Heck yeah, we will take it!

<---Galen gets his first motorized shopping cart ride at Costco during "Senior Hour". Few shopping then!

One thing I started doing the last few days is to track Galen's weight. I was tired of doing calculations all the time in my head.

So, now I know G has lost 14% of his body weight since January, and 3% in the last week.

But, wait! I must change that last one because Galen gained for the second day in a row. A pound total! .8% up! If he goes a third day with a gain, I'll officially call it a trend.

This past week, I brought the poor man in to the walk-in clinic where my doc of several years, Dr. Vo, now runs the place on the weekend. 

Galen has had a spot on below his knee that still has a scab on it four months later. Wound not healing.

That got me wondering about other things on his skin which I do not know about. Like the the darkened patches here and there.  I ask G if the pigmentation is something his parents or siblings had. An Okinawan thing. He doesn't think so.

We went to the clinic when no one was there (we called ahead; we are five minutes from there, with traffic lights.)

My other purpose for Galen going to see Doc Vo is to have another set of eyes looking at him. With all the specialists he has, it wouldn't hurt to have a second internist give a second opinion.

The doc doesn't have G's records. But he had his latest bloodwork, his rapid weight loss, and now, the skin things.

The scab that doesn't go away, he explains he agrees with Galen that it just keeps getting knocked off. For four months? The same place? Okay...

The pigmentation?

Yep, an Okinawan thing.

The other things like unusual-looking skin "things", he has no comment.

Except to say, "trust your specialists, let them handle this." To which he adds, upon hearing Galen now has 12 docs, "he is the most studied patient I have ever heard of." 

Oh, another thing, he tells me to STAY OFF THE INTERNET.

He sends us home.                                  Okinawan "thing"--->

Galen is exhausted, as he is whenever we go anywhere in the car, even five minutes. I feel guilty and resolve to just let the specialists handle it. But... there aren't any dermatologists, oncologists, or randomthingsologist on his "team" yet...

So, we will await the next specialist, the neurologist, who is still working on why G's left leg is numb, and why he has drop foot of his left foot starting about three weeks ago.

 Could the fall he had in a street in May be partially due to these things? 

Or, did everything stem from muscle weakness and atrophy because of the lost weight? Or, did they *cause* the lost weight?

<---below the left knee, on his sciatic nerve, the scab that won't heal and a new bruise

Okay, I admit, I'm obsessing about all of this stuff.

G talks to a therapist about depression. I talk to the same one about all this protectiveness and being a "Hospital Bitch" who is completely unafraid to get second, and twelfth, opinions.

It's all about the unexplained rapid weight loss, y'all.  This time.

He has gone through (still going through): very serious Valley Fever for which he will have meds the rest of his life; glaucoma; diabetes; chronic a-fib; asthma; sleep apnea; arthritis. He had years of serious (potentially life-threatening) infections for which he needed PICC line infusions of antibiotics for months at a time.

He has had pneumonia several times.

                                                            Mid-back--->

He had a clot in his heart. Debilitating sciatica. And, of course, depression. Wouldn't you?

He takes 14 meds.

All since we married. Only the very serious infections and pneumonia are at bay.

But, wait!

He gained weight two days in a row for the first time in a very long time!

Heck yeah, we will take it.

<---lower back

                                        Side, just above waist --->

Weird Okinawan things.

I'll go with that.

Mostly.