It isn't funny

There is a run on Ivermectin paste at the store when I went to get some horse wormer for my mules to do their routine worming.

For frickin' real?

Well, I suppose. The ones who don't want a vaccination have heard that Ivermectin can treat or prevent Covid. And yes there is an Ivermectin for humans to rid them of parasitic worms. Like the dude who drank from our neighbor's creek when he was visiting 25 years ago and got some nasty parasites. He said the meds were about as bad as having the parasites. He was sick for a long time. The lesson there is not to drink from a creek when cattle poop upstream from it. 

I had a real live person tell me that getting vaccinated would magnetize me. Damn, her source was a Dr. Tenpenny [that name should say something]. I took my keys and tried it...they kept falling off my forehead. Hmmm, IF I could keep track of my keys by being magnetic, that would be awesome.

How useful I could be to pick up nails and bits of metal around construction sites.

No way.

But people are getting a bit unnerved. Our county is averaging a death every few days from Covid right now. And it is not the elderly. Moms and dads in their 40's and 50's. Or they could be grandparents. 

But the vaccine changes your DNA and makes you into a robot or a zombie or...something. I guess I'm not clear on that. 

Other reasons for not taking it are numerous. Like, ... we are healthy and just fine. We already had it once. I have no health issues so I will be fine. I am not old and infirm so I will be fine. Or it hasn't been tested enough.

With Billions of doses administered around the world, I think it might just be safe to say that the vaccine has sort of, kind of, maybe been tested? 

I know some people who had some adverse effects. They felt crappy for a few days. I felt tired. But I didn't get magnetized, I didn't grow a third boob [thank goodness], and I didn't even lose my freedom of choice. 

My good friend and hiking pal decided not to get vaccinated. He suspects he had Covid last year and has decided that he will be fine when it comes around again. I explained that we would now follow last year's precautions of still hiking together, but going in use vehicles. 

You know, he is good with that and we remain friends. I've made peace with the thought of those who wish to remain unvaccinated. 

Visits of all persons will be outdoors no matter their status. Our place, our rules.

After all there is always bleach you know and light. A big beautiful light you could stick up your bum.

If I offend anyone, I am sorry/not sorry. 

But really. Horse paste wormer? My mules make the worst faces when I give it to them.

The Diagnosis

A month ago we went to the VA hospital in Madison for a Neuro-psychology exam. This is a brain function test of executive functions, thinking, making decisions, planning, understanding, language, perception, and ...well, you get the idea.

It was a two hour test that we did on the 14th of last month. I should say, a two hour test that Rich did last month.
I learned in Physical Therapy-Speech last year that issues a person has pre stroke generally become worse post stroke or as the PT gal said, the issues would be greater in general.

We sat down in the room and I mentally thought I was prepared for hearing the two doctors conclusions.
I wasn't.

Cognitive Disorder, specifically Vascular Dementia -- the doctors were quick to say that Dementia means Brain Changes-- the stigma of hearing "You have Dementia" is about as horrid as hearing the word "Cancer".  Perhaps even much worse. Dementia is like saying: You are going to lose your mind.

We have gone down the Cancer Road already so I didn't think anything would actually shock me.

Rich has not just had one stroke. Last year's stroke was just a big bang compared to all the others he has had over the years. In other words, he has had a lot of insidious brain damage over the years.

I had thought perhaps that Rich had Vascular Dementia, but until the words were clearly spoken to me in that room, there was a chance that it wouldn't be that.

I looked over at my husband and wondered how he was taking the news. Hard to tell as he was just listening and watching. The doctors were very good to look us both directly in the eye.

Then they asked a few direct questions. "Val, you are not working correct?" I smiled and said that was correct, I had to quit last year to stay home and take care of Rich.
"We have a treatment plan and some things we believe will be helpful but it is a big commitment."

The question behind the question. 'Will you go running from this room screaming your head off and ditch your husband? Or are you willing to put in time and extreme effort for his therapy and care?'

I replied to them that I was there for the long haul. After all, I'd driven to the UW 5 days a week for over 6 weeks to take Rich to radiation treatments and tried to work on the weekends.

They went over the details of getting appointments with PT, OT, and seeing a Medical Psychologist too. I inquired if that would be that same as the gent we saw during cancer treatments. He was quite helpful. They thought they'd try to schedule us back with him since we had a history already of seeing him during the cancer treatments.

Social workers, OT coming to the house for inspection, testing Rich for safety, OT doing driving tests with Rich...arranging Respite Care.

Discussions of driving, not driving.

And then the bombshell.

"Do you have your POA set up?" the one doctor asks of us.
"Yes," I answer, "we did that quite a while ago."
"Financial and Medical?"
I nodded.
Rich nodded.

They turned and looked at Rich. "We may ask your wife to be your Medical Agent as we are not sure you can make your own health decisions. We will consider Financial POA also."

I could see that Rich was a bit shocked. So I piped up.
"Honey, if they do that, nothing really changes. Right now we are doing all of this together anyway. We sit and do the bills together, we go to appointments together right?"
He nodded. "I could do the checkbook," he said, "but my tremors are so bad. I can't write so Val does it."

There it was, the same thing we went through with his mother. Losing your independence officially. It didn't matter that I've already been doing most of what a Guardian or an Agent for Health/Finances would be doing already. But the 'threat' of having that taken away was downright frightening for him.

The discussion went on to talk about how Speech Therapy would help, meeting with the Med/Psych doctor would help, PT, OT, Social Workers, setting things up.

The goal was to maintain Rich on a plateau provided there wasn't another brain incident or other health incidents.

In one year they would test him again to see if he was able to maintain or...
Well.
Let's just say it out loud. This sort of brain damage doesn't reverse itself.

I'm not asking for sympathy or writing this for shock value.
I may continue writing about this on my other blog called The Long Road.
The Long Road is where I addressed our travels through Cancer.

I hope that I am prepared to travel down this new fork in the road.

35mm Prime Nikon Lens

I went ahead and did it.  I ordered a new Prime lens for my Nikon cameras.
I received it yesterday, a 35mm lens.

I ran a quick test on it when I got home, shooting in very low light in the house.

Here is my test subject wrapped in camouflage.  I couldn't get a good shot in anything other than an f stop of 1.8 but the hairs on his nose came out crystal clear and I was rather close to him.

Morris really wasn't too excited about having a camera lens shoved in his face.  But he allowed me to wrap him up in the sheet for the photo.
Good dog.

So this morning I decided to take the lens for a test run on my Nikon D3200.  

I was not disappointed.
However since I didn't check the status of the camera's battery before I left, I had to pick and choose my shots very carefully.
Reminder to self.  Check your battery!  I thought two bars was good enough but very quickly it became one bar.

Here is a shot that is cropped shot at f4, 320, ISO 100. The colors came out wonderfully accurate and very little noise for shooting predawn.

With a slight edit, I was able to pull out some more detail.

So I did a few more shots.  These are cropped a bit specifically to take out a bit of the foreground.
I did purchase the lens for both portraits and landscapes.

[The horizon is not crooked this is a hilly area!]

I'm perfectly happy with this lens.  For landscapes it gives me a broader view.  This of course leaves me in a quandary.  
I have a harder time deciding which lens to put on the camera for taking a hike.

Thank goodness for my new little sling backpack, I can pack two lenses along with the camera and change them easily.

The colors are beginning to look bright in the trees so I guess you can figure out what I am going to try and do today.

Yep, laundry, house cleaning, and ... a field trip to look for cool fall things.