my opinion. (He's probably gonna say he had no experience with it, any way ). Just of the top of my head, I was thinking of getting the cheapest apple watch that monitors for AFib.

So I just read all the reviews. If they are real, looks like a handy device. I don't know how it gets info for different leads (my last EKG had them all over my chest, abdomen and a couple down near my ankle!) And cherries than an apple watch - even an older version!

I changed my note to a more politic "you missed" rather than an accusatory "you ignored" - but as you've probably seen I am often more abrupt than necessary on reconsideration.

I looked at the watches but have almost always worn a watch on my right arm (I'm left handed) and don't like wearing anything on my left arm.  Think it'd look odd to have two "watches" on one arm ... maybe even as odd as having one on each arm.

I'd appreciate it if you'd run it past him ... but since it's a later day 'toy' I'll handle "I have no experience ..."

ETA: The "leads" are simply contacts at two<?> different places on the case. The reviews are good (order placed, we'll see) but have also read that vaseline<?> or something to enhance the contact helps.

As one review said "it's not a 12 lead ECG" but in a pinch it's more than sufficient to tell you have a problem. (my interpretation of the review)

So we had an awesome vso officer(the valley has 1 vso person for all 5 counties)until about 3 months ago when he retired. The new vso is helping us get everything switched to peublo but that means no travel pay on a 300 mile round trip drive so i put in a call to our representative dav office. A veteran i see at work regularly recommended i go to the support group for spouses of disabled vets and talk to them. The only vets that will file a complaint are labled as psych and kind of dismissed because of it and most of the veterans would rather eat the gas money or just use non va or accept a bad doctor rather then risk being labled paranoid and losing their guns. For alot of them, hunting is meat for the year.

So ive been trying to find someone at work that can do my electrical work but we did call the 1 electrician company that will come out. They charge $100 an hour plus supplies and thats ok but they pulled the "we will call when we are on the way out there" also known as maybe this year but probably 2023. I really dont like the idea of an extension cord running out of the window of the loft, down the roof and across the yard. Seems dangerous. Im even contemplating calling the electric co op and having them installed on the pole with the meter but thats still going actoss the yard 300 feet with extension cords. My dad would be rolling over in his grave if he knew i was too scared to do it. He was a master electrician, and when i was a kid i helped him wire houses and cranes and concrete plants and quarries for electrical, cctv, alarms and fire alarms that went to a dispatch. I knew the math and everything and then he died when i was 17 and my smother was hell bent on erasing him.

Tomorrow is road trip day with the dogs. Spine injection at 11am in durango and then splinter has an appointment in pagosa at 3. Its about 3 hours to durango (102 miles but construction) then an hour and a half back to pagosa springs (51 miles but construction) so we might stop at chimney rock or Navajo lake. Even thinking about Chama but we have a huge gap ande it makes no sense to go from durango back home because pagosa springs is the half way point between the places. Hoping the dogs dont act stupid wherever we end up going.

So, Al - hubby just finished reviewing that devices capabilities.  Sigh. The first thing he said was go get a piece of paper and a pen, write down these things:

1.  You still need holter monitoring. Reason being this monitors you in ALL conditions (sleeping, eating, walking, etc) AND many arrhythmias are asymptomatic.

2. This is not an ekg monitor, it produces a rhythm strip and can be helpful when used during an event.

3. Do not rely on the computer interpretation - needs review by physician.  Reason is reading is subject to artifact (movement, placement of leads etc.)  This happens even with medical office ekgs - each and every one that I've had will have the computer say I have some sort of problem.  Then the doc reading it, or hubby, will say, nope, that's artifact and not a problem.

4.  Finally, this is only 4 leads, a true EKG is 12 leads (one on each limb and the rest on chest - sometimes an additional 2 on back if a posterior lesion is suspected.)

So.  I hope this is helpful.  I've had Holter monitoring twice.  Tiny bit of aggravation managing the wires and sleeping and the PIA trip 90 miles back to the office.  They did show slight abnormalities that I was not aware of but, for me, anyway, ruled out ominous disease.

One more thought - I just read an article that came up on my google feed. It also said that arrhythmias in men are often asymptomatic.

Thanks @amymeme and hubby. I've looked at the halter types that they have for sale on Amazon and as I'm reading it they're just 'full time' versions of the little one for many more dollars. Still only one reading, in that case - chest.

I've talked to my vet and agreed that if I got one (due in on Monday?) I'd take a couple / few test strips and send them to her. She'll either accept them as a baseline or declare "trash", again, we'll see.

Just got a phone call, we had a nice shower - 5 minutes, maybe - and the lights went out. Solar is nice, especially if you aren't running two refridges and five freezers like on guy I know - his electric bill has to be phenomenal.

@lostmaniac, at least you have a VSO!!

All - the hottest monitoring he was talking about was the director outta a device on you, you go home for a few days, then go back, the remove it and review the data. Not really convenient where you are, I know.

If these were more consistent that'd be reasonable. When it's 4-5 in one week and then nothing for three weeks ... that was the Dr's recommendation but she changed her mind ... quickly.

I've tried to come up with some kind of pattern, I tend to not eat unless I'm hungry - but it doesn't seem to be lack of food; I sometimes get sweets (cookies / cake) - no relationship; I drink enough that hydration is not a problem ... I have no blithering idea why sometimes, most time not?