This Week's Update

I had another anniversary week before last - my one year diagnosis on May 8.  It passed without realization by me until Kim mentioned it.

On Friday last week when we were originally scheduled to close on the house across the street we learned that the bank appraisal came back as "uninhabitable".  We haven't seen the appraisal, but believe it is due to the mold in the basement that the seller refused to remedy.  We had plans to remediate this and some other issues that the inspection identified.

First the mold.  From the appraisal we learned that it was in the floodplain.  The bad appraisal was the final straw - somebody is telling us not to do it!  So on Monday we terminated our agreement of sale since the lender wouldn't give a mortgage based on the appraisal.  We should get our earnest money back eventually but it may be as long as a year since it was after the inspection period.  Our house search has begun anew.

Allergies are horrible this week.  I forgot how much worse they were here since we lived away from State College for 20 years.  The first thing I do when I get up each morning after a visit to the bathroom is grab some Kleenex and take my allergy pill.

My right hand weakness has progressed to the point I no longer attempt to read the newspaper.  I can read most of the things I am interested in online.  I am having trouble with books also but they are more compact and a it easier to deal with.

This has affected my eating also and I have started using my left hand in addition to my right hand to hold a spoon.  We are also having difficulty finding things I can eat with my degraded teeth and finding the right consistency of food that doesn't stick to my tongue or the roof of my mouth.  I have a tooth that is starting to hurt and will probably have to be pulled so we are looking for a dentist.

I am doing a little better this week getting to my feet from a seated position.  I am using the vibration plate exercise machine every day so maybe that is helping.  I did 4 laps around the parking lot Monday morning with Stacie, my home health care aide.  This is week 3 of the 12 week long term care elimination period, so after 9 more weeks my insurance policy will kick in with a daily limit of a little less than $300 and my insurance premium will also be waived.

NMFN disability pays for a service to help file for Social Security Disability Insurance, and we had a call at lunchtime today to fill out the application.  Once SSDI is approved, Medicare is also approved.  The SSDI payment will reduce my NMFN monthly payment.